All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[hquek]

hi Charmaine,


If your child is crying and resisting, it could be better to stop it…rather than build resistance. My DS1 didn’t attend any formal phonics classes (he’s in ICL - but they don’t really do phonics), and he’s able and happy to read by himself (now going 6 y/o). Spelling also not big problem for him. I think kids will learn in their own special way.

BTW, my friend’s kid even better. He doesn’t attend phonics or any enrichment class, but mummy make sure he has access to loads of books. At a young age, he could break up the words and read them bit by bit (without anyone prompting him).

It’s good that he’s keen on reading P&J, keep it up…I believe that reading loads IS the key.

[tamarind]

Charmaine_chong:

Hi Tamarind,


My son has been attending MMI weekly phonics class (1 to 1 teaching) since 3 weeks ago. He doesn't like it and often ended with crying. I have hard time to revise with him at home too.

He doesn't like to learn the phonics way no matter how hard i tried. But he seems very keen to read few pages of P&J daily. He will be finishing reading book 1b this week.

I agree with you that phonics does help a lot to speed up a child's reading ability. But for him, it is not. He doesn;t like it.

I think i will stop him for phonics and observe his progress.

Charmaine,
My girl attended the MMI phonics class when she was 4 years old, it is worksheet based where the child sits down for one hour to learn. My girl liked this style of learning, but I know that it is not suitable for every child.

Actually I feel that watching the 3 Leapfrog DVDs :
Letter Factory
Talking Words Factory
Talking Words Factory 2

are sufficient for a child to know the basics of phonics. Does he mind watching these DVDs ? If he does not mind, just let him watch them regularly, it will slowly sink in.

Also let him try http://www.starfall.com. My kids love the website.

It is great that he does not mind the Peter and Jane series now. Do persist in getting him to read every day, do not repeat the pages, just keep moving on.

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Bud,


The teachers there are nice, caring and constantly give feedback about children’s progress.

The phonics lesson are taught based on worksheets, no fun activities, no break, no picture to show the words.

They sit on the floor and the lessons begin by getting my son to blend words by words, page by page for the entire one hour. He hates it.

This method does not suitable for children who is very active like my son. His form teacher in PAP also commented that he is very active in school. Luckily he still listen to teacher.

Hi Tamarind,

Sadly my son doesn’t like Leapfrog too. I do expose him few times a month.

He has his own interest and easily lose interest. I am happy enough since he get hooked on P&J.

Hi Hquek,

I feedback to the MMI principal about my concern and told her that i would like to stop the lesson. The principal advise that i shall let him continue. I think otherwise.

I will stop the lesson since he has no interest. Like BUDS said, phonics is only one of the approach to get child to read.

Thanks ladies. I shall continue to read to him loads of books and slowly encourage him to read after me for other books.

At the moment he is only willing to read P&J himself.

[buds]

Charmaine_chong:

Hi Bud,


The teachers there are nice, caring and constantly give feedback about children's progress.

That's good to know. :hugs:

Charmaine_chong:

The phonics lesson are taught based on worksheets, no fun activities, no break, no picture to show the words.

Really? :!:

They don't use any materials? :?

Charmaine_chong:

They sit on the floor and the lessons begin by getting my son to blend words by words, page by page for the entire one hour. He hates it.

Honestly... i'd dislike it too.

That said however, there is no need for educators to be 100% technical
with the delivery. It is truly up to/depending on the individual person to
expand on the idea of the technicalities of the method using her own
creativity.... to encourage the learning possibilities.

That's why, each time when i get questions on how good a centre is or
how effective a method is... the answer is really subjective. It truly
depends on how effective an educator is with her delivery... how
passionate she is to encourage creativity and out of the box
moments for children under her care.

Like tamarind always says, parents can do it too. If you'd only try.
Even if it is just a mere 10mins to 15mins... honestly, that really is
all you need to begin the marathon. Learning is not a sprint. It is a
marathon... and a lifelong journey. Even i as a parent & an educator
still have lots to learn from new things, from others, from experiences
and definitely from life itself. Learning keeps us stimulated... keeps us
engaged/occupied... keeps us alert... keeps us updated and relevant too.

And there are those times when we also observe and learn from our
children. Pick up on their childlike vibes and learn to listen to them...
If we listen hard enough, we can feel what they're really telling us or
trying to tell us.

For me, I cannot teach with 100% paperwork. :shock:

I would die!

Too dry..

Charmaine_chong:

This method does not suitable for children who is very active like my son. His form teacher in PAP also commented that he is very active in school. Luckily he still listen to teacher.

That's another good thing to know too!

Charmaine_chong:

Thanks ladies. I shall continue to read to him loads of books and slowly encourage him to read after me for other books.

:rahrah: :ugogirl: :rahrah:

I'm behind you on this one all the way. :celebrate:

Charmaine_chong:

At the moment he is only willing to read P&J himself.

This is an extremely BIG achievement in itself Charmaine.
Both your boy and yourself went through a very big hurdle..
A stressful one at that too... just to get here to this day. Be happy
for that. It is a fantastic inspiration to spur you on... your boy will
flourish under your patience, guidance and relentless efforts. :hugs:

[tamarind]

buds,

It really depends on the child. My girl liked her Montessori phonics class better than her Berries Chinese class where she was allowed to jumped around and play games. At 3 years 8 months old, she did not like to jump around aimlessly, she preferred to sit down and learn in a structured and predictable way. When I sent her to Berries class at that age, she often clinged on to me and refused to let me go. But for Montessori she happily ran inside on her own.

I remember that the MMI teachers (at Lakeside) showed parents that they used big pictures and wooden alphabets to teach, before they used worksheets for the kids to practice. There are lots of pictures in the worksheets too. But I am don’t know about the teachers in other MMI centers.

The MMI phonics is an express course that covers everything in 11 months. It is only one hour so they don’t have break or fun activities, because there is a lot to cover. It is not the same as those full day Montessori where they have lots of time to teach. My girl did learn all about phonics in this class before she turned 5 years old.

The class is for kids from 3 years 6 months old to 6 years old. It is actually more suitable for kids at 5 or 6 years old who have a longer attention span. The staff also advised that the materials get much more difficult in the later parts of the course, so they do not accept kids that are younger than 3 years 6 months old because the kids may not be able to understand the materials.

My younger boy day dreams in whatever class that he attends, whether it is fun or not, that is why I need to teach him at home. Kids below the age of 5 definitely learn much more when given one to one attention.

[tamarind]

Charmaine:

Hi Tamarind,

Sadly my son doesn't like Leapfrog too. I do expose him few times a month.

Phonics is non-negotiable. Kids who learn to read only by sight reading, that is, using the Peter and Jane series, may know how to read many words, but they will have problems when it comes to spelling and writing. A child who has a very strong foundation in phonics will spell very easily. Hanyu Pinyin will also be very easy for the child ! My son is able to pronounce Chinese words using Hanyu Pinyin even though he has never been taught before.

We must teach phonics together with sight reading (using Peter and Jane or other readers).

Does your son watch many other DVDs and TV programs ?

Between the age of 3 to 5, my kids only watch the Leapfrog DVDs and the Little Einstein DVDs. These are all the DVDs that they need. Leapfrog DVDs are the easiest and most effective to learn phonics, kids who watch them regularly will know the basics of phonics. In fact, my hubby says that he learned his phonics by watching Sesame Street.

As parents we cannot always allow the kids to stop learning something just because he thinks it is not fun. My son cries when I ask him to do addition and subtraction worksheets ! But I still have to try to encourage him to do them.

[BigDevil]

tamarind:

BigDevil:

:idea: Sell it to me??

OK please PM me if you are interested.

:oops: :oops: :oops:
So very sorry...found out my sister owns a copy of it.

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Tamarind,


The MMI teacher teach my son on worksheets and plastic read and blue alphabets.

No explanation of words and pictures.

It is one to one teaching.

I ever feedback to the teacher that my son has learnt short vowel a & i but didn’t learnt well before i signed him up.

My son has attended 4 lessons so far. The teacher taught him 5-6 sets of 3 letter words in a lesson. He was on short vowel a and i last week. They went through 3 letter words for ap, ab, ad, ax, ig, in, im , that is about 60 new words in a lesson. Is this the way to teach? I doubt so.

He sit through with my son and read words by words without explanation and pictures for the entire one hour.

I don’t think this way of teaching would benefit my son. This would just scares him away. And yes, he doesn;t like to go there.

I am looking for alternative. If anyone knows about good phonics class please do let me know.

I brought him to Zoophonics before. This was fun but nothing much to learn and tooo slow. Far too slow.

I can read is my final option. Just wondering does I Can Read teaches phonics or only part of it?

[tamarind]

Charmaine,

There is another thread for I can Read. You can join that thread.

Too bad that the Montessori center that you went to does not have good teachers. My girl’s experience at the Montessori phonics class was very different. My friend also sent her girl to the same center, and her girl also learned a lot from there. It could be that the class is more suitable for older kids who have a longer attention span.

I believe that mommies are the best teachers for kids, so this thread is for mommies who are keen to teach their kids at home. It is not easy to teach at home, we must have faith that it can be done, we must have a lot of patience and we cannot give up so easily. For some kids, we may see results in less than a year. But for most kids, it may take one to two years before the child can read fluently. Personally, I think that if I cannot teach my son, even if I send him to many enrichment classes, he will not be able to learn anything there.

Kids can learn so much more from mommies at home, compared to enrichment classes. I have heard of many kids who cannot read even after attending all sorts of classes. Mommies are the ones who can find the best teaching methods that suit their kids.

[buds]

Charmaine_chong:

The MMI teacher teach my son on worksheets and plastic read and blue alphabets.

The material is called Large Moveable Alphabets.

Blue letters represent the vowels and the red letters represent
the consonants. Very handy for learning/introducing word building.
In fact, even for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5768&start=110.

Charmaine_chong:

No explanation of words and pictures.

Means the teacher just goes through the word list.

Charmaine_chong:

It is one to one teaching.

This should be taken as an advantage really...
With the right teacher, one to one teaching escalates the interest
for phonics and reading. In some cases where children become
highly motivated, they can even display positive progress in
barely months into the programme, since there isn't a need
to conform to the levels/paces of other children in the class.

Charmaine_chong:

I ever feedback to the teacher that my son has learnt short vowel a & i but didn't learnt well before i signed him up.

Centres would assess new children coming in with some phonics
background, to justify the level they are really at and whether
the sounds are indeed pronounced correctly. You see... with
personal teaching aids from the market, the sounds played
may not be the proper sounds pronounced (in some).

It may also be a case of a child not concretely grasping the concept
of blending at the time he learnt it at home or another centre or by
a product. Different centres would have different approaches and
different techniques. Most times, the children would have to follow
through a certain teaching method to ensure they can follow-up
with the later levels in months to come.

For example a child coming in for Letterland but has exposure only to
ZooPhonics, he/she may need to re-learn the Letterland characters cos
the characters play a part in the blending process and will come in the
stories and learning materials like flashcards and songs... Hence if a child
were to swap to Letterland he/she has to follow through from the
beginning to ensure he/she is coming in with the same knowledge
as to how the later levels will be taught.

Charmaine_chong:

My son has attended 4 lessons so far. The teacher taught him 5-6 sets of 3 letter words in a lesson. He was on short vowel a and i last week. They went through 3 letter words for ap, ab, ad, ax, ig, in, im , that is about 60 new words in a lesson. Is this the way to teach? I doubt so.

The syllabus is created as such only guides and worksheets are provided
for them, but ultimately in a very human-oriented industry... the facilitator
is the one solely responsible for the creativity in encouraging & motivating
the children under her guidance using her initiatives and the available
materials (within the centre or her own) to the best of her abilities.

The fun & creative factor deeply relies on the educator.

Syllabus are prints and prints are dry. It is how one delivers what's in all
that print that matters. Knowing all the theory by hard is essential as
educators must be knowledgable in what they do, but the practical side of
it is subjective to each person's personality and definitely passion for the
job. Initiative is also another factor cos teachers who do not like extra work
will not want to think beyond the given syllabus. Time to punch in do work,
time to punch out must be on time.

Charmaine_chong:

He sit through with my son and read words by words without explanation and pictures for the entire one hour.

I don't think this way of teaching would benefit my son. This would just scares him away. And yes, he doesn;t like to go there.

Older children may learn faster via drilling and can finish within one year.
Younger children may need more than just reading word for word since
their attention span is shorter and they will need more materials to work
with during the lessons. But a Montessori classroom with materials in
abundance, it is unfortunate to know that the teacher may not be utilizing
them for the benefit of the children.

Like i've said in another post, i have personally known some colleagues
who are lazy to use the materials during lessons and hence depriving
children of the maximum advantage of Montessori learning from concrete
to abstract.

Do talk to the teacher and tell him or her that the reason you placed your
child in a Montessori school to learn is cause from your research, children
get to learn concrete to abstract and get to use the variety of materials
available for the programme which will indirectly allow children to love
learning and motivate self-exploration. Where learning will come from
the heart..

Then again, one has to have faith in the teachings to fully help children
to develop to the best of their potential.

I've received your PMs. Do not worry, Charmaine. It is never a trouble
to me... asking questions is part of learning and i will be here for you thru
YOUR learning journey. Keep the faith, Charmaine. You WILL get there...

Take care... and i hope your feedback to the teacher will be positively
looked into. Let me know how it turns out for you. :hugs: