Synthetic Phonics
Posted By Laura on March 26, 2006
Last Monday, the Rose Report came out and told us that we have to teach synthetic phonics first and foremost when teaching children to read [news.bbc.co.uk]. Synthetic Phonics is a system where, when teaching children to read, you teach the children all the sounds before showing them a book. So, for example, when teaching a child how to read “cat,” you teach the child C-A-T sounds and then once you have mastered all the sounds in the English language you can then show the child that the “C” sound is linked with the letter C. And *then* you can show them a book.
This is very backward. However, Ruth Kelly has stated that synthetic phonics should be the first strategy in teaching children to read. What does she know? She has never taught any child how to read in her whole entire life. She sits in classrooms for publicity, while she ruins the education system for those who are about to enter it.
Sythetic phonics is not the way forward. Children learn in different ways and there are many different strategies that should be used to teach children how to read. Children should be taught how to read at text, sentence and word level. Yes, phonics are important, but there are other important points to note too. Page 6 of this document about the National Literacy Strategy [standards.dfes.gov.uk] show us the Searchlights Model, which should be used to teach children how to read. As you can see, phonics is only one part of four that assists reading. But no, teachers have to teach the way that Ruth Kelly tells us, because she is so knowledgeable about what goes on in the classroom.
It angers me.
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