And one more point to remember: when teaching, you go as fast as you can and
as slow as you must. Remember, every learner is different with a different
learning style.  My experience with teaching dylexic students confirms
success when you use a structured, kinesthetic approach. Phonological
awareness must be firmly established.  You can't put up a skyscraper on
sand.  Lucille Cuttler

-----Original Message-----
From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of John Nissen
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 6:16 PM
To: The Focus on Basics Discussion List
Cc: Debbie Hepplewhite
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on Basics"



Hi Robin,

It seems that you may have had a bad experience with phonics, if you think
that "more than a phonetic approach" is needed for your failed students.
Have you actually experienced synthetic phonics, or talked to teachers who
have had success with it?

There is phonics and there is synthetic phonics.  Phonics (particularly
analytic phonics) mixed with other strategies does not work - because it
just encourages the learner into guesswork: using the phonics as just
another clue to guessing the meaning of a word.  That is the basis of the
National Literacy Strategy in England, which fails one in five children.
What is needed for successful reading is the skill to blend _individual_
sounds/phonemes to build up the sound of whole words.  Some people, even
some highly intelligent people, find this skill very difficult to acquire.
But the skill has to be mastered if you are ever going to be able to decode,
and read fluently.

If you haven't witnessed the effective teaching of this blending skill, then
you may well feel that your students need something else.   The devil is in
the detail.

Cheers from Chiswick,
and best wishes for Christmas and a Happy New Year

John


John Nissen
Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk
maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud.
Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics:
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm
Tel: +44 208 742 3170  Fax: +44 208 742 0202
Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk



----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Millar" <r.millar at uwinnipeg.ca>
To: <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 12:12 AM
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on Basics"



> You experience and mine differ.  Many students I have run into do not

> lack basic literacy (e.g. decoding skills) but rather lack fluency to

> perceive themselves as readers.  More than a phonetic approach is needed

> with these folks.

>

> Dr. Robin Millar

> Executive Director

> Centre for Education and Work

> 515 Portage Avenue

> Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9

> 204-786-9395

>

>>>> jn at cloudworld.co.uk 12/20/05 11:56 AM >>>

>

> Hi Robin,

>

> Certainly there is diversity.  But a common factor in illiteracy is the

>

> inability to decode.  If that can be conquered, then fluency and

> experience

> will follow through practice.  A single, concerted approach to tackling

> the

> decoding problem can achieve remarkable results,

> compared to a mixed or 'balanced' approach, as was discovered in the

> Clackmannanshire study.

>

> Cheers from Chiswick,

>

> John

>

> (John Nissen)

>

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Robin Millar" <r.millar at uwinnipeg.ca>

> To: <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>

> Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 2:35 PM

> Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on

> Basics"

>

>

>> In response to Kathy's comments.  I can only say that I heartedly

> agree.

>> Adults come not only with varying degress of reading abilities, but

>> varying degrees of schooling (good and bad) that affect how and what

>> kinds of approaches they might need to make progress.  We are

> talking

>> about folks who may have some very specialized reading needs as

> well.

>> In my experience, most adults lack fluency and experience,  decoding

> is

>> simply one of many issues they need to conquer.  I might refer to my

>> colleague Pat Campbell in Alberta who has written an excellent guide

> for

>> teachers of adults called "Teaching Reading to Adults: A Balanced

>> approach."

>>

>> Dr. Robin Millar

>> Executive Director

>> Centre for Education and Work

>> 515 Portage Avenue

>> Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9

>> 204-786-9395

>>

>>>>> kolson2 at columbus.rr.com 12/16/05 12:02 PM >>>

>> John,

>>

>> The lack of research on evidence-based adult education is a major

>> reason why

>> the ESOL lab school in Oregon was established. It provides

>> documentation

>> through video and audio for teachers/researchers to observe what

>> happens in

>> the classroom and which particular teaching approaches are more

>> successful.

>> This issue of Focus on Basics describes some of the research that

> has

>> been

>> carried on to date. It is my hope that we will someday (soon, I

> hope!)

>> have

>> research which shows or at least hints at which reading methods

> produce

>> the

>> best results.  Having said that, though, I am well aware that the

>> answer is

>> not so simple as our students come with varying degrees of reading

>> abilities

>> in their native languages and thus are not starting out from the

> same

>> minimal reading abilities that entering school children are. In

>> addition,

>> while primary teachers have their students for six or more hours a

>> day,

>> adult education teachers do not. We have no way to determine whether

>> our

>> students actually learned their reading outside of class, through

>> self-study, from their children, etc. In other words, there are so

>> many

>> variables to control for that it does make scientifically-based

>> research

>> very, very difficult.

>>

>> Kathy Olson

>>

>>

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov

>> [mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov]

>> On Behalf Of John Nissen

>> Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 5:52 PM

>> To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List

>> Cc: familyliteracy at dev.nifl.gov; Debbie Hepplewhite;

>> focusonbasics at nifl.gov

>> Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on

>> Basics"

>>

>>

>> Hello all,

>>

>> I am trying to find out how one should teach literacy skills to

> adults.

>

> [snip]

>

>>  The evidence of the Clackmannanshire study, shows that the

>> [synthetic phonics] approach

>> works for everybody, including 'dyslexics' and childen with special

>> needs.

>> In this study of 300 children in a deprived area of Scotland there

> were

>> no non-readers after synthetic phonics had been introduced!

>>

>> Anyway, the UK government is now convinced, and is going to adopt

>> synthetic phonics for schools.  See

>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4485062.stm.

>> Should we adopt it for adults?

>>

>> Cheers from Chiswick,

>>

>> John


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