This week’s TES treats us to yet more phonics fantasy, this time in the ‘Comment’ section of the paper. In a review of the Radio 4 two-part documentary ‘Reading between the lines’ by Michael Morpurgo, Adi Bloom displays the kind of ignorance about phonics and phonics teaching to which the practitioners have become all too… Continue reading Adi’s red physiognomy
If you haven’t yet come across David Crystal’s blog, you might want to look at his thoughts on texting acronyms and their effects or rather non effects on the language. And if you’re not interested in rofling, there’s bound to turn up something of interest for anyone curious about language usage. Quirky, precise, always entertaining, and… Continue reading Crystal LOLing at Rofling!
Aren’t you just sick of listening to ministers like Leighton Andrews telling us all how rosy everything in the garden is going to be with a bit of ‘upskilling’? Apparently, Welsh pupils are going to be the latest beneficiaries of the ‘excellent teaching of literacy’ that Mr Andrews is going to bring in. There’s that… Continue reading 2015? It’s still too late, Leighton!
Susan Godsland’s eagle eye in detecting references to the teaching of reading has spotted one buried inside a podcast by Mark Henderson and published in theguardian online, which she’s posted as a new thread on the RRF here. The podcast, ‘The Geek Manifesto: why science matters’, is based on Henderson’s recently published book (2012) of… Continue reading Ballad of a thin-king man. We’re the geeks on this one!
I see that Michael Rosen has been ‘sounding off’, if you’ll excuse the pun, on his blog about phonics again. It is really rather baffling that someone who is clearly very inquisitive and who actually listens carefully to the people he interviews and talks to on his Radio 4 programme ‘Word of Mouth’ should be… Continue reading Rosen unwound