Taking five weeks to introduce letter names slows kids down and doesn’t reveal how our written code works.
While letter names are helpful for spelling orally and alphabetizing, they aren’t that helpful when it comes to learning how to read. Instead, the program focuses on letter names first. In the reading program demonstrated in the video, we see that it doesn’t introduce letter-sounds until the fifth week of instruction. Why should we abandon isolated instruction?ġ. Here are 3 inefficiencies in a well-known reading program that we could tweak to give all students earlier access to reading. Imagine how much time you could save by integrating various elements of reading instruction rather than teaching each part in isolation? Kids could be learning phonics so much quicker! When we stop to consider just how many reading sub-skills we’re expected to teach in isolation, it can be pretty overwhelming. In this article, I’m going to give you my top tips for reducing the amount of structural planning time it takes to up your students reading achievement at a rapid rate. Zip students right into real reading, instead.Īdditionally, the teacher's burden is reduced because fewer activities are required and integrating multiple reading sub-skills saves so much instructional time that s/he's less likely over-burdened by the overwhelm of too much to do. However, when you integrate early reading steps simultaneously into the context of words, it saves a lot of instructional time. High-frequency words are separate from phonemic awareness, etc.
Letter names are separate from letter-sounds. Phonological awareness is separate from phonics. Do you ever stop and think…why do so many reading programs encourage us to teach reading sub-skills in an isolated manner?