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‘Malpractice’ Category

  1. Soft Terrorism descends on teaching of reading

    March 28, 2016 by Tunya

    A Soft Terrorism Plagues the Reading Field

    “Remember, reading is ‘caught’, not ‘taught’ “— that is the phrase I heard in an audiotape last year. This was part of a training program for volunteers who had offered to help a literacy initiative in a school district in British Columbia. What that small phrase alone tells me is that the method being used to teach reading was of the Whole-Language variety.

    In most of the Western world two reading methods continue to compete for dominance — Phonics or Whole-Language. Only in Germany was W-L outlawed for the purely practical reason — it was tried in 80s but after disastrous results was declared bad practice.

    The reason I classify this contest as “soft terrorism” is because a general intimidation has settled on the reading issues where most people are now pussy-footing and refusing to use these inflammatory words — “phonics” or “whole-language” !

    Marilyn Jager Adams in her forward to Jeanne Chall’s book, The Academic Achievement Challenge (2002 edition) said:
    “ . . . reviewing the research on phonics, Chall told me that if I wrote the truth, I would lose old friends and make new enemies. She warned me that I would never again be fully accepted by my academic colleagues . . . Sadly, however, as the evidence in favor of systematic, explicit phonics instruction for beginners increased, so too did the vehemence and nastiness of the backlash. The goal became one of discrediting not just the research, but the integrity and character of those who had conducted it. Chall was treated most shabbily . . . “

    This imposed silence needs to be confronted if there is to be headway made in the goal of teaching reading to all children as a right — a goal enunciated by most nations and peoples in statements that echo the belief that life chances depend on the foundation skill of reading. UNESCO and other well-meaning agencies are planning huge efforts to address the illiteracy problems of the “developing” world, yet one document has already recognized a lurking obstacle: “The reading “wars” are alive and well in many low-income countries, often miring ministries of education and teaching centers in seemingly endless debates between the “whole-language” and “phonics-based” approaches.” (pg 4 Early Grade Reading Assessment Toolkit)

    http://www.amazon.com/Academic-Achievement-Challenge-Really-Classroom/dp/1572307684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459204949&sr=1-1&keywords=academic+achievement+challenge+chall

    Category Absurdities, Book Reviews, Education Reform, Malpractice, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. disabling professionals create jobs

    February 29, 2016 by Tunya

     

    Confessions From A Disabling Professional

    “ . . . new needs are created just to justify the role and occupation of professional experts . . .” John McKnight, Professionalized Service and Disabling Help, 1977, http://www.panarchy.org/mcknight/disabling.html


    As one who benefited from a school system before it became the self-serving industry it is today, and, now as a granny concerned for future generations, I am constantly searching for explanations how and why all this went wrong. I am from Canada, and I see we are very backward in monitoring our education services. Neither our media nor keen educators as Greg Ashman probe or do investigative work to bring forth troubling information about Reading Recovery, for example, and ask the obvious question — How can a discredited methodology be allowed to continue to do harm to young students? I have anecdotal information that RR is also a common practice here as it is in New South Wales, Australia.


    I’ve been reading a book — The Future of Whole Language, 1996, by Susan Church (at that time a whole-language consultant in Nova Scotia, Canada)— and this is what is said about RR — “ . . .the real danger of Reading Recovery lies in its success. Because the program does seem to help children on their way to becoming readers and writers, it lets the institution off the hook. It allows us to continue to blame the children for their failures . . . “


    It does seem, doesn’t it, that whole-language enables the production of more jobs in education by the act of predictably disabling a portion of students as fodder for the sub-industry of “remediation” or “intervention”.

    Category Malpractice, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Germany Drops Whole-Language

    February 7, 2016 by Tunya

    Logical Germans Reject Ineffective Methods

    I read on the Internet that around 2002 Germany banned (outlawed) the use of Whole-Language in schools. In most Western countries it is a rival against phonics as a style of teaching reading. Whole-language as a term evolved from sight-word approaches and was aggressively promoted as a total new paradigm from the 80s in most Western countries.

    In Germany it was used since the 80s but after disastrous results it was declared bad practice. Then around 2002 it was banned altogether.

    The rest of the world that suffers illiteracy is too politically correct to call a spade a spade.

    The rest of the education world pays little attention to research or proven standard practices to take decisive action when poor results from fads and theoretical preferences produce poor results.

    An international group with prominent academics is now committed to bring about practices that improve the life chances of children through effective teaching of reading. See IFERI http://www.iferi.org/ and look up their topic EVIDENCE for convincing research and arguments to help tackle the illiteracy problem. Our teacher training institutions need to connect with this group.

    Category Absurdities, Malpractice, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Methods Matter – Phonics

    January 25, 2016 by Tunya

    Methods Matter

    1 Reading in schools is mainly treated in one or other of two ways: (a) a skill or tool to be acquired to enable further learning or (b) a social practice — a worldview — to be applied throughout the educational experience from pre-K to college.

    2 Phonics is the method by which the skill in (a) above is acquired. Whole-language and various other whole word practices — (b) above — do not “teach” as such but expect students to gain literacy by both memorizing lists of words and guessing others from the context of what they are reading. Whole-language is banned in Germany after being tried in the 80s and declared bad practice.

    3 Direct Instruction is a general term for the explicit teaching of a skill-set using demonstrations of the material, rather than exploratory models such as inquiry-based learning. (Wikipedia) Phonics is the method described above and Whole-language is the second.

    4 Why were we never told the value of these things for children? The public and parents have generally been kept ignorant of the Reading Wars that have raged within education systems for over 100 years. A split started in the early 1900s after John Dewey’s essay — The Primary Education Fetish — gained popularity when learning by “doing” (inquiry) started to supersede “drill” (direct instruction). Philosophic, political and corporate profit-making helped keep this contest internal.

    5 Oh, we were? Yes, people did get a flavor of the division and the harms that children experienced. Illiteracy rates did not decrease satisfactorily and the sensational book — Why Johnny Can’t Read, 1955, Flesch — caused considerable debate. But, like water off a duck’s back, little of lasting importance transpired over the last century. The practice of teaching claims “professional autonomy” is a sacred trust and behind closed doors teachers choose their methods according to their inner lights. Currently, there is a mish mash of various styles and combinations of methods — no real standard practice as any other profession adheres to.

    6 Didn’t know that! You DO know all that, Will Fitzhugh! And, much, much more, besides. Thanks for being provocative in trying to stimulate some shame and action in this neglected disservice to children. Hopefully others can bring us up to date on the state of Reading in our 21st C world. I do hear of a promising development that in England the Reading Reform Foundation (RRF) has reconstituted into IFERI — International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction and is promoting international use of the Year One Phonics Screening Check — http://www.iferi.org/resources-and-guidance/

     

    [posted to Education Consumer Clearinghouse — Will Fitzhugh asks “innocent questions” ]
     

    Category Book Reviews, Malpractice, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Universal Basic Skills for All

    December 13, 2015 by Tunya

    How Many Schools Are “Out-of-control” ?

    This is a very disturbing picture — just from the bits and pieces in this story forwarded to ECC (Education Consumers Clearinghouse). A group of people who come under an umbrella of a “consumers’ clearinghouse on education” SHOULD welcome such reports, YES, be disturbed, analyze, and try and be helpful.

    We need to ask: How could schools become so dysfunctional in the midst of a Western rich country, so favored and privileged?

    “Every year kids reach the 12th grade with elementary-level reading skills”, so says the news story. That one sentence alone provides a BIG CLUE to some of the problem. Regardless of the poverty, the racial mix, immigrants unable to understand or speak the language, etc. NO-ONE should still be unable to read in High School !

    The international organization, OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) is determined to help all lagging nations in the world to reach UNIVERSAL BASIC SKILLS in the next 15 years. That is: “ . . . every student reaches at least the baseline level 1 of performance on the PISA scale — where students demonstrate elementary skills to read and understand simple texts and master basic mathematical and scientific concepts and procedures.” Access to schooling is not enough; the schools are expected to concentrate on “at least” these Universal Basic Skills to be acquired.

    Universal Basic Skills — 116 pg — http://hanushek.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Universal_Basic_Skills_WEF.pdf

    This Citizen’s Group, BETTER ED, is right to promote the idea of releasing state funds directly to parents so they can find suitable schools for their children in their lifetimes. It seems the system, with all its knowledge of what effective schools do, has seriously defaulted.

    [See story — http://www.citypages.com/news/distrust-and-disorder-a-racial-equity-policy-summons-chaos-in-the-st-paul-schools-7394479      Poster Time to Intervene Dec 12 '15 email]

     

    Category Absurdities, Malpractice, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

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