Transcript Where do we go from here? - NASUWT: The Teachers' Union

Teaching Early Reading:
More than phonics (and
the phonics check)
David Reedy
Immediate Past President UKLA
Principal Primary Adviser
Barking and Dagenham Local Authority
The Policy Context
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We still have nearly one in five 11-year-olds leaving
primary school still struggling with reading. Again,
the ideologically-driven, child-centred approach to
education has led to the belief that the mere exposure
to books and text, and the repetition of high frequency
words, will lead to a child learning to read – as if by
osmosis.
…that Look and Say, or whole language approach to
reading ignores the importance of teaching children
the 44 sounds of the alphabetic code, and how to
blend those sounds into words. (Gibb, N. July 2010)
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Phonics is the proven method that will drive up
reading standards.
A solid grounding in phonics will help many
children who are weak readers to improve. It
will also see more pupils achieve a high Level
2 or a Level 3 score at the end of Key Stage 1.
(Gibb, N. December 2011).
Research has consistently and
comprehensively shown that systematic phonic
instruction by a teacher is the most effective
and successful way of teaching children to
read.
 Michael Gove(2013)
Speech on improving the quality of teaching and
leadership, given on 5 September 2013 at
Policy Exchange, London
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Y1 Phonics Check
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Introduced in June 2012 for all Y1 children
2014 National Curriculum
Year 1 Reading POS:
Read aloud accurately books that are
consistent with their developing phonic
knowledge and that do not require them
to use other strategies to work out words.
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Phonics is essential but not sufficient :A
broader view of the development of early
reading is needed
Really successful primary schools :
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have a broad and rich reading curriculum and have a
balance of phonics, whole word and meaning based
approaches to teach children to read.
are clear that the purpose of reading is to make sense of
what is read not simply to say the words.
promote engagement and enjoyment. Engagement is increasingly seen by
researchers as central to progress in reading. Children who are motivated
want to read more and more, and get better and better at it.
are knowledgeable about high quality reading resources and have many of
them, organised in a welcoming school and class library.
introduce all children to a wide range of children’s literature and explore
ways in which reading literature can broaden the experience of life and
give a sense of what is possible.
Word reading
Phonics is essential for decoding words:
cat
dog
photograph
pedant
infirm
But is not sufficient for pronouncing accurately
all words!
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Word reading
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English has more vowel sounds than most
other European languages.
Some of these vowel sounds can be spelled in
as many as seven ways, as is the unstressed
vowel in station, polite, career, decision,
division, persist, table, figure.
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To multiply this complexity still further, some
letters or letter combinations represent five or
more different phonemes, such as the ‘a’ in
mat
mall
make
mast
many
Word reading: Meaning connections
Sign
Two
Word reading: Meaning connections
Sign
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Signature, signal
Two
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Twenty, twin, twice
Word Reading: More meaning
connections
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lead
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sow
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close
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tear
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They stole all the lead from the roof.
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A female pig is a sow. The farmer will sow
the seeds.
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They were to close to the door to close it.
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If I tear that I will shed a tear.
heteronyms
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wind
rowing
leading
bowed
minute
bass
does
?
GOVE
GOVE
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Love, glove, shove
move
Sight words
Many very common words are phonically
irregular said, was, once, the and need a
‘look and say’ approach
said
was
once
the
come
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Teachers use their professional knowledge and
judgement to make informed decisions about
what kind of strategy is needed to help
children read words
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Reading is not just pronouncing written
words. Children who become avid and
accomplished readers focus on making
sense from the start: they develop a habit
of mind that expects the words they
decode to make sense. This allows them
to monitor their own performance from
an early stage, and to make corrections
when they misread. (Dombey et al.,
2010:4)
Really successful primary schools :

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have a broad and rich reading curriculum and have a balance of phonics,
whole word and meaning based approaches to teach children to read.
are clear that the purpose of reading is to make sense of what is read not
simply to say the words.

promote engagement and enjoyment. Engagement is
increasingly seen by researchers as central to progress in
reading. Children who are motivated want to read more
and more, and get better and better at it.

are knowledgeable about high quality reading resources and have many of
them, organised in a welcoming school and class library.
introduce all children to a wide range of children’s literature and explore
ways in which reading literature can broaden the experience of life and
give a sense of what is possible.
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National Curriculum 2014 :Y1
Pupils should be taught to:
develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, and understanding
by:
 listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and
non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read
independently
 being encouraged to link what they read or hear read to their own
experiences
 becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and
traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular
characteristics
 recognising and joining in with predictable phrases
 learning to appreciate rhymes and poems, and to recite some by
heart
Research
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Building Communities of Readers (2006-8)
Building Communities: Researching Literacy
Lives (2009-10)
Increased knowledge -awareness of children’s reading
materials
They adore comics and magazines
and when you read them you can
see why- many adults read
magazines don’t they? (Interview,
Birmingham)
The children have taken
me on a journey into what
they read outside school –
I never realised really it
was so wide- now we have
a much greater choice in
school. (Interview, Kent)
I’d never read a graphic
novel before- it was quite
demanding – the children
love them. (Interview,
Medway)
Improving pedagogyReading environments physical and social
I like to read when I’m
relaxed. I like to read
something I can switch
off to. How does this
work in the classroom?
I hadn’t thought of
those questions before.
(Written reflection,
Birmingham)
Now they can relax and move
around to share reading with
friends. If they choose to read
comics or magazines they can.
(Interview, Birmingham)
Improving pedagogy
- Reading aloud
I will now read to the class
without thinking ‘I could do this
with it or I could do that with it’
and I think the children sit back
and think ‘I can just enjoy this’ …
that had been a big struggle thinking how many boxes can I
tick, what objectives can I cover
and you actually then lose the
impact of…the book. You know,
just enjoy it for a book and a
good story and a good emotional
journey. (Interview, Kent)
Reading aloud has given me back
my enthusiasm…showing them how
to develop their own expression
…children have learnt a lot and so
have I. (Questionnaire, Barking &
Dagenham)
Nathan …when she stops [reading aloud] she leaves us on a
cliff-hanger and it’s really exciting….
Will: Yes, because it’s really expressive. (Interview, Year 3,
Kent)
Improving pedagogy- independent reading time
Now there is ERIC own reading time
and since SATS this has gone to 10 to
15 minutes every day at least. This has
prompted more book talk and lots of
informal recommendations (Written
reflection, Medway)
I don’t think we’d thought before
about planning to support them as
readers, for their own reading. We’d
just expected them to get on with that
whilst we did guided reading or
comprehension…
But now we’re encouraging them as
readers, helping them make good
choices, accepting much more reading
material and giving them a chance to
be readers really. (Interview, Kent)
Improving pedagogy- independent reading time
Now there is ERIC own reading time
and since SATS this has gone to 10 to
15 minutes every day at least. This has
prompted more book talk and lots of
informal recommendations (Written
reflection, Medway)
I don’t think we’d thought before
about planning to support them as
readers, for their own reading. We’d
just expected them to get on with that
whilst we did guided reading or
comprehension…
But now we’re encouraging them as
readers, helping them make good
choices, accepting much more reading
material and giving them a chance to
be readers really. (Interview, Kent)
Really successful primary schools :





have a broad and rich reading curriculum and have a balance of phonics,
whole word and meaning based approaches to teach children to read.
are clear that the purpose of reading is to make sense of what is read not
simply to say the words.
promote engagement and enjoyment. Engagement is increasingly seen by
researchers as central to progress in reading. Children who are motivated
want to read more and more, and get better and better at it.
are knowledgeable about high quality reading resources
and have many of them, organised in a welcoming school
and class library.
introduce all children to a wide range of children’s
literature and explore ways in which reading literature can
broaden the experience of life and give a sense of what is
possible.
What texts?
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texts with subtleties; that stand exploration, rereading, and raise genuine questions;
texts that are capable of engaging children
texts that contain high quality language
texts that are representative
texts that can be read aloud
The dangers of the ‘Phonics
Check’
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Promotes a narrow and erroneous view of reading
high stakes tests have a pronounced negative impact on the
curriculum
Workload issues: the average time for preparation and
administration was 15.5 hours in the pilot
Many higher attaining pupils are confused by pseudo-words
No relation between phonics check result and attainment in
reading in Y2
Undermines the professionalism and capacity of teachers
when decisions are made about how to help children to get
better at reading
Is expensive
UKLA Survey:Y1 Phonics check
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The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that in
teachers’ and Headteachers’ professional judgment,
the Phonics Screening Check for six-year-olds is
time-consuming and unnecessary. They feel that
checks like this should not be imposed on all
children, but used judiciously where a teacher thinks
it would help to identify specific needs in a particular
child. In schools’ experience the results have labeled
some successful and fluent readers as failures. The
check does not differentiate at the top end. It does not
identify high experience readers but, on the contrary,
it is potentially holding them back and undermining
their assurance as readers.
The evidence makes it clear that the Phonics
Screening Check should not be used in
subsequent years for all children in year 1, but
implemented at teachers’ discretion to identify
specific developmental needs in particular
children for whom it is appropriate.
Spelling Punctuation and
Grammar tests
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Y2 and Y6 in 2016
A typical question
Which sentence contains two verbs?
Tick one.
 The lambs played happily.
 The cows sleep in the field.
 The puppies growl and bark.
 The horses eat grass and hay.
1 mark
Research on grammar
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Repeated studies show no evidence of formal
teaching of grammar of impact on writing or reading
(Hillocks, 1986; Andrews et al., 2006).
However studies investigated teaching a grammar
course and teaching writing separately
No studies before 2012 which investigated teaching
grammar meaningfully in the context of writing in
UK.
No studies in UK context of primary age pupils
Grammar teaching
However, Myhill’s recent work with Secondary
students has shown the value of including explicit
attention to relevant grammatical constructions
within the context of writing (Myhill et al., 2011).
The writing of primary school children might be
improved where teachers:
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introduce key terms such as ‘synonym’ ‘verb’, ‘noun’,
‘sentence’ and ‘noun phrase’ in the context of shared
writing (Hunt, 2001).
Research is not clear about which grammatical terms
are likely to be most productive in the primary years, at
which stage, or how they might best be introduced.
What is clear is that any teaching of grammar needs
to be carried out in the context of purposeful
reading and writing.
What next?
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How can teacher associations and subject
associations work together to mitigate the
baleful effects of high stakes and narrow tests?
How can we work together to ensure evidence
based approaches to the teaching of early
reading and writing are promoted?