Not all children learn the same way
Re the June 22 editorial, “Hooked on phonics? Not at Mass. higher ed institutions”: Comprehensive phonics instruction has always been an important component of any literacy teaching methodology, it simply hasn’t been the only component. Balanced literacy has always been just that: a carefully considered variety of instructional techniques coupled with differentiated instruction to reach each of the learners in a classroom. Not all children learn the same way or at the same pace, and it is incumbent on the educators in the literacy classroom, from kindergarten to Grade 12, to tailor all instruction to meet the individual needs of these individual learners. Trying to meet the needs of all students in the classroom by compelling a simplistic, one-size-fits-all methodology serves no student well.
Awareness of individual learning needs through appropriate formative assessments allows educators to teach to both student strengths and challenges. This multitiered instructional approach allows each student to be taught strategies that best meet their needs, not simply hoping that a rising phonics tide floats all boats. And citing Mississippi as an exemplar of reading and student success? Really?
The Globe has consistently advocated for standardized state assessments despite evidence that shows it does not make a difference in how students learn or how well they learn. Advocating for a single-size instructional methodology will not help meet the needs of all students and instead seeks to play to the middle group of learners, not all learners. This is an injustice and a disservice to those kids who are struggling in the classroom and to those students, too, who are missing out on some more prescribed intellectual challenges, even in the early grades.
“High-quality comprehensive literacy instruction” already exists in many Massachusetts classrooms. The perception of intensive phonics instruction as being a magical solution to produce joyful readers and thinkers has not been “scientifically” demonstrated, as no single system can meet the needs of all children.
DAVID KRANE, PhD
Somerville
The writer is a retired principal with 13 years in a primary classroom, mixed grades 1 and 2, who also spent 12 years leading literacy instructional change as a principal in the ActonBoxborough Regional School District at the McCarthy-Towne School, a Teacher’s College Project School.