Phonics is only part of the whole

Editor: This is in response to a recent opinion shared by Dan Walters which extols the virtues of phonics as the key to reading success. I have not devoted my retired teacher/speech therapist life to changing education policy, but I feel strong enough about this topic in a different direction to respond anyway.

Although I do feel that phonics plays an important part in reading development, it should not get sole focus or credit for truly successful readers. Before phonic instruction can begin a child must be able to hear the difference between very similar sounds. As a speech therapist I can tell you that this skill has a normal development range that extends up to seven years. This means as we test with the “reading” program SIPPS during kindergarten and first grade we are evaluating children on the hearing of sounds that some normally developing children cannot accurately hear yet. This is also why many small children have speech errors that naturally correct by age 7.

My saddest day as a first grade teacher was when a student said to me “why should I come to my reading group, I can’t read.” Some students have failed and given up before it is even possible for them to succeed!

In addition to being developmentally ready, students (actually all of us) learn better when there is a reason and motivation for a task. They can’t be expected to just know how important phonic skills are. Children need to have lots of experience hearing, reading, and seeing writing happen to understand how powerful having the skills can be.

If you jump right into phonics instruction immediately, it is a random and difficult memorization to them and not motivating at all. This is probably where all the songs, dances, points, stars, and computer games for phonics come into play. These activities make the memorization task more fun, but mask the natural and powerful real incentive for learning phonics which is to share stories, thoughts and feelings.

Kids know the value of communication from birth — cry and mom or dad comes running. They must see that being able to read and write is equally as powerful.

The research is pretty clear that the more people read the better readers they become — no drill work required. The whole language approach never excluded the learning of phonics — that is something misinformed administrators directed teachers to do. It did include a lot of listening to the sounds of words and much more oral language development in Kindergarten and first grade, which there is not much time for now as teachers push phonics to ready students to meet benchmarks and pass SIPPS tests.

The intense focus on phonics seems to say that you can’t think about what you read until you can sound out the words, Whole Language says you can teach the skills like connecting personally to text or thinking critically about what is in print concurrently with phonic skills and that by doing so the phonic skills make more sense.

“If you can read, then you can access everything out there” Walters quotes Susan Peterson, in his article, but I doubt that she means you only need to be able to sound out the words (actually called decoding not reading). I hope she means that if you can read, understand, evaluate, and develop your own informed opinion about what you have read you can “access everything out there.” That, I am afraid, takes more than phonics, it takes “whole language” development.

NANCY HAZEN

Lodi

Editor: On April 21, Dan Walters’ op-ed “Governor Brown pushed for softer treatment of violent felons” says it all about Brown. Yet, Gov. Newsom was lieutenant governor at that time under Brown. Gov. Newsom released 76,000 people from California state prisons. We are seeing the ugly effects of no law and order thanks to Prop 57 and Prop 47.

Both Newsom and Brown were onboard with Prop 47 and Prop 57. They were passed under their watch. They are the top leaders of the Democrat Party in California.

California’s high taxes and crime rates are waking up Californians about the real face of the California Democrat Party. Many of these released prisoners end up on the streets as homeless. It is bad enough San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar does not prosecute crimes committed by the homeless or career criminals. Thanks to Prop 47, Lodi’s stores are seeing an avalanche of store thefts. Heck, I was threatened by a guy on the street while having morning coffee at Trail Coffee in downtown Lodi. When will this stop? Maybe, it is time to vote in a different party and leadership?

ALEX ALIFERIS

Lodi