Peter Goss, The Conversation, 11 Nov 2019. Big gains to Year 5 evaporate by Year 7. This rules out poor early reading instruction as a cause. This reading problem isn’t about phonics, but a failure to stretch students in upper primary school.
The Guardian, 8 Nov 2019. The teachers’ union says this is another slush fund for private schools, on top of the $1.2 billion Choice and Affordability fund for Catholic and independent schools (which also included money for drought-affected areas). But more than 80% of students in drought-effected areas attend public schools.
NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Statement on Independent Reading, Nov 2019.
EducationHQ News, Dr Pam Ryan, 8 Nov 2019. On the surface, teaching is a caring profession, one which people enter with the altruistic desire to bring out the best in others. However, whispers in staffrooms tell a different story. (This article available to EducationHQ subscribers only.)
sbs.com.au, The Feed, 7 Nov 2019. Italy will become the world’s first country to make it compulsory for school children to study climate change and sustainable development. Let’s hope many countries follow their example.
The Age, 3 Nov 2019. The principal hired two full-time teacher-librarians and introduced a school-wide reading program. This year, the school received national recognition from ACARA for the remarkable improvement in reading results. NAPLAN results in 2016 were at the school’s lowest point, but gains in 2018 doubled the Victorian average.
Misty Adoniou, www.elgazette.com 31 Oct 2019. A synthetic phonics ‘first, fast and furious’ approach and the Year 1 phonics test in the UK have not worked because English is a morphophonemic language. Meaning is required for phonics to work.
EducationHQ, 30 Oct 2019. Research shows that teachers have very little to do with why some kids are better at school than others. This contradicts the popular view that teachers matter most (after genes) when it comes to academic achievement. Read here
Dr Peter Gray, Psychology Today, 5 May 2015. Pre-school and kindergarten teachers are upset by the increased pressure on them to teach and test academic skills. They can see the unhappiness generated and research supports their concerns. Read here
Dr Sebastian Suggate, University of Otago, 3 Jan 2010. An older paper we need to re-read. Teaching children to read from age five is not likely to make that child any more successful at reading than a child who learns reading from age seven. Read here
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