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The flawed thinking behind a mandatory phonics screening test

By Literacy

EduResearch Matters, Dr Paul Gardner, 15 July 2019.  While the systematic teaching of phonics has an important place in a teacher’s repertoire of strategies, it does not appear to make any sense to make it the exclusive method of teaching reading.  To give it a privileged status as a test does exactly that.  In England, phonics screening check scores have improved by students’ reading abilites have not.  Read the article…

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Music and Literacy

By Literacy, The Arts

NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), 11 Aug 2019.  The NCTE recognises the importance of music as an integral part of literacy education.  Art, music, movement and drama are essentials and should never be considered additional luxuries.  Read the article here

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Call to scrap tests for children under 8 in push for play-based learning

By Literacy

ABC News, 15 Aug 2019.  WA teachers are pushing for formalised assessments and testing to be scrapped for children aged under 8 in favour of a play-based model of learning favoured in Scandinavian countries.  Experiential learning, or project-based learning, are better for children’s wellbeing, academic outcomes, problem-solving and social skills.  Read the article here

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Landmark study finds better path to reading success

By Literacy

Dr Richard Gentry, Psychology Today, 30 Mar 2017.  Ouellette and Sénéchal (2017) have provided further evidence for helping young literacy learners with temporary or ‘invented’ spelling.  Their attempts to represent words in print integrates phonological and orthographic growth, and there is a direct line from temporary spellings leading to improved reading scores at the end of first grade.  Indeed, their temporary spellings were found to be “a unique predictor of…

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