'Word of Mouth' · Laura Wright · Michael Rosen · Nils Langer · Radio 4

By word of mouth to the alphabet

Did you listen to Michael Rosen’s Radio 4 programme ‘Word of Mouth’ on Tuesday afternoon? This one in the series was about the alphabet and, as is usual in these programmes, Michael had invited two academics – Dr Laura Wright and Professor Nils Langer – to talk about the subject.  Langer got the ball rolling by making… Continue reading By word of mouth to the alphabet

'The Wright Stuff' · Michael Rosen · phonics versus whole language

The Wrong Stuff!

I’ve just been watching Michael Rosen on Matthew Wright’s show ‘The Wright Stuff’, broadcast on October 6th. After talking about the plight of the independent booksellers, he was asked by one of the guests on the show what he thought about the government’s support for phonics. What followed had me howling with laughter. For a chap… Continue reading The Wrong Stuff!

Michael Rosen · SATs · The Guardian

The end of SATs?

Polly Curtis reported in Friday’s Guardian that 10,000 people have signed a petition to scrap SATs.Independent and objective testing is an appropriate way of seeking to find out if pupils are successfully remembering and understanding what society wants them to be taught. Unfortunately there is little evidence that the Government’s SATs papers actually do this… Continue reading The end of SATs?