Michael Rosen banging on again...in The Telegraph

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay- ... asure.html

Children are no longer being encouraged to read for pleasure

Schoolchildren are taught to decode text, retrieve information and write grammatically correct sentences but they are no longer encouraged to lose themselves in a good story, Rosen said.

As a result, they read books without asking questions or relating the stories to their own feelings.

Doesn't Rosen know that teaching reading is about far more than children getting lost in a book - it's about children being lost if they cannot lift the words off the page.

[chew8]

Rosen offers 'one simple idea that would be transformative, especially for children whose parents are unable to read to them' - every single school should 'issue a library ticket to every single child'. What about the children who can't read?

Jenny C.

[maizie]

What about the children who can't read?

Does Rosen even believe that they exist?

[chew8]

Perhaps he needs to find out some facts on the subject. There may not be a lot of children who can't read at all, but I would say there are quite a lot who are so weak at reading that taking out library books would be a low priority for them.

Jenny C.

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

Does Rosen even believe that they exist?

If he does (and there are no signs that he does), then he gives the impression of thinking that lots of reading his books will sort them out!

It's kind of a contradiction in terms is it not!

[Susan Godsland]

Rosen's beliefs about how children learn to read are the same as those of other whole language advocates.

Professor Stephen Krashen, 'a self-described 'staunch defender' of whole-language strategies, believes that, "(A)ny child exposed to comprehensible print will learn to read, barring severe neurological or emotional problems...Kids learn to read by reading''

Another of the ''major exponents of real books, Margaret Meek, has famously said that children learn to read "when there is something they want to read and an adult who takes time and trouble to help them". Whole language enthusiasts suggest that structured teaching to develop reading skills is not only unnecessary, it may be positively harmful'' (Palmer. TES. 10/11/95)

Australian author Mem Fox believes that 'if parents just read aloud "a minimum of three stories a day to the children in their lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation"
http://www.smh.com.au/news/miranda-devi ... 44607.html

[chew8]

Where I think there’s some truth in the ‘children learn to read by reading’ dictum is that once children have a grasp of the mechanics, they become readers in the full sense by reading. But this won’t happen for most of them without some direct instruction in the mechanics.

That, at least, was how it worked for me and my contemporaries. I was read to as a child as much as Mem Fox would probably wish, not only as a preschooler but also once I started school. I know this as I still have a copy of a book I was awarded as a prize at the end of my first school year and remember my mother reading it to me as I couldn’t manage it myself – there were 64 pages with about 250 words per page, and ‘southerly’, ‘searching’, ‘miniature’ and ‘leisurely’ occurred on the first page. I loved that book, so although it was beyond my decoding level the content was obviously age-appropriate – I started school at 5+, so was 6+ by the end of my first year.

I wouldn’t under-estimate the part my enjoyment of being read to played in making me see the point of mastering the mechanics I was taught at school, but I think I really did need that teaching, and as far as I know all my contemporaries did, too. I don't know how the whole-language people can think that most children can skip the mechanics.

Jenny C.

[john walker]

Doesn't Rosen know that teaching reading is about far more than children getting lost in a book - it's about children being lost if they cannot lift the words off the page.

On learning to read, I think the author has lost the plot!