Phonics International

This issue of 'multi-cueing reading strategies' whereby teachers have been trained, or led to believe, that children should be taught to get through books by various multi-cueing reading strategies such as 'Guess from the picture', 'Look at the first letter and then guess what you think that word is' and 'Read on and think what word would fit' - and so on - are so flawed, so damaging and yet we have strong indications from the NFER report (May 2014) commissioned by the Department for Education in England that perhaps three-quarters of infant teachers believe that multi-cueing reading strategies are valid rather than potentially damaging to children.

Here is a short video produced by 'Children of the Code'. It demonstrates that researchers, politicians, programme authors are trying hard to get this message out to the teachers and teacher-trainers - but with great difficulty.

What children receive for reading instruction SHOULD NOT BE LEFT TO CHANCE of how their teachers are trained, or what their teachers 'believe':


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u82U3MA ... 1vSASNYECp

And here is a video that I have made to describe what is happening in England DESPITE the Government promotion and financial support for the need for Systematic Synthetic Phonics WITHOUT multi-cueing reading strategies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFAWnOdFUGg

So, you can see that we still have a very long way to go even in countries where Governments have promoted the researched methods of reading instruction - the teacher-training institutions and the teachers themselves are not guaranteed to be sufficiently knowledgeable and skilled to provide what children need.

This is also the case for learners with special needs. We do not have a uniform picture of how to address their difficulties. The provision and approach for such learners is still based on chance.

By the way, I was alerted to the Children of the Code video by Christine Calabrese via Linkedin - this is an international issue with international concern:

"I don't understand how educators can persist with methods of word recognition instruction.."

Christine Calabrese
Educator, Reading Specialist, Kindergarten Teacher NYC
Top Contributor

" ...that point a child to the first sound of a word and then ask the child to use the context of the sentence to get the identity of the word." It is so misconceived and so contrary to what is required of the child. " Dr. Louisa Moats in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u82U3MA ... 1vSASNYECp

Instructional Confusion - Dysteachia youtube.com
This is a segment from "Causes and Contributing Factors" a chapter of the Children of the Code's Professional Development and Essentials DVD series. This is one of over 140 segments available in DVD and digital file formats (for...