How Reading is Taught in Public Schools

[animagusurreal]

Here's a rambling little late-night rant on some ideas that have been rolling around in my head regarding how reading is taught to children in American public schools. I don't mean to put down any specific method of teaching or learning to read, but rather to examine the basic principle behind how kids are taught to read.

It seems to me that it's being taught as a sort of code or puzzle to be unravelled, more like math problems, whereas I think it would be more effective if it were taught as a means of communication. Children (generally) learn to speak from observation, rather than from any specific system. I'm not saying that phonics (or other methods that break down words into parts to be sounded out) can't be useful in teaching kids to read, but it should be gotten across to them that reading is just another way of conveying ideas or a story, like speaking. For example, there was once a commercial where a little girl runs up to her daddy exclaiming "I can read, I can read, I can read!" The girl then takes out an electronic book and says, mechanically, "the - cat  - is - in - the". She picks up an attached electronic pen, and runs it over last word in sentence. "Tuh-ree" says the equally mechanical voice of the book. "Tree." Now again, I'm not saying that electronic books can't be useful in teaching kids the nuts and bolts of reading, but if the little girl can't look at the illustration and see the cat is in the tree and understand that that's what's being conveyed by the words, then the point is lost, and she isn't really reading. She's solving words.

To be fair, I learned to read at an early age. I don't really remember learning to read because it was so long ago, and it just happened that I took to it right away, while I learned to walk late and always had trouble with math in school (everybody's got different strong points and weak ponts). It's possible that the little girl in that commercial will start out this way and go on to understand the real point of reading once she's got the mechanics down. It just seems to me that some educators teach the mechanics as the whole point, rendering it meaningless busywork to the child. Please let me know if I'm making any sense here, it's late and I'm not sure .

[Mooshi]

Nuh, you're fine, mate. I tend to do the same. (and between you and me, I'm not 100% alert either) Awake enough to be somewhat coherant at least. ;P I think I know what you are saying. If I'm following correctly. So the little girl mechanically 'reads' (LISTENS TO) the words as the electronic book drones along. When she should be interupting the words to covey what the picture above is showing. When I learned to read, my mum would write simple words on a basic note pad and point to the object it represented. Eventually I picked it up.  Was reading before school started. \o/

[Avan]

TBH, I don't remember. It's too long ago; residing around the memory barrier I seem to have formed, overwriting old memories with new, more important information. Sure, my pre-proto-azarian past might have some interesting trivia, but old videos & trivia suffices; it's not very important to me. In fact, I only tend to keep past memories around for the sake of analyzing them & the thought processes proto-I had used at the time.

But I suck at grammar & spelling. D:
Never learnt it very well. I just use a bulk-pattern-analysis method & found what seems to generate the fewest red marks on my papers.
In fact, I don't comprehend it past the absolute basics. (In fact, I think I understand french grammar better than I do english!)

[Yip]

I suspect the best method for teaching kids to read would vary with the kid. Different people have different strengths for ways of learning. Some people are better visual learners, others are better kinetic learners, and so on. And I suspect the "best" method to teach reading, like anything else, would vary accordingly.

[Alsek]

I didn't actually learn to read in school.  My parents taught me. Irn fact,  i don't even remember my school going into any real depth on it...


But,  yeah,   Vararam is completely correct!

Not everyone learns the same way.  Personally,  i learn by doing...  And it's very difficult for me to learn any other way.

You have to include an array of methods in the same class if you want everyone to understand it effectively.

[Kr2i]

I can't remember how I was taught to read either but I would think everyone learns differently so I agree with Vararam as well

[killrhawk]

Again, agreeing with Vararam here. I learned to read the basics just by my mom pointing it out when we read together when I was younger, then after I while I picked up on how words sounded without knowing what the word was.

[animagusurreal]

I agree that different methods should be used according to the individual child. That's another thing about public schools, the tendency to try to fit everyone into the same educational cookie cutter. I was much happier with my learning experience once I started home-schooling in the 5th grade.

(I also learned to read before entering Kindergarten. The teacher complained to my mother that this was bad, because she'd have to "un-teach me how to read the wrong way, and re-teach me to read  the right way." Whatever that means. Luckily, I transferred to another school and got a much nicer teacher )

Anyway, my overall point was that the philosophy should be to teach kids how to absorb, process, and react to what they're reading, not just match the right sounds to the right combinations of letters. A child learning to talk may not get all the words right, but there's a lot of emotion in their voice. However, when I worked in an after school program, I observed some kids learning to read aloud who spoke in a monotone, concentrating on getting the words right and seemingly unconcerned with what they were actually saying.

[Mooshi]

In a sense, I'd liken it to someone who never worked with their hands, but studied the manual extensively vs someone who works with their hands and figures out how things work through trial and error. Even if you know something..it doesn't mean you actually know it. If that makes any sense.

[Avan]

Well, success by either route varies greatly; Some people are AwesomeByAnalysis... and others are not; they learn by doing. And some, ... don't learn. Like me with grammar.

[Sigurd Volsung]

What helped me was books on tape where I could follow the words of the story with what was on the page. That and the fact that my parents read to me every night.

[Old Rabbit]

My parents read to me a lot before I went to school. So by the time
I got there I could already read some..   

I would imagine in most cases a child would learn best with with a tutor. That is one on
one teaching..  Of course that's not economically feasible in public schools.

Untill artificial intelligence reaches the point it can understand human emotions and
concepts it's not likely computers will make good teachers.. At least for reading..

[Kaloth]

My parents read to me a lot before I went to school. So by the time
I got there I could already read some..   

I would imagine in most cases a child would learn best with with a tutor. That is one on
one teaching..  Of course that's not economically feasible in public schools.

Untill artificial intelligence reaches the point it can understand human emotions and
concepts it's not likely computers will make good teachers.. At least for reading..

As one going into the teaching field I hope that day is a long ways off

More seriously, I personally learned to read well before school started. (My grandma was a kindergarden teacher and taught us all how to read) I think reading should honestly be learned mostly before school, and school works more with catching up those who aren't there yet (with more one on one type sessions) and advancing those who can.

[Sigurd Volsung]

The problem with the idea that children should learn to read before school is that many times they simply don't have access to the means to learn. Not all parents have time and in other cases the parents are simply illiterate in the language of the country. Can you imagine how hard it would be for a Hmong child whose parents are immigrants from Laos to learn to read before they get to school? I went to school with kids who had that disadvantage along with kids who were or at least parents were from all over the world. Saying that a chld should know how to read is an impossible standard.

[Serra Belvoule]

Nuh, you're fine, mate.

Warning: this thread is Mooshi Pre-approved!

*Ahem* The following comes from my psychology classes in child development:
The way children learn most things on their early years is by imitation. Their process is in such a way that they may do concrete things such as naming a cow "Cow" but unable to do abstract things such as understanding a cow can also be called "calf" when being little.
Repetition is essential in any child's growth. Even writing is at first a mechanical job with no meaning for the child whatsoever.
Remember the days when you were little and your teacher made you write a page full of I just because? Well that's the why.
Now, if your kid is ten and still doesn't get that 2+2=4 not because the teacher says so but because 2 is the representation of any two real units...well, in that case do worry.
Thank you and goodnight.