Robot Bastard!
@robot-bastard.bsky.social
Here we go again. *sigh*
Well that's...suprising.
November 19, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Well that's...suprising.
It's a little weird to imagine that there are people watching "Wicked" who *haven't* seen "The Wizard Of Oz"!
November 19, 2025 at 8:40 PM
It's a little weird to imagine that there are people watching "Wicked" who *haven't* seen "The Wizard Of Oz"!
To be fair there's lots of kids who can't count change, but I think that's more a "has never been in a pressure situation" thing than anything to do with arithmetic ability.
November 19, 2025 at 8:18 PM
To be fair there's lots of kids who can't count change, but I think that's more a "has never been in a pressure situation" thing than anything to do with arithmetic ability.
on the other hand, if they change things the fans get all weird about *that*, so.
November 19, 2025 at 8:11 PM
on the other hand, if they change things the fans get all weird about *that*, so.
I think also a lot of them want to invent a slave race so that they can get the ego-lift from being A Good Man Who Frees His Slaves.
November 19, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I think also a lot of them want to invent a slave race so that they can get the ego-lift from being A Good Man Who Frees His Slaves.
So you're guessing the interpretation from context and prior knowledge, and correcting later if you get updated information?
November 19, 2025 at 7:59 PM
So you're guessing the interpretation from context and prior knowledge, and correcting later if you get updated information?
He just has got a REALLY good deal for you on a set of pro-level speakers that the guy at his last house-remodel job didn't want...
November 19, 2025 at 7:58 PM
He just has got a REALLY good deal for you on a set of pro-level speakers that the guy at his last house-remodel job didn't want...
Why would phonics be relevant to reading if speaking weren't part of it?
November 19, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Why would phonics be relevant to reading if speaking weren't part of it?
"Whole-language is just teaching kids to guess from context clues" is what phonics methods do at an individual-word level, so that criticism is baseless; that's what my reference to "ghoti" earlier was about.
November 19, 2025 at 7:44 PM
"Whole-language is just teaching kids to guess from context clues" is what phonics methods do at an individual-word level, so that criticism is baseless; that's what my reference to "ghoti" earlier was about.
My claim regarding whole-language instruction is that A) it's how people actually read and B) the reason it's going so badly as a teaching method is that programs aren't pairing it with vocabulary expansion, which is what "reading as a method of communication" relies on.
November 19, 2025 at 7:43 PM
My claim regarding whole-language instruction is that A) it's how people actually read and B) the reason it's going so badly as a teaching method is that programs aren't pairing it with vocabulary expansion, which is what "reading as a method of communication" relies on.
oh hey look, it's vocabulary expansion, exactly the thing I said that whole-language instruction was failing because it *didn't* do
November 19, 2025 at 7:36 PM
oh hey look, it's vocabulary expansion, exactly the thing I said that whole-language instruction was failing because it *didn't* do
Pronouncing a word wrong isn't "reading perfectly".
November 19, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Pronouncing a word wrong isn't "reading perfectly".
How do you derive the meaning of an unknown word?
November 19, 2025 at 7:33 PM
How do you derive the meaning of an unknown word?
Teach them more words, then! Teach them lots of words, many words, an expansive and refulgent vocabulary! You will not find a single "good reader" who hasn't got a vocabulary well above basic requirement.
November 19, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Teach them more words, then! Teach them lots of words, many words, an expansive and refulgent vocabulary! You will not find a single "good reader" who hasn't got a vocabulary well above basic requirement.
All reading is "interpretation of pictures", we've just decided that certain pictures (letters) in certain combinations (words) have a consensus interpretation. The question is how to most effectively get kids to memorize enough of those combinations.
November 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
All reading is "interpretation of pictures", we've just decided that certain pictures (letters) in certain combinations (words) have a consensus interpretation. The question is how to most effectively get kids to memorize enough of those combinations.
Someone at a former workplace said "we've got to get rid of this monkey before it spawns a smaller monkey". (also "I can't take that monkey right now because my bin is full".)
November 19, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Someone at a former workplace said "we've got to get rid of this monkey before it spawns a smaller monkey". (also "I can't take that monkey right now because my bin is full".)
But there's a difference between "cannot extract useful meaning from a sentence" and "cannot read".
November 19, 2025 at 7:17 PM
But there's a difference between "cannot extract useful meaning from a sentence" and "cannot read".
Right, which is why "vocabulary expansion" is an important part of language instruction, and it's the part that schools are failing to do, which is why the method doesn't seem to work.
November 19, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Right, which is why "vocabulary expansion" is an important part of language instruction, and it's the part that schools are failing to do, which is why the method doesn't seem to work.
the podcast series would've done better to use the old joke about the doctor who didn't know Spanish guessing at the word for "push" not understanding why an expectant mother got angry at him yelling "PUTA, PUTA" in the delivery room
November 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM
the podcast series would've done better to use the old joke about the doctor who didn't know Spanish guessing at the word for "push" not understanding why an expectant mother got angry at him yelling "PUTA, PUTA" in the delivery room
Was the content of "Tom and Plet", "jumping", "trampoline" not communicated?
November 19, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Was the content of "Tom and Plet", "jumping", "trampoline" not communicated?
The joke is that phonics involves just as much guessing-from-context and memorization as whole-language methods, as anyone who knows what "ghoti" means can tell you.
November 19, 2025 at 7:06 PM
The joke is that phonics involves just as much guessing-from-context and memorization as whole-language methods, as anyone who knows what "ghoti" means can tell you.
the funniest part of Sold A Story is at the end where a bunch of teachers read a sentence in a language they don't speak by using the exact method that the podcast series claims is unworkable garbage
November 19, 2025 at 7:06 PM
the funniest part of Sold A Story is at the end where a bunch of teachers read a sentence in a language they don't speak by using the exact method that the podcast series claims is unworkable garbage
The method as taught was "look for words you know, then guess the rest of the sentence based on context". This was supposed to be paired with extensive vocabulary-memorization work so that the kids knew a lot of words, but that part didn't happen so much...
November 19, 2025 at 7:05 PM
The method as taught was "look for words you know, then guess the rest of the sentence based on context". This was supposed to be paired with extensive vocabulary-memorization work so that the kids knew a lot of words, but that part didn't happen so much...