Literacy for Young People on the Outside of Education

Years ago now, during the Round 8 funding for mentoring young offenders, I sat in a meeting where a woman from the Basic Skills Agency stated categorically that you couldn’t sit a teenaged offender down at a table and teach them to read. It just wasn’t possible. It was early days for That Reading Thing and, lacking guts, I let that comment slide by while fuming at the arrogance of a specialist who was consigning our most vulnerable teens to … Read More

What Older Struggling Readers Need

 Older struggling readers need: 1. to change their minds about reading Reading includes speech and sounds so they learn to use their ears as well as their eyes. English is a code which can be decoded for reading and encoded for spelling. 2. new strategies for attacking unfamiliar words – to replace guessing badly Discover the complete English code Say the sounds and listen for a word Check for meaning in context. 3. confidence All learning needs to be both … Read More

On Being the Collateral Damage of Michael Rosen

posted in: Thoughts on Education

I suspect that, given the chance to have a chat, Michael Rosen and I would agree on a lot. I love the art, magic and power of language both written and aloud. I read to my children until they were in high school. I have no professional purpose in life other than getting young people over the humiliation of not being able to read and spell by supporting them into the world of text. I’m suspicious of commercial educational concerns. … Read More

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