I would love to hear comments from others on how they learned to read and spell correctlyI learned initially "at my mother's knee", as the saying goes, back in the 1940s. She read aloud to me as often as she could, (as the bombs rained down on London, I'm tempted to say!
) and I looked at the book as she read, absorbing what the words looked like -'whole word' technique. When I went to school, reading was taught by a mixture of "Ah for apple" (phonics) and reading aloud to the teacher at her desk on a one-to-one basis. By the time I was seven, there wasn't much that I couldn't attempt with a significantly high chance of getting it right.
It was noticeable that the children from what we, euphemistically, called "poorer homes" where the chances of there being books or parents who would (could?) read aloud from them was very low, were the ones who lagged behind in learning to read. Of course, with a class of thirty-four and using one-to-one techniques, there is an almost irresistible temptation for the teacher to concentrate on those who perform well.
Writing was also taught to me intially (how else?
) by my Mother. She would write words out on a slate, which I would copy on to paper - usually as "thank-you" letters at Christmas and Birthday time.
At school, we were required to copy out lists of words from the blackboard and learn how to write them properly in time for the weekly spelling test on Friday morning. There was intense competition to get them all right, as the teacher would give a reward of a sweet to those who succeeded (looking back on it, this was a remarkable devotion to the cause of learning, as sweets were on ration at that time - hence the great competition to win them!)
In various forms, spelling lessons, quizzes and tests continued until I was about twleve. After that, like wow, I lost marks if I miss-spelt words (the only reason that this was effective for me, who got low marks anyway, was that it was a blow to my pride as a good speller - one of the few things I was good at, in secondary school!)
It worked for me. I share with a colleague of similar vintage the joint honour of being the office dictionary, a post I have occupied in most of the places I have worked. But I am cautious of saying that the method used in school that worked for me are the best. They worked for me because I had massive support at home. If I couldn't spell a word and asked my other, she would tell me, but then make sure that I could spell it without having to ask her. Later, she insisted that I use the dictionary. There were books, magazines and newspapers all over our house and I was only restricted from looking at a few that my mother thought were not fit for young eyes (which made me read them surreptitiously, of course!)
For children from homes where this back-up is not available, different techniques of teaching may well be more appropriate.
In the end, one-to-one teaching of basic skills is usually the best foundation. But where will you find a government that is willing to commit tax-payers' money to such an expensive scheme?
