Tricia Millar 'That Reading Thing' - and media coverage: not

[debbie]

http://thatreadingthing.com/2012/01/lit ... offenders/

Here's a great, heartfelt blog which is just one small example of what needs to happen everywhere there is a need...

What really, really bugs me is that whenever I've seen something on British TV about dyslexia, or the reading difficulties of older people, we never really see some age-appropriate and wonderful synthetic phonics or linguistic phonics in action.

Phil Beadle led a documentary on illiteracy - or weak literacy - and he was using Jolly Phonics and pipecleaners - dearie me. (Jolly Phonics is brilliant - don't misunderstand me - but we don't need to use it for adults - and I might use pipecleaners to make letter shapes with three to four year olds!).

The truth is someone thought it made better TV than having a proper look at the work going on with programmes which may well have the same content and teaching principles - but which are far more age-appropriate.

Phil knew of the Reading Reform Foundation, he knew people who could tell them 'which' people and programmes to investigate and feature - but, instead, Phil was the focus of the attention as he took the adults through several weeks of various ham-fisted 'teaching' which could seriously mislead viewers as to what is possible -and available! Not good!

From the viewers' perspective, maybe this was 'good' TV - or maybe not.

I was hugely frustrated.

It is the same alphabetic code and phonics skills that adults or children need to learn to support them with their reading, spelling and writing - but it is perfectly possible to use materials which are far more age-appropriate than programmes designed for infants from 3+ and much better than using pipecleaners to make letter shapes.

A week or so ago I watched a heartfelt documentary featuring Shane of Boyzone. I loved so much about this documentary - but when we saw some special needs teaching in action, once again older pupils were doing things such as writing letter shapes in a tray of sand. Is that it? Not appropriate - not necessary - time wasters, time fillers, myths about what is needed...

Oh, so this is the 'specialist' teaching and learning throughout our schools for children who are not fluent yet - my frustration knew no bounds.

People like me want to teach the whole world, to train the whole world - and also to teach every last individual in the whole world who needs to be well-taught - but clearly we cannot.

That's why people like me end up making the resources and doing our best to provide the information and guidance to help others in this huge task.

Meanwhile, are we EVER going to get any decent media coverage - showing a spread of work and raising the full issues properly - without it having to make 'entertaining' television?

In my mind, my interpretation of 'good' television would be a lot more informative than suggestions about pipecleaners and finger-writing letters in sand!!!

Tricia Millar's work is always about being sensitive to feelings and age - she shines like a star - her star logo is very apt!

[Susan]

I remember the Phil Beadle programmes. I would describe him as using a self-devised phonics programme with the adults.

I think he took advice from Jolly Phonics and Ruth Miskin (not experts on adult literacy interventions), but his main advice came from 'dyslexia specialists' -and we now know the sort of advice they'd give from the following description of the content of their courses:
http://www.rrf.org.uk/pdf/Report%20BDA% ... 202012.pdf

[debbie]

Thanks, Susan, official dyslexia training certainly seems to err towards a mix and a muddle rather than simple cut-to-the-chase phonics.

What concerns me is that children and adults identified with 'dyslexia' or some kind of slow processing or learning difficulty (or who may never have had good, focused phonics teaching in the first place) - may go on to receive the plethora of reading and spelling strategies, for example, and the plethora of excuses that 'different learners have different learning styles and no one size fits all' rationale.

Of course we are all individuals but if it is the same body of alphabetic code knowledge and specific skills that will help us for both short-term and long-term reading, spelling and writing skills, then the teaching and learning opportunities should be fit-for-purpose, cut-to-the-chase, time and practice efficient.

We do need to 'understand' what each learner needs for the next steps, what is 'missing' or 'weak' in terms of code knowledge and phonics skills? What extra teaching do they need, what extra practice is required? This is where the individualism comes into the picture.

Also, there's no denying that life experience, masses of talk, masses of book experience and knowledge and understanding of the world are essential to make 'readers' in the fullest sense. We don't say otherwise.

In fact one of the reasons that I love the Simple View of Reading diagram is being able to demonstrate, and talk through, that of course phonics is about the techical knowledge and skills to lift the words off the page (or screen) - but that we need to have the general comprehension of that language to understand the words we have decoded.

[debbie]

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/The ... _model.pdf

...and here it is!

Available on the Free Resources page!

[Susan]

Absolutely agree about the Simple View of Reading, Debbie. It's been ignored and subverted by many in the teaching profession.

Back to the Phil Beadle TV series, I have a lot of time for PB. He highlighted the fact that there is virtually no effective teaching of the decoding basics for non-readers at secondary. He also flagged up that Adult literacy teaching is poor and the courses the DfE presently provide are pointless.

Secondary English teacher, Phil Beadle, winner of one of the government’s Teacher of the Year awards, ''..is a very angry man, because he knows that the teaching profession is letting down countless numbers of children. He knows that he was never trained how to help children who couldn’t read in secondary school. Just give them a word puzzle and sit them in the corner. Send them off to the special needs rooms to fill in more word puzzles. Send them to the restart room or sin bin when they kick off. Oh, and give them a word puzzle. Not my job to teach them how to read, that’s what primaries are for. This used to be the same attitude in primaries where junior teachers were concerned. If they haven’t learned in the infants they must be special needs or it's their parents fault'' (Shadwell.Teaching: the fourth factor)

Phil Beadle taught a class of illiterate adults for the Channel 4 TV programme series, 'Can't Read Can't Write', using a self-devised phonic programme. He is scathing about the government's adult literacy provision; “At present, the provision for people who can’t read at all is a series of activities for the mentally deficient; they say it’s all about balance. Speaking and listening doesn’t help you decode the building blocks. They don’t need speaking and listening. They need the code. These people have huge barriers to overcome just to get to the class. The Entry 1 materials [*example below] are designed for people who can only read a tiny bit. In the first module, phonics appears on page 14 and teaches the “sh” sound. It appears 16 times before they reach that point. The materials are illogical and incompetent. A proper Adult Literacy programme desperately needs to be written, and made statutory, but the adult literacy ‘professionals’, and I use this in inverted commas, have too much invested in it, to admit that well-taught phonics is the answer; and that they have been swallowing and producing b*llsh*t for their whole adult lives” (RRF newsletter 61)

[debbie]

But what a missed opportunity that Phil Beadle's documentary didn't flag up that there ARE people and programmes for adults of the right content and appropriate practice!

[Tricia Millar]

Hi Debbie - I finally read the instructions for registering - you know, all through the words from left to right.......

Anyway - Thank you for this lovely post!

I have to say that a programme was being made which featured Jaz Ampaw-Farr teaching an adult with TRT. Sadly, a variety of things prevented it from being finished, the main one being that the lives of illiterate adults are often complicated and it was hard to get someone to commit for the necessary time.

In the meantime, we plough on knowing that young people don't want to be seen learning to read so our visibility in that way will always be limited. But we are making a difference in the lives of very reluctant learners around the country.

Here are two more "real student" stories with That Reading Thing:

http://thatreadingthing.com/2012/05/rea ... g-matters/

http://thatreadingthing.com/2013/01/tee ... y_session/

[debbie]

http://thatreadingthing.com/about-trt/g ... on-of-trt/

And here's a really great report by Greg Brooks about your programme and work, Tricia!

Well done!