Talk to anyone today who was taught to read through i.t.a. (Initial Teaching Alphabet) and they will almost invariably tell you how they’ve never been able to spell correctly since. As i.t.a. was more or less abandoned in the sixties/early seventies (though it did cling on for much longer in some places), many of… Continue reading i.t.a: a great idea but a dismal failure!
The strange case of the word ‘yacht’. This old chestnut comes up on a fairly regular basis and is cited as an example of how not all English words are decodable. In truth, the word presents us with more of a challenge than many others. However, holding to the notion that every word incorporated… Continue reading The strange case of the word ‘yacht’
We know from a variety of different studies that the same regions of the brain are activated when we read as are activated in speech comprehension. As we are reading, our brains are hunting for meaning and, as long as a word is in our vocabulary, we understand it as we read. Of course, in… Continue reading Decoding, comprehension and muddled thinking
In spite of having written on this issue a number of times before (here, here and here), after reading Nathaniel Swain’s piece in The Conversation ‘Trying to change English’s complex spelling is a waste of time’, I feel moved to say more on the subject. Essentially, Swain is quite right! The trouble is that, although he… Continue reading Reform the spelling system? Not likely! Train the teachers!
While in Madrid two weeks ago, I taught my niece (nearly seven years of age) something very interesting. She is being taught whole language at her school in Brussels. [Phonics is to the school as Brussel sprouts are to a seven-year-old.] She is pretty smart and speaks three languages already. Her father is English/Spanish, her… Continue reading Niece in Brussels sprouts
To begin with I need to re-state what is at the heart of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), according to its proponents John Sweller, Jeroen van Meriënboer, Paul Kirschner, Daniel Willingham and others. What CLT emphasises is that working memory is severely constrained in terms of both capacity and duration. The argument is that we can… Continue reading The Reading Achievement Challenge revisited and Cognitive Load Theory (2 of 3)
In her education blog for the Huffington Post, Karin Chenoweth cites recent figures from the (United States’) Nation’s Report Card on reading. Even though there has been a marginal improvement since the early nineties, the statistics are still shocking: 52% of ‘eighth-graders (year 9 in UK) whose parents graduated from college can’t read at the proficient level… Continue reading The reading achievement challenge
On Australia Day, here’s a post for all those Aussies out there.In her writings on the value of effortful practice, determination and having a ‘growth mindset’, Carol Dweck concludes that the secret of great accomplishments depends not so much on IQ but on passion, dedication and sustained effort. While I was in Melbourne last week,… Continue reading Lennie Gwyther’s true grit
Here is a short You Tube video, featuring Dr Helen Abadzi, on, amongst other things, the role played by memory in education. In the extract Dr Abadzi begins with the neuromyth of brainstorming and (at 1:13) she goes on to talk about the part played by memory in the learning process. Here, she talks about… Continue reading Dr Helen Abadzi
I’m re-posting this piece from eight years ago because, apparently, the issue of spelling reform has once again raised its ill-informed head. The arguments haven’t changed and I was amused to see that Jeremy Vine was equally discombobulated by the suggestions put forward by the English Spelling Society. You can watch the exchanges here (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=449481390592436&extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing)… Continue reading Why the Chair of the English Spelling Society doesn’t understand the English orthographic code
