Whether or not you are using the Phonics International Programme, feel free to visit this informal 'Chat' forum!
Here you will find all sorts of interesting articles, links to research and developments - and various interesting topics! Do join in!
See my thoughts via 'The Naked Emperor' blog posting about the need for access to such information to be always freely available for the teaching profession and the general public!
My blog posting via 'The Naked Emperor' blog about learning difficulties:
Thank you to Learning Difficulties Australia for providing public access to their excellent bulletin for a period of time.
Links provided to the free bulletin via the blog posting above and also below.
Particular thanks to Molly de Lemos and Kevin Wheldall for their contribution to gaining access to the bulletin and for their excellent pieces within the bulletin!
Fantastic news - it seems that Learning Difficulties Australia has made their latest bulletin free to access as well as their previous bulletin!
Thank you to LDA!
All the articles contribute greatly to the wider (international) domain.
See contributions from Julian Elliott (the Dyslexia Debate), from me regarding the Year One phonics screening check in England - and a 'letter' regarding Reading Recovery - and much, much more.
NEW generation teachers are arriving in classrooms across the state with little or no training in phonics which is critical for children learning to read.
School principals and executives are aghast to find many student teachers favour methods of teaching literacy such as whole language or drama — despite phonics being embedded in the curriculum.
Teachers have complained that the promotion of phonics appears to be regarded in some tertiary institutions as a “right wing conspiracy”.
Education chiefs are so worried about the trend that they are investigating ways of making phonics — a learning system based on letter-sound relationships — a mandatory part of teacher degree courses.
Here is the October 2014 LDA bulletin - fantastic - thank you so much to LDA for sharing this bulletin more widely than just members of their organisation:
National curriculum railroaded by utilitarian bias
THERE is no such thing as a value-free curriculum, and given debates about the impact of fads such as open classrooms and discovery learning and whether education should focus on work- related skills or knowledge for its own sake, it’s vital that any curriculum be balanced and robust.
And it is here that the recent review commissioned by Education Minister Christopher Pyne suggests Australia’s national curriculum, despite its strengths, is open to criticism.
The Donnelly-Wiltshire report differentiates among five curriculum models. The first is a utilitarian one that focuses on teaching practical, work-related skills on the assumption that education is about preparing students for the workforce and careers.
