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 j3DHW1G20757; Wed, 13 Apr 2005 13:32:01 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 13:32:01 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <s25d1085.041@gwia.parkland.edu> 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: "Susan Jones" <SUJones@parkland.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:4698] Silver bullets and slow-moving trains X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 6.5.1 Status: O Content-Length: 5434 Lines: 143 Yes, one huge curiosity in my mind is: what's the rest of that "synthetic phonics experiment" picture? What were the other factors that led to the high success rate? Frequency and i ntensity (which can be more important than what you do)? Homogeneity of the group? Feedback systems that motivated students and/or kept teachers on the cutting edge of student progress, making those little modifications and/or encouragements ? I've gotten some funding to develop reading modules for developmental students this summer... this has been a good heads-up for remembering that a finely crafted set of cognitive exercises will still not be as effective if I don't make sure to build in the student ownership and the consistency and frequency and... hmmm... just what do y'all think *are* those other sometimes elusive factors? Susan Jones Academic Development Specialist Academic Development Center Parkland College Champaign, IL 61821 sujones@parkland.edu Webmastress, http://www.resourceroom.net >>> mcarro@lmi.net 4/13/2005 11:48:15 AM >>> I sense some "top down" vs. "bottom up" thinking in this discussion. As educators/clinicians, we need to constantly be doing both! We need to see the "big picture", ie the student/teacher need to know where they are going (goals/ top-down), but we also need to devise the steps that will get us there(bottom-up). The educator needs to have a working knowledge of what the research tells us about how language processing takes place, ie, the continuum of skills that underlie the task. We also need good assessment tools to determine where the student is on that continuum. And let's not forget the "affective" components ( especially with adults ), the "need" to do a particular thing in their lives. Wow! what a job! O-G approaches do not preclude any of the above. They are EXPLICIT, STRUCTURED, SIMULTANEOUS MULTI_SENSORY( which is different than just multi-sensory in which all senses may be engaged but not at the same time), ANALYTIC/ SYNTHETIC. I have had great success with students of all ages! Of course I do not leave out the part they WANT to do. Part of the session is to read the drivers manual, The Kite Runner, or Bridge to Terrabethia or the directions in the Algebra homework ( I am currently doing all of these and more with students of different ages). We will have a hard time convincing some students to go through those "babyish card drills" if we don't show them the rewards of the efforts! With adults, of course our focus shifts from remediation to accommodation for practical reasons! But that does not mean we necessarily leave out the remediation if the student is willing. What we cannot forget is that if a student cannot rapidly decode words, they cannot comprehend what they are reading! If they cannot fluently encode words, they cannot write in a way that they will be understood. This is what leads to failure. Students with reading/writing problems need explicit instruction in the structure of language. If they have some information about six syllable types, prefixes, suffixes, and roots, they will have a good start to fishing on their own! Let's not "dis" synthetic phonics! It is a necessary piece which IS typically left out of many early reading curricula. It may be a good place to start with young children, but to truly "read" we need it all. It IS a symphony! On Apr 13, 2005, at 7:51 AM, Lucille Cuttler wrote: > Hi friends, > The basic premise is to individualize teaching to match the student's > goal. > Use all the tools you have, including Orton-Gillingham. And remember > the > onus is on the teacher to teach. Students don't fail. Teachers must > find > a way to get the concepts across. By the way, as an O-G teacher for > more > than 20 years my experience shows it works. Apply it - as you so > correctly > say - to reaching the student's goal. So you're right on target using > multisensory explicit direct instruction. Lucille Cuttler > > -----Original Message----- > From: nifl-ld@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-ld@nifl.gov]On Behalf Of > arconn@juno.com > Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 8:12 AM > To: Multiple recipients of list > Subject: [NIFL-LD:4692] Re: Synthetic phonics a silver bullet? > > > > Bruce Carmel's music analogy makes sense to me. I am an Orten > Gillangham > failure. I took about 50 hours of it and tutored an additional 36 > hours. I could find some things I could use teaching adults. I do > believe that it helps certain children very much. However, how many > adults have the time to work on phonics with no forseeable results > for a > lengthy time? The adults I teach have many things to do with their > life. Children have school as their primary activity. If an adult > wishes to get his/her driving license, we work on that .- and include > phonics and multi sensory learning in the work we do for the license. > The person has a goal and usually is motivated to work towards that > goal. > Within a year or less with a multi sensory approach, the adult could > drive. Perhaps this adult cannot read a simple book, but he/she has > reached his /her goal. > > (Yes, I have tutored people who can't read to get their license and at > the beginning they couldn't read a simple book and at the end they > couldn't read a simple book, BUT they could read enough to get their > license) > > Rae Connors > > >
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