Books for struggling readers in high school

posted in: Secondary literacy |

Books! I get asked every couple of weeks to recommend reading material for That Reading Thing students. I don’t know your students so the specific titles I offer might not work for them but please have a read of these guiding principles. Each link opens in a new tab. Apologies if you’re not crazy about that but it makes it easier to explore, meander and find your way back to the post. Books don’t turn struggling readers into readers. This … Read More

Explicit Literacy Instruction

posted in: Phonics for older students, Post-16 & Adult Literacy, Secondary literacy |

There are two phrases we ask That Reading Thing tutors to avoid: Sound it out Break it down Why? Because our students have heard these two phrases their whole school lives and have no idea what they mean. The analogy I give is learning to build my first website. I started with the WordPress platform because I’d read about their ‘famous 5-minute install’. Brilliant! There were no YouTube demo videos back then so I found the simplest instructions for the … Read More

Accent survey results- ‘dog fox bought’

posted in: Secondary literacy |

I created the survey to answer a question which arose in conversation with a British English speaker about the number of vowels in American English and my Canadian brain could not cope with ‘fox’ and ‘dog’ having different sounds. To hear the target vowels, go to this site, scroll down & click on the /ɒ/, /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ on the bottom right of the vowel diagram. Some North American speakers say the /ɔ/. All say either or both of /ɒ/ … Read More

Teaching Assistants & Literacy Support

posted in: Secondary literacy |

Many schools use non teaching staff to help pupils with their reading, but they need the right tools, training and ongoing support to make a significant impact. The Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF) has created this list for improving the use of learning support assistants. As they point out, the staff are already in the school and in the budget, so the next decision is to find an evidence based literacy intervention which is both affordable and suitable for non teaching … Read More

Evidence 1 ~ Anecdotes & Data

posted in: Evidence, Secondary literacy |

Memories from years past – but these are the stories I continue to hear. Behaviour and literacy often go hand in hand and young people who have made little literacy progress in all their years at school can take off with That Reading Thing. They both tell their stories in different ways. I especially love how the anecdote acknowledges the importance of a tutor who won’t give up in the face of resistance. I would like numbers so much more … Read More

Decodable text for teens and adults

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

We’re often asked what decodable readers we recommend and the answer is ‘none’. This is because the vast majority of TRT learners, even those who are working slowly through the *Foundation levels, are not beginning readers. They all come with some sight words so there’s no reason to limit those in text. They usually know all the basic alphabet sounds for both reading and writing and can work with multisyllabic words from the first lesson. That Reading Thing is structured … Read More

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