Early intervention with reading challenges has very high success rates for supporting reading development, but it is much more difficult to improve reading skills in older students.
Two literacy scholars share their concerns about growing pressure on educators to emphasize phonics to teach reading. In their view, critiques of other methods often rest on a false premise.
We have transitioned from a literate culture to one that values speed, immediacy and the decoding of small grabs of words in search for information. But old and new ways of reading can co-exist.
Sue Thomson, Australian Council for Educational Research and Kylie Hillman, Australian Council for Educational Research
Every three years, the OECD releases its Programme for International Student Assessment results. Last time, Australia’s education system was doing much worse than some other countries. Has it changed?
A whole language approach to teaching reading gives kids a whole linguistic picture of how words work. This includes teaching individual letters and sounds, as well as what the words mean in context.
English is a code-based language, with 26 letters to represent 44 speech sounds. Children must first learn to master the code if they want to be successful readers.
Years 5-7 typically include the transition from primary to secondary but the reading slowdown can’t just be blamed on this, because numeracy progress has improved. So what’s going on with reading?
Unparalleled elegance and versatility in the design of the human hand, and the hand’s connections with the brain, lie behind how humans learn to read and write.
What children say about free writing is similar to how professional authors describe the creative process. Teachers should give kids freedom to explore, providing guidance when it’s due.
Early experiences sharing and developing positive connections, language and communication set the stage for home reading to start children on the path to literacy.
Most parents know how important it is to read to their child, but not as many know the importance of helping them learn emotional skills. And it’s the emotional skills teachers find most important.
Grade 4 student Charlene seemed chronically off-task – until an educator noticed she was, in fact, the sole student pursuing the question, ‘Was the oil boom bad for our wildlife?’
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary