I don’t know, folks, I tried giving every opportunity to the method used in American elementary schools to teach reading but I don’t think it works. I haven’t criticized it until now because I didn’t want to be rigid and decided to give it a chance.
For those who aren’t from here, the method is this. Instead of explaining to the children how letters come together to make words (m and a is mmmmaaaa, etc), teachers have them memorize batches of unrelated words called “sight words.” One week they memorize “make, go, and, to.” The next week they memorize “Monday, you, cat, five.” Problem is, by the time you get to batch 3, kids have forgotten batch 1.
They’ve been doing these “sight words” since preschool and I’m seeing zero results. I’m not worried for my kid who doesn’t need sight words because she already reads. But I’m really not surprised at the low literacy levels.
I don’t think anybody anywhere else teaches reading this way. Do they? Is there something I’m not getting?

Leave a comment