Summer of Ska @summerofska - Tumblr Blog

misterivy

R.I.P. Jimmy Cliff (30 July 1944 – 24 November 2025)

nedison

The Selecter performing Three Minute Hero in the 1981 concert film Dance Craze.

blemgoid

a second ornithopter has hit the nimbus relay

depsidase

talbatross

rb if I agree

queen-mayhem

I used to be mad about "whole language" reading approaches in theory but now I work with school-age kids and I am mad about it in practice.

queen-mayhem

the word is "commute"

kid: complete?

me: do you see a P in that word?

kid: uh.... compare?

me: where are you getting a P??? sound it out.

kid: com... complete?

me: is that a P after the M? sound it out.

kid: *stares blankly*

me: [oh right, nobody taught them how to do this. fucking hell...] okay, we'll do this together [like it's kindergarden even though you're thirteen years old...]. what sound does C make?

queen-mayhem

I am not a reading teacher or a dyslexia specialist but I'm having to do remedial phonics instruction for middle schoolers because nobody ever taught them how SO THEY CAN'T FUCKING READ

queen-mayhem

I cannot overstate how much these kids are just making wild guesses when I ask them to read something. Because that's what they were taught to do. If you don't know a word, use context clues and make a guess at what you think the word might be.

Which is a fucking insane approach to reading, by the way, and I could rant about this forever because this makes absolutely no sense and I cannot figure out how the entire educational field was duped into thinking that this makes a lick of sense.

But I also want to emphasize that even kids who are decent readers have this problem. I work with some kids who straight-up can't read, but even my kids who absolutely can read will just guess wildly at an unfamiliar word. Those kids will go back and sound it out if I force them to, because they can read, so they have the necessary decoding skills. But they have to be pushed to do it and reminded several times to quit fucking guessing and read the actual letters on the page, Jason.

queen-mayhem

For example. I have a kid who is actually a pretty strong reader - probably one of my best.

The word was "disagreement."

He made a couple of guesses - some nonsensical, but after pushing him to sound out the word, he got closer. He kept saying "dis-age-ment" and "dis-argue-ment."

And I said okay, let's break this word down. Is there anything in here you recognize?

"The beginning is 'dis' and the end is 'ment' like argument, but I don't know the middle."

Great! Let's pull the middle out. I wrote the word "agree" on the page. Do you know this word?

"Age? Argue?"

SOUND. IT. OUT.

"Ag... agriculture?"

Jason the love of god. I drew a line in the middle. Ag/ree. Sound out each part.

"I don't know."

JASON. I wrote them out on opposite sides of the paper. Ag...........ree. What sound does ag make?

"Ag?"

YES GREAT FANTASTIC. Now come all the way over here. Ree. Sound it out.

"Are?"

JASON. R. E. E.

"Rey? Ree?"

Yes, thank you, it's Ree. Put it together.

"Ag...ree? Oh! It's disagreement!"

YES. EXCELLENT. THANK YOU. WHY WAS THIS SO HARD?

ms-hells-bells

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have

queen-mayhem

#however the situation is better in liberal states that invest substantially more money into education than conservative states

As much as I wish that was the case, "Jason" and all of his classmates are students in a strongly blue state with some of the highest educational spending per student in the country.

I'm not saying the situation is better in red states - I've seen what my friends who are teaching in Texas are dealing with and the situation is dire. I'm just saying it's less of a red/blue or funding issue than you might imagine.

batboyblog

My mother was a special educator for 40 years? with two sons with reading disabilities, SO! when Covid hit at the same time my oldest niece was supposed to go into Kindergarten she swung into action and got my sister a bunch of phonics stuff (Learning Without Tears) and so my sister taught my oldest niece to read by sounding out.

lets say she's not a naturally really strong reader and without those decoding skills she'd be in SO much trouble but because she has them she's at grade level (and enjoys reading for fun, which I doubt she would if she hadn't learned the right way)

and I see her younger sister who is naturally a stronger reader, who's working on books 2-3 grade levels above her but they never taught her those phonics skills in school, she does it kinda because her sister does but I know like she'd be at the 5th grade+ reading level rn if she'd learned to read sounding it out

its just so interesting to see the difference with two kids in the same house and how much being taught to sound it out helps and how much not being taught that hinders

sanguinifex

The science of reading is real, and it’s phonics

ensalada-de-lengua-de-pajaritos

ringdingofficial

Today 30 years ago, this album was released…

skatunenetwork

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delightfulmusicpost-deactivated

On February 25, 1964, an iconic photo was captured at London Airport featuring Prince Buster dancing with Brigette Bond. This snapshot would later become a key moment in the history of ska, encapsulating the energy and spirit of the genre during its formative years.

The photograph was published in the May 1979 issue of *Melody Maker*, where it gained further recognition. It would eventually inspire Hunt Emerson's design for *The Beat Girl*, which later became the official logo for The English Beat. This image became closely linked with the ska movement, symbolizing its vibrant and youthful culture.

Over time, the photo would become a defining symbol of ska music and the 2-tone era, embodying the lively, rebellious energy that characterized the movement. Its lasting influence continues to be felt, resonating as a visual cornerstone of the ska and 2-tone legacy.