January 25, 2022 Nancy Bailey’s Education website
Children were being drilled in phonics before they knew what a word looked like, then judged as “failing” if they could not recall or relate to this decontextualised methodology. Some children would mechanistically “blend” the sounds to form a word yet completely fail to make the connection between this and the natural sound of the word. Furthermore, I met a number of conscientious teachers who saw themselves judged as failing if some children were underperforming in phonics tests.
The study points to Canada and Norway where phonics along with lessons involving understanding text results in statistically significant gains.
Suggestions to get children excited about reading here
