This posting is a plug for the latest issue of Scientific American Mind magazine (September/October 2013 issue) because it is chock full of pieces all teachers need to be cognisant of. The list includes: an article on consciousness in infants; a very thoughtful piece entitled ‘Letting go of self-esteem’, their cover story; a special report… Continue reading Hands help us to see!
In this final posting on the teaching and learning values of Barak Rosenshine, I shall be looking at his fifth and sixth principles of direct instruction. The fifth principle is providing enough opportunity to engage in independent practice. In regard to the teaching of literacy in the early years, I believe that many programmes, such… Continue reading Barak Rosenshine’s principles of direct instruction 3
Moving on from yesterday’s posting, Rosenshine’s third principle focuses on establishing connections between what is currently being learnt and what has been learnt before. In conjunction with reformulating, summarising, elaborating and so on, constantly making connections with prior learning has been shown to aid later retrieval greatly. Carefully scaffolded presentations, followed by plenty of opportunity to… Continue reading Barack Rosenshine’s ‘Principles of direct instruction’ – 2
While in Australia, I managed to get hold of the DSF(Dyslexia -SPELD Foundation) Bulletin (Vol 46) extolling the virtues of John Hattie and Barak Rosenshine. In her piece in the Bulletin ‘Improving achievement … What does the research tell us?’ Mandy Nayton quotes from Rosenshine’s article ‘Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All teachers Should… Continue reading Barak Rosenshine’s principles of direct instruction
Someone called Robert has added a comment to my post ‘Masha Bell rings the wrong note on reading’. In it, he is objecting to the emphasis I made on the fact that many teachers say that letters ‘make’ sounds when they do no such thing. He thinks that this detracted from my argument in the posting… Continue reading Why letters don’t ‘make’ sounds.
This week’s New Scientist has an opinion piece by Tom Bennett on the subject of neuromyths that ‘badly need debunking’. First up for unmasking is the idea that people are right or left-brained. This belief has been around since Robert Sperry of CalTec noticed when treating epileptics that, if the two hemispheres of the brain… Continue reading Neuromyths debunked
I’m not long back from Perth in Australia, where I’ve been running two back-to-back courses with Mary Gladstone (see below), our resident Sounds-Write trainer based in Lismore, near Brisbane. And, apart from training trainees new to Sounds-Write, we were also training three new Sounds-Write trainers from DFS. We had a terrific time with our super-animated trainees.… Continue reading Sounds-Write trainings in Perth, Western Australia
Now the dust has begun to settle after the phonics screening check, three schools have sent me this year’s results. First up is Pinchmill Lower, where, like last year, 100% of the children got between 32 and 40. Well done to head teacher Vanessa Coleman and to her staff. Next is Fishburn Primary School in Durham and… Continue reading Phonics screening check – results from three schools
I’m just back from Perth in Australia, where I’ve been running two back-to-back courses with Mary Gladstone, our resident Sounds-Write trainer based in Lismore, near Brisbane. We had a terrific time with our animated trainees. It must be the weather! Their winter, when I arrived, was warmer than our ‘summer’, even if the sun does… Continue reading Sounds-Write in Western Australia
In the last couple of years, St George’s CE Primary School in Wandsworth, of phonics screening fame, have welcomed into their school two pupils from different parts of the world who arrived without any English. St George’s CEPS scores again! What is remarkable about the education the school is offering under the leadership of head… Continue reading St George’s CEPS scores again!