Passionless Text and Phonics First: Through a Child’s Eyes: A parent-researcher uses ethnography to critically examine the struggles of her daughter to read decodable text in a second language

This article describes experiences in the life of an eight-year-old girl learning a new language in a decodable text/phonics-first environment. The child’s struggles to make sense of senseless text illuminate reasons why children may struggle with, dislike, and learn to define reading as merely word-calling when instructional experiences focus on passionless texts and skills in isolation. Through the eyes of a second language learner, fallacies of such approaches become visible in ways that speak to teachers of all children. Her stories demonstrate ways that reading, for a previously voracious lover of books, became difficult, frustrating, and demeaning. Implications describe how text choice and focus of instruction can have the power to ignite or destroy children’s desire, perseverance, and ability as readers.