Deliberate practice · K Anders Ericsson · Kitchen Table Math

Deliberate practice

There was an acknowledgement on kitchen table math yesterday of the huge importance of deliberate practice in teaching.   As I wrote in my reply to the posting: ‘I’ve been banging on about Ericsson’s work for ages. Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich and Hoffman produced The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance in 2006, since which… Continue reading Deliberate practice

phonics · Sounds-Write · the TES · The Tickell review

Embedded phonics? What embedded phonics?

Last week I criticised the reporting in the TES of the government-commissioned Tickell report for its zeal in attempting to discredit phonics as an approach to teaching young children to read. The latest offering from the TES (Friday 8th April) is more subtle in its disingenuousness. It plays cleverly on what it senses – I… Continue reading Embedded phonics? What embedded phonics?

Olivia O'Sullivan · spelling

Not much Insight from Olivia O’Sullivan

Olivia O’Sullivan’s  ‘beef’ with synthetic phonics in the ‘Insight’ column of the TES is, she says, after examining ‘hundreds of writing samples’, observing lessons and interviewing teachers and children, that she found that some – she doesn’t say how many – children who had spelling difficulties ‘did not seem to notice many of the visual… Continue reading Not much Insight from Olivia O’Sullivan

Olivia O'Sullivan · phonics · TES

Wud a litrasy expurt no a gud cwalitee phonix program if thay sore won?

Not content with traducing phonics on its front page, the TES also decided to devote their ‘Insight’ section of Friday’s paper (page 25) to Olivia O’Sullivan in order to do another caricature. O’Sullivan has penned a piece entitled ‘Wood a child tawt to reed using phonix alone notis anything wrong with this hedline?’ Like the… Continue reading Wud a litrasy expurt no a gud cwalitee phonix program if thay sore won?