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

MissAdventure

I've never said halcyon out loud.

😆😆😆

hal see on

(though I do think it’s possibly better represented as hal see yon)

I've always liked the word,.but.not been able to slide it into a conversation.
I'd pronounce it as you've written.

Think this issue is really a non-issue here in the UK as it's the result of using the Balanced Literacy method.
I am new to this idea but this is what I've read about it:

Instead of teaching children to look at a word and "sound it out" from left to right, it's based on "Three-Cueing"

It teaches that print is only one of several clues to a word.

When a child doesn't know a word, they ard taught to ask 3 questions:

​"What makes sense here? Look at the picture."
​"What kind of word fits (grammatically) here?"
And
"What does the first letter suggest?"

Initally children are given very "predictable" texts - books with sentences like "The horse is in the barn" (picture). "The cow is in the barn". The pig is in the barn etc.

​Because the books rely heavily on repetition and clear illustrations, children quickly learn the pattern and look at the pictures to "read" the changing words.

It means that children seem to be reading when actually they are making intelligent guesses.

By 8-9 illustrations disappear from the books, text gets smaller, and multi-syllabic more complex words appear because the child is now a "reader" they are expected to read words that don't really have a picture - environment or bureaucracy for example so children often don't have the skills to decode these more ordinary books.

If they muddle through for a while later on intensive "weaning" is needed or basically the secondary school children won't really be able to read.

There's a lot of work in America to help children catch up.

^this is just what I think the original poster was talking about.

The method of the thre cues is now actively banned in some states.

DaisyAnneReturns mentioned it earlier - I wanted to elaborate a little.
Forgot to say you had talked about it Daisy

Excellent post, NotSpaghetti.

I would say, from experience, that the guesses at words are usually wild rather than intelligent

How anyone can defend any part of this ludicrously unscientific method of teaching reading is completely beyond me...

Speaking of science, neuroscientists say that the word identification process starts with breaking it into its component letters and builds from there. That the whole word ID process done by skilled readers takes a matter of milliseconds; which I think is the reason that people think that phonics is irrelevant to word ID. Whereas it is fundamental.

Thanks NotSpaghetti. Good clarification.

Used in the USA explains it.

UK schools often start with picture books where the children are encouraged to talk about the pictures, but the words are not included. These books encourage pre-readers to infer plot from visual cues, learn how to turn pages, and narrate the action in their own words.

NB Even though we introduced it at pre- school meetings with parents, including demonstrations of children using picture books, we found some parents were really not happy with this stage. It required more effort than simply pointing at words.

I think some of us truly feel blessed to have small people to share books with.
😍
But sadly, many do not feel this particular joy. This is just so sad and a situation where everyone misses out.