USA: Have the patience to watch this 15 minute video - it speaks volumes - The Reading League

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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USA: Have the patience to watch this 15 minute video - it speaks volumes - The Reading League

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

I watched this heart-warming, heartfelt video footage and could identify one way or another with everything that was said. It encapsulates so much about the journey so many people in the education profession have travelled but also that so many others have yet to travel.

Note their sometimes very long (decades) experiences of teaching passionately and yet ineffectively for at least some of the children. Note their passion when they find the key to changing their practice.

Note their regret at not knowing how best to teach reading for so long and for so many children - 'Teachers don't know what they don't know'.

Note the comments about the startling improved and quick results when teachers DO know what to do and can become evidence-informed effective teachers.

Note their commitment to sharing this knowledge as widely as they can - and free of charge wherever possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 19FV1TbZq4

The only thing I regret about the video is the lack of a more explicit statement - clarity - of the key ingredient missing from their original 'whole language' practice - that is, the explicit and systematic teaching of the letter/s-sound correspondences of the 'alphabetic code' and the associated blending skill ('sounding out') - the 'phonics' aspect of teaching - along with the use of cumulative, decodable early reading books to practise the code that has been introduced.

We do hear comments about the flaws of multi-cueing word guessing - the somewhat ludicrous approach of expecting children to read words they don't know through 'taking a run at it - reading on and going back', 'picture clues' and 'prior knowledge' about the subject.

Seriously, everyone, this is a wonderful video and The Reading League in America is doing a fantastic job to promote evidence-informed practice.
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