Module 3: Activity 3

  This past year my school system implemented a new spelling/phonics program where 
phonics skills and nonsense words are heavily enforced. I teach 5th grade and my students 
should have all the phonics skills they need to become proficient readers by the time they get to 5th grade. I struggled this past year teaching phonics rules, as I am not familiar with them and have a hard time figuring out the rules and how they apply to the words. We have been testing on nonsense words and I do not see any significance in this strategy at all. My kids can not pronounce the words have of the time and neither can I. I always teach my students to look up the definitions of unknown words so they know how to write and read it in context. This is impossible to do with nonsense words. I do think children should have knowledge of how to sound out unfamiliar words, but not to the extent of heavily phonics instruction and nonsense words. Proficient readers do not read letter by letter when reading words so I think relying on phonics skills to build a proficient reader would not be successful. Students need much more than phonics and fluency skills to be able to read for meaning and become proficient readers. I think in today's classrooms students want to see who can read the fastest because they are used to doing running records and being timed on their reading for fluency. This is the wrong approach at building proficient readers, children need to be able to read for meaning.