The Child Literacy Centre™
How Teachers Teach Reading
(UK only)
(UK only)
Put simply, there have been three main separate theories about how to teach children to read. Now, fortunately, a good combination of all three is used in most schools. In the past, some teachers have relied too heavily on ONE, depending on what they learned at training college. Sadly, this meant that some children had unnecessary difficulties learning to read.
Look and Say (also called the 'whole word' approach)
Using this method, children learn whole words without breaking down each sound. It is a good way to start - in fact, it is the natural way that children do start, because the first word a child reads is almost always his own name. He doesn't break it into letter sounds, but develops a picture of the shape of the word.
One problem with relying on this method too much is that it is not efficient: when a child comes across a new word, he has no strategies for working out what it says, so every word must be learnt from scratch. Also, some children have less good visual memories than others and will find the method hard.
Phonics
Using this method, children learn the different sounds made by different letters and letter blends, and rules about how they go together. Words are tackled in groups with similar patterns (such as cat, mat, rat, bat, etc). A good phonic knowledge equips children to become good spellers and gives them word-tackling strategies.
The problem with relying too heavily on phonics is that there are so many words in English which do not fit patterns. Try to sound out the letters of 'said' or 'many' and you will see the difficulty. Also, in the past some teachers have not properly understood phonics so it has acquired a bad name. Fortunately, phonics is back at the centre of good teaching practice. This is especially lucky for children with difficulties such as dyslexia, as these children cannot learn to read without good phonics teaching.
'Real Reading' or the 'whole language approach'
Using this method reading is not taught in a formal structured way. Children are simply given books to read, which they do by memory, guesswork and their knowledge of how language works. This is not quite as daft as it might seem - we do use elements of this as fluent readers, which explains why we can read sense much faster than nonsense. Try cutting a long sentence up and putting the words in a strange order. You will find it harder to read fluently and fast. This method did have the advantage of making children confident.
There are several problems with relying too much on this approach: first, it fails many children who do not manage to move from this 'Real Reading' to real real reading; this includes all dyslexic children and those with any form of learning difficulty, slowness or lack of opportunity to practise at home. Second, while it may be wonderful for a child to think he can read, it is not so wonderful later when he discovers that actually he can't unless someone has first told him what it says. Third, it removes responsibility from teachers properly to identify children who need help. In short, while it does work for some, it fails a significant proportion of children. To illustrate this, there is the well known story of the Real Reading teacher who boasts to a colleague: 'It's marvellous - John can now read with his eyes shut.'
Ideas for helping at home
It's essential that all three methods are used, properly put together. You can help at home. For each of the three methods, we have given two ideas for developing appropriate skills in a fun and relaxed way with your pre-school child:
Look and Say - (lower case letters except first letter of a proper name)
- make a few single-word signs and stick them to household objects, such as 'television','chair','fridge'
- type several words; can your child say which are the same?
Phonics - (lower case letters)
- say letter sounds and ask your toddler to repeat them. Eg. m m m m
- work towards playing I Spy, focusing on very simple regular words and using the SOUND not the letter. (Avoid words like 'sugar' and 'cereal' which are confusing). At first, you will need to exaggerate the starting sound.
Whole language
- read a familiar book, encouraging your child to finish a phrase (Eg. Once upon a ......)
- encourage your child to learn nursery rhymes by heart