FREE ESSAY ON PHONICS IN THE CLASSROOM

PHONICS IN THE CLASSROOM

Illiteracy is a crucial issue facing this nation. There are too many individuals who
cannot read or write. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, some 40 to 44
million of the 191 million adults in the United States demonstrate the lowest basic
literacy skills and approximately 50 million adults have skills on the next higher level
of proficiency. What is worse is that the next generation of illiterate adults is
currently in classrooms across the nation. According to the latest reading results of the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) there are a large number of children
who are falling through the cracks. Many do not even have a basic understanding of what
they read. In many cases, it was because their teacher was never taught to teach reading
correctly. In other instances, children are having difficulties because their parents are
illiterate and are unable to help them with their schoolwork (Goodling).
It has been shown that when students are systematically taught to read fluently by the
end of the first grade, they have the greatest chance of being successful students later
in life. There are many administrators and teachers who have not yet learned the proper
method of teaching reading. Many teachers were trained in whole language which taught
children to guess at words by looking at pictures and cues instead of sounding out words
as in phonics instruction. They believe that whole language would enable children to be
life long lovers of learning and literature. Instead, many of their students slipped
through the cracks not reaching their full potential. They sit in elementary, middle, and
high schools across the nation today. "They don't love learning or reading because one
can't love learning or reading if one can't read" (Barret).
To teach students how to read doesn't take hundreds of thousands of dollars. It takes
hard work, perseverance, patience, courage, and a use of a curriculum that follows the
current research on how children learn to read. In order to read, the student must learn
phonics, which is the sound to symbol association and the skill of blending these sounds
together to make a word (Jabs 113). In addition, they need to understand "phenomic
awareness", which is the ability to hear sounds within a spoken word and to understand
that the sounds correspond to letters. This is a vital foundation to phonics. When
children lack this understanding, they must be taught to "orally segment as well as
orally blend sounds". Students must also be taught to orally distinguish initial, medial,
and final sounds in words. Rhyming is another skill that must be mastered. All phonemic
awareness is done through activities with the printed symbols (Boswell 11). 
In contrast, whole language does not teach phonics systematically nor directly. Words are
attempted as a whole. The beginning step of teaching letter sounds and blending them into
syllables is not taught. When a student comes to a word they don't know, they are often
given cues such as the beginning or ending sounds. They are often encouraged to guess the
middle part of the word based on the situation (Barret). 
In Yancey County, North Carolina, Michele Christon, a communication therapist, initiated
a phonics based instruction program in county elementary schools. To enhance phonological
awareness, Christon worked with kindergarten and special education teachers to develop a
sequence of lesson plans based on a "multi-sensory" approach to teaching letter and sound
association. Children were taught not only letter names and sound production, but also
part of the oral mechanism used to produce each sound and to listen for sound changes.
Teachers guided children through increasingly difficult exercises as they progresses to
sound combinations, listening for sound changes amd determining in which positions they
occurred. As kindergartens put sounds together into words, they began to read, write, and
spell at an accelerated pace (Boswell 11). 
Unfortunately, if students are unable to read, they often feel like failures. David
Barret, a high school special education teacher in California for over twenty years, was
amazed at the number of students he has had that could not even read at a first grade
reading level when they entered his class as ninth graders. He believes that if these
students were taught using phonics instruction in first and second grade, approximately
one third would not be in special education classes. For years, he taught his students
phonics in his classroom when it was not popular, thus teaching his students to read.
These students were then able to read the newspaper. Many of these students eventually
passed the high school proficiency test. Most children, without any serious psychological
problems can learn to read. These students may need more practice or review than others,
but they can learn to read in the first grade (Barret). 
It is obvious that through the teaching method of phonics we can solve the educational
crisis we face in this country. But one must understand that many administrators and
teachers do not want to change and others let their egos stand in the way. One would
assume that colleges and universities would be leading the way to effectively train new
teachers, but this is slow in happening. In 1997, Pam Barret, a first grade teacher at
Tovashol Elementary School in California, was amazed when she saw the syllabus from a
language arts class that a student teacher was taking from a California university. The
syllabus revealed nothing to the systematic instruction of phonics. Phonics was mentioned
near the bottom of the syllabus. He was still trying to push whole language on these
impressionable young teachers (Barret). This unproven method must be changed. Our
nation's future is at stake.
Bibliography
Barret, Pam. "The Importance of Literacy." FDCH Congressional Testimony. 
Committee on Education and the Workforce. 26 Sept. 2000.
Boswell, Susan. "Phonological Awareness Builds Reading Success." ASHA Leader. 
19 Sept. 2000: 11.
Jabs, Carolyn. "How Do Kids Learn to Read? Practice! Practice! Practice!". Family PC.
Jun. 2000: 107-114.
Goodling, Bill. Opening Remarks. FDCH Congressional Testimony. 
Committee on Education and the Workforce. 26 Sept. 2000.