Ending the guesswork in learning to read? Please study the research.

 

Opposition spokesman David Hodgett claims there is evidence supporting “systematic synthetic phonics,” which means teach all the known phonics rules in a strict order. 

Studies show that intensive study of phonics leads to better performance on tests in which students read words aloud presented out of context on a list, but they do not do better on tests of reading comprehension.  Studies also show that the best predictor of reading comprehension at age 10 is not the amount of formal reading instruction students have had, but their access to books. 

Hodgett proclaims that it is time to “end the era of guesswork” in teaching reading. That era has just begun.

 

Stephen Krashen

Professor Emeritus

University of Southern California

Sources:

“do not do better on tests of reading comprehension”: Krashen, S. 2009. Does intensive reading instruction contribute to reading comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74. https://tinyurl.com/jc6x8mk

“best predictor of reading comprehension: Lao, C., Lee, S-Y., McQuillan, J., and Krashen, S. 2021. Predicting reading ability among ten-year olds: Poverty (negative), school libraries (positive), instruction (zero), early literacy (zero). Language Magazine 20,10: 20-21. https://tinyurl.com/cn3nekc4

Liz Simon’s view.

There are engaging and successful ways to teach reading.

 In early 1990’s I was fortunate to have a principal and deputy principal who paved the way for me to become a recipient of learning Reading Recovery. What I learnt about young children learning to read allowed me to pass the problem-solving thinking to young readers. It also led me to forward each piece of monthly learning to the staff at the northern school, I was teaching at and give workshops at various schools in Adelaide. What I learnt was replicated in Tony Blair’s (British Prime Minister) literacy initiative and New York and Jersey City’s Literacy improvement initiative. Then working at Flinders University, the same Reading Recovery teaching strategies were evident in the pre-teacher tutorials aimed at school students, year’s 5-12.

 At the first instance of learning about Reading Recovery, a truly researched practice by Dame Professor Marie Clay and others at Auckland University, I knew that this is the way. I said to myself that if all teachers learnt this way of teaching reading to students, we would have excellent teachers of reading and children would be achievers even in remote, rural communities.

When I was training, I questioned some aspects because these did not sit well with my prior learning. But the tutor was so ‘all-knowing’ she showed me 'how' X worked with sensible arguments about ‘why’ X worked. As I implemented Reading Recovery, I was convinced of its value and I am still convinced.

 After the year’s training, another teacher at the school trained as a Reading Recovery teacher and both of us worked at adapting Reading Recovery 1-1, to a classroom scenario. New Zealand teachers were already doing this, but what they did not sit comfortably with us.

 It was not until I worked in London with a Reading Recovery tutor from New Zealand, that a classroom programme began to fall into place and Guided Reading was the upshot. I have written about this, Truly Guided Reading see my blog Literacy and Pedagogy

laspedagogy.blogspot.com.

My argument asserts that if Reading Recovery had not been ‘downtrodden’ in the early 1990’s by bureaucratic and political ignorance, we would have had teachers learning how to really teach reading and not be ‘sinking into our cups’ because of poor international test results. But the excuse was that 1 on 1 learning was too expensive, ‘yikes’! So not only was the big ‘NO’ on 1-1 learning but also the adapted classroom reading groups - Guided Reading.

Furthermore, there would be no need for the pathetic argument for the Science of Reading and the exhaustive discourse about its weaknesses. We would have ended this sorry saga with a positive outcome without the colossal expenditure that is now being spent.