Comments on: Reading Wars http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/ (bôr'dər-lănd') n. Located on or near a frontier. An indeterminate area or condition. Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:21:32 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Mark Pennington http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-128059 Mark Pennington Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:37:18 +0000 http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/#comment-128059 A key discussion point regarding reading instruction today involves those favoring skills-based instruction and those favoring content-based instruction. This is not the old phonics-whole language debate. Other than a few hold-outs, such as Stephen Krashen, most in the reading field would agree that this debate has been largely settled. The current debate involves whether teachers at all levels should be teaching the how or the what of reading. There are, indeed, some who would restrict reading to a measurable skill-set. These would pigeon-hole reading instruction into a continuum of increasingly complex rules, while ignoring the thinking process necessary to advanced reading. Teachers of this ilk love their phonics, context clues, and inference worksheets when they are not leading their students in fluency exercises, ad nauseum, whether the students need fluency practice or not. On the other side of the debate are those who would claim that content is the real reading instruction. These would limit reading skill instruction in favor of pouring shared cultural knowledge into learners. They favor teacher read-alouds, Cornell note-taking, and direct instruction. They argue that subject area disciplines such as English literature, science, and history often provide the best reading instruction by the content that they teach. Both are extremes. Students need some of each to become skilled and complex readers. More on how to strike this balance on my blog at http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/content-vs-skills-reading-instruction/ A key discussion point regarding reading instruction today involves those favoring skills-based instruction and those favoring content-based instruction. This is not the old phonics-whole language debate. Other than a few hold-outs, such as Stephen Krashen, most in the reading field would agree that this debate has been largely settled. The current debate involves whether teachers at all levels should be teaching the how or the what of reading.

There are, indeed, some who would restrict reading to a measurable skill-set. These would pigeon-hole reading instruction into a continuum of increasingly complex rules, while ignoring the thinking process necessary to advanced reading. Teachers of this ilk love their phonics, context clues, and inference worksheets when they are not leading their students in fluency exercises, ad nauseum, whether the students need fluency practice or not.

On the other side of the debate are those who would claim that content is the real reading instruction. These would limit reading skill instruction in favor of pouring shared cultural knowledge into learners. They favor teacher read-alouds, Cornell note-taking, and direct instruction. They argue that subject area disciplines such as English literature, science, and history often provide the best reading instruction by the content that they teach.

Both are extremes. Students need some of each to become skilled and complex readers. More on how to strike this balance on my blog at http://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/reading/content-vs-skills-reading-instruction/

]]> By: Sarah Puglisi http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-7809 Sarah Puglisi Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:47:52 +0000 http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/#comment-7809 Like a dutiful script reader we are "pig, jig, wig, mig, sig ..." saying in room 10 in the PROSCRIBED , politically mandated NCLB phonics driven curriculum in Underperforming South Oxnard , thanks, with children who have no one to read to them, no books in houses you would not enter but I sometimes visit on weekend food runs,they have no opportunity to enter this reading war debate. And these are not on-line families, these are often main-line familes. They have a heck of a lot of dependence on those getting massive consultation fees to tailor the debate and define my teacher praxis. I'm no longer, as the NCLB Federal person stated so eloquently to me-"a teacher is no longer thinking of what to do. We tell them what to do"...thanks....just push it through the political and textbook driven culture in Sacramento and at the Dept. of Ed. and thus decide what we need to do in the next five minutes jerking our knees. So reading is now the phonics of the great minds...Our present knee jerk is a DEMAND that with children who are not speaking English we start the 1st grade experience with a story that reads "go cat, Sam go, go Sam, sam cat, go". Because after all armed with that, and that fine collection of 5 sight words, and the "at" family they can go make some nice meaning . Chant those sounds with the "Sound sight Cards". Can we get real for a minute.... Today I took my class to a firestation and read some books about it. It is not in the "adopted" curriculum. It is a meaning based activity involving "doing" . It's actually at everyone's level, as it is about life. We listened, held the hose, went to the park with bag lunches (100 percent free lunch is us) and brought back 8 lunches uneaten. We wrote basic stories, made fantastic watercolors and used a great many words none in the text design as jig, fig, wig really doesn't talk about saving lives working in fire stations. And a huge fire is raging up in our mountains-Day Fire- and we are breathing horrible air and everyone is getting ill. Then we read the stories and then we clapped. Jessica , my little student who lives in a garage, with an open infection on her face which a year ago necessitated an operation who needs glasses for the worst strabismis I've ever seen, (when will the nurse care?, how many times do I have to go see her on the one day they hire her to be there a week) anyway Jessica lingers after school. I think, oh , she wants to read our FIRE book again. No, I was wrong. Do you know what she wanted? Was it to read the phonics book perhaps, that super great answer to literacy? So "at her level?" So Go Sam Go. You know it wasn't either approach. Not phonics driven, nor Whole Language either. Sorry. Wrong debate, my friends on the edge of the world...who think real thoughts and care about children... Jessica wanted something you really need to UNDERSTAND, it being obscured in this political reading nightmare, (an argument that seems over here by the way the right won it- it's phonics...hat, sat, cat, bat....) This child who weighs in at 29 pounds wanted to take home all the leftover lunches so the family would have some food this weekend. Her mom died a couple years ago of a drug overdose. She has a non related aunt at 350 lbs, a very old adeled grandma and her gramps, and two sisters. So basically , fundamentally my job is to listen to all the multiplicity of views and opinions and thoughts and debates, read my scripts from the Central office, get attuned to the Standards, stay on task, and turn a blind eye to the leaving behind of that family who is eating peanut butter sandwiches this weekend- a little old Mexican grandpa carrying home her bag and telling Jessica with the 8 apples he can fix her a frittata. Consultants walk into my school and take $25,000 straight of our very small budget to watch for a week and outline all the shortcomings in our literacy approaches, and outline and underscore our errors in thought and our reading competencies.After all they know what's best for a Jessica they surely won't think about for 5 seconds as they cash out that check at Data whatever their NCLB based consulting company... But me...I'm sitting here crying for the first time in a very long time. I just usually can't access the tears....because frankly I have to feed this child, get better possibilities to bloom.I can't afford pity, I have to inspire a life.. The next time anyone thinks about warring over reading don't think about your own child....think about the one in the garage in South Oxnard who has the whole world in her tiny hands. BECAUSE she has to feed her tiny grandparents. And no momma. Do you really know , not doing my job, what in the world you are talking about? It's really too hard on those of us on the front line to be pulled around politically anymore. Get over to the ghetto and find out what is going on in literacy. Then you might see why we need to work out of literature. All of man's existance in times of trouble, pain, difficulty he turned to creation to find a way to make meaning and sustain his soul long enough to find a way to deal with the impoverishment of poverty. We need to rise, and , sorry, pig, fig, jig, is really for those that "have", , the luxury of being able to fill their cup in libaries, books, language, bathrooms, homes, gardens, museums. I'm not working there. I'm in NCLB jail. Like a dutiful script reader we are “pig, jig, wig, mig, sig …” saying in room 10 in the PROSCRIBED , politically mandated NCLB phonics driven curriculum in Underperforming South Oxnard , thanks, with children who have no one to read to them, no books in houses you would not enter but I sometimes visit on weekend food runs,they have no opportunity to enter this reading war debate.
And these are not on-line families, these are often main-line familes. They have a heck of a lot of dependence on those getting massive consultation fees to tailor the debate and define my teacher praxis. I’m no longer, as the NCLB Federal person stated so eloquently to me-”a teacher is no longer thinking of what to do. We tell them what to do”…thanks….just push it through the political and textbook driven culture in Sacramento and at the Dept. of Ed. and thus decide what we need to do in the next five minutes jerking our knees. So reading is now the phonics of the great minds…Our present knee jerk is a DEMAND that with children who are not speaking English we start the 1st grade experience with a story that reads “go cat, Sam go, go Sam, sam cat, go”. Because after all armed with that, and that fine collection of 5 sight words, and the “at” family they can go make some nice meaning . Chant those sounds with the “Sound sight Cards”.

Can we get real for a minute….
Today I took my class to a firestation and read some books about it. It is not in the “adopted” curriculum. It is a meaning based activity involving “doing” . It’s actually at everyone’s level, as it is about life. We listened, held the hose, went to the park with bag lunches (100 percent free lunch is us) and brought back 8 lunches uneaten. We wrote basic stories, made fantastic watercolors and used a great many words none in the text design as jig, fig, wig really doesn’t talk about saving lives working in fire stations. And a huge fire is raging up in our mountains-Day Fire- and we are breathing horrible air and everyone is getting ill. Then we read the stories and then we clapped. Jessica , my little student who lives in a garage, with an open infection on her face which a year ago necessitated an operation who needs glasses for the worst strabismis I’ve ever seen, (when will the nurse care?, how many times do I have to go see her on the one day they hire her to be there a week) anyway Jessica lingers after school. I think, oh , she wants to read our FIRE book again. No, I was wrong. Do you know what she wanted? Was it to read the phonics book perhaps, that super great answer to literacy? So “at her level?” So Go Sam Go.
You know it wasn’t either approach. Not phonics driven, nor Whole Language either. Sorry. Wrong debate, my friends on the edge of the world…who think real thoughts and care about children…
Jessica wanted something you really need to UNDERSTAND, it being obscured in this political reading nightmare, (an argument that seems over here by the way the right won it- it’s phonics…hat, sat, cat, bat….)
This child who weighs in at 29 pounds wanted to take home all the leftover lunches so the family would have some food this weekend. Her mom died a couple years ago of a drug overdose. She has a non related aunt at 350 lbs, a very old adeled grandma and her gramps, and two sisters. So basically , fundamentally my job is to listen to all the multiplicity of views and opinions and thoughts and debates, read my scripts from the Central office, get attuned to the Standards, stay on task, and turn a blind eye to the leaving behind of that family who is eating peanut butter sandwiches this weekend- a little old Mexican grandpa carrying home her bag and telling Jessica with the 8 apples he can fix her a frittata. Consultants walk into my school and take $25,000 straight of our very small budget to watch for a week and outline all the shortcomings in our literacy approaches, and outline and underscore our errors in thought and our reading competencies.After all they know what’s best for a Jessica they surely won’t think about for 5 seconds as they cash out that check at Data whatever their NCLB based consulting company… But me…I’m sitting here crying for the first time in a very long time. I just usually can’t access the tears….because frankly I have to feed this child, get better possibilities to bloom.I can’t afford pity, I have to inspire a life.. The next time anyone thinks about warring over reading don’t think about your own child….think about the one in the garage in South Oxnard who has the whole world in her tiny hands. BECAUSE she has to feed her tiny grandparents. And no momma. Do you really know , not doing my job, what in the world you are talking about?
It’s really too hard on those of us on the front line to be pulled around politically anymore. Get over to the ghetto and find out what is going on in literacy. Then you might see why we need to work out of literature. All of man’s existance in times of trouble, pain, difficulty he turned to creation to find a way to make meaning and sustain his soul long enough to find a way to deal with the impoverishment of poverty. We need to rise, and , sorry, pig, fig, jig, is really for those that “have”, , the luxury of being able to fill their cup in libaries, books, language, bathrooms, homes, gardens, museums. I’m not working there. I’m in NCLB jail.

]]> By: Susan http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-2884 Susan Mon, 15 May 2006 12:54:47 +0000 http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/#comment-2884 Christina, I'm a UK remedial reading teacher and I use a true synthetic phonic programme. I can assure you that using synthetic phonics does not mean throwing out the reading books (unless they are whole language ones for complete beginners), though that is the malicious rumour that is being spread around. What we advocate is that children are only given text that they can be expected to decode, given the teaching they've had in class, so they don't have to resort to guessing and memorising. This will mean that initially they will be given simple words and sentences to read and then decodable books. For more correct information on UK synthetic phonics please see my website and also www.rrf.org.uk and www.syntheticphonics.com Christina, I’m a UK remedial reading teacher and I use a true synthetic phonic programme. I can assure you that using synthetic phonics does not mean throwing out the reading books (unless they are whole language ones for complete beginners), though that is the malicious rumour that is being spread around. What we advocate is that children are only given text that they can be expected to decode, given the teaching they’ve had in class, so they don’t have to resort to guessing and memorising. This will mean that initially they will be given simple words and sentences to read and then decodable books. For more correct information on UK synthetic phonics please see my website and also http://www.rrf.org.uk and http://www.syntheticphonics.com

]]> By: Graham Wegner http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-2882 Graham Wegner Mon, 15 May 2006 11:55:20 +0000 http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/#comment-2882 Doug and other regular commenters at this post, here is an <a style="text-decoration:underline"; href="http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3877">interesting link</a> to see what one "expert" here down under is publishing in the mainstream media. Then, to get a more complete cross section of how this opinion is seen by Aussies, read the comments section and watch the piranhas from either side of the fence rip into each other's point of view! An argument about the "correct" way to teach reading might get a more sympathetic hearing if it wasn't wrapped up in such a blatantly political wrapper. Teachers do get sick of being told that they are incompetent especially when rubbery figures are used to bash them around the head. Doug and other regular commenters at this post, here is an interesting link to see what one “expert” here down under is publishing in the mainstream media. Then, to get a more complete cross section of how this opinion is seen by Aussies, read the comments section and watch the piranhas from either side of the fence rip into each other’s point of view! An argument about the “correct” way to teach reading might get a more sympathetic hearing if it wasn’t wrapped up in such a blatantly political wrapper. Teachers do get sick of being told that they are incompetent especially when rubbery figures are used to bash them around the head.

]]> By: Doug http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-2548 Doug Mon, 08 May 2006 18:25:43 +0000 http://borderland.northernattitude.org/2006/04/27/reading-wars/#comment-2548 Christina, your tenacity is remarkable. Thanks for your interest. Christina, your tenacity is remarkable. Thanks for your interest.

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