Any MA elementary teachers in here? Or parents of elementary aged kids learning to read?

Submitted by GreatStrengthOfFeet t3_zfkcsr in massachusetts

I’m listening to the Sold a Story podcast about the failures of the “cueing” and “reading recovery” methods to teach kids to read (as opposed to focusing on phonics and sounding out words). I’m curious what methods MA public schools are typically using to teach kids to read? Anybody know?

Anecdotally, I asked my local teacher friend (central MA) and she said our schools focus on phonics. I grew up in eastern MA, and all I remember is having to do Hooked On Phonics and sounding out words (that was early/mid 90s). No idea if those are typical, though.

Edit: oooh, the last episode features a clip of a frustrated parent in Medford at a school board meeting, and a lady who quit her teaching job in Winchester bc they were using cueing/reading recovery…. interesting

Edit2: I freely admit I don’t know much about this topic. This podcast is apparently getting a lot of attention and made me wonder what the situation is in MA schools with regard to teaching kids to read.

Edit3: Here’s an article by the podcast host if you want to read about it

21

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

mishakhill t1_izcag10 wrote

My kids are in Boston public. They’re using “Structured Literacy”, which I’d describe as a modern version of phonics — understanding how letter combinations work, rules I’ve never heard of but recognize when seeing them pointed out, that sort of stuff. It has worked very well for us.

22

SharpCookie232 t1_izck4ue wrote

Many Massachusetts schools use the Wilson Reading System to teach phonics (preK to Grade 2 and then in later grades if needed remedially). Wilson is headquarted in Oxford, MA. Our district also uses Heggerty for phonemic awareness.

17

RedditSkippy t1_izck02u wrote

I’m not making fun of you, OP, but this post reminds me of my grandmother.

I had a cousin who, apparently, wasn’t learning how to read. “It’s because the kids aren’t learning phonics anymore!” She kept saying. Maybe so, but the kid also had a learning disability.

14

pillbinge t1_izd3kwt wrote

You're talking about 3-cueing, and we're moving away from it. The whole idea was that you could teach reading by just doing it, and people would pick up tricks as they went. It's a horrible idea through and through.

I heard about Sold a Story but haven't listened yet. Would be interesting.

What I can tell you as an educator is that math skills are fairly okay, like they've always been, but reading has taken a huge dive. There are some kids who'll read above grade level but I'm seeing more kids with fluency and no comprehension. They don't know what they're reading despite reading it so well, you'd think they'd seen it before. I'm encountering that more and more, and it's supposed to be rarer than this.

You can also take a glimpse (well, I can) at IEPs for a whole class and notice that ELA/Written Expression/Whatever have insane goals and objectives. A lot of it comes down to kids simply not reading when at home. They hate reading. I think they'd rather get bamboo torture than read, sometimes, and it's very odd.

13

GezinhaDM t1_izchynl wrote

Middlesex county- we focus on phonics, especially because we have a huuuuge percentage of kids coming from other countries. However, for my own child (mind you that I'm from another country as well) I'll be focusing more on reading and rereading books. I think phonics is a bit overrated when it comes to native speakers.

6

pillbinge t1_izd39yj wrote

It isn't. English in particular requires a heavy focus on phonics and for a bit longer, given that English has 44 sounds and letter combinations that either completely change or don't match ("c" as an /s/ sound) or come together like any other digraph.

8

stillflat9 t1_izcuiqt wrote

My district uses Wilson, OG, Heggerty, Fundations, and Letterland. Teaching phonics or SoR methods seem pretty commonplace where I am. The “balanced literacy” was bigger in the earlier 2000/2010’s. Lucy Calkins was a god. Alas, the pendulum has swung to phonics based instruction paired with schema and background knowledge building ELA curriculum.

4

ay-o-river t1_izjh9fk wrote

What’s your district? I’m trying to find a place to teach in mass that doesn’t use readers workshop/f&p. Seems like it’s still v popular here

1

bigmikey128 t1_izct8bj wrote

Kid in first grade. They’re teaching basically phonics. And it’s working well so far.

3

1000thusername t1_izebwat wrote

I actually quit being an elementary Ed major in college (quite some time ago, when all this junk was the newest shiny object) because I couldn’t reconcile it and couldn’t in good conscience teach kids that way. Since education tends to follow trends as though they’re gospel, not agreeing to work that way was not a choice, so I noped out.

Glad to see things are getting righted (saw some articles earlier this year/ last year-ish to this effect), but damn about 30 years of kids bore the brunt.

3

OandKrailroad t1_ize5o2f wrote

I’ve been doing observation hours in a local elementary school. They are very big on phonics. They use a program called ECRI and it’s part of the day, every day. They also do a thing called intervention which is designed to allow students to practice phonics and reading skills.

1

BethNotElizabeth t1_izefdev wrote

Oh oh. I recently saw this post in r/ScienceBasedParenting about this !!

a small tldr for ya - we like using phonics lol

1

ay-o-river t1_izjhk5s wrote

My school in newton used a combo of readers workshop and fountas and pinnell AND wilson…it turned out teachers didn’t like teaching phonics so they stuck with the familiar and wilson was mostly reserved for tier 2?? So the curriculum was there but I guess the training wasn’t bc teachers didn’t really seem to know how to use it. I saw a lot of predictable texts in first grade and a lot of sight words in kindergarten

1

SkipAd54321 t1_izcvzei wrote

We teach “balanced literacy” or “structured literacy” or “modern literacy theory”. All kind of the same thing to be honest. Works very well for most kids but a small minority do better with other methods. Phonics is good but it also has problems especially learning to read English. Teaching phonics in Spanish immersion works well because the language has more fixed rules.

0

jelamei t1_ize7tb0 wrote

Look at these millenial heli Karens just like their stupid boomer parents lmfao better talk to the manager about how their kid reads 🙄 get a life fuckin idiots

−5

[deleted] t1_izcpekt wrote

[removed]

−25

oceansofmyancestors t1_izcvj1y wrote

The only person who’s acting hysterical here is you. OP is asking a question. That’s it.

5

Peteostro t1_izelmq7 wrote

They don’t seem to be asking a question they seem to be spreading FUD. Especially the edit they made about a school teacher quitting their job over it.

−1

Yeti_Poet t1_ize9nl3 wrote

When you wake up do you say "I'm going to be stupid AND mean today" or does it just come without intentional effort?

2

Peteostro t1_izekap3 wrote

Maybe you should ask the OP?

0

Yeti_Poet t1_izelwm0 wrote

What in their post was stupid or mean? Absolutely nothing.

Your post, however. It's exclusively stupid and mean.

2

Peteostro t1_izeml7e wrote

“Edit: ooh, the last episode features a clip of a frustrated parent in Medford at a school board meeting, and a lady who quit her teaching job in Winchester bc they were using cueing/reading”

Bull crap FUD!

−2

Yeti_Poet t1_izeq4pi wrote

Wow you are also incredibly fragile. That isn't fud lol. This is a very real issue at the moment in literacy education. You are mistaking your ignorance of it for it being unimportant.

2

Peteostro t1_izeq816 wrote

Please. FUD is FUD. I’m just pointing it out

1

Yeti_Poet t1_izeqnbe wrote

No, you're being a dillweed.

2

Peteostro t1_izeqqzz wrote

No I’m point out FUD. But no use arguing with a troll bye!

1