Responding to a message by Erica, to Charles on ...
EL>I get the feeling that some techers still believe that children learn to
EL>read in Year 1 and should be accomplished by the end of that year.
Not at all, and I don't know of anyone who feels that way.  I *do* 
believe that children should have high standards set for them and 
that age appropriate activities should be given to them.  Asking 
children to scribble on a piece of paper and then calling that 
process "writing" is delusional.  Teach them to do tasks they can do 
correctly, such as forming letters, spelling simple words (he, the, 
at) and then forming sentences.
Children are not stupid - they know when they are being misled.  One 
of my friends has a little boy who came home one day last year with 
a "story" he had written in first grade.  His mother asked him to 
read it, which he did - trying to remember what the gibberish on the 
page was supposed to mean.  When he was done he was clearly upset, 
so his mother asked him what was wrong.  He explained that he 
couldn't read what was on the page - it made no sense and didn't 
look at all like words written in a book.
His mother made sure her son was out of a whole language classroom 
this year and had him placed with a teacher that uses more 
traditional methods to teach reading and writing.
EL>If we allow for the diversity of the human population; if we allow for
EL>academic giftedness then we must also allow for the fact that 
EL>some young children will take longer to go through developmental 
EL>stages than others. We must allow for environmental factors. How 
EL>many children have not handled a story book before they come to 
EL>school? Where I teach, several each year.
I've read quite a bit of the psychology, so I understand the 
routine.  BUT, what is it we are going to do about these 
differences?  One option, that promoted by many of those in the 
"kids need high self-esteem" camp, involves lowering standards so 
kids can develop at a more relaxed, unchallenged pace and we wind up 
graduating kids who can't read.  An alternative option now being 
promoted by those who are part of the "standards" movement is to set 
standards of excellence and push the kids to reach those levels by 
giving them the exposure they need and early intervention through 
programs like Head Start and Reading Recovery.
Since we have kids in school to educate them, not just to provide 
holding space for them, the correct choice seems obvious.
EL>Many Queensland teachers are in NZ now training to become
EL>reading recovery teachers. A recent report and reintroduced 
EL>standardised testing.
REsearch here in the U.S. has shown this to be an effective tool in 
raising reading scores (I posted an article about this a year or so 
ago.)  We have two certified RR teachers in our district now.
EL>found that there had been no drop on the standard of literacy. Our rate 
EL>has always been high. The govt now knows where to spend the dollars -
EL>where the teachers have been telling them for years.
You are lucky.  Reading scores in the U.S. and Britain have been 
dropping for years.  If the parochial schools in the U.S have any 
advantage over public schools, it is that they almost never abandon 
high standards for fads and educational gimmicks.
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* UniQWK #5290* Lawyer \LAW-yer\ v. 1. Uses the law to get yers.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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