Literacy and Confidence

posted in: Success Stories, Youth Work & Literacy |

Sometimes a student needs to know they’re better than they thought. Here’s 14 year old Kazys’s interview. Interview with Kazys,  A 14 year old boy who gained 10 months in 6 TRT sessions.  What have you got out of That Reading Thing? I’ve gained confidence, I am a better reader than I thought I was. I have gained spelling & reading skills. How did you feel about reading before you started? I could read, but I thought I was behind … Read More

Literacy and Behaviour

posted in: Secondary literacy, Youth Work & Literacy |

Sometimes, working with young people living chaotic lives, you only get a very short time to make a difference. Here’s what only 4 sessions of That Reading Thing can do. The voice in this post belongs to Ellie Richards who was a youth worker in the West Midlands. A was referred to me in the summer term. She had previously seen a mentor, but had not responded well and opted out of that mentoring. A was known in the school … Read More

Phonics & Adult Literacy

posted in: Post-16 & Adult Literacy |

13 September 2017 I wrote the following on the 14th of April, 2009. Eight years and five months later, a decision has been made to include structured phonics in literacy for adults who are working at the lowest levels. I’ll blog further on the specific proposals but this is a good starting point. **** This morning (13/04/09) in the Guardian, Peter Kingston writes about the possibilities of using phonics in adult literacy. The NRDC report he refers to is Improving … Read More

Response to an Anti-Phonixxer

posted in: Thoughts on Education |

A friend on social media sent me this piece from the Washington Post and asked what I thought. Here’s a quick and somewhat gut-felt response. First, I have some sympathy with her about the education system; it doesn’t work well for everyone. I also have some sympathy with her feelings about what I’d call the medicalization of education. There’s far too much “diagnosing” of children who can’t read. Some people are genuinely dyslexic and have real glitches that make it … Read More

The Importance of -tion

posted in: Spelling |

Whenever I get talking to a teacher about spelling, I offer them my brilliant idea that every school should, in the first couple of weeks of the first term, have a “-tion Day” when each first year student and teacher will adopt a useful word ending in -tion. By the end of the day they will know what it means, how to say it naturally, say it for spelling, and, of course, spell it accurately.I always end that conversation by … Read More

One of the best moments of my life…

posted in: Post-16 & Adult Literacy, Success Stories |

Recently, I received the immeasurable gift of chatting with a woman who’d come to That Reading Thing unable to read the word ‘is’. No one outside her immediate family knew her secret and, during her first TRT session, she wept just trying to articulate to her tutor that she couldn’t read or write. At Port Reach’s celebration evening, supported by her tutor, she stood in front of a roomful of people and told her story. By her own account, she … Read More

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