The case against intensive phonics
The case against intensive phonics Submitted to the New York Times, Oct. 26, 2018 https://tinyurl.com/y9vbf95b In “Why are we still teaching reading the wrong way?” (Oct 26) Emily Hanford says the research supports systematic intensive phonics, a method that teaches all the rules of phonics in a strict order to all children. Here are objections to this conclusion: (1) Researchers admit we have not discovered all the rules. (2) Even among those rules that have been described, some are extremely complex. (3) Many children learn to read with little or even no phonics instruction. (4) Studies show that intensive phonics produces strong results only on tests in which children pronounce words out of context. Systematic intensive phonics has little or no impact on tests in which children have to understand what they read. (5) The best predictor of performance on tests in which children have to understand what they read is real reading, especially self-selected read