Debbie's 'Simple View of Schools' Phonics Provision'

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debbie
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Debbie's 'Simple View of Schools' Phonics Provision'

Post by debbie »

I devised this diagram to illustrate the widely-differing profiles of provision for systematic phonics in schools in England.

This is not intended as any kind of criticism because everywhere I go, schools are fab, the staff are fab, the children are fab - but the teaching profession simply does not share a common understanding about the research on reading and what high-quality Systematic Synthetic Phonics provision can really look like.

Teachers don't understand why they can work so hard and yet the children don't do so well on the statutory Year One Phonics Screening Check as other schools manage - even some schools in very challenging circumstances.

In other words, teachers don't know what they don't know.

https://phonicsinternational.com/Simple ... chools.pdf


This was my theme at the UK Reading Reform Foundation conference: 'Does it really matter if teachers do not share a common understanding about phonics and reading instruction?'

YES, it really, really matters.
Last edited by debbie on Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Debbie Hepplewhite
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Post by debbie »

More money thrown at interventions - is this a waste of money?

What about the first time teaching quality?

https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=11006964#
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Post by debbie »

Blog posting about phonics provision:

Phonics Play or Phonics Dismay

(Phonics Play is an online resource for phonics - many schools use it rather than a core Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme with a serious 'body of work')


http://phonicsplayorphonicsdismay.blogspot.co.uk
I found it bewildering that some of the year 5/6 children that were capable of KS3 mathematics were so behind with their reading and writing, due to the poor and inadequate teaching. The effect that this has on their learning was tremendous and is argued that the most important factor affecting children’s learning is the teacher (Wright, Horn and Sanders 1997). So, those children that finish primary school not being able to read fluently are more likely to encounter more difficulties, with the high demands of secondary school and its curriculum (Budgell 2012). I can’t help but feel that because they children are behind average, when entering secondary school they are likely to be labelled as ‘late readers’ causing them to be put back even further, having a severe impact on their later schooling.
Do read the full post.
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Post by debbie »

This is a really great post on the 'Thinking Reading' blog about 'Schools, Character and Justice:


https://thinkingreadingwritings.wordpre ... d-justice/
Schools, Character and Justice

written by thinkreadtweet

Schools cannot teach character while we perpetuate injustice.

I’ve just read some fab posts on teaching character: Summer Turner’s nuanced piece challenging the view that character is superior to knowledge in ‘real life’ and Heather Fearn’s observation that doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily make one successful. This post on Drowning in the Shallow by @ImSporticus on The Fountain of Character contained a link to this powerful interview with Anthony Ray Hinton (from 2:10:35). Hinton showed unrelenting hope in the face of gross injustice. This set me thinking about inequality in schools, and how institutions tend to insulate themselves from reality rather than face up to the impact of their practices, especially on those with the least power.

And that led me to ponder on the character of schools. You see, I’m in the business of showing schools how to teach kids to read. Kids who’ve been let down by ‘the system’ and have arrived at secondary school with very poor literacy, and often poor numeracy. I think that our character is often demonstrated by how we treat those who, seemingly, have nothing to offer. Do we continue to marginalise them or do we do something to resolve or improve their situation?
Please read the whole post - and I've left a readers' comment flagging up my work which is in the same field.
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Post by debbie »

It's shortly the Year One Phonics Screening Check time in England - so I just want to flag my graphic up again for schools that might be disappointed with their results. This might provide some explanation.
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Post by debbie »

I'm linking this thread to some very wise words by Zig Englemann and Robert Slavin flagged up by Kerry Hempenstall:


http://phonicsinternational.com/forum/v ... =2088#2088
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Post by debbie »

I'm also linking this thread to my March 2015 Reading Reform Foundation talk as the issues I raise are entirely pertinent:


http://phonicsinternational.com/forum/v ... .php?t=885
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Post by debbie »

I'm flagging up this thread for England's schools - anyone disappointed about their Year One Phonics Screening Check results might be interested in the 'Simple View of Phonics Provision'!
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Post by debbie »

Susan Godsland raises the subject of findings about 'Response to Intervention' via the International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction (IFERI) forum here:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... ?f=2&t=488

It's worth taking a look at Dick Schutz's paper on Response to Intervention because I think it has a powerful point to make regarding the assumption that a three tier approach necessarily provides high quality education, research-informed intervention and is in danger of concluding that the problem inevitably lies within the learner and not the instruction.
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Post by debbie »

Gordon Askew, who periodically advises the Department for Education in England, describes how even in England teachers are not always sufficiently knowledgeable and trained to provide the right kind of phonics lessons which can integrate the wider curriculum:
The enemy within

http://ssphonix.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/ ... ithin.html

I have long hesitated to write this post for the simple reason that I do not like to appear critical of teachers. The vast majority are committed and caring professionals. They do a very demanding job and the last thing they need is the likes of me criticising them. However I feel that what I have to say here really needs to be said - and I hope that, by the end of the post, I will not sound quite so hard on teachers as I initially may.

However, the bald truth is that much of the antagonistic press that phonics teaching continually receives actually relates to bad practice. Those of us who know what dividends systematic synthetic phonics could potentially deliver, with many more of our children becoming fluent and enthusiastic readers, are continually frustrated by the many negative 'myths' perpetuated about it. (See my post '13 horrors . . . ' from June '14.) Yet in fairness many of those 'horrors' are currently evidenced and reinforced in classrooms across the country. Unfortunately this is happening where schools purport to be teaching phonics but are in fact doing so rather poorly. And it is most unfair and unhelpful to criticise phonics per se on the basis of this bad practice.
Gordon's observations are probably similar to the phonics practice that I have observed which led me to creating my 'Simple View of Schools Phonics Provision' graphic.

I concur that it is very worrying to appear critical of hard-working teachers which is why I emphasise that all the teachers and assistants I observe are hard-working and committed, they really just need professional development - although sometimes this might require a clear or stronger steer from the headteacher too.
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Post by debbie »

Here is IFERI's statement on the practice of Book Bands cataloguing which promotes, by necessity, multi-cueing reading strategies. This is where beginners are given reading books to read independently that they cannot get through without resorting to lots of guessing the printed words:

http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads ... oned-1.pdf
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