Secondary literacy – Page 5 – That Reading Thing

Is anyone “unteachable”?

Yet again, I heard about a young adult who came to his first That Reading Thing session, not with a “label” as the education system would call it, but with a huge engraved boulder strapped to his shoulders. This one said “unteachable”. Can you imagine being in your mid-20s and honestly believing that you would never learn to read? Thankfully an alert person knew about a local TRT project and thought maybe he could get some help. It turned out … Read More

Why the Changes at That Reading Thing?

posted in: Resources and Lesson Ideas, Secondary literacy, Thoughts on Education |

That Reading Thing is now global and online. That means anyone in the English speaking world can deliver this proven effective literacy method to teens and adults who are struggling readers and spellers. They can access the full TRT training and all the materials for a fraction of the previous cost. As is often the case, this change was inspired by a difficulty that needed surmounting – in this situation, drastic funding cuts to both education and youth work. I … Read More

Literacy for Young People who May or May Not Have Offended

posted in: Dyslexia, Secondary literacy, Youth Offending |

Here’s something I wrote in 2013 in response to a conversation about ‘illiterate young offenders’. Reading deficits in ‘young offenders’ exist for many reasons, not just a lack of good instruction in primary school because they often have complex educational, social and emotional needs. I also don’t talk about young offenders separate from any other marginalised young person because those in YOIs are just the ones who got caught and sentenced to an institution, not the ones who got a … Read More

What Older Struggling Readers Need

posted in: Dyslexia, Post-16 & Adult Literacy, Secondary literacy, Thoughts on Education |

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

Books for Struggling Readers: 3 – least confident

posted in: Post-16 & Adult Literacy, Resources and Lesson Ideas, Secondary literacy |

It can be quite difficult to find “real reading” material for those who are working hard through the Foundation Levels of TRT. They can read the decodable sentences but, if they’re not flying towards the Advanced Levels, it’s important that they have something to read that is all of: possible, challenging and age-appropriate. Here are my two favourite solutions for two very different age groups. Star Quest Several years ago, the local youth offending team asked me to work with … Read More

Books for Struggling Readers 2 – mid level strugglers

posted in: Post-16 & Adult Literacy, Resources and Lesson Ideas, Secondary literacy |

Here’s the second in a series of posts about a few books I’ve loved working with over the years – starting at those for readers with the highest ability and working down. The first post is here. Older struggling readers have very low expectations of what they can achieve and I’ve generally found those same low expectations are echoed by their teachers and support workers. When I was volunteering in a small school for boys with behavioural and emotional difficulties, … Read More