tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/teaching-reading-10027/articlesTeaching reading – The Conversation2023-05-22T14:53:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2060082023-05-22T14:53:35Z2023-05-22T14:53:35ZSouth Africa’s 10 year-olds are struggling to read – it can be fixed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527278/original/file-20230519-29-zuh178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While there's no single solution to the crisis, a range of approaches can help to bolster children's literacy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kobus Louw/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>More than 80% of South Africa’s grade 4 pupils – who are on average nine or 10 years old – cannot read for meaning. That means they can’t answer basic questions about or draw inferences from a text they’re reading. This worrying statistic emerged from the 2021 <a href="https://pirls2021.org/">Progress in International Reading Literacy Study</a> (PIRLS), which <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/in-numbers-sa-produces-one-of-worst-global-reading-results-among-over-50-countries-20230516">were released</a> by the country’s basic education minister, Angie Motshekga, on 16 May.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation Africa asked Karen Roux, a specialist in reading literacy and development of equivalent assessments, to unpack the results.</em></p>
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<h2>What is the purpose of the study?</h2>
<p>It’s an international large-scale assessment which provides participating countries with comparisons across education systems. Perhaps more importantly, it also allows countries to monitor trends over time and indicators of growth in the early years of children’s education. The assessments are conducted in five-year intervals; more than 50 countries participate. Only three African countries participated in the latest cycle: South Africa, Egypt and Morocco.</p>
<p>One of the main objectives for South African education authorities and researchers was to compare how well grade 4 learners read, across the country’s 11 official languages and its nine provinces. This information is vital to government bodies, policy-makers, non-government organisations, and scholars – it can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses and to address curriculum or policy shortcomings.</p>
<h2>How did South Africa fare?</h2>
<p>The PIRLS 2021 study showed that 81% of South African grade 4 pupils, across all 11 official languages, cannot read for meaning. Five years earlier, in the <a href="https://pirls2016.org/wp-content/uploads/encyclopedia-pirls/downloadcenter/3.%20Country%20Chapters/South%20Africa.pdf">2016 study</a>, the figure stood at 78%.</p>
<p>The latest results indicate that eight out of 10 grade 4 children did not reach the <a href="https://pirls2021.org/results/international-benchmarks/">Low International Benchmark</a>, where they are expected to read a piece of text and locate and retrieve explicitly stated information. For example, the text would say “octopuses sometimes even make rock ‘doors’ for their dens that can be pulled closed to keep them safe” and the question would ask “what do octopuses use to make doors for their dens?” </p>
<p>The texts used in these tests came from all over the world, submitted by the participating countries. Twelve were trend texts; they were used in previous PIRLS cycles. Six new tests were developed. All countries got the same tests. </p>
<h2>What explains South Africa’s performance?</h2>
<p>The study happened in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools all over the world had to close for a period of time. It was to be expected that school closures would cause <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-much-learning-south-african-children-lost-in-the-pandemic-183659">learning losses</a> – that is, what pupils ought to have gained over a normal year of schooling, versus what they actually learned.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-learning-losses-what-south-africas-education-system-must-focus-on-to-recover-176622">COVID learning losses: what South Africa's education system must focus on to recover</a>
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<p>In low- and middle-income countries, including South Africa, the pandemic <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/learning-loss-covid-sub-saharan-africa-evidence-malawi">exacerbated</a> existing learning losses. Some scholars <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059321001334">suggest</a> that learning losses also include the “deterioration” of accumulated knowledge that is lost over time.</p>
<h2>COVID disruptions weren’t unique to South Africa, so what explains its poor outcomes?</h2>
<p>It is a (less than) perfect storm of problems. COVID was just part of it. There are also issues with how teachers are being trained to teach languages; parents not instilling a love of reading in their children from a young age, or being involved as they are taught to read at school; and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">inadequate school and classroom resources</a>, especially in poorer schools.</p>
<p>The country’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/languageeducationpolicy19971.pdf">school language policy</a> also likely plays a role. In South Africa, the language of learning and teaching in the early grades is meant to be the language that the pupils speak at home. However, this is not always the case; classrooms, especially in urban areas, are full of pupils speaking diverse languages – not just isiXhosa or isiZulu, for instance, but these and other African languages. </p>
<p>Then, just as the pupils are getting the hang of the language used in the early grades, they switch to English in grade 4. The foundation is not yet laid for one language before this shift happens, so the pupils struggle with the new language (English).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6168212/">Language acquisition theories suggest</a> that before mastering a second language, the child must first have a solid foundation in their first, or home, language.</p>
<h2>Can this crisis be turned around?</h2>
<p>It’s been done elsewhere. </p>
<p>Brazil, which like South Africa is classified as an <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=ZA-XT">upper-middle class income country</a>, has been working hard on improving education. One of its poorest states, Ceará, has made huge strides in boosting literacy and numeracy. In <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/540371593598919465/pdf/From-Bad-to-Best-How-One-State-and-One-Municipality-in-Brazil-are-Eradicating-Illiteracy-and-Innumeracy.pdf">a report about</a> the process, the World Bank writes: </p>
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<p>It began with political leadership. Ceará’s government placed learning at the center of the education policy with a series of reforms under three categories.</p>
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<p>These three categories were: (1) incentives for municipalities to better their education outcomes; (2) extensive support from the state’s literacy programme for municipally run schools and (3) regular results monitoring.</p>
<p>As this approach shows, there’s no one solution to solve any country’s reading crisis. But political will is key. So, too, is ensuring the equitable provision of reading resources to South African schools – developed in African languages and grade appropriate. African language experts and storytellers should be the key source here. </p>
<p>Another thing that should be considered is a revision of the current <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Portals/0/CD/National%20Curriculum%20Statements%20and%20Vocational/CAPS%20IP%20%20HOME%20ENGLISH%20GR%204-6%20%20WEB.pdf?ver=2015-01-27-160412-720">curriculum policy</a> for the early grades, introduced in 2012. The amount of time available for the skill of reading is extremely limited. Only six hours per week are allocated for home language, but this is divided into the different skills that learners must be competent in: listening and speaking, reading and viewing, writing and presenting, as well as language structures and conventions.</p>
<p>That leaves pupils with about five hours in a two-week period to work on reading. This time should be extended.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Roux works for the University of Pretoria. She is affiliated with Literacy Association of South Africa. </span></em></p>Political will is key to tackling pupils’ literacy struggles.Karen Roux, Senior Lecturer in Assessment and Quality Assurance, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1266062019-11-11T19:03:06Z2019-11-11T19:03:06ZReading is more than sounding out words and decoding. That’s why we use the whole language approach to teaching it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301036/original/file-20191111-194656-et3ac6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Words can say different things depending on their context.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jNkvZ8hx8QQ">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was younger I decided to learn Greek. I learnt the letter-sound correspondences and could say the words – the sounds, that is. But although I could and still can decode these words, I can’t actually read Greek because I don’t know what the words mean. </p>
<p>Being able to make the connection between the letters, their combinations and the sounds that make up the words wasn’t all I needed to be able to read. It was an easy way to learn but it didn’t provide me with the whole picture.</p>
<p>As we read, and understand what we are reading, we don’t just use our knowledge of the letter-sound correspondences, which you may know as phonics or phonemic awareness, we also use other cues. These include our knowledge of the topic, the meaning of words in the context of the topic, and the flow and sequence of the words in a sentence. </p>
<p>Good readers use a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-we-learn-to-read-76283">full repertoire of skills</a>, each dependent on the other. And a whole language approach to teaching reading is about arming new readers with this repertoire.</p>
<h2>What is the whole language approach?</h2>
<p>A whole language approach to teaching reading was introduced into primary schools in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20201409?seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents">the late 1970s</a>. There have been many developments in this area since, so the approach has been adapted and today looks quite different from 40 years ago. </p>
<p>To begin with, let’s dispel some myths about a whole language approach to teaching reading. It is not learning to read individual words by sight. Nor is it learning a list of vocabulary only. </p>
<p>A whole language approach to teaching reading is not opposed to teaching the correspondence of a letter or letters to sounds to help sound out unfamiliar words. Nor is it opposed to learning how to blend sounds together to decode a word by using the first letter/s of a word, the end of the word and the letter/s in the middle.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reading-progress-is-falling-between-year-5-and-7-especially-for-advantaged-students-5-charts-124634">Reading progress is falling between year 5 and 7, especially for advantaged students: 5 charts</a>
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<p>But just knowing <a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-things-to-consider-before-you-buy-into-phonics-programs-50702">sounds is not the same as knowing how to read</a>. In 2000, the US National Reading Panel’s analysis of <a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf">scientific literature</a> on teaching children to read found systematic phonics instruction (teaching sounds and blending them together) should be integrated with other reading instruction to create a balanced reading program. </p>
<p>The panel determined that phonics instruction should not be a total reading program, nor should it be a dominant component. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301050/original/file-20191111-194637-asga65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">It’s all Greek to me if I don’t know what the words mean.</span>
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<p>In 2011, the UK introduced a <a href="https://www.elgazette.com/point-of-view/">mandatory phonics screening check</a>, for year 1 students, to address the decline in literacy achievement in the middle years of school. Children were prepared for the test using a government-approved synthetic phonics program. But in 2019 around 25% of <a href="https://www.elgazette.com/point-of-view/">year 6 students</a> failed to reach the minimum requirements in reading.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coalitions-10-million-for-year-1-phonics-checks-would-be-wasted-money-116997">The Coalition's $10 million for Year 1 phonics checks would be wasted money</a>
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<p>Australia’s <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/resdev/vol15/iss15/2/">own national inquiry into teaching literacy</a> noted the same conclusions as the US national reading panel.</p>
<p>This view aligns with the whole language approach in the 21st century, which advocates <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-balanced-approach-is-best-for-teaching-kids-how-to-read-37457">a balanced</a> way of teaching reading in the early years. This includes: </p>
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<li>explicit teaching of decoding skills (how to break up a word to work out how it is pronounced)</li>
<li>connecting the decoding of word/s to their meaning</li>
<li>learning to read frequently used words that can’t be sounded out or broken up into different sounds (the, were)</li>
<li>learning the meaning of new words from the context they are in (looking at the words before and after and at what the sentence is about)</li>
<li>understanding what the text being read is about (literally and interpretively)</li>
<li>building a wide vocabulary</li>
<li>understanding how images and words work together</li>
<li>promoting a love of the English language and an interest in reading.</li>
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<h2>Let’s not put kids off reading</h2>
<p>The whole language approach provides children learning to read with more than one way to work out unfamiliar words. They can begin with decoding – breaking the word into its parts and trying to sound them out and then blend them together. This <a href="https://www.elgazette.com/point-of-view/">may or may not</a> work. </p>
<p>They can also look at where the word is in the sentence and consider what word most likely would come next based on what they have read so far. They can look beyond the word to see if the rest of the sentence can assist to decode the word and pronounce it. </p>
<p>We do not read texts one word at a time. We make best guesses as we read and learn to read. We learn from our errors. Sometimes these errors are not that significant – does it matter if I read Sydenham as “SID-EN-HAM” or “SID-N-AM”? Perhaps not.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/6039210/The_Limit_of_Phonics">Does it matter</a> that I can decode the word “wind” but don’t pronounce the two differently in “the wind was too strong to wind the sail”? Yes, it probably does. </p>
<p>Teaching children to read or to see reading with a focus on phonics and phonemic awareness gives them <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/2048-416X.2013.12000.x">the illusion “proper” reading is mere decoding and blending</a>. In fact, it has been argued this can <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/2048-416X.2013.12000.x">put children off reading</a> when entering school. While some gain may occur in the first years, over time <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/67b5/05897dd56e820db8b8062f6d78b0c0b7b9fa.pdf">achievement deteriorates</a> for children in high-performing and low-performing schools.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/enjoyment-of-reading-not-mechanics-of-reading-can-improve-literacy-for-boys-91321">Enjoyment of reading, not mechanics of reading, can improve literacy for boys</a>
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<p>A whole language approach doesn’t argue against the importance of phonemic awareness. But it acknowledges it is not all that should be included in reading instruction. </p>
<p>It is important to <a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf">assess children’s reading</a> from the beginning of schooling and continually determine how they are progressing. Teachers can then select specific strategies to improve individual children’s reading competence and increase their skills to build fluent and confident readers.</p>
<p>A whole language approach to teaching reading advocates for teaching phonics and phonemic awareness in the context of real texts – that use the richness of the English language – not artificial, highly constructed texts. However, it also acknowledges this is not sufficient. Being able to decode the written word is essential, but it isn’t enough to set up a child to be a competent reader and to be successful during and after school. </p>
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<p><em>Read the accompanying article on teaching to read using explicit phonics instruction <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-every-child-needs-explicit-phonics-instruction-to-learn-to-read-125065">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katina Zammit is affiliated with the Australian Literacy Educators Association. </span></em></p>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.Katina Zammit, Deputy Dean, School of Education, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1250652019-11-11T19:02:48Z2019-11-11T19:02:48ZWhy every child needs explicit phonics instruction to learn to read<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301035/original/file-20191111-194665-12cq6ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Phonics allows children to read nonsense words, such as ones found in Dr Seuss books.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/p_KJvKVsH14">Josh Applegate/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being able to read means being able to make meaning from printed words. At a functional level, we read to get the message – such as how many times per day to take our medication – but <a href="https://www.maryannewolf.com/reader-come-home-1">in a literate society reading provides</a> much more. A successful reader is someone who can access the thoughts, opinions, memories, theories, desires, experiences and feelings of others.</p>
<p>Reading is a transformative experience. But it is also a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/17549507.2015.1112837">“biologically unnatural” process</a> humans have been doing for only a brief time in evolutionary terms. Unlike acquiring spoken language, children <a href="https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/reading_rocketscience_2004.pdf">need to be taught how the English writing system works</a> and how to master the code for both reading and spelling.</p>
<h2>The written English code</h2>
<p>Written English is considered a code because letters and letter combinations (graphemes) represent spoken speech sounds (phonemes). The English alphabet has 26 letters, which represent 44 speech sounds. This means some letter combinations (graphemes) comprise more than one letter. For example, in the first sound of “ship” two letters, “s” and “h”, make one grapheme that represents the phoneme “sh”.</p>
<p>For beginning readers, being able to connect graphemes to their corresponding phonemes is not an intuitive, natural process. </p>
<p>Learning the complex code is best done through <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/how-do-kids-learn-to-read.html">explicit and systematic phonics instruction</a>. This involves <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=284195782446653;res=IELHSS">directly teaching children</a> to associate graphemes with their corresponding phonemes. </p>
<p>Instruction starts using a clearly defined (systematic) sequence of letters, starting with only a few correspondences reflecting simple code (such as single letters) and progressively moving to complex code, such as “ng” and “ough”, once mastery is achieved at each level. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301041/original/file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">English has 44 speech sounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Once children have learnt a few grapheme-phoneme correspondences, they will be explicitly shown how to segment words (containing only known correspondences) into their constituent parts and blend them together to decode and read the word. At this point, children will be able to read short <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-the-difference-between-decodable-and-predictable-books-and-when-should-they-be-used-106531">decodable books</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-the-difference-between-decodable-and-predictable-books-and-when-should-they-be-used-106531">Explainer: what's the difference between decodable and predictable books, and when should they be used?</a>
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<p>All children must learn to decode. Without decoding skills, children could not read made-up words such as Harry Potter’s “quidditch”. Nor could they read unfamiliar names (of places such as Oodnadatta) or medication names (such as azithromycin) as these have no other cues to guide the reader to pronunciation. </p>
<h2>Why phonics works</h2>
<p>Synthetic phonics instruction aligns with the two strongest and most well-regarded theoretical frameworks in <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/how-do-kids-learn-to-read.html">contemporary reading science</a>.</p>
<p>The first is the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00401799">simple view of reading</a> developed in 1986, which has more recently (2018) been reformulated as the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19404158.2019.1614081">cognitive foundations of learning to read</a>. This holds that reading comprehension is made up of two mutually dependent and essential processes: being able to decode words and being able to understand what connected text means. </p>
<p>The simple view theory had provided <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0741932518767563?casa_token=eVUkhonKW6cAAAAA%3Ab_mKIqBhxics0yvdYHozkSBHvscfnI_YuF-HgSUC6Xm5yvl_X-9GVhdkC7eWavpJtG3hH_lr8Q1K">valuable insights into the cognitive processes</a> necessary for reading comprehension. Evidence <a href="https://pubs.asha.org/doi/full/10.1044/1092-4388%282006/023%29?casa_token=Q0xTHxENvYwAAAAA:DmgfcQ3GTI2mtpqrg5gAB2muNDZOFst3SpfYJ2-xN4--PBa97bRXL7IQH6tTlPELq_yWI9eOoFfJgw">also shows</a> the model to be a valid means of sub-classifying children as “able readers”, “poor decoders” and/or “poor comprehenders”.</p>
<p>The second framework is <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ioep/clre/2006/00000004/00000001/art00002">dual route theory</a> (<a href="https://maxcoltheart.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/drc-psychreview2001.pdf">developed</a> in 2001). This refers to the fact some words readers encounter are already stored as <a href="https://www.cec.sped.org/%7E/media/Files/Professional%20Development/Webinars/Handouts/Excerpts%20from%20Equipped%20for%20Reading%20Success.pdf">recognisable letter strings</a> in their long-term memory. We instantly recognise these words when we see them, through the lexical route. </p>
<p>But unfamiliar words need to be decoded, via a phonological (sound-based) route, using knowledge of how letters and letter combinations (graphemes) map onto speech (phonemes). As we become more skilled as readers, we access more words automatically.</p>
<p>Dual route theory aligns with <a href="https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au/publications-filter/cognitive-load-theory-research-that-teachers-really-need-to-understand">cognitive load theory</a>. This is the idea that there is only so much information a human brain can hold at any one time unless there is a dedicated and structured opportunity to practise and rehearse it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301046/original/file-20191111-194628-s1kdca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children should be taught word structures, so they can read unfamiliar words without context – like Cowra Boorowa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29901446@N07/2799180151/in/photolist-5gmwJK-4czneg-4detJa-4zz3Dc-43Dvjp-hQTpCi-ifPJ2-JyMXXa-5eXDk4-4WUPTH-6gU19c-4cDnkE-KcYoc1-2bAJEQK-7sxXyV-C9ZrkN-XLa9AN-2h9967q-8mkDJK-5gqSb5-2h4wSHG-VRjEwB-MoDJFy-Zr64dn-KCaefC-JenRQ8-XN2SpQ-2h4yHRH-sWhdxN-23x8uZP-2h4wSAx-2h4yHTm-KtvtQ3-21Yur5J-26ieuCe-27zatiy-29Noy3e-98EGyP-9bqpYK-vu8ox-4w3rEe-fHSsa-7sBVWb-7sBUmS-brDWMu-583W3i-brDWSw-UfRkcJ-UggKms-5v9GTC">Brenden Ashton/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In line with this, the workings of the English writing system are best taught <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1529100618772271">explicitly and systematically</a>, so beginning readers are not put into the unfortunate and unnecessary situation of being cognitively overloaded. The risk of cognitive overload is high when the code is shown to children in an unsystematic, unstructured way or, even more worryingly, if it is assumed children will intuitively understand the code simply by exposure to written text. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-explicit-instruction-and-how-does-it-help-children-learn-115144">Explainer: what is explicit instruction and how does it help children learn?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Instruction should also include an emphasis on morphology (word building, such as happy, unhappy, unhappily) and etymology (<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=d">study of word origins</a>), so students recognise patterns and relationships between words.</p>
<p>Although knowing how to decode words is fundamental to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/how-do-kids-learn-to-read.html">becoming a reader</a>, teaching children to crack the code should also be done alongside instructional practices that ensure <a href="https://bep.education/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Bringing-Words-to-Life-Booklet.pdf">rapidly expanding vocabularies and world knowledge</a>, so children can bring language skills and background knowledge to the task of comprehending what they read.</p>
<h2>Covering all bases</h2>
<p>A significant proportion, <a href="https://dyslexiaida.org/ladder-of-reading-infographic-structured-literacy-helps-all-students/">close to 40%</a>, of children manage to learn to read without explicit and systematic phonics instruction (or with phonics instruction of variable impact) due to a confluence of biological and environmental advantages. These children may receive less structured initial reading instruction that encourages them to use a variety of strategies, such as picture and context cues, before attending to the graphemes within a word.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reading-progress-is-falling-between-year-5-and-7-especially-for-advantaged-students-5-charts-124634">Reading progress is falling between year 5 and 7, especially for advantaged students: 5 charts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The remaining 60% of children taught in this way are <a href="http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4240019">highly vulnerable</a> to falling behind as readers. And the proportion of vulnerability increases <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Language_at_the_Speed_of_Sight.html?id=JqZVDgAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">with the level of disadvantage</a>. </p>
<p>No teacher of children in their first year of school can reliably identify, in the first term, which children will struggle with reading and which will get there seamlessly. To wait until a year (or more) has passed and then try to back-fill and close this gap shows a poor understanding of the importance of making every day count in children’s early learning. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19404158.2013.840887">should be teaching</a> <a href="https://dyslexiaida.org/ladder-of-reading-infographic-structured-literacy-helps-all-students/">95% of children</a> to read successfully, so need to be using high-impact teaching approaches from the outset, with all children. </p>
<p>If not explicit and systematic phonics instruction, <a href="https://www.heinemann.com/products/e07433.aspx">what is the teacher’s time being spent on</a>? Teaching words from flash cards for children to learn as wholes without any analysis of what is happening within the word? Or promoting inefficient strategies (<a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/article/use-context-cues-reading">ironically those used by weak readers</a>) such as trying to work out what “kind” of word might work? </p>
<p>Even more bizarrely (and unhelpfully), children might be encouraged to “get their mouths ready” to read an unfamiliar word. It is not a child’s mouth that needs to be ready for learning to read, but her brain. </p>
<p>We must provide and promote reading instruction approaches that ensure the overwhelming majority of children learn to read in the early years of school, regardless of their starting point. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Read the accompanying article on the the whole language approach to teaching reading <a href="https://theconversation.com/reading-is-more-than-sounding-out-words-and-decoding-thats-why-we-use-the-whole-language-approach-to-teaching-it-126606">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This article initially said the dual route theory was developed in 2012. This has now been corrected to 2001 and the reference updated.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela Snow receives funding from the Australian Research Council (Discovery and Linkage Programs), Criminology Research Council, Jack Brockhoff Foundation, and Pam Gunn Memorial Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Serry is affiliated with Learning Difficulties Australia and edits the Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties. She is also a member of Dyslexia Victoria Support. She receives funding from the Victorian Department of Education and the Jack Brockhoff Foundation.</span></em></p>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.Pamela Snow, Professor and Head, Rural Health School, La Trobe UniversityTanya Serry, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1050092018-12-12T12:17:00Z2018-12-12T12:17:00ZHow to make reading fun – and part of life beyond the school room<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242430/original/file-20181026-7044-1201jau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Nal'ibali World Read Aloud Day in Soweto, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Born</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The love of reading is one of the greatest gifts an adult can give to a child. Pragmatically, reading proficiently helps with school work. But it also widens children’s horizons. It can help readers to understand their own world better, and to explore other worlds.</p>
<p>Parents often see reading as “school business” - something that teachers are responsible for. But there’s a lot of research that shows the value of <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED567231.pdf">reading at home and in the community</a>. Children who read at home with parents or caregivers have an educational advantage that lasts their whole lives. In fact, reading to children helps them develop the language and literacy skills they need to begin formal literacy instruction. </p>
<p>Parents, as their children’s first and most important teachers, can make reading fun and inspire a lifelong love of reading. If parents themselves cannot read, others such as older siblings, friends and relatives can play this role. </p>
<p>Here, based on our own research studies about reading and drawing from the work being done by organisations dedicated to literacy, are some ideas to get kids reading for fun.</p>
<h2>Reading as play</h2>
<p>Children can have fun with reading even before they can read themselves. Reading feeds their fertile imaginations and they do the rest. In one of our <a href="https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/518/718">research studies</a>, pre-schooler Shafeek* spontaneously dressed up and acted out a story that his mother had read to him. Ashwariya* played “school” by “reading” a story to her toys. Again, she could not yet read but used the pictures and her memory for her game. </p>
<p>These examples show that reading can be made fun by linking it to play – through acting out, drawing pictures, dressing up, creating objects, or many other creative activities. Sometimes children do this on their own. But parents and teachers can also provide guided play activities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242431/original/file-20181026-7053-czd7e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Melanie Lippert, Nal'ibali FUNda Leader, at the festival.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reading routines are important at home. This could take the form of “bedtime story”, reading prayers or verses from a sacred book, or regular weekend reading. Young children often love to hear the same story again and again. This is important for their <a href="https://www.asha.org/public/speech/emergent-literacy/">emergent literacy</a> as they learn how stories work, and how to “read” backwards and forwards. </p>
<p>Children enjoy singing songs and rhymes and this is a fun activity for reading development too. These allow children to play with words and sounds which is the first step in developing their <a href="http://www.readingrockets.org/article/why-phonological-awareness-important-reading-and-spelling">phonological awareness</a>, an integral skill to develop for reading. </p>
<h2>Family reading</h2>
<p>Children can have fun by joining in family reading activities. This could mean looking at advertisements and, even if they cannot yet read, identifying pictures of items. It could mean turning the pages of newspapers or magazines for a parent and learning how to hold a book the right way up. Family photo albums are also great for learning to “read” pictures and hear family stories. Children learn to respect and handle books by seeing their caregivers do so. </p>
<p>Above all, caregivers should read to their children as an activity that’s designed to make meaning with a focus on understanding. </p>
<p>One of the weaknesses of <a href="https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/121">teaching reading at South African schools</a>, for instance, is that it often does not focus on comprehension. Parents can make reading meaningful getting children to preview a text (look at the title, cover and pictures before they read) and guess what it will be about. </p>
<p>They can also ask questions as they read (“Why did she/he do that? Do you think it was the right thing? What do you think will happen next?”), link the story to children’s lives and experiences, and get them to make up their own endings.</p>
<p>Some older children enjoy keeping a “reading diary” of books they have read with their impressions. Reading can also be a prompt for writing their own stories. Creating and writing for a school newspaper or magazine can be great fun and can be adapted to suit the technology available in the school.</p>
<h2>Reading their own texts</h2>
<p>Reading is difficult but it can be made more accessible if children are presented with opportunities to develop their own texts to read. An example of this could be to write a story with the child and have them read it themselves. Such a text would consist of <a href="http://www.readingrockets.org/article/vocabulary-development-ells">vocabulary</a> familiar to the child and it would scaffold comprehension of reading. If children are involved in developing their own texts for reading, it becomes a personal and authentic experience based on their own interests and needs. Producing their own texts also gives children a sense of ownership that helps them to take responsibility for the process. </p>
<h2>Finding the right stuff</h2>
<p>While there is no shortage of children’s books in English, finding suitable reading material in African languages and about African contexts can be a problem. </p>
<p>Many public libraries stock such books. <a href="https://nalibali.org/story-library/multilingual-stories">Nalibali</a> has a great range of stories in South African languages. <a href="https://www.familyliteracyproject.co.za/projects/">The Family Literacy Project</a> has developed many wonderful ideas for developing reading, including box libraries, reading clubs and <em>Umzali Nengane</em> (Parent and Child) journals. </p>
<p><a href="http://infed.org/mobi/paulo-freire-dialogue-praxis-and-education/">Paulo Freire</a>, the great Brazilian educator, talked about “reading the word in order to read the world”. He showed how reading critically and creatively can help people change their lives and create a better world. Something so important should not be left to teachers alone. </p>
<p><em>*Not their real names.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parents often see reading as “school business” - something that teachers are responsible for.Peter Rule, Associate Professor, Centre for Higher and Adult Education, Stellenbosch UniversityZelda Barends, Lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1060672018-11-01T01:00:25Z2018-11-01T01:00:25ZWhat are ‘decodable readers’ and do they work?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243190/original/file-20181031-76387-89ulzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children with access to books reach higher levels of education.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Victorian Coalition has <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/coalition-pledges-to-overhaul-the-repetitive-books-given-to-preps-20181009-p508p0.html">promised $2.8 million for “decodable readers” for schools</a> if they win the upcoming election. </p>
<p>Money for books must surely be a good thing. But what exactly is a “decodable reader”? After all, surely all books are decodable. If they weren’t decodable they would be unreadable.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lost-for-words-why-the-best-literacy-approaches-are-not-reaching-the-classroom-19561">Lost for words: why the best literacy approaches are not reaching the classroom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is decoding?</h2>
<p>The Australian curriculum provides <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/Glossary/?letter=D">a clear definition of decoding</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A process of working out the meaning of words in a text. In decoding, readers draw on contextual, vocabulary, grammatical and phonic knowledge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However the Victorian Coalition is defining decoding as “sounding out letters”. As <a href="https://vic.liberal.org.au/News/2018-10-10/liberal-nationals-to-fund-decodable-readers-for-victorian-schools">their policy platform states</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Decodable books are designed to align with explicit, systematic phonics instruction. They are simple stories constructed using almost exclusively words that are phonetically decodable, using letters and letter-groups that children have learned in phonics lessons.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The “decodable readers” they are funding are books that are contrived to help children practise a particular letter-sound pattern taught as part of a synthetic phonics program.</p>
<p>For example, the following sentences are from <a href="https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=1">a decodable reader</a> designed to focus on the consonants “N” and “P” and short vowel /a/ </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Nan and a pan.</p>
<p>Pap and a pan.</p>
<p>Nan and Pap can nap.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243192/original/file-20181031-76399-bs40f9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Decodable readers don’t have a narrative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=1">Reading a-z.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Books like this have no storyline; they are equally nonsensical whether you start on the first page, or begin on the last page and read backwards. </p>
<p>While they may teach the phonics skills “N” and “P”, they don’t teach children the other important decoding skills of grammar and vocabulary. </p>
<p>And as many a parent will testify, they don’t teach the joy of reading.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-we-teach-most-children-to-read-sets-them-up-to-fail-36946">The way we teach most children to read sets them up to fail</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What about the children’s vocabulary development?</h2>
<p>Meaning and vocabulary development are not the focus of decodable readers. Yet, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248940899_The_Importance_of_Early_Vocabulary_for_Literacy_Achievement_in_High-Poverty_Schools">research</a> shows the importance of vocabulary for successful reading. </p>
<p>Students <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/113040/chapters/What-Does-the-Research-Say-About-Vocabulary%C2%A2.aspx">need to add 3,000 words a year to their vocabulary</a> to be able to read and write successfully at their year level.</p>
<p>Limited vocabulary in books translates to lack of vocabulary growth. </p>
<h2>What is the alternative to ‘decodable readers’?</h2>
<p>Supporters of decodable readers are hopeful these books will support students with reading difficulties, by focusing closely on the sounds in words. However, focusing on sounds alone is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11881-010-0041-x">not sufficient to support a struggling reader</a>. </p>
<p>The reality is all children learning to read need to listen to, and read books that are written with rich vocabulary, varied sentence structures and interesting content knowledge that encourages them to use their imagination. </p>
<p>Compare the text about Pan and Nap with the opening lines of Pamela Allen’s <a href="https://readingaustralia.com.au/lesson/who-sank-the-boat/">very popular story Who Sank the Boat?</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Beside the sea, on Mr Peffer’s place, there lived
a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a pig, and a tiny little mouse.
They were good friends and one sunny morning, for no particular reason,
they decided to go for a row on the bay.
Do you know who sank the boat? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This book immediately engages children and asks them to question, imagine and help solve a problem. Children always ask for this book to be read again and again and they enjoy joining in. They learn new vocabulary and incidentally learn about complex sentence structures, which they emulate in their oral language and story writing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243193/original/file-20181031-76402-46t37o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kids want to unveil the mystery of who sank the boat – and they learn in the process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com.au/search?q=who+sank+the+boat%3F&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnrr619q_eAhXEMt4KHdQwCIQQ_AUIDigB&biw=2028&bih=1112#imgrc=5MdfaKTA4iT8SM:">Amazon.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-balanced-approach-is-best-for-teaching-kids-how-to-read-37457">A balanced approach is best for teaching kids how to read</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Using books to teach all the decoding skills</h2>
<p>Using rich authentic texts supports all the decoding skills described in the Australian curriculum – phonics, vocabulary and grammar. </p>
<p>In Pamela Allen’s story above, we can look at the word “bay” and notice the parts /b/ - /ay/, which help us to say and spell the word. What happens if we change the beginning – how many other words could we write and read? For example, day, say, play, and so on.</p>
<p>We can look at the “frequent” words. These are the words that we can’t always “sound out” but which make up <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/common-words/">the 100 most frequent words in English</a>. For example, <em>do, you, they, were, the</em>. </p>
<p>These words are very important to teach children, as these 100 words make up 50% of all written language. </p>
<p>We can develop their vocabularies with words and phrases such as “for no particular reason”, “decided” and “beside” .</p>
<p>We can introduce them to beautifully literate sentence structures, for example,
“Beside the sea, on Mr Peffer’s place, there lived a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a pig, and a tiny little mouse”.</p>
<p>Decodable readers can only do the phonics part of the reading puzzle. They are a very inefficient way to teach reading.</p>
<h2>So what do we want for all children learning to read?</h2>
<p>When teaching children to read, we hope they will learn reading is pleasurable and can help them to make sense of their lives and those around them. </p>
<p>The strategies children are taught to use when first learning to read <a href="http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Frey_berkeley_0028E_12875.pdf">greatly influence what strategies they use in later years</a>.
When children are taught to focus solely on letter-sound matching to read the words of decodable readers, they often continue in later years to over-rely on this strategy, even with other kinds of texts. This causes inaccurate, slow, laborious reading, which leads to frustration and a lack of motivation for reading. </p>
<p>A book must be worth reading and give children the opportunity to learn the full range of strategies needed to read any text. </p>
<p>Children who grow up with real books, with rich vocabularies, beautiful prose and genuine storylines <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265737802_Scholarly_Culture_and_Academic_Performance_in_42_Nations">reach a higher level of education than those who do not have such access</a>, regardless of nationality, parents’ level of education or socioeconomic status. </p>
<p>And yet it’s children from disadvantaged backgrounds who are less likely to have access to these books in their homes. It’s crucial schools fill the gap.</p>
<p>A$2.8 million spent on beautifully written books to fill Victorian classroom libraries would be a far more effective use of the education budget.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou currently receives funding from the ACT Education Directorate to investigate the teaching of writing in secondary schools. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Cambourne is a self funded retiree. Between 1968 and 2006 he was a university academic and applied for and was awarded research grants from both and private organisations</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Ewing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Victorian opposition has pledged funding for “decodable readers” which focus only on sounds. But kids prefer to read rich texts.Misty Adoniou, Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraBrian Cambourne, Principal Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of WollongongRobyn Ewing, Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/762832017-04-18T03:25:00Z2017-04-18T03:25:00ZHow do we learn to read?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165533/original/image-20170418-32700-1w14osn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The aim of all reading is comprehension. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sign on the public car park in the tiny Tasmanian town of Wynyard reads,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Egress from this carpark is to be via the access lane in the rear.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Egress?” I wondered.</p>
<p>As my 21-year-old son quipped, perhaps the council had called in the local duke to write its signs. Or at least the local lawyer.</p>
<p>I could say all the words on the sign with very little effort, and with impressive fluency. </p>
<p>That is called decoding.</p>
<p>I had to work a little harder to understand what the sign was saying.</p>
<p>That is called comprehending.</p>
<p>The aim of reading is, of course, comprehension. </p>
<p>In essence, <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/phonics-v-whole-word-battle-has-always-been-about-politics-not">debates around how to best teach reading</a> have been about which comes first, the decoding or the comprehending.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ldaustralia.org/client/documents/Wolf_How_the_Reading_Brain_Resolves_the_Reading_Wars_2013.pdf">Research concludes</a> these debates are redundant because comprehension and decoding are codependent. </p>
<p>The federal government’s recent proposal, however, for <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/phonics-test-no-use-principals-ng-b88439552z">a Year 1 Phonics Screening test</a> – which tests a child’s ability to decode made-up words – appears to support the view that decoding comes before comprehension. </p>
<p>Comprehension, therefore, is deemed irrelevant – at least initially.</p>
<p>So who is right? The researchers or the politicians? </p>
<p>Let’s take a look at what the research tells us about how we learn to read.</p>
<h2>Tackling unknown words</h2>
<p>It was the first word in the car park sign that threw me. “Egress.” </p>
<p>I used my knowledge of how sounds map on to letters in English to decode it. However, because I couldn’t remember ever hearing the word said out loud, I wasn’t sure if I was decoding it correctly.</p>
<p>It might be EE-gress or ee-GRESS, EGG-ress, or egg-RESS. It is the first, apparently. I Googled it later.</p>
<p>In any case my decoding efforts didn’t help me understand what the word means. In order for decoding skills to be of any use in reading, children need an excellent vocabulary to which they can cross reference as they attempt to decode.</p>
<p><strong>Tip 1:</strong> teach phonics through words already in the children’s vocabulary.</p>
<h2>Building children’s vocabularies</h2>
<p>Before we rush out and start teaching children lists of vocabulary, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/us/quality-of-words-not-quantity-is-crucial-to-language-skills-study-finds.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20141017&_r=2">words in lists are not enough</a>.</p>
<p>If someone had shown me “egress” by itself on a flashcard, I might have guessed it was a bird. </p>
<p>Luckily, “egress” was in a full sentence on a sign in front of a car park, and all of that context helped me comprehend the word. </p>
<p>Without context, words are just letters on a page. This is because all words in English are polysemic - they have multiple meanings depending upon the context. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The <strong>wind</strong> in my hair. My baby has <strong>wind</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And some words keep their spelling but change their pronunciation as well as their meaning.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’d like to <strong>wind</strong> you up. I need to <strong>wind</strong> my clock. Why do I always **wind **up doing the dishes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Tip 2:</strong> build your children’s vocabulary by talking and reading to them so that they encounter words in all their many and varied guises. <a href="http://www.adelmanlab.org/cd/cdps4.pdf">Seeing a word in many different contexts is more important</a> than just seeing the word flashed at you many times. </p>
<h2>Grammar matters</h2>
<p>The grammar of the parking sign in Wynyard also helped my comprehension. </p>
<p>I had figured out from the context that “egress” meant either entry or exit.
I hear a lot of language so I understand how words “collocate” in English - that is, how some words always hang out together grammatically. My experience with the language meant I knew that we exit “from” and enter “into”.</p>
<p>The more we hear and read real language, the more we learn about how word order works in English.</p>
<p><strong>Tip 3:</strong> teach reading through real books with real language so that children learn the rhythm and patterns of English grammar.</p>
<h2>Experience counts</h2>
<p>I relied on my experience as a driver to look around and see that a median strip in the road would make “egress” from the front of the car park tricky. Life experience helps us read too. </p>
<p>If I write I live in a studio apartment in San Jose, your interpretation of where I live will depend upon whether you understand a studio apartment to be a basement bedsit, or penthouse bachelor pad. It will depend on whether you understand San Jose to be an affluent tech hub or an working class industrial city. </p>
<p>The words alone cannot carry all the meaning of my message. You bring your life experience to the task of reading my words.</p>
<p><strong>Tip 4:</strong> give children lots of real life experiences and talk to them about what they see. Trips out and about, and chats about things beyond their everyday environment are important. </p>
<h2>Are we giving poor readers the help they need?</h2>
<p>Good readers have a full repertoire of skills, each dependent upon the other. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>They have excellent oral language and a wide vocabulary. They know what words mean and this helps them decode.</p></li>
<li><p>They can decode and this helps them locate the word in their existing vocabulary.</p></li>
<li><p>They know the structure of English through exposure to authentic complex written and spoken language.</p></li>
<li><p>They use rich life experiences to support their comprehension of written texts.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Poor readers need all of these skills too. Yet our interventions for poor readers typically only address one skill - decoding. </p>
<p>Our declining results in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-06/australian-school-performance-in-absolute-decline-globally/8098028">international tests of literacy</a> show us that our 15 year olds can decode but they can’t comprehend. </p>
<p>Until we pay full attention to all the other reading skills, the decline will continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou works for the University of Canberra. She has received government and NGO research funding to investigate teacher education, refugee orientation and the teaching of spelling and writing. She is on the Board of Directors of TESOL International.</span></em></p>Four tips for teaching reading.Misty Adoniou, Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/597802016-05-28T09:18:23Z2016-05-28T09:18:23ZIs there a right way to learn to read?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123981/original/image-20160525-25239-1icpynx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reading requires more than just your ABCs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-221592391/stock-photo-a-little-cute-girl-in-a-yellow-dress-reading-a-book-sitting-on-the-floor.html?src=cLKn86DEitC3M3i8OVd3BA-1-6">www.shutterstock.com/Tatiana Bobkova</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/194057/phonics_check_leaflet_2013_.pdf">Phonics teaching</a> in UK primary schools is rightly recognised as giving children the essential building blocks needed to <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/36496/0023582.pdf">become successful readers</a>. Indeed, we are so pro-phonics that little is done to raise awareness about <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10900980/Phonics-tests-show-progressive-teaching-is-doomed-to-failure.html">other methods</a>, even those which might be seen as an accompaniment to phonics, not a replacement for it.</p>
<p>Schools tend to stick to what they know and, with more and more demand being put on teachers <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/raising-standards-improving-lives-ofsted-strategic-plan-2014-to-2016">to raise standards</a> and achieve excellent Ofsted reports, there is little in the way of “free time” to be allocated to testing out new methods, even those aimed at children who have had phonics training but who still have reading difficulties.</p>
<p>Phonics is based on training children’s “segmental phonological awareness” (that is, raising their awareness of letters and sounds and teaching them segmenting and blending skills). But there is a second part to phonological awareness known as “suprasegmental phonology”. It refers to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtH_JBiaKkM">rhythmic components of spoken language</a> that accompany the segmental elements, such as stress placement, intonation or pitch, and timing.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Phonics teaching in practice.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a growing body of evidence which supports the idea that awareness of, or sensitivity to, these rhythmic components is related to reading at various levels, including <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11881-002-0010-0#page-1">reading acquisition</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2006.00309.x/abstract">comprehension</a> and, more interestingly, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2006.00310.x/abstract">reading difficulties</a>. What this means is that children who have reading difficulties also tend to have poor speech rhythm sensitivity – and the better a child’s speech rhythm sensitivity is, the better their reading skills tend to be.</p>
<p>Surely, if we can somehow improve childrens’ speech rhythm sensitivity, their reading skills will also improve, right?</p>
<p>During my time at Coventry University, this question interested us enormously, yet there was no intervention that had attempted to train children on their awareness of speech rhythm as a possible way of enhancing literacy skills. So we set about designing a set of materials to help children gain better awareness of these rhythmic elements of spoken language. </p>
<p>We wanted the intervention to be suitable for children who were non-verbal – that is, children who do not speak, whether this is due to a disorder or just shyness – as well as children across a range of ability levels, so we decided on a picture and sound format, where children were presented with a picture card and a corresponding prerecorded audio sound for each item. This meant that children didn’t have to give a verbal response and that the format of delivery was repetitive to ensure some level of understanding between sessions. The intervention was designed to run for ten weeks, giving time for pre and post-test assessments to be administered within a school term.</p>
<p>We ran two experiments, one with reception children, age four to five years of age, who were just starting to learn to read – and one with children in year three, aged seven to eight years, who were falling behind in their reading. In each study, the intervention was compared to a traditional phonological awareness intervention and a control.</p>
<h2>Reading rhythms</h2>
<p>The results were very promising. In both the beginners and the older struggling readers, the speech rhythm intervention resulted in significantly greater gains in reading than the control intervention. This means that speech rhythm training is effective both at the beginning of reading tuition and once children have already received some formal training.</p>
<p>One of the things that interested us most is that the children in the second study were categorised as being struggling readers. For the speech rhythm intervention to work for these children is heartening and important. It means that this could be an alternative way in to teaching these children the skills they need to become successful readers.</p>
<p>Two papers <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11145-012-9359-6">describing similar findings</a>, supporting the notion of speech rhythm training in struggling readers, have also <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mbe.12016/abstract">since been published</a>. However, there are no other studies to date which have investigated the effects of such training methods for beginner readers.</p>
<p>What our research adds is that speech rhythm training can also be effective in children who have yet to receive formal reading tuition, meaning that it can be implemented effectively from the start of primary education.</p>
<p>This is an exciting prospect for reading researchers – and it opens many doors for further investigation. It also has the potential to significantly improve reading instruction in schools – and will in fact soon be doing so, through a <a href="https://www.risingstars-uk.com/Series/Rising-Stars-Reading-Planet">new programme</a> which incorporates this speech rhythm sensitivity training.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Harrison works for Birmingham City University.
This work was completed as part of her PhD at Coventry University, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>Speech patterns are just important as letter sounds when learning to read.Emily Harrison, Lecturer in Applied Psychology, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509842015-11-24T04:29:51Z2015-11-24T04:29:51ZHow playing the ‘School Game’ helps kids on their journey to literacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102470/original/image-20151119-18431-soa1g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A boy in the Ivory Coast practises reading his letters. Children can learn a lot about reading from each other during the "School Game".</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Legnan Koula</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you think of early home based reading, you may picture a mother and child poring over a brightly coloured book. Research has proved that caregivers offer children <a href="https://theconversation.com/sharing-picture-books-with-kids-can-make-them-smarter-and-more-attentive-47657">important support</a> in their schooling through this kind of experience.</p>
<p>But what happens when a parent is too busy or tired to read? Or when there are no cheerfully illustrated children’s books? In many disadvantaged homes parents may be absent, work away from home, have little formal schooling, or not be interested in reading. Most homes in South Africa have fewer <a href="https://nicspaull.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/howie-et-al-pirls-2006-sa-summary-report.pdf">than ten books</a>.</p>
<p>So what does happen in disadvantaged homes? I <a href="http://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/viewFile/55/148">asked</a> a group of teachers who were educated in the rural Northern and Eastern Cape during apartheid how they learned to read. They came from homes without suitable reading materials and went to schools with few books. In spite of this, most of these teachers could read before they even reached school age.</p>
<p>It emerged that many were taught by other children, either by siblings doing homework, or in what they called the “School Game,” known in some contexts as ‘Playing School.’ It seemed worth investigating this game, particularly as these children later became successful students and teachers.</p>
<h2>The School Game</h2>
<p>In the interviewees’ accounts, the School Game was played with children from the household, farmstead or village. Older children took the lead, imitating their own teacher. They would write words or letters on zinc fences or water barrels with charcoal or white clay, or use brown wrapping paper as ‘books.’</p>
<p>Role play games like this one, in which children imitate adults in a familiar context, have <a href="https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201201/Leong_Make_Believe_Play_Jan2012.pdf">well known benefits</a> for the children playing them. While they play, children practise memory, language, social and oral skills. They learn to negotiate, cooperate, solve problems and practise self regulation. Best of all for disadvantaged children, role play games need only the resources children themselves provide.</p>
<p>For the individuals I questioned, the most important benefit of the School Game was that they arrived at school with a strong sense of themselves as successful readers. This motivated them. They were noticed and praised by teachers, principals and inspectors. At home, reading enabled these children to enter the adult life of the family by reading to or for family members. </p>
<p>One of them wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This pretend play school made me very proud of myself and led me to like reading books. As the time went by I learnt to use other books as well as reading the bible for my grandmother and I was bragging about that to my friends.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apart from motivation and the general benefits of any role play game, how else can the School Game support early literacy learning? It seems to provide two important learning opportunities through peer teaching and practice.</p>
<h2>Preparation for real school</h2>
<p>By teaching their peers in this game, children presented reading as a valued activity when adults were not necessarily modelling literacy in the home. Also, because the School Game copied local teachers, it prepared children for the local school and its expectations. </p>
<p>A research participant whose eight year old sister taught her to read at the age of five wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I started school I already had a background of books, so I grasped everything easily and became a fast learner. That motivated me to always do my best in reading because it made me feel proud of myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Secondly, the School Game helped children to recall and practise school learning. One participant commented: “This helped me a lot because in a way it was reinforcing what I was learning at school even though I was not aware (of it).” <a href="http://www.academia.edu/5513501/Enhancing_Memory_Retention_through_Repetition">Repetition and practice</a> benefit the memory, a powerful tool in the service of literacy learning.</p>
<h2>Lessons in learning</h2>
<p>It has become commonplace to blame a range of home and environmental deficits for the low levels of literacy achievement among underprivileged children. The difficulties of becoming a reader in a disadvantaged environment should not be under estimated. But the rewards of becoming a reader, as in all communities, are enormous. One participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I never passed a written piece of paper on the street without picking it up and reading it. One day after school I picked up a piece of paper only to realise it was soiled. The other children made it a joke (laughing) saying that it served me right because I liked to pick up paper like a mad person and one day I would pick up a snake wanting to read it. Even after that nasty experience I continued reading every piece of reading material I came across.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This study suggests that teachers and teacher educators should not ignore the benefits of play structures like the School Game to promote extramural learning and positive experiences among learners. It reminds teachers and teacher educators that disadvantaged communities may still provide rich, affirming literacy learning experiences for children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline van der Mescht received funding for this research from the Sandisa Imbewu Project, Department of English Language and Linguistics, Rhodes University.</span></em></p>The benefits of learning through play are well documented. In rural communities in South Africa, “playing school” produces passionate lifelong readers.Caroline van der Mescht, Lecturer in Academic Literacies and English Language Teaching, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/507022015-11-17T03:09:49Z2015-11-17T03:09:49ZSeven things to consider before you buy into phonics programs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102109/original/image-20151117-4980-1xc9cja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Phonics programs are not helpful for all learners.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Phonics, or teaching reading, writing and spelling through sounds, is often touted as the golden path to reading and writing. </p>
<p>National curricula in England and Australia have been rejigged to increase their focus on phonics, and entrepreneurs and publishers have rushed to fill the space with phonics programs and resources. </p>
<p>But before you buy their wares, consider the following.</p>
<h2>1. English is not a phonetic language</h2>
<p>This may be an inconvenient truth for those promoting phonics programs, but English is not a phonetic language and never has been. </p>
<p>English began about 1500 years ago as a trio of Germanic dialects brought over to the islands we now know as the British Isles. Latin speaking missionaries arrived soon after to convert the pagans to Christianity. They also began to write the local lingo down, using their Latin alphabet. </p>
<p>The Latin alphabet was a good phonetic match for spoken Latin, but it was not a good match for spoken Old English. </p>
<p>There were sounds in Old English that simply didn’t exist in spoken Latin, so there were no Latin letters for them. And there were sounds in Latin that didn’t exist in Old English, which left some Latin letters languishing. </p>
<p>Those letters were repurposed and some new letters were introduced. It was a messy match, and 1500 years of language evolution has only increased the distance between the sounds we make, and the letters we write.</p>
<p>As a result, English is alphabetic, but not phonetic. There is a simple sound letter match in only about 12% of words in English. How much of your literacy programming and budget do you want to allocate to that statistic?</p>
<h2>2. Sounds are free</h2>
<p>The sounds and letters of the English language are the ultimate open access knowledge. Buying them in a packaged program is just a con. </p>
<p>If you weren’t shown the sound-letter relationships in your teaching degree, shame on your degree, but in any case you can Google them or find them in the preface of a good dictionary. </p>
<h2>3. Knowing your sounds is not the same as reading</h2>
<p>I know all my sounds in French. I even sound reasonably convincing - in an Inspector Clouseau kind of way - when I “read” French. But I have no comprehension, so I’m not really reading.</p>
<p>Children who are failing in literacy in upper primary and high school are not failing because they don’t know their sounds. They are failing because they can’t comprehend. </p>
<p>Observe their attempts to read, write and spell and one thing is very clear - they know their sounds, and they over rely on them. Give them a phonics program and you are giving them more of what isn’t working for them.</p>
<h2>4. Politicians are not educators</h2>
<p>The push for phonics in England and Australia was spearheaded very conspicuously, almost personally, by the respective former Education Ministers Gove and Pyne. Politicians may have many skills… but they are not educators, and they are not educational researchers. </p>
<p>Educational reforms should not be shaped by personal predilections or political agendas. </p>
<h2>5. Programs get it wrong</h2>
<p>The narrow focus on sounds and letter patterns in phonics programs obscures more useful information for learning to read, write and spell. On occasion the material presented is just plain wrong.</p>
<p>A popular phonics workbook offers the following explanation for the word “technician”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Technician is a technical word. Although it is pronounced ‘shun’ at the end, it belongs to the word family ending in ‘cian’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teaching “cian” as a word family is linguistically inaccurate, and fails to teach how the word “technician” actually works. </p>
<p>“ian” is the suffix we attach to base words ending in “ic”, to turn them into the person who does the base word. So “technic” becomes “technician”, “magic” becomes “magician”, “electric” becomes “electrician” etc. </p>
<p>This knowledge develops spelling, builds vocabulary and increases reading comprehension. Being told that “cian” makes the “shun” sound does none of this.</p>
<h2>6. Colouring-in is not literacy</h2>
<p>Sticking balls of crepe paper on the letter “j” is not a good use of literacy learning time. Neither is colouring in all the pictures on the worksheet that start with “b”, particularly if you thought that picture of the beads was a necklace. And is that a jar or a bottle? </p>
<p>Busy work does not teach children to read and write.</p>
<h2>7. There are no easy routes to literacy</h2>
<p>Learning to read, write and spell is complex. The brain is not hardwired for literacy in the way it is hardwired for speech. </p>
<p>Each individual brain has to learn to read and write, and because our brains, our genes and our environments are all different, the pathways to literacy that our brains construct will be different. </p>
<p>If a single program could respond to this diversity then we would have solved the literacy problem a few hundred years ago when printed texts for the masses first took off.</p>
<p>Of course there are accounts of students whose progress was turned around by a phonics program - the comments section of this post will no doubt have some of those testimonials - but there are many more who languish in those programs. </p>
<p>Phonics programs can be helpful for students with very particular learning needs, but solutions to pointy end problems are not helpful for all learners.</p>
<h2>The alternative?</h2>
<p>Consider what the problem is that you are trying to solve before you commit to buying a phonics program. </p>
<p>If the problem is your students write phonetically, and cannot read phonically irregular words, then more phonics is not the solution. </p>
<p>If the problems are reading comprehension and quality of writing, then invest in your library and your staff. Buy quality literature and spend money on professional learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou works for the University of Canberra. She has received funding from state and federal funding bodies for projects investigating curriculum, teacher standards and the teaching of English as an Additional Language. She serves on the Board of Directors of TESOL International.</span></em></p>Phonics programs can be helpful for students with very particular learning needs - but it’s not a one-size-fits-all literacy solution. Here are some things you should be wary of.Misty Adoniou, Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/476572015-09-21T03:54:32Z2015-09-21T03:54:32ZSharing picture books with kids can make them smarter and more attentive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95323/original/image-20150918-24279-1n89l1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton watches as a youngster is enthralled by a picture book in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Kathy Willens</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Illiteracy is a global concern. Research suggests that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jan/29/illiteracy-education-young-people-developing-countries">175 million</a> young people, largely from poor countries and regions, lack basic literacy skills. </p>
<p>This has wide-ranging negative effects, both for individuals and society at large. Illiteracy has been shown to contribute to <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp058328">poor health</a>. A World Literacy Foundation study estimated that illiteracy costs the global economy more than <a href="http://worldliteracyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/The-Economic-Social-Cost-of-Illiteracy.pdf">$1 trillion a year</a> through lost job opportunities. </p>
<p>But our research suggests that there is one simple way to equip your children for a life of literacy from their infancy: share picture books with them.</p>
<h2>Compelling global evidence</h2>
<p>There is already a compelling body of evidence from high income countries which <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06247.x/abstract">shows</a> that children’s language development and literacy skills are facilitated by book sharing with a carer, beginning in infancy. There seems to be something special about the process of book sharing. </p>
<p>The evidence shows that sharing picture books with infants delivers the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Psychology-Babies-relationships-development-ebook/dp/B0070TRFIO">largest benefit</a> in terms of their cognitive development. Carers name objects for the infant and acknowledge, extend and elaborate on the focus of the infant’s interests. </p>
<p>Recent research has shown that when carers are provided with training in sensitive book sharing (so-called dialogic reading), there are substantial improvements in infant sustained attention. This improvement is directly related to the carers’ increased sensitivity, warmth and responsiveness. Importantly, it has been found that early infant sustained attention is a reliable predictor of later <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1995.tb01656.x/abstract">child IQ</a>.</p>
<h2>Bringing the theory home</h2>
<p>We have developed a book sharing training programme and used it in <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/place/khayelitsha-township">Khayelitsha</a>, a township outside Cape Town, South Africa. </p>
<p>Caregivers and their infants met weekly in groups of three to five with a trainer over two months. During these sessions the trainer conveyed information about the process of sensitive book sharing, modelled key skills and facilitated and encouraged caretakers in good practice. </p>
<p>Each session began with a 30 minute presentation with illustrative video clips. This was followed by a 10 to 15 minute session of individual attention. Typically, during these individual sessions, the trainer would share the book with the infant herself, modelling behaviours. </p>
<p>The training programme includes the following basic components of dialogic reading:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Active child participation: The infant should be encouraged to actively participate (not simply listen) and the carer is encouraged to follow cues from the infant.</p></li>
<li><p>Pointing and naming: The carer is encouraged to point and name the objects in the picture that the infant is looking at (or patting/banging/scratching).</p></li>
<li><p>Active questioning: For words the infant understands, the carer is encouraged to prompt the infant to point to a particular object or character, asking questions starting with “Where is the…?”, or “Can you find the …?”</p></li>
<li><p>Active questioning using “what” or “who” style questions: Later, when the infant knows how to say the word for an object, the carer is encouraged to ask questions like “What is this?”, pointing to the relevant object in the picture.</p></li>
<li><p>Active linking of book content to the infant’s real world: The carer is encouraged to link the content illustrated in the book to the infant’s own experience.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>The results</h2>
<p>We examined the impact of the training by comparing two groups of carers and children in the township. One group of carers, mostly mothers, received the training while the other did not. After eight weeks there were major differences between the two groups. </p>
<p>Our study, published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.12352/abstract">found</a> that trained carers were not only much better at book sharing: when they played with their infants without books, they were also more sensitive and responsive. The children, too, showed dramatic improvement. Their vocabulary increased and their comprehension improved; and their sustained attention showed a marked increase. Indeed, this increase was equivalent to increasing their intelligence by 16 IQ points. In addition, the children became more sociable and displayed more empathy.</p>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>Earlier this year South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said that fewer than <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=19016">5% of parents</a> in South Africa read to their children. Our study shows how important book sharing can be. </p>
<p>It also demonstrates that it is possible to introduce sensitive book sharing to contexts where this activity is unknown. Doing this markedly improves child language and attention. Providing training in sensitive early book sharing could play a major role in boosting the educational prospects of children living in poverty. </p>
<p>To take our study further, we will next look at the indications that book sharing could benefit the carer-child relationship and child socio-emotional development. The new trial, funded by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative at the Medical Research Council, will start in Khayelitsha in early 2016.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Tomlinson receives funding from DG Murray Trust; Ilifa Labantwana; National Research Foundation (South Africa); National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; USAID; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; National Institute of Drug Abuse; UNICEF; SIDA; UKAID. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Cooper is affiliated with the Mikhulu Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynne Murray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This research suggests that there is one simple way to equip your children for a life of literacy from their infancy: show them picture books.Mark Tomlinson, Professor in the Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch UniversityLynne Murray, Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of ReadingPeter Cooper, Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/466162015-09-13T20:14:28Z2015-09-13T20:14:28ZReading teaching in schools can kill a love for books<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93142/original/image-20150827-368-1ifmr7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's important we learn to love books, not just learn to read them. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reading instruction in the classroom is a key concern for all teachers and there are many ways to go about it. However, is our determination to achieve excellence in reading skills in our children killing their love and enjoyment of a good book?</p>
<p>In my work with parents, I am frequently asked the best ways to encourage and motivate reluctant readers to be engaged with books. Parents report that their children return home from school with no inclination to pick up a book and read. </p>
<p>Any avid reader will gladly talk about the joy of curling up with a good book to read away the hours on a cold, rainy afternoon. Reading a good book is one of life’s greatest pleasures. We need to share these experiences with our children and adolescents in order to assist them in developing into strong and capable readers. </p>
<h2>How widespread is this concern about the destruction of reading enjoyment?</h2>
<p>As I have written <a href="https://theconversation.com/ditch-the-home-readers-real-books-are-better-for-your-child-36359">previously</a>, the use of boring, mass-produced home reading texts in children’s early years at school can be seen as the beginning of this negative cycle. </p>
<p>As children progress through their schooling life, there are many other instances of learning reading skills that don’t help to celebrate or foster reading development. As NAPLAN tells us, getting the reading skills required <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-only-measures-a-fraction-of-literacy-learning-14078">simply to access</a> these assessments isn’t always an enjoyable experience for students. Frequently, teachers feel the pressure to give their students “just enough” in terms of reading strategies to be able to access the test, which leaves little time to focus on reading for pleasure. </p>
<p>Kelly Gallagher, a high school teacher from the United States, outlines the term “<a href="http://www.stenhouse.com/html/readicide.htm">Readicide</a>” in his book by the same name. He says it’s:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is clear that the destruction of reading for pleasure is not contained to US schools. When introducing my first-year pre-service teachers to the amazing collection of literature by Australian author Shaun Tan, audible gasps of displeasure are frequently found. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1239&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1239&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93144/original/image-20150827-340-mqf369.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1239&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kids should know this about books.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">demotivation.us</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.shauntan.net/books.html">The Lost Thing</a> is a multilayered visual text recommended by the <a href="http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/fiction_film_text_support.pdf">NSW Board of Studies</a> for students in years seven through to ten. Students recount their experiences of weeks spent analysing the key themes, ideas, imagery and concepts within the pages of this text. </p>
<p>The Lost Thing is an excellent example that illustrates all of these concepts; however, students comment that the length of time studying and analysing different components discourages them from looking at it or anything similar again. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss5/3/">research</a> also indicates that many pre-service teachers are inclined to follow the traditional literacy practices that they have experienced in their own education, which can often have negative connotations for their future students.</p>
<p>While teaching children and adolescents key concepts for analysing and evaluating texts is important, the manner in which it is done and time that is spent on this can lead to disengagement. </p>
<p>As Donalyn Miller notes in her book <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047090030X.html">Reading in the Wild</a>, schools aren’t to blame when it comes to not arresting students’ lack of interest in reading, but they have an important role to play in fostering reading enjoyment. </p>
<h2>How do we encourage our children to read for pleasure?</h2>
<p>Children (and adolescents, <em>and</em> adults) need to know that it is okay to read whatever they want, when they have the opportunity to do so. Giving children the chance to read whatever they like when shopping at the bookshop is a great place to start. If you are picking up a book to take home to your child as a gift, purchase a few, so they can choose something that interests them. </p>
<p>When parents are avid readers and actively talk about books with their children, they are establishing a climate at home where books are valued. Discussing your favourite books and parts of books with your children can lead to the discovery of new reading material about shared interests. </p>
<p>When your children bring home required reading, whether it be home readers or a set text for class, make sure that this isn’t the only reading they do. Provide incentives for your child to want to return to books of their own choice, in order to foster their interest in reading. </p>
<p>By helping our children and adolescents recognise the need for reading practice at school and the joys of reading for pleasure at school and home, we are giving them the best possible opportunity to develop the skills that they will need to be literate, passionate readers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Spencer is the ACT State Director of the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA). </span></em></p>Reading instruction in the classroom is a key concern for all teachers and there are many ways to go about it. However, is our determination for excellence in reading skills in our children killing their love and enjoyment of a good book?Ryan Spencer, Clinical Teaching Specialist; Lecturer in Literacy Education, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/404052015-05-14T04:36:54Z2015-05-14T04:36:54ZDigital stories could hold the key to multilingual literacy for African children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79914/original/image-20150430-6253-6svx41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka with a group of children in Lagos. Research suggests that literacy in a mother tongue is a building block for multilingualism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Learning to read in your first language is a firm step on the path to multilingualism. Leading literacy and language scholar Jim Cummins <a href="http://iteachilearn.org/cummins/mother.htm">reports</a> that “children who come to school with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language.” </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/more-languages-better-brain/381193/">benefits</a> of learning, understanding and speaking in several languages are well-documented. But teaching children in Africa to read in their mother tongues as a springboard to literacy in other languages can be a fraught process. </p>
<p>Research I conducted with doctoral student Juliet Tembe in Uganda’s Butaleja district offered some insight into why this is the case. We examined <a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Z413%20EDB%20Section06.pdf">parents’ attitudes</a> to English and local languages in this rural area. Many parents believe that if their children can speak English they must be making progress at school. </p>
<p>Some hoped that their children would be able to speak English from an early age like their counterparts in Uganda’s urban areas. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I usually admire children who come from outside this area; you can see a child [in their first year of primary school] speaking English. Therefore, [schools in rural areas] should teach more of English first, then the other languages after that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Parents were ambivalent about their children learning to read in the dominant local language, Lunyole. They were worried that spending time on Lunyole literacy would make it harder to promote literacy in the area’s more socially and economically powerful language – English.</p>
<h2>Building a space for African stories</h2>
<p>If the challenge of parental attitudes can be addressed, another obstacle looms. There is a drastic shortage of appropriate reading materials in languages familiar to young children in Africa. There are <a href="http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/african_languages.htm">about 2000 </a> different tongues spoken on the continent.</p>
<p>The South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide) launched a project in 2013 that is promoting early reading using open-access digital stories in multiple African languages as well as English, French and Portuguese. </p>
<p>These stories are collected on an interactive website, <a href="http://www.africanstorybook.org/">The African Storybook Project</a>. The project started in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Lesotho and has spread to Niger, Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Mozambique.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80796/original/image-20150507-1215-1im00du.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A story written in the Ugandan language of Lunyole.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The African Storybook Project</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are 348 unique illustrated stories on the website in 1025 translations and 42 languages – and the numbers keep rising. </p>
<p>Some stories were developed in workshops with teachers, student teachers, parents and community librarians. There are also stories donated by publishers or established authors as well as stories that people have created using a tool on the website. </p>
<p>The site allows teachers, librarians, parents and children to read, translate the stories they like into a local language or dialect, adapt them to the required reading level, download and print them. The stories can also be read on mobile phones and tablets.</p>
<h2>Challenges and lessons</h2>
<p>Three key issues have emerged since the African Storybook Project launched two years ago.</p>
<p>1) Access: to be most effective the project needs electricity and internet. This is not always possible, particularly in remote and rural areas. Saide is <a href="http://research.africanstorybook.org/">experimenting</a> with several ways to improve access: using cellphones, setting up intranets, bringing in overhead and data projectors and providing readers with cheap black and white printouts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80622/original/image-20150506-5442-1w0tyjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In areas without internet access, overhead projectors can be used to share stories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Espen Stranger-Johannessen/The African Storybook Project</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>2) “Suitable” content: this is an ongoing challenge in a multi-community, multi-country project. Many of the stories that have been collected come from rural communities. Their contexts are very specific to these communities and they are often designed for oral storytelling.</p>
<p>If these stories are supposed to be used as illustrated books that young children can read alone, how should they be translated into other languages and for other communities or contexts?</p>
<p>It’s also important to decide whether there should be criteria for suitability and how these should be applied. Some people have objected to sexual references in one story, for instance, while others are concerned about stories that hint at domestic violence.</p>
<p>3) Research in the project’s four pilot countries reveals that there’s very little attention in teacher education to early grade reading instruction – particularly in African languages. If reading instruction is covered at all in teacher education courses, it is usually assumed that the same skills used to teach English reading apply in any other language. </p>
<p>But many African languages have not been standardised in the same way as English. Simply cutting and pasting the methods used to teach children how to read in English onto reading in African languages may not work. There is a great deal of debate about which rules of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks and punctuation should apply to the written forms of various African languages. </p>
<p>Ongoing research is built into the project. It will be used to address these and other issues as they arise. The early signs suggest that the African Storybook Project has exciting potential for educational and social change on the continent.</p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Tessa Welch, the project director of The African Storybook Project and programme specialist in charge of teacher education at the South African Institute for Distance Education.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bonny Norton has received funding from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada.</span></em></p>Research tells us that multilingual literacy matters. But teaching children in Africa to read in their mother tongues as a springboard to literacy in other languages can be a fraught process.Bonny Norton, Professor, Department of Language & Literacy Education, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/372152015-03-02T19:20:05Z2015-03-02T19:20:05ZKnowing your child’s reading stage and how to help them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71162/original/image-20150205-28608-16u1c2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A child's reading progression isn't based on age, so you need to know what stage your child is up to in order to help them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Learning to read is a complicated process and parents often wonder if their child is developing reading abilities at the rate they “should”. <a href="http://www.wileydirect.com.au/buy/literacy-in-australia/">Research</a> agrees, however, that <a href="http://www.pearson.com.au/products/S-Z-Tompkins-Gail-Et-Al/Literacy-for-the-21st-Century-A-Balanced-Approach/9781442532700?R=9781442532700">reading</a> (and writing) is very much a developmental process, which can look very different for different children, regardless of their age.</p>
<p>It can be very tempting to compare children of the same age in terms of their reading development. However, this is in no way a reliable indicator of how they should be reading at a certain age. Parents with multiple children can usually attest to the difference in their children’s reading abilities at similar ages. </p>
<p>Rather than judging progression by age, it’s important to think about learning to read as occurring in three stages.</p>
<h2>1. Emerging readers</h2>
<p>Readers in the emergent stage of reading are usually those who are just gaining an understanding of how a text works. They will display good book handling behaviours, they will know where the book begins and ends and they understand that print and pictures convey a message. In this stage readers can usually recognise a small number of high-frequency words (5-20 words) that occur regularly throughout a text.</p>
<p>When your child is displaying these reading behaviours, you can assist them by pointing out environmental print (words on signs, around the home, at the supermarket), talking about the meaning of favourite books at bedtime and making links between these stories and the child’s own experiences.</p>
<h2>2. Beginning readers</h2>
<p>In this stage of reading development, children are becoming much more familiar with different texts and usually start to read much more widely and independently. You may notice your child can identify many more high-frequency words (20 – 50 words) and they also begin to self-correct words as they are reading. While children may sometimes read slowly and word by word at this stage, they are still gaining valuable information from the text.</p>
<p>Parents that engage with their child at this stage of reading are assisting them best when they allow their discussions about the book to go a little deeper. Perhaps discuss what could happen next after the book is finished or explore different texts that the author has written.</p>
<h2>3. Fluent readers</h2>
<p>Fluent readers, as the title suggests, are those who can identify most high-frequency words automatically. They tend to read from a wide range of different texts with little or no assistance. Readers at the fluent stage tend to use a range of different strategies to figure out unknown words, including skipping the word and allowing the wider context to convey the message, reading on for more information, and substituting the word with a word that would also make sense.</p>
<p>When you are reading with a fluent reader, it is useful to begin discussions about different types of texts, their purposes and the characteristics of how these texts are made up. For instance, when looking at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel">graphic novels</a>, you could talk about how the author uses images to represent different aspects of the story and the impact that text placement has on how this is displayed.</p>
<h2>Some common questions from parents</h2>
<p>In my work with parents, I am frequently asked many questions about how best to assist their children at various stages of their reading progression. Some of the most common questions are answered below.</p>
<p><strong>What do I do when my child doesn’t know the word?</strong></p>
<p>There are a number of things that you can do when you are reading with your child and they come to a word they don’t know. My first piece of advice is to avoid eye contact with the child. </p>
<p>When a child looks to us for help with a word, we often want to save them, help the reading process move along and provide the word. However, this is an unsustainable strategy for the child as they need a set of skills to call upon when they are reading with you. Rather than looking at your child, focus your attention on the book. After all, this is where all the clues are to figuring out the word. </p>
<p>Encourage your child to skip the word and read on for more information, use the pictures for a clue, or even leave the word behind and continue reading. By refocusing the child’s attention back to the meaning of the text, the content of the text will help fill in the blanks. If your child has skipped the word and still can’t figure it out, drop the word into the conversation as you turn the page.</p>
<p><strong>Should I get my child to practise individual words they’re having trouble with?</strong></p>
<p>Learning words in isolation does not always translate to being able to figure out unknown words in texts. Consider learning the word duck: you could write this on a card for your child to learn, look at pictures of ducks when learning the word and talk about ducks that you’ve both seen at the park together. However, when your child reads the word duck in a passage about cricket, the meaning is considerably different.</p>
<p>The best way to learn words therefore is in context - in books. Point out interesting words that you encounter in the text after you’ve finished reading and think about where you’ve seen these before. Reading widely and frequently is the best way to build your child’s vocabulary and increase their bank of known words.</p>
<p><strong>My child spends too long looking at the pictures when they are reading; should I cover the pictures so they can concentrate?</strong></p>
<p>No! A frequent misconception about the reading process is that when children are spending too long looking at the pictures they are getting distracted. When a child is looking at the pictures, they are gaining valuable information about the meaning of the text. </p>
<p>The clues that are visible in the illustrations are often the best way to figure out the meaning of the text. Encouraging your child to flick though the text before reading, or doing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BshkXhB8A24">“book orientation”</a>, where you first discuss the book, its title and the pictures, is one of the best ways to help your child’s reading progression.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Spencer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A child’s reading progression isn’t based on age, so you need to know what stage your child is up to in order to help them.Ryan Spencer, Clinical Teaching Specialist; Lecturer in Literacy Education, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/374572015-02-17T19:04:44Z2015-02-17T19:04:44ZA balanced approach is best for teaching kids how to read<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72073/original/image-20150216-13206-1jzlwy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Literacy doesn't just mean being able to recognise letters and words on a page. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We all want young children to be given the very best opportunities to become successful, engaged and passionate readers. The teaching of reading is constantly <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-we-teach-most-children-to-read-sets-them-up-to-fail-36946">mired, however, in a tired old debate</a> between proponents of “phonics” (sounding out words) and “whole language” (which focuses on meaning and using the context to decipher unknown words). </p>
<p>This argument is an unhelpful and misleading dichotomy given the <a href="http://www.education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/11398/LiteratureReviewLiteracy.pdf">evidence</a> actually supports a balanced approach to literacy, which goes well beyond being able to recognise words on a page.</p>
<h2>What is a balanced approach to literacy?</h2>
<p>The biggest review of scientific research on reading was conducted by the US <a href="http://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/Pages/nrp.aspx/">National Reading Panel</a> in 2000. The panel was clear in <a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/ch2-II.pdf">finding</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Systematic phonics instruction should be integrated with other reading instruction to create a balanced reading program.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The panel argued that a balanced approach incorporates phonemic awareness and phonics (understanding the relationships between sounds and their written representations), fluency, guided oral reading, vocabulary development and comprehension.</p>
<p>The report also stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Phonics should not become the dominant component in a reading program, neither in the amount of time devoted to it nor in the significance attached. It is important to evaluate children’s reading competence in many ways.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A 2005 <a href="http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/report_of_the_national_inquiry_into_the_teaching_o,12633.html?issueID=9803">Australian National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy</a> supported this balanced approach, with the use of <a href="http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/literacy/files/links/1_3_Phonics_June_2012.pdf">synthetic</a> phonics recommended in the first couple of years of schooling for beginning readers. </p>
<p>Similarly, the UK 2006 <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100526143644/http:/standards.dcsf.gov.uk/phonics/report.pdf">reading review</a> recognised:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Word recognition is a time-limited activity that is eventually overtaken by work that develops comprehension.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course there are <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01483.x/abstract">differences</a> in what the balance might look like in different classrooms and across different year levels. However, <a href="https://www.ldaustralia.org/client/documents/LDA%20Submission%20to%20the%20Review%20of%20the%20National%20Curriculum.pdf">claims</a> that teachers are using a little bit of phonics and a lot of whole language in Australian schools are wrong. Referring to balanced literacy as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-we-teach-most-children-to-read-sets-them-up-to-fail-36946">mess of methods</a> simply shows a lack of understanding about how classrooms operate.</p>
<p>A balanced approach provides us with a <a href="http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/northernadelaide/files/links/An_Introduction_to_Ouality.pdf">best-practice model</a> for teaching all students how to read and write across all stages of their education.</p>
<h2>Literacy isn’t just about learning how to read</h2>
<p>It is important to remember that literacy learning is broad and takes place at all levels of schooling. It’s not just about learning to read in the early years. The current focus on phonics as a fix-all for struggling readers is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2012.00879.x/abstract">problematic</a> as it misses the complexities of literacy learning.</p>
<p>Being literate requires a much broader repertoire of skills than simply reading and writing as the decoding and encoding of printed words. The ability to make meaning from texts, ask questions and read between the lines is, in many ways, much more important.</p>
<p>Paulo Freire, the much-respected Brazilian educator, called this <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/41405241?sid=21105858859823">Reading the World and Reading the Word</a>. To teach our students to do any less would be the real failure.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done</h2>
<p>The recent report into <a href="http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/action_now_classroom_ready_teachers_print.pdf">teacher training</a> recommends that all student teachers be taught literacy, not just primary teachers. </p>
<p>This is already happening in many universities. For example, I teach a literacy course with students who are studying to be high school teachers in areas such as mathematics, physics, health and physical education. We investigate the literacy requirements of each subject and the teaching of reading and writing within those contexts.</p>
<p>However, just as important is the ongoing professional development and mentoring offered to teachers working in schools. We need to provide all teachers with the opportunities and tools to engage in literacy teaching that goes beyond just recognising words on a page. </p>
<p>The problem is that education research is so seldom used to inform education policy and practice. The seemingly endless cycle of reviews and reforms create a sense of frustration and fatigue, particularly for classroom teachers who are constantly placed under pressures to implement this new curriculum or that new school-wide strategy, improve NAPLAN results, and so on.</p>
<p>It is made worse by ideological divisions in research, where large-scale randomised control trials are assumed to be the only valid form of research, to the exclusion of smaller case studies, ethnographic projects, classroom interventions and other more qualitative approaches. We should be seeking out new ways to explore how children learn to read, rather than discounting different methods for one tried-and-tested approach.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=aer">2007 review</a> of literacy research in Australia argued:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More effective and forward-looking understanding of literacy teaching is important for researchers, teachers, learners and the societies they inhabit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The best way forward would be for researchers from diverse fields, including education, psychology and speech pathology, to get together and work in ways that cross over the arbitrary boundaries. Perhaps this would finally get us off the merry-go-round of the <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2014/08/05/why-i-dont-care-about-the-reading-wars-anymore/">reading wars</a>, which really help no-one.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: Stewart will be answering questions between 1 and 2pm AEDT on Wednesday February 18. You can ask your questions about the article in the comments below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We all want young children to be given the very best opportunities to become successful, engaged and passionate readers. The teaching of reading is constantly mired, however, in a tired old debate between…Stewart Riddle, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369462015-02-05T19:38:21Z2015-02-05T19:38:21ZThe way we teach most children to read sets them up to fail<p>A new batch of Australian five-year-olds has just started school, eager to learn to read and write. Unfortunately for them, English has one of the most difficult spelling systems of any language, thanks to the way it developed.</p>
<h2>A patchwork of many languages</h2>
<p>Words from Germanic Anglo-Saxon (woman, Wednesday) and Old Norse (thrust, give) were mixed with words from the church’s Latin (annual, bishop), and Norman French (beef, war). Pronunciation changed dramatically in England between 1350 and 1700 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift">The Great Vowel Shift</a>), and scribes paid by the character added letters to words.</p>
<p>Science, technology and The Enlightenment added words, often based on Latin or Greek (anthropology, phone, school), wars and globalisation added even more, like “verandah” from Hindi, “tomato” from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl">Nahuatl</a> (Aztec) via Spanish, and “yakka” from Yagara (an Australian Indigenous language). Words are also continually being invented and added to contemporary dictionaries. </p>
<p>Words from other languages typically carry their spelling patterns into English. So, for example, the spelling “ch” represents different sounds in words drawn from Germanic (cheap, rich, such), Greek (chemist, anchor, echo) and French (chef, brochure, parachute).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71007/original/image-20150204-25516-1cdcpny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">English has 26 characters, but many more sounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our originally Latin alphabet has only 26 letters for the 44 sounds in modern Australian English. To master our spelling system, children must grasp that words are made of sounds represented by letters, that sometimes we use two, three or four letters for a sound (f <strong>ee</strong> t, bri <strong>dge</strong>, c <strong>augh</strong> t), that most sounds have several spellings (H <strong>er</strong> f <strong>ir</strong> st n <strong>ur</strong> se w <strong>or</strong> ks <strong>ear</strong> ly), and that many spellings represent a few sounds (f <strong>oo</strong> d, l <strong>oo</strong> k, fl <strong>oo</strong> d, br <strong>oo</strong> ch).</p>
<h2>How should children be taught this complex code?</h2>
<p>In his <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vSoUT6PXdoIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=hattie+visible+learning+for+teachers&ots=XISaYkzdMU&sig=IMYoI6orTcQo8VPgVKvuEYOe5oo#v=onepage&q=hattie%20visible%20learning%20for%20teachers&f=false">internationally acclaimed analysis</a> of the effectiveness of teaching methods, Professor John Hattie assigns “effect sizes” ranging from 1.44 (highly effective) to -0.34 (harmful). Effect sizes above 0.4 indicate methods worth serious attention.</p>
<p>There are two main schools of thought about how to teach children to read and write, one focused on meaning (whole language) and one focused on word structure (phonics). Hattie’s meta-analysis gives whole language an effect size of 0.06, and phonics an effect size of 0.54.</p>
<p>But which type of phonics works best? <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/02/20682/52383">The Clackmannanshire study</a> provides convincing evidence for synthetic phonics. This starts from just a few sounds and letters in short words, and systematically adds and practises more sounds, spellings and syllable types, until children can read well enough to independently tackle the “real books” adults have been reading them.</p>
<p>Clackmannanshire is a disadvantaged area of Scotland, but by the end of primary school the children using this program were three years ahead of the national average on word reading, 21 months ahead on spelling and five months ahead on reading comprehension.</p>
<p>In 2005, <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/tll_misc/5/">Australia’s National Inquiry into Teaching Reading</a> recommended that young children should be provided with systematic, explicit and direct phonics instruction, and that teachers be equipped to provide this. Similar inquiries in the <a href="http://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/Pages/nrp.aspx/publications/summary.htm">US</a> and <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100526143644/http:/standards.dcsf.gov.uk/phonics/report.pdf">UK</a> agreed.</p>
<h2>Are children being taught this way?</h2>
<p>The short answer is no. The main reason is that few teachers are trained or equipped to teach synthetic phonics. They’re often taught at university by academics whose careers, publication records and reputations are based on whole-language teaching approaches, considered modern, progressive and child-centred. Phonics, conversely, is framed as old-fashioned, reactionary and teacher-centred, so is used less.</p>
<p>Children are typically encouraged to read “real books” containing long words and difficult spellings, and to guess unknown words from first letters and pictures. They try to write words that are too hard for them, and often the resulting spelling mistakes are put up on the wall for everyone to learn. They memorise lists of high-frequency words.</p>
<p>Phonics work in Australian classrooms typically focuses on initial letters and a few basic strategies, not sounds and their spellings in all word positions. There is little systematic instruction in word blending or segmenting (breaking words into parts, such as syllables), or in many of English’s 170 or so major spelling patterns. <a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1">Australian curriculum</a> requirements for English reinforce this mess-of-methods approach.</p>
<p>Many confused children learn to guess and memorise words rather than sounding them out. This seems to work at first, but by their third year of schooling lack of visual memory (disk full!) means they start to fail. The well-intended <a href="http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/earlyyears/reading_recovery/">Reading Recovery program</a>, about 80% whole language and 20% phonics, often <a href="https://www.ldaustralia.org/BULLETIN_NOV13-RR.pdf">fails to provide the boost</a> these learners need.</p>
<p>Children who can’t read much by age nine are in serious trouble. By then, teachers expect them to have finished learning to read and to start seriously reading to learn. Yet the 2011 <a href="http://www.acer.edu.au/timss/australian-results-timss-pirls-2011-dec-2012">Progress in International Reading Literacy Study</a> found that a quarter of Australian Year 4 students fell below international benchmarks in reading, with 7% scoring “very low”.</p>
<h2>Using evidence in education</h2>
<p>If large numbers of children were contracting a serious, preventable illness and you asked your doctor how to protect your child, you’d be rightly angry if the doctor didn’t understand the current medical research and thus recommended what s/he learnt at university, or had used before and preferred. You might contact the Medical Board to make a complaint or, if you had followed bad health advice, lodge a malpractice suit in the courts.</p>
<p>Evidence-based practice is deeply embedded in the culture of health professionals. Graduates are taught to read and understand the language of rigorous research and to turn to peer-reviewed academic journals and properly controlled experimental designs as the best sources of evidence. This doesn’t happen nearly enough in education.</p>
<p>Children’s opportunities are seriously compromised if they don’t learn to read and spell. <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/421-440/tandi435.html">They are much more likely</a> to drop out of school early, be unemployed, suffer ill health and get on the wrong side of the law.</p>
<p>The vast majority of children will only learn to read and spell in the right developmental window when teachers are equipped with the best available methods, based on the best available evidence.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Alison Clarke co-authored this article. Alison is a speech pathologist at the Clifton Hill Child and Adolescent Therapy Group in Melbourne and is on Learning Difficulties Australia‘s Council. Disclosure Statement: Alison Clarke is a speech pathologist in private practice who also runs the website www.spelfabet.com.au</em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela Snow receives funding from the Australian Research Council (Linkage Scheme).</span></em></p>A new batch of Australian five-year-olds has just started school, eager to learn to read and write. Unfortunately for them, English has one of the most difficult spelling systems of any language, thanks…Pamela Snow, Associate Professor of Psychology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/363592015-01-22T19:01:58Z2015-01-22T19:01:58ZDitch the home readers – real books are better for your child<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69211/original/image-20150116-5182-1cv38fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sometimes Fun with Dick and Jane isn't so fun after all, meaning kids will disengage from reading.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/306056407/in/photolist-fHnkvo-d9Z3Hz-sAQ2q-5uuE29-t3BUB-bQY1LD-figvoT-dpffD-5urFSX-6Ti7wq">Liz West/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As school resumes for the new year, the “home reader” routine for primary school children also recommences. For many parents and children, reading these short texts can be the most agonising part of the nightly homework routine. It’s no wonder that so many children dislike reading their home reader.</p>
<p>These books are often mass-produced, boring texts that hold little excitement or mystery. Frequently, they are the same book that your child has read before, either in class or as a previous week’s home reader.</p>
<p>However, parents brave the battle of reading these books every night as we all understand that learning to read takes practice. Parents are often all too familiar with their own experiences of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_and_Jane">Dick and Jane-type readers</a> from their childhood.</p>
<p>Reading does take practice and time to master. Children do need ample opportunities to practise their reading, therefore reading at home is vital. However, it is important these reading experiences are enjoyable, fun and exciting. Otherwise, what is the benefit of returning tomorrow?</p>
<h2>What are home readers, where do they come from and how are they used?</h2>
<p>Home readers are short, easy-to-read books, which are typically levelled in terms of reading difficulty. Children in the lower primary school grades typically borrow a number of these books each week to take home for reading practice. In many cases, children are given books matched to, or slightly below, their reading level. Books are sometimes chosen for them by the teacher, a parent helper or by the students themselves.</p>
<p>Commercial reading programs provide schools with an easy, quick way to add multiple copies of these readers to their classroom libraries. The accompanying resources that are supplied with these kits are typically generic lessons. The <a href="http://www.reading.org/General/AboutIRA/PositionStatements/CommercialProgramsPosition.aspx">International Reading Association</a> has warned teachers to ensure the materials are accompanied by research supporting their success.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69692/original/image-20150121-29832-1yksk7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Standardised readers don’t allow the teacher to tailor instruction to suit the students’ needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Commercial reading programs frequently fool the purchasers into believing that using their standardised system will make learning to read easier and faster. However, these programs very rarely cater for the individual and diverse needs of students and are infrequently supported by research. Teachers that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiated_instruction">differentiate</a> their instruction during reading lessons are those who will best suit the varying and complex needs of the children in their class.</p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1080/105735601455738">Research indicates</a> that many commercial reading programs spend too much time focusing on word analysis instruction (the sound of the word) rather than thinking about what the words – and the book – mean. The prescriptive lessons described to teachers in support materials for these books also do not consider the often different and varying needs of students within a particular class.</p>
<h2>Why should we ditch the home readers?</h2>
<p>Recent <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/TRTR.1154/pdf">research</a> highlights that when children are provided with the opportunity to select their own reading material, they achieve greater levels of success. Sometimes, these choices may be harder, but the interest level creates the opportunity for the child to stay motivated to solve their normal reading problems.</p>
<p>Ironically, <a href="http://www.scholastic.com/readingreport/images/WMFR_info-2.jpg">further research just released by Scholastic</a>, a major publisher of commercial reading programs, highlights the importance of wide, varied and self-selected reading in creating fluent and resourceful readers.</p>
<p>Parents often feel as though they have no choice when it comes to reading home readers with their children and feel unable to speak with authority about this with their child’s teacher. All teachers are open to new possibilities in order to engage the children in their class to read. A short note or meeting quickly explaining the reading that you plan to do with your child and a selection of the books you are planning to read in lieu of the readers is more than adequate.</p>
<h2>What should we read instead?</h2>
<p>Real books! A visit to the school or local library or bookstore will unearth thousands of entertaining and enjoyable books to engage your child. Here are a few suggestions of how to start:</p>
<p><strong>1. Let your child make the choice</strong></p>
<p>Letting your child make their own choice about what they want to read is the most powerful way to encourage them to be motivated and interested readers. If your child loves dinosaurs, find the section in your local library and borrow as many as you can. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about the book being too hard – you can use a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxFLeIZQzV0">strategy</a> to help your child access the text when reading together at home, or you can read it to them. Don’t worry if the book appears too easy – this will provide valuable reading practice for your child and it will be something that they can access independently.</p>
<p>Lastly, don’t make your child’s choice wrong – this is about them and their reading, you want them to be excited and wanting to return.</p>
<p><strong>2. Use your librarian’s knowledge and expertise</strong></p>
<p>Librarians are a frequently underutilised resource. Almost all will be able to supply a synopsis and name of great books that will interest and excite your child. A quick chat when you pop into the library each week with your child about reading interests and successes will keep you on top of the librarian’s mind – you’ll be amazed what they will keep aside for you each week.</p>
<p><strong>3. Have fun when reading – don’t teach the book</strong></p>
<p>Most importantly, make reading together the most fun and enjoyable part of your and your child’s day. Read the books together with funny voices, or take turns to read different characters. Talk about your favourite parts of the books when you are finished with them and which authors you like the most. </p>
<p>As cherished Australian <a href="http://memfox.com/for-parents/">author Mem Fox suggests</a>, don’t teach the book – enjoy it!</p>
<p>Committing to a better reading life with your child does take time, to choose great books together and to experience them. For an hour each week visiting the local library, you can make a priceless investment in your child’s reading and educational future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Spencer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As school resumes for the new year, the “home reader” routine for primary school children also recommences. For many parents and children, reading these short texts can be the most agonising part of the…Ryan Spencer, Clinical Teaching Specialist; Lecturer in Literacy Education, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/343612014-12-29T21:28:09Z2014-12-29T21:28:09ZPreventing your kids’ summer reading slide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65047/original/image-20141120-29241-1yybwa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kids usually find more interesting things to do on summer break than read books...but this can interrupt their progress in reading.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=134945261&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTQxNjQ3MjM0MywiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTM0OTQ1">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the warmer weather settles in we know that it isn’t long before children are free of the restraints of school for another year. The regular reading that is a part of many children’s school day suddenly comes to an end as there are far more interesting things to do on vacation than read a book, right?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02702711.2010.505165#.VGriGdYZekQ">Research</a> though has shown that when kids put down the books for their summer break, often their reading ability drops with it. The term “slide” refers to children dropping in their reading ability following a lack of reading over the summer break. Teachers frequently report that students return to school in January with a lower reading level and interest in books, than when they left in December. </p>
<p>While research predominately focuses upon the long mid year summer vacations of the <a href="https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/publ/research/publ/researcharticle_the_summer_achievement_gap.pdf">northern hemisphere</a>, there is still an emerging trend within Australian schools, albeit over a shorter break. Achievement gaps are often identified in lower <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socioeconomic_status">socio-economic</a> communities due to <a href="http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=24958565">lack of available resources</a> and books within the home. Some children simply don’t have access to books once the school library closes for the year. However, you don’t need money in order to prevent the slide for your children. </p>
<p>Here are five tips to make sure your kids stay engaged with reading over the summer break.</p>
<h2>1. Make reading time fun (and quick!)</h2>
<p>It is easy and necessary to make reading together the most fun time of everyday. Read together with funny voices, try humorous books to engage the reluctant readers in your family and trust that <a href="http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143500889/walter-farting-dog">toilet humour</a> is often a surefire winner for most boys. You should aim for no more than ten minutes reading together – just enough to encourage the kids to come back tomorrow. Set a timer if you need to, it will encourage them to ask for a minute or two more when reading time comes to an end.</p>
<h2>2. Visit the local library and bookstores</h2>
<p>Make regular visits to the local public library and bookstores as part of your family’s routine. These trips are simple ways to drive reading passion. Many children are amazed when they discover that they can borrow sometimes up to twenty books from their local library for free (and probably will the first time). Discount department stores often sell brand new popular kids books for less than A$10, much less than a movie ticket.</p>
<h2>3. Have a ‘screen free night’ each week</h2>
<p>Make a screen free night part of your family’s regular routine (except for eReaders of course) where everyone in the family picks up something to read. Having your children see you read and talk about books adds value to this reading time. Different approaches to the screen free night may be to invest in reading lamps or book lights so that children can read in bed before sleep.</p>
<h2>4. Give books as gifts</h2>
<p>Christmas for kids means presents, and more books in the house can never go astray. Gift the next book in the series that your child is loving – the <a href="http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/Diary_of_a_Wimpy_Kid-9781419711893.html">Diary of a Wimpy Kid</a> series by Jeff Kinney or the <a href="http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/display_title.asp?ISBN=9781742614212&Author=Griffiths,%20Andy">52nd Storey Treehouse</a> by Australia’s Andy Griffiths are great places to start. Encourage your child to lend and swap their books with friends once they have read them. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65055/original/image-20141120-29238-gkii3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Buy kids books they like to prevent the summer reading slide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chr1sp/15716310461/in/photolist-pWNcy2-9stUdD-61Sp76-9hrRxn-4G8o6f-61WDdS-6trqie-4cDJpU-5Rhp3D-aTTW96-dScLFR-dKKAxu-aMqTii-eSJM17-61Sqsk-61WBLd-61Sq4X-61Spa2-61WCaf-61SpZF-61Spb4-61SppV-61WBbh-61WDjA-61WCzh-61WBfy-61WBG5-61WAWN-61SrPe-61WD6U-61WDnG-61WBk1-61SqR6-61SqQ2-61Sqdx-61SqMc-61Ssj4-61SqkT-61Spna-61Spg8-61WB6m-742f79-kqBr4r-bDTst2-61T9Mr-nchT6v-61WAYS-61SrqF-61Sr2M-61WBjd">Flickr/Chris_Parfitt</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>5. Read together using supportive strategies</h2>
<p>When you are reading together with your child, it’s a great idea to give them the option of how they would like to read. Provide the opportunity for children to choose whether they would like to read aloud or silently. Check if they would like to try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j80MHkyIIFs">paired</a> reading if they feel like they need extra support with the book.</p>
<p>When your child comes to a word that they don’t know or aren’t sure of, remember to:</p>
<p><strong>Wait:</strong> give your child a chance to figure out the word on their own</p>
<p><strong>Ask:</strong> does that make sense? Does the picture give you a clue? Could you read on for more information?</p>
<p><strong>Then skip:</strong> if the child is still stuck on the word, ask them to skip it and read on. You can always drop that word into the conversation as you turn the page. This has the added advantage of not making the child wrong!</p>
<p>Working with your child to maintain good reading habits over their summer break allows you to not only establish your family as active readers, but will give them the best possible start to the next school year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Spencer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the warmer weather settles in we know that it isn’t long before children are free of the restraints of school for another year. The regular reading that is a part of many children’s school day suddenly…Ryan Spencer, Clinical Teaching Specialist; Lecturer in Literacy Education, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/340132014-11-16T19:16:24Z2014-11-16T19:16:24ZThree easy ways to get your kids to read better and enjoy it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64099/original/zb42mqmz-1415597609.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting your kids to read, and enjoy it, shouldn't be so hard. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/runintherain/6494496513">Flickr/Johanna Loock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s little wonder that we often feel as though our kids aren’t as successful with reading as we’d like them to be. The “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_reading:_whole_language_and_phonics">reading wars</a>” - the battle between sounding out words and using the sentence as context for understanding - have seemed only to add unnecessary stress and anxiety for parents, carers and teachers alike. The feelings of helplessness in regard to reading often translate into less-than-productive reading experiences with children and the transfer of parents’ stress and anxiety onto their children.</p>
<p>No parent ever sets out to purposely do the wrong thing when it comes to their child and reading. Whether it is through daily reading, flash cards, sight words or sounding out words, many parents are simply doing what they did as children. I suggest shifting focus from a <a href="http://www.alea.edu.au/documents/item/943">phonics</a> (sounding out) only approach to reading for pleasure as a surefire way to re-engage kids with books.</p>
<p>Picking up a book and reading and encouraging your child to do the same is one of the easiest ways to re-engage children with reading. The tips below encourage just that – reading as fun and as an act of love.</p>
<h2>1. Relax</h2>
<p>The simplest way to encourage children to engage in reading is to relax around the process. Parents are often anxious when they feel that reading isn’t going as well for their children as it should be. This then translates to the children that they are reading with.</p>
<p>One of the easiest ways to relax around the reading process is to change the location reading takes place at home. If the difficult reading times have always been at the dining table, then encourage a variety of reading locations. Try lying down on the lounge room floor, Mum and Dad’s bed, or outside under a tree.</p>
<p>The physical location can make a real difference to how the reading is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.12020/abstract">perceived and enjoyed</a>. Most importantly, as <a href="http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143007456/reading-bug-how-you-can-help-your-child-catch-it">Paul Jennings suggests</a>, don’t listen to reading while you are doing the washing up. Make it a time that is quiet, safe and warm.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64101/original/t5thj485-1415597790.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Read with your child - away from the scenes of past reading stress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>2. Don’t be a word pointer or an ‘instant word factory’</h2>
<p>The core of the reading process is <a href="http://search.proquest.com/docview/57743347?accountid=28889">making meaning</a>. When a child changes a word in the text, they are being a resourceful reader. They are working towards making sure that the text that they are reading makes sense for them.</p>
<p>The child who reads the word flu instead of cold is putting the text into their own context. As adults, we frequently miscue when reading, though often we are unaware it has happened. Children need to know that it is okay to not read “word perfect” all of the time.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, prior reading experiences for many of us have stressed the importance of reading “word perfect” and have implied that to do otherwise is cheating in some way. When a child changes a word, or looks to a parent for help, the importance of making meaning needs to be shared. Simple prompts for parents, such as “what would make sense here?” or “let’s read on for more information”, give the reader a strategy to figure out what they are reading.</p>
<p>Getting stuck on a word in many cases results in pointing at the unknown word and sounding out, or the parent becomes the “instant word factory” and supplies the word to the child. Both of these strategies are unsustainable. When figuring out unknown words, sounding out is the least effective strategy because the clues aren’t in that word – they are in the rest of the sentence or the pictures.</p>
<h2>3. Children always need to choose what they read</h2>
<p>Book choice is a vital component of the reading process. As adults, we very rarely read anything that we either don’t love or enjoy. If we read a book and it takes a while to get going or we lose interest, we simply put it down or lend it to a friend. Why then do we insist that children must read cover to cover something that they don’t necessarily enjoy or like? </p>
<p>Often these imposed choices on children come from a place of love – we are trying to support the children in accessing a text that is at their reading level. It is often hard to let go and let children choose their own books. This is vital, however, for developing strong, self-sufficient readers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64104/original/tzjgd44n-1415598084.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kids have to love what they’re reading - even if you don’t.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beaconradio/5911999506/in/photolist-aoA2Db-a1qxtY-z8GaE-xa2UE-ph5BsS-a72v9C-6QtXVV-a64qEP-gwNRBZ-2vr8yA-2vr8xG-PXXdB-8NBU4d-aNLC7-aNLxK-e7GQBS-fhtRxV-p2Djjj-2vr8rU-2vr8ru-65TFJL-64qbTH-F8uHQ-hZ7qHj-9LVTze-2vr8rm-2vr8r3-2jmwvb-a1qxwG-2mpDsv-2jdB3w-2j6ZS2-2ca8Ly-nRfeEx-2tsrao-LUGQR-4tSozv-ykKdX-2mumqn-6HB2yZ-a1nFKP-a1nFJv-ac7LQy-hDW3Mm-2zBVf4-9NBAG1-64sTUg-9kcRan-9kcR72-4V1YYL">Flickr/Beacon</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a child chooses a book that may be beyond their instructional reading level, we might need to use a supportive book strategy to assist the child to access that text. You might try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxFLeIZQzV0">echo</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUuwWzckKrs">shared reading</a> with the text, where the parent reads a sentence and the child follows along. It is important that these levels of support are negotiated with the child, so they can access the support that they need.</p>
<p>Every parent does the best job they know how to do when it comes to helping their child to read. Remember to congratulate yourself on making such a great difference to your child’s future. Relax and enjoy the reading journey!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Spencer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s little wonder that we often feel as though our kids aren’t as successful with reading as we’d like them to be. The “reading wars” - the battle between sounding out words and using the sentence as…Ryan Spencer, Clinical Teaching Specialist - Lecturer in Literacy Education, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/322362014-09-30T10:51:18Z2014-09-30T10:51:18ZTeaching to the T-E-S-T: phonics is working for most children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60317/original/d8q6mqgc-1412002933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spell it out. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-65325580/stock-photo-alphabet-soup.html?src=eVtzC4LeWoBGStT5yksREQ-1-2">Alphabet soup via Brian Mueller/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teaching children to read with phonics has been a central plank of recent “Govian” education policy. A new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/356941/SFR34_2014_text.pdf">set of statistics</a> shows that 74% of children in the first year of primary school now meet the expected level on a phonics screening check, rising to 88% in Year 2 – a marked improvement on two years ago. </p>
<p>But dig down behind the numbers and it’s clear that there are still big disparities in how children perform on phonics tests based on region, gender and whether they qualify for free school meals. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14930193">Introduced in 2012</a>, the purpose of the phonics screening check is for teachers to check that young children in Years 1 and 2 can apply a system to “decode” the sounds of words, some of which are “nonsense words” and make no sense in the English language. </p>
<p>Initially controversial, with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/apr/08/teachers-union-criticises-phonics-tests">teacher unions arguing</a> that the new test told them nothing new about their pupils, the test was part of the government’s broader strategy to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-testing-four-year-olds-as-they-start-school-is-a-bad-idea-24929">continue testing young children</a>. Based on a variation of phonics known as systematic synthetic phonics or SSP, the test is now part of a litany of testing and accountability now embedded in our school system.</p>
<p>The 2006 <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100526143644/http:/standards.dcsf.gov.uk/phonics/report.pdf">Rose Review</a> into the teaching of reading saw phonics as one element to support early acquisition of reading skills. The review saw SSP as part of a broader strategy for beginner readers which should include: “a rich curriculum that fosters all four interdependent strands of language: speaking, listening, reading and writing”. </p>
<h2>Poverty and gender gaps</h2>
<p>Although the headline figures in the latest statistical release for the phonics test show a general overall improvement, as the graph below shows, it is the detail of how different groups perform that is worthy of greater focus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60316/original/wtyvssxn-1412001890.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same statistics show that the gender gap is still wide and girls continue to outperform boys at this early stage. This is not new, nor is it restricted to phonics. Ongoing academic research has consistently highlighted the gap between girls’ and boys’ achievement across the education phases. However, the gap narrows as both groups get older.</p>
<p>Social deprivation – as measured by whether a child is eligible for free school meals – still has a significant impact on children’s early acquisition of language and their ability to read and decode words. Although narrowing by 1% between 2013 and 2014, the gap between those eligible for free school meals and other children is a staggering 16%. But when we take into account the same group of children’s performance a year later in Year 2, the gap narrows to ten percentage points. </p>
<p>The new Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, may wish to consider further policies on narrowing the gap in educational achievement, or persuade her cabinet colleagues to commit to eliminating social deprivation as a focus for new policies, or even a new government.</p>
<h2>Ethnic variations</h2>
<p>The picture is made more complicated when ethnicity is taken into account. Children from an Indian heritage scored the highest in the phonics test with “travellers” having the lowest score. Breaking this down even further, those children from Irish heritage had a slightly higher score (33%) than those from Gypsy/Roma backgrounds (28%). The gap between children of white backgrounds and black Caribbean backgrounds has narrowed completely with each group seeing a significant improvement to more than 70% passing the phonics test.</p>
<p>As one might expect, those children with special educational needs tend not to perform well using this type of assessment – less than 40% achieve the threshold measure compared to more than 80% of children with no identified special need. There may be a need to consult those experts who work with children with special educational needs as to what might be an appropriate way of measuring their early reading performance.</p>
<h2>Type and location of school</h2>
<p>The statistics also highlight the different performance across different type of schools. Converter academies and locally maintained schools outperform sponsored academies. The Department of Education’s release argues this is due to the historic legacies of sponsored academies – which tend to operate in challenging communities and with more children eligible for free school meals. But the information is not there to see if this really is the case since there are currently no comparisons made with similar schools.</p>
<p>And there’s a regional difference too – with some areas in London and urban areas in the north and north-west doing particularly well. Yet across the country, there is a gap of 18% between the Year 1 children who perform the best and those who don’t, falling to 13% for children in Year 2.</p>
<h2>Successful implementation</h2>
<p>What these statistics do show us is how good our excellent teachers have become at implementing central government policy and in using phonics alongside other strategies to develop fluent, reading-loving youngsters. </p>
<p>The new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335186/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_English_220714.pdf">National Curriculum for English</a> ensures that teachers focus on two aspects of reading: word reading and understanding. It places emphasis on reading for enjoyment and understanding, and sees phonics as a tool for children to “decode” words only. </p>
<p>It’s still up for debate whether teachers needed a phonics test to tell them about their children’s ability to read. But now that we have the statistics, perhaps Nicky Morgan may want to focus on how we can best support children who are consistently performing less well in these and other tests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pat Black does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teaching children to read with phonics has been a central plank of recent “Govian” education policy. A new set of statistics shows that 74% of children in the first year of primary school now meet the…Pat Black, Head of Initial Teacher Education, School of Education., Bath Spa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/321742014-09-26T13:43:09Z2014-09-26T13:43:09ZWe must all be foot soldiers in the battle to stamp out illiteracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60174/original/2y38wgjy-1411730657.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sacred time. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-104294405/stock-photo-son-and-daughter-with-their-mother-sit-on-sofa-and-read-book-in-room-focus-on-woman.html?src=TwsgqpVCkLi0t1vtPu4utA-1-5">Reading: Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two initiatives aimed at getting children to learn and read more have just launched with a flourish. The $15m <a href="http://learning.xprize.org/">Global Learning Xprize</a> pits teams of innovators across the world in a competition aiming to find a technological solution to teach children literacy and numeracy, without the need of a human teacher. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="http://www.readongeton.org.uk/">Read On Get On</a> campaign in the UK is encouraging all adults to read to their children, even for as little as ten minutes per day. It is backed by a coalition of UK charities, teachers, publishers, and several celebrities, including <a href="http://www.bestdaily.co.uk/your-life/news/a595386/author-jk-rowling-backs-new-book-campaign.html">JK Rowling</a> and <a href="http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/just-read/geri-halliwell-reading-changed-my-life-just-read-take-10">Geri Haliwell</a>. </p>
<p>Both initiatives were launched in response to some alarming education statistics. Xprize cites a <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/unesco_study_shows_africa_and_arab_states_are_worst_hit_by_teacher_shortage/#.VCOuq_ldWSo">UNESCO report</a> which estimates that the world will need 1.6m more teachers by 2015. Read on Get on draws on a <a href="http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/Read_On_Get_On.pdf">Save the Children report</a> predicting that 1.5m British children might reach the age of 11 unable to “read well” by 2025, and that this could cost the UK £32 billion in growth. </p>
<h2>What, how and who reads</h2>
<p>If we aim to eradicate illiteracy, we really need to think big and act boldly. Yet there is a bit of a Catch 22 here. To do this well, we need to be clearer about what we mean by the slogan <a href="http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/just-read">Just Read</a> and the “magic formula” of reading <a href="http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/just-read/take10-minutes-and-just-read-to-your-child">just ten minutes per day</a>, espoused by the Read On Get On campaign. </p>
<p>What, who and how we read in those ten minutes are just as important as why. Does reading a print book count as much as reading an e-book or are we in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/speed-it-up-or-slow-it-down-the-boundaries-of-reading-apps-for-children-30544">tired dichotomy</a> of encouraging engagement with printed books at the expense of on-screen reading? Whether we mean reading fiction or non-fiction is also important – fiction seems to be prioritised in the Save the Children report. And are we trying to get children to <a href="http://www.bookstart.org.uk/usr/resources/75/booktrust-reading-for-pleasure-reading-for-life-1-.pdf">read for pleasure</a> or read for learning or both?</p>
<h2>Not just a solution from the West</h2>
<p>Similarly, it is not clear what is meant by the ultimate goal of the Xprize, that the winning technological solution is supposed to most effectively support autonomous learning. It’s important that the outcomes are not assessed solely using Western standards. They should also reflect the skills essential to thrive in a particular local environment. </p>
<p><a href="http://learning.stage2.xprize.org/sites/default/files/global_learning_xprize_competition_summary_v1.pdf">Xprize does specify</a> that the cultural and political importance of local languages will be emphasised and that the shortlisted software will be field-tested only in countries with a national policy of promoting English fluency. </p>
<p>But the issue of how appropriate large-scale technology-driven initiatives are in different cultures and economies is a complex one. With Xprize, it’s also important to think carefully about merging the knowledge infrastructure of the West with the physical infrastructure of the developing world. </p>
<p>While in the Western world mobile technology is typically implemented with the aim of enriching classroom instruction and assisting teachers, in the developing world technological initiatives are often about <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/">replacing teachers</a> and teacher-proofing – or taking decisions away from teachers. The same technology is therefore serving two very different imperatives – and this requires a mind shift for those software designers who grew up with a different educational paradigm.</p>
<h2>Reading and learning in 21st century</h2>
<p>For both campaigns, it is crucial to think about whether they will change how well and often children read rather than just the delivery mechanisms for reading. So that the two campaigns become truly game-changing national and international campaigns, we need an openness and willingness to rethink habits and routines. More time is needed to understanding what reading and learning in the 21st century is and could be about. </p>
<p>This is why it’s important that both campaigns <a href="https://theconversation.com/coding-classes-should-bring-in-everyone-not-just-children-31266">maintain a community approach</a> supporting cross-generational dialogues. </p>
<p>The children’s author <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29366399">Michael Rosen has suggested</a> that parents should be encouraged to come and sit on the floor with their children at story time. Other children’s authors, for example <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/08/reading-literacy-uk-cbi-schools-read-on-get-on-campaign">Michael Morpurgo</a>, are promoting reading for pleasure by adding their short stories to the Saturday edition of The Sun newspaper. Read On Get On did well by employing a general strategy to engage a wide number of people: it has already managed to galvanise politicians, business leaders and other big players who might be able to provide the necessary resources to tackle the issue of eradicating illiteracy in the UK. </p>
<p>Also, behind the Xprize there is a clear sense of community collaboration as the organisers encourage teams to work together on the best possible technical solution and engage in an open-source development process. </p>
<p>We need to keep such a community approach to ensure that reading becomes a shared concern and decisions about future educational technologies are driven by communities rather than by selected technology companies. In this respect, both campaigns give us a lot of hope.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalia Kucirkova receives funding as a KTP Associate. She is affiliated with The Open University and Booktrust. She was selected as Xprize vanguard in September 2014.</span></em></p>Two initiatives aimed at getting children to learn and read more have just launched with a flourish. The $15m Global Learning Xprize pits teams of innovators across the world in a competition aiming to…Natalia Kucirkova, KTP Associate for Booktrust, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/303212014-08-08T15:47:17Z2014-08-08T15:47:17ZLet’s stop trying to teach students critical thinking<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56068/original/m36hxr2w-1407504333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Socrates, the father of critical thinking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lentina_x/3596663014/sizes/o/">lentina_x</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many teachers say they strive to teach their students to be critical thinkers. They even pride themselves on it; after all, who wants children to just take in knowledge passively? </p>
<p>But there is a problem with this widespread belief. The truth is that you can’t teach people to be critical unless you are critical yourself. This involves more than asking young people to “look critically” at something, as if criticism was a mechanical task. </p>
<p>As a teacher, you have to have a critical spirit. This does not mean moaning endlessly about education policies you dislike or telling students what they should think. It means first and foremost that you are capable of engaging in deep conversation. This means debate and discussion based on considerable knowledge – something that is almost entirely absent in the educational world. It also has to take place in public, with parents and others who are not teachers, not just in the classroom or staffroom. </p>
<p>The need for teachers to engage in this kind of deep conversation has been forgotten, because they think that being critical is a skill. But the Australian philosopher John Passmore <a href="http://www.imd.inder.cu/adjuntos/article/595/The%20Concept%20of%20Education.pdf">criticised this idea</a> nearly half a century ago:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If being critical consisted simply in the application of a skill then it could in principle be taught by teachers who never engaged in it except as a game or defensive device, somewhat as a crack rifle shot who happened to be a pacifist might nevertheless be able to teach rifle-shooting to soldiers. But in fact being critical can be taught only by men who can themselves freely partake in critical discussion.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The misuses of ‘criticism’</h2>
<p>The misuse of the idea of “criticism” first became clear to me when I gave a talk about critical thinking to a large group of first-year students. One student said that the lecturers she most disliked were the ones who banged on about the importance of being critical. She longed for one of them to assert or say something, so she could learn from them and perhaps challenge what they say.</p>
<p>The idea that critical thinking is a skill is the first of three popular, but false views that all do disservice to the idea of being critical. They also allow many teachers to believe they are critical thinkers when they are the opposite:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“Critical thinking” is a skill. No it is not. At best this view reduces criticism to second-rate or elementary instruction in informal and some formal logic. It is usually second-rate logic and poor philosophy offered in bite-sized nuggets. Seen as a skill, critical thinking can also mean subjection to the conformism of an ideological yoke. If a feminist or Marxist teacher demands a certain perspective be adopted this may seem like it is “criticism” or acquiring a “critical perspective”, but it is actually a training in feminism or Marxism which could be done through tick box techniques. It almost acquires the character of a mental drill. </p></li>
<li><p>“Critical thinking” means indoctrination. When teachers talk about the need to be “critical” they often mean instead that students must “conform”. It is often actually teaching students to be “critical” of their unacceptable ideas and adopt the right ones. Having to support multiculturalism and diversity are the most common of the “correct ideas” that everyone has to adopt. Professional programmes in education, nursing, social work and others often promote this sort of “criticism”. It used to be called “indoctrination”.</p></li>
<li><p>“Critical theories” are “uncritical theories”. When some theory has the prefix “critical” it requires the uncritical acceptance of a certain political perspective. Critical theory, critical race theory, critical race philosophy, critical realism, critical reflective practice all explicitly have political aims. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>What is criticism?</h2>
<p>Criticism, <a href="http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/the-function-of-criticism-at-the-present-time/">according to Victorian cultural critic Matthew Arnold</a>, is a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world. We should all be as “bound” by that definition as he was. We need only to teach the best that is known and thought and “criticism” will take care of itself. That is a lesson from 150 years ago that every teacher should learn.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56069/original/5mfkzgd9-1407504680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Matthew Arnold knew how to be critical.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Matthew_Arnold.jpg">Elliott & Fry, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Critical thinking seen as Arnold defined it is more like a character trait – like having “a critical spirit”, or a willingness to engage in the “give and take of critical discussion”. Criticism is always about the world and not about you. </p>
<p>The philosopher most associated with the critical spirit is Socrates. In the 1930s, another Australian philosopher John Anderson <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Education_and_Inquiry.html?id=3cU2MQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">put the Socratic view of education</a> most clearly when he wrote: “The Socratic education begins … with the awakening of the mind to the need for criticism, to the uncertainty of the principles by which it supposed itself to be guided.”</p>
<p>But when I discuss Socratic criticism with teachers and teacher trainers I miss out Anderson’s mention of the word “uncertainty”. This is because many teachers will assume that this “uncertainty” means questioning those bad ideas you have and conforming to an agreed version of events, or an agreed theory. </p>
<p>Becoming a truly critical thinker is more difficult today because so many people want to be a Socrates. But Socrates only sought knowledge and to be a Socrates today means putting knowledge first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Many teachers say they strive to teach their students to be critical thinkers. They even pride themselves on it; after all, who wants children to just take in knowledge passively? But there is a problem…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/288682014-08-04T10:13:15Z2014-08-04T10:13:15ZPhonics is not a fix-all drug that will get all children reading<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54250/original/tz5xqfbh-1405681497.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Phonics is not the only way. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pearlsofjannah/2379288154/sizes/l">Pearls of Jannah</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How can there be such high profile disagreement about an issue as extensively researched and important as the teaching of reading to young children? In July, a group of teachers and phonics consultants <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2014/07/30/open-letter-to-nicky-morgan-39-why-the-year-1-phonics-check-must-stay-39.aspx">wrote to the Times Educational Supplement</a>, defending the Year One phonics check – a test given to all five year olds to examine their ability to decode unfamiliar words. This was in a response to <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2014/06/26/open-letter-to-michael-gove-why-the-y1-phonics-check-must-go.aspx">an earlier letter</a> from teachers, academics and representatives of teaching unions who had called for its abolition. </p>
<p>The reason for this disagreement lies not so much in the difficulty or inaccessibility of the research but in some widespread assumptions about the kind of evidence that should inform teaching. </p>
<p>The department for education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-randomised-controlled-trials-will-drive-forward-evidence-based-research">currently promotes a model of “rigorous” educational research</a> that draws on the use of evidence to inform practice in other sectors, most notably medicine. But rather than helping to select the best possible educational methods, this search for evidence forces educational activity to follow the model of the medical “intervention”. </p>
<p>There are <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2048-416X.2013.12000.x/abstract">many critics</a> of the department for education’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/phonics">guidance on teaching phonics</a>. None of them denies that some of the advice has a place in the early teaching of reading.</p>
<p>Teaching the regular “phonic” correspondence between letters or groups of letters and particular sounds, as well as the process of blending these sounds from left to right to form whole word units, has <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100526143644/http:/standards.dcsf.gov.uk/phonics/report.pdf">been acknowledged</a> as part of good educational practice. </p>
<p>But viewed as one of a range of approaches to learning to read, phonics cannot be pinpointed as a discrete “intervention”, and therefore as the “best” reading intervention from a range of options. </p>
<h2>Teachers go off script</h2>
<p>An intervention has distinct properties which can be reproduced across contexts. It can be given to one group and withheld from another – the core principle of the “control” in the randomised control trial. It has a beginning and an end so that its effects can be measured. The obvious example is a course of a drug, which has a particular quantity, regularity, and chemical composition. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/55515/original/t6j6s64d-1406889574.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Education isn’t as simple as a course of drugs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-208307662/stock-photo-yellow-pills-pouring-out-of-the-brown-bottle.html?src=0a2P82AF5FuERgTK5+zcYQ-1-24">Pills by kamontad999/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But the problem with transferring evidence-based practice to the educational context is that teachers do not teach through interventions. The interactions between teachers and pupils cannot be broken up into the kinds of discrete activities tested through a randomised control trial. </p>
<p>The only way an educational activity could be given to one group and withheld from another, have a beginning and an end so that its effects could be measured, and then be effectively reproduced, is if the activity could be restricted to a script or reduced to a resource (such as a book or a film). The teacher would have to stick heavily to the script in order for the intervention’s effects to be measured against those pupils who didn’t get taught that way. </p>
<p>But any teacher who has tried to follow a lesson plan knows that classroom interaction cannot be captured in scripted activity. A teacher’s duty to continually monitor the progress of students as they learn means they will be constantly be making decisions in the moment about how to re-phrase questions, encourage particular individuals in their learning, or make use of additional examples. They need to go off script.</p>
<h2>Too many eggs in one basket</h2>
<p>The government’s guidance on phonics is a case in point. It emphasises the introduction of the “first and fast” principle – that in the earliest stages, phonics is to be taught exclusively as the way children read. The introduction of other reading strategies, such as inferring the word from narrative context, or using other clues such as pictures, are determined to be counter-productive to the aim of developing phonic knowledge. </p>
<p>Schools are encouraged to select from a range of available commercial programmes, each of which adhere to core phonic principles set out by the department for education. The guidance implies these programmes will have most value if, like a course of antibiotics, they are seen through to completion without detrimental interaction with other programmes. </p>
<p>Building on this, the year one phonics check is designed – with its incorporation of nonsense-words and words out of meaningful context – to explicitly rule out the possibility that students are employing other strategies. </p>
<p>The result of this, as <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2014/06/26/open-letter-to-michael-gove-why-the-y1-phonics-check-must-go.aspx">the first open letter</a> claimed, is that the phonics check tests the application of the intervention rather than its intended result: literacy. </p>
<p>It is easy to see how interventions like these are attractive at a policy level – particularly for those who see widespread problems with poor literacy as an epidemic that governments should be able to cure. But the question remains whether evidence has supported the identification of the best method to teach reading, or whether the desire for an evidence-based solution has forced that solution to take on the character of an intervention. </p>
<p>I believe that teachers are rarely concerned with employing an intervention, far less the “best” one. They are more often concerned with judging how to go on with a particular student, or what to do with a particular student at a particular time. </p>
<p>This is not to say that a teacher’s practice and the learning of his or her students are not enriched through a career-long interaction with the educational research community, as found by a <a href="http://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf">recent enquiry</a>. </p>
<p>The department for education has a responsibility to ensure <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-still-dont-know-what-works-in-education-24382">education research is directed to areas of pressing concern</a> and that this research is made available to teachers. But, the result of identifying and endorsing particular interventions through policy, in the manner of the phonics check, is the homogenisation of teachers, students and their classroom situations. </p>
<p>This will come at the expense of teachers’ freedom to use their practical and professional wisdom to make informed decisions about the best ways to respond to the needs of individual students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Aldridge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How can there be such high profile disagreement about an issue as extensively researched and important as the teaching of reading to young children? In July, a group of teachers and phonics consultants…David Aldridge, Principal Lecturer in Philosophy of Education, Oxford Brookes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/282882014-06-23T05:05:39Z2014-06-23T05:05:39ZPupils struggling with reading need early intervention, not a three-month summer school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51793/original/r5nfb8py-1403280241.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The writing's on the wall – and they can't read it.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Reading capability is vital for young people to be able to access and engage with the curriculum by the end of primary school and even more so at secondary school. But the data we have indicates that a substantial proportion of pupils have not reached a high enough level to succeed in their studies – with significant implications for their lives after they finish school.</p>
<p>In 2013, 75,000 children (about one in seven) did not achieve the minimum expected level on national assessments for reading by the end of primary school (Level 4). If these pupils perform in a similar way to those who did not achieve Level 4 in English in 2008, only one in ten of these pupils will achieve five grades at A*-C, including English and Maths, at GCSE.</p>
<p>That problem is only compounded by England’s unequal education system, which does a bad job serving disadvantaged children and young people: on average, struggling readers who are eligible for free school meals are less likely to achieve Level 4 than their peers. Those who are behind are likely to be even further behind than other struggling readers. In 2013, 27% of white British pupils eligible for free school meals did not achieve Level 4.</p>
<p>Our aim in producing “<a href="http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/reading-at-the-transition">Reading at the Transition</a>”, with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), was to review the effectiveness of different approaches to helping struggling readers catch up with their peers. It is based on the framework of the Sutton Trust/EEF <a href="http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/">Teaching and Learning Toolkit</a>, a comparative analysis of different research-based approaches to improving attainment, together with an overview of the costs, to help schools make decisions about how to allocate their funds (particularly the pupil premium).</p>
<p>But the most important point the research makes, in my view, is that the challenge is far greater than most people realise. </p>
<h2>Stick with it</h2>
<p>Even the most effective approaches identified in the “toolkit”, on average, only achieve eight months of improved results – and that’s in research often conducted under ideal conditions. Many of these struggling readers will be as much as two years behind their peers; a summer school between years six and seven, with a typical benefit of about three months’ gain, is nowhere near enough to make a meaningful difference. </p>
<p>Even if these young people were to benefit from a typical summer school every year for the next five years, they would still be about nine months behind with their reading at age 16. Schools therefore need to plan a more intensive and more sustained approach to tackling the literacy difficulties of their struggling readers at the transition between primary and secondary school.</p>
<p>Other important findings relate to the range of approaches to support reading and they types of reading support that research indicates are likely to be beneficial. Both one-to-one and small-group tuition can help pupils catch up. One-to-one teaching has a slightly higher average impact and a more secure evidence base, but in some cases small group tuition with a skilled teacher can be as effective.</p>
<p>Given its lower cost, schools should consider trialling small group tuition as a first option, before moving to one-to-one tuition if small groups are ineffective. Recent EEF findings indicate that effective deployment of teaching assistants who are trained in specific catch-up approaches can be successful in supporting improvement in reading for those who are behind.</p>
<h2>Sound is not enough</h2>
<p>One of the key debates in reading is about the <a href="http://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/a-very-short-summary-of-the-phonics-debate/">value of phonics</a>. It is certainly the case that there is a robust evidence base for the benefits of developing learners’ phonemic awareness or their skills in hearing, identifying and manipulating phonemes so that they can learn the correspondence between these sounds and the written patterns which represent them in English. However we think that on average, reading comprehension approaches will be more effective for low-attaining older readers. This is for two reasons. </p>
<p>Mastering phonics is necessary for reading, especially decoding and basic reading fluency – but it is not enough to ensure children can actually read, in the full sense of the word. Learners must also develop understanding of the meaning of a range of different texts in different areas of the curriculum. </p>
<p>Compare the relative difficulty of interpreting a poem in English and deciphering a description of how plants derive energy from the sun in biology. It is all very well being able to pronounce “photosynthesis”, but this won’t help understand the meaning of the word (never mind the whole text). </p>
<p>Additionally, children who have not yet succeeded in learning to read using phonics previously will benefit from approaches that place a greater emphasis on meaning and context. At the very least, they’re almost certain to benefit from a change of approach. </p>
<h2>Start ‘em young</h2>
<p>Diagnosis is the key here: if learners are not making progress, we must find out why not. If they still have difficulties with word-level fluency, then additional support with phonics may still help. But in practice, a mixed approach is probably beneficial for most pupils, targeted according to need. If phonics is used with older children, age-appropriate materials delivered by trained professionals appear to be most effective.</p>
<p>The implications are twofold. Secondary schools must not underestimate the challenge of helping their struggling readers; one intervention will not be sufficient. These pupils are likely to need sustained support for several years and their teachers will need good diagnostic skills to ensure any support they give is meeting their needs. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, primary schools must redouble their efforts to ensure these children do not fall so far behind in the first place. This indicates that earlier intervention and closer monitoring of reading progress are essential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Higgins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reading capability is vital for young people to be able to access and engage with the curriculum by the end of primary school and even more so at secondary school. But the data we have indicates that a…Steve Higgins, Professor of Education, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/247772014-04-30T20:30:44Z2014-04-30T20:30:44ZThe seven messages of highly effective reading teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47317/original/4dxxgjq8-1398815772.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teaching kids to read isn't just about learning the alphabet or "sounding out", it's about making sense of what's on the page. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=141107008&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5ODg0NDU0NSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTQxMTA3MDA4IiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDE0MTEwNzAwOCIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xNDExMDcwMDgvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJ5b3djM1dmSk1LZ1JabElkOGRHTngxR3hUNlUiXQ%2Fshutterstock_141107008.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=Yadtb5gheg7Diy57jZN7AA-1-26">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1982, the late, great NZ reading researcher Marie Clay identified a group of children having difficulty learning to read as <a href="https://www.heinemann.com/products/08208.aspx">“tangled tots (with) reading knots”.</a></p>
<p>She was referring to children who, despite having no condition that potentially affected their ability to learn, didn’t seem to benefit from reading instruction. She hypothesised that such children “had tangled the teaching in a web of distorted learning which blocked school progress”.</p>
<p>I’ve met many such children (and their teachers) during five decades of anthropological research in hundreds of classrooms. There were also classrooms which either didn’t have “tangled tots” or, if they did, had more success in untangling their “reading knots”.</p>
<p>When I looked more closely at these “non-tangling” classrooms I discovered they had something in common. Their teachers continuously (and subtly) embedded messages about “learning to be an effective reader” in the language they used when teaching reading.</p>
<p>So far I’ve identified the following seven messages.</p>
<h2>1. A reader’s major focus should always be meaning</h2>
<p>The dominant thematic message effective reading teachers give to students is “sensible, coherent meaning should be the end result of any reading encounter”.</p>
<p>Teachers communicated this in many ways. For example, if children were reading and came to something they didn’t know these teachers would say things like, “What would make sense here?” or “That’s a really good guess because it makes sense. What else would make sense?”</p>
<p>Another teacher, when listening to a reader painfully violate the syntax of English by robotically reading “On (pause) one (pause) little (pause) there (pause) but (pause) some,” responded thus: “You just read ‘on one little there but some’. Does that sound like real language? If someone said that to you would it make sense? Why? Why not?”</p>
<h2>2. Effective readers draw on all sources of information in the text</h2>
<p>This was another dominant message in these classrooms. These teachers constantly asked questions or made comments that promoted this behaviour. Here are some examples:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Semantic information:</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“Go back and read the title. Often that will give you a clue about what makes sense here.”</p>
<p>“Think about what you already know about the topic and ask, ‘What makes sense?’”</p>
<p>“Use the story line plus any pictures and ask, ‘What would make sense?’”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Syntactic information:</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“Use your ‘feel’ for the way the English sounds and ask, ‘Does this sound right? Does this sound like English?’”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Graphophonic information</strong> (the relationship between letters and sound):</li>
</ul>
<p>“If you think the word you’re stuck on is ‘horse’, use your knowledge of letter shapes and sounds and ask, ‘Does ‘horse’ look right?’”</p>
<h2>3. Effective readers are always predicting</h2>
<p>These teachers constantly encouraged young readers to predict from the title or any illustrations in the texts they were reading.</p>
<p>“What do you think might happen in this text? Does that make sense? Why? Why not?”</p>
<h2>4. Effective readers self-correct</h2>
<p>This a by-product of the first point. Here’s an example of how these teachers communicated this message.</p>
<p>Text: Father got up at seven o’clock.</p>
<p>Child: Feather got up at seven o’clock.</p>
<p>Teacher: “You just read ‘Feather got up at seven o’clock.’ Does that make sense? What would make sense and looks like ‘feather’?”</p>
<h2>5. Effective readers have a range of strategies</h2>
<p>My data show these teachers continually said things like:</p>
<p>“When I’m reading and I come to something I don’t know, I read ahead to see if I can get some clues about the bits that are troubling me.”</p>
<p>“If that doesn’t work, I might leave it out all together, finish the text and then come back to it.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes I go back to the beginning of the sentence I‘m having problems with and try again.”</p>
<p>“I ask somebody, ‘What does this say?‘ ”</p>
<p>“If none of these work, I might try to sound it out. I don’t spend too much time sounding words out because it slows me down and I forget what I’ve read.”</p>
<h2>6. Effective readers know how they read</h2>
<p>My data shows that these teachers used every opportunity to draw their students’ attention to the meta-cognitive aspects of reading. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A student is selected to try to read a message on the board. As the selected student focuses on the print the teacher comments, “I know what Emily’s doing — she’s reading the message silently to see what the words say inside her head.”</p></li>
<li><p>A student is reading the class calendar to work out when she’s supposed to present at “Show and Tell” and says, “It’s my turn next Thursday.” The teacher overhears this and comments, “What clever reading. Tell the class how you worked that out.”</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>7. Effective readers love reading</h2>
<p>These teachers continually played the role of “Book Whisperers” by:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Sharing enthusiasms about books.</p></li>
<li><p>Sharing stories about their own learning-to-read journey.</p></li>
<li><p>Immersing children in worthwhile children’s literature by reading aloud to them every day.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These teachers seem to know intuitively that making meaning is the core business of learning how to read. In this they are like parents teaching children how to talk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Cambourne is affiliated with the International Reading Association and the Australian Literacy Educators Association. </span></em></p>In 1982, the late, great NZ reading researcher Marie Clay identified a group of children having difficulty learning to read as “tangled tots (with) reading knots”. She was referring to children who, despite…Brian Cambourne, Principal Fellow, Faculty of Education , University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.