Oct 09
10
A Blinding Flash of the Obvious
Whole Language, Look and Say and Phonics
A remarkable Australian marketing entrepreneur I deeply admire talks about the blinding flash of the obvious.
This happened to me when I managed to find the series of books I used as I learned to read in the, dare I say it, the 1950’s. This was a time when there wasn’t the range of reading material available as there is today.
The content of these books is remarkable and I remember so many of the stories, the phonics exercises and the characters today. The illustrations are also etched in my mind.
A series of primers (books) were read during the first three years of school. Looking at these books it is easy to see that the final ones needed an ability to read fluently to cope with them.
I do know not all children reached this standard. Reading and writing are skills that have various degrees of mastery. Things were not better in the good old days!
I remember listening to the radio programs made especially for school children. I remember the book being read to the whole infant school at an assembly. I have a copy of my first written piece at school which was lovingly saved by my parents. I remember drawing and talking to my friends.
Whole Language – a term used to describe an approach to teaching literacy to children. Coined I think in the early eighties.
What is Whole Language? Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. Not new.
Somehow I learned and understood the relationship between letters and sounds and that words are made up of sounds. I did not have boring phonics exercises. But I wrote words, I saw patterns and copied from the board. I also learned to write script and joined letters to ensure fluency. We also looked at words and said them.
All in all a whole language approach to literacy involving the whole child.
How can it be anything else? The blinding flash of the obvious!
What we need to remember is that children learn at different rates and we must support them in the early school years to master the fundamentals of reading and writing.
Phonics knowledge is a necessary part of learning to read. Blindingly obvious!
What on earth has all the arguments been about?
If you would like information about phonics (letter sound relationships) I have written an eBook outlining a systematic approach. This book outlines step by step the phonics knowledge your child needs to understand and provides downloadable activities that make learning fun.
Please go to www.superlearner.com.au to find out more.
I welcome any queries and questions you may have.
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