[senco-forum] Re Literacy

I believe that they learned to read by way of syllabberies (sp?): which seem to have used a similar technique to that of Toe by Toe (which is where this debate all started, isn't it?!)  I don't think that 'look & say' theories about teaching reading were introduced until the 18th/19th century.

When I read Shakespeare last year with some of my 'high ability' strugglers (yes, difficulty in learning to read isn't confined to lower ability children) they actually found it quite easy to decode; the English language didn't have quite so many 'foreign' introductions 400 years ago.

Maggie

E Olson <elzo15ns at dsl.pipex.com> wrote:

PS My comment about the Elizabethan writes was meant to convey that however 
they learned to read, they WROTE in synthetic phonics- in response to your 
query as to how they achieved their literary greatness.  I expect that 
Primers and probably Look and Say rules deduced from the words offered 
produced their quota of failed readers in their general population then as 
now.

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