I would LOVE to see the kid who was able to memorize a book without having read it first. Why does this idea persist?
(Note - my comment has nothing to do with the OP's issue with this teacher)... just fwiw, my HG+ dd memorized words and was able to look like she was reading when really she wasn't reading, she was parroting back words she had memorized and sometimes she would be using pictures that went with the words to key her memory. She's got a great memory, and she watched and listened while books were read to her. So yes, there are kids who can memorize books without technically having read them first.
For her, it really was (and is) an issue - she's 2e and still struggling to read. Our ds also had a friend in K/1 who learned to read by memorizing words, and the teachers back then were very concerned about it - they thought if she didn't learn how to decode using phonics she would struggle with higher level reading. I don't know if that happened or not.
polarbear
