Phonics Instruction For Older Students
A Reaction Paper to an article on Phonics Instruction for Older Students
Article: Ivey, G., & Baker, M. (2004). Phonics instruction for older students? Just say no. Educational Leadership, 61 (6), 35-39.
The article makes a clear case against relying solely on phonemic awareness and phonics instruction as a strategy for teaching older struggling students how to read. In an effort for a "quick-fix" solution, many schools in the past have elected to saturate students with phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. Often there has been little thought about the purpose for such instruction; likewise there is little evidence of its effectiveness. I would agree that phonics should never be the sole strategy for teaching reading; I do believe, however, that it is a very important component, along with phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The end objective should always be comprehension. Phonics is a tool toward that end. Phonics promotes fluency. Fluency builds enjoyment, self-esteem, and aids in comprehension. Before implementing a particular …show more content…
program or practice, the authors suggest considering two simple but crucial questions. 1). Does it help students read better? 2). Does it make students want to read more? They state that a more productive method of teaching reading to older students must meet students where they are.
Many read and write for their own purposes quite successfully outside the classroom. Best practice instruction enables these readers to channel and extend the literacy practices they already use. Teaching should involve high interest literature and positive interactive reading experiences. This requires that the teacher know her students and their interests as well as their independent and instructional reading levels. Students state that they can and want to read when they are given interesting material that they can read without difficulty. Students should also be given time to build fluency. This is accomplished through repetition and chunks of time devoted to independent reading. Teachers today have many resources to help their students find the Just Right'
books. Older students need to connect personally and socially with the text. Rather than working on isolated skills with worksheets, students should be challenged to think critically about the text. Teachers can help students make sense of difficult text by modeling their own thinking processes as they read. Think-alouds, visualization, the use of graphic organizers, and class discussions are just some of the methods that can stimulate students' motivation to read. A suggestion I would recommend for the older struggling reader is to read popular fiction picture books or visual nonfiction texts, then investigate words with the targeted word pattern/s in the books. Meeting students where they are must also include where they are phonetically'. Consider word meaning and then reread and search for additional words that fit the new pattern. Continue practice in using and writing the selected words, and conclude with enjoyable reading for fluency. The National Reading Panel (2000) found that phonemic awareness training and phonics instruction are most beneficial for young students and have diminishing results for older students. Many of these very easy readers are quite boring even for younger students, due to the limited vocabulary that is used. However, they can be extremely boring and often condescending to the older students. I have seen students devour books when they are highly motivated and interested in the subject matter. Sometimes it takes just one or two enjoyable, successful experiences with text to set a student on the path to lifelong learning. What they need in their suitcase as they begin the journey are pleasant memories of being read to, a few books which interest them and which they can read fluently, the knowledge of how to find and select additional books on their own reading level, and opportunities to read and interact with others as they share their reading experiences.
Article: Ivey, G., & Baker, M. (2004). Phonics instruction for older students? Just say no. Educational Leadership, 61 (6), 35-39.
The article makes a clear case against relying solely on phonemic awareness and phonics instruction as a strategy for teaching older struggling students how to read. In an effort for a "quick-fix" solution, many schools in the past have elected to saturate students with phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. Often there has been little thought about the purpose for such instruction; likewise there is little evidence of its effectiveness. I would agree that phonics should never be the sole strategy for teaching reading; I do believe, however, that it is a very important component, along with phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The end objective should always be comprehension. Phonics is a tool toward that end. Phonics promotes fluency. Fluency builds enjoyment, self-esteem, and aids in comprehension. Before implementing a particular …show more content…
program or practice, the authors suggest considering two simple but crucial questions. 1). Does it help students read better? 2). Does it make students want to read more? They state that a more productive method of teaching reading to older students must meet students where they are.
Many read and write for their own purposes quite successfully outside the classroom. Best practice instruction enables these readers to channel and extend the literacy practices they already use. Teaching should involve high interest literature and positive interactive reading experiences. This requires that the teacher know her students and their interests as well as their independent and instructional reading levels. Students state that they can and want to read when they are given interesting material that they can read without difficulty. Students should also be given time to build fluency. This is accomplished through repetition and chunks of time devoted to independent reading. Teachers today have many resources to help their students find the Just Right'
books. Older students need to connect personally and socially with the text. Rather than working on isolated skills with worksheets, students should be challenged to think critically about the text. Teachers can help students make sense of difficult text by modeling their own thinking processes as they read. Think-alouds, visualization, the use of graphic organizers, and class discussions are just some of the methods that can stimulate students' motivation to read. A suggestion I would recommend for the older struggling reader is to read popular fiction picture books or visual nonfiction texts, then investigate words with the targeted word pattern/s in the books. Meeting students where they are must also include where they are phonetically'. Consider word meaning and then reread and search for additional words that fit the new pattern. Continue practice in using and writing the selected words, and conclude with enjoyable reading for fluency. The National Reading Panel (2000) found that phonemic awareness training and phonics instruction are most beneficial for young students and have diminishing results for older students. Many of these very easy readers are quite boring even for younger students, due to the limited vocabulary that is used. However, they can be extremely boring and often condescending to the older students. I have seen students devour books when they are highly motivated and interested in the subject matter. Sometimes it takes just one or two enjoyable, successful experiences with text to set a student on the path to lifelong learning. What they need in their suitcase as they begin the journey are pleasant memories of being read to, a few books which interest them and which they can read fluently, the knowledge of how to find and select additional books on their own reading level, and opportunities to read and interact with others as they share their reading experiences.