[etni] Fw: Once again reading!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: byk - byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Once again reading!

I hope I am not becoming a bore.  This is in reply to Sandra's very detailed 
letter.  Thank you Sandra.

I have never taught 35 elementary school pupils to read (decode), but I have 
taught a wild class of 15 dislectic 7th graders who could not decode at the 
beginning of the year, and could, by the end of the year.  This included an 
extremely dislectic boy, who could barley read Hebrew.  At the end of the 
year he could read English better than Hebrew.

Now I am NOT talking about vocabulary, reading strategies, or language 
acquisitiion, but ONLY about decoding.  It is this skill that brings about a 
situation in which 22 out of 35 pupils need the dispensation of being read 
to.

I DO believe that an excellent course book, based on phonics, with tons of 
exercises, which also provides work for the quicker learner, can solve the 
problem for most teachers and pupils.  The pupils must have a lot to occupy 
them during the class time.  Learning to read and write takes time. 
Vocabulary will be learned at the same time - slowly, which is good.  The 
children who pick up languages easily will continue to do so, but everybody 
in the class will have something to do, and will be learning.  At least 
thenumber of pupils who need to be read to will be cut drastically.

Jennifer



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