SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
November 17, 2009 by
at 08:46 AM
A message is making the rounds of the Internet, claiming that the fact that 55% of people can read the words in the title proves that the order of letters within a word doesn’t matter as long as the first and last letters are in the right place. The message goes on to claim that the brain doesn’t process individual letters but rather reads each word as a whole. The implication is that whole word methods of teaching children to read are appropriate.
It apparently doesn’t occur to the author to think about the 45% of adults who cannot read mixed-up words. There is nothing strange or mysterious about who falls into the 45% category and who falls into the 55% category. The 55% who can read mixed-up words are the fluent readers, and the 45% who can’t read them are the unskilled readers - the adults who can’t read very well, if at all. No beginning reader is able to read mixed-up words. It would be our guess that everyone who reads our blog would be able to read the mixed-up title, no problem.
Sally Shaywitz, a neuroscientist and professor of pediatrics at Yale University, has carried out brain imaging studies to find out how people learn to read. It turns out that there are two subsystems involved - the parieto-temporal region and the occipito-temporal area. In her book Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Shaywitz writes: “The parieto-temporal system works for the novice reader. Slow and analytic, its function seems to be in the early stages of learning to read, that is, in initially analyzing a word, pulling it apart, and linking its letters to their sounds. In contrast to the step-by-step parieto-temporal system, the occipito-temporal region is the express pathway to reading and is the one used by skilled readers….After a child has analyzed and correctly read a word several times, he forms an exact neural model of that specific word; the model (word form), reflecting the word’s spelling, its pronunciation, and its meaning, is now permanently stored in the occipito-temporal system. Subsequently, just seeing the word in print immediately activates the word form and all the relevant information about that word. (p. 79)
In other words, kids have to laboriously sound out each unknown word several times before it can be transferred to a different part of the brain which allows it to be instantly recognized. The proponents of whole word methods are making the mistake so common to experts in any field - forgetting their own learning processes and assuming that novices can just jump right in and copy their advanced performance without going through the beginning stages. However, only a small percentage of students, most of them with a head start provided by enriched homes, can manage this. The majority of students need to be taught systematic phonics in order to become fluent readers.
November 16, 2009 by
at 12:46 PM
Last week there was an interesting debate about EQAO testing on the TVOntario online show Your Voice. The panelists included economist Dr. David Johnson, who is the author of Signposts of Success research that looks at outliers among Ontario schools. Using EQAO results and demographic data, Dr. Johnson has discovered that despite the expectation that achievement should mirror socio-economic status, there is actually quite a bit of variation. The debate is interesting, in my opinion, mostly because the two panelists who oppose province-wide testing really cannot make a good case against it. It’s worth viewing.
November 16, 2009 by
at 07:14 AM
“Let’s imagine you’re the parent of a nine-year-old boy named Jack. He is now beginning grade 4 at his neighbourhood school, John Dewey Public School. Starting from when Jack was in grade 2, it has become very obvious that his school experience is not going well. Not only has Jack not learned to read, but also he is starting to get a reputation as a ‘behaviour problem’. Things are going from bad to worse, and none of your discussions with Jack’s teachers has made the slightest bit of difference. The time for waiting and hoping is over!“
It may not be quite up to the standard of “It was the best of times, it was the worse of times”, but these immortal words open How to Get the Right Education for your Child, a practical manual for parents of children who are struggling in school. The Alberta Report described the book as “an easy-to-read and very funny (if at times painfully close to the bone) guide to the jargon, pitfalls and inadequacies of education as currently practised in most Canadian jurisdictions”. The London Free Press described it as “shrewd, well-informed advice” and the Kitchener-Waterloo Record said “In a field crowded with self-help literature on education, this book stands out for its common sense, its experienced tone and its usefulness”. You can read How to Get the Right Education for your Child online here, or order your free copy here.
November 15, 2009 by
at 07:39 AM
Love him or loathe him, Conrad Black is always good value. His column in yesterday’s National Post is delightful, as Mr. Black describes how rewarding he has found tutoring illiterate inmates in the low-security facility in Florida which he currently calls home. This is writing to be savoured, for example “"the 32-year-old small-time drug dealer who had six children with five women, none of them attached by the bourgeois relic of matrimony” or “it pains me to verge on platitudes, but life’s rewards do sometimes come in strange ways and unexpected places”. Pointing out that he “would not meet the usual definition of a socialist”, Mr. Black is living proof that those of us who quest for education reform are the true friends of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.
November 14, 2009 by
at 07:21 AM
Added Woes for Dyslexics (scroll down to the middle of the page) reports on a new brain study that reveals many dyslexic children have “difficulty distinguishing different sounds in a noisy environment”. School for Thought would like to point out that the ability to hear the sounds in words is the very essence of learning to read, and it should therefore come as no surprise that so many dyslexic kids have trouble understanding what the teacher is saying when there is a lot of background noise. According to the news item, dyslexic students often benefit from being seated “at the front of the class or using wireless technology to enhance the teacher’s voice”. And, if we could make a polite suggestion - quiet classrooms are associated with better learning in general, and not just for the dyslexic students.
November 13, 2009 by
at 08:39 AM
For parents who live in the London, Ontario area, you might be interested in this workshop on Navigating the Bullying Maze, sponsored by the London Anti-Bullying Coalition. Parents will have an opportunity to learn more about how to work with their schools when bullying occurs, including a comprehensive list of next steps and practical resources.
The workshop will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2009, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Childreach, 265 Maitland St. London, Ontario. For information or to register, call Marg at 519-434-3644, Ext. 38.
November 13, 2009 by
at 06:12 AM
SQE operates on a shoestring, receiving no government money and supported solely by the individual contributions of its supporters (you can donate here). Our remedial programs, Stairway to Reading and Stairway to Math have helped tens of thousands of struggling students and, if we had more resources, they could help even more children (hence our request that you vote for our entry in the Aviva contest). All of which explains our dismay at the hundreds of thousands of dollars being wasted by the TDCanada Bank and others on the upcoming TD National Reading Summit. This two-day conference will “explore what it means to be a reader in a democratic society and share their research and experience in developing reading promotion programs”. Apparently, the organizers believe that we desperately need to “foster a reading culture in Canada”.
Has no one noticed that we already have a reading culture in Canada - for those who can read, that is? The TDNational Reading Summit will just pile on non-readers some more, rubbing their noses in the fact that they can’t read. It would make more sense to teach them how to read instead.
November 12, 2009 by
at 06:19 AM
Click here to see some very funny test answers produced by students who had no idea what the solution was but were unwilling to leave the space blank. This blog tip, entitled “Failing with Dignity”, was sent to us by a teacher (as many of our best tips are).
November 11, 2009 by
at 05:19 AM
This Canadian Education Association report on the English government’s “Innovation Unit” which, tasked with finding a solution for the fact that “not enough young people achieve well and become successful learners”, has come up with a new “improvement paradigm”. Using the “language of transformation and radical innovation”, the Unit favours a “fundamental shift in the balance in schools towards a deeper social constructivist approach incorporating co-construction with students; thematic, project-based assignments; re-balanced skills versus knowledge approaches; enhanced mixes of in-school and out-of-school contexts and settings; peer tutoring, mentoring, coaching; enhanced use of parents, community, ‘experts’, and a changed learner-teacher mix”. Yes, Virginia, some people really do write such things. But before you dismiss this as total nonsense with no relevance to Ontario, read on. Near the end of the report appear these chilling words: “The Innovation Unit has always been outward-facing….a new venture…..a transformed education across their jurisdictions….Ontario is one of the first cohorts.“
November 10, 2009 by
at 09:42 AM
SQE Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Wagner will appear on CTV’s Provincewide this Sunday, November 15, at 6:30 pm. Nancy will be discussing the recently-released Parents for Education report on declining enrollment and school closings. Among other things, Parents for Education is calling for changes to the funding formula (ie, more money) that will allow small schools to keep their doors open. School for Thought notes that, while Ontario’s public school enrollment has declined by something like 90,000 students over the last six years, the number of school-age children has decreased by only about 20,000. Why has enrollment dropped by so much more than the number of school-age kids, you ask?
It suggests to us that more and more students are choosing alternatives to publicly-funded schools - options like home schools, private schools (Ontario has 921 of them), dropping out of school and, in the case of new Canadians, being sent back to the old country to live with grandma and get a decent education there. If we’re correct, Ontario’s enrollment decline indicates a high level of dissatisfaction with Ontario’s publicly-funded schools. Our hypothesis is borne out by the burgeoning enrollment in supplementary education services like Kumon and Sylvan. Ontario school boards might want to consider offering public schools that would lure many of these students back from their alternative settings - to wit, schools that offer a rigorous academic education in a very structured setting.
And if the province is foolish enough to agree to give even more money to school boards, there is a strong possibility that most of it will disappear into the bureaucracy like usual and many schools will close anyway.
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