It might be of interest to your readers
that although Barbara makes it sound like
NZ's literacy program is far superior than
a balanced program with a systematic
phonics base, the New Zealand Ministry of
Education and several On-Line Newspapers
have said otherwise.

There are now questions as to the NZ
statistics not being accurate because they
exclude some of their population. In
addition although they do not want to
discontinue Reading Recovery ,they are
looking into perhaps adding a systematic
phonics component. If not for reading, for
writing and spelling since they are finding
many NZ children are having difficulty with
both.

I do think Stewart Brekke has a point. It
is just so much harder for those at the
lower grade levels to understand his point
since we believe our students are doing
well. It is usually not until the students
are in middle school and high school that
the reading, writing, and spelling problems
become clear to see.

As far as the phonics debate, at least in
the United States, it is no longer about if
phonics should be part of the literacy
program. The National Reading Panel, The
National Institute for Literacy, the NICHHD,
and the U.S.Department of Education all
agree that systematic and explicit phonics
instruction is more effective than non-
systematic or no phonics instruction. The
key here is to train teachers well and make
sure they are including phonics instruction
daily starting in pre-school.

Sincerely,
AP

AP
3/31/02

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