Martin Kozloff, aka Perfesser Plum has just been advertising his new website on the DI list.

http://educationation.org/how-to-be-a-s ... rator.html

The tit for tat articles in the Weekend Australian continue this week. This week's columnist is Gracelyn Smallwood, a supporter of Chris Sarra and Stronger, Smarter, in an article entitled "Self-belief a matter of survival for indigenous people', who says " ' As for the 'evidence-based magic bullet'...

Geraldine the comment you have highlighted is very pertinent. Recently there have been articles in the Weekend Australian, the only national paper we can get here in the west. An article by journalist Paul Koch and later another one by Chris Sarra were highly critical ad hominem arguments about Noe...

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4112432.html?WT.svl=theDrum Causes of Indigenous education failure Evidence shows that indigeneity, remoteness and a non-English speaking background are not the reasons for high Indigenous failure rates. Non-performing schools are the principal cause of Indigenous stu...

http://www.rrf.org.uk/archive.php?n_ID=156&n_issueNumber=57 This is an article in a past newsletter, about a student with a stellar academic record, who found her method of reading by 'shape' of words, to be a disability which affected the study and career choices she made. Very similar to the three...

How long have schools got to do the phonics screen? I would be very obliged if someone could send me a list of the words in the check once the list is no longer 'secret'!

Our teachers union in WA and the federal union have campaigned against NAPLAN for several years, despite it being the only method we have of comparing any kind of results nation-wide. My school for instance produces no data of any kind so even within school comparison from year to year using standar...

I was taught to read by the direct-extensive-drill method of phonetic instruction… Who can forget the monotony of weeks reading, "See Dick run. See Jane run. See Spot run?" The teaching was perfectly designed to make the intellect lethargic, to create a passively receptive mind, and to produce an a...

It is a wonderful testimonial. It is a large southern suburbs school so cannot be very far from me. I hope the school disseminates its results more widely in WA.

Also my older child has I think now stopped orally segmenting words in her mind's ear, so to speak, to spell them. I am not sure whether exercises that make her employ that technique are a good thing or a bad thing now she seems to have some other way of doing it ........ maybe she does it subconsc...

Such an interesting post Susan, and here's hoping the little boy I've got at present is not like the ones you have been working with.
I do also bear in mind your proviso about the 11,000 repetitions, so anything less than that is a bonus!

Re getting the poor blenders to learn how to blend. I like to use the BRI readers for beginners, so there is a small number of letter/sound correspondences to memorise. Secondly, the initial sounds of words need to be continuant -/m/ or /s/ . For children who absolutely cannot get it, 'sing' the sou...

The test Jenny mentions above, sounds similar to this one, normed on Australian children. the Diagnostic Test of Word Reading Processes (DTWRP) assesses pupils' ability to read words using both phonological and lexical-semantic processes, thus providing diagnostic information to guide intervention T...

You have to wonder really, why a study would need to be done to discover what seems patently obvious!

I listened to this podcast yeserday. ( I had problems accessing it once downloaded as it did not show up in podcasts in i tunes, but songs). It must be the same project, with the 'phonics' teaching being of the onset-rime variety. I noticed the conclusion was that although the children could read mo...