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We need GOOD practice, not common practice
I wrote an opinion piece in The Age newspaper this week called “Premier’s Reading Challenge no fun for kids who can’t read“, arguing we need to close the gap between research and practice in early...
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Four cheers for Emily Hanford
American Public Media journalist Emily Hanford has made some accessible, powerful and widely-discussed documentaries about the gap between reading science and classroom practice in the US. It’s a gap...
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Marketing reading science
I was glued, green-eyed to Twitter a couple of weeks ago for tweets about the US Reading League’s conference, wondering whether Greta Thunberg and the polar bears would forgive me if I planted 40 trees...
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Is Reading Eggs all it’s cracked up to be? (boom tish)
After my last blog post about the new Reading Eggs – Fast Phonics program, its activity that looked exactly like a Nessy activity suddenly got new graphics. Then someone asked me why I’m not a fan of...
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ABC iView Learn A Word
I don’t know who advises our national broadcaster on the content of its early literacy education videos, but I find them pretty underwhelming. Please don’t show children in your care the Learn A Word...
View ArticleThe Phonics Patch on ABC iView
Someone recently asked me why I’m not a fan of the phonics English mini-lessons on ABC iView. They seem to me to demonstrate what American Public Media journalist Emily Hanford calls “The Phonics...
View ArticleTHRASS: the phonics of Whole Language
People often ask my opinion of the THRASS (Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills) approach, which has long been used in many Australian schools. Till now I’ve mostly replied that I’m no...
View ArticleTelling the Spelfabet story
You might have seen the recent, excellent guest posts on La Trobe University academic Emina McLean’s blog by teachers, telling their stories about discovering the science of reading. If you haven’t...
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New year, same crappy old Education Department advice
In 2018, my state’s Department of Education and Training (DET) produced a brochure for parents called “Literacy and numeracy tips to help your child every day”. Its top recommendation for “Helping...
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Tell publishers to stop selling predictable texts!
Someone from a major educational publisher rang me today to extol the virtues of their new range of decodable texts. I think she was hoping I might help promote them.I’ve had a look at their...
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