John Bald/language and literacy

Why so few textbooks? Elizabeth Truss

Elizabeth Truss' speech to educational publishers in December should be the start of doing something about the sheer lack of non-fiction reading in our schools, including the use of textbooks. She points out that only 10% of British teachers, compared with 86% of German teachers, use textbooks as the basis for teaching 10 year old pupils, and it is highly likely that this includes the private sector - most schools in the state sector don't use them at all.

The reason for this is the post-Plowden progressive emphasis on first-hand experience rather than books as the basis of education. At its height, when I worked in Essex in the eighties, the local authority actually published a paper dissuading teachers from using books as the basis of primary work. The reasoning was obvious - first hand experience rather than literacy removed the educational advantages of more literate pupils. The flaw in the reasoning was equally clear - the less literate pupils got less experience and practice in reading than those whose parents made sure they got this at home.

Textbooks can be over-used, but we have got to the stage where they are not being used at all, and publishers won't produce them because there is no market.  The only publishers producing textbooks at all are Galore Park, whose market is pretty much confined to prep schools. There may be an opportunity for them to expand.

Some Spanish Reflections, from Maria Salgado Fernández

Teresa´s facebook page has many interesting links to Spanish materials with a spiritual as well as linguistic dimension. Excellent combination of Spanish practice and reflection, though perhaps a bit difficult for complete beginners. About my own level, with the computer equivalent of a thumb in a dictionary.  ¡Gracias, Teresa!

A word of thanks to readers.

Over the last three days, the site has had over 400 hits. This does not compare with a "viral" twitter site, but it's most encouraging. 

So, thanks for reading, and more still if you're using the ideas you find here.  The goal is nothing less than to eliminate failure in language learning, literacy and basic maths - not to set unrealistic goals, but to get rid of the complete failure that happens too often at the moment, and causes people to drop out or to lose confidence in their own abilities. The approaches set out here work. I'm happy to demonstrate, and to co-operate in research with anyone, anywhere - including our friends in Australia and North America. Please get in touch.

 

Dr Andrew Davis on synthetic phonics.

R4 has just presented a debate between Dr Andrew Davis of Durham University and Debbie Hepplewhite, whose phonics materials are on the government's approved list. Dr Davis has just written what he calls "a short book", freely downloadable here.

Its ready availability is, unfortunately, the only good thing about it.  I'm more than a little surprised at the lack of reference to the specific research on which government policy is based - the full version of the Clackmannanshire study carried out by Professor Rhona Johnson and Dr Joyce Watson  - or to the supporting materials, which do spell out exactly what is done in the detail he says is often lacking. Most of his argument is based on personal views and things people have told him - ie hearsay, not what he has observed himself. His view that it is "a fantasy" to suggest that it is possible to research a method of teaching reading is shared by no-one I know in the reading community on any side of the argument, and his suggestion that phonics be used "on occasion with words children don't know" is an unsubstantiated personal view of the first order. In particular, he is wrong to oppose using what the letters tell us about words to reading for meaning. Ruth Miskin's scheme, Read Write Inc, pays very systematic and effective attention to meaning at all stages, with questions that encourage children to go beyond the literal. Dr Davis should have known about this, and, if he did know, should have brought the point out.

So, not a good piece of research. Not research at all, in fact a rant.  The R4 debate reminded me of the Monty Python Sketch about a five minute argument, though Debbie Hepplewhite remained calm despite the provocation of such ill-informed criticism. 

This is not to say that the phonics approach and check do not have their problems. Some children can already read by the time they start school, and teaching should take account of what they already know. Some bright children have been reported by headteachers as not wanting to co-operate with reading non-words, though there has been less of this after the first year, and it may depend on how these are presented. Then there is the presenter's point that letters won't tell you everything, such as the classic distinction between reading and Reading, which depends on context - though of course, context is no use if you can't read it, and to read it, you need to use the letters. The alternative is guessing, and guessing is the least reliable approach of all.

Readers of this site will know that I insist in all my teaching on explaining why letters do not tell us everything, and on the need to explain to children how this has come to be, beginning with the alterations to English after the Norman conquest. This is the key to the problem of reading in English, and until this is recognised, and incorporated into teaching across the English-speaking world, we will continue to have unnecessary problems and children will continue to suffer as they try to use phonics to read words that don't fit the pattern they have been taught to expect. Phonics is not, as Dr Davis argues, something to be used "on occasion," but the basis of reading in an alphabetic language. Once this is accepted, we can build the rest. Until it is, we will remain in the morass.

Bright seven year old, below, could not read the, because she kept trying to sound it out one letter at a time. An explanation of the origin of th, courtesy of Professor Crystal, has solved the problem. We also, though, worked through Ruth Miskin's ditties very carefully to speed up processing - Byso managed the whole set in two lessons, and her school noted an immediate, marked improvement.

BETT (UK Educational Computer Show), 2014.

Here are the happy  BETT award winners for 2014.

Videos of acceptance speeches are here, with links to the products.  I somehow never miss this show, not least to keep in touch with my friends at Cricksoft.com, who were shortlisted this year but have a magnificent collection of these awards on display at their offices. 

News in Slow French and Spanish

Very interesting subscription sites for beginners to A level students, with French and Spanish read at a rate people can understand, with a transcript. Lifetime access for beginners, £100ish, or annual subs for more advanced levels. Worth very serious consideration for schools and sixth form colleges.  

French

Spanish

Excellent article on tones in learning Mandarin

Distinguising between tones is essential in learning Chinese, and finding the best way to teach this is a continuing issue. Two tones are easy to distinguish - a sustained high tone, usually called the first, is a lot different from the fourth, which is short and sharp. The two others, one rising, and the other falling and then rising, are a little harder to distinguish one from another. This article provides an interesting view of research in the area. It should be read in conjunction with Harold Goodman's approach for Michel Thomas, and Ulearn Chinese.

One key point is that the issue is most difficult in the earliest stages of learning, a common feature between Mandarin and other languages. If the right adjustments are made in the initial stages, subsequent learning is straightforward. If they're not, then people flounder and fail. This point is not widely understood.

Learning Multiplication Tables Builds Number Sense.

My pupil is nine, and in Year 5. When he came to me at the beginning of December, he knew no multiplication tables at all - he could count in multiples of two and five, but when he tried to say a table, he got lost beyond 2x2. Asked to make any kind of calculation beyond counting, he repeated the question as if it were a great surprise, guessed wildly and laughed, an unfortunate trait that led his teachers to think he was being cheeky when in fact he was nervous - he knew that he would get things wrong.

I've taught him using the approach to tables set out below and published by The School Run. The approach is very simple. I explain how tables work, and why we need them - the alternative is counting, which is slower and less reliable, as we can easily lose our place when counting to larger numbers.  We practise saying the 2x table carefully, concentrating on not losing his place. This takes more work than anything else - saying the table is an exercise in co-ordination, so that he does not count on from the wrong column. This issue is the key to multiplication tables, but it is not resolved by grinding. Instead, we isolate an error, explain it, go back a couple of places and practise in a focused way, as we would if we were learning music. 

Yesterday at 5pm, not the best time for a nine year old, my pupil said the tables from 2 to 5 with only an occasional hesitation, and did very well in answering questions about 3x, which he had struggled with last week. I've been thinking about the order in which pupils learn tables. They usually count in multiples, beginning with 2x and then 5x, in an attempt to build a sense of number, leading quickly to place value. I now think this is wrong on three counts. First, counting in multiples makes it harder to learn to say a table, which involves switching between columns. Second, makes it more difficult to learn to pick a particular item from a table, which is needed once we begin to use them for calculation. Third, the leap from 2x to 5x is too big - building up through 2,3 and 4x builds up a sense of gradually increasing numbers and intervals that makes 5x and later 10x, the key interval, easier to understand.

I don't often do this, but the success in tables to 5 resulted in the award of a small bar of milk chocolate. We then returned to larger tables. I'd tried nines before, using the declining final digit as a guide, and this time he got them right with just a few hesitations. Similarly 8x, the final digit going down by 2, and starting again after 5x. I was pleased with the way he'd picked up this pattern - he needs a name, so I'll call him Adrian, after an old friend. Adrian then managed 11x and 12x, with trouble only over 11x11 and 12x11. Skipping the tens for the moment, we moved to 7x, which he said he didn't know at all, but which he did know up to 3x7.  We practised it together, and Adrian picked it up quickly. He then announced that he knew 6x. He did up to 6x6, and we said and practised the rest.

So, he has the makings of a full set after two months' work. We'll practise and move to applying tables in calculation. He made only two or three wild guesses in the course of this session, and the nervous laugh was under control. He and his grandmother left with big smiles, and we'd also done some reading and made a start on French - he wrote Je m'appelle Adrian accurately after I'd explained why it was spelled as it is. Harry Potter had fallen out of favour after around 90 pages, but Adrian had shown himself that he could read it, which was the main thing.

Success in Teaching Modern Languages, 7 - 13. SATIPS, 24th February

This course puts everything I have to offer on language teaching into one day. It follows two successful presentations to teachers from private prep schools, but is based on work carried out in Hackney, showing that there is no essential difference in the needs of children, whatever school they attend.

Download Success in Teaching Modern Foreign Languages 7 - 13

The programme can be repeated in individual schools and clusters on request.

 

School results - the full picture.

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/2012/download/2012_KS4_Underlying_Data_School_Level.zip

will give you all of the GCSE grades achieved by all schools in all subjects, as well as grades in equivalents. It is an essential addition to the summary tables produced by the DfE as it gives every single grade and not just a summary. The link is not widely known, and results in this format should be included in all school prospectuses. It's a little tricky to locate a school, as it may be on either of the two GCSE worksheets. Use the "find" feature on Excel, and enter the name of the school. If there is no result, try the other sheet. 

Results are shown separately for each foreign language, information that is not usually included in schools' summaries of their results.

To go straight to the zip folder, click here.