Dear Friends,
It’s been busy over here at the Hollow, and I want to leave you with one more piece for the Thanksgiving celebrations rightly take over all of our attention!
Have you ever taught a child to read?
Have you tried to teach a child to read?
Have you observed a child learning to read through school?
With school reading competency scores distressingly low and still dropping, the education world has recently been rocked by a major change in what is sometimes known as the Reading Wars, the ongoing, highly political conflict over reading instruction. The cue-ing or whole language methods that have largely dominated school reading curricula for the past twenty years are now being rejected in favor of phonics.
This is a good development, one more in line with how most children learn to read fluently. But is returning to phonics enough, whether in school or on the living room couch?
As a teacher, a historian of education, and a homeschooling mother, I have my own assessment of this situation.
Read my full essay here at Front Porch Republic:
“Learning to Read in 2023.”
Did you have a good experience learning to read? Did your children (or students, if you are a teacher)?
Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments, and then share this piece with your homeschooling and teacher friends!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My advice to any young parents is: teach them phonics before you enroll them in public school. And read to them as often as you can, from infancy on.
I used The Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching Reading for all 3 kids. I try to make a book- & Print-rich environment, model a love of reading and read aloud often to them. That all contributes! I view my role as a literary sommelier, once they learn to read, but we don’t stop our cosy evening or mealtime family read alouds.