The utter failure of public schools to teach phonics has led to terrible illiteracy rates. Too many modern reading programs have been a disaster. But there is a better way and Ginny and Mary Ellen explain why teaching phonics to your elementary students should be mandatory in your homeschools.
Our hosts explain why a rigorous Language Arts curriculum of phonics, spelling, reading, vocabulary, and English are key to helping students become more knowledgeable, clear-thinking, and equipped to meet the challenges ahead.
Teaching Language Arts
Working for Seton, we occasionally hear from new parents who have "box shock" when their books arrive. "The kid next door only has one book for ELA (English Language Arts)." A 3rd-grade Seton student has 5 ELA subjects, some courses with more than one book! Is this really necessary?
Let's dive in…
Phonics
My son taught English in China for eight years. Many of his middle–high school students were more literate in English than in their native language. Chinese is a language of tens of thousands of characters that children must memorize. We are blessed that English and other European languages are phonetic. Instead of tens of thousands of characters, our kids need to learn 26 letters with around 40+ sounds.
The utter failure of public schools to teach phonics has led to terrible illiteracy rates. See a word/say a word, whole language, and other reading programs have been a disaster. Phonics should not be an option in your homeschools.
Spelling
Phonics teaches kids to decode words – spelling teaches them to encode words. Spelling as a separate subject teaches kids to take the sounds they have learned and put words on paper. Although they reinforce each other, they are not the same thing.
Spelling also points to a reason to continue at least some phonics practice past 1st grade – even for good readers. There are six ways to make a long a sound: plain a as in agent, a silent e, ai, ay, ei like veil, and ea as in break. English spelling is not just something you randomly pick up.
Spelling can be fun:
·spelling games
·find-a-word
·bananagrams
·boggle
·hangman
·scrabble…
Reading
Phonics teaches a child HOW to read, but daily reading is an absolute must once the student can read Hop on Pop or Frog and Toad. Some parents will say that their students get plenty of practice reading history, religion, or science texts.
Literature gives them deeper insight and, God willing, inspiration. A child may learn about the settlement of the West in history but gets to experience it through the eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series. Science texts teach the five senses, but the play The Miracle Worker allows young people to see how our senses, or lack of them, impact our lives. Kids can learn about virtue and holiness in religion, but they get to see them in action by reading the biography of St. John Vianney.
There is no substitute for daily reading in a child's academic life.
Expose them to a wide variety of literature, fairy tales, fantasy, poetry, historical fiction, etc.…
Vocabulary
Why study vocabulary as a separate subject? Won't students pick it up in other subjects: science, history, and literature? There is no substitute for daily reading in a variety of subjects to develop a strong vocabulary. 100% scores on vocabulary tests will not be enough. Conversely, kids often focus on certain types of reading dinosaurs or knights in shining armor. A vocabulary book has them look at words from a variety of sources. Formal studies also introduce word roots, prefixes, and suffixes that students will encounter.
English
In many parts of the country, grammar – the rules of English – has been largely abandoned. We should not be surprised that rhetoric – the art of expressing oneself in writing or speech – seems to have deteriorated to using four-letter words. Language can be so much more.
Supplemental Reading Lists:
https://www.setonhome.org/elementary/grade-3/third-grade-reading-list/
