Discussing Open Court

Open Court or Open Cult?
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Open Court or Open Cult?

Does anyone have any experience with the Open Court reading system? I know a few schools in Tokyo use it, but from most of what I’ve read and the teachers I have spoken with, it seems to be a very detrimental sytem. Check out this blog article about it.
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It certainly sounds like Open Court is a detrimental system.
Try the old Lippencott Phonics or some other program, if you want a phonics approach. Some children learn best that way. Also, if is easy to relate to if children have learned Hiragana first, as the Japanese “alphabet” is purely phonetic. The short vowels one
starts with in English are clearly contrastive with the vowels in Japanese (except for “e” as in elephant), so it is a good way to
get the pronunciation contrast. Then attach them to consonants in short words, before going on to the long vowels. Of course,
phonics is only one strategy, but it can help the children to recognize words they already know.
— Steve