Teaching is actually shockingly slow to react and adapt to new research (or even old research, tbh) We largely get away with it because children are wired to learn and often do so despite teaching, not because of it.

This article implies that these methods of teaching reading explain the general sense of declining literacy, and I can see where they’re coming from. If you’re working this hard for every single word on a page because the cognitive foundations simply aren’t there, how can reading be pleasurable?

I have never heard of whatever’s described in this article! These strategies seem useful for an intermediate reader, perhaps, someone starting to read more complex texts where they need to use context clues to make meaning, but of a whole text, not individual words.

But I saw over my years teaching and now as my daughters learn to read, that phonics is a kind of magic. You give them good quality, mainly decodable texts and you teach comprehension skills at the same time and you support those going slower or coming against barriers.

And the older teachers felt that there was no joy of reading in the programmes, and were concerned that comprehension skills were not taught. So they made sure to separate out phonics from literacy and English to still get in all that rich text learning.

I agree!

The contrast between the words and pictures in that one is so delightful!

The Raven Scholar is brilliant, you’ve got a few very happy hours ahead of you there!

I loved this. A similar feeling of savouring, even if it was heartbreaking.

It sucks as a feeling but there’s no summer without winter. Something that’s really helped me is taking up something creative but unconnected to writing, something i can do badly and happily. Cross training for creativity! (I’m learning an instrument)