Phonics Exposed

• Contents: Y.M. Goodman, Foreword. Preface. Why Another Book on Phonics? Phonics Lessons. What Is Reading? Phonics Programs, Teacher Knowledge, and Teacher Identity. A Closer Look at the Children. Phonics Programs and Curriculum. Phonics, Reading, and Culture. Phonics, Reading, and Politics. Teachers, Activism, and Hope. Appendix: Maybe Rules Are Not the Way to Teach Phonics.

"The text is easy to understand and asks questions of the reader, drawing them into the book. An appendix includes phonics rules. Written for reading teachers, this singularly focused book is recommended for academic libraries supporting reading programs, elementary teacher education students, practitioners, and activists.—CHOICE"Phonics Exposed is simultaneously (1) a gorgeously thick ethnographic description of one mandated scripted phonics lesson; (2) a lucid, graceful spelling-out of how the minute-to-minute unfolding of one lesson, as actually lived by a teacher and students, illustrates a range of theoretical arguments about reading, identities, race, culture, curriculum, and politics; and (3) a useful handbook for education activists. Rick Meyer has written an amazing look-you-in-the eye kind of book--deceptively simple because it is so rhetorically friendly; full of humor and hope despite the current politico-educational crisis it addresses. I was hooked (on Phonics Exposed, not on ph--) right from the start."—Carole EdelskyArizona State University"Richard Meyer's Phonics Exposed....makes it abundantly clear that reading is political. He demonstrates how the impositions of mandates and laws about the teaching of reading deprofessionalizes the art and science of teaching reading and at the same time disenfranchises children from becoming critical and lifelong readers....Phonics Exposed is not only an exposé of the phonics debacle but just as importantly a call to action...."—Yetta M. GoodmanUniversity of Arizona, From the Foreword"Mandated programs are everywhere....This book has the potential of forcing administrators and politicians to think about what they are doing when they mandate programs....It will be an eye opener to many people and has the potential of having a major impact."—Prisca MartensIndiana University-Purdue University