Video Nasty!

First of all let me say I totally agree with teaching children phonics- I've seen some incredible successes with phonics teaching and children who easily learn to read. I'm becoming less and less certain however that a test for all Year 1 children is the way forward. The only good thing might be that schools which are not teaching phonics in a systematic way (and there are quite a few!) will be forced into doing it properly.

The latest guidance about the Year 1 Phonics decoding test (I refuse to call it a check any longer- it is quite clearly a test) is now out. It includes a video of children sounding out mainly nonsense words, as they will do in the test. Go to the DFE website to view the video if you want to see something really depressing.

Having told all the schools I'm working with that the check was 'light touch' and, if they were teaching phonics, nothing to worry about, I am now forced to revise this assessment. In the light of the video the check is definitely a test and the controls more stringent than SATs!

The video has many different children, most looking quite uncomfortable, sounding out the words, with a tick or a cross appearing on the screen and an explanation of why it is right or wrong. I started off thinking that the children were not looking happy and finished with a sense of despair. If a child says the word correctly but follows that up with an incorrect answer, you ignore the first response and the word is marked wrong. It also shows that good readers will probably be at a disadvantage.

A child who is already well on the route to reading and has a significant sight vocabulary, which is of course a very useful skill for reading, tends to look at the nonsense word and try and make it make sense. They are past the stage of using phonics to decode every word  and want to read for meaning; which is after all what we need to be teaching. I rather cynically wondered at the agenda that requires good readers to take a step back and read nonsense without any regard for meaning.

I very much hope all those schools I've worked with who are putting their poor children through the test, will not have stressed out children and teachers, but I can't help feeling that will be the main result of the week of 18th June.

World Book Night

I'm ridiculously excited to be chosen to give books for World Book Night. I've picked Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now and I'm going to give it to some school children who may not have any books of their own.
I've grown up with books. The bookshelves are groaning under the weight of all the books. We just had to get a new bookshelf to try and contain them all! (It hasn't worked, they are still over flowing)  I also went to the library every week as a child and almost as often as an adult. I can't imagine a house without books, yet I know there are many.
So being able to give children a book of their own makes me incredibly happy....until I wondered if a book was going to make a technology savvy child as happy as it would make me. That thought made me so sad. What if books were no longer enough; that they had to be a kindle or a computer game? I love the technology but there is simply nothing that can beat curling up with a good book. What if the technology has taken away that pleasure from the next generation?
Giving books for World Book Night will make me very happy, but will it make the recipients as happy as I am?

Great books or just phonics?

I have to admit to struggling with the conflicting demands of the phonics decoding check and wanting to get children to read great books. Of course there should be no conflict at all, but the problem is, testing such young children is going to create that conflict.
I've had the opportunity to observe quite a few guided reading lessons in my time and in schools where phonics is being taught well it is quite often at the expense of the language comprehension. Children are great at decoding but are not reading for meaning or enjoying the rich texts.
Some of the problem is what they are being asked to read. Most reading scheme books do not have extraordinary illustrations and a wide range of language. Take 'Pumpkin Soup' by Helen Cooper- look at the language she uses and the way the illustrations are part of the language. You just don't get that with reading schemes, particularly the latest ones which are all about phonics. Yes, children need to be taught phonics, but not at the expense of everything else.
My fear about the phonics check is that it will do exactly that; phonics will become the end goal instead of the means by which we teach children to read. In twenty years time none of the children will count Book 4 level 2 as their favourite childhood read (at least I hope not) and I would so much rather they had memories of reading wonderful stories.

What makes a good lesson?

I was thinking today about what makes a good lesson- I don't mean OFSTED good, ticking all the boxes in that way, I was thinking more about what qualities a teacher needs in order to make the lesson a good experience for the children.
I was in a school and I observed a number of lessons, only one of which was delivered with any sort of enjoyment. Obviously I was there and that makes it more nerve wracking for all concerned; but only one teacher actually seemed to be enjoying herself and enjoying being with the children. Interestingly she was the most inexperienced of all of them. I started wondering whether it was chicken or egg- was she enjoying herself and therefore it was a good lesson or was it a good lesson because she was having such fun? Of course the elements of were the children actually learning anything are extremely important; but they were learning in some of the other classes and yet none of those lessons were as good.
Do we need to put the fun back into teaching? Is that the elusive ingredient to getting better results? Has all the joy been sucked out of teaching and in a double whammy meant the teaching is less good?
I'll have to try out the theory, having fun means a better lesson, the next time I'm in a school!

To teach it or not to teach!

I was reading a Telegraph article about ten  Local Authorities who it would appear have refused to back phonics teaching. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9025860/Warning-as-schools-shun-traditional-reading-methods.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I have to confess I was originally quite cynical about phonics when Letters and Sounds first came out. I had always taught phonics but never as systematically as the programme dictated. My view was, if it was that easy, why weren't we all doing it long ago? Now I simply ask, why aren't we all doing it?

 I have now seen at first hand the incredible difference good phonics teaching is making to children's lives. It really is transforming teaching and learning in places where it is being delivered well. So I do seriously have to question why certain Local Authorities are so opposed to it.  It works, it is free (if you use Letters and Sounds) and it raises standards. There is nothing there anyone could object to. I do agree phonics alone or in isolation is not sufficient; it is a tool to teach reading and writing, but such a good one you'd be crazy not to try it.

As teachers we all want what is best for our pupils and also something that is easy and effective- here it is, on a plate. Why isn't everyone using it?

Trying it out

I had this fantastic thought for my  literacy newsletter; why not encourage children to write by blogging?

 I have had this vague thought that I should have a blog for some time now but never got round to it. The deadline for the newsletter definitely crystallised my thoughts.  If I try it out, modelling the use of a blog, I will know how to encourage children to use one. I had no idea it was quite so easy, even my four year old will be able to contribute to this!

Of course my next concern is will anyone actually read it? How will anyone know this blog exists? I'll have to go and find out.....