Should SYNTHETIC PHONICS BE CONTROVERSIAL?

Margaret Clarke et al, 2017 Reading the Evidence: Synthetic Phonics and literacy learning: an evidence-based critique, e-book, Australian Literacy Education Association, is a worthwhile read. In London, end of October 2017 and the ghouls and ghosts and witches are in the streets. In keeping with the theme, I have just completed reading Margaret Clark’s e-book about England’s experience with teaching synthetic phonics (first implemented 2005) and phonics screening check. Latter, see BLOG title Should a large amount of money be spent on an uninformative test as the Phonics Screening Check?) Synthetic Phonics is a teaching method put in place when children begin school; children are taught letter sounds before they learn to read. Children learn immediately, words that have phoneme-grapheme match c-a-t and they pronounce the words by synthesizing, blending phoneme sounds c...a...t. In Reading Recovery (a 1-1 intervention programme, Marie Clay, 1993) it is called 'hearing sounds in words', saying the word slowly rather than sounding out each letter c,a,t. The aim is for Synthetic Phonics to be first, fast and only way to teach a young child to successfully read, which could be described as akin to rote learning.  I am assuming it replaces the learning of individual phonemes (letters) one at a time. Children can quickly learn a range of words, just for example, using the phonemes ‘m’, ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’.  Ostensibly Synthetic Phonics is most suitable for children who are have had little literacy experience before beginning school or have a disability (e.g.  dyslexia). The argument for adopting teaching phoneme-grapheme matching only, is that it will alleviate confusion for these children. But for these children ‘fast’ seems erroneous as these populations would probably move at a more repetitive and slower pace. The ‘only’ requirement causes a niggle. It seems there is the presumption with Synthetic Phonics that children have not read before attending school. It seems to discount children listening to their parents reading stories, children taking a book in their hands and turning the pages ‘reading’ from memory, interpreting pictures looking at advertisements and repeating catchy phrases; in fact, these are examples of children reading. Children who have had rich literacy backgrounds when beginning school would need to move into analysis of word patterns, for example, sight words ‘was’, ‘the’, as they appear on the pages of written texts. Almost immediately, they learn to employ a variety of strategies when spelling and reading. All learning must meet the needs of individuals not the ‘one size fits all’ mentality. Consider, a child beginning school, s/he must have their name recognized– this helps them to feel as though they belong in their new environment. If the child’s name is Dan, he will fit into synthetic phonics ‘only’ learning, but if the child’s name is Sarah, what happens? The same with the word ‘I’ which is one of the first words they write and can you imagine sentences that do not include ‘was’, ‘to’, ‘the’, ’like’, 'blue'? A good reader adopts problem-solving strategies when confronted with unfamiliar words. For example, a reader will be aware of the meanings contained in the sentence and predict the word, being aware of the first letter, middle and ending to confirm his/her prediction. A strategy they will use is looking into words. This, especially, applies to sight words which the English language, being an analytic language, has an overabundance. There are much better ways to develop reading understandings than using phonic books that are contrived, Kit is in Don’s cot. Pod tops Sid (from Margaret Clarke et al). What does it mean? Big print (Big Books) teach children so much about what reading is about. They have repetitive, catchy, “I want to read” ideas and language. Interactive reading of Big Books stimulates children as they read creative stories that stir their imagination. For example, the Tricky Truck Track (Era Publications, Adelaide) includes repeated word sounds, poetic, rhythmic language constructions and humour … Mick drove a truck, a truck full of ducks, a truck full of ducks up the Tricky Truck Track. Big books are literary books used to teach varied aspects of reading at the letter level, words (sound, sight), word meanings, sentence meanings and text meanings. Furthermore, children’s learning from big books are reinforced during practise games, activities and tasks. If phoneme-grapheme constructions are the learning focus in the early weeks of children at school a teacher would highlight these words with transparent, coloured, removable tape and children would view and discuss models of word patterns presented to them during the reading of sensible, continuous print. Phonemic teaching and learning methods are suited to orthographic languages such as Italian, but a language like English, which is determined by logo-graphics requires more than a purely phonic approach (Simon, 2004, Strategic Spelling, Every writer's tool). Phonemes are based on sound which, many times, do not reflect conventional English words. So, the argument for phonics to promote reading and comprehension is not justified. Also, phonics learning, learning about words in general, is more associated with spelling.  I will bring to the fore, Interactive Writing for children beginning school. Interactive writing is a supportive method a teacher uses with new or unsure writers. During this teaching and learning situation ideas are nurtured and children are shown how language composes a story. With teacher support the class share, with each other, the same pen to construct text they would not be able to do alone. The children first think of an idea and each child has a turn jointly constructing sentences on a large white board situated close to eye level. Writers and readers learn about: The correct place to begin a sentence, the role of a capital letter, spaces between words and sentences finishing with a full stop, the writing making sense.  During the writing on the board and the rereading of the idea, phoneme and grapheme connections are made and sight words can be delved into. Children are helped to make correct letter shapes, discuss the difference between a letter and word. At the end of a week, the children’s ideas are gathered into a small book form and each child takes home a copy as part of their reading programme. The children read these books with confidence, fluency and understanding. Margaret Clark and other educationists questions the veracity of evidence that politicians and professionals on the periphery of the school/classroom (e.g. dyslexic tutors, speech therapists) call upon to prove that Synthetic Phonics, develops comprehension thus inevitably, raising national and International reading tests scores. A very simplistic view. The worry is that in England, large sums of money have been given over to training and resources for teachers to implement Synthetic Phonics only (and the Phonics Screening Check) where it may have more affect in other training avenues. In the International PISA test, 2015 for 15-year-olds, students were tested on their scientific literacy ability. The test required students ‘to read scientific explanations of phenomena alongside data, charts, and tables and interpret the information, analyse it and give a written rationale for their interpretation and analysis’. If students have not been taught this way of thinking they will fail the test. It seems that putting the vast resource allotted to synthetic phonics and phonics screening check would be more effective if higher grade teachers were trained to help students tackle the different ways to work on texts. In the NAPLAN (national) tests, Australian children failed because of their poor vocabularies and inability to read complex syntax structures (nominalized phrases, see my BLOG February, 2016). Learning to read does not stop at year 2. As children move into the higher grades, reading materials change from speech-like language to being more abstract; teachers teach children the complexities of advanced texts – also they show children how to transform what they have read into another form.   Again, professional training in ways to teach children to read more complex texts, see how grammar functions, to assist reading and understanding e.g. morphological knowledge, would be more appropriate. When considering Synthetic Phonics, I am reminded of my experiences as a literacy/education consultant in New York/Jersey City, U.S.A. American teachers were given a foolproof way of teaching…they were required to use a manual which contained a story for each week and scripted lessons. Sounded appropriate, until I realized that teachers' pedagogy did not include planning their own programme. There was no inclination towards promoting a social and intellectual environment in the classroom. They did not assess their children, instead, relying on District, National and Federal Tests. In general teachers ‘taught to the test’ and coupled with the teaching by the ‘manual’ made classroom teaching and learning rather mechanical. Australian consultants were at the forefront to change teaching practices mainly in the low-socio economic areas, for example, teaching literacy through the reading of Big Books and using the books as models of ideas, sentence structures, word studies and much more.  Unfortunately, USA has now moved to other methods and I believe, they are similar to Synthetic Phonics in the lower grades. I can confidently say that U.S.A. remains low in the PISA (International) Tests.