Sunday, February 26, 2012
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 is very interesting in its focus on how children learn. Although I teach high school students, I have always been fascintaed with how children learn to talk and read. What I found controversial is his belief that children should not be taught by using phonics, but insted should be taught individual words with the 'sight vocabulary approach. (153) Also, that it is the parents' fault if the child doesn't know how to read my a certain age. This reminds me of the arguments that many high school teachers have about parent involvement. We often blame students failure on the parent. Some students don't know how to read by 9th grade, so who is to blame in those cases? Is it the parent? The school district? The special Ed teachers? So often I meet parents at parent/techer conferences, and it is easy to se why certain kids are performing poorly in school. Some students (as well as parents) have very low abilities, and obviously need additional services. I agree with some of what is said in chapter 5, but I think it depends on the individual circumstance.
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ReplyDeletethink Frank Smith found/stated that Children do not learn by instruction but by example. Though I don't agree with Smith not teach phonics at all, he makes with his "sight vocabulary" approach. A trip to the supermarket, according Smith, is a good opportunity to teach a child words such as soup or shampoo...
ReplyDeleteI more inclined to side with the people who claim that it is the parents who are at fault though I know there are way more variables involved....I've made many phone calls to parents concerning their child's progress in this intervention program for the middle school I work for. I found that parents who aren't involved or who have limited ability in English or any other subject are the parents of those students who do perform very low. Some parents don't care, and as a result, their child doesn't care. But then it also depends on the student's motivation as there are parents who do try to be involved..
I have a issue also about parents involvement in children's education. How do the school district or teachers get the parents involved in their children's education. Yes! What about parents who have low reading and writing skills themselves. This is a very critical issue! The only answer I have about the children who come from families with reading and writing deficiencies is that teachers have to get really involved with that child. I know the "education psychology" program have found techniques to motivate children, but their methods only imply to school systems that embraced their studies.
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