how are schools handling students who memorize books but can't actually decode

If I understand the question correctly, it seems to me that apples and pears are being compared here. The jargon is hitherto unknown to me, as I don't live in an English speaking country and I was never really involved in my children's learning to read - they taught themselves.

However, I still don't understand what being able to decipher the words and actually understanding the text have to do with each other. It's the difference between Eng Lang and Eng Lit. Someone who can read the words well might not quite grasp the overall sense of the text, whereas someone who skims over the words or only figures out some of them might well still be able to comprehend and summarise the basic ideas.

I don’t think it’s unusual for young children to come to know a familiar story off by heart.

My dd1 at no more than 3 did it with an old Ladybird book, one of those in verse with a colour picture opposite every page of text - ‘Downy Duckling’.

‘From her little cottage window, Mrs Downy Duck looked out.
Oh what a frosty morning, what a lot of ice about!’

See, I still remember it!

I had guessed that "whole patterned" described the unique visual pattern that each word makes, and "decoding" meant working out what each letter or combination of letters contributes to the word and putting them together (ie phonics) In the US, they call things by different names, and teach them in different ways.

To some children, learning to read totally by "whole patterns" can be like learning Chinese, with each intricate symbol having a complex meaning and needing to be memorised as a separate item - tens of thousands of them. Learning totally by phonics has its drawbacks too, with many exceptions to the rules in a lot of English words. A flexible two-pronged approach seems a good idea.

It is not surprising that reading ability (and thus all education and familiarity with the written word) seems to be polarised in the States.

The term "patterned text" or "patterned book" is used primarily in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is a foundational concept in the "Balanced Literacy" and "Whole Language" teaching philosophies that were standard in these countries.

My daughter teaches 6 year olds. Phonics are used and are widely successful with the majority of the classes.

As “understanding” of the words and texts grows “comprehension” is introduced.

Parents are encouraged both to read to and listen to their children read.

It works for most.

Those that struggle are picked up pretty quickly and given extra help.

I don’t know if this answers your question?

I’m pretty sure this system is used across most primary/infant schools?

Good post though. Even if it's a bot.

In the end, as adults and elderly, we all seem to make it through life alright regardless of our kindergarten teachers.

I think we are all talking among ourselves. I doubt we will hear from the OP again.

I suspect you are right, MOnica.

The OP speaks the language of reading instruction.

‘Decoding’ refers to working out what word the collection of letters on the page represents while I think ‘whole patterned’ refers to Look and Say early reading schemes which ignored phonics and endeavoured to teach children to read by the use of highly repetitive text.

I think we are all talking among ourselves. I doubt we will hear from the OP again.

I think sometimes, when people are worried about something they google possible forums that will help and sign up to lots of them and make a post and once they have done that they feel better and never look at any of the responses.

I was an early reader (phonics and constant use of same or similar words) was an avid reader up until old age when I completely lost the will and concentration to read
My three children were all early readers although my son was never interested in reading a book I don’t think he has changed however he holds a senior management post and travels the world
My grandkids were all good readers bar one who is dyslexic and struggled She has never read a full book I don’t think she ever will, however she got a first class honours degree and went on to get a distinction in her masters and has been offered a good job starting soon she has a very good understanding of words and is very computer literate

I have never thought of reading a book as ‘decoding it’ or it being ‘whole patterned’ very computer like language to my ears So decoding means understanding the meaning or story
And pattered means repeating the words to become familiar with them, have I got that right ?

Mamie

Phonics was reintroduced in England with the literacy strategy in 1998 and synthetic phonics in 2006. I remember huge arguments in meetings of teachers, advisory teachers and inspectors. Everyone had very strong feelings and some people had a very narrow view with no room for compromise.

I’m firmly one of the latter, Mamie.

I spent the last few years of my working life with secondary children severely disadvantaged by being barely able to read. Compromise was what led to that state.

I retired more than a decade ago but thinking of some of the children I worked with still saddens and enrages me.

Phonics was reintroduced in England with the literacy strategy in 1998 and synthetic phonics in 2006. I remember huge arguments in meetings of teachers, advisory teachers and inspectors. Everyone had very strong feelings and some people had a very narrow view with no room for compromise.

MissAdventure
My username shows exactly which camp I'm in tho' the spelling is entirely the work of my darling GD with her own take on phonics.

The US doesn't teach phonics, that I am aware of. They think a child will learn to read by memorising ay, be, sea, dee. I don't see how that is even related to actually reading.

Pattern books are books that have similar words on every page with one word change as in, "I see a car" next page -> "I see a boat", next page -> "I see a kid" (b-a-a-a-ah).

The only thing I object to, is when the other nan suggested that she and i could be big nanny and little nanny.
Sseing as i knew which title would be mine, i wasn't at all keen!

Macaydia

BlueBelle

‘Whole pattern books’ and ‘decoding’
I don’t even understand your language ekartroda

Makes sense to me. Perhaps the schools aren't teaching phonics?

It makes sense to me, too.

It’s definitely a sign that children aren’t being taught phonics.

I don’t know if the OP will return but it sounds to me as if she is from the US. The US has been very slow to return to phonics teaching , here in the UK it was reintroduced about 14 years ago.

If the OP is from the US posters should really know that ‘kids’ is a really common term for children there. Snidey comments about baby goats seem a bit rude.

Ziplok
By the way, I, personally, refuse to refer to children as “kids” as kids are baby goats.

I am in absolute agreement with you. I also always called my grandmothers 'Grandma' because one in particular really objected to being called Nan, or worse still 'Nanny'. She said a nanny was a female goat and she was not a goat.

My apologies if that offends any of the many GN members whose DGC call them nan, nanny or nanna. I am merely reporting what was said by someone else.

Whether it is spam or not my previous answer was entirely practically based on what best UK practice is.

MissAdventure

I thought i caught a faint whiff of spam at one point, but maybe not.

I thought AI MissA

ekrartona

I keep running into kids who can recite whole patterned books and look fluent for a minute, but once the text changes even a little bit, they're stuck. It seems like this gets missed way too often because the kid sounds like a reader until you dig into what they're actually doing. I'm curious how different schools are catching that early and what interventions are helping once it's identified. Are people seeing better results with stronger phonics screening up front or is it more about how classroom reading is being monitored?

Where do you keep running into children who can recite books but don’t actually understand what they have read? Do you go into schools regularly?

The way around it, of course, is to ask them questions about the text - in that way you can determine whether they have understood what they have read, rather than just learned to recite it parrot fashion. Any good early years teacher will know this and apply this technique.

By the way, I, personally, refuse to refer to children as “kids” as kids are baby goats.

This sounds like dyslexia. Dyslexia can take many forms. Some children have difficulties decoding langage -difficulty with reading and others have difficulty encoding. They struggle with spelling, grammar, punctuation.

Most dyslexic children suffer from both, at least the ones I know did.

If you live in England, and I suspect not, I think you you may live in the USA so I can only answer for the Brtish system. In which case the school should have picked this up quite early in the child's school career and arranged specialist tuition for these children and will make changes to how the school engages with them

For example, a dyslexic child will be allowed to dictate the answers to exams to a transcriber.

I thought i caught a faint whiff of spam at one point, but maybe not.

I memorised all of my Latin text but still failed my O’level. Whoops

BlueBelle

‘Whole pattern books’ and ‘decoding’
I don’t even understand your language ekartroda

I don’t understand pattern books or decoding either.

BlueBelle

‘Whole pattern books’ and ‘decoding’
I don’t even understand your language ekartroda

Makes sense to me. Perhaps the schools aren't teaching phonics?

As chocolatelovinggran suggests.