-> teacher Patricia Franco Simonowski uses a traditional reading
-> approach with heavy homework and lots of repetition. Simonowski is
-> one of the apparently few teachers who has read Honig's reading
-> framework in detail. She keeps it in her classroom, where she
-> periodically pulls it out and pores over it in disgust.
-> "I don't think many teachers have actually benefitted from reading
-> this thing," says Simonowski, pointing to a page of the framework. "I
-> tried out these concepts, and I see this framework for what it is: a
-> jobs program for tutors, reading consultants and child psychiatrists.
-> Give me a child who has been taught simple discipline at home, and I
-> will use what we all know about teaching reading to give you a child
-> who can read and write fluently."
The private school my children attended a couple of years ago (my son
for grades K-3 and my daughter for Pre-K and K) used a very traditional
regimented, yet cohesive and well-tested, curriculum for teaching
reading. It was called the "Carden Method", and every child in their
school (they claimed) would learn to read. They did limit class sizes to
25, and teachers taught in reading groups of 8 students. Every child got
individual attention from the teacher each day for reading instruction
that was heavily phonics based.
To deal with a number of the "exceptions" to phonics that we have in the
English language, the school taught French, beginning in Pre-K,
believing that by the time children started encountering many of the
exception words in 2nd grade or beyond, they would be able to point to
the French words to explain a lot of the exceptions.
Sheila
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