Thoughts on the Miss-i-ss-i-pp-i Miracle?

I have been hearing a lot about this and am curious myself as a resident of the PNW. I have a kid entering K and they appear to JUST NOW be moving away from balanced literacy. How did we unlearn the lessons of phonics over the last 40 years?
omegle.onl/

I got this,...

It is very rewarding.

Like FranP I am also a reading volunteer. I don’t and never will understand the phonics system. The school knows this and accepts it. When a child struggles with a challenging word, I will write the word out and split it up into its syllables to show them how the sounds fit together. It’s surprising how, when they come across the word again, they remember it. I also keep lists of anomalous words and we go through these to see how they work so that when they come across them again, hopefully they don’t sit staring blankly at the page! Sometimes there are words where phonics will not serve their purpose. Even the senior classroom assistant agreed that there are words that children only learn by recognition because there is no way of teaching them phonically. I’ve been doing this for three years now. Schools are crying out for reading volunteers. It’s very rewarding.

Ask Trump!

My children spent a year in Tasmania and were both way ahead when we went there from Melbourne. I am sure they all end up pretty much the same,though, by the time they finish.

Moving away from balanced literacy back to phonics is a huge shift. Makes you wonder how traditional teaching methods got sidelined for so long.

I’d like to just say, with regards to USA education, way back in the day, I spent a year, my “sophomore” year, in Palas Verdes High School, in California.

I enjoyed it thoroughly, when I returned to the UK aged 15, I hadn’t really missed much.

I know well educated friends and family living across the States. I’m pretty sure, per capita, we have just as many lowly educated, illiterate people within our country, as they do in America.

A big part of it was the shift toward “whole language” and later balanced literacy, where phonics was treated as less important than context and guessing words. The frustrating part is that the research supporting systematic phonics never really went away, but education practice moved away from it anyway.

Estrella See above (imaround - Mon 14 Sept 16.19.48)
For full explanation.

What on earth does this mean?

Fallingstar

Must be American - can't spell Caesar!!!

Anything the States could do to improve their generally abysmal base education standards would be good (doubters - check how they get on in comparison tests with other countries?!).

Chump appointed (2025) Linda McMahon (formerly head of WWE - wrestling) as his Sectretary for Education (well, he never had any, of any significance, so why would it be important?!). She had previously served on a State Board of Education, but was caught in a lie, having claimed her degree was in 'Education', it turned out, when checked, to have been for French. Easy to forget I suppose . . .fine role model for kids, though it fits the Chump 'philosophy' (if in doubt lie, if caught, claim folk are being 'nasty').

Not seeing any new method in this report, just throwing resources at the issue and focusing on the importance of reading, but it does appear that they put a structured reading plan into their kindergarten age group.

I read in class as a volunteer, anyone can do this and more volunteers are needed. www.schoolreaders.org/volunteer-application-form (UK). Stats show that biggest improvement is with children who are encouraged to read more often and listened to while they do.

My guess is that her "failure" was with a dyslexic - they need to be taught a different way - phonics and digraphs do not work. (whole word recognition works better - just tell them often what the word is, show them the shape differences e.g. learn is longer than lean, sing has a tail but sign does not) but identification and specialist referral is the best course, and that take attention that is often lacking.

Thanks for some clarification imaround.
Here’s hoping the OP comes back to explain her post a bit more.

I really don’t understand what OP is getting at.

Magenta8

All I know about the Mississippi Miracle is that Mississippi, a South Eastern State, went from having a low child literacy level compared with other US states to a high literacy level.

Personally, as a UK citizen I really don't have any thoughts on the Mississippi Miracle beyond, good on ya Mississippi.

I agree.

I was curious, searched information.

Well done Mississippi.

I speak this language.

PNW = Pacific North West
the State of Mississippi reversed their low reading scores

I am going to have to go refresh my memory on what Mississippi did to reverse their low reading scores. IIRC it was as simple as going back to older more effective methods?

Found it: www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/26/03/what-mississippi-got-right-about-reading

I am seeing a trend of parents here opting their elementary students out of all technology and lots of rumblings of returning to paper and pencil, which I think will help. I will admit though, that I am not an educator, so I can't discuss this topic with any confidence.

All I know about the Mississippi Miracle is that Mississippi, a South Eastern State, went from having a low child literacy level compared with other US states to a high literacy level.

Personally, as a UK citizen I really don't have any thoughts on the Mississippi Miracle beyond, good on ya Mississippi.

Pacific North West ? North America? Where does Mississippi and miracle fit in? I am intrigued.

I think K must be kindergarten which leads me to believe you could be in the US ceasar333, and most grans are in the UK. In other words you need to explain.

Nope, PNW and K, you’ve lost me.

It's a long time since my grandchildren were in primary school, reception or year 1, but I believe they still teach phonics in schools in UK.

Perhaps you could explain your question. My granddaughter is in primary education in UK and pretty much all the children do in the reception classes in her school is phonics.

No idea what this is ? We still teach phonics here well in the schools I know we do