So in UK curriculum we teach the sound first ……….”ah = a ” etc and lower case ( small letters ).
In US currriculum ( I believe ) they teach the name of the letter first ……..”ay= A” and upper case ( capitals ).
Am I right? Why?
If so, does anyone have the figures for literacy ages UK vs US ? I would be interested to know if it really has an effect on learning to read.
Who uses Phonographics…………? I am not a big advocate of this, possibly because I attended a workshop on the subject about 7 years ago in Kuwait, where we sat at our tables for 3 hours and listened while we were talked at. I thought, mmm, this is very communicative, I’m surprised her students learn anything- no pairwork, no running to the board. The lady leading the workshop gave me the impression that she had sold everything , including her house, car and family in order to join the Phonographic Clan. I also felt insulted for anyone in the crowd who might have suffered from, or had a relative who suffered from, dyslexia, as she announced :
”Dyslexia does not exist. Anyone can read.” I’ll never forget that- we cringed.
When she showed us figures on how students aged 10 with a reading age of 7 improved to reading age 11 by the end of the programme, there was no shock and awe from me- any child who is given 3 hours a day, one to one reading therapy over 4 weeks would improve! Then we were given a worksheet:
”Up is sun. Sun is up”
But when I pointed out that for second language learners, it might not be such a good idea to have them model grammatically incorrect sentences……………….pichaoooooooooooo! Shot down.
So for me it’s phonics, plain and simple I’m afraid- no letterland, no sun is up, just phonics, jolly or not so jolly, they get the job done.
