Two Teaching Systems Used To Teach Our Kids How To Read
There are many children these days who do not read as well as they could. The children of America now are ranked near last in terms of math and science knowledge. Often the methods used for teaching children to read nowadays are not very effecitive.
We are seeing historic lows when it comes to standardized test scores for verbal ability. It is now estimated that as many as eleven million Americans are functionally illiterate. Reading is a basic skill needed for all other types of learning. This is why it is imperative our children learn to read at an early age. Reading is the gateway to all other types of knowledge. If a child cannot read they will not be able to learn for the books about all the other subjects. Children who do not have proper reading skills will never be able to reach their full potential. There are so many things in life that demand good reading skills for success.
There are two main methods used in this country to teach children how to read. These two methods are phonics and whole word. There are pros and cons to each of these methods. The phonics method is probably the best known method of teaching children to read. Children first memorize the alphabet and the sounds made by various letters. Then students are taught to string the sounds together in order to read words. One of the disadvantages of this method is that students often get bored while memorizing their letters and sounds and simply give up. Sometimes they are so busy sounding out a word that they don’t get the meaning of the word.
When using the whole word method children are instructed to memorize and recognize whole words. Rather than learning to sound words out children are taught to recognize whole words while reading. This instructional method was first used with deaf children and still works well with children who cannot sound out words. For more information on childrens learn to read software visit MileStone Reading.
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