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Show letter to the Editor; tlon and phonics instruction are separate and may run concurrently through the school year. WHAT IS ARTICULATED PHONICS? SHOULD CHILDREN BE ENCOURAGED TO RECOGNIZE NEW WORDS WITHOUT CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE SOUND VALUES OF THEIR LETTERS? f ' I ! We put this question to A . Leroy Urry principal of the Cottonwood Elementary School. Mr. Urry has a reputation as an outstanding educator and authority on reading methods. He has done a great deal of research on how people learn to read and how they develop into fast, competent readers. This is the gist of his Articulated phonics is the basis of a phonetic approach to beginning reading. It is distinct from the "Incidental" phonics which forms a part of "sight" or whole word approaches to beginning reading, such as the developmental reading program of the Scott Faresman Publishers. Briefly stated, articulated phonics refers to the teaching of some 44 English language sounds (and the letters or letter groups which represent them) in isolation that is apart from words.Tut illustrated by known words. Yes, in the initial stages, children acquire easily recognition of a few dozen words without careful attention to their letters and whether or not the words are phonically regular. There is no harm in this providing that an awareness of regular phonic patterns is being developed in a separate period of the day. The Irregularities in words such as come and does should be pointed out early to the child. When this is done, such words are accepted as "trick" words to use one child's WHEN SHOULD CHILDREN BEGIN THEIR STUDY OF PHONICS? IS THE PHONIC READER A SLOW READER? answers: V first month of school, they should learn the alphabet with a sound for each letter - using the short vowel sounds for each of the five vowel letters. Then they can learn to print many three letter words. They soon find they can say the words they printed a few minutes ago and eventually words they printed days before. They have achieved recognition of these words "at sight". In the Are our children learning to read? not nearly as well as we would like to have them. Our schools produce some excellent readers, many good readers and some who can hardly read. We are constantly studying the problem and making improvements. Our reading system tocufy is much different than it was 20 years ago, it is even different from what it was five years and five more years will see many more changes. But this we do Know young people today are reading much better than their parents. This is somethinjg very measure-abl- e and the results are definite. WHAT RANGE OF PHONIC FACTS CAN AND SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN THE FIRST GRADE? i 1 ur . . DO CHILDREN REALLY READ BETTER THAN THEIR PARENTS? This was our next question. Mr. Urry picked up a copy of a paper backed book and pointed out that this is a new American phenomenon. Americans are reading many times more books than they did twenty years ago. Most of these books are being read by students and younger people. He said that the majority of his students in Elementary Sc ho read two & three books per month Just for the fun of it. . . . this in the face of the competition of television, movies, radio, etc. Very few of their parents do this. Where did these young in the schools, people learn to read? of course. Reading taught today is better than it was taugnt to our parents. The school produces many more competent readers and fewer who do not read well than they did twenty years ago. - HOW LONG SHOULD PHONIC INSTRUCTION BE READING-TEACHIN- G these highly complicated machines scientists theorized on how thought processes actually work. Further development of the machine throws more light back on the actual working of the brain with the results that we are getting new and better Insights into the learning process and how to use it. These theories are being substantiated by current psychological and neurological' research and will certainlv have an affect on teaching methods of the future. i HOW DO OUR SCHOOLS COMPARE WITH EUROPEAN SCHOOLS? Mr. Urry said the answer to that depends on what we are trying to do with our schools. European schools are ad- They make their stumittedly tougher. dents work harder. In certain areas they are showing excellent results. Hut in order to understand European schools, picture them as a pyramid. Everybody starts school but only the very gifted come out at the top. . . . these are the leaders. . . . the Wer-vVonBraumsand others. The European school does an excellent job on the few who survive the rigorous discipline but the vast majority do not go on to become een moderately educated by merican stanOn the other hand, the large dards. majority of Americans get a good education and the gifted are able to go on to reach their potential -- - without eliminating the other groups. American scholars and scientists are certainly the equal of their European counterparts. er 2 THE NEIGHBOR, first and second grade for few children might continue to profit from phonic review through the third grade. Early training in the sound patterns and spelling of our language results in phonic knowledge being applied automatically to reading. This leaves the mind free to attend to the meanings of words and phrases and to deal with the peculiarities of less regular words. Without this systematic phonic knowledge, applied automatically, each word encountered becomes a separate problem in recognition and spelling. Children who have phonic mastery of the 88 percent of English syllables, which are phonically regular, can take in stride the remaining 12 percent which present some irregularity. Through PART OF THE NEW AMERICAN YOUTH READING PHENOMENON proof that Americans are learning to read easily and well is this billlon-doll- ar paper back book Industry. Americans are reading as much as they did 15 ten times nearly years ago. Where did they learn to read? I TECHNIQUES? Mr. Urry informed us that these teachare changing rather rapidly. techniques ing Many things came out of trie war. One of the most exciting in approaches to learning is now being opend up by the computers (mechanical brain). In developing CONTINUED? all children. 1 WHAT CHANGES CAN WE EXPECT IN In the first year of school all the facts relating our 44 main speech sounds to the letters which represent them should be taught in the order of their frequency of occurrence in the written or printed language. After the single letter sounds have been learned, digraphs (two letters for one sound) as sh, the, ch, ng, should be introduced. Then the long vowel sounds, diphthongs and vowel digraphs follow in order. WHAT EFFECT DOES THIS EDUCATION PROGRAM HAVE ON THE PEOPLE? A WHEN DO CHILDREN START TO READ FROM THEIR PRIMERS AND READERS? First, look at the governments of Europe. France is very unstable; Germany has had two terrible dictators in two generations, Spain is a dictatorship, and the Italian government has never been very stable. On the other hand, America, with a broad base of moderately well educated people have a definite attitude of responsibility toward the government. A big majority of Americans feel it their duty to take an active interest in government and put in their "2 cents worth". American government has survived more than 170 years with only one major threat the Civil War. Mr. Urry pointed out that this is the result of American education.. . . . this educating of a broad base of Americans. On the otner hand, the tendency of Europe to dictatorship is a result of the European basis of pyramid education where the masses feel insignificant and Inferior to the elite who survive the sy- First reading of books need not be delayed. Under an articulated phonicsprogram class periods for reading Instruc- Since accuracy of recognition is stressed in the initial stages, the phonic reader may read somewhat slowly in the first months of instruction. Before the year is out, however, most children so trained will acquire a much larger stock of words recognizable at sight than children trained on the whole word method and will de- velop true confidence and sureness. This results in faster reading and greater fluency. IS THERE A COMBINATION METHOD? Let us say, first of all, that the reading method with incidental as set out in the Granite District phonics curriculum guide is not a combination method. It employs purely and simply or whole word approach to the look-sa- y It is no combination, reading. beginning since the Initial training in word recognition consists solely of picture clues, configuration (shape of the word) clues, and context clues (guessing what word might deve-elopmen- tal complete the meaning). The incidental phonics described in the curriculum is too late, fragmentary and so unsystematic as to be thoroughly confusing. Teachers are cautioned not to Isolate sounds and the child is expected to grasp sound-lettrelationships from hearing them only as they are blended in whole words. However, the combination Implied in scheduling phonics classes to run concurrently through the year with classes In reading instruction, is a true combination and acceptable to most proponents of a phonics approach to reading. er HOW MUCH SPECIAL TRAINING DO PRIMARY TEACHERS NEED TO TEACH ARTICULATED PHONICS? Although It would be very profitable for the teachers to attend a ten day phonics workshop, a go d instruccould adequate give supervisor ly meettion at monthly or ings. well-train- ed semi-month- IS THIS PROGRAM EXPENSIVE? It is less costly than using the basal currently emsupplementary materials y. look-saployed to teach by Mrs. Hartwell Goodrich stem. STANDARD OF LIVING? There is another social difference and that is the standard of Using. American's broad base of education has lifted the standard of almost everyone. European pyramid type raises the standards of those at the top but not at the bottom. Our schools evidently are teaching Americans in general how to produce things needed for a high standard of living. Another facet of the American System .is a fantastic Increase in Adult Education. It has become a real part of the American Education System. Nancy Tlireet 5, Jody Reese 6, Lex Smith 6, Jim Goodrich 6, and Mrs Hartwell Goodrich demonstrating phonic reading and spel'ing with articulated phonics at the Goodrich school. J. Richard Andersen an with A. Leroy Urry) Interview (from 4708 Holladay Blvd., Salt Lake City 17, Utah CR 7-6- 148 |