Structured Phonics for Adults

What happened when an experienced literacy teacher in a large adult learning service tried a structured phonics program with his learners?

Supporting Reading in Secondary Schools

This advice about supporting reading in secondary schools is an excellent starting place for any high school wanting to help their older struggling readers.

School to Prison Pipeline (or not)

Is there really a school to prison pipeline for struggling readers?

Literacy and Behaviour

Sometimes, working with young people living chaotic lives, you only get a very short time to make a difference. Here’s what only 4 hours of That Reading Thing can do.

Phonics Results for Secondary Students

What kind of results can you expect from an age-appropriate linguistic phonics programme in a large urban secondary school?

‘I don’t do education’

A woman from the Basic Skills Agency insisted, ‘You can’t just sit a young offender down at a table and teach them to read.’

Improved literacy is life-changing

In Ireland and was told he was dyslexic; in England he was told he had a learning disability; teachers found him difficult; college tutors treated him as stupid.

Where reading can take you

Choosing text for struggling readers – start with what they know and take them somewhere less familiar. Raise your expectations and see where reading can take you.

Four, Floor, Flour – reading visually similar words

Many dyslexic adults can read a lot but experience anxiety when required to read aloud, so I decided to practise reading Trivial Pursuit question cards. The difficult bit was not what I expected.

Reading and Spelling with a ‘Visual Learner’

Pete was formally diagnosed as severely dyslexic. He reads well but his spelling is a huge embarrassment to him.

Framework for Supporting Reading in Secondary Schools

That Reading Thing has been meeting the criteria of the Reading Framework (DfE 2021) since 2003.

Inclusion – Deep, Wide and Welcoming

This is a post about inclusion in schools, not just the inclusion of policy documents but the inclusion of real-life school, the inclusion that states explicitly, “you belong here regardless of how hard you find this”.

That Reading Thing & EBLI Compared

Both TRT and EBLI are rooted in exactly the same phonics soil and have both been around for the same number of years so there are many conceptual similarities.

Stop Saying ‘Sound it Out’

There are two phrases we ask That Reading Thing tutors to avoid: ‘Sound it out’ and ‘Break it down’.
Why? Because our students have heard these phrases their whole school lives and have no idea what they mean.

Long and Short Vowels

Here’s my rationale for not using the terms ‘long’ and ‘short’ in the remedial setting of That Reading Thing.

Why not to teach syllable types

Dyslexia tutors who are trained in programs like OG are showing an interest in linguistic (speech to print) phonics which has led to more frequent questions about TRT’s approach to syllables.

Reading Anxiety

Some hide their anxiety and suffer quietly while others express it in disruptive or self-harming behaviour. There are young people who panic at the sight of text in every secondary school.

Response to an anti-phonixxer

This is an old post now but I suspect anti-school/anti-phonics thinking hasn’t caught on like the SOR movement since 2017. Brain science for the win.

Decodable text for teens and adults

We’re often asked what decodable readers we recommend and the answer is usually ‘none’. Most TRT learners, even those who are working slowly through the Foundation levels, are not beginning readers.

Shame or Safety?

If a 13/15/20 year old can’t read very well then they have already experienced enough shame. If they’re not already angry, they soon will be.

Words ending tion

Learning to read and spell words ending tion is a powerful confidence builder in the early levels of That Reading Thing.

Bomb Comb Tomb

What can bomb, comb, tomb tell us about English and how it works as a code for reading and spelling?

How to make phonics suitable for teens and adults

If you want to check that an intervention provides grown-up phonics, ask the following questions to ensure you are tearing down barriers to literacy.

Phonics for ESOL/EAL

Here’s a great anecdote for anyone wondering if That Reading Thing works with ESOL teens.

A conversation with Amy

How do you get from ‘I hate reading’ to ‘I bought a book’?
Amy was in Year 10, almost 15, very artistic, and refused to read even one multi-syllable basic code word on the TRT assessment. ‘I don’t read words like that.’

Phonics for Adult Literacy

Phonics for adults shouldn’t look like phonics for children. That Reading Thing gets adults unstuck even after years of trying to learn to read.

Phonics isn’t enough

I once had a call from a TRT trained teacher who told me it was going well, but the boys were getting through all of the TRT Levels without making much improvement in their reading. That’s not the most thrilling news I’d ever heard so thought I’d see if the problem was with TRT or with the way it was being delivered.

Correcting b/d reversal

The tendency to reverse b and d is a huge embarrassment for older students who struggle to get the mirror image letters straight. On dyslexia discussion boards, the question keeps coming up, ‘How do we help our dyslexic students stop reversing b and d?’

Pacing your lesson

A TRT tutor emailed with the following: “I have been working with _______ who is ______ years old.
(fill in your own student name and age) I think he has been through several literacy programs, each with their own instructional methods.”

Is Anyone Unteachable?

Is anyone really unteachable? This young man, 25 years old, who came to us because his grandmother heard someone talking about That Reading Thing.