23 ways phonics is the best practice of millenia

Let's discuss the next building blocks for your child, using the best practice of millennia - phonics

                Ask yourself - Why do those who are taught to read phonetically never become dyslexic? But those who read ideographically (by sight-words) do? A phonetic reader cannot become dyslexic.

That’s proof enough that dyslexia is not truly genetic, and that it's preventable and curable.

All change is not progress. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Stay with phonics!

Five simple ways parents can avoid paying for remediation later, and how you can, too:

• Read to your infant/toddler/preschooler daily, often while holding or sitting next to him/her. Avoid electronic reading methods, which dampen bonding.
• Introduce The Godfrey Method picture-letter phonics-cards, as found in A Funny Boy Was Prince River, as early as possible, easily giving your child the first 26 sounds. Preschool is not the answer.
• Help your child learn to write the letters, and later words, as taught in this book, especially in the Volume 1 & 2 Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) of It's Not Rocket Surgery!
• Help your child to read before kindergarten age, using the words and spelling rules in this INRS appendix. Avoid the top ten myths of reading, outlined in Volume 2.
• Let your child “catch” you reading. Show your enjoyment. Go to the library regularly.

My colleague, Donna, told me that her son’s elementary school in Michigan taught reading with a child-led “discovery” system that did not teach the spelling rules of phonics. The teachers didn’t want to ‘hurt’ the kids’ self-esteems with corrections, and let them write however they wanted. But that’s exactly what they did – hurt self-esteem. Being unable to read or write well shakes a child’s confidence to the core. And it gets worse each year.

Several years later, Donna had to go to the junior high for a conference for her son. While there, she heard several mothers talking about having to take their young teens to Sylvan Learning Center® for tutoring because they were so far behind.

One mother was especially angry, not only because she had to pay for Sylvan’s tutoring, but while there, she heard the registrar say, “We see this all the time. We have a lot of junior high students coming to us because of how they were taught in elementary.”

That mom was furious! She had to pay to remedy how the school messed up her son! Sadly, the elementary is still teaching the faulty theory even after years of proven failure. (What I want to know is, why aren’t schools beating down the doors of Sylvan Learning Center® to find out how to teach correctly? Obviously the knowledge is out there.) Let's look at the history of sight-reading versus phonics -

The best practice of millennia - phonics:

1. ~2001 B.C. - Writing is done with complex hieroglyphics, keeping literacy available only to a small class of scholars, scribes, and priests. It was cumbersome and required memorizing thousands of pictographs.
2. ~2000 B.C. - The first alphabet was invented in Phoenicia (south Lebanon & north Israel area). This remarkable discovery gave man an accurate, precise means of translating spoken words into writing. It was the most revolutionary invention in all history. It required learning only 42 sounds. It accelerated the speed and availability of intellectual development to the whole population.
3. 1783 - Noah Webster produced near-universal literacy with his phonetic American Spelling Book and other spellers like it. From 1783 to 1826, Webster's brilliant sound-method speller was unfailingly successful in curing the "disease" of illiteracy.
4. 1826 - A movement to promote reading by "meaning" instead of "sound" began on both sides of the Atlantic. The first two sight-word primers emerged, Franklin Primer and Worcester's. Spelling books (phonetic) were omitted for the first time ever. Astonishingly spread and infiltrated by only 1830.
5. 1830 - Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet invented the sight method for deaf children, using pictures with words - and using words as pictures (hieroglyphics). Published it in the American Annals of Education.
6. 1836 - Gallaudet published The Mother's Primer based on his look-say method. Predictably, reading and spelling disabilities exploded in the wake of the "improvements" of the know-nothings who were oblivious to history.
7. 1837 - Horace Mann of the Boston Primary School Committee adopts the above primer for Massachusetts. Educational "reformers" of that time were against anything they considered old orthodox, including phonics.
8. 1844 - The defects of Gallaudet's look-say primer are very apparent to Boston schoolmasters, who issued a blistering attack against it. These defects were recognized by educators who were not seduced by the siren songs of the reformers.
9. 1912 - Myrtle Sholty published her study in Elementary School Teacher, which showed that sight-reading produced impaired, subjective readers who guessed at words, omitted words, inserted words, substituted words, and mutilated words.
10. 1914 - Psychologist Walter F. Dearborn reviewed Sholty's study and admitted that sight-readers are more likely to misread because of the large apperceptive element they supply to their reading. Despite this, top psychologists proceeded to devise and publish look-say textbooks based on this very defective methodology.
11. 1929 - Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a neuropathologist in Iowa, concluded from his research that children's reading problems were caused not by their neurology, but by a new sight-reading method. Results of his research were published in the Journal of Educational Psychology.
12. 1956 - Rudolf Flesch's article, Why Johnny Can't Read, was published in a newspaper.
13. 1967 - Project Follow Through begins, giving us 21 faulty teaching models that still persist. Government funded this for 28 years, into the billions.
14. 1973 - The New Illiterates was published, showing that the chief, and perhaps only, cause of dyslexia is sight-reading.
15. 1981 - The 1920s Dewey revolt against phonics eventually led Dr. Seuss' publisher to insist that he write sight-word books from the first grade word list. Hence, The Cat in the Hat. Dr. Seuss later said, "I think killing phonics was one of the greatest causes of illiteracy in the country."
16. 1984 - Samuel Blumenfeld's book, NEA, quotes Russian psychologists, Luna and Pavlov, who devised an artificial way of including behavioral disorganization by introducing two conflicting stimuli to the organism. Sight-reading does this to children.
17. 1985 - In Reading Without Nonsense, Frank Smith is responsible for the misconception of the century, promoting sight-reading. His book, Understanding Reading, became the bible of whole-language educators.
18. 1987 - The federal government has spent- and is still spending- millions of dollars looking for the genetic causes of dyslexia. There is something insidious in this. A total waste - there aren't any. The children are phonetically impaired by their pre-school learning of a sight vocabulary.
19. 1989 - Edward Miller devised a scientific test which clearly indicated whether a child was a sight-reader or a phonetic-reader, and at what point the child's reading mode became permanent. (Phonetic readers were usually taught by their parents.)
20. 1990s - Edward Miller went to great lengths to bring his findings to the government education and research establishment, to no avail. They are not interested. They have their own agenda, and it has nothing to do with educational excellence.
21. 1992 - Samuel Blumenfeld states, "Our only hope is to reach enough parents so that as many children as possible can be saved from the fate of functional illiteracy the public schools have in store for them... This will immunize children against dyslexia."
22. 2004 - Geraldine E. Rodgers writes an article, "Why Noah Webster's Way Was the Right Way." She proves, "Teaching the reading of alphabetic print by its "sound" is the correct way. Teaching the reading of alphabetic print by its "meaning" is the incorrect way." And "If [the two methods] are mixed, then the mixture is incorrect in direct proportion to the emphasis given to the "meaning" method."
23. 2008 - Shannah B Godfrey publishes, A Funny Boy Was Prince River, to empower parents and children to reverse the educational trend for themselves. Phonics before kindergarten age is our best hope for the future. (Actually A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette was first, but I prefer my Funny River version.)

                Most of this information comes from the writings of Samuel Blumenfeld and others, posted on Don Potter's wonderful blog:http://www.donpotter.net/ed.htm

 

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/open-world-23-ways-phonics-best-practice-millenia

How to help your child have a great future

Do You Hear What I Hear? – Why Phonics
How to open up the world of possibilities for your child.

Do you hear what I hear? A star, a star, shining in the night!

                If you think about it, I’m helping future 22-year-olds to have a great life ~ by teaching kids to read early the right way. I have always known that teaching starts in the home and that we should stimulate our children’s minds for learning long before school starts. The best thing my Dad ever did was teach me to read when I was only 3 years old.

So I followed suit and always spent time showing my children phonics letters, numbers, colors, etc., from the time they were about 18 months on. My older children learned phonics just fine by repetition and memorization.

                And then came along my son who- at age four- could not, no matter how hard he tried, conceive of how squiggly lines could mean anything or memorize which squiggly lines made which sounds, no matter how many times we repeated them. He just couldn’t grasp it. It was too abstract for him.

As mothers do, I worried that he would never learn to read, never graduate high school, never go to college, never get a good job, etc., etc., projecting the worst possible scenario.

                I knew I had to find a way to make such an abstract concept of squiggly lines become more logical, more realistic- something he could wrap his mind around and link with the sounds. I felt inspired to make each letter look like something that started with its sound.

First, I drew on index cards: a plain lower-case letter and its twin that was dressed up to look like a recognizable object. I made them colorful. Then I began teaching my son with the new method by saying the sound and then the picture-letter name, such as, “ă – apple.” The second ‘a’ on the phonics card looked like an apple with a stem and leaf.

                Suddenly my son had phenomenal success with learning his phonics, and quickly progressed to reading before kindergarten. Family, friends, and preschools saw his success and became interested in trying my method with their children.

                I also wrote down the rules and rationales for teaching of my method properly, to guarantee success for other users. In a short time my sisters, cousins, friends, preschools, and church associates wanted a set of my special phonics cards. I drew several more sets by hand and gave them away. All who used them were very successful.

                Back to that future 22-year-old. Early reading develops a child’s imagination. When your child’s imagination is engaged, s/he is better able to face tough things with a creative problem-solving ability.

Along with the values you taught, s/he will be able to think much better when the day comes that s/he has to make decisions without you. The tool for that is to open up his/her world to reading.

When your child has to make his own choices in Jr. High, the magical bullet to get him through may be his ability to think and imagine possibilities- the fruits of reading.

                There are going to be problems and fights along the parenting way; believe me, I’ve had my share. So I want to tilt the scales in your favor, with your young adult looking back and saying, “I had a great life!” because of the opportunities you opened up for her with early reading the right way.

When your child is in college, you’ll think back, knowing that you gave her what she needed to follow her dreams. You’ll think, “I may not have been perfect, but I gave my child what she needed to be happy in life.”

At his college graduation, your 22-year-old son or daughter will be able to hug you and say, “Mom, thank you.”

                So why phonics? Using functional MRI scanners, a research team of scientists from the prominent Yale School of Medicine recently showed that the brain function of poor readers actually changes to resemble the brain function of good readers when taught phonics by direct instruction.

For the children in the study, the phonics instruction formed new, lasting neurological pathways and connections in parts of their brain that regulate reading ability. The children read more efficiently now, too.

No other reading model or method can do this. None.

This has been an excerpt from Volume 3 of It's Not Rocket Surgery! by Shannah B Godfrey. More from this next week...

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/open-world-how-help-your-child-have-great-future

12 ways to reverse the downward educational trend for your child

Wouldn't you like to know how to reverse the downward educational trend for your child, whether attending public, private, or home school?

Until the universities change what - and how - they are teaching the teachers to teach, there won’t be any improvement in the public school system.

So, how do you protect your child?

Follow the guidelines found in A Funny Boy Was Prince River -

1. Start early reading the right way at home - a wonderful way to bond
2. Keep it Simple for Success (KISS your child) with TGM
3. Use TGM picture-letter phonics cards, and NEVER sight-words
4. Teach the letter sounds, not the letter names, at first
5. Teach the lower-case letters, not the capitals, at first
6. Start before age 2, if possible; never wait for school age
7. Create small words to sound out, even before all letter sounds are mastered
8. Spend purposeful time with your child, giving him/her precious parent time and valuable reading skills simultaneously
9. Keep learning joyous and fun with no power struggles
10. Stretch your child's vocabulary with unfamiliar words; never use baby talk
11. Use all the senses when learning phonics - sound, sight, touch, taste, and smell
12. Be engaged with your child; avoid electronic methods that leave your child off by him/herself without your interaction

Use the Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) at the end of each volume of It's Not Rocket Surgery! (Each one is different.)

See more of the reasons WHY behind these guidelines in Top Ten Myths of Reading.

        In 2003 there was an interesting article by Pete Du Pont called, Two Decades of Mediocrity, about why Johnny still can’t read. He reported, “It has been 20 years since ‘A Nation at Risk,’ the 1983 report on education in America, concluded that the ‘intellectual, moral and spiritual strength of our people’ were threatened by a failing education system.”

        “The report recommended better-educated and -qualified teachers, regularly assessing teacher and student performance, and performance pay for better teachers. It also proposed a much stronger curriculum, particularly in math and English.”

        “So, how have we done? Although ‘A Nation at Risk’ did not recommend increased spending, more resources have been poured into public education:

·         Federal spending under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has risen from $4 billion a year to $22 billion.

·         In the most recent fiscal year the nation as a whole spent $480 billion on elementary and secondary education.

·         Since "A Nation at Risk," inflation-adjusted teacher pay is up 12 percent and per pupil spending is up 60 percent.

·         Classes are smaller -- an average of 18.6 pupils per class then, 15 now -- and there is more emphasis on English and math.

·         However, performance pay for teachers has not been implemented, and there are 70 percent fewer teachers with master's degrees.

        “But in regard to most of the recommendations of the 1983 report, there has been no progress at all. SAT scores have declined.

National Education Assessment Program test scores have risen marginally, but are still low: the 2001 NAEP test scores show only 32 percent of American fourth-graders can read proficiently or better.”

        As The Wall Street Journal summed it up: "63 percent of black fourth graders, 58 percent of Hispanics, 60 percent of children in poverty, and 47 percent of children in urban schools scored at 'below basic' competency levels, which means they can't read."  

                So what is the problem? We’re still reeling from the effects of over three decades of Project Follow Through, which will be discussed in Volume 5 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!

Until the universities change what they are teaching the teachers to teach, there won’t be any improvement.

Too many university professors prefer dogma over data and rhetoric over reason, the stuff careers are made on. They’re choosing to support theoretical teaching models that were demonstrated not to work. What sounded good on paper did not prove true with children.

               And until the state legislatures change the decrees that made the faulty curricula become law, the universities will not change. So unwitting generations of new teachers continue to buy-in to the failed ‘reform’ models. And that is why Johnny still can’t read.

                So let’s do something about it together!

Without these preventatives, the cracks in your child may be dyslexia, speech problems, resource remediation classes, being teased at school, low self-esteem, insecurity, childhood depression, low self-confidence, lack of imagination, lower IQ, slower learning capacity, and/or caught in the downward educational trend. They all may be preventable or curable. You, mom and dad, are the key. It’s not rocket surgery!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/head-start-12-ways-reverse-downward-educational-trend-your-child

8 reasons you are your child's best hope

Who is a child’s best teacher?

 

        British author, Hilary Wilce, is proud to report that an American program, Parents as Teachers, helps parents get their children ready for school- by becoming their first teacher. This ground-breaking program, which originated in Missouri* around 1984, is showing spectacular results.

 

        Did you know that parents are their children's best teacher? Parents need to start at home whether their children will attend public, private, or home school. Here’s why:

1. Parents give their children an educational leap by being their first teacher.
2. When parents are involved, children do better than their peers in math and reading.
3. Usually their social and language abilities are also more advanced.
4. Parents give emotional support along with cognitive stimulation, the two key factors in maximizing intelligence.
5. A child's brain takes in more learning when s/he feels secure at home.
6. The best educational investment is prevention with parental preschool.
7. The years from ages 2 to 5 are critical to a child's learning capacity, imagination, and IQ.
8. Public education is in a quandary. Parents are the solution.

        This system seems deceivingly simple. It helps parents give their children an educational leap by assisting them in their role as ‘first teacher’. Parents choose to get a monthly personal visit from a trained PAT worker, as well as the opportunity to join in group meetings with other parents.

 

       The results are ‘brilliant’. In the US, where PAT is now available in every state, research has shown that children who have been in the program do better at math and reading than their peers. Teachers also feel that the social and language abilities of PAT children are more advanced.

 

        At each monthly visit, the trained PAT project worker chats with the mother about her preschool child, checks off his developmental milestones, and gives her suggestions about how she can enhance this stage of her child's growth.

 

        The PAT worker also provides a listening ear for the aggravations and dilemmas of parenthood. Thus the program helps parents give their children cognitive stimulation and emotional support, two of the key factors in maximizing intelligence.

 

        The latest neuroscience is now inserted into these plans, too. So workers can tell parents what's happening with their children's brains, and why it's important to do the things suggested. The brain also takes in more learning when a child is secure and has food, sleep, and warmth.

 

        Training programs for educators are held in St Louis, MO. It has been so successful that from there it spread across the United States. About 1991, PAT even spread to England (and at least 16 other countries), which recognized the fact that the best educational investment it can make is in the preschool years, spending money on preventing educational problems, rather than on expensive remedial cures (that rarely work).

 

        All of this just shows that good parents are usually proactive in stimulating their children’s minds and providing safe havens at home. They practice purposeful parenting.

 

(Note: I applaud PAT for helping at-risk children, but my message is that proactive parents don't need this extra help. They do it on their own with The Godfrey Method. The main point is that parents are their child's best teacher, and that preschool is not the best option for most children. Your children are not severely at-risk. How do I know? You are reading this. Your kids need you, not a teacher.

 

        Knowing that the years from ages 2 to 5 are critical to a child's learning capacity, imagination, and IQ - and public education may be in a quandary - now more than ever, parents need to find ways to teach their children to read at home before kindergarten. They need to give their children the best foundation possible without relying on, nor waiting for, public education to do it.

 

        Brain growth can be speeded by increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of that stimulation, according to Dr. Glenn Doman and The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. The process of brain growth can be speeded through the increase of visual, auditory and tactile stimulation, in recognition of the orderly way in which the brain grows.

 

        It can further be enhanced by creating the ideal environment for mobility exploration, language development, and manual competence, and by providing the maximum opportunity to use that ideal environment. Dr. Doman’s methods include using flashcards with young children to teach Bits of Intelligence®, which will be discussed in Volumes 3, 4, & 9 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!

 

[We strongly suggests, however, that parents NOT use whole-word flashcards until after phonics (Godfrey Method picture-letter phonics cards) is mastered, and the words have been sounded out many times first!]

 

See http://www.iahp.org/Phil.198+M54a708de802.0.html

and/or http://www.gentlerevolution.com/

       

The Teaching Philosophy of The Institutes for AHP:

• Learning is a joyous process.
• Children love to learn.
• They can learn absolutely anything that can be taught to them in an honest, factual, and joyous way.
• In order for teaching to be effective, it must always be a joyous process.
• Parents know and love their children more than anyone else does.
• They are the best teachers for their own children.
• Parents are the answer, not the problem.

You, mom and dad, are the key!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/head-start-8-reasons-you-are-your-childs-best-hope