Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id eAFFtt927460; Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:56:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 10:56:05 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <005601c04ec4$0d31d4e0$4db18dcf@ncia.net> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: woods@ncia.net To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:3264] Re: Literacy and Prisons X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2187 Lines: 44 June Crawford wrote: >I wonder, Tom, when you indicate that phonemic awareness is not a > difficulty, however, if you would not consider that automaticity in reading > (fluency, etc.) is related to this issue. I'd be inclined to believe that greater fluency has more to do with automaticity and a large sight-vocabulary than it does with knowledge of letter sounds and phonetic decoding. I believe if we read difficult enough material any one of us will experience fluency problems, but it has little to do with whether or not we know how to look at letter/sound combinations and turn them into words. In fact, the opposite may be more true, that overreliance on phonetic decoding contributes to fluency problems; it does not alleviate them. Fluency comes with our instantly, automatically, and effortlessly recognizing almost every single word we encounter. That is, sight words. If we are given a list of phonetically regular nonsense words to read, or new words we have never seen before (such as when we try to read a medical journal article) we must resort to phonetic decoding. It is not automatic, it is not effortless. Our fluency in this material is diminished until we incorporate these new words into our sight vocabulary. >Many of the other issues related > to reading can be traced back, I think, to the lack of reading during the > school years. When students cannot read, they do not increase their > vocabulary and their fluency is not as great as that of good readers. It is > a Catch 22 situation. If you can read easily, you read and you increase > your facility as a reader and you increase your vocabulary, which makes it > easier to read more and more difficult pieces. 100 percent agreement here. People learn to read by reading! >If adolescents and adults > have any difficulty with the basic concepts of reading, they need > instruction in those areas if they are to make really good progress in all > areas of reading. And we need to help them achieve !balance! in the use of skills and strategies. We need to know what good readers do when they read. We need to help those with reading problems learn to do those same things -- to give balance. Tom
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