Phonics

A careful look at the chart of phonics introduced by Touchphonics Reading Systems (“Big Bucks Draw a Big Response,” Jan. 3) presents a perfect picture why, in English, the teaching of phonics first, before beginning the reading process, is absurd. English doesn’t follow the rules: OW = snow? cow? EI = eight? seize? EW = new? sew? EA = eat? steak? OUGH = tough? through? thought? though?

So, dear phonics experts, how do you sound it out? What are the rules? You can usually say “usually,” but to a beginning reader, this is a muddle. Without real words in real stories making real sense, phonics in isolation is simply a bizarre exercise in futility. Phonics is only a tool in a toolbox of strategies to teach reading, as all good primary teachers know.

LANORE PEARLMAN

Claremont