Decipher That Code & Read! Part Four

"Decipher That Code & Read!" Part Four of Four: A Plan Because of the failure of some reading programs and the bad report card the NCLB program received, recently, many people have become very, very skeptical of our education system, including teachers, in the US. Congress did also cut the NCLB budget due to budget constraints and controversies. (AP Nancy Zuckerbrod, 5/1/080). However, there is hope, but somehow the money must be found. Our country is in a big state of denial. We all believe or are told to believe that nothing good will come of spending money to repair or fix what is broken. In California, during thisearly fire season the National Guard had to be called out but there’s not enough manpower and resources to make the fires go away in an urgent manner. The FDA (they keep us or are supposed to) keep us safe hasn’t enough $$ to employ the needed # of Drs/Scientists to make the field tests regarding the salmonella outbreak. Lack of funds keeps the Border Patrol short handed. . There aren’t enough police, etc. the list is endless. Why, in the richest country in the world, are we so afraid of busting the budget with needed fixings? We’ve practically broken the bank with two (2) wars, Many protection agencies are doing double and triple duty. Prices are sky high, and our kids do poorly in math & reading.The Plan--In order to do anything in this world, you must have a high school diploma. All of this begins with a good reading foundation. The best time to achieve this is to catch them early and that’s through Early Childhood Programs. In her fine article: “Early Childhood programs beneficial in more ways then one” A Teacher’s View by Rene Hill. Her article discusses results of a study conducted by the Univ of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools. who found that benefits from ECP are found well into adulthood and were less likely to commit violent crimes. Barack Obama, (what a seagway) along with many organizations including the Univ of Chi. see the need for Early Childhood Programs. (ECP). --We here at MLE co couldn’t agree more. Phonetic Rock does its’ best work with pre-k students who are eager to learn. Once they listen to the 26 letter-songs and learn from The Teacher, the Kids & the Duo, they have a solid foundation. A foundation well planned & executed with lots of drill, vocabulary building and try and read sentences. A carefully devised program by this life-long school teacher put it alltogether with drill & review! She also devised the use of the “schwa” sound to giveconsonants a boost. She transformed the sounds from unusable to usable words that make sense. and she increased the # of vowel sounds to 18. Vowel A has 5; Vowel O has 5 sounds; Vowel E has 4 sounds. Vowel I has 2 sounds & letter Y sometimes has 2 for a total of 18 sounds. Teachers still continue to only teach the two sounds (the long & the short) sounds of vowels even though that leaves out 8 more complex sounds one should know. --We simply must provide more money & incentives for teachers. Some have suggested that we only hire teachers with above average skills. & they must be motivated. Motivation makes up often for a lack, sometimes, of knowledge. A willingness to go the extra mile is what’s missing. Most teachers as a generality like what they do & prefer to work where the challenges are slight. If a neighborhood can be motivated to help their children what a head start that would be. It really does take a village! With Phonetic Rock young new readers would be a step ahead and would not need remedial training. Since so many have slipped through the cracks, we need a remedial program in the major sense of the word, churches, synagogues mega churches, etc. must do their part to not only provide day care but history of themselves along with basic math & reading courses. after church, after school. While I do believe in Reading to Children, I believe that many have made a ‘career” out of reading to kids again this is nice but they aren’t learning much. Why not include some reading basics at the same time like a little vocabulary, a little drill in addition to being read to. Perhaps parents or the reader could ask questions about what they’ve heard to see if comprehension follows. After all reading to kids is about the kid learning and not to gratify the image of the reader! MLE’s “Phonetic Rock the Book has vocabulary, try & read. Identify the picture, etc. --Can’t stress enuf the need for African Amer. & Latino male teachers. Especially for the K-3 grades. Image, Motivation, you know the drill. & forget Ebonics, finding a better way to communicate the need for better speech habits is a must. In my song: See Themselves I note that “diversity brings responsibility for each of us to take the blame for our activities; gangsta rap be gone! And Ebonics too. Employers like English, I promise you.” With the help of Phonetic Rock & serious reading methods, although PR is the best, we can improve reading scores. Can we afford the money for change? Can we afford not to find the money for investments in our people? I’d rather say we extended the debt due to higher teacher salaries, more books & materials, Libraries and After-School Programs rather then havepeople go without. I say again, isn’t the USA the richest most powerful country in the World? Our citizens deserve the best we can offer. Our Ads for the Phonetic Rock Educational Reading system can be seen on Craig’s List & Super Classified under educational CD’s. More information can be found on our website: www.phonetic-rock.com. Our new mailing address is: 6250 W Flamingo Rd #28, Las Vegas, NV 89103