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INTRODUCTION TO
Ready-Set-Teach
RST/001
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Teaching Reading: The
Great Debate
RST/002
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Important Reading Fundamentals
RST/003
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Basic
Reading Skills
RST/004
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How To
Get Great Results
RST/005
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RST/002:
TEACHING READING: THE GREAT
DEBATE
First, a bit of historical perspective. The
best ways to teach reading have been argued about for well over a hundred
years. In their books, well-known researchers like Adams, Chall, Goodman, and others discuss the merits of
various approaches.
Perhaps you learned to read Dick and Jane,
look-say books. The look-say method was a whole- language technique popular
when Jeanne Chall wrote her Learning to Read: The
Great Debate. Chall related, in part, that
teaching methods to that time (c. 1967) had divided educators into two
camps; one whole-word and the other phonics, or a code emphasis.
As early as 1955, Rudolph Flesch initiated a campaign against children being
taught to read with look-say sight methods as he pushed for a return to
phonics. In look-say, children were taught to memorize whole words through
flash-card drills. Many phonics believers thought this method was an
educational disaster. The issue today is meaning-first vs. phonics first.
For most of the last (20th) century, people
argued that there are only two ways to teach reading. Either you use
whole-word, read for meaning processes or you use phonics, the teaching of
the alphabetic code. Thus the continual pendulum swings, depending on
one's perspective, test scores, and politics of the time.
Learning to read is a complex process and,
in my opinion, no one has ever been able to describe the best method for
teaching students (children or adults) to read. There is a tremendous
amount of research available but so many factors are involved there is no
one method or reading program--nor can there be--that can teach all
students with the same success. So we must be flexible in our approach and
take into account the needs and interests of every emerging reader.
I do agree, however, with the recent
National Reading Panel's conclusion that there are five key areas which
must be addressed in learning to read. These include:
Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary, and
Comprehension
This closely relates to most state standards.
The only place where I differ is in the methodology; I think a balanced
reading program with skills and whole-language activities is optimum. The
current narrow focus on code may not be the best for every student.
What is reading, anyway? Reading
is more than the ability to pronounce words correctly. Four main components
in the process include:
Word perception
Comprehension of the ideas
represented by the words
Reaction to those ideas, and
Integration of those ideas with
background or previous knowledge
The more experiences
a student brings to the printed symbol, the better the chances for reading
improvement. It is necessary to know, and take advantage of, the reader's
background and relate it to the printed word.
Common Sense
Mini-lessons (CSML) for Reading
Champs
NOTE:
All session titles (below) displaying a link and date are available for
purchase/.pdf download.
The preceding
table provides an index to individual instructional Mini-lessons to assist
reading champs coaches and students in home-school
and other self-directed instructional programs handle initial learning and
unit review activities. Each title represents a single instructional unit
which is intended to:
- Encourage phonemic awareness
- Teach basic phonics
- Build vocabulary (including correct spelling)
- Read for meaning
- Increase reading rate and fluency
Titles
are available for purchase, as separate Reading Champs Common Sense Mini
Lesson (CSML) Instructional Handbooks, either as downloadable .pdf documents (on the Internet for between $1.95 and
$6.95 each) or as binder-formatted hard copies (by mail) at $4.00 to $8.95
each including handling and USPS delivery.
The Mini-lesson 3-ring Organizer with
CSML-050 and the first five mini-lessons as full color hard-copies
is regularly available for $26.35 including handling and USPS delivery
within the United States.
International deliveries of the binder and four lessons are available for
an additional $7.00 postage and handling.
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