Author: Mike

Rethink and reset conventional priorities.  Why?  ABC-based products – per se – provide incomplete information.

Shown here, Nellie Edge’s program engages visual modality (ABCs), auditory modality (speech sounds), and kinesthetic modality (signing cues) to create optimal learning.  Yet, since crucial speech sound-units are missing, 100% mastery of this chart cannot guarantee that the learner actually understands foundational literacy basics or how spoken language becomes text.

V01/a/ alligator

V02/i/ insect

V03/o/ octopus

V04/u/ umbrella

V05/e/ elephant

V06 ?

V07 ?

V08 ?

V09 ?

V10 ?

V11 ?

V12 ?

V13 ?

V14 ?

V15 ?

C16/p/ piano

C17/b/ bear

C18/t/ turtle

C19/d/ dog

C20/ch/ chicken

C21/j/ jump

C22/c/ cat; C22/k/ kangaroo

C22+C28/x/ x-ray (beginning sound V05)

C22+C36/qu/ queen

C23/g/ goat

C24/f/ fox

C25/v/ volcano

C26/th/ thread

C27 ?

C28/s/ sunshine

C29/z/ zebra

C30/sh/ sheep

C31 ?

C32/h/ hat

C32+C36/wh/ whale

C33/m/ monkey

C34/n/ nest

C35 ?

C36/w/ world

C37/l/ lion

C38/r/ rainbow

C39/y/ yo-yo

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See Microsoft Word ABC Phonics and other fonts on display at Pinterest, again missing much necessary SOUND-BASED information:

V01 ?

V02 ?

V03/o/ opera

V04 ?

V05/e/ elephant

V06/ai/ airplane

V07 ?

V08 ?

V09 ?

C39+V09/u/ unicorn

V10 ?

V11 ?

V12 ?

V13 ?

V14 ?

V15 ?

C16/p/ penguin

C17/b/ baby

C18/t/ turtle

C19/d/ dinosaur

C20 ?

C21/j/ jaguar

C22/c/ car; C22/k/ koala

C22+C36/qu/ quintet

C23/g/ gorilla

C24/f/ fountain

C25/v/ viking

C26 ?

C27 ?

C28/s/ sun

C29/z/ zoo; C29/x/ xylophone

C30 ?

C31 ?

C32/h/ hippopotamus

C33/m/ mom

C34/n/ nest

C35 ?

C36/w/ water

C37/l/ lion

C38/r/ robot

C39/y/ yo-yo

We would never buy an alphabet product if letters were missing.  Why, then, are we willing to ignore all these speech sounds?

ABC orientation infiltrates all curriculum.  For instance, ABRACADABRA < abralite.concordia.ca > is an acronym for “a balanced reading approach for all Canadians designed to achieve best results for all”.  The general phonics program continuum could be modified away from ABCs as follows.

1st Level – Phonological sensitivity using words-to-be-read, including (a) Speech Sounds/intense [instead of Letter Sounds/intense], (b) Blending, (c) Segmenting

2nd Level – (a) Sound-spellings [instead of Sounding out/phoneme level], (b) Word Changing (ex. within/between)

3rd Level – Reading real words in text

E = C + V

English equals Consonant Sounds plus Vowel Sounds.

15 vowels + 24 consonants = 39 sound-units

E – C  = V

Consonant sounds/spellings subtracted from English words determine Vowel sounds/spellings.

WordsAhead is dedicated to solving big challenges by creating the most effective literacy outcomes in the most convenient ways.  Play Google interactive crossword puzzle at http://www.google.com/logos/2013/crossword/crossword13.html

IMPLICIT BIAS (Stanford School of Medicine definition):  A positive or negative mental attitude towards something which a person holds at an unconscious level.

WordsAhead intends to disrupt institutional wisdom by influencing parents, tutors and educators to teach speech sounds – rather than ABCs or any alphabet-based notion – as the default infrastructure for both spoken and written language.

WA wants to create an implicit bias favoring sound-parsing (phonemic awareness) but avoid muddling its focus with commingled phonics jargon (Long-A, Short-A, B-Sound, Hard-C, Soft-C, etc.).  WA uses *new* names for English speech sounds, V01-C39.

EXPLICIT BIAS is an attitude a person is consciously aware of.

*CloudSpelling* is an example of explicitly biased sound-based instruction.  WA urges ubiquitous opportunities for vocabulary instruction – including pronunciation and spelling – ahead of all formal so-called “content” instruction so that students can be completely primed to meet teacher expectations.  WA waits for demonstrable evidence that learners are actually being taught to spell-out speech sound units, not to sound-out ABCs.

Tools for this new paradigm have not yet been built because research and development remains incomplete.  Ironically, research and development remains incomplete because tools for this new approach are not yet built.

Nonetheless, biases will be automatically fostered from very early ages.  Our brains are naturally hard-wired to hear first, read second, but formal curriculum changes the flow.  Many brains obviously compensate around distortions or blatant misinformation to simply carry on.

In her January 26, 2015 article for The New Yorker [The Cobweb: Can the Internet be Archived?], Jill Lepore explores many organizational and ethical issues related to internet information.  WA alleges that relevance is the linchpin to successful learning.  Deep language analysis is a righteous intrusion if it means that every person’s underpinnings for both granular and global language study can be explicitly correct.

Time being, many people are functionally deaf and remain unsure about how language actually works.  Sounds are sounds, period. Spoken language may or may not get letter-representations, period.  But all vocabulary can be heard, said, spelled and read… exclamation mark!

Doing research in a paper archive is to

doing research in a Web archive as

going to a fish market is to

being thrown in the middle of the ocean;

the important thing they have in common is that both involve fish.

One’s study of any particular lesson (whether in a classroom or virtually on an electronic device) will be more focused than simply living one’s day-to-day life surrounded by swimming speech sounds.  One must become confident to catch any cluster of relevant sound-fish and enjoy a delicious and nutritious word-meal with friends!

A small group of people can make the future happen faster!!

Ansari: Usher in a new era of private suborbital spaceflight

Archon Genomics:  Sequence 100 whole human genomes (cancelled because the competition was not incentivizing the technological changes)

Global Learning:  Empower children to take control of their own learning

Google Lunar:  Develop a robot that can successfully land on the moon’s surface, travel at least 500 meters and then, transmit images back to Earth.

Nokia Sensing:  Affordable, personalized healthcare

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander:  Advance repeated rocket travel to the moon.

Progressive Insurance Automotive:  New generation of super fuel-efficient vehicles.

Qualcomm Tricorder

Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health:  Improve understanding of how CO2 emissions are affecting ocean acidification.

Open-source sustainable abundance time…