Linguists or Readers? Phonics Instruction Problems

 

This is a GREAT assignment. Don't get the wrong picture. What we have to consider is the POINT of using the activity. And we have to consider the little people, the audience. 

/ed/ does say three sounds. And there is a reason. There are rules. All kinds of them. And all kinds of oddballs that don't follow rules. (Should I dress as an oddball for Halloween? Oh - I'd look like myself. Nevermind.) 

Teaching and Leaving Breadcrumbs:

Gretchen Bernabei knows the importance of leaving breadcrumbs. So did Hansel and Gretel. But like Hansel and Gretel - we have to use something more permanent than bread. The cues have to remain so learners can use the ideas when we aren't there anymore. 

Here's a story to explain. I had a hard time with Algebra. Dutifully, I took notes. Wrote down all the teacher had chalked onto the dark green board at the front of the room. I could do a problem or two of the even numbers while I was in class. But when I got home, my notes were no help. I could no longer remember, hear, or see what had happened between the lines in the notes. And I didn't really understand what was happening on the lines in the notes. 

The instruction on the process was gone. And I was lost. There were no breadcrumbs for me to follow. And I couldn't look up the answers because only the odd ones had the answers in the back of the book. And I still wouldn't know how to get there. 

Many times, we are teaching the WHAT. But we leave out the why and the how. 

Teaching the Why and How: Point One about Phonics Rules

A group of English I one experts helped draft an example of how they will help students with inferences, text evidence, and writing. 

The heart is our brainstorming for WHY we are teaching the lesson and WHY students should care. 

The details/means/matters chart is the WHAT, the answers for ELAR. 

The arrows below are the brainstorming for future questions and bullet items that will go on the anchor charts and modeling books. 

The reason that we knew to do this is that all of us were working with targeted students - observing them during the activity. We asked four questions: 

• What are you doing? 
• Why? 
• Where are you stuck or struggling? 
• How are you fixing that? 

H, the kid I was working with was having no trouble in reading the text or understanding it. But he was struggling about how to tell where his ideas went - "Does this go in the means or matters box?" 

In the video at the end, I'll ineloquently. and in terrible handwriting, model the same kind of thing for the phonics lesson on /ed/ sounds. I'll post the video later...still rendering. 

Back to /ed/ Phonics Example

So, when teaching phonics lessons, the student I was working with struggled with how we discern the patterns in the words. They could divide the words into the right columns by sound - but they didn't know WHY the words HAD those sounds. 

So let's stop and think here for a moment...The student was successful with the phonics activity sort because they already knew how to say the words. Isn't the point of phonics to be able to decode the words? Erm...yes. 

The point of this activity is to help with critical thinking and analysis - to infer the pattern or rules that govern the sounds. It's not really phonics anymore. 

And...I was wrong about my hypothesis in the video. In looking at the sounds and letter patterns, I tried consonant and vowel patterns, short vs long patterns, and consonant pair patterns. Turns out that the rule is even more/less nuanced. The /ed/ says /t/ when the word is a verb that ends in consonant that has an unvoiced sound. See here for a more detailed explanation. 

Playing Out the Rule in Context: Point Two

So let's imagine a kid is reading some words they don't know. Let's say it is even a list and not really reading a real book. 

twisted

wished

asked

banged

pressed

Here's what they'd have to think: 

1. Take off the ed. 

2. Is the word a verb? Yes

3. Is the last sound of the verb an unvoiced sound? Yes - Say /t/ for the /ed/ sound

4. Is the last sound of the verb voiced? Yes - Say /d/ for the /ed/ sound

5. Is the last sound of the verb a d or a t? Yes - Say /ed/ or /id/ for the /ed/ sound. (Depending on your dialect, you say /id/ or /ed/. As if that's not already confusing enough.)

And really. Is that sequence of thinking and questioning what we want kids to do when they are reading words or anything else? Did you even know or realize the three sounds and the rules that govern them? Did your teacher ever tell you that? Did you remember the rules if you did learn it at some point? 

No. If you did - you are a linguist. A scientist for language. 

2nd Graders aren't Linguists

And shouldn't be. And we, teachers and literacy leaders, shouldn't be using or promoting linguistic pedagogy in the name of "Science of Reading." 

Is there value in understanding patterns? Yes. But it's not singularly about reading words and comprehending.

Is there value in understanding and knowing rules. Yes. On the playground for most of them. 

But when we are reading words like "wish," we are reading them in sentences and stories to make and use ideas. If the word is "wished," a kid is going to know that the text is probably a fairy tale from the context and genre characteristics. If they say /wishid/, then they are having a vocabulary problem not a phonics problem. And who cares if they say /wisht/ or /wishd/? The way the sounds come out in the mouth, the right thing will probably happen because of physiology or dialect. NOT because the kid knows the word ends in an unvoiced pattern. 

Y'all. We need to really examine the purpose of our lessons: HOW we teach them and the impact of our actions. 

Making /ed/ words about rules is about word calling. That's not READING. And it damages how kids think about what it means to read.

We should NOT be teaching linguistic science to little kids. We should be teaching them how to make meaning from and with the symbols as they appear in context and use. 

Did I EARN it? What's next for service to literacy? The Vessel, Unity Learning Communities, and 12 Kids

It seems like a lot happens around the dinner table, coffee tables, and gatherings of folks.

The summer after third grade, I sat at the formica and chrome table to watch my mom teach my brother David how to read. The harvest gold refrigerator hummed nearby. The same one under which I used to hide my HILCOA vitamins.

By fifth grade, I was assigned a first grader to help learn to read. At the antique dining room table we bought from an estate sale from down the street, Mom helped me create manipulatives, handwriting paper, and flash cards from a book called Recipe for Reading. I still have the book...tattered and faded. 

During college, I heard a sermon on Romans 1 after the Lord's Supper Table. Reprobate minds and stuff. I remember thinking about what this meant for reading and reasoning. As I pondered, all the ideas were the same ones we saw in Figure 19 many years later and all the things in the Comprehension Strand beginning in 2019. Comprehension became a lifetime obsession. 

Doneice Ray allowed me to teach a first grade class as a long term sub when I graduated in '91. Wow. What an experience. Did I really know how to teach a person how to read? Did I even know about the Guided Reading table? Nope. The next semester, I was honored to teach for her in fifth grade. I stayed long enough to have those former first graders in my fifth grade class. By that time, I was figuring out a few things. 

Thirty three years later sitting at the granite bartop next to stainless steel appliances that don't last 10 years, I'm still figuring things out and the search continues for supporting comprehension in all readers and thinkers. 

Since retirement...I've been struggling. There's this scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan that summarizes my thoughts. Have I been and done what I've been gifted and charged to be? Have I earned it? 

And then this summer... Tremaine Brown, Jacob Breeden, and I put our heads together on a project over a piece of brown butcher paper in the dining room at Shi Lee's Soul Food. You see, Tremaine tries to make The Heights a better place for his daughter and all those around him. He's fed people so their tables and tummies are full. He's made sure they have clothes. He makes sure they have school supplies. He makes sure they have fun at holidays. But how could he help them with literacy? And we all know that success in school is complicated. Lots of reasons kids and teachers struggle. With the Vessel and Unity Learning Communities, we want to tackle all the barriers to literacy. 

In January, we'll begin with 12 kids. 5th and 6th graders that struggle with reading and writing. A counselor will lead a group of four teachers - three kids per adult. And a "grandma" figure will be the mentor for all of them. The community at the Warford will partner with us. 

As students of AISD, they've had all the literacy interventions. Powerful initial instruction and remediation. But yet, there are those that still struggle and aren't qualified for services like special education or emerging bilingual support. And there are those that have struggles related to society and living life in this century. We'll dig into those issues together, solving and supporting the struggles together. 

Honestly, it's a giant experiment. The Amarillo Area Foundation has funded a portion of what we need to begin...and we are honored by their investment in our children's future. This month and the next, we are meeting with teachers and counselors to collaborate on a set of challenges, processes, and key vocabulary and theoretical underpinnings for our approach. In January, we'll begin meeting with kids...thought partners and co-creators with them to cause their own success and growth. 

Along the way, we'll all be writing and documenting the process and outcomes...telling the story of what happens around these new tables.  Won't you join us? Learn more, connect, and join us here:  https://www.beblessedbythevessel.org/home 

(AI) Machine Scoring isn't the Problem: We are ALL Writing for Bots

I've been meaning to write about this for a while. But by now, many people have seen the scores and papers on STAAR exams. Very few essays have needed rescoring. Everything is going to be ok for both content scoring and mechanics. The scoring machine isn't the problem. Instructional relevance is. 

Yes - there are many things we still don't know about the language models used and how machine scoring actually works. That IS a problem but one of transparency from the agency, not for instructional implications.  

So let's think about how we can USE scoring realities to help make the process meaningful to those we serve. Here are five points that explain why we directly teach why machine scoring is relevant to daily life:  

1. All social media works with algorithms. You want to be seen and heard? You use terms and structures that the algorithm values. The scoring machine is looking for key terms from the text and prompt. 

2. Things like Netflix and Youtube give you content based on your behaviors. What you do changes what you are presented. You want to understand how to do the same for readers - even machines? Learn how to respond to reader needs with your text. 

3. Search engines work on what is promoted and searched and clicked frequently. Want a high score? Write what the rubric promotes and seeks. Want a high score? Use what's in the source text that fits the prompt. Scoring works like a giant Family Feud. Other students have already responded to this prompt with the source text and answer. The scoring machine "surveyed" a BUNCH of student essays and knows what most writers said and how the people scored their responses. Comprehend the text and the prompt. Use the text stuff in the written response, summarize how it fits into the text, and say in original thoughts about the connection to the ideas in the prompt. 

4. Search engines use key words to scan content and then matches those terms relevant to user's search terms. Want to be "seen" by the engine? Use terms that match what people want to see. For example, I've been writing for Sirius Education Solutions about thinking and reasoning in a project called Page to Pixel. There's a guy who reads over my stuff, restructures WHERE certain terms appear in the text, adds terms throughout, and chooses special search terms to embed in the code. I have no idea how the code works, but I can see that the key stuff goes in the intro, key connections to the topic are spread in each portion of the headings and body text, and the key stuff also goes into the conclusion. Sound familiar? We trace meaning and coherence through word choice and how we connect our topics through organizational structure. So, want a high score? Use key terms from the prompt and text in the intro and conclusion. Thread those ideas through each body paragraph with text that shares the same ideas/synonyms/textual context. The guy who edits my work for this puts these terms in bold so I can see how they thread through the text. I can see the connection and repetition of concepts through the entire text. 

5. Companies use machine scoring to preview resumes, cover letters, and communications. Priorities are given to text that includes what the company is looking for in the match of personnel to the job description and company goals. Understanding machine scoring is intensely personal and relevant to all those who are seeking employment. 

Machine scoring isn't new. Digital evaluation going on in the background of almost everything we do and see. And teaching without including explicit lessons on the relevance of these scoring machines isn't in the TEKS, but we'd be remiss if we didn't address the reality directly.