The Downside of Decodables

For older students, the downside of decodables is they could slow progress. Read more in this guest post from psychologist, Georgina Mavor.

Structured Phonics for Adults

What happened when an experienced literacy teacher in a large adult learning service tried a structured phonics program with his learners?

Supporting Reading in Secondary Schools

This advice about supporting reading in secondary schools is an excellent starting place for any high school wanting to help their older struggling readers.

How to make phonics suitable for teens and adults

If you want to check that an intervention provides grown-up phonics, ask the following questions to ensure you are tearing down barriers to literacy.

Phonics for ESOL/EAL

Here’s a great anecdote for anyone wondering if That Reading Thing works with ESOL teens.

A conversation with Amy

How do you get from ‘I hate reading’ to ‘I bought a book’?
Amy was in Year 10, almost 15, very artistic, and refused to read even one multi-syllable basic code word on the TRT assessment. ‘I don’t read words like that.’

Phonics for Adult Literacy

Phonics for adults shouldn’t look like phonics for children. That Reading Thing gets adults unstuck even after years of trying to learn to read.

Phonics isn’t enough

I once had a call from a TRT trained teacher who told me it was going well, but the boys were getting through all of the TRT Levels without 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.

Correcting b/d reversal

The tendency to reverse b and d is a huge embarrassment for older students who struggle to get the mirror image letters straight. On dyslexia discussion boards, the question keeps coming up, ‘How do we help our dyslexic students stop reversing b and d?’

Pacing your lesson

A TRT tutor emailed with the following: “I have been working with _______ who is ______ years old.
(fill in your own student name and age) I think he has been through several literacy programs, each with their own instructional methods.”

Is Anyone Unteachable?

Is anyone really unteachable? This young man, 25 years old, who came to us because his grandmother heard someone talking about That Reading Thing.

Ghoti Spells Fish (no it doesn’t)

Ghoti spells Fish. This thing still shows up on social media and still makes me sigh heavily for two reasons.