I once had a call from a TRT trained teacher who told me her students were doing well getting through all of the TRT Levels but they weren't 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.

Me: How much time are you spending reading in each session?

Teacher: Oh, I’m just going through the programme with them; I’m not doing any extra reading.

Here's the truth: if you want high quality and effective literacy instruction, you need to be ready to do some work. If any programme claims otherwise, look very carefully into their claims.

It's true that, during the first few hours of That Reading Thing, the student is learning so much about the language and gaining so much confidence with multi-syllable words that it all seems a bit magic. But even then, they are learning through sting-free error correction and lots of practice reading rather than guessing.

At the Advanced Levels we talk about doing 'a bit of TRT and a LOT of reading' because this is where the 'real magic' happens. The new strategies are in place and now it’s time to use them over and over again with authentic age-appropriate text. It’s not optional and it’s hard work for both the tutor and the young person.

I spent years trying to 'hear' the unexpressed thoughts of older struggling readers and here’s what I learnt: they think that something illusive and intangible called 'reading' happens inside the heads of good readers - something that isn’t happening inside their own heads. They don’t understand that reading is an activity with skills that can be learned and practiced.

In fact, it reminds of my son when he was about four being asked if he liked ice skating. His answer: I don’t skate yet because I’m waiting for my balance.

Likewise, a struggling reader might be thinking: I don’t read yet because I’m waiting for that thing to happen in my head.

You get balance while you practise skating (and fall down and get up and fall down and get up) and you 'get reading' while you practise all the skills and knowledge you need to work through text – in a safe environment, with helpful error corrections, plenty of good humour.

The last thing we want to produce is a crop of struggling readers who are really good at That Reading Thing. I want them to be good at reading, and TRT should fade into the background well before the 20 hour mark. If you want some help choosing text for you student, have a look at this page on choosing text for teens and adults who are learning to read.