ThatReadingThing

Building v Underpinning

Older struggling readers and spellers live in educational buildings with shaky foundations. They have a structure called “reading” which is built on the faulty strategies of getting through a text by guessing, omitting and looking for familiar words within words. “Spelling” is built on the strategies of what “looks right” and recalling strings of letter names.

Often, students can read all sorts of words but still have serious gaps in their knowledge of how the English language works. They have no idea what to do with unfamiliar words so lack the vocabulary that would allow them to access the secondary curriculum. Even if they can read adequately, their spelling often hinders them from communicating clearly in writing.

So how does a science teacher help a weak reader?

How does a geography teacher encourage good spelling?

The purpose of this book is to help all teachers, regardless of specialty subject, to underpin these shaky structures. It will give you some basic knowledge about how English works as a code and how to use that code to improve reading and spelling—perhaps your own as well as your students’.

You may also have students who need a complete rebuild. You won’t be able to accomplish this in a whole-class setting, but you will be able to support them and offer consistent strategies for reading and spelling as they receive one-to-one help elsewhere.