This is how I felt when I first tried to figure out what common core math was, after I kept hearing about it. It sounded like the people who made it were trying to create a process around what I would do in my head to try and solve a problem when I didn’t have paper or a calculator handy.
What common core, and this reading approach, seem to miss is that those are things that come after learning the foundations and rules.
I was taught with phonics, but 99% of words I read today are simply seen and recognized. Much like the 3 queuing method tries to create a process around. However, I think that is something that naturally develops through repetition. When someone reads the word “horse” and “house” enough times, the need to sound it out or read each letter goes away, but that’s not the starting point.
As much as I like to think I can determine a word’s meaning through context, when put to the test, I often miss the mark. Reading on an e-reader lowers the barrier to looking up unfamiliar words and I find myself doing it more often. I find my assumption based on context can often be less than correct. Maybe I’m close, but there is more nuance to the actual definition. Sometimes I’m completely wrong and the whole meaning of the paragraph changes. Not to mention, if I look a word up to learn the actual meaning, it might be something I can introduce into my own speech and writing without sounding foolish.
I relied on context a lot growing up, because I was too lazy to look things up. These days, with it being so easy, I don’t know why kids wouldn’t be encouraged to look up words they don’t know. I think my vocabulary would be much better had I grown up learning the words I didn’t know, instead of simply bypassing them.
What common core, and this reading approach, seem to miss is that those are things that come after learning the foundations and rules.
I was taught with phonics, but 99% of words I read today are simply seen and recognized. Much like the 3 queuing method tries to create a process around. However, I think that is something that naturally develops through repetition. When someone reads the word “horse” and “house” enough times, the need to sound it out or read each letter goes away, but that’s not the starting point.
As much as I like to think I can determine a word’s meaning through context, when put to the test, I often miss the mark. Reading on an e-reader lowers the barrier to looking up unfamiliar words and I find myself doing it more often. I find my assumption based on context can often be less than correct. Maybe I’m close, but there is more nuance to the actual definition. Sometimes I’m completely wrong and the whole meaning of the paragraph changes. Not to mention, if I look a word up to learn the actual meaning, it might be something I can introduce into my own speech and writing without sounding foolish.
I relied on context a lot growing up, because I was too lazy to look things up. These days, with it being so easy, I don’t know why kids wouldn’t be encouraged to look up words they don’t know. I think my vocabulary would be much better had I grown up learning the words I didn’t know, instead of simply bypassing them.