Using a linguistic phonics reading method, with adults.
Our strapline is “for people who don’t think they can”. Here’s what we mean. 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. Look what That Reading Thing can do. This is from Stef Boyle, our TRT Wonder Woman from Worth Unlimited in Ellesmere Port. Nineteen year old N was referred to me by a training agency saying that he could … Read More
Is anyone really unteachable? CK is a young man, 25 years old, who came to us because his Grandmother heard one of our LMG members talking about That Reading Thing. She said that C had never been able to read, he had dyslexia and had gone to a special school. He was holding down a job but wanted to go in the army and couldn’t pass the English test. He had gone to the local college for group lessons and … Read More
13 September 2017 I wrote the following on the 14th of April, 2009. Eight years and five months later, a decision has been made to include structured phonics in literacy for adults who are working at the lowest levels. I’ll blog further on the specific proposals but this is a good starting point. **** This morning (13/04/09) in the Guardian, Peter Kingston writes about the possibilities of using phonics in adult literacy. The NRDC report he refers to is Improving … Read More
Recently, I received the immeasurable gift of chatting with a woman who’d come to That Reading Thing unable to read the word ‘is’. No one outside her immediate family knew her secret and, during her first TRT session, she wept just trying to articulate to her tutor that she couldn’t read or write. At Port Reach’s celebration evening, supported by her tutor, she stood in front of a roomful of people and told her story. By her own account, she … Read More
A taste of what can happen in a That Reading Thing lesson The Deal in That Reading Thing is: “you never have to know anything we haven’t learned together”. The flip side of The Deal is that students do need to know what we have learned together – and the result is often higher expectation than our students have ever experienced before. That high expectation is reflected in our choice of reading material. That Reading Thing intentionally tries to take … Read More
At That Spelling Thing, we believe every single secondary teacher, no matter what their subject, should have an easy to implement strategy for spelling in their classroom. A good strategy should capitalize on what students already know and remove the need for remembering every word by sight. Our unofficial motto is No More Look Cover Write Check! and we mean if from the bottom of our hearts. According to Professor Greg Brooks, the English code behaves predictably 77% of the time. … Read More