Category: Phonemic Awareness
-
What is the problem with “sight words”?
My son just entered kindergarten in our local NYC public school. We received a folder from his teacher with two sets of materials: an overview of the Fundations phonics program (good!), and a list of sight words that he would be expected to memorize each week (um). This is how the sight word overview began:…
-
Phonemic Proficiency: A Hypothesis to be Tested
There’s been a kerfuffle in the reading nerd sphere for a while now about Dr. David Kilpatrick’s theories of orthographic mapping and the advanced phonemic awareness activities promoted by his Equipped for Reading Success program. At issue have been the following: Are phonemic awareness activities without letters time well spent for Tier 1 instruction? Are…
-
What does it take to internalize the cipher?
What does it take to get an individual child to internalize the cipher of written English?
-
The Relation of Speech to Reading and Writing
In this post, we examine another argument made against the naturalness of reading by Alvin Liberman in 1992. The distinction, according to Liberman, may be that one is biological in evolution, while the other is cultural.
-
Learning to Read: An Unnatural Act
In this post, we’ll explore a strong counterargument to the Goodmans’ argument that learning to read is natural. And it has something to do with the distinction between a code and a cipher.
-
The Science of Reading Across Languages
Digging into “Is the Science of Reading Just the Science of Reading English?” by David L. Share
-
The Sound and the Fury of Phonemes and Reading
Here is my Yule time gift to my fellow reading nerds: I am honored that a version of my blog post about my shift in thinking on phonemic awareness has been published in the latest Nomanis. Do check out this newer version for the research goods. And a big thank you to Tiffany Peltier for…
-
Operating Principles Across Written Languages
In the course of skimming research articles, every now and then something surfaces that is comprehensive, clarifying, and just flat out fun to read because it brings illumination to something I’ve been grappling with. One I want to make sure to bring to your attention, just in case you haven’t yet read it, is this…
-
I think I was wrong about Phonemic Awareness
When I began this journey into learning more about literacy and language development (not too long ago), one of the first areas where I began sensing a tension in the field was around phonological awareness and the notion of instruction related to different “grain sizes.” We know that phonological awareness develops in a manner that…
-
Phonology: How it Relates to Language and Literacy
I posted something on Twitter the other day (as I am wont to do far more frequently than write anything of deeper substance, alas) worrying that because the Simple View of Reading is a predominant model of reading (and may be therefore the basis from which some educators who are aware of it may primarily…
Language & Literacy 