"Developmentally appropriate practice"

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

I think it is important to start a thread dedicated to the theme of 'Developmentally appropriate practice' as this is extremely relevant regarding early reading, spelling and writing instruction. Not only do we need to refer to and understand the different teaching 'methods' or 'approaches' that we have seen historically and currently for reading instruction, we also have to consider very different educational philosophies, beliefs and 'mindsets'.

This piece was flagged up via Twitter and it is of particular relevance to the United States:

http://education-consumers.org/misdirec ... ed-reform/

In England, there was quite a Twitter furore which spread over into early years magazines, regarding video footage of Janet Hilary describing a school's ethos with regard to provision for three year olds right through to the end of primary (11 year olds). Janet Hilary is renowned for the extremely high literacy success rate in a primary school in an underprivileged area.

Many people were aghast at some of the things she said about the provision and approach towards the three to four year olds, seemingly disregarding her full descriptions and seemingly disregarding the fact that NO children were failed or 'left behind' in the school in question.

You can read more about Janet Hilary and see her video footage from the UK Reading Reform Foundation conference (March 2015) here via John Walker's excellent blog, 'The Literacy Blog':

http://literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015 ... naire.html