Tabula Rasa: How do we get them reading (secondary)

[debbie]

This post is focused on pupils in secondary schools who are not reading at the level they need for secondary education. I've left a post in response to a father of a 14 year old who hates reading:

https://tabularasaeducation.wordpress.c ... omment-954

[debbie]

Here is the father's heartfelt question:

So what do you advise me to do with my 14 year old who has reading age of six and point blank refuses to read?

And here is the answer I wrote:

Tim – tell him that there are many 14 year olds like him who cannot decode the words well enough and that this is because the English alphabetic code is the most complex alphabetic code in the world – and teachers are commonly not trained well enough to know how best to teach it.

Tell him that some teachers and researchers have had to lobby governments to get phonics properly on the map and into schools – and that even now there is some way to go before teachers share a common understanding of how best to teach reading, spelling and handwriting.

Tell him that in English-speaking countries the percentage of people identified as ‘dyslexic’ is way higher than countries with simpler codes for writing and reading. In other words, this is about the writing system and the teaching system – not about ‘him’ and his issues. Sometimes, difficulties like his are directly caused by insufficient teaching of the alphabetic code and phonics skills.

Print off an Alphabetic Code Chart from http://www.alphabeticcodecharts.com to illustrate just how hard the code is – there are many free versions for you to choose from ranging from ‘giant’ ones to ‘mini’ ones. These are being used in secondary schools – and in some universities to train student-teachers. None of this is ‘baby stuff’ but the perception around phonics is very much that it’s ‘baby stuff’ when the truth is that literate adults apply phonics in some form to read and spell new and more challenging words.

Have a look at the pdf below and follow the electronic links via the pdf to the guidance (not the links to the ‘shop’) and you will see the level of cumulative resources, rigour, content (although the texts are not ‘literature’ – and there is nothing for ‘genre’ – this is about foundational literacy).

However, this level of cumulative content is not commonplace in all infant and primary schools – if it was, your son would be a reader by now and although we can never guarantee children become lovers of reading, we, as teachers, should be able to guarantee that children can lift the words off the page and not be haters of reading.

Please contact me if you have any questions following a little investigation on your part – debbie@phonicsinternational.com .

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/how2.pdf

[debbie]

Fantastic posting via Tabula Rasa blog about leadership and 'difficult conversations':

https://tabularasaeducation.wordpress.c ... omment-977

How to Have Difficult Conversations

Posted on April 18, 2015

Like all professions, education is full of terrible leaders. There are lots of good ones out there, but a cursory glance at the odd teacher blog, or a tiptoe into the average staff room, would tell you that there are a lot of teachers who don’t really rate the people who lead them.

Do read the full posting...