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A recent educational policy change in the UK had children be taught phonics at a young age. Recent statistics (PDF) released by the Department for Education shows that this does appear to be working, although closer analysis shows that there is still a gap based on gender, region and social deprivation.
Teaching children to read with phonics has been a central plank of recent “Govian” education policy. A new set of statistics shows that 74% of children in the first year of primary school now meet the expected level on a phonics screening check, rising to 88% in Year 2 – a marked improvement on two years ago.
But dig down behind the numbers and it’s clear that there are still big disparities in how children perform on phonics tests based on region, gender and whether they qualify for free school meals.
Introduced in 2012, the purpose of the phonics screening check is for teachers to check that young children in Years 1 and 2 can apply a system to “decode” the sounds of words, some of which are “nonsense words” and make no sense in the English language.
(Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Wednesday October 01 2014, @11:44PM
My 2 year old son has loved alphablocks since he was 6 months old, watches it every week.
I don't understand why phonics are so new though, 30 years ago I learnt to read using a system that was very similar to phonics, I can't imagine how else you would.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Sir Garlon on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:23PM
I was taught phonics 35 years ago. How I hated it! I had learned to read at home. Being ordered to parse and pronounce nonsense words was bewildering and offensive to my young mind. It killed my joy of school entirely. Even today the word "phonics" fills me with loathing. It must have frustrated my teachers that I was failing phonics and yet on state tests I was reading 3 or 4 years ahead of my grade. (Nothing says "you suck!" to a teacher like a bright student who is doing poorly in class.) They thought I was a lazy, insubordinate git and treated me accordingly. In fact, I was just resistant to doing confusing things that are obviously stupid to anyone who already knows what he's doing, so I became a passive-aggressive little nightmare.
In hindsight, that experience was perfect preparation for a career in software engineering.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2) by weeds on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:24PM
Sorry if this sounds like one upmanship, but... thare aren't many benefits to being an old guy in this crowd.
This is truly not a new idea. I learned to read with ITA [wikipedia.org] a little less than 50 years ago. I can't say if I learned to read faster or was a better reader because of it. I can say that I was never very good at spelling (I do think there is a correlation there) and I'm the only person I know that can read the pronunciation guide in the dictionary as easily as the text! The grade school I went to did not keep the program for more than a couple of years.
Get money out of politics! [mayday.us]