Who teaches teachers to teach phonics? Is there a set of courses they take as education majors in college where professors take them through lessons on how to teach phonics specifically, or are they just given a set of books to follow on their own?
Also, if you are familiar with Jolly Phonics, how different is it than the phonics taught in say, Virginia?

It was a combination of classes for me. We went through many classes on teaching reading.....MANY! Now, our teacher's edition of the text also has activities listed and techniques to help.

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I have a minor in Reading Instruction, but honestly... I don't know how much good that would do me today. They change the terminology every few years, and different schools use different curriculum, so you might know something and then land in a school that does things differently.

I know most of my methods courses for El. Ed. were good and enlightening. There were lots of concepts - especially in math - that I didn't really understand until college. We used a lot manipulatives like Cuisinaire rods that helped make things that had seemed entirely conceptual into things that were concrete.

El. Ed. majors are apt to have to learn not only various styles of handwriting (D'Nealian, Zaner-Bloser, etc.), but take Children's Literature courses and a number of other language arts hours.

Regarding phonics, I remember being tested on a host of phonetic rules that I couldn't recite to you today if my life depended on it. There are so many rules beyond "I before E, except after C".... when a "C" has a hard sound and when it has a soft (S) sound, etc. And then of course there are the many words that don't fit any rules...

I was looking at old Electric Company clips on YouTube the other day. That's how I learned to read as a kid, and seeing it again as an adult made me remember how wonderfully simple it all seemed at the time - lol!

YouTube - The Electric Company - C is for CA

ETA: Another classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVC9T...eature=related
And another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op4Im0y5n9s&NR=1

OMG!! I loved that show when I was a kid. Anyway....I did have to take children's literature and a bunch of other reading classes for early childhood.

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I have my degree in Middle Childhood Math/Science but still have to take a bunch of phonics courses in college. My son use to love to watch the Leap Frog DVD's when he was little, which taught letter sounds.

Oh, those DVD's are wonderful. I use the letter factory and later the word factory. I had one student that could not remember the letter sounds for anything, but after a few times watching the letter factory....he has is down now! Bottom line is, if they are not engaged, they are not learning.

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

Still thinking about The Electric Company. My favorite was always "It's the Plumber, I've come to fix the sink"!

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"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I took many reading/teaching reading courses in college. I also have over 300 hours in prof. dev. hours for our reading curriculum.

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All we are and all we see is but a dream in a dream, All that you see or seem, is but a dream within a dream--Edgar Allan Poe