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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Can Spelling Reform Improve Reading Performance?

Since the mid-1870s there has been a movement in Britain and the United States to reform English spelling to make it conform more closely to the sound of the words. Although the move was embraced by Teddy Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, and the Chicago Tribune, few changes were made in the last century.  The movement survives today as the Simplified Spelling Society and the English Spelling Society,  founded in 1908, promoting thought and discussion about the troublesome disconnect between sound and spelling.

The English language is based on the Roman alphabet of 26 letters but has 41 separate phonetic sounds based on the letters, not to mention a plethora of silent letters (debt, ghost, receipt, though, know, gnat, to name a few) requiring young students to memorize the spelling.  According to the authors of An Introduction to Language,“The irregularities between graphemes (letters) and phonemes have been cited as one reason ‘why Johnny can’t read.’  Different spellings for the same sound, the same spellings for different sounds, ‘silent letters,’ and ‘missing letters’ – all provide fuel for the flames of spelling-reform movements (Fromkin/Rodman, 1974, pg. 297).

Troublesome words?  Here are some I found mentioned a few times on the web.  Bomb, comb, and tomb do not rhyme, while weigh, they, and say do.  The question raised by the site: why is this the case? I looked up the etymology of each thinking that might give us some answers.

Bomb: derived from French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek
Comb: Old English
Tomb: Anglo-French, Old French, Late Latin, and Greek
Weigh: Old English
They: Middle English and Old Norse
Say: Old English

As long as the dictionaries are published with standard spelling, there will be little traction in making sweeping changes to the system.  What do we do instead? Exposure to the written word and, in turn, expressing thoughts in writing are two powerful tools that helped us all learn to speak, write, and spell correctly.  This knowledge escalates as a child becomes older:  the more the child reads, the better the child writes, the better the child reads.  In fact, I believe that the subtleties of our language are accepted -- and even taken for granted -- with increased exposure to the words that appear troublesome at face value. Over time we get it, we get the context, we know the meanings, and so do the children who are given the opportunity and the resources.







 

 








 

Friday, December 24, 2010

"Free" School is Democracy in Practice

This morning I caught the last few minutes of an interview on MSNBC about a school that doesn't assess students, doesn't give grades and, in fact, has little structure. It certainly caught my interest, so I almost immediately started a web search to find out more about this Sudbury School Model. I discovered that in a Sudbury School, of which there are now over 40 in the world, it is up to the individual students to decide how to spend their time and what they want to learn. 

The founding principles behind this model were formulated in Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1968, and an article discussing the pros and cons of this model was published earlier this year by the Seattle Times.  More specifically, the article highlights activities at the Clearwater School in Bothell, Wash., where the one weekly structured activity is a weekly meeting to vote behavioral matters and to give younger students the floor to request privileges.  Who votes?  All faculty and students -- regardless of age -- get one vote on all matters.

While a lack of formal structure does not fit the needs of every student, the authoritative model of our public schools where students have little to no say in their own education is equally inappropriate for meeting the needs of every student.  Over-assessment versus no assessment?  Giving students a degree of control over their own studies and schedules -- as long as they embrace the opportunity -- puts learning in the right perspective:  the desire to learn and excel must come from within each of us.  Schools cannot drill it into us through tests, grades, and regulations. 

Regardless of the administrative constraints, I believe that each teacher is responsible for igniting that special individual spark in a student that leads to successful learning for learning's sake. Comments?

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Adolescent Literacy: A Hot Topic in 2010

According to  an article published by Jack Cassidy and Drew Cassidy on the International Reading Association's website, adolescent literacy was one of at least five very hot topics for literacy professionals this year. Several organizations -- from the National Governor's Association to The Carnegie Corporation -- have been working to identify and improve the state of middle school and high school literacy levels , which have been found woefully lacking for some time according to the US Dept. of Education's recent reading and writing assessments.

Reading to Achieve: A Governor's Guide to Adolescent Literacy  (National Governors Association, 2005):  defines the term as "...the set of skills and abilities that students need...to read, write, and think about the text materials they encounter. Becoming literate is a developmental and lifelong process, which in the 21st century includes becoming literate with electronic and multimedia texts as well as conventional written material....America's adolescents need to be literate not only to succeed in school, but also to succeed in life." No one could disagree with this definition.  The challenge is going from simply naming the problem to a potential solution.

So how do we get tweens and teens to become more literate? A study by the Carnegie Corporation written by Steve Graham and Michael Hebert of Vanderbilt University called Writing to Read shows that increasing the time spent writing improves reading comprehension. Getting teens to write about what they've read further improves comprehension across all academic disciplines.  Simply taking notes, writing summaries, answering questions, or creating questions about a text helps them to integrate information and develop their knowledge about a subject.

How critical is the need for a solution to this growing dilemma? According to By Rafael Heller, Ph.D., in his article The Scope of the Adolescent Literacy Crisis, "Simply put, if the middle and high schools continue to churn out large numbers of students who lack the ability to read critically, write clearly, and communicate effectively, then the labor market will soon be flooded with young people who have little to offer employers and who cannot handle the jobs that are available."

Improved literacy one student at a time can help strengthen our economy. How about a new program dedicated to intensive literacy workshops where they are most needed in every city? Now that's a stimulus I can believe in...and one with a great potential for lasting results.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Vocabulary Expands, Need for Clarity Remains the Same

The English language has undergone immense change from when it was first introduced to the British Isles in the 5th Century by three Germanic tribes -- Angles, Saxons, and Jutes -- through its transformation into Middle English at the time of the Norman invasion of 1066, to the present day (Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson). Our language is still in flux as vocabulary continues to expand.  The folks at Merriam-Webster have added at least one hundred words to their dictionary each year since 2006.  An example of this expansion can be found at TBO.com, where the 2008 additions are discussed. What remains the same in the midst of these changes is the skill necessary to be clear and communicate intended meaning when writing.

Although I have been writing throughout my adult life, I have still managed to accumulate a number of text books and handbooks explaining the common errors made in English and how they should be corrected. From The Technique of Composition (Taft, et al.) published in 1960 to A Writer's Reference (Diana Hacker) which appeared in 2003, the topics remain the same: writing mechanics, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, research techniques, and spelling. I believe tools for clear writing should be available to everyone, and not just English students and writers. These skills need to be made relevant to everyday life and not just a list of rules in some obscure textbook. 

My first job out of college was as a corporate newsletter editor and "information specialist." My boss's favorite saying? "Abjure obfuscation." Brevity combined with clarity became my ever-present goal, and he taught me more about writing than any English teacher. What about today's students? Are they receiving instruction that helps them write clearly? I suspect that some of the rules get drilled into the cerebral cortex but with little relevance. Students deserve to know why they must learn these skills.

The National Commission on Writing for America's Schools, Families, and Colleges, identified writing as "The Neglected 'R'" in a study published in 2003.  Have we given this crucial subject any more attention since then?  If writing assessment scores are an accurate measurement, then it does not seem we have made much progress.  Where do we go from here?  How do we make real improvements?

Monday, December 6, 2010

Reading wars continue into 21st century

The war between phonics and whole word reading methods that began in the 1950s is continuing full force into this new century.  My recent web research shows that the debate is far from settled and, in fact has become politicized with the phonics crowd characterized as “right wing” and thewhole word, holistic side as “left wing”  http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-phonics.html.  The stone throwing and categorizing by the two sides does little to solve the problem at hand:  teaching kids how to read. 

Today children learn reading in the public schools primarily through the whole word approach, with the occasional phonics drill thrown in when the administrators aren't looking.  Where does that leave reading performance?  According to the latest assessment statistics from the US Department of Education, on average students in 12th grade posted a slight gain in reading skills in 2009 over 2005 – by three points.  However, a shockingly large percentage of students are performing below the proficient level in all three grade levels assessed.

Level

4th
Grade %

8th
Grade %

12th
Grade %*

Advanced

7

2

5

Proficient

24

28

33

Basic

34

43

36

Below Basic

34

26

26

None of the above

1

1

0

Total

100

100

100

* Note that only 11 states participated in a pilot program in 2009 leading to these "trend" scores.  It is significant that although the number of students participating in the pilot program was much fewer than the other grades, the results remain consistent.

Go to http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achievall.asp to find out what reading tasks were measured and the skills required for the reading assessment levels.

How do we make strides in seriously improving skills?  Early intervention when kids are learning to read makes sense to me.



Thursday, December 2, 2010

Illiteracy Definitions Vary, May Understate Problem in U.S.

Today, when I was posting my first tweet, I found a new website called Room to Read (http://www.roomtoread.org).  This non-profit organization builds libraries and promotes literacy in countries around the world. I was impressed with the group's accomplishments and noble and beneficent efforts, but what are the U.S. illiteracy rates? What about adults?

I discovered that the meaning of literacy -- and conversely illiteracy -- is as varied as the organizations dealing with the issue.  The United Nations defines illiteracy as "the inability to read and write a simple message in any language."  When this standard is applied, the illiteracy rate in the US is only 1%, according to an article on the infoplease.com website.  Too good to be true? I think the definition is deceivingly simplistic and misleading.

Statistics from a 2003 study published by The U.S. Dept.of  Education, and included in a January 2009 article on livescience.com by Robert Roy Britt, show that 14% of adults lack "basic prose literacy skill" that renders them unable to "read a newspaper or the instruction on a bottle of pills."


According to literacy.org, the site for the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, there 40 million illiterate and low-literate adults in this country.  That translates to 13% of the population, given a figure of 312 million. However, I found no definition on their site or other details that back up the

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) provides this definition:  "Literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."  Their 2003 assessment showed that 30 million -- or 14% -- of the adult population had only the very basic level of literary skills.

After researching, I finally find two sources that agree.  The remaining question, though, is what do we do to improve the 14% adult illiteracy rate in our country?