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The big cosmic picture on reading and sight-words
I'm always looking for clearer and more profound ways to explain why phonics is essential and you will destroy children if you make them memorize sight-words.
Rudolf Flesch thought he had explained it completely in 1955. But he actually did not close the deal, so the International Reading Association was able to go right on pretending that Whole Word makes any sense at all-- for another 60 years.
This tells you how subtle and slippery the whole thing is.
If you have found yourself tangled up in these arguments, in these endless sophistries, you may enjoy this one. Fairly short. Fairly amusing. But it makes the serious point that if you ask a child to do something that virtually no child can do, that's an evil act.
http://www.rantrave.com/Rant/A-Funny-Thing-Happened-In-School-Today...
Comment
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Comment by Bruce Deitrick Price on September 26, 2014 at 12:52pm
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Here is a complementary piece called "Teach sight words phonetically." That is, when children come home with lists of sight-words to memorize, tell the child how to read the letters and syllables. This will save them from the worst damages of Whole Word. What the teachers don't know won't hurt them.
http://www.examiner.com/article/education-breakthrough-teach-sight-...
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