Running starts in reading

My post about the Fountas and Pinnell (F&P) curriculum takes issue with their emphasis on “word solving,” the use of a variety of strategies to figure words out. I mentioned “get a running start,” taking it as representative of strategies that are inefficient and unreliable. Re-reading the post I wondered whether “get a running start” was from F&P or the Lucy Calkins-TCRWP curriculum, which I’ve also been examining. Both emphasize the use of multiple strategies for reading words. They seem very similar to me in this respect, although they differ in other ways. Nonetheless, I wanted to check the provenance of the phrase for accuracy.That exact wording is apparently from Calkins, not F&P.  It’s found here, for example:I also retrieved my Fountas and Pinnell books from a borrower and looked at the discussions of strategies and word solving. Many strategies are discussed (e.g. more than 50 word solving actions in the Fountas & Pinnell, 2017a, guide), but I did not find the phrase “get a running start.” It is hard to tally all of the strategies described in Fountas & Pinnell (2017b): there are multiple ones for every grade and for every level in their A-Z continuum. But, I didn’t find “running start there, either.  Guided Reading (1996) discusses re-reading the sentence containing a problem word but it isn’t called getting a running start.  I haven’t read all of the materials that F&P have produced, but it appears that the phrase should be credited to Calkins and TCRWP. Regardless of what it is called, the point is the same: using the recommended procedures for figuring words out is inefficient and unreliable compared to using the spelling of a word and its associated pronunciation. The point holds for both curricula.Re-reading F&P, I was reminded just how complex their system is. That may be why it gets reduced to classroom posters like this one:How children would be expected to remember and use the dozens of word solving activities described in these books is a mystery to me. I also wonder how easy these materials are for teachers to use, and whether there is sufficient time in a school year to even cover all of these possibilities. I hope that people who have far greater familiarity with these curricula than me can comment and correct any other errors.References:Fountas & Pinnell (2017a), Comprehensive phonics, spelling and word study guide. Heinemann.Fountas & Pinnell (2017b), The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum, expanded edition. Heinemann.Fountas & Pinnell (1996), Guided Reading. Heinemann.