Within recent years there has been a very definite drive in the education system of Trinidad and Tobago to teach reading at the early stages with phonics. Suddenly phrases such as whole word approach, look and say and sight words seem to be curse words.
I believe this trend has been a direct result of such a high illiteracy rate within not just Trinidad and Tobago but much of the Caribbean. And these countries used phonics within the classroom as almost an after thought. Oh yes, please don't believe the official figures of over 98% literacy! If that were the case then I guess one of the last primary schools that I taught in was actually located in No-Man's-Land!
Be that as it may, this trend is not one that I believe should continue. In my next blog I will explain my position further but just consider this...
I was speaking to a very concerned friend of mine who was spending a great deal of money to send her daughter to a reputable private school that taught reading strictly phonetically.
"I don't know what's going on with my daughter! She is seven years old has learnt to read but she's going backwards. She can't even spell the word 'talk'. The remedial reading teacher and I tried to get her to spell it using her phonics and she still couldn't spell it."
I simply asked my concerned friend, "well have you tried spelling 'talk' phonetically?"
Silence...All hail King Phonics!
I believe this trend has been a direct result of such a high illiteracy rate within not just Trinidad and Tobago but much of the Caribbean. And these countries used phonics within the classroom as almost an after thought. Oh yes, please don't believe the official figures of over 98% literacy! If that were the case then I guess one of the last primary schools that I taught in was actually located in No-Man's-Land!
Be that as it may, this trend is not one that I believe should continue. In my next blog I will explain my position further but just consider this...
I was speaking to a very concerned friend of mine who was spending a great deal of money to send her daughter to a reputable private school that taught reading strictly phonetically.
"I don't know what's going on with my daughter! She is seven years old has learnt to read but she's going backwards. She can't even spell the word 'talk'. The remedial reading teacher and I tried to get her to spell it using her phonics and she still couldn't spell it."
I simply asked my concerned friend, "well have you tried spelling 'talk' phonetically?"
Silence...All hail King Phonics!
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