Many schools are moving away from teaching children to recognise whole words to teaching them how to decode. It is important for anyone reading with children, or teaching them to read to understand why this is so significant. The approach of teaching kids to recognise whole words is a ‘top down’ approach. It requires children […]
Read MoreIt is so sad to hear when a young child says he wants to kill himself because he can’t read as described in the interview at the end of this piece. It is uplifting to hear how a parent turned this child’s life around by getting him assessed and starting him on a structured literacy […]
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Many children struggle with spelling. It is important to teach them how to spell in the digital age when ‘Spell Check’ is there to help? The answer is yes. Why? Firstly, because at present Spell Check makes errors as do voice recognition tools. Spell check may offer homophone or spelling options – but can students […]
Read MoreWhen asked how they teach reading, many teachers pride themselves that they are teaching ‘balanced literacy’ in their classroom. This idea seems to imply that they are covering all the approaches their pupils may need to learn to read. But what is ‘balanced literacy?’ Can it be defined or measured? Read this article by Professor […]
Read MoreRead this blog post on the Literacy Blog explaining why the whole language approach to reading doesn’t work. http://literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/what-are-problems-with-whole-language.html?spref=tw
Read MoreHappy New year to all! Start the year with this clear thinking post by Gordon Askew
Read MoreWatch this video showing why the ‘whole word’ reading method works against the principles of an alphabetic code and how it can damage children learning to read this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F63zjs-jChY
Read MoreAnd interesting discussion on mumsnet: http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2104445-Sight-reading-as-a-strategy-in-EYFS-KS1-mrz?pg=1 Thanks to Susan Godsland of www.dylexics.org for flagging this up.
Read MoreHere is an excerpt from Mike Lloyd’s book ‘Phonics and the Resistance to Reading’ (page 42): “Recognising whole words by memorising the appearance of the word (sometimes known as the ‘look-and-say’ approach) is highly problematic. The capacity to remember words as whole-patterns is highly limited and in any case highly inefficient. As Professor Martin Kozloff […]
Read MoreRead this informative post by Susan Godsland on the Reading Reform message board on the multiple lives of ‘whole language’ approach to reading despite having poor evidence to back its efficacy. http://www.rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5360
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