Almost three years ago I visited one of our havens of enlightenment called a government primary school. It was a boy's school and when I met with the school principal to show him my Hop Along Reading Programme he excitedly told me to share the information with his infant teachers.
The librarian/remedial reading teacher called the infant teachers together. They looked through the books, flashcards and other material. "Nice books." "Love the phonics and sight words together." "My kids would love the stories." "Creative writing in the workbooks - good idea."
My anticipation grew. Was this going to be the first group of teachers that would encourage their principal to try using my reading programme in their classrooms?
Anticipation - premature.
"Well...we love your programme but you know that the Ministry of Education has sent a phonics programme." The remedial reading teacher was one of the privileged few to get to meet with the promoters of the phonics programme and was instructed to return to various schools to implement it. I was too late. I was speaking to converts who rather than blending the two methods of look-and-say with phonics had been sold into the notion of total phonics. Indeed, they happily explained to me that absolutely NO reading must be done by the students until they master every single 40 plus sound.
"In fact," one male teacher proudly announced, "we have even gone back to teaching our second year infant students all their phonics!"
"So you're teaching phonics while they continue reading their books?" I asked...the idea seemed fair.
"Oh no!" he responded confidently, "We've taken away the books that they were reading."
I paused to drink this in. "Were they actually reading already?"
"Yes," confidence waning?
"And you've stopped them from reading to teach phonics?"
"Yes," confidence definitely waning. A few wrinkled brows.
"Uh huh...interesting..." I scanned the now perplexed group. "So you stopped them from reading to teach them reading?"
The government primary school...a haven of enlightenment indeed.
The librarian/remedial reading teacher called the infant teachers together. They looked through the books, flashcards and other material. "Nice books." "Love the phonics and sight words together." "My kids would love the stories." "Creative writing in the workbooks - good idea."
My anticipation grew. Was this going to be the first group of teachers that would encourage their principal to try using my reading programme in their classrooms?
Anticipation - premature.
"Well...we love your programme but you know that the Ministry of Education has sent a phonics programme." The remedial reading teacher was one of the privileged few to get to meet with the promoters of the phonics programme and was instructed to return to various schools to implement it. I was too late. I was speaking to converts who rather than blending the two methods of look-and-say with phonics had been sold into the notion of total phonics. Indeed, they happily explained to me that absolutely NO reading must be done by the students until they master every single 40 plus sound.
"In fact," one male teacher proudly announced, "we have even gone back to teaching our second year infant students all their phonics!"
"So you're teaching phonics while they continue reading their books?" I asked...the idea seemed fair.
"Oh no!" he responded confidently, "We've taken away the books that they were reading."
I paused to drink this in. "Were they actually reading already?"
"Yes," confidence waning?
"And you've stopped them from reading to teach phonics?"
"Yes," confidence definitely waning. A few wrinkled brows.
"Uh huh...interesting..." I scanned the now perplexed group. "So you stopped them from reading to teach them reading?"
The government primary school...a haven of enlightenment indeed.
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