Re: some joint activity re contextless reading?
Ken Goodman (kgoodman who-is-at u.arizona.edu)
Wed, 24 Mar 1999 11:07:22 -0700
Romalda Spalding lays out her method in great detail in a book, The
Writing Road to Reading (not to be confused with an IBM product) many
years ago. In her method children do copy into a notebook every rule and
subtle and must be able to recite them back verbatim. She also provides
a record so teachers many learn to exactly imitate the sounds of the
oral language as Ms. Spalding is saying them herself. She abolishes
schwa for unaccented vowels insisting on full representations all the
time. The book is anglocentric. To her english is superior to all other
languages and therefore teachers must impost English phonology
(according to Spalding). Again all this would be of only historical
interest if it were not that laws in Arizona and other states are being
passed that mandate that Spalding and like narrow- and unscientific-
phonics programs will be required. Yes, Mike this is precisely the kind
of narrow mandate that concerns me.
--
Kenneth S. Goodman, Professor, Language, Reading & Culture
504 College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
fax 520 7456895 phone 520 6217868
These are mean times- and in the mean time
We need to Learn to Live Under Water