Welcome to the Literacy Loop!

I have put off blogging "proper" for quite some time because I was never really sure what to "do" with it. We are now several years into the blogging phenomenom, and I finally feel a sense of blogging purpose, if you will. And so, here I am, inviting you to join me in discussing all those things related to literacy. It's a big word, folks. My trusty 1996 edition of the Oxford Reference Dictionary defines literacy as "the ability to read and write." Sounds simple, right?

But here are the bigger questions I have regarding literacy:

• What factors affect one's ability to read? and write?
• What are the implications of a citizen's ability -- or lackthereof -- to read and write?
• Are we, as a society and as world citizens, doing all we can to ensure we have a population that is as literate as we need it to be?
• What factors limit literacy? What factors promote it?

And perhaps most important:

• Why should we care about literacy at all?

Well, I was waiting for the "right time" to begin this blog, thinking, "Hmm... I don't want to start it just for the heck of it. I need something to discuss, something to have an opinion on!"

And here it is: an article that recently caught my attention. In A is for Apple, B is for Brawl, Robert Kolker examines the debate between phonics and whole-language learning in Elementary classrooms in New York City. From what I can ascertain, NYC schools are strongly favouring whole-language learning over phonics, leaving the phonics only for students with reading "problems" (i.e., those requiring intervention).

I have some pretty strong feelings about this. I will begin with a disclaimer: I am NOT a teacher of elementary students, and therefore I have never taught 5-, 6-, or 7-year-olds how to read. However, I have spent the last eight years teaching 12- to 18-year-olds how to read, and can safely say that their success in middle and high school (arguably in life) is dependent upon how they were taught to read at an early age. Without a doubt, in my personal experience, children who were taught phonics are better readers simply because they can decode better. Not only are they better readers, but they are better writers; they understand how to add prefixes and suffixes, how to change a noun into an adjective -- generally how to manipulate language to achieve a desired effect.

One of my biggest complaints about this article is how it portrays phonics as being inextricably linked to "rote teaching" and "skill and drill." Good teachers will rarely engage in this kind of teaching/learning, if at all! Having been taught phonics myself (by my mother, when I was only 3 years old), I can safely say that I did not experience any rote teaching, and only small amounts of skill-and-drill style stuff -- in fact, barely enough that I can remember.

I'd like to advocate phonics learning, with a healthy balance of whole-language learning, which I also feel is valid. What really irks me about this program in NYC is that despite being called "Balanced Literacy," it only teaches phonics on a "needs-be" basis, and therefore, is not balanced at all. I would argue that all students need to learn phonics.

What do the rest of you think? I'd be particularly interested to hear from those of you who might be teaching in NYC currently, or have in the past, or from those of you who have taught whole-language reading programs anywhere in the world.

[Side note: I am looking for contributors! There is an option to make this blog a "group" blog, meaning that many people can contribute to its posts, rather than just little old me. If you'd like to partner with me, and share my philosophy, please let me know! If you'd like to contribute via comments, of course you can always do that, too.]