Why Phonics? A Synopsis of Uncovering The Logic of English by Denise Eide
Post By: Logan Thune
According to educator Denise Eide, “Language, both spoken and written, is the foundation of all academics” (Loc. 11). Successful learning is dependent on the ability to read, speak, and write well. “What is clear is that students who do not thrive in first, second, and third grade continue to struggle [with language] through adulthood” (Loc. 22). Without a solid understanding and grasp of language (and English in particular), how will we begin to study the true, the good, and the beautiful? How are we to learn about God from his Word and from his world?
Eide belabors her point further, saying, “Literacy is the foundation of our society—academically, civically, medically, environmentally, scientifically, and socially. Basic reading and writing skills should be taught in a manner that helps all students succeed” (Loc. 142). But are all students succeeding in this discipline?
Unfortunately not. “Currently, 69% of our nation’s students are struggling with basic literacy skills” (Loc. 142). Eide believes that one reason is because “most English speakers do not know the basic building blocks of the language: the sounds, their corresponding written expressions, and the spelling rules that go with them” (Loc. 15).
We must ask why. How did things go so awry? And when did we lose our way?
Eide says, “The logic of English has been lost in the past 80 years to educators and the general public.” She continues, saying, “Prior to the 1920s, reading was taught in a systematic manner, with students spelling their way into reading. A dramatic shift occurred during the educational reform movements of the 1920s and 1930s. Rather than beginning to teach reading with sounds and then using the sounds to build words, educators began with whole words. This became known as the Look-Say method. Students were required to memorize each word as an individual word picture. Today we refer to these as sight words. During this period, literacy rates plummeted.” Additional methods and reforms (e.g. Whole Language, etc.) have been tried since that period up to the present day, but literacy rates have not improved.
Perhaps this is a clarion call for teachers and parents to return to time-tested and effective methods from our past. Methods championed by the likes of Dr. Samuel Orton, Anna Gillingham, Romalda Spalding, and Wanda Sanseri (we currently utilize her Spell to Write and Read phonics curriculum at Covenant), to name a few. Perhaps, a return “home” to good old-fashioned (and multi-sensory) phonics is needed.
Eide mentions, “The first step to mastering English decoding and spelling is to begin by learning the phonograms and spelling rules within the context of high frequency words. In this manner students are learning the building blocks of all English words while at the same time mastering the words which are the building blocks to all sentences” (Loc. 129).
She goes on, “Learning the 75 basic phonograms is the true foundation for literacy and spelling” (Loc. 30) because “phonograms are the most basic building blocks of all words in a phonetic language” (Loc. 26). Once the phonograms and spelling rules are learned, it is important to put those into practice by spelling high frequency words. This is because “the 100 most frequently used words make up 50% of all written material, while the 300 most frequently used words make up 65%” (Loc. 31). Starting here builds a foundation for developing a more robust vocabulary later on. Further, “Teaching spelling and vocabulary at the same time aids students in developing reading fluency by teaching them to recognize not only the phonemes (parts of words that denote sound) but the morphemes (parts of words that carry meaning)” (Loc. 131).
This fits nicely with other aspects of a classical education, as many morphemes are Latin or Greek. Eide explains, “Learning Latin and Greek roots is even more powerful than studying the English roots. Sixty percent of English vocabulary and 90% of scientific terminology is derived from Latin and Greek. Ninety percent of all multi-syllable words are Latin based, and most of the remaining 10% are Greek based” (Loc. 135). Oftentimes, those who know Latin and Greek are able to piece together the meaning of a word even if they have never seen the word before!
Lastly, a phonics program—according to Eide—must be multi-sensory. “Reading and spelling are best taught using all of our learning modes: hearing, speaking, doing, and seeing” (Loc. 127). This is because “reading and spelling are the same process in reverse. Reading is the process of decoding the ‘sound pictures’ and re-forming them into auditory words…Spelling is the process of hearing a word, breaking it into its individual sounds, and writing them on paper” (Loc. 121). One must look at a phonogram, hear the sound it makes in conjunction with the spelling rules, speak the sound back to the instructor (often exaggerating the pronunciation), and write it down on paper. All of these modes utilize a different part of the brain and help students learn in a deeper and more efficient way.
At the end of the day, we do not need novel methods to help our students successfully gain literacy. We need tried-and-true methods that produce results. That is why Covenant Classical School pursues a method to language acquisition that is very similar to the method put forth in Uncovering The Logic of English by Denise Eide.
