Reading in the 1930's or 1940's

[yvette37]

Hello,

Does anybody know how they used to teach reading in the 1930's or 1940's? or earlier for that matter. What did they use instead of the 'Synthetized Phonics'? I am quite curious about this.

Thank you

Yvette

They used phonics.

The current vogue is "Systematic Synthetic Phonics", not Synthetized.

I don't know but I'm always intrigued about why older people (people in their 70s, 80s and 90s now) tend to have beautiful handwriting. Not necessarily people who were especially 'well educated' either (MIL left school at 14).

because they got their knuckles rapped with a ruler if they didn't BonfireOfKleenex

yvette37 phonics has been the main method of reading instruction since the 15thC until the 1980s-90s when whole word was introduced

It's a fascinating subject called the 'reading wars', much of it is political and philosophical, and the fashion has flip flopped between left wing progressive whole word approaches and right wing phonics approaches. The progressive view is currently out of fashion.

Here are some links about it
jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Reading_Wars.html

newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-8-making-written-meanings/schoenfield-and-pearson-on-the-reading-wars/

www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2213252

mrz - ha, that did the job then

Is 'look and say' a whole word method? I did that in 70s...

Phonics is right-wing?
I didn't know I was right-wing.

Yes, look and say is a whole word approach. It is a constructivist, progressive approach as opposed to the didactic, instructionist phonics approach. The battle is really between right wing Shinnerist behavioural approaches and left wing progressive, constructivist approaches of progressives and Marxists such as Vygotsky.

Yes, look and say is whole word/language.

Of course how often you read and who you read with, what you read and what your education system is like are all part of how well you'll read. You can't put it all down to phonics/look & say. Otherwise many of those US kids who were bad at reading would be great mathematicians and guess what, they're not.

Skinnerist

It was simple phonics - c-a-t -without the compound phonemes ai,oo etc used now.

There was a huge emphasis on beautiful handwriting, so lots and lots of copying of writing.

'Phonics is right-wing?
I didn't know I was right-wing.'

Look into it. It is truly fascinating and goes back to the battle between progressive philosophers such as Rousseau and Dewey and right wing thinkers on society. It is highly political at its core.

Gove and the new head of Ofsted are very keen on phonics. The new head of Ofsted was interviewed on Newsnight, I think it was, and he talked about falling literacy levels and he emphasised how phonics teaching was needed to turn it round.

In fact, I didn't hear him say anything else, all he seemed to say was that young children needed to be taught phonics.

However it was a left wing (if you consider Labour to be so) government that introduced Letters & Sounds and the requirement to teach phonics in the primary curriculum claig

Yes, as so often, they really followed American practice. They moved towards the American model of testing and SATS etc.

It is political, but there is also lots of money in it.

Whole word was an American import

The play-centred approach and creativity etc are really the left wing progressive constructivist approaches to education. Phonics is part of the right wing teacher-led didactic approach. It will be interesting to see what happens to teh creativity aspects of gurus like Sir Ken Robinson in the future, given the trend towards a more direct instruction style of education.

Whole word is not non-didactic.

'Whole word was an American import'

Yes, and the current synthetic phonics also takes its lead from the US.

These are generalisations and can't fit every nuance, but whole word is based on the philosophy of a child-centred approach, where meaning and context are the key. It is a developmental appoach rather than a didactic instructionist approach.

I learned to read in Holland in the early 70s and was taught phonics.

claig my DDs started learning phonics in nursery and it was done in a very 'playful' way so I reckon we could have the best of both worlds if the will is there - teach very young children solid basics, but respect how young they are and keep it engaging until they are of an age where they are ready for more formal learning.

I must admit that I tend to prefer the progressive whole word approach. It makes more philosophical sense to me. But those philosophers have lost teh battle, and phonics reigns supreme. But the 'reading wars' are not over, and things will probably one day change.

I agree pointy. It has to be fun or there is a danger of turning young children off.