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Phonics versus Whole Language

PHONICS

• Phonics is the association of sounds with letters. Teachers using the phonics method of reading use basal readers which gradually introduce skills and vocabulary. Phonic rules are taught so the student has a formula to sound out unfamiliar words.
• Over 80% of the English language is phonetically based, but many schools do not teach phonics for reading or spelling.

• The whole language method of teaching reading is to expose children to meaningful stories in learning to read.
• Many whole language teachers do not teach decoding skills for sounding out unfamiliar words. Students are instructed to read the story to derive context clues for unfamiliar words or new vocabulary.
• Many do not teach children the phonetic patterns and rules of the English Language. Some teachers do not even teach spelling.

What Happens to Decoding Skills?

Ask yourself this question: what is more important, reading Shakespeare and Tolstoy, or being able to read newspapers and medical books?

Certainly we all want our children to read for enjoyment. But if children who are taught to read with mini-literature great books do not learn how to decode words, they will never be able to read newspapers or college entrance questions.

What Happens to Reading Skills?

Without the decoding skills of phonics, a child must rely on the remainder of the sentence for context clues or picture clues in figuring out an unfamiliar word. The unfamiliar word will not be sounded out by the reader because the child does not have these skills.

By teaching phonics, you give to the reader the formula for sounding out unfamiliar written words that are in their spoken vocabulary, but not in their sight vocabulary. Some children are natural born readers and learn how to decode words by themselves. Unfortunately, not many children are natural born readers.

What Happens To Spelling Skills?

By removing phonics from spelling, children must use memory skills for each word versus applying rules for over 80% of the English Language. For example, by failing to teach the "ou" sound, children do not have the formula for spelling loud, round, mouth, trouble, count.

If a teacher uses spelling words from a science unit, i.e., crustacean, currents, pollution, camouflage, oceanographer, then the student must memorize each word versus learning a formula for phonetic values. In a phonics classroom these might be the words for the week: proud, round, mouth, trough, loud, ground.

Yes, children can memorize the science words for the week's spelling test, but will they be able to spell the word's next week?

By learning a few phonic rules, students become improved readers and spellers.

• Before a student can begin to read, they need to know the sounds letters make and be able to move their eyes from the left to the right on a line.

Exercises for Teaching Letter Sounds:

1. On separate index cards, write each letter of the alphabet, both upper and lowercase letters. For each letter, find a picture of an object that begins with that letter and glue the picture on a separate index card.
2. Match a few letters with their corresponding pictures and ask the child to say the letter and name of the picture. Next, focus on the sound of the first letter in the picture and have the child repeat the sound. Repeat with new letters.
3. Take 5 letters with their corresponding pictures and see if the child can match the picture with the letter.
4. Think of new objects and see if the child can name the letter. Car, Doll, Lake. This is an excellent game to play in the car.
5. Give the child a sound and ask them what letter it is. Next, ask the child if they can think of new words that start with this letter.

• A reader must know how to move their eyes from the left to the right.

1. Take a bag of small candies and line the candy horizontally across, alternating colors or patterns with two to three lines of 6-8 candies.
2. Move your finger from the left to the right on the first row and ask your child to tell you each color. Then sweep back to the line below and continue to ask your child the colors.
3. Ask the child to count the candies in the first row, the second row. Be sure they move from the left to the right on a line. Now you are teaching counting and eye skills.
4. Ask how many red or blue candies are on the table. Ask what color has the most candy, the fewest candy.
5. Eat the candies!!
6. Celebrate, your child is now ready to read!

• Reading is recognizing letters and groups of letters as symbols that stand for particular sounds or words. A child can not begin to read until they know their letter sounds. Over 80% of the English Language follows the same sound/letter patterns: rhyming words or syllables. In a phonics approach for learning to read, a child will first learn to read similar phonetic sounds.

A. Short Vowel Sounds: Let's learn the short vowel a sound. The short vowel a makes the same vowel sound like in the word ax or cat.

     C a t     H a t     R a t
     R a n     M a n     V a n

• Slowly read the words. Ask your child to read the words. PRAISE the new reader for their success!

Let's learn the short e sound, like in egg.

     T e n     M e n     H e n
     R e d     F e d     B e d

B. Sight Words: A sight word is a word you memorize by sight versus learning the phonetic value. Many sight words for a new reader are 'non-phonetic' words. Skilled readers eventually memorize phonetic values of words converting them to sight words in their memory. If a child is taught to memorize every word without phonics, then the reader does not have the formula for an unfamiliar word in reading or spelling. A balanced approach is best.

C. Teaching Long Vowel Words: Long vowels say their name. If a word starts with a consonant and ends with a vowel, usually the vowel is long. If a word ends with the vowel e, usually the first vowel is long and the e is silent.

     ape      Eve     bike     home     use
     made     he      Mike     bone     flu
     wade     she     ride     nose     June

D. Read a Short Story: Find a story with illustrations for your child to read to you. Teach the child to scan the pictures for visual clues. Let your reader go at their own pace and do not allow frustration to occur. PRAISE the new reader.

1. New readers hesitate and read 'clumsily' at first. This is normal. Do not rush the new reader. Let them read at their own pace.
   
2. Frustration and failure should be minimized as much as possible. Help the reader sound out words if they struggle. If frustration develops, give the child the sound or the word.
   
3. Self-confidence is very important in learning to read. Praise the reader frequently. They will want to repeat their success again and again.
   
4. Review with your child their comprehension of the story they read to you. Ask questions about events that happened in the story.
   
5. Many children will want to reread the same story over and over. Let them! This builds their self-confidence and allows them to feel that they have 'mastered' an important skill. They have!
   
6. As you read with your child, teach the child to scan the pictures for visual clues.
   
7. Be careful not to choose reading material that is too difficult as this will frustrate the new reader.
   

• The first step is to consult with your teacher. Ask what you can do to help your child at home.

• Does your child have weekly spelling tests with words from the same phonetic values or are the spelling words from a science unit that the child memorizes versus learning the phonetic values?

• Does your child have vision or auditory problems? Both auditory and vision problems can cause difficulties in learning to read.

• The term dyslexia, seeing letters or words reversed or upside down, is oftentimes used when a child has reading difficulties. Many young children write letters or numbers backwards. This is common and will go away for most children.

• Is your child easily frustrated? Reading is a complex subject. Self-confidence and praise are important to the new reader.

• Provide the reader with material they can master. Reading material that is too difficult will frustrate the reader. This will erode the reader's self-confidence.