What kind of results can you expect from an age-appropriate linguistic phonics programme in a large urban secondary school? Does it work with young people who have given up on reading and school? Report from That Reading Thing in Tower Hamlets Note from Tricia – The voice in this report is that of Sarah Warburton who was the TRT lead in the now closed Gap Project in Bethnal Green. She delivered That Reading Thing as a linguistic phonics intervention to … Read More

Teachers who have been teaching rules, syllable types etc for years might think there’s ‘something missing’ from That Reading Thing. What’s missing is the burden on memory that prevents students from learning to read quickly. We ask our tutors to ask themselves, am I tearing down a barrier to reading or building one up? Dyslexia tutors who are trained in programs like Orton-Gillingham are showing an interest in linguistic (speech to print) phonics and this has led to more frequent … Read More

In her OFSTED blog post, ‘Supporting secondary school pupils who are behind with reading’, HMI Gill Jones writes: “(Secondary) pupils who can’t read unfamiliar words accurately will need phonics teaching. Regardless of age, special educational need or background, the same knowledge of the alphabetic code and phonics skills underpins all reading. Intensive practice should soon make sure that pupils can read age-appropriate texts accurately and automatically.” That Reading Thing is truly age-appropriate phonics for secondary, adult and transition to secondary … Read More