Who is phonics for?
Luz Shosie and Ned Vare
Dear Unschoolers and others,
Phonics is for people of all ages who encounter a word that they have not
seen before. For children starting out in reading, that includes most words.
Phonics allows them to turn printed letters into familiar sounds. When they
do that, they can "hear" the word.
Ned Vare
Phonics is for people of all ages who encounter a word that they have not
seen before. For children starting out in reading, that includes most words.
Phonics allows them to turn printed letters into familiar sounds. When they
do that, they can "hear" the word.
Ned Vare
[email protected]
In a message dated 8/2/2002 11:04:54 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
nedvare@... writes:
not need to sound out and so they only sound out words that they are
unfamiliar with.
Kids need to build those big databanks - they don't have to start by sounding
out the words, they can just store them AS words, at first, if that works
well for them. When they've stored enough of them, they can discern patterns
and those patterns will eventually fall into place as phonics rules that
they've internalized, not consciously memorized.
You keep on posting about this as if you're not reading/understanding what
others are saying. Maybe you can sound out the words, but not fully
comprehend the meaning? (Take that as gently teasing and making a point at
the same time, okay? <G>)
Not one person has said that people don't use phonics to sound out words. You
don't have to prove that to us.
What they have said is:
Children do not have to be systematically taught phonics in order to learn to
read.
They can learn to sound out words in natural ways as they learn to recognize
many words and pick up the subtleties of various letter combinations, etc.
LOTS of kids learn that "STOP" means stop - because they see it on stopsigns
all the time. It can be years later when they realize that the "st" blend
makes that certain sound in other words too. They might learn it very quickly
because they might be interested - they might ask: "But WHY does it sound
like S-T-O-P and parents may say, "Well, the letter "S" often sounds like
that and the letter "T" often sounds like this and when they're together you
just blend them like this and so on.... and the parent may even show them
some other words that also start with "ST" and they might fool with words
while driving in the car - see if you can find any other words on billboards
or signs that have "ST" together in them etc. And so the kid WILL learn
phonics- but only because the KID has an interest and the parents are
responsive. OR the kid may come to realize ONLY after learning to read a
whole bunch of words that HAVE the "st" blend in them - at the beginning,
middle, and ends of words that it always has that sound. Every kid is
different, every parent is different, every situation is different -- but the
one thing that is certain - it is not NECESSARY to teach kids phonics in
order for them to learn to read. You just cannot argue that it is necessary,
when faced with first-hand testimonials from many parents of children who
weren't taught that way and learned to read just beautifully.
Encouraging people to teach phonics to their kids will come across to most
people like their kid won't learn to read "right" unless the parent imposes a
systematic instructional phonics program on them. There is ENOUGH anxiety
over the "learning-to-read" issue already. Kids WILL learn phonics - just
like they will learn lots of other things. Be responsive to your kids -
answer their questions, surround them with good reasons to read, read to them
a lot, listen to books on tape, use print materials to find out things they
want to know, notice written information on signs, ENJOY words, play with
words and letters and sounds as it comes up naturally. Play games that the
kids enjoy.
Don't endanger your child's potential ability to read pleasurably by
imposing phonics lessons because you're afraid they won't learn to read
without them.
--pamS
National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
nedvare@... writes:
> Phonics is for people of all ages who encounter a word that they have notAdults have huge databanks full of words that they already recognize and do
> seen before. For children starting out in reading, that includes most
> words.
> Phonics allows them to turn printed letters into familiar sounds. When they
> do that, they can "hear" the word.
not need to sound out and so they only sound out words that they are
unfamiliar with.
Kids need to build those big databanks - they don't have to start by sounding
out the words, they can just store them AS words, at first, if that works
well for them. When they've stored enough of them, they can discern patterns
and those patterns will eventually fall into place as phonics rules that
they've internalized, not consciously memorized.
You keep on posting about this as if you're not reading/understanding what
others are saying. Maybe you can sound out the words, but not fully
comprehend the meaning? (Take that as gently teasing and making a point at
the same time, okay? <G>)
Not one person has said that people don't use phonics to sound out words. You
don't have to prove that to us.
What they have said is:
Children do not have to be systematically taught phonics in order to learn to
read.
They can learn to sound out words in natural ways as they learn to recognize
many words and pick up the subtleties of various letter combinations, etc.
LOTS of kids learn that "STOP" means stop - because they see it on stopsigns
all the time. It can be years later when they realize that the "st" blend
makes that certain sound in other words too. They might learn it very quickly
because they might be interested - they might ask: "But WHY does it sound
like S-T-O-P and parents may say, "Well, the letter "S" often sounds like
that and the letter "T" often sounds like this and when they're together you
just blend them like this and so on.... and the parent may even show them
some other words that also start with "ST" and they might fool with words
while driving in the car - see if you can find any other words on billboards
or signs that have "ST" together in them etc. And so the kid WILL learn
phonics- but only because the KID has an interest and the parents are
responsive. OR the kid may come to realize ONLY after learning to read a
whole bunch of words that HAVE the "st" blend in them - at the beginning,
middle, and ends of words that it always has that sound. Every kid is
different, every parent is different, every situation is different -- but the
one thing that is certain - it is not NECESSARY to teach kids phonics in
order for them to learn to read. You just cannot argue that it is necessary,
when faced with first-hand testimonials from many parents of children who
weren't taught that way and learned to read just beautifully.
Encouraging people to teach phonics to their kids will come across to most
people like their kid won't learn to read "right" unless the parent imposes a
systematic instructional phonics program on them. There is ENOUGH anxiety
over the "learning-to-read" issue already. Kids WILL learn phonics - just
like they will learn lots of other things. Be responsive to your kids -
answer their questions, surround them with good reasons to read, read to them
a lot, listen to books on tape, use print materials to find out things they
want to know, notice written information on signs, ENJOY words, play with
words and letters and sounds as it comes up naturally. Play games that the
kids enjoy.
Don't endanger your child's potential ability to read pleasurably by
imposing phonics lessons because you're afraid they won't learn to read
without them.
--pamS
National Home Education Network
http://www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]