Who delivers That Reading Thing?
A successful That Reading Thing tutor
embraces both the method and the ethosTRT Ethos
- ‘The Deal’ is a non-negotiable part of That Reading Thing, stated to each student in the first lesson: ‘You don’t have to know anything we haven’t learned together’.
- The flip side of the deal is that we have high (safe) expectations about what we have learned together. We reject the idea that some young people will never learn to read or are ‘unteachable’.
TRT Method
- A great TRT tutor is willing to deliver the programme as it is written and they will be either naturally good at working from sound to print or willing to learn this approach.
- That Reading Thing is ‘teaching free’ which means we ask tutors not to offer any explanations unless in response to a direct question. The programme is carefully structured for swift progress and additional teaching slows the process.
- Delivering linguistic (speech to print) phonics requires understanding the relationship between what we say and what we write. Occasionally a staff member struggles with this and we don’t want them to be embarrassed. Always let us know if it’s not going well and we can transfer a licence to someone else.
Frequently Asked Questions
The training is brilliant, the teaching approach is very refined, teaching the conceptual understanding, skills and code, but not labouring. I’m off to see my student who slides under the desk and will be taking in my second full TRT lesson. Now I go in excited, instead of entering the school with trepidation.
Georgina Mavor, psychologist, literacy tutor & writer
The videos are brilliant by the way; you come across as very approachable and you explain things very logically and clearly. I am onto Lesson 3 and am enjoying it thoroughly and everything makes perfect sense.
Read more about planning for TRT in your school, college or organisation
- How to pick which students or learners will benefit most
- How much time will TRT take?
- Other administrative considerations