There is a major phonics debate going around. One side argues that one must learn phonics to be able to read properly, the other suggests that phonics is dry and boring and detracts from the pleasure of reading:
More than 90 of Britain’s best-known children’s authors and illustrators have called on the government to abandon its plans to introduce early-year reading tests, warning that they pose a threat to reading for pleasure in primary schools.
The former children’s laureate Michael Rosen is leading the writers’ charge against a phonics-intensive approach to teaching young children how to read.
A letter to the Guardian signed by 91 names including Meg Rosoff, Philip Ardagh and Alan Gibbons says millions is being spent on “systematic synthetic phonics programmes” even though there is “no evidence that such programmes help children understand what they are reading”.
Rosen told the Guardian: “It does not produce reading for understanding, it produces people who can read phonically.”
Click on the link to read Who Said Grammar Isn’t Important?
Click on the link to read The Resistance Against Teaching Grammar
Click on the link to read Captain Phonics to the Rescue!
Click on the link to read the Phonics debate.
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