Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All: Strategies for Inclusivity in a Classroom Context 1527533336, 9781527533332

Citation preview

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All: Strategies for Inclusivity in a Classroom Context By

Diane Montgomery

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All: Strategies for Inclusivity in a Classroom Context By Diane Montgomery This book first published 2023 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2023 by Diane Montgomery All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-3333-6 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-3333-2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One ................................................................................................ 7 The Alphabetic Medium, the English Alphabet Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 17 The Reading Teaching Methods Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 29 The Mechanics of Reading Chapter Four ............................................................................................. 45 The Contribution of Spelling to Reading Chapter Five ............................................................................................. 67 Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension Chapter Six ............................................................................................... 89 The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading Chapter Seven......................................................................................... 115 Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders Epilogue.................................................................................................. 141 Appendix ................................................................................................ 143 Mediation Copy Pages Bibliography ........................................................................................... 169 Index ....................................................................................................... 181

INTRODUCTION

It is a widely held view according to UNESCO that a period of four to five years is essential for the acquisition of minimum literacy. Literacy is the capacity to understand what is read with the same facility as if it were spoken. In England 84 percent of children are reported to achieve this target termed level 4 by the end of Key Stage 2 that is after 5-6 years education and is specific to their childhood level text. This book sets out to challenge the need for children to take so long to become fluent readers because evidence indicates that it could be possible in less than two years that is, by 6 to 7 years of age and generally by the end of Key Stage 1. Pupils in disadvantaged environments may still take a little longer than advantaged pupils. A few, the severe dyslexics who currently may not learn to read at all even with specialist help will also learn to read more easily. Following the introduction of the English Schools National Curriculum in 1988 the Standard Attainment Tests over time identified a general failure to meet the target levels set for the different age groups. To address this the National Literacy Strategy and the daily literacy hour (DfEE, 1998) were introduced and Governments later claimed that these strategies had raised reading standards significantly. But research by Tymms (2004) showed that standards had not radically changed since the 1950s. Following this a Phonics First policy (Rose, 2006) was recommended and teachers in the early years claimed they now concentrated on phonics and word knowledge on a daily basis (Dockrell et al., 2016). However at the end of the Reception year children from disadvantaged backgrounds were found to be 11.5 months behind advantaged peers in reading and never caught up so they that were 20 months behind by the time they reached GCSEs according to Sutton Trust research (2013 and 2021). How 84% seem to reach the target levels can perhaps in part be accounted for by teachers becoming familiar with the items and teaching to the tests and perhaps the so-called ‘levels’ may also need reconsidering. It is known from annual government statistics that 20% of pupils still leave school with poor literacy and numeracy skills. Most of them are not dyslexic and their poor reading is the product of one or more of the

Introduction

2

following or exacerbated by it: x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Poor quality teaching and learning experience Lack of system and order in teaching and learning Absence and illness during the early learning years Lack of reading culture in the home Lack of oracy and verbal experience in the background Hearing difficulties Visual difficulties Speech difficulties Slow learning capacity Lack of interest and motivation Have English as an additional language English not spoken in the home Have a reading disability (dyslexia)

As can be inferred from this list the contribution of oracy and wide experience influence reading and reading development considerably. A poor home and deficient environmental learning conditions likewise can contribute to reading difficulty and reading failure. The incidence of reading disability before the introduction of the National Curriculum was 4% and 9% in disadvantaged areas (Rutter et al., 1989), now it is 10% overall (British Dyslexia Association, BDA. 2023) and 18% among the disadvantagesd. This increase is not entirely accounted for by better diagnosis and understanding but more a product of limited definitions and interventions (Montgomery, 1997, 2007, 2017a). The early chapters deal with learning to read and the rest of the book details strategies for develping fluency and comprehension in Key Stages 1 to 4. It is shown how the two neglected areas of spelling and handwriting can contribute to speedier reading success. Case examples and research studies underpin these topics and will help all teachers diagnose pupils’ literacy difficulties and learn how to overcome them within their subject teaching areas. In Chapter One an analysis of the historical record shows that in the past many children in UK schools learnt to read fluently by the age of 6-7 years and most before the end of Key Stage 1 even if they were from disadvantaged backgrounds. When these differences were analysed, it was found that several key factors were involved. In one major experiment it was the medium, the alphabet that was different and a modern version now

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

3

used in many schools is outlined with a minor structural update for the future. In Chapter Two analysis of the reading ‘wars’ (Wyse et al., 2022) revealed differences in the relative effectiveness of the code versus meaning emphasis teaching methods. The data indicated a mixed methods approach would be best but the nature of the mix is crucial and is seldom achieved at present. Analyses of the Mechanics in Chapter Three showed what were the most effective practices for mixed methods. But in addition, many children seemed to be doing a considerable amount of literacy learning by themselves almost despite the teaching methods to which they were exposed. Some were much better at this than others but not the dyslexics. The ‘natural readers’ method of ‘self-teaching’ (Share, 1995) by nondyslexic beginners and its importance has generally been overlooked but how they self-teach is demonstrated so that it can be passed on to other learners. Its effects are then demonstrated with disadvantaged groups and dyslexics. Chapter Four considers the ways in which spelling underpins reading development and how some structured attention to it actually promotes reading skills across the age ranges. The key features were to teach 12 basic spelling strategies and then 5 rules that unlock thousands of spellings and save endless rote learning of so-called ‘letter strings’ and GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences). Primary and secondary pupils including dyslexics were shown to benefit from this knowledge and enjoyed becoming ‘Spelling Detectives’. In Chapter Five the nature of Reading Development, reading levels and reading comprehension are analysed. A range of strategies that can be used to promote them and problem-based learning in KS1 well into KS4 and beyond are discussed and exemplified in subject topic areas. Chapter Six is on handwriting development and deals with the more subtle contribution that handwriting makes to learning to read. The simple transcription model of writing widely in use in English schools is shown to be holding back the progress of many children and a more complete pyramid model is presented. The research background on cursive from the outset and the strength of targeting fluency over legibility across the age ranges is examined. Although the majority of teachers favour print script and legibility first (DfE, 2021) it is shown to be disabling learners. To help

4

Introduction

promote writing fluency seven interventions are illustrated that improved the general situation for struggling writers. The contribution of writing speed to academic success in secondary schools and at degree level is explained. Chapter Seven on handwriting difficulties, ‘the Cinderella of special needs’, shows how disadvantage and low achievement can be widely caused across all the age ranges even by mild Developmental Coordination Difficulties (DCD) and at the extremes by coordination disorders. The level of milder difficulties in disadvantaged areas was found to be 20% higher than in advantaged ones but was reduced by targeted interventions across the age ranges in ordinary classrooms. This leaves just 1 to 2% who will need assistive technology or a scribe from the outset. Even amongst the gifted, undiagnosed early handwriting difficulties lead to underachievement in schools worldwide (Silverman, 2004; Berninger, 2008) and later at degree level (Connelly et al., 2005). It is shown how most of these issues could have been resolved much earlier by attending to the ergonomics in relation to literacy. However, the longer it is left the more difficult it can become to modify established unhelpful motor habits and programmes. This chapter shows how subject teachers as well as SENCos can address such legibility and fluency issues. The final section 8, the Appendices, offers copy pages on strategies and mediations for implementation and change that have been shown to work and that have contributed to speedier and easier literacy acquisition and development for all. There are however several over-arching issues that seriously affect what is undertaken as research and teaching in the area of literacy beginning with the definition of the topic. In becoming literate and researching it almost all the attention is given to reading as the basic skill when writing will be shown to be a significant component in its development. Writing, when viewed from an adult’s perspective especially an academic’s, can mean it is seen as a simple single route. If an idea needs to be written it is transcribed by hand (or tapped by fingers) and directly spelled from a lexicon without need of conscious thought. Knowledge of the complex processes in the development of spelling and handwriting skills and how they are united to express ideas tend to be overlooked or forgotten unless a person has had some difficulty with either of them or studied them as learning difficulties.

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

5

Another issue is in policy-makers’ limited experience of teaching theory and methods and a reliance on narrowly focused RCTs (Randomised Controlled Trials) modelled on medical research, and keyword literature searches to investigate it, both are failing learners. This is because research targeting such designs has weaknesses. This is especially when analysing the complex behaviours dealt with by educators such as in teaching and learning, and reading and writing. Good teaching for example involves competence in 5 domains of interpersonal and cognitive skills (Montgomery, 2017c). These are in addition to competence in subject knowledge that has been the main focus of the National Curriculum and resultant teacher education and professional training since 1983 when governments began to assume control of education. Another problem is that the insistence on ‘recent relevant research’ reinforces the custom and ‘best’ practice that is currently observable in schools but is not necessarily what should be going on. Good teachers are able to make any system work however flawed it may be although it can be to the detriment of too many learners and delay their progress. In England a flawed system is in operation and has given rise to a long tail of underachievement and makes us less successful than other countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Studies (PIRLS) for tests of 9 to 10 year-olds in 57 countries; and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for 15 year-olds. In 2023, an improvement to 4th place in PIRLS (2021 data) from 8th position in 2016 after Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia was reported. It has been claimed as a significant improvement due to the introduction of a phonics assessment. However the English score (558) was down a few points whereas the top scores of Singapore and Hong Kong went up significantly; Russia, in third position went down significantly as did all the scores of the other countries. What these data reflect is the effect of Covid-19 restrictions on pupils’ literacy achievements and the distance learning capabilities and provisions of the various countries. Not unexpectedly in this respect Singapore and Honk Kong were well ahead of the field and England did better than the rest. It also suggests that English pupils were capable of taking more responsibility and independence for their learning than many in other countries. This is perhaps due to the more open and less didactic nature of the teaching methods in the UK as opposed to the didactics reported by Martin Skilbeck, (1989) for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Europe; and by Belle Wallace and Gillian Erikson (2006) for countries worldwide.

6

Introduction

Because of the regular success of particular countries in topping the PIRLS and PISA league tables such as by Finland, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore, policy–makers have been induced to press for the adoption of teaching methods and systems used in those countries but these education systems are not comparable to the best traditions of the UK nor suitable for its population or its orthography. Overall, in this book it is concluded that the current top-down Department for Education (DfE) Guidance Frameworks need to be revised and a bottom-up model, for a literacy curriculum considered, that follows pupils’ skills progression and identifies what individuals need next. If teachers took these matters in hand and followed the 7-point plan summarised in the Epilogue it would not cost more in time or money nor need legislative change, we just need to get on with it. Underpinning the advice given in this book has been the assessment of freeform writing. This ‘writing window’ shows us what the students at all levels actually know of reading in terms of accuracy and comprehension as well as the subject topic the texts introduce and it is more important to know this i.e., what they have learnt rather than what we think we have taught them.

CHAPTER ONE THE ALPHABETIC MEDIUM, THE ENGLISH ALPHABET

Introduction Most languages have one symbol for each sound, and are termed ‘regular’ e.g., Spanish, Finnish, German, Italian, Turkish and Arabic. This makes learning to read simpler and more straightforward. This is despite the fact that both the sound and its symbol are abstract perceptual units. English however has 44 sounds and only 26 symbols and is thus only about 40% regular, it is regarded as an ‘opaque’ language. As a result, morphemics (meaningful units) and etymology, the origins in the history of the language e.g., in Latin, Greek, Norse, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norman French, are also important. This complexity makes it harder for beginners to learn to read and it generally takes them longer. In contrast the German language uses 31 of the same alphabetic symbols for its phonemes e.g., the 26 letter sounds, plus umlauts on three vowels ‘a, o, u’, to change their sounds, plus digraph ‘sc’ and trigraph ‘sch’. Various schemes have been invented to try to simplify the acquisition process in English such as phonics and colour coding. Nellie Dale was generally credited with the introduction of phonics in the UK in her book On the Teaching of English Reading (1899). It replaced the mediaeval ABC Spelling system established in the monasteries. There was plenty of earlier data for her to draw on but she made a careful analysis of the most appropriate order for the introduction of sounds. Her children listened to stories, discussed pictures and were encouraged to talk, all innovative practices then. She also invented games and exercises for them to pick out letter sounds in text. In other words, she had understood the need for what was later termed ‘phonic readiness’ and also the need for regularising. Another of her innovations was to introduce four colours to aid sound recognition:

Chapter One

8

x Black for voiced consonants x Red for vowels

* Blue for unvoiced consonants * Yellow for silent letters.

Her system predated Words in Colour (Gattegno, 1962) with its 41 colours. Two other significant experiments to regularise the English alphabet showed that learning to read can be speeded up for all children. The first was i.t.a. the “initial teaching alphabet” by Sir James Pitman (1961) which he developed from the 19th century Erhardt System by Sir Isaac Pitman (1847). By 1970 i.t.a. was used in over 3,000 primary schools in the UK, US and Canada and 33 Local Authorities in England had expressed an interest in joining the project. At conferences films of 6 year-old children reading fluently demonstrated its effectiveness (NUT Conference, 1964). A second system was the application of i.t.a. principles as ‘Jolly Phonics’ by Sue Lloyd (1993). Whereas i.t.a. introduced new alphabetic symbols and looked odd to adult readers Jolly Phonics used the traditional symbols. The initial teaching alphabet

Figure 1.1 Some i.t.a. text written by Sir James Pitman (1965) p. 167

Pitman shows in the above example from his report that although the reader is not trained in i.t.a. it is still readable with a little concentration. John Downing (1964) undertook a series of detailed studies of the annual results of i.t.a. from participating schools. A typical example in his research was that after one year of teaching with i.t.a. 33% of 4 and 5 yearold pupils had learned to read 50 words or more on the Schonell Reading Test whereas only 1% of controls had done so with traditional orthography. This difference was maintained annually across the reading ranges with each new intake (cited in Pitman, 1965, p. 168). A score of 50 words on the Schonell test (1970) for example gives a Reading Age of 10 years, so that at the end of the kindergarten year one third of the children

The Alphabetic Medium, the English Alphabet

9

on i.t.a. (N=792) had achieved this and only 1 % of controls (N=1,246) had done so. Infant teachers’ remarks on i.t.a. Vera Southgate (1970 p. 21 and 22): “There is much more reading for pleasure. Poorer children are using the library corner more’. “The book corner is now a favourite occupation, an activity that it used not to be’. ‘Children feel on top instead of struggling”. “These children read anything they can get their hands on” “Backward children don’t get that defensive attitude” “There are fewer children who don’t like reading or who are worried about their reading than formerly although there may be the odd one. The shutters don’t go down when a child meets a word he does not know. He’ll try it” “Now, when the teacher is talking to the head teacher or a visitor, children take out a book and really read – even the children in the Reception class. It was not like that with t.o.’ (traditional orthography)” “Children can get on and help themselves. Formerly when a teacher had heard a child read, she sent him to his seat and hoped he would read on his own. Now the teacher knows that the child will go on reading because he can’”

They were reading and writing fluently much sooner e.g., at 6 years old. Transfer to reading traditional orthography (t.o.) was easy but spelling took a little longer and some i.t.a. might be mixed in for a while. Teachers who did not teach i.t.a. themselves and parents did not like the look of it and it was eventually discontinued.

2. Jolly Phonics Sue Lloyd was an experienced teacher using i.t.a. and phonics and saw the benefits of a simplified alphabet system and designed Jolly Phonics (1993). Similar results for reading accelerated by i.t.a. were obtained using Jolly Phonics (Johnson et al., 2005) in their Clackmannanshire study. Its 42 symbols are grouped into 7 sets with 6 symbols to learn in each group per week as in the list below in Figure 1.2.

10

Chapter One

A wide number of schools have adopted Jolly Phonics and are very pleased with the results. Most of the children find it much easier to learn to read by using it and learn the combinations very quickly e.g., within 42 days. This is because of the predictable and regular relationships between sounds and their symbols. By comparison the traditional alphabet requires the rote learning of at least 138 different most frequent phonic patterns and their symbols (Stakes et al., 2000) or 461 GPCs-grapheme-phoneme correspondences (Solity, 2018).

Figure 1.2 The Jolly Phonics 42 symbols introduced over 42 days

In the Government commissioned review (Rose 2006) Jolly Phonics was endorsed as a good Phonics First approach. However, it is also a system in need of an update as in the next example.

3. Regularising the alphabet today The first letters to teach are i, t, p. n. s. They are selected here on the basis of their frequencies (Fry, 1964) in 3000 words in Elementary English and also by their history of use in the early dyslexia programmes by Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman (1940, 1956) anglicised by Kathleen Hickey (1977) after seeing demonstrated it at the Scottish Rites Hospital in the US. x Consonant frequencies: T 670; N 600; S 340; P 330. x Vowel frequencies: I 600; E 430; A 380; O 200; U 180.

The Alphabetic Medium, the English Alphabet

11

Although other consonants have higher frequencies than S and P such as R 500; M 450; D 420; L 340 they are not so useful for initial word building. With i t p n s it is possible to spell 25 single syllabled (CVC) words and write little ‘stories’. Initial and end blends can also be taught as well as how to deal with ‘irregular’ words such as (pint) when the capital letter I, and its name are added. Once the process is underway the pupils will start to build in new letters and make their own words by self-teaching (Share, 1995), or implicit learning (van der Craen, 2016) and orthographic mapping (Ehri, 2005). The teaching order needs to begin with i t p n s - in, it, tip, nit, pit, tin, sin, tint, pint and pInt, spin, pins, spit etc. then building some non-words ipt, nist, spint etc. The codes are CVC, CCVC, CVCC, and CCVCC. Vowel sounds and their names should be taught because this permits the second or long vowel sound (name) to be tried when the short vowel sound does not make sense as in ‘pint’ and ‘pInt’. Once the initial set has been learnt the teacher can introduce more. The letters suggested next are A and D as in TRTS (Cowdery et al., 1994) order below. Teaching Reading Through Spelling (TRTS) dyslexia programme order: x x x x x x

i I t p n s a A d e E l o O b f v u U c (k) g r m j k oo h th th w wh x z q qu sh ch ph

Update summary of the 44 proposed regularised sounds and symbols x x x x

The 5 vowel sounds – short sounds a e i o u (5) The 5 vowel names A, E, I, O, U – long sounds (5) The 6 digraphs sh, ph, wh. ch, th and th (voiced) (6) The 2 diphthongs (ahoo)– ‘ou’ (round, sound) and ow (how now brown cow) and (oiy)_’oi’ as in boil, spoil, toil and oil; ‘oy’ as in boy, toy x The long and short sounds of ‘oo’ a) tool, school, pool; and b) book, took, look (2) x The semi-vowel ‘y’ as ‘I’ in spy, fly at the end of one-syllabled

12

Chapter One

words and ‘ee’ at the end of other words as in story, pony and ‘i’ as in mystery in the middle of words (1) x Digraphs qu- and –ng. Add all the regular consonant sounds (21) keeping b and d, and n and m separate. Total 21 + 21 +2 sounds. In a detailed analysis of the use of the introductory teaching sounds the phonemes (Cochrane et al., 2022) show that most teaching schemes today advocate six initial sounds “satpin” and how the order originated. However, the phoneme “a” should come after i.t.p.n.s. because it introduces the vowel digraph, a complexity too soon before word building has been established. High frequency words such as and, and the should be taught as whole writing units. The best handwriting format is ovoid with joining see LDRP cursive as in Chapters 6 and Appendices 1 to 8 with the reasons for teaching the cursive form from the outset and especially for dyslexics. A set of the 12 introductory lessons for i t p n s is detailed in the Appendix 8F Copy pages.

4. The Early Years Foundation Strategy (DfE, 2014) The programme is divided into 5 phases but each can cause problems for the pupils as follows in the critique. DfE. Phase One: ‘Identify sounds in the order in which they occur in words’. Comment: We know from the research of Liberman et al (1967) that this is not possible unless we can already spell them. A single syllable such as ‘cat’ cannot be split ‘by ear’ because the separate phonemes are shingled on top of each other in speech. Only the initial sound with its slightly higher burst of energy might be detected, the onset. Illiterate adults can clap syllable beats but not phonemes in a syllable. Dyslexics and controls clapped syllable beats but were unable to identify the sounds in order unless they could already spell the words or could feel the consonant order in their mouths (Montgomery, 1997a). They needed attention directed to this clue. Tip 1. Find where in the mouth consonants can be felt for ease of identification e.g., Practice when introducing ‘t’ ‘p’ ‘s’ ‘l’ ‘d’ and ‘m’. The

The Alphabetic Medium, the English Alphabet

13

feel is the only concrete clue connecting the abstract sound (phoneme) with the abstract letter (grapheme). DfE. Phase Two: “Teach one set of letters per week in the order that make the most possible CV, VC and CVC words”. Comment. Teachers reported that many pupils especially the disadvantaged found this impossible. It is a rote memory task again if they have not found the articulatory connections. Tip 2. Instead, teach them to listen for the difference between open CV and closed syllables CVC e.g., to, no, fro, o-pen, ba-con, lo-tion, use the long vowels (CV), and CVC the short vowel structures e.g. cat, dog, man, top. “Teaching sets” x x x x x

Set 1: s, a, t, p (at, sat, pat, tap, spat) Set 2: i, n, m, d Set 3: g, o, c, k Set 4: ck, e, u, r Set 5: h, j, f, ff, l, ss

Comment: These ‘Sets’ after line one are mainly arbitrary collections. The order of letters suggested bears no relation to the difficulty children might have in using them to build or decode words and the confusions that are made between similar shaped graphemes such as ‘n’ and ‘m’ and ‘b’ and ‘d’ and ‘p’ together. Tip 3. Teaching the l-f-s rule would be more helpful than just memorising double consonants e.g. after a short vowel sound double l f and s in single syllables: - all, well, tell, ill, pull; tiff, off, boff, mass, bass, lass then later the 9 or so exceptions: - pal, nil, yes, bus, gas, if, this, thus etc. by using all of them in two sentences Tip 4. Teaching when ‘c’, ‘ck’ or ‘k’ are used for the sound (k) in words is more useful than just memorising the words in which they occur. (cat, cup; tick, pick, pack; look, took, take) Tip 5. Teach the two-vowel rule. When 2 vowels go walking the first one usually does the talking e.g., listen to-boat, road, coat, load, tail, sail, snail, teach, reach, lead, meal.

14

Chapter One

DfE. Phase Three: “Teach the rest of the sounds and graphemes in 12 weeks and all the letter names if not already known”. Comment: This is not a structured and cumulative approach. It is too fast for many learners and encourages rote learning rather than thoughtful learning. Letter names need to be taught for names and sentencing in freeform writing, plus singing and alphabet order games for later dictionary work. DfE. Phase Four: “In the last 4 weeks of Reception, practice all the GPCs (Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences - sounds) learned so far.” Comment: In other words, check and rote-learn them. There are 461 different ones and 64 that occur most commonly in children’s books. Tip 6. They need to be trying to use them in freeform story writing from the outset then the teacher would be able to see what they know and what each child needs to learn next. DfE. Phase Five: “Throughout Year 1, teach the last of the GPCs not yet taught and alternative spelling patterns for sounds”. Comment: There is no justification given for these so-called ‘alternative’ spelling patterns. The use of the word ‘patterns’ reflects a visual emphasis and is a reminder of an earlier popular approach involving rote learning of random ‘letter strings’. Tip 7. The English language is built on more than phonics and can be made more regular by a handful of useful rules that govern thousands of common spellings such as are detailed in Chapter 4 and outlined below. 1. The four suffixing rules – ADD, DOUBLE, DROP CHANGE. Drop, Double and Add are the most powerful to begin with e. g. a. DOUBLE-HOP (CVC). Short vowel sound, closed syllable. DOUBLING rule – when adding a suffix double the final consonant - hopp-ing, putting, running, bedding, sitting, In polysyllables - rudder, potter, kipper, cutter, little, bubble. b. DROP-HOPE (CVCe). Long vowel sound denoted by silent ‘e’ in closed syllables. DROP silent ‘e’ and just add the suffix – hop - ing, riding, hoped (So-called ‘magic E’ rule making the vowel say its name).

The Alphabetic Medium, the English Alphabet

15

c. ADD-TEST (CVCC) Short vowel followed by double consonants simply ADD suffix – test-ing, rushed, missed, rusting, posted, lasting, faster. In a dialect change in south of England from short to longer /ar/ sound the ADD rule still applies. d. CHANGE-PAY change ‘y’ to ‘i’ for past tense paid; say to said; and lay to laid most other words have not made the transition e.g., stay-ed; played. 2. The l-f- s rule. Tip 2 above 3. The two-vowel rule. Tip 5 above. 4. Introduce some common final stable syllables:- e, g. –le; -ly and -tion (shun) Even in Reception, children enjoy thinking and problem solving in relation to spelling and reading more than rote learning and they gain more from it. They enjoy becoming ‘Spelling Detectives’ (Montgomery, 2014) and learning how to become self-teachers as their knowledge develops. i) For example, play the, ‘I- Spy something beginning with ‘?’ game. This encourages phoneme awareness. Potential dyslexics can fail at this and therefore be identified. Disadvantaged children may come to it slowly therefore give MAPT training (see Chapter 6 and Appendix 8). ii) For a problem-solving example: Explain that letter ‘c’ has no sound of its own it borrows from its friends. Sometimes it has its ‘soft’ sound (s) and sometimes it has its ‘hard’ sound (k). Ask them to generate some words that begin with the letter ‘c’ e. g. city cat crab come came cup clue cycle clap cyst circle crop ceremony circus calm crib. In pairs ask them to make a rule for when c is made ‘soft’ and when it is ‘hard’. Give a clue if necessary e.g., put all the ‘soft’ c words together and make the rule.

Conclusion Regularising the alphabet to make 44 symbols to represent the 44 phonemes in English using traditional orthography is a simple process.

16

Chapter One

Any individual teacher or school can do it and it remains within the Early Years framework. It will speed up reading acquisition for Reception / Foundation learners and adults in EFL programmes. It will ease their difficulties and reduce the literacy gap for the disadvantaged and the dyslexic. Southgate’s and Downing’s researches showed it would also improve early spelling development and creative writing (composition). This means that sentence level work such as grammar and punctuation will make more sense much earlier. The most important thing to remember is that English is not to be regarded as a badly organised phonic system that needs simplifying so that it is modelled on phonically regular languages like Italian and Turkish. It is a morphemic system based on a phonic structure. In other words meaning governs English spelling and has its roots in the rich history of the language. Changing to a regularised medium will change the early reading predictive indicators and this was illustrated in research with 114 Finnish children by Lerkkanen et al., (2004). Finnish children start school at the age of 7 years and learn to read very quickly because it is a regular language. They were tested at regular intervals over the next two years and it was found that letter knowledge and listening comprehension were the best early predictors of reading ability. Whereas initial word reading skills and listening comprehension were highly associated with the development of reading comprehension. The implications of these different components need to be taken into account when determining teaching methods such as choice of code emphasis (phonics) methods or meaning emphasis (Look and Say) methods and these will be discussed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER TWO THE READING TEACHING METHODS

Introduction In comparison with spelling teaching history of over 1,000 years using one main rote method, reading has a history just over a century long. Over this short period different teaching methods for reading have been evolved and tested. In different periods one method has been preferred over another and become dominant, the ‘reading wars’ (Wyse et al., 2022). There are two main routes to reading, (Coltheart, 2005) the auditory and the visual and they give rise to the two main methods. Reading teaching by auditory methods usually refers to a system of teaching using phonetics or phonics from the outset and throughout a programme. It is described as a ‘code emphasis’ method. This is in contrast to visual methods that use whole words, whole sentences and paragraph recognition alone usually termed ‘meaning emphasis’ methods. Most reading teachers in current times use some mixture of the two techniques but the best mixture or the most effective is not always in evidence. Reading takes place in a social and cultural context and is built upon an understanding of the spoken word. Thus, it is important that when children begin school, they have spoken language and a good understanding of a wide vocabulary or failing that are able to develop it in the Reception year. The limited language experience of many disadvantaged children can put them at a double disadvantage in school learning. At the age of 5 years when UK children begin school it is expected that they will have a vocabulary of at least a thousand words and will be able to use and understand all the syntactic structures and tenses in common use. Unfortunately, what is evident is that these expectations are more typical of children from advantaged backgrounds but the less advantaged will not meet them. They will have a more limited experience of spoken language, a simpler vocabulary and more limited knowledge of its semantic and syntactical

18

Chapter Two

aspects. A few will have no language and communication skills and yet may not be on the Autistic Spectrum or have Specific Language Impairment. During reading tests, brighter children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia tend to be better at guessing from context and score higher on comprehension than on accuracy skills. Their good guessing can conceal their reading difficulties until they begin to fail to achieve the standards expected of them. It can also prevent them from qualifying for the remedial support they need.

1. Reading Phases Reading can be roughly divided into three overlapping phases, a learning to read or acquisition phase, a developmental phase leading to reading fluency and then a final critical reading phase. Two sets of ability underlie these phases, one is the technical or mechanical skill and the other is comprehension. Reading without comprehensions has been described as ‘calling out words’ or ‘barking at print’. Some very slow learners for example can learn to read fluently but fail to understand much of what they read. Most children appear to be able to learn to read by any teaching method as long as it is structured and systematic. But some methods are more efficient and effective for the English language than others in that acquisition and development of fluency are easier and quicker.

2. Self-teaching, ‘natural readers’ In word-filled and enriching environments some children arrive at school already able to read without actually having been taught. It does not appear to be dependent on having a high ability but it does confer many learning advantages in the early years and beyond. They used to be called ‘natural readers’ and now ‘self teachers’ and also ‘implicit learners’ (van der Craen, 2016). The self-teaching theory of reading development was proposed by David Share (1995). His idea was, that once learners had established their knowledge of sound and symbol correspondences, successful identification (decoding) of new words in the course of children's independent reading of text enabled them to recode them back into the spoken language form. His studies and earlier those of Gentry (1981 and 1982) overlooked the issue of

The Reading Teaching Methods

19

how self-teaching can also occur in the preschool period prior to infants being taught any basic alphabetic and phonic skills as in the case of Faye below.

Figure 2.1 Faye age 5.1 years.

In Figure 2.1 above Faye has been under a month in the Reception class in a disadvantaged area, she has had no pre-school tuition. She writes, ‘My little sister is in bed because she is having her tonsils out’. What children can write unaided they can also read (Clay, 1986) and a strong relationship was found between spelling and reading even when spellers were found, not made--that is, found in classrooms in which spelling is not taught (Richgels, 1995). How some children such as Faye can teach themselves will be shown later.

3. Code emphasis methods - phonics This is sometimes called phonetic method and was evolved from the mediaeval ABC rote spelling system (e.g., a–e–i–o-u; ba–be–bi–bo–bu; etc. and fa–fe–fi fo–fum!). Because it was difficult to see how chanting the names of the letters contributed to learning to read words fluently sound values gradually became more important. Basic phonics as in ‘the cat sat on the mat’ is the essence of traditional phonics regimes in that they began by teaching the letter sounds sometimes in key groups or in a few schemes in alphabetical order. The children then ‘learnt’ to segment words, initially single syllables into their component

20

Chapter Two

letters c-a-t ‘cat’. They learnt to read words with similar structures and they copy wrote them. As can be envisaged the technique gives rise to stilted and limited text for about six months whilst the mechanics are being learnt. It is also very tedious for quick learners. Unfortunately, the method was and still is subject to errors for example we cannot split syllables by ear; or when the sounding out includes the intrusive schwa or ‘uh’ sound as in ‘ku-ah-tuh’ ‘cat’. There are also difficulties in blending even if the sounds are properly expressed as in ‘c-a-t’ to ‘ca-t’ that to adults seems logical but to beginners and dyslexics ‘c-at’ is easier and was termed the ‘onset and rime’ method (Bryant et al.,1985).

Figure 2.2 Example of Civil Service Hand

In the period up to the 1940s the phonic system for teaching reading was dominant in UK schools and by then was accompanied by extensive copy writing using Civil Service Hand, a running joined (cursive) ovoid form taught from the outset as in Figure 2.2 above. It replaced an older slower system termed Copperplate used by printers to etch the copper plates used in printing without lifting the etching tool from the surface (see Figure 4.1b. in chapter four). i) Basic phonics. This involves sounding out each letter in a regular word and then blending them to say the word and then spell it e.g., c-a-t, d-o-g, sa-n-d as advised in DfE documents. Unfortunately, the technique quickly breaks down when over-generalised and confronted by ‘rope’ and ‘home’, ‘come’ and ‘said’ and the intrusive ‘schwa’- ‘Ruh-oh-puh eh’ rope, heard

The Reading Teaching Methods

21

locally on a school outing to the riverside quay. It is also not possible to do unless a child can already spell the word as pointed out in chapter one. ii) Analytic phonics - decoding. This method is confined to reading strategies. When confronted by text the child is taught to guess the word from its initial sound, the context in the sentence (syntax), its meaning (semantics) and any picture clue. The method was often later supported by systematic letter-sound teaching using the popular Letterland (Wendon, 2003) initially termed the Pictogram system. However what teachers generally did was introduce a sound and its clue word or story through Letterland for reading; teach the graphemes in shape groups e.g., ‘c, a, o, d’ for writing and then use copy writing of news for spelling. All of these introduce different letters (graphemes) in the different contexts. Although it works with most beginning learners who eventually grasp the ideas, it hampers the disadvantaged and fails dyslexics who cannot overcome their specific disability in this manner. This lack of structure and integration of the three skills of reading, spelling and handwriting can slow down the development of literacy in all learners. iii) Synthetic phonics. This system applies particularly to constructing spellings from their sounds. It is usual to group the letters in order of frequency of occurrence in children’s books. Government guidelines (DfE, 2014) recommend teaching the letters a, t, p, i, n, s first (‘satpin’ Cochrane et al 2022) and was the first set used in the Clackmannanshire research study. This study by Johnson et al., (2005) compared spelling and reading progress at the end of Primary 2. 300 children were given 16 weeks training for 20 minutes each day in one of three programmes: 1. Synthetic phonics to blend letters for spelling words 2. Analytic phonics to decode words for reading 3. Analytic phonics and phonological awareness training. At the end of the programme the synthetic phonics group were about 7 months ahead of the other two groups and 7 months ahead of their chronological age in reading. They were 8 to 9 months ahead of the others in spelling. Contrary to expectation the synthetic phonics group was also able to read irregular words better than the other groups, and was the only group that could read unfamiliar words by analogy. The conclusion also was that during the synthetic phonics teaching they were learning and developing transferrable skills that the other methods were not providing for their groups. What progress might have been made if the phonics had begun

22

Chapter Two

in Reception alongside whole word work? Surely 28 hours of any such drill is too much for teachers and pupils and it will be shown that it is really not necessary to do this to achieve the benefits of synthetic phonics.

4. Meaning emphasis methods – Look and say i) Whole words. The teacher presents a whole word on a card or the white board and after 10 or more pairings in different situations the child is expected to have learned it as a sight word. Research showed that it took more than 40 pairings for most pupils to learn words by this method (Barbe, 1965). The teacher first engages with the children in developing speaking and listening skills and reads stories to them and talks with them about the stories and their own experiences to develop the necessary vocabulary. Picture storybooks were introduced with the key words and links were made between them. Flash cards with the key words on them were introduced and each child would have a word tin containing the words they were learning. They then took them home to practice. After repeated pairings of the word with its image the children are expected to be able to read the story text in the first Reader (reading book) to the teacher or Learning Support Assistant (LSA) perhaps with some help. The Rainbow Readers for example were also colour coded and graded to help the teacher and learner in this process. The sounds of the letters in this scheme were not introduced until the child had sight knowledge of about 50 words. In some classrooms sounds were not taught at all even after the initial 50 words period nor in Years 1 and 2. ii) The sentence method. This used the sentence as the unit of meaning and contextual clues were emphasised for deciphering unknown words. Only a few schools used this method alone in Elizabeth Goodacre’s 1967 survey but increasing numbers of teachers began to adopt it as it was promoted as a whole language approach. iii) The whole language approach. This is often called the 3-Cue system. The pupil is confronted by a storybook suitable for the age group and is encouraged to work out what it is about. The accompanying pictures give some clues and these are discussed. The sentences describe what is in the picture and may be read to the child leaving the key word for the child to supply and study the word in the text. The sentence is read to the children, they ‘read’ the sentence back and so on. The sentence may be supplied by the pupil and written by the teacher and is read back by the child. Making meaning is the emphasis.

The Reading Teaching Methods

23

The problems that arise as a result of this technique is that it distracts attention from word structures, the letters and their order that beginning readers use to understand text. Committed teachers could make it work but the usual number of pupils with dyslexic and other difficulties continued to fail. iv) The three-cueing system. From 1964 Kenneth and Eleanor Goodman began tape-recording poor readers in order to analyse the mismatch between what the text said and what they read aloud. The mismatches were termed ‘miscues’ (as opposed to ‘errors’). Miscue analysis is simply an observation of the patterns and strategies used by the poor reader to process the text. In a detailed analysis Goodman (1967) noted their attempts and the cues that they used to arrive at the meaning of text. He noted if they were using picture clues, story context and/or syntax to predict the text. His miscues analysis led him to define learning to read as a psycholinguistic guessing game that should be encouraged over any phonics approach. He was supported in this by Frank Smith (1971-1988) who toured the UK promoting the method. For Goodman, accurate word recognition was not necessarily the goal of reading. The goal was to comprehend text. If the sentences were making sense, the reader must be getting the words right, or right enough. These ideas soon became the foundation for how reading was taught in many schools and Goodman's three-cueing idea formed the theoretical basis of an approach known as ‘whole language’ so that by the late 1980s it had taken hold throughout America. With Frank Smith’s encouragement many schools in England followed soon after. It did not occur to these early researchers that the 3-Cues strategies the poor readers used might be because they lacked sufficient phonic knowledge to help them penetrate the meaning of the text. v) Real books. Reading schemes in the 1970s and 80s in the UK had assumed much less significance and schools used several schemes or none at all. The real books approach became popular in some quarters. Teachers would colour code the reading levels of their storybooks or allowed children to select their own books at any level of difficulty and read them with the teacher, the 'real books' approach. Difficult books in which the teacher read all the text to the child demonstrated the need for another selection and the pupil learned to select down the difficulty gradient by judgments about the extent of text and the size of print. As can be inferred this technique embodies Look and Say and was demanding of both teachers and pupils

24

Chapter Two

vi) Dual Coding Method This is implicit in many Look and Say schemes. It involves presenting words (verbals) alongside their images of various kinds such as pictures, diagrams and photos (visuals). The various tasks are to present a sequence of pictures that the pupil has to name and explain. Sequences can be put out of order in time line tasks to be named and correctly ordered. The association between word and meaning presented visually and explained establishes the connections in the word memory and meaning store (lexicon) and gives some time to it. But in presenting the word on its own amongst similar words and words that cannot be pictured it is difficult to see how this helps decoding although it may be more fun and more motivating. The current manifestations of the Lindamood-Bell Learning Process (2018) using visualisation and verbalisation strategies reports 25% improvement phoneme awareness in reading in the experimental schools over controls in similarly disadvantaged areas (Title 1 schools). What this means is that in one year with 112 hours of such lessons, reading progress would be 3 months more advanced than amongst controls. Other methods shown later give much larger effect sizes.

5. Pattern processing in early Look and Say methods Perceptual studies showed that the eye and brain both perform a features analysis on any input because the retina is an outgrowth of brain tissue (Farnham-Diggory, 1978). Tank recognition studies (Allan, 1965) showed that naïve subjects after doing jigsaws of a range of tanks were able to identify them very easily and much better than subjects shown pictures and told the main features of the separate tanks. This suggested potential similarities in the perceptual processing of words in attempting to read by Look and Say. The questions were, what were the relevant features in children’s visual learning of words and could they be taught by the jigsaw method to identify and learn them? What were the features that made up words and their letters? Some, the early learners appeared to scan the words correctly from left to right but others did so from right to left. If they fixated on the last letter when the teacher said the word then it would make it difficult to learn to read it. If they fixated as some did on a particular letter such as the ‘k’ within a word this would not help either especially if they were expected to play the game ‘I spy something beginning with-’. What was the ‘beginning’ of a word for them? Did they even know the meaning of ‘beginning’?

The Reading Teaching Methods

25

In a series of pilot studies, a features analysis of infant print showed the letters were made up of 4 main items termed “short sticks, long sticks, circles and hooks”. Booklets were made up of 3 of these items and the children were asked to construct the pattern below the example using the sticks (match sticks) and circles (counters) as in Appendix 8E examples. Jigsaws were made of sets of non-words in increasing order of difficulty for the pupils to construct. The final result was that the experimental group was significantly further along the scheme in reading books than the controls as assessed by their teachers (Montgomery, 1977, 1979). The gains were achieved despite the items being abstract, meaningless forms but ecologically valid sub-skills of words. Changing the non-word jigsaws to the words in the scheme enabled further and faster reading progress.

6. Language experience method The publication of the Breakthrough to Literacy scheme (Cunningham, 1971) also began to influence early learning practices and was termed a Language Experience method because children told their stories and in discussion selected words to build on a sentence-maker magnetic board. They then read this out loud to the teacher and copied it into their storybooks. They would then illustrate the stories and read them to partners. It became popular as a remedial or ‘catch up’ and motivating programme for some of those having difficulties.

Conclusion In the past, reading teaching methods have been dominated by either a code or a meaning emphasis technique and controversies raged over which was best, the ‘reading wars’ (Wyse et al., 2022). But the fact was that neither had proved capable of reaching the hard to teach, the disadvantaged or the dyslexic. Both methods had their limitations and mixed methods were developed by some to try to take advantage of the best features of each. Successful literacy entrepreneurs have developed their own reading materials and programmes with publishers to promote their favoured approaches but they are often lacking in evidence of relative effectiveness. Such a scheme was Reading Recovery (Clay, 1989) and it took a decade for the evidence to be produced that questioned its effectiveness whilst significant sums of money had been spent on its implementation.

26

Chapter Two

Now with practitioner advice, publishers produce reading books and materials for teacher use that are still based on historical custom and practice and Government Frameworks rather than the evidence base. The accumulated evidence would suggest that a mixed method would be the most effective. But even that which calls itself ‘mixed’ may not have the appropriate mix for small children’s or adult EFL students’ needs. This notion of effective mix is explored in the next chapter. On this page and the next is Suzanne Rush’s summary of the ‘reading wars’, a creative response to a formative assignment on her MA SpLD programme at Middlesex, 1996.

The Reading Teaching Methods

Figure 3,3 a to d. The reading wars.

27

CHAPTER THREE THE MECHANICS OF READING

Introduction If there are two routes to learning to read (Coltheart, 2005) it seems surprising that the choice is so often made to use one or the other first when a judicious mix might be more helpful for learners. It appears that the literacy acquisition phase is the most critical period for later achievement that is, when children are learning to read or as others might suggest whilst they are being taught to read. But when children were asked who taught them to read they rarely cited their teacher. This was borne out when some reading lessons were observed. For example, how does pairing a written word with its sound and a picture lead to the ability to read it later? Memory is obviously involved but somehow the child’s eye and brain seem to be doing something more complex in this paired associate training because they soon learned to read words they had not been taught. Those taught by letter-sound phonic approaches soon learned to read irregular whole words that they had also not been taught. In both instances some form of pattern-recognition processing and features analysis was evident (Montgomery, 1977). Examples of how this was facilitated are included in this chapter and appendix 8E copy pages. In Chapter One the research of Lerkkanen et al., (2004) with Finnish children embarking on learning a regular orthography found that teaching methods must embrace both letter knowledge and word knowledge strategies to promote comprehension and later reading development. It showed that both code and meaning emphasis methods needed to be used from the outset as found by Fassett (1929) detailed below. Although seldom included in the teaching of reading is the role of writing. Virginia Berninger (2008) regards handwriting and spelling as lower order literacy skills and composition as the higher order skill but most reading and dyslexia research and the DfE guidance bundles the lower order basic skills

30

Chapter Three

together as ‘writing’. This needs to be kept in mind in the following sections until a more detailed analysis of spelling and handwriting can be undertaken in Chapters 4 and 6.

1. Mixed methods In reading, all the letters making up the words are already present on the page. Reading is thus a recognition task to decode the written symbols to find out what meaning the word or sentence makes. It is therefore not surprising that word recognition strategies such as paired associate learning were readily adopted. It seemed that word and sentence reading happened so quickly that there was no time to note individual letters. But evidence to the contrary was provided by Reber et al., (1977) showing that fluent as well as beginning readers were using letter/phonic cues during reading or they would not be able to distinguish ‘form’ and ‘from’ and this was whether they had been taught to do so or not. To gain meaning the reader already needs to know the names of objects and events in the story and by 4 and 5 years of age most children are expected to have a well-developed vocabulary and grasp of the use of the English language, its meanings (semantics) and its structures and tenses (syntax). Disadvantaged children seldom have a full range of these abilities thus language development in speaking and listening opportunities are of prime importance for them in the early years and often throughout education and this is annually emphasised in the reports of the Chief Inspector for schools. In her extensive surveys Jeanne Chall (1967, 1985) concluded that: ‘there .. .is considerable evidence that an initial reading method that emphasised ‘word', 'natural' or 'speeded' reading at the start and provided insufficient or inconsistent training in reading and produced more serious reading failures than one that emphasised the code.’ (p.176)

Chall did however find some more successful Look and Say schemes. The characteristics of these were that they introduced initial sounds (explicit phonics) right from the outset of the teaching to help decoding. This was the crucial factor, not waiting for fifty sight words and confusion to set in. It was the basis of the ‘phonics fast and first’ method recommended in the Rose Report (2006) and the subsequent National Primary Strategy, just fifty years late. But the symbiosis and correct balance has not yet been achieved especially as even more ‘dyslexics’ have been produced. This increase cannot solely be attributed to better understanding and diagnosis of the condition.

The Mechanics of Reading

31

The diagram, Figure 3.1 below shows Fassett’s model of mixed methods teaching and the essential component is ‘both’ first and separately. It is in this area that the techniques need to be made more explicit in training courses. At the time, in the 1920s Civil Service (Figure 2.2) handwiting teaching would be common with print script Roman style in the reading books. Word builders. Some of the early phonics reading schemes such as the Beacon Readers provided small cardboard boxes full of letters and letter combinations and the children would be set to build words and make a sentence on a sentence maker or desk and when checked to see if it was correct would copy it into their books. Teachers however found the letters and boxes difficult to manage as pieces would be easily lost or muddled. The practice re-emerged later in the Breakthrough to Literacy Scheme with a magnetic board to hold the pieces. Some schemes simply gave key words for pupils to select and form sentences that they would read and then copy.

Figure 3.1 Diagram of Fassett’s (1929) mechanism for successful reading

32

Chapter Three

In 1981 Lynette Bradley reported on her research on word building with poor readers. The pupils proposed a word they wanted to learn to spell and it was written correctly for them or made with plastic letters by the tutor. The protocol was: x The pupil names the word x Pupil writes the word saying the alphabetic name of each letter as it is written. x Names the word again, checks to see if it is correct x The procedure is repeated twice more and the stimulus word is ignored when the pupil feels confident. The activity is repeated on 6 consecutive days and takes about 30 seconds per word. Bradley found that if the procedure was followed correctly the pupils could remember the words six months later. The method is similar to an earlier SOS-Simultaneous Oral Spelling for dyslexics described later.

2. Dyslexia Dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in learning to read and spell despite adequate intelligence and in the presence of normal classroom teaching methods. Dejerine (1892) first described a patient who had lost the ability to read (acquired dyslexia) following an infarction in the left hemisphere’s angular gyrus. Hinshelwood (1917) proposed that the angular gyrus was also involved in cases of developmental dyslexia. This was supported by other neurologists of the period. More recently Geschwind (1979) and Pugh and Menkel et al., (2000) revealed a dysfunction centred in and around the angular gyrus. It is the region of the brain where auditory, visual and kinaesthetic stimuli are linked in relation to print. It is in this context that the popular multisensory training makes sense. The modern diagnosis of dyslexia has also been affected by the reading paradigm. But there are also cases of pupils with dyslexia who read relatively well but have severe spelling problems and so do not get referred for diagnosis and help (Montgomery, 2018), it was termed ‘dysorthographia’ to give it some profile. Elizabeth Warrington (1967) had reported a ratio of 3 dyslexics to 1 spelling only dyslexic case being referred to her clinic but this knowledge faded over time under the reading zeitgeist. Chall (1967, 1985) in her surveys found that in Phonics regimes the incidence of dyslexia was 1% and in Look and Say it was 4%. In Scotland

The Mechanics of Reading

33

where phonics teaching was maintained, 1.5% of pupils were found to have dyslexic diffciulties by Margaret Clark (1970) and the Scottish Education Department (SED, 1978). Now, the British Dyslexia Association (2023) has found over the last few decades that our system of teaching reading has resulted in 10% with dyslexia and 4% are severe cases. However even double these numbers of dyslexics were found in disadvantaged area schools (Montgomery, 2017a) despite the introduction of ‘Phonics First’ (Rose, 2006). Inspection of thousands of scripts showed in the writing surveys discussed in chpaters 6 and 7 that there was a very mixed interpretation by teachers of when phonics was introduced and how it was best undertaken. In the dyslexia field in Denmark Edith Norrie, born in 1888 invented a word building spelling scheme and aged 20 taught herself to read with it. Helen Arkell in England adopted it and she was also dyslexic. Helen anglicised and used it as a teaching device at her Dyslexia Centres in Fulham and Surrey and it was sold there as the Edith Norrie Letter Case (Norrie, 1973). It contains letters in three main compartments each subsection containing a letter or a digraph. The letters are grouped according to which of the three places the sounds in the mouth are most frequently associated. There is a clue card for the vowels and they are red-coloured so that the pupil can check that there is a vowel in every syllable. The consonants are green or black to distinguish voiced from unvoiced letters. The system is based on speech therapy principles and a small mirror is provided so the pupils can see if they are forming the sounds correctly. The early dyslexia remedial programme developers in the US (Grace Fernald and Helen Keller, 1921; Marion Monroe, 1932; Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman, 1940, 1956) found that it was necessary to teach dyslexics very explicit phonics first in order for any reading progress to follow. This was in the context of Look and Say methods in the US at the time before it was imported into the UK. Bessie Stillman was the remedial teacher in Samuel Orton’s research team and had devised the SOS technique in 1932. Simultaneous Oral Spelling involved the naming of the alphabetic letters as they were written. This formed the basis for correcting as well as learning spellings and was found to be more effective than Look-Cover-Write-Check. In the U.K. Fred Schonell (1934) studied the relationship between articulation and spelling and found there was ample evidence that faulty pronunciation was a prolific contributory cause of misspelling but not the

34

Chapter Three

sole cause. Anne Bannatyne et al., (1969) in a factorial investigation concluded that the spelling task, both written and oral depended upon: a) The efficiency of the motor/kinaesthetic/praxic/visuo-spatial output or encoding process. b) The sequential memory influence on those processes, and c) The degree of automatisation of the output achieved. As can be inferred the interest in spelling and related research linked to articulatory processes was building and providing evidence for remedial spelling strategies and as a foundational skill in learning to read and the Multisensory Articulatory Phonogram Training (MAPT) pyramid model in Figure 3.2 below. In the 1970s the US dyslexia programmes were introduced into the southern England ‘Dyslexia belt’ and anglicised versions were developed. They systematically introduced an Alphabetic–Phonic-Syllabic-Linguistic (APSL) curriculum. Subsequent studies using them were compared with teacher-constructed interventions based on the practices from 1997-2010 (Montgomery, 2017a) and gave the results shown in Table 3.1 below. In order to enable a dyslexic to catch up to grade level with peers the programmes needed to give at least 2 years uplift in reading and spelling in one year (Vellutino, 1979). Table 3.1 Meta-analysis showing dyslexics’ progress in One year in APSL and non-APSL programmes Reading Age uplift 2.83 (APSL) Spelling age uplift 2.24 (APSL) ( N=179)

0.76 (non APSL 0.38 (non APSL) (N=172)

The programmes that gave 2 years uplift as shown in the above Table 3.1 were the Hickey Multisensory Language Course, HMLC (Hickey, 1977; 2nd edition Augur and Briggs, 1992) used by the Dyslexia Institute; Teaching Reading Through Spelling, TRTS (Cowdery et al., 1983-87, 1994) and Alpha to Omega, Hornsby and Shear’s (1976-2008) speech therapy based programme. A to O worked best after a reading age of 7 years had been achieved (Ridehalgh, 1999). The first two are anglicised versions of the original Gillingham and Stillman Programme, in the G and S Red Book (1956) and are underpinned by cursive writing training. In A to O print was advocated then later cursive was made optional.

The Mechanics of Reading

35

The APSL programmes address the dyslexics’ basic problems in the acquisition of alphabetic and phonic knowledge as well as teaching syllabification and linguistics in the later stages. They start by applying a rigorous multisensory phonogram training giving as much attention to spelling (and handwriting) as reading. The teacher-designed programmes were based upon an eclectic mix of the normal techniques used in classrooms some Look and Say some phonics and a print script.

3. What dyslexics can teach us about learning to read When dyslexia remedial provision was developed in the late 1960s in England much was made of the triangular model of the VAKs approach (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic) and since then Multisensory Phonogram Training has become more widely used in classrooms but this left out the articulatory dimension that the early remediators found was so essential and Anna Gillingham insisted upon in her training courses (Wolff, 1970). Here in Figure 3.2. below the model has been updated to VAKKs to include the articulatory awareness training, and was originally called ‘multisensory mouth training’ (Montgomery, 1984) in connecting the whole to the words and meanings in the lexicon. Whole word Orthography

Phonics Phonology

Oral Word recognition Semantics

Handwriting Kinaesthetic Figure 3.2 The Pyramid Model of MAPT – VAKKs

Speech Kinaesthetic

36

Chapter Three

The Pyramid model in Figure 3.2 above also includes the access to the word memory store and this is due to become of more interest as research has emerged in Finland that dyslexic problems there differ from those in English orthography. Finnish difficulties centre on comprehension and may be typical of other regular orthographies or English in the future if we regularise our alphabet. An occasional adult student dyslexic described having to read education texts several times but being unable to follow the argument and understand the concepts. However when they heard the text being read or the lecture being given they understood it perfectly well. One student found she had to read the text aloud to herself in order to understand it i) The significance of articulation training. When we look through the writing window at the marks children make in freeform writing as they tell their news or write a story, a developmental progression can be observed. Their efforts show a move from scribble to letter-like marks and then to letters that represent meaningful sounds such as ‘b’ or ‘bd’ for ‘bed’. Later they may patch in letters and parts of words they remember from their reading books and copy writing. In Figure 3.3 below Kelly B. is 5.1 years and has just entered the Reception class in a disadvantaged area, she has had no pre-school tuition.

Figure 3.3. Kelly age 5.1 years. She writes, ‘She (her sister) is in bed. She is sick she has chickenpox’

When scripts of ‘self-teachers’ such as Kelly above were compared to that of dyslexics in Key Stage 1, a significant difference was observed. In Figure 3.4 below for example, dyslexic Steven is 6.5 years old and has also been

The Mechanics of Reading

37

in school since he was 5 but has not ‘cracked the alphabetic code’ despite having been given extra individual reading tuition. In Figure 3.4a below Steven makes some letter shapes from his name and leaves word spaces so knows something about print. He writes ‘I went to my nan’s’. ‘Steven’ and ‘Thursday’ are copied and this shows he knows the name of letter ‘A’. The question such examples pose is, how it is possible for two children of at least average ability, both in Look and Say regimes, to perform so differently? It is not enough to say that boys are more vulnerable to dyslexic difficulties, in fact this too is now questionable (Montgomery, 2018; Barbiero, 2021). The requirements of the early acquisition task, to learn a few sounds and their symbols to support the reading task, seems to be beyond the dyslexic. In a case study, Michael, aged 6.3 years, was privately referred for his dyslexia and had an IQ of 147 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. It seemed incomprehensible that he could not learn a handful of initial sounds and use them in reading and writing. Figure 3.4b below shows what happened after Steven was taught i t p n s using MAPT to do what Kelly had learnt by herself. Each session was 20 minutes long and administered by the student teacher assigned to the class. 3.4 a

3.4 b

Figure 3.4 a and b Steven age 6.5 years after 6x20 minute lessons with MAPT on i,t,p,n,s.

38

Chapter Three

He writes, ‘I went to my nanny’s and I went home and had my dinner and I sat up late and watched TV.’ He has finally broken the alphabetic code. Grace Fernald recruited the famous deaf and blind Helen Keller to learn about Helen’s finger spelling system in case it might help 7 of her dyslexic boys who were unable to read or write after two years on a remedial programme. After bringing the boys up to grade level within 6 months she concluded, “Lip and kinaesthetic elements seem to be the link between the visual cue and the various associations that give it word meaning. Even the association between the spoken word and printed word seem not to be fixed without these kinaesthetic links” (Fernald et al., 1921 p.376)

She wrote, that in reading teaching “It has been taken for granted that, in the case of all children, the visual cue is adequate to arouse those associations that make this cue stand for word meaning.” (p. 377).

ii) What do self-teachers do? The question was how is it possible for some ‘natural’ learners to learn sounds and their symbols without being explicitly taught and then use this knowledge to build their reading and writing skills whilst dyslexics could not? Could it be something implicit in the alphabetic symbolic system?

4. The alphabet writing system Research on writing showed that the alphabet system was invented only once in history and by the Phoenicians. They spoke a Semitic consonantal language (Gelb, 1963) and it had 22 consonants. A Eureka moment! Consonants as opposed to vowels have a distinct articulatory pattern or feel in the mouth. This means that their order in a syllable can be detected by feel whereas we cannot hear the sequence (Liberman and Shankweiler et al., 1967) because in speech the sounds are shingled on top of each other. It means we may initially hear and feel the initial sound-the onsets and transcribe the phonetic feel of syllables and words and write ‘bd’ for ‘bed’, and ‘w’ or ‘ws’ for ‘was’. Using articulation, transpositions such as ‘saw’ for ‘was’ are not possible and are a visual methods error. This articulatory cueing strategy could account for the way in which children’s spelling develops naturally in the logographic phase and underpins self-teaching. In

The Mechanics of Reading

39

preschool it enables children to develop phoneme awareness that so much research shows it as one of the keys to and a predictor of reading development. It facilitates the onset and rime strategies. The hypothesis therefore was that dyslexics would have signs of an articulation awareness problem whereas non-dyslexic learners would not. A series of studies to design and pilot the awareness test (Montgomery, 1981, 1984) showed there was evidence for this. The test was not an articulation test but a proprioceptive one. The hypothesis was tested and the results are shown in Table 3.2 below (Montgomery, 1997a). Table 3.2 To show mean scores on phoneme segmentation (PS) and articulation awareness (AA) Nos. Reading Spelling PS Artic Aw IQ Age __________________Age___ _Age_____(15)____(10)_______________ Controls 84 8.61 8.02 11.94 7.75 110.03 7.94 Dyslexics 114 7.95 7.62 10.27 4.31 110.43 12.90 Dyslexics 30 6.71 6.00 4.13 5.87 112.67 8.97 (waiting list)__________________________________________________ Key: PS Phoneme Segmentation (‘sing’ minus ‘s’ gives ‘ing’ etc.) a 15-item test of increasing difficulty.

AA Articulation Awareness Faces test of 10 items. ‘Make this face and tell me the sound’ ‘Where is your tongue touching? ‘Is your mouth open or closed? etc. The Table 3.2 above shows that all the dyslexics already on the TRTS programme had good scores on the phoneme segmentation (spelling) test in comparison with those on the waiting list and close to the scores of much younger controls with similar reading ages. This indicates they were catching up on the basic phoneme segmentation skill. The dyslexics’ scores on the articulation awareness test were significantly lower both in the dyslexic group on the programme and those on the waiting list. It was odd to discover that when making e.g., the ‘l’ sound many of them could not say where the tip of their tongue was touching or if the mouth was open or shut. When the AA test was added to an LEA infant screening survey in a local authority it was found to be the only test in the Baseline Assessment that had good predictive capacity for poor reading results at 7 years. In another follow-up study (N=134) Reception learners in an advantaged area were tested on the AA test and it was found that 4 of them had no awareness of where in the mouth their tongue was touching, or whether their lips were

40

Chapter Three

open or shut etc. However, it was concluded that it was important to find a less laborious diagnostic method for teachers to use and this later turned out to be freeform story writing.

5. Speech and articulation A longitudinal study by Monique Sénéchal et al., (2004) has shown that children's articulation accuracy in preschool affected pre-existing differences in phonological representations and, consequently, affected how children perceived, discriminated, and manipulated speech sounds. It promoted phoneme awareness in preschool. This study underlines the strong need for the promotion of more legitimate talk by children to each other and the group in early years’ classrooms describing what they were doing and learning especially in problem-based activities. It also underlines the need for speech therapy support at this stage of education for a much wider range of children than who now receive it and the reduction of Reception class sizes to 15-16 children with teacher and trained Teaching Assistant (TA). This would model the more effective class sizes in private education and enable the targeting of the needs of disadvantaged children by increasing the conversational experiences with the teacher and each other. It means that the opportunities for talk with the teacher and other children in current State education are far too few when it is likely that in the State sector many children need far more time for legitimate and structured talk. This need has been borne out following the restrictions of Covid-19. The children on entry to school have been found to have fewer social skills and impoverished language development especially in disadvantaged areas. This problem was addressed in earlier decades by the introduction of Nurture groups in London schools in the 1980s (Boxall, et al., 1998), and by Sure Start across the country in 1995. Sure Start was the Government’s programme to deliver the best start in life for every child, by promoting and bringing together early education, childcare and health and family support services for young children and their families (Glass, 1999). In some special schools (Ainley, et al., 1980) they had developed language experience and speech training development strategies for pairs and small groups that proved highly successful.

The Mechanics of Reading

41

6. The theory of optimal instruction This was propounded by Solity et al., (2009). It stated that: “There is an optimal amount of information to teach that will lead to maximum generalisation”. p. 9

But what is an optimal amount? The analyses of 685 contemporary children’s books showed that: x 100 most frequent English words accounted for approximately 50% of all words used x The next 50 most frequent words accounted for a significantly lower proportion of word tokens in children’s books x 64 most frequent Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs) would enable children to read more than 60% of all word types in children’s books There are 461 GPCs in English so it is not surprising that literacy acquisition takes longer than in regular or transparent languages. In a later study based on the optimal principle John Solity (2018) found that only a handful of sounds and their symbols needed to be explicitly taught for the children to grasp the alphabetic principle and then go on to acquire more sounds and their symbols. In other words, it enables their self-teaching skills. Hence the effectiveness of the i t p n s strategy. Most programmes now use i t p n s a or ‘SATNIP’ (Cochrane et al., 2022). However, introducing ‘a’ with the 5 other letter sounds is not best for teaching initial word building because it can add the complexity of the vowel digraph ‘ai’ too soon. The other 5 phonemes can be used to make 25 words. This is enough for beginners and should be introduced one at a time as in Appendix 8.H. The ability to identify letters by name or sound (letter knowledge) in kindergarten, Reception or the beginning of Grade One in the UK and US research was found to be an important predictor of reading achievement at various points in the first and second grades and generally had a higher association with reading success than mental ability (Liberman, 1973; Denckla et al., 1976; Golinkoff, 1978; Bryant et al., 1985; Goswami et al., 1990; Berninger, 2008, Snowling et al., 2020). By the end of the 20th century most schools in the UK would claim to be using a judicious mix of phonics and whole word methods but it is the nature and order of their introduction that needs to receive more attention. Words

42

Chapter Three

on pictures around the walls and in shops and adverts on visual media expose beginning readers to more words than the range in their story books and the eye and brain seem to be able to learn more than their teachers have specifically taught. The skills of ‘natural readers’ or the ‘self-taught’ teach us that all children’s attention needs to be directed to the feeling of certain clue sounds when they speak, read and write and MAPT is an easy way of doing this. In speech, citation mode for spelling needs to be encouraged Unfortunately, the writing component is the poor relation in current literacy teaching in most schools in the UK and has been widely ignored (Medwell et al., 2007). In chapter 6, the reasons why it should be given equal treatment alongside reading are detailed.

7. Texting. ‘Gr8 Txtpctatns’ The popular press and some scholars have been somewhat scandalised by the use of texting and its shortened ‘corrupted’ versions of traditional orthography. However, some English specialists support the use of texting format on the grounds that it supports the development of an understanding of traditional orthography. There is some evidence for this attitude when we examine the scripts of Faye, Kelly and Sahana in appendix 8.4. They are producing Txt-like forms and it is typical of texting to leave out the vowels. In an article entitled ‘Gr8 Txtpct8ns’ Tim Shortis (2014) an English teaching specialist, made the case for texting as a creative form of language use. He concluded that it in no way is it deleterious to traditional orthography and there is no intent to have an effect on it or change it. David Crystal (2008) a linguist expert termed this ‘Txtng: the gr8 db8’. There are three over-riding principles governing Texting these are: x Economy and text entry reduction x Respellings that are a simulation of the spoken language x Multimodal visual and graphical effects and iconicity. The only problem that seems to arise is when pupils engage in so much txtng that they import this into their school essays or use it to cover up errors such as with the ‘schwa’ sound. The advantages are that they have to engage with text at a deeper level and observe and think about the syllabic structure to transmit meaning and this does support the poorer spellers and even help them to acquire correct orthography as they can map it onto the correct skeletal/phonetic format.

The Mechanics of Reading

43

Multimodal Literacy Pupils are expected these days to become competent in visual literacy associated with film and video and in audio techniques associated with text. The sight of so many of them walking about gazing into their phones suggests that even the youngest pupils and preschoolers are well on their way to becoming multi-modally literate.

Conclusion In this chapter analysis of dyslexic difficulties in the earliest stages has shown how important articulation awareness and the role of self-teaching is in learning to read. It also showed how all children can be helped to learn to read and write by learning symbols and their sounds by Multisensory Articulatory Phonogram Training. In order to make the breakthrough only a handful of initial sounds are needed to establish the alphabetic principle and teach some simple word building. Alongside this work the speaking and listening skills need to be developed to improve articulation and comprehension. Singing games, nursery rhymes and popular songs are also crucial elements so that children can follow the words in texts with pictures and feel they are beginning to read. Texting can be an aid to both reading and spelling even in beginning readers and writers and should be encouraged. In addition, and separately books need to be widely available to listen to and look at. Reading together from shared books should be a regular practice using all the meaning and code emphasis techniques teachers generally use. Teaching reading as a subset of the English curriculum is to diminish its complexity and importance for Key Stage 1 teachers and learners. Key Stage 1 is the most important and complex of all the stages a teacher might decide to work in and as such requires that they should be trained to master’s level as in Finland. Here they would study for the M.Ed. or a Masters in Literacy with Qualified Teacher Status. PGCE programmes offering just 30 hours of English, and 24 weeks ‘Sitting by Nellie’ with a DfE manual to follow are bound to fail the disadvantaged children however hard the teacher works. Teacher education needs to be more than a technical apprenticeship training and should be decoupled from political and administrator control. Like other professions it needs to be developed and run by an expert governing body, such as a Royal College.

CHAPTER FOUR THE CONTRIBUTION OF SPELLING TO READING

Introduction From mediaeval times the ABC spelling method learnt in the monasteries dominated until the 19th century. Pupils chanted the letters from their Hornbooks “A, B, C” etc. then “ba-be-bi-bo-bu; ca–ce-ci-co-cu”. They chanted these combinations up, down, forwards and backwards, across and back from a syllabarium until every combination had been learnt and they could spell out the Catechism. Later they learned by rote large sections of the Bible and certain key poems. They were taught to write from copybooks and these became their main form of story reading. Church Gothic or ‘black letter’ script was gradually replaced by Copperplate used by engravers and complex to learn. Later Civil Service hand was developed for clerks in business and the law who needed a fast fluent hand (Figure 2.2. in Chapter Two).

Figure 4.1a Gothic style

Chapter Four

46

4.1b Copperplate

It became evident that in learning the alphabet sounds, phonics, was easier and more important for learning to spell especially in young children. Reading was incidental to the spelling process and has a much shorter history. By the early 20th century although vestiges of the ABC method survived in some schools most had switched to phonics and copywriting in Civil Service hand. Storybooks for little children also began to be produced and the transition was made.

1. Early studies on teaching of spelling By the 1950s reading teaching began to dominate so that in 1967 Margaret Peters reported that spelling in England was largely ‘caught’ rather than taught during reading, reversing the previous position when reading was caught during spelling. This situation had remained when she reviewed the case nearly two decades later (Peters, 1985). Spelling teaching that included phonics and rules had disappeared and only copywriting remained. Even ‘civil service’ cursive had been replaced by a simple print script, ‘ball and stick’ that was thought easier for infants to form (Jarman, 1979). As time progressed the results of these changes were not found to be the best answers to children’s literacy needs and research began to be more systematic in trying to find out why. One of these avenues was in the study of dyslexia and remediation that burgeoned in Anglophone countries. The other was of the needs of non-dyslexic ‘normal’ learners, but very little for them was focused on spelling. Researchers provided lists of spellings grouped in

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

47

various orders in reading schemes for pupils to memorise and be tested on weekly or even daily is some classes. A few researchers tried to analyse the spelling errors in order to target the needs more successfully. One such study was in Scotland where spelling teaching was maintained longer than in England. 125 pupils aged 9-10 years were tested on the Schonell regular and irregular word lists and an analysis of errors was made (Livingstone, 1961) as follows: Confusions 32%, Omissions 26%, Insertions 18%, Transpositions 12% Single for double/double for single 10%. These were the most common errors. Homonyms, Perseverations, Unclassified, were all under 1% (Cited in Williams, 1974 p. 45). As can be seen the categories reflect those produced for reading assessment by Marie Neale (1958). What is important in both assessments is to identify precisely what has been confused, omitted, inserted and so on to learn how to intervene and this is discussed and detailed in the later sections.

2. Invented spellings Invented spelling was a significant area of investigation by Charles Read (1986) who termed it ‘children’s creative spelling’. Invented spelling refers to the practice of having children invent their own spellings in their writings, using what they know about letters and sounds. In the early stages he suggested that teachers should not correct the spellings. The spelling allowed children to focus on developing their knowledge. It mirrors the development in both phoneme awareness and letter–sound knowledge (Stahl et al., 1998). Other studies showed that invented spelling greatly improved phonemic awareness, phonics knowledge and other word recognition skills (Gentry, 1981, 1982; Ferreiro et al., 1982; Read, 1986; Clarke, 1989; Montgomery, 1997a). Examples of the different levels seen on entry to schools across the age ranges in some of these researches are shown below in Table 4.1 with more examples in Section 8. As children develop letter–sound knowledge, teachers should expect greater control of conventional spelling and help them learn this by teaching them strategies.

Chapter Four

48

3. Levels of Spelling Development Table 4.1 To show a comparison of levels of spelling development Frith (1980) Logographic Alphabetic Orthographic

Gentry (1981) Precommunicative Prephonetic Phonetic Transitional Correct

DES (1989) Level 1 +

Ehri (2005) Non-alphabetic

Levels 2 and 3 Partial alphabetic Full grapho-phonemic Level 4/5 Consolidated graphomorphemic

Levels of spelling development DES (1989) National Curriculum Level 1 x Pupils begin to show an understanding of the differences between drawing and writing, and between numbers and letters; x can write some letter shapes in response to sounds and letter names; x use single or pairs of letters to represent whole words or parts of words. Level 2 x Pupils produce recognisable (though not necessarily correct) spelling of a range of common words; x know that spelling has patterns and begin to apply that knowledge in order to attempt a wider range of words; x spell correctly words in regular use in their own writing which observe common patterns. Level 3 x Pupils spell correctly less common words which are important in the learning context in which they occur (e.g. technical vocabulary in science); x show a growing awareness of word families and their relationships; x check their own writing for accurate spelling x recognise and use correctly regular patterns for vowel sounds and common letter strings of increasing complexity

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

49

Level 4 x Pupils spell correctly words which display the other main patterns in English spelling, including the main prefixes and suffixes Level 5 x Pupils spell correctly words of some complexity, including words with inflectional suffixes (e.g. –ed, –ing), consonant doubling etc. and words were the spelling highlights semantic relationships (e.g., sign and signature). The validity of these spelling levels proposed by the DES need to be examined in more detail as they do not always seem to match what pupil profiles indicate and do not quite follow Gentry’s or Ehri’s levels found for normal spellers in the US. Uta Frith’s analysis is for dyslexic spellers and readers and the model is later developed into a six-step one to show differences in progression between reading and spelling. Linnea Ehri’s (2005) model with non-dyslexics in the US follows a similar pattern to that of Frith but with different titles. She found that during development, the connections improve in quality and word-learning value, from visual nonalphabetic, to partial alphabetic and so on. Orthographic Mapping was enabled by phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge and this facilitated sight word reading when beginners were taught about articulatory features of phonemes. Vocabulary learning was facilitated when spellings accompanied pronunciations and meanings of new words to activate OM. Teaching students the strategy of pronouncing novel words aloud as they read text silently activated OM and helped them build their vocabularies. To examine spelling knowledge and its development, freeform writing samples were collected from 4 different schools with N=175 children and 8 Reception teachers (Montgomery, 2017b). The reason was that what children can write unaided they can also read (Clay, 1986) and examples of this had been collected in earlier dyslexia research pilot studies. Case notes were then sent to their teachers on MAPT and handwriting skill.

Chapter Four

50

4. Assessment of literacy on entry to Reception classes using freeform writing Before the end of the first month in the Reception class each child was asked to write a story or news without any help-freeform. They were just 5 years old. The scripts were named. The story the child told was written on the page by the teacher or Teaching Assistant (TA). One large class’s set of scripts was then ranked in piles of increasing skill and descriptors assigned. The process was then repeated with all the scripts including those of the original class and an assessment scale was drawn up. The Spelling Assessment Scale devised in this research demonstrated what children can achieve if only given the opportunity to show it. For example, some children were at level 3 DES scale after three weeks in school. Ranks for free-form spelling used in the analysis of freeform scripts: 10. Mainly correct spelling, legible, systematic word spaces. 9. More correct spelling, skeletal phonics, meaning clear. 8. Some correct words, phonics, phonetics, meaning mostly clear 7. Skeletal phonics, phonetics, some words, meaning apparent 6. Some phonic skeletons, word bits and phones, some meaning. 5. Word forms, letters, phone(s) evident (The critical achievement) 4. Letters, possible phones 3. Some letter shapes and letters, in a line 2. Marks, mandalas roundels, occasional letters, possibly in lines 1. Scribble, marks in some order 0. Random marks i) A rank of 5 was found to be the critical borderline at which the script showed that the child had recognised some sounds and their symbols termed ‘phones’. The appearance of phones indicated that the pupil had ‘cracked the alphabetic code’ and was on the way to becoming literate. Examples of ‘phones’. The use of single or more consonants to represent words e.g., ‘w’ or ‘wt’ for went. Inter-observer reliability coefficient for the scale was +0.93. Each class teacher was sent a report on the level of spelling skill (N=112) and on the handwriting ability and needs, details in chapter 6.

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

51

ii) The freeform story-writing task was repeated in March at the end of the spring term e.g., 6 months later. (The private school left the project before this point N=64, Table 4.2). iii) A further follow-up study was undertaken when the children entered Year 2. This time they were asked to write a story as fast as possible in 10 minutes about their favourite holiday, pet, sport, or friend etc. (N=93 matched scripts from N=112). iv) Briefly it was found there was 30% uplift in the 2 disadvantaged area schools A and B SATs at the end of KS1 and 10% in the advantaged area, School C. Disadvantage or otherwise was determined by the percentage of free school meals (ref. current Pupil Premium) compared to the national rate of 23% (Montgomery, 2017a and b). For ease of teachers’ reference the spelling scale is exemplified as 4 levels in figure 4.2 below “The errors children make when they write are neither random nor thoughtless- examined diagnostically they reveal systematic application of the child’s level of understanding”. (Rosencrans, 1998, p.9)

All the following scripts were written by 5 year-olds on entry to the Reception class. Faint and shaky writing indicates a mild coordination difficulty. Level One

4.2a. Izzie. “I play with lots of toys” (right to left)

52

Chapter Four

4.2b. Jason “I went to my friends” (right to left)

Level Two

4.2c Jamie “The tractor goes on a truck”

4.2d. Millie, “I went to nanny’s”

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

53

Level Three

4.2e “I went to bed Yacob”

Level Four

4.2f Sahana “I do my homework after school”

Table 4. 2 to show spelling ranks on entry to the Reception classes Schools Boys Girls N FSM ____________________________________________________________ A + B Social housing 2.38 3.03 56 2 .0 X C Owner occupier 4.52 6.81 55 0.5 X D Private school 3.34 4.06 64 0.0 X Spelling means 3.51 4.41 175. Motor skills means 4.21 5.67 175 FSM – free school meals related to the national mean, 2.0X equals twice the national average

The spelling scores in table 4.2 show that School C children consistently obtained higher scores than the other two schools in the same local area and confirmed the disadvantages associated with being poor that were found for reading in the Sutton Trust research (Jerrim, 2013).

Chapter Four

54

Table 4.3 showing results from the pre and post-test freeform writing (spelling) task School Nos Free Writing 1 Free Writing 2 Dysl___Dysg A1&2 35 2.39 5.71 12+1 6 B 1 21 3.24 6.13 4+1 5 C 1 & 2 55 5.74 6.43 4+ 11 17 D1,2 &3 64 3.71 (Midland area school) Totals 175 Means 4.29 (N=11!) 5.32 Nos 18 + 13 35 Free writing F1 = September sample: N=175 Free writing F2 = March, matched data N=111 Schools A, B, and C were coastal area schools. School D, the private school left the project after F1, N=64 Dysl-potential dyslexic; Dysg-dysgraphic

Potential Dyslexics. At risk were 13 (12%) making no “phones” after 6 months. After 6 months the disadvantaged groups’ using alphabetic sounds had risen in: Class A1 from 0% to 72%; Class A2 from 1% to 31% Class B1 from 10% to 70%. After 6 months the advantaged groups use of phones had risen in: Class C1 from 52% to 67% Class C2 from 54% to 54% From this data it is clear which teachers need some help and who had followed some of the suggestions in the case reports. When the pupils entered Year/Grade 2, 93 matched pairs of scripts were identified and analysed. The mean spelling error rate was 12.31 per script for the advantaged area and slightly higher at 13.88 for the disadvantaged area. This difference was smaller than expected and shows the potential impact of MAPT. x The ratio of dyslexic boys to girls was 3 to 2 whereas the expected ratio is 4 to 1 (BDA, 2023). The dyslexia criterion was: The writer made more than 10 different misspellings per 100 words (Montgomery, 2017a).

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

55

Dysgraphia: The details of this research and list of coordination difficulties can be found in Chapters 6 and 7. After the alphabetic code has been cracked by the learner a whole range of strategies need to be taught across the primary and secondary years. Here English teachers and SENCos need to take the lead and train the subject staff to develop school and subject area policies and a spelling corpus using the following CPSS list.

5 Cognitive Process Strategies to facilitate Spelling CPSS a. Lower order strategies for beginners * Articulation. The word is clearly and precisely articulated for spelling - citation mode * Over articulation. The word is enunciated with an emphasis on each of the syllables or unstressed sound. e. g. parli (a) ment, gover (n) ment, w(h)ere. * Cue articulation. The word is pronounced almost incorrectly e. g. Wed–nes-day, Feb-ru-ary. * Syllabification. The word is broken down into syllables mo-tor, diarr-ho-e-a * Phonics. A comprehensible articulatory phonetic skeleton or word scaffold is made to build upon – km, cm then cum, may appear before come. * Rule. A few simple rules can help unravel a range of spelling problems e.g. ‘I before E except after C’. This keeps the ‘c’ sound soft. b. Higher order strategies for more advanced spellers * Origin. The root in another language may give clues op / port / unity; an opening, a port or a haven * Linguistics. Syllable types open, closed, accented and unaccented need to be taught as well as the 4 suffixing rules which govern most words e. g. Add, Double, Drop, Change * Family/base word. Family helps reveal silent letters and correct representation for the ‘schwa’ unstressed vowel e.g., Canada, Canadian; bomb, bombing, bombardier, bombardment; sign, signature signal, resign. Basewords can make families of words e.g. form, reform, forming, deformed, formation

56

Chapter Four

* Meaning. Separate is often misspelled as sep-e-rate. The dictionary meaning shows it means to divide or part or even to pare. The pupil then just needs to remember ‘cut or part’ and ‘pare’ to separate. * Analogy. Comparison of the word or a key part of it with a word the pupil does know how to spell. e. g. “It is like boot, hoot, root” or “hazard” is one z like in “haze” and “maze” * Funnies. Sometimes it is not possible to find another strategy and so a ‘funny’ can help out e. g. “cess-pit” helped me remember how to spell necessary. i) Correcting persistent misspellings Most teachers will ask the pupils to look carefully at the correct spelling and then use Look-Cover-Write-Check 3 times. Unfortunately, it is useful as a developmental strategy to help recall a new word’s spelling but it does not work with an already stored error as a remedial strategy. Instead, the memory has to be corrected in 2 places, the lexicon (word memory store) and also in the motor memory store. Bessie Stillman (1932) introduced her strategy, Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) to help deal with this problem and it is used in the Gillingham and Stillman programme (!940, 1956) and now in most programmes derived from it e.g., Hickey’s HMLC and TRTS. The 7-step protocol below for correcting misspellings is based on this. Stillman used it prior to errors occurring by getting pupils to trace over large versions of the letters and naming them before attempting to write them a technique borrowed from Grace Fernald and Helen Keller (1921) ii) The 7-step SOS protocol for using CPSS to correct old misspellings: Younger pupils and those with poorer spelling will need more of the first five CPS strategies and little or no dictionary work to begin with. i. The pupil selects two misspellings to learn in any one session. ii. The pupil identifies the area of error, usually only one letter with help of the teacher or a dictionary. iii. The pupil puts a ring round the area of error and notices how much of the rest is correct. iv. The pupil is taught (later selects) a CPSS to correct the misspelling, a reserve strategy is also noted where possible. v. The strategy is talked over with the teacher and is used to write the corrected spelling.

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

57

vi. The spelling is checked to see if it is correct, the dictionary can be used again here. vii. If correct the pupil covers up the spelling and writes the word three times from memory in joined up full cursive, naming the letters (Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS). It is especially important to use the joined script at least over the area of error if full cursive presents a problem. NB. Mnemonics are no part of CPSS because they do not generalise to new words and are laborious. iii) Why two strategies are needed to correct a misspelling Research (Kuczaj, 1979) has found that the motor programmes for spelling words, particularly their bases and affixes were stored together in the brain. This meant that learning to write syllables and base words as cursive writing units during early learning was an important strategy and could contribute to spelling accuracy. The word meaning in the lexicon (word memory store) has to be consistently associated with its motor memory. The posterior frontal lobe area (usually left hemisphere) organises and initiates the voluntary motor movements involved in forming the individual graphemes and syllables. These are stored in the motor memory and available to be called up during writing. Over time and practice this process becomes automatic so that during essay writing we do not have to think about the details of the spelling. This is the same process as when we read music and learn to play the piano, then do it without the sheet music “by heart”. The problem arises when as young writers or dyslexics we store incorrect spellings. In order to correct them we have to address the error both in the word memory store and in the motor memory store. The CPSS corrects the error in the lexicon and the SOS strategy is needed to correct it in the motor memory. As old memories are not deleted but persist, they also will be called up when writing. The CPSS however gives the new spelling a higher features profile and as the writer writes a sentence and the ‘problem’ word comes nearer ‘warning bells’ ring and the writer recalls the strategy, slows down and writes the correct version. Soon the writer is able to write the correct version without having to pause and recall the strategy. Eventually the correct version arises each time unless

Chapter Four

58

under stress when it may pop up again. On these occasions proof reading will clear it out.

6. The Spelling Agenda as a developmental curriculum A few concepts and rules can facilitate learning to spell correctly. It is important to introduce them at appropriate points in the writing lessons but never all at once. The best time is when a pupil makes an error and can be shown how to remember to write it correctly. Some useful concepts i). The 5 ‘vowels’ – the place they are made in the mouth is important. Use mirrors and other children to show the facial differences. a) Short vowel sounds a e i o u b) Long vowel sounds (names) A E I O U c) Double vowel oo has a long sound in food, school, tool, fool and a shorter vowel sound in cook, look, book, hook, took, stood d) Semi-vowel y (see below) Pupils should be encouraged to generate and collect some similar words in each category by analogy. ii). The 21 consonants BCD FGH JKL MNP QRS TVW X(Y)Z The (Y) is a semi-vowel as in yes (Y), my (I) and mystery (i and E). iii). Syllable structures – the beats in words a) Short vowel sound closed syllables CVC

pot, sip, lip, set, hop, bin.

CCVC stop, slip, grab CVCC post, list, past, lend In pairs pupils work out the syllable rule. How are they all the same? (Every syllable in English has a vowel in it)

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

59

b). Long vowel sound, closed syllables denoted by silent ‘e’ CVCe

hope, rope, line, lane

CCVCe shape, pride, stale In pairs pupils work out the rule ‘Silent e makes the vowel say its name’ (Magic E). iv). Other useful spelling examples 1. Teach semi-vowel ‘y’ and consonant Y at the beginning of words e.g. yes, yam, yarn and yacht. a) In the middle of words ‘y’ has its classic (i) sound e.g. mystery cyst. b) At the ends of words, it replaces the letter sound (E) e.g., city, Ratty, puppy, nanny. No proper English words end in (i) only the word ‘taxi’ which is a shortened form of ‘taximeter’. 2. C does not have a sound of its own and uses (s) or (k) sounds. Guess when from the following: city, cistern, car, circle, cost, coat, captain, cot, certain, cup, cusp, cycle, cyst, coffee, castle, café, cut, cerebral, circus In pairs pupils try to work out the rule for using sound (k) or (s) 3. Spelling the final –k sound. The options are: -ck, -ke, and -k. a) back, tack, black, duck. Use –ck after a short vowel sound in a singlesyllabled word b) bake, take, make, like, poke, pike. Use -ke after a long vowel sound in a single-syllabled word c) tank, bank, bunk, link, milk, silk, lark. Use –k after a consonant d) book, look, oak, seek, week, soak. Use –k after a vowel digraph (two vowels making one sound). 6. Some useful rules 1. l-f-s rule. In a one-syllabled word the final consonant must be doubled after l, f or s. Generate some examples ill, ball, tell, pull, call, sell, pill; off, tiff, buff cuff; pass, lass, kiss, miss, fuss There are 12 exceptions to the l-f-s rule e.g., yes, gas, this, bus, thus; if, of; pal, nil, gal, gel, until. Invent three sentences that can include them all.

60

Chapter Four

2. Team rule. (CVVC) “When two vowels go walking the first one usually does the talking”, rain, paint, cleats, load, tail, beam. 3. Suffixes and Prefixes. change the meaning of words and sentences Make a collection of each and their meanings e.g. a) Prefixes. anti-against, antifreeze; dis-opposite of, disappear; prebefore, prehistoric; re-again, return; semi-half, semicircle. b) Suffixes. –s more than one, dogs; -ing happening now, talking; -ed past tense, walked; -ly how, slowly; or when, lately. 4. The 4 Suffixing rules. Add, Double, Drop, Change. The most useful – double and drop, then add and change a) Doubling. HOP (cvc) short vowel, closed syllable. Use DOUBLING rule for adding vowel suffixes HOP-P-ING cut-t-ing, putting, running, bedding, sitting. In polysyllables after the short vowel sound, rudder, potter, kipper, cutter. b) Drop: HOPE (cvce) HOP-ING. After long vowel sound in a closed syllable, silent /e/ denotes the long vowel sound. DROP silent /e/ when adding vowel suffixes, roping, coping, riding, saving. c) Add: Just add consonant suffixes to basewords. Hope-less; hope-d. home-less; king-ship, child-ren. After consonants cvvc and cvcc just add vowel suffixes, sail-ed; talk-ing. d) Change: PAY Change /y/ to /i/ and add past tense (d) Pay-ed, paid; say sayed, said; lay, lay-ed, laid. Other words have not made the change-play, played. Sayed is still used in some areas in East Anglia.

7. Developing pupils’ spelling skills in subject areas Each subject or topic teacher should develop a list of standard words in their subject following the ‘Spells’ examples to share with the pupils. It could become part of the school’s and departmental policies.

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

61

The 15 Spells (for a barge trip) could be reworked for science, technology, history, geography, music etc. 1. CUT (cvc). Short vowel, closed syllable. DOUBLING rule for adding suffixes: cut-t-ing, putting, running, bedding, hopping, sitting, in polysyllables-rudder, potter, kipper, cutter 2. HULL (cvcc). Short vowel and l-f-s rule. Must double l-f-s after a short vowel in single syllables till, hill, pill; off, boff, sniff; hiss, miss, (12 exception words-if, gas, bus, yes, this etc.) 3. ROPE (cvce). After long vowel sound in closed syllables, silent /e/ denotes the long vowel sound. DROP rule silent /e/ when adding suffixes:roping, hoping, riding. 4. SAIL (cvvc) “When two vowels go walking the first one usually does the talking”- rain, paint, cleats, load, tear. bear Just ADD the suffix-raining, painted, cleated, loads. 5. COOK (cvvc) book, look, took, hook, good, double /oo/ short vowel sound, ADD rule, cooking, looking. MOON (cvvc). Long vowel sound /oo/ in noon, cool, saloon, zoom, room, tool, ADD rule – zooming, cooled. 6.. LIST (cvcc) short vowel followed by double consonants simply ADD rule applies-listing, rushed, missed, rusting, posted. Master, lasting, faster, bath - dialect change in south of England from short to longer /ar/ sound 7. BARGE (vowel +r, and g+e) r changes a in words-large, are, art, mart; e softens g -ge 8. WHEEL (wh digraph) teach as a Scottish sound. Teach /wh/ question words as a group, who, why, what, where, when, which. Teach the 6 consonant digraphs ch, ph, ch, sh, wh and th voiced and unvoiced. 9. LADEN (cv-cvc) open syllables. These words follow the long vowel rule in open syllables, o-pen, ba-con, spo-ken, la-den, bro-ken. Exceptions are: cabin, robin, rapid, vapid probably pronounced with the long vowels once or an effect of vowel ‘i’

62

Chapter Four

10. WATER (wa /or/ and wo /ir/ rules. W changes the vowel sounds of ‘a’ and ‘o’. As in war, ward, walk, warm. Work, world, whorl, word, worm, worst 11. PAY (cvy) CHANGE rule. Change y to i when suffixing. Instead of the regular form payed and sayed we change “y” to i” and add past tense suffix “d”, paid, said, laid. 12. ROUND diphthong /ou/ow sound is “ah –oo” or two sounds, ground, bound, found, sound, hound. rouse, louse; and row, cow; oi diphthong in oil, boil, toil. The /ow/ is also a digraph in low, row, know, sow, mow, tow. 13. SIGN cv-gn, silent letters. Family words will help with detecting some silent letters-sign, signal; bomb, bombardment. Some letters were once pronounced knife, knight, knave, knitting especially from the Norse language. 14. FINAL STABLE common syllables e.g. ‘-le’ and ‘-ly’; ‘-tion, ‘-sion’ and ‘-cian’, ‘-us’ and ‘-ous’ 15. PAIR ‘–air’ and ‘-are’ words. Pair, lair, stair and pare, stare, ware, glare.

8. Teaching Dictionary Skills Dictionary skills are very important and dyslexics in particular need specific help to learn them, they do not just absorb them by being around and using books. The important information is to know the alphabetical order and this is often begun by learning the alphabet song and playing alphabet games during phonics development. Dyslexic pupils in particular may have basic difficulties in learning the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet although they may be very bright. They do not appear to ‘crack’ this code if left to their own devices and the usual methods of teaching reading whether ‘Look and Say’ or ‘Phonics’ do not initially work for them as already explained. The problem is not one of sequencing but learning the arbitrary sounds and names of the alphabet and names of right and left hands and months of the year and days of the week. These are the dyslexics stuck in this problem and who by the age of 8 years or more have an incomplete alphabetical knowledge and are very poor at spelling as a result.

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

63

i) Alphabet arc Buy a set of wooden uppercase letters/capitals and ask the pupil to take a pile of the jumbled up letters and lay them out in alphabetical order in an arc naming them as s/he does so. Note the point at which performance falters and then teach letter recognition of the letter at which the error occurs by showing, naming and tracing the feel of the letter. Ask the pupil to trace it with the forefinger of the dominant hand, and visualise and verbalise what is felt and seen. Put the letters back in the pile or a feelie bag and ask the pupil to lay them out again, naming them and see how far he or she can get this time. Capital letters are used for this because their names are constant, they do not change. Reinforce all this with alphabet games. ii) Dictionary Quartiles Once the alphabet has been mastered then dictionary skills can be taught e.g. * Ask the pupils to open a normal “good” household or school dictionary at the approximate mid-point by eye 10 times in a row and record which letter of the alphabet comes up each time. It will be M for Middle. The Concise Oxford Dictionary or Chambers Dictionary give 5 different pieces of information about words. * Ask the pupils to open it again at the first quarter (quartile) and it will open at E for Eggs. Discuss why it could be helpful for finding words beginning with M and E. * In another session ask the pupils to find the first, middle and third quartiles (which will be S for Sausages) recording the results, each for 10 times. * In subsequent sessions get the pupil to study the letters of the alphabet to be found in each of the quartiles e.g. 1. A B C D

(APPLES)

2. E F G H I J K L M

(EGGS)

3. N O P G R

(NUTS)

4. S T U V W X Y Z

(SAUSAGES)

Each pupil should invent his or her own mnemonic for A E N S. One pupil in TRTS invented ‘African Elephants Need Sun’.

64

Chapter Four

* Put out the first letter of each quartile and ask the pupil to complete each quartile * Ask the pupil to find a specific word in the S category but must try to do it in only 4 moves * Repeat this with the word Dog in the D category Make sure this can all be done easily before moving on to more difficult locations.

Conclusion The contribution of spelling to learning to read in England has been largely ignored since the introduction of the Look and Say schemes in the 1950s that overtook what had come to be perceived as ‘the spelling grind’. As the majority of the children seemed to learn just as well by either method if it was systematic and well taught it did not seem to matter. But as indicated it did have certain drawbacks for some children that have only lately been revealed. The problem now is that teachers are also at a disadvantage as they had themselves been taught by Look and Say methods. Meaning emphasis methods have been promoted by the colleges whose tutors were beset by the same problems. Publishers have followed the trend and so teachers have been deskilled and find it difficult to operate an effective mixed methods system and teach a few spelling skills. It is also evident in the DfE framework that purports to be phonic guidance is really based upon rote training of visual combinations of letters the GPCs also in a look and say approach. English teachers who have studied linguistics do have a grasp of these issues but seldom are recognised for their skills and rarely become early years teachers or SENCos. However, they should take the lead with pupils in KS2, KS3 and KS4. For example, pupils in year 10 in a disadvantaged area confronted with more advanced vocabulary in Technology were unaware that syllabification and word meanings and origins as in CPSS, could enable them to write more spellings correctly (Schaapkins, 2009). Their strategies were rote learning and ‘Does it look right?’ The English specialist and SENCo could help all departments develop a set of strategies for dealing with new and technical vocabulary and this would be of special help to disadvantaged pupils and dyslexics. The research detailed with reception learners now needs to be replicated by others. They will need funding to ensure the teachers understand and use the protocols and thus will be able to establish the proposed links between

The Contribution of Spelling to Reading

65

MAPT, handwriting and spelling. This time control groups will help clarify the extent of the results. Further controlled studies will be needed to establish the effects of the CPSS and spelling and handwriting curricula in primary and secondary schools although the results reported are based upon casework and empirical studies with thousands of learners and their teachers over several decades by Montgomery, 1997a, 2007, 2017a, 2020. An alternative approach is for schools and teachers to take the initiative and to try the strategies thus building the body of custom and practice that can/will change the views at the DfE and the attitudes of psychological and educational researchers, changing the zeitgeist.

CHAPTER FIVE READING DEVELOPMENT FOR FLUENCY, ACCURACY AND COMPREHENSION

Introduction Reading development does not follow as a stage after reading acquisition. It occurs during and is intimately linked to acquisition. It does not end at a particular age or stage but can continue lifelong. What we need to reach is understanding, automaticity and fluency in reading any text both silently and aloud. This will occur at different ages and stages for different readers. Some are late to start reading and become fluent, others start reading selftaught in the pre-school period during shared reading and are fluent by 5 years old. Fluency will also vary with the type and complexity of the language of the texts. The better developed the oral skills of pupils the better they are equipped to read and understand what they read. It is therefore oracy or language work such as speaking and listening and experiential learning that need to be built into all curriculum subject teaching throughout the school years. Language development and comprehension is improved in the early years by more oracy work and experiences to talk about particularly in disadvantaged areas. Parents need to be helped understand and use the following high rates of: x x x x x x x

informative rather than supervisory or controlling language answering children’s questions active rather than passive play adults to whom the child is exposed outings per week expansion of child’s utterances by adults extensive reinforcement and feedback not on the truth of utterances. (Tizard et al, 1984)

68

Chapter Five

They found a negative correlation with TV watching and these findings are regularly confirmed today and the concerns are now about screen time.

1. Reading Levels The following is a general overview of reading levels that can be observed when children read. It indicates the stages of development that they may pass through. x Independent level - the level at which children read with fluency, understanding, enjoyment and accuracy, without supervision or help. They will make no more than 1 error per 100 words, comprehension is at least 90%, and they use a natural tone and rhythm. x Instructional level - the material presents some difficulties, but whilst some help is needed, much of the material is well within existing competence. It is at this level that children can benefit from direct teaching. They make 5 to 7 or more errors per 100 words, their comprehension is at least 75 per cent, and their silent reading is faster than their oral reading. x Frustration level - children are unable to cope with material at this level. They will make many errors. Reading is slow, hesitant and insecure, they cannot really understand the text and tend to be easily distracted from it. They read orally without rhythm and in an unnatural voice or monotone with frequent refusals and errors, tension is obvious. They comprehend less than half the text. Stop the test to prevent distress. • Capacity level - at this level the child can understand 75% of the material when it is read aloud by someone else. It gives a measure of the child's understanding of the language in the material. Whilst this is useful to know it is difficulty to test and is therefore rarely used. The Neale Analysis of Reading Acquisition (NARA, 1997) is one of the tests that providesa a range of short texts to help determine a pupil’s level of skill. When comprehension is much better than accuracy this is an indication of higher than average abiltity and potential dyslexia.

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

69

2. The Hearing Reading method According to Vera Southgate-Booth (1986) the main method of developing early reading skill was to hear individual children read. She also recommended small group and whole class reading. She found that the class teacher was responsible for teaching children to read and improve their reading performance, others had a marginal influence. The DfE (1998) in the National Literacy Strategy imposed a ‘literacy hour’ for a short period and defined the skills that would be taught within each 20 minute section. It included individual, group and whole class teaching. But there were many deficiencies found in the practice and literacy did not significantly improve as determined im Key Stage SATs. As a response the Rose Report was comissioned (Rose, 2006) leading to the Phonics First recommendation and subsequent frameworks and guidance doocuments. Nevertheless hearing reading remained a main preoccupation for Key Stage 1 teachers and TAs. Informal Reading Inventories IRIs can be used by teachers for assessment during observation and then intervention to develop reading skills. Their use stems from the assumption that every child has not only one reading age but a distribution of reading age levels. A child's reading level is not only related to reading ability, but also to the nature of the reading task, the text complexity and a whole range of motivational factors. Informal reading inventories were originally designed for use in a more clinical setting than the classroom. The child would be given a series of graded passages and the reading level on each piece would be tested. The teacher or whoever was overseeing the assessment, would then compare quantitatively the child's ability in various aspects such as reading out loud, accuracy, and reading speed in comparison with their comprehension of the text (Neale, 1958, NARA 1997). The IRI given here is modified so that it can be used on a day-to-day basis in the classroom. It will not give reading ages for the pupils but will show how they are coping with the material, and give a rough idea of how this compares with others in the same group. It will also help identify areas of intervention that need attention. One of the common methods for helping young readers improve their skills is to hear them read on a daily basis. This becomes difficult when a lone teacher has a class of 30. Mrs D.’s method was to hear them in

70

Chapter Five

matched groups of three at her desk. She claimed that because she knew the texts so well she could hear when any individual made a mistake and would be able to go back and help overcome the error at a pause point. Her readers were the best of 4 other classes and she was also the best and most organised and systematic teacher of reading according to the head teacher (Montgomery, 1977). The categories in the HRI below are, with their examples, mainly self explanatory. The HRI can be used with any book that the pupil elects to read or that the teacher selects. There are three main categories in which the intervention can take place these are: Word attack skills, Comprehension skills, and Audience effect, the other categories can be used for intervention or to monitor the effects of intervention in the other areas. The record card can be used to document formal evidence of progress or the inventory list can be held in mind and used separately just for teaching interventions. Table 5.1. An Informal Hearing Reading Inventory: Monthly Progress Record - using an HRI First Name: or code Chronological Age: Date of Birth: Reading Age: Reading Scheme: Reading Test: Spelling Age: Spelling Test: Dates Examples (use ticks if Month possible) Text Reading scheme book and page number. Criticism if any. (Gender, race, class bias) Word Attack Guesses from initial sound. Skills Tries blend. Self corrects. Syllabifies. Uses onset and rime. Uses analogy. Note 2 errors for later work

At Test

Post Test

Class:

Month

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

Comprehension Skills

Audience Effects

Behavioural Signs

Emotional Signs

Other Comments

71

Can answer factual recall questions. Can predict using picture, syntax or general meaning. Answers inferential question. Pauses at full stops. All one tone. Word by word reading. Drops voice at full stop. Reads in units of meaning. Speed too fast/slow. Takes account of speech marks. Fluent. Reads with good audience effect. Reading position close to page or too distant. Body posture. Finger or bookmark used. Above or below line? Hand not used. Smooth eye scan. Tenseness cues: Jiggling, Breathlessness Nervous smiling. Avoidance of task if possible. Lack of fluency Monotone. Select one thing to help the next weeks’ reading e.g., using initial sound to help guess words. Teach appropriate sounds.

Example of the HRI in use: TEXT: The train is going under the bridge. Child Reads:

"The train is goin' under the --- "

Pauses looks at picture on left hand page, fails to decipher it, reads "tunnel".

72

Chapter Five

Begins to jig, is reading word-by-word in high pitched monotone, fixed nervous smile (showing both upper and lower teeth). Points at words with forefinger. During three short pages of reading in this manner she makes no use of initial sounds to help guess words in context her substitution of ‘tunnel’ for ‘bridge’ is but one example of this. Even when it is suggested to her that she tries the first sound she does not do so. Suggested reading development interventions for her: x Present randomised letters of the alphabet a few at a time to discover which sounds, if any, she does know and then persuade her to use this information in her next reading session. x Concentrate very much on confidence building and praising each small effort she makes. x Ask her to reread the text paragraph by paragraph and find out if her fluency improves. Several re-readings may help. x Some readers may benefit by having their reading slowed down because they are reading too fast for their level of skill so make errors and fail to comprehend what they read. x Some will need an easier text to match their reading ability if slowing down and rereading does not help x The finger pointing is actually directing the word-by-word reading and so after the word attack skills have been worked on give her a bookmark to place above the words and explain it is because she is making such good progress. The bookmark should be above the words so that the eyes can move on ahead and down to the next line so that meaning can be preserved and observed. x Once she is comfortable with the bookmark and is using word attack skills as they are taught attention can be turned to further aspects of the reading. As confidence and skill build the jigging and tense smiling will stop and the focus can be on audience effects. Pausing and dropping the voice at the end of a sentence, at the full stop can begin the work on this.

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

73

3. Other developmental strategies Onset and rime strategy for decoding in Reading The important idea is to continue teaching reading in the way that is typical in the school but start MAPT sessions separately and every day. Slow developers, disadvantaged and potentially dyslexic children quickly become confused if they do not identify the articulatory feel of the letters. x The strategy of noticing the feel of the sounds of letters can be introduced during hearing reading using the onset and rime strategy for decoding words in context, e.g. ‘The boy ran to the b-us’. x It can also be taught when they start to write or copy their names. x Use the I-Spy game to reinforce onsets. x Potential dyslexics find onsets difficult at first, showing lack of phonic awareness teach MAPT. Details may be found in Appendix 8.8. 14 more developmental strategies Silent reading- It was not uncommon before the NC for many schools to set aside a period of up to half an hour every day for this. Group reading- Pupils read along with two other readers silently or aloud. Story time- With the arrival of ‘Big Books’ which the class could see the teacher would read the book and the group could follow. It also meant that pupils could also follow the reading in their own small books or could do this in small groups of readers. Story time in school and at home is widely advocated. Bedtime stories at home need to be promoted and shared or audio CDs can be used where parents may also have difficulties. A school library of CDs that children can choose to take home or ‘feeds’ given that they can download via their iPhones etc. Parent involvement- Parents and carers have always been encouraged to read bedtime stories to their children and most parents do. It has also been used to calm overactive children. Their parents have been trained to set aside 10 minutes before every bedtime to sit down and read to the child who sits beside them. It is also important for children to see both their parents reading books. Sometimes local sports icons are invited to come into schools and read to the pupils, trying to provide motivating models to

74

Chapter Five

follow. It is sometimes used to indicate that boys are allowed to read and it is not just a ‘girlie thing’. Serials- Regular story time has been a feature of all infant and now KS1 school practice and was often continued into junior school (KS2) but not in all schools now because of the over-filled nature of the National Curriculum. Serial story reading is still popular with pupils and encourages them to reread the book or find a copy and read ahead to see what happens next. In secondary school story time can also be very effective, for example the English teacher who read some of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English then in modern form. The science teacher who read of Leuwenhoek’s discovery aloud in serial form at the end of lessons to calm the pupils. Rhymes, poetry and song- The importance of learning and chanting nursery rhymes and choral speaking cannot be underestimated in developing reading. As the words are memorised they can be shown on screens and in books and pupils begin to feel they are reading and it promotes implicit learning. When pupils learn the words of pop songs and hymns they can also learn to recognise and read them too and it can be especially motivating for less skilled readers to find how easy it is for once. Memorable was the English teacher who would conduct the class in a choral recitation of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Taped reading and audio stories- Following text in a book whilst listening to it on audio can also be supportive. This is especially so when the pupils read into the recorder and then follow the text as they listen to their own recordings. This is the ARROW (Aural – Read – Respond – Oral – Write) technique found effective by Lane (1990). Libraries- School libraries are an important resource but space, finance and management can present problems for small schools. They are however becoming more important as public local libraries are closing. Schools could encoutage parents to contribute books their children no longer read. Book Clubs- These are not uncommon where a small group of pupils elect to read a particular book and discuss it often with the oversight of the teacher or a mentor. Book Corner- It is important for every primary classroom to have such a corner where books of all sorts can be consulted, selected and read for

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

75

information or pleasure. In secodanry schools specialist rooms can have a bookcase for reference or extended subject reading that pupils can use. Repeat Reading- The children simply read a piece of text silently then aloud several times until fluency is achieved. Shared Reading- Children share books and read together independent of the teacher, or sometimes they read with an adult. Parents are encouraged to read with their children at home and be seen reading by their children, fathers as well as mothers. Shared reading is an important way of promoting implicit learning or self-teaching. Paired reading- The adult reads along with the child and when the child is reading well fades out and stops leaving the child to continue. If the child falters, the adult joins in again. They sit side by side and if children want to continue on their own they just raise a hand and the adult must stop, joining in again if the hand is raised again. It is a way of conducting regular practice sessions and ensuring that each reader has individual attention whilst reading each day. There is no actual teaching from the parent/adult. Pause, prompt and praise- was originally developed for use with children with particular difficulties and has been used in primary and secondary schools in this way. Pause, prompt and praise emphasises very frequent praise for correct reading. The praise is elaborated so that the child will be clear about what aspect of the performance is being praised. Usually children use books that are slightly above their independent reading level. The child reads the book aloud to the tutor. When a mistake occurs the tutor pauses for at least five seconds, to give the child time to self-correct. If s/he does not self-correct, the tutor helps or prompts in one of three ways, according to the nature of the error made e.g. x If the mistake makes sense, the child is given clues about the way the word looks e.g. asked about a letter sound that has been mispronounced, or the onset is suggested.. x If the mistake did not make sense, the child is prompted with clues about the meaning of the story, e.g. asked a question about the content. x If the child says nothing, encourage reading on to the end of the sentence or to re-read the whole sentence in order to extract clues from the context.

76

Chapter Five

If the child does not get the word correct after two prompts, the word is given. Praise should be given, when the child reads a sentence correctly, when self-correcting and when a word is correct after a prompt.

4. The 'Apprenticeship Approach' and real books The Apprenticeship technique was demonstrated by Liz Waterland (1984). This system is summed up in the view that people learn things best by doing them, thus we learn to drive by driving, to swim by swimming, to talk by talking and to read by reading. It follows that instead of teaching the various skills of reading separately and expecting the children to put them together, reading skills only become meaningful if they arise out of the experience of reading. As early as 1936, Witty and Kopel, in a survey of pre-reading teaching and research, came to the same conclusion that the only useful pre-reading materials were words themselves. Pictures of trees and word objects lacked ecological validity as training materials. Waterland arranged the classroom to resemble a comfortable home environment with books, a carpet and an easy chair capable of seating the teacher and a beginning reader as they read together.

5. Language experience methods Pupils are helped to write their own storybooks with illustrations to read to friends, parents and the teacher. Older pupils write illustrated storybooks to read to children in the Early Years

6. Listening dogs Children read to real dogs trained to listen.

7. Reading comprehension strategies In addition to developing fluency and automaticity, reading involves the use of what are called Study Skills at several levels e.g. i) Basic or lower order study skills such as: x Locating information, using tables of contents, indices, titles and subheadings, and consulting web sources.

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

77

x Use of general reference material such as alphabetising, use of dictionaries and encyclopaedias and the internet. x The interpretation of visual materials such as pictures, diagrams, maps, graphs and charts, videos and film. x The organising of material such as by outlining, classifying under headings and subheadings, sequential ordering of material in text or for reporting back on what has been read or experienced. x Constructing time lines, classification tables and summarising. ii) Comprehension skills Reading comprehension serves many different purposes and has a number of levels of complexity merging into higher order skills for example: x x x x x

Reading for specific information Reading to organise Reading to evaluate Reading to interpret Reading to order and appreciate

In addition to these purposes the nature of the type and level of comprehension may vary e.g. Comprehension of: x x x x

Factual information Inferential information Generalisations and genres Abstract meaning

Although government guidelines encourage teachers to introduce pupils to a range of genres when promoting reading this does not always have the desired effect. What young and old readers tend to do is find a book they have enjoyed and then immerse themselves in that genre before moving on. iii) Higher order study skills - Critical comprehension. This will involve the use of thinking strategies at literal, logical, interpretative, critical and creative levels. In the process we may reflect on ideas presented, tap into the writer’s organisational plan, relate new ideas to old using mental imagery. All of these activities are potentially at work together and are essentially a constructive learning activity in that the reader is actively engaged in making meaning.

Chapter Five

78

iv) Critical reading skills. The following list of skills needed for critical reading was determined by Spache, (1961) and later used by RoyceAdams (1977), the Schools Council (1980) and Weinstein et al., (1988), Montgomery (1991) and many others since in study skills research. x x x x x x

Recognising purpose and intent Distinguishing fact from opinion Making inferences Forming judgments Detecting bias and propaganda Evaluating argument

8. Thinking Skills and Reading Models of teaching and learning Robert Paul (1990) identified two pathways in teaching and learning, the didactic and traditional route involving direct transmission of knowledge to the learner and the critical theory route. This latter involved critical questioning of what was to be learnt. Paul summarised these as learning what to think (didactics) as opposed to learning how to think (critical theory). The following outline of Paul’s work shows a summary of the fundamental needs of students: Didactic Theory Students are taught more or less WHAT to think, not how to think. They are given details, definitions explanations, rules and guidelines to learn.

Critical Theory Students are taught HOW, not what to think. They focus on significant content with live issues. They are given reasons to learn, gather, analyse and assess content.

According to Paul, most education worldwide was still geared to inducing monological thinking that is single track and context defined because of the overuse of didactic methods whereas critical thinking is what was needed. Critical thinking is: x The art of identifying and reversing bias, prejudice and onesidedness of thought; x The art of self-directed, in depth, rational thinking;

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

79

x Thinking that rationally certifies what we know and makes clear where we are ignorant. (Paul, 1990, p.32)

In Europe, South east Asia and much of the rest of the world didactic methods predominate in schools (Skilbeck, 1987; Wallace et al., 2006). In the UK since 1992 DfE documents regularly emphasise the need for teachers to engage in challenging questioning and teaching for ‘cognitive stretch’ (Higgins, 2002). However the overfilled national curriculum provides a barrier to such methods and teacher education and higher education in general does not model critical theory except perhaps in drama, the visual arts and business studies (Montgomery, 2021). If a challenging question is posed it requires some thought and an extended answer from an individual. Meanwhile the rest of the class must be silent and listen and perhaps formulate a response. In large classes of 20 to 30 of young people this is not a workable procedure and disruption soon arises and the teacher can lose control as everyone wants to make their answer heard. This is where the TPS, Think-Pair-Share strategy in the ‘Talking Curriculum’ becomes essential (Montgomery, 2000, 2002). It makes an opportunity for everyone to think of a response and tell it to a partner then the teacher can ask a few to explain their ideas. All have been heard and engaged in legitimate constructive classroom talk.

9. Research and Cognitive Study Skills These exemplify ways in which cognitive stretch can be achieved and some examples follow. The following may apply to textual, visual, auditory and performance material:

* Locating the main points and subordinate ones. * * * * * * *

Flow-charting. Completion activities. Prediction activities. Sequencing. Comparing and contrasting. Drafting and editing. Organising, tabulating, classifying, diagramming, categorising. Ordering.

Chapter Five

80

* * * *

Drawing inferences and abstractions. Recognising intent, bias and propaganda. Planning. Managing one's learning and keeping it on task and on schedule.

These sorts of study skills are different from those that involve lower order activities such as using a dictionary or an index and finding one's way about a book and what its main contents are, or recovering factual information (comprehension) from text and making notes to write a summary or an essay. Some examples of finding the Main Point(s) !a. Listening for the main point This task has been used from 5 year-olds in Reception to adults in teacher education programmes. It was a strategy suggested by Edward de Bono (1983). Individuals are asked to think about something random e.g., Noses. A volunteer then offers to talk about the subject for 30 seconds. One adult talked memorably about her husband’s nose. The 5 year-olds did no less well but at first could not sustain the talk for 30 seconds whereas the adult went on for over two minutes. After the talk the listeners are asked to think what ‘targets’ they noticed. Typical nose targets were–shapes, functions, animal noses, medical issues, anthropological noses, historical and literature noses and so on. The ‘noses’ task was used prior to the children’s study of the senses and the sense of smell. Thus, finding the main point can be used as a precursor or ‘ice breaker’ to many lessons when the teacher or lecturer wishes to know what knowledge base the students are already working from. It brings the topic to mind and makes the cognitive structures active and ready to connect with new information. It can be used as a starter about castles in history, settlements in geography, angles in maths and so on. 1b. Reading for the Main point This is a key tactic in any reading of text and especially necessary when undertaking research. The author’s main point in a paragraph, an article or chapter even a whole book may be expressed overtly and clearly at the outset or may appear later. It may also be implicit and hidden within or

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

81

between the lines. The following extract and main point exercise was taken from Royce-Adams (1977, p. 145). With a food surplus, the Pueblos were able to turn their attention to other activities besides locating or growing food. In one particular area - pottery making - the Pueblos developed a high degree of artistry. Potters became artists and developed individualised techniques, painting fine-lined geometric designs as well as reproductions of life forms on their vessels. Paints were improved and pottery has been found that contains three or four different colours. (From Columbus to Aquarius, Dryden Press 1975). Identify the main point of this extract: ___________________ and then decide which of the following writing patterns is exemplified in it. a. illustration-example e. cause and effect b. definition f. description c. comparison-contrast g. a mixture, state which d. sequence of events Writing pattern? ________________________________________ Pupils can then practice writing the Pueblo passage in another one of the different patterns to get the feel of the different options available in writing any passage. It can be done individually or in collaborative pairs. 1. c. Reading poetry for its main ideas and poem construction Read the poem written by Sir Walter Raleigh and find its main point and identify the type of structure he uses. “What is our life? A play of passion; Our mirth, the music of division; Our mother's wombs the tiring houses be Where we are dressed for this short comedy Heaven the judicious sharp spectator, That sits and marks still doth act amiss Our graves that hide us from the searing sun Are the drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus, march we playing to our latest rest; Only we die in earnest - that's no jest.”

The main point for the reader to find is that he says ‘Life is like a play’.

Chapter Five

82

This is a simile. (A metaphor is that ‘Life is a play’). After this he uses the main idea and illustrates it with play examples e. g. The audience’s laughter is like the music between the Acts; the mothers’ womb like the dressing rooms; Heaven is the audience; and the grave is like the final curtain. Using the simile ‘Life is like an apple’ to construct a poem on the same sort of basis as Raleigh had done was undertaken in pairs and threes by teachers on a Continuing Professional Development training course. It was also used to illustrate the way in which pupils can be encouraged to engage in legitimate talk in the classroom. After 5 to 10 minutes the groups were asked to read their deliberations so far. The types of approach were then elicited from their responses. This mainly involved some lengthy starter descriptions of apples and growth factors. It was a hard task. However, one pair of head teachers after a few minutes burst out laughing and declared they had finished and began to talk of other things. After a few presentations by others, they offered to read out their work and it ran as follows: “From seed to core And nothing more Naught but rot In store”.

There was a stunned silence and then a big round of applause. It was a remarkably creative response by the two Dundee heads. Flowcharting main and subordinate ideas 1.d. Reading for the main point to summarise and produce a flow diagram of the logical structure of the paragraph, a chapter or a research paper for its structure, main and subordinate points Teacher education students were given an empty flow chart of a research article and sent off to work on the task as individuals, pairs or small groups as they preferred. They were to hand in their completed flow charts at the beginning of the next week’s seminar when the full paper would be presented by them and discussed. Marks would be awarded for the flow charts. Several of the groups said they had spent nearly 5 hours puzzling out what to put in the empty flow chart boxes. They demonstrated in the seminar that they really knew the contents of the research paper.

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

83

1.e. Underlining and highlighting. These techniques are widely used when reading a text in preparation for note-taking to identify important ideas. They allow immediate access to the key issues on the occasion of notetaking or re-reading. But should only be used by the text owner. 1.f. Keywords. It is common now for writers of research papers to be asked to identify 5 or 6 key words to direct the attention of search engines. The strategy is also useful for pupils to learn and can be a substitute for writing lengthy paragraphs. It is easy to mark and fulfills the purpose. It is helpful for those with writing problems but of course can be easy to copy and avoid any ‘brain engage’ work. 1.g. Mind or concept maps. This can be a way of summarising previous knowledge and the main ideas and adding new information to it in a shortened form. It uses word association techniques. Any topic can be involved e.g., ‘police’ in a session on attitudes and crime. Each mind map will be individual and show a number of meanings. Dyslexics are often advised to use this strategy. Sequencing training 2.a. Pupils may be asked to write a list of instructions to their partner peer on how to boil and egg or make a cup of tea; in maths how to make a cube, or in science how to light a Bunsen Burner having seen it done. The peer then tries to follow the instructions and shares the logic or lack of it and the omissions. The process involves legitimate pupil talk, reflection, questioning and cognitive challenge at an optimal level. 2.b. Older pupils might be asked to reassemble paragraphs in a logical order about Church versus State and Henry VIII. This will help them remember more than his 6 wives. 2.c. Structure and order in texts. In research projects pupils and students need to think not only about the overall structure of their reports but also about the structure of each section. They can be taught that a useful project structure runs as follows: The chapter/section structures will vary but the side headings should indicate the underlying theme e.g. an issues basis; a chronological order; or themes. All need an introduction, a logical sequential structure in relation to the theme and a summary.

84

Chapter Five

2.e. Story sequences, structures and genres. At the simplest levels children are introduced to a beginning, middle and end sequence in stories they are going to write. To this is added examples and ideas about genres and how stories might be developed such as, setting the scene; introducing the characters; the main event; consequences, ending(s). They explore texts to identify how an author deals with them. Distinguishing Fact from Opinion. Pupils often make no distinction between a fact and an opinion and in current times between facts, factoids or false facts. In this exercise they would discuss the extract with a partner and put F or O beside the appropriate segments. London Could Drown This Winter’ It would happen because over the centuries Britain has been slowly tilting. London is sinking probably because of all the weight of people and buildings in the South East and the tide in the Thames is rising because of global warming. The biggest threat is a combination of heavy rain in the head waters of the Thames and fast drainage into the river from all the towns downstream. Severe weather conditions in the Atlantic and the North Sea and low air pressure combined with the tides backed up by a northerly gale will cause an enormous surge of water down the East Coast of Britain as in 1953 and up into the capital’s river meeting the overflow from down river. More than a million Londoners living in low lying areas and flood plains each side of the Thames from Richmond to Havering could find their homes, roads, shops, factories, hospitals and schools under water. Faced with such an appalling risk the GLC built a permanent defence-the Thames Barrier at Woolwich. It was the biggest moveable flood barrier ever built. It has been dubbed one of the ‘wonders of the world’ and it has worked. But can it prevent more flooding in this century? Summariising. This is another poweful reflective learning stratgey, often called Precis. It can take many forms:

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

85

x Making a critical book review in 600 words, or a chapter in 250. x Writing a summary for the end of a chapter x Making an abstract at the beginning of a chapter or article in 150 words. x Identifying 5 key words to represent the content in a newspaper article or chapter in a book x Writing a minisaga of a child’s story book in exactly 50 words x Using 7 words to sum up your life so far x Writing 5 critical points about a text, a chapter etc x Write 10 bullet points to summarise a chapter or article x Make a diagram to summarise an area of knowledge x Write an 80 word biography of your life so far/or of a famous person in history from your town or city etc. Questioning text, a presentation or film The type of questions will vary but the purpose is the need to reflect on text or film and ask: What is the author / presenter trying to say? What is the point that the data makes-does it match up to the claims? Does the text / film explain what it sets out to? What do I still need to know? Do I understand all the words and issues? Does it make sense to me? If not why not? What other explanation is there? For example: In the book by Bach, Jonathon Livingstone Seagull, there are at least three levels of understanding. Readers need to be introduced to hidden meanings, levels and subtexts. This is often achievable by comparing stories of the same event written in different newspapers. When groups of Reception children were given the front pages of a range of newspapers to examine and discuss for main themes they quickly

86

Chapter Five

identified 5 main themes – sex, crime, royals, disasters and money. They then designed the front page of their own class newspaper.

9. Vocabulary Vocabulary was found to be a good predictor of later reading development (Hietland et al., 2017) and had impacts across the curriculum especially in Maths preventing them reaching the expected standard when vocabulary was limited. A child who knows lots of spoken words is much better equipped to master reading than a child from a linguistically deprived or disadvantaged background. If a word has been heard before it is easier to learn to read it correctly. Shuard et al., (1980) found that many pupils’ maths difficulties were unrelated to the mathematics but arose from the reading and language difficulties and the 7 specialist language demands of the subject itself e.g. Vocabulary-some words are only used in maths (hypotenuse, coefficient) or have a special meaning (product, field). Symbolic language-x means times and x=3 means x replaces 3; xy means x times y. Sentence structures-they follow English grammatical conventions but often refer to other sentences 'Applying the above rule......' Flow of meaning in text-not all the meaning units are in the text but have to be inferred or questions are asked about them. Special reading techniques are needed-not only do we have to read the symbols we have to have the spatial awareness to appreciate the full meaning (e.g. use of brackets). Appearance of the text- clear layout and pleasing appearance can increase readability and motivation to read. Ambiguities in the text- e.g. 'Do you know another way to construct a right angle?' The response required is not clear. Waldfogel et al., (2010) found that there was a vocabulary gap in young readers with a 20-month gap at age 5 years between the rich and the poor. By the end of Year 2 disadvantaged children could be two years behind the average pupils and four years behind the most advantaged (Biemiller, (2005).

Reading Development for Fluency, Accuracy and Comprehension

87

In a sample of 400,000 children Spencer et al., (2019) found that of the weak readers only 0.01% had a typically developing vocabulary (which they defined as above the 25th centile). Vocabulary also impacts right across the curriculum. The Department for Education (DfE, 2017) found, those with poor spoken language skills (including vocabulary) are at great risk in literacy and an even greater risk in mathematics. The children who were behind in language development at age five were six times less likely to reach the expected standard in English at age eleven, and 11 times less likely to achieve the expected level in maths. Children with poor vocabulary at 5 years of age had worse outcomes than typically developing peers at 34 years across a range of life measures (Law et al., 2009).

Conclusion Comprehension is the higher order literacy skill that is intimately involved at all stages of learning to read and write. Chall identified two phases in becoming literate and these were ‘Learning to read’ and then ‘Reading to learn’. But comprehension is involved across both processes and questioning pupils’ understanding of what they read as they learn to read is an important activity. The texts chosen are critical to this process and the content often needs to be more interesting and motivating than it currently is. A significant component in comprehension is the limited nature of the experience of many children so that they have not developed the vocabulary they need to make the most of what they read and write. Disadvantage and poverty are significant limiting factors in this respect but schools can compensate for this by opening up to experiential learning. Learning in most schools is still essentially sedentary when children need to be engaged in much more active learning especially in Key Stages 1 to 3. Visits to museums, local features, gardens and parks, walls, hedges, pavements and stations, rivers and beaches etc. and learning to look closely at them all elicit conversation, increase vocabulary as well as experience and provide material to think and write about. We can study the wall or the flower, discuss what we see and perhaps write a poem or a story about it, all food for creativity. Teachers in content areas can contribute by making structures and strategies for reading in their subject areas explicit as shown in the examples in this chapter.

CHAPTER SIX THE CONTRIBUTION OF HANDWRITING TO READING

Introduction Handwriting is an overlooked component in the teaching of reading and handwriting difficulty is the Cinderella of SEN provision. However, research by Karin James et al., (2012) uncovered the important contribution that handwriting makes to reading. Preliterate five-year old children printed, typed, or traced letters and shapes, then were shown images of these stimuli while undergoing fMRI scanning. A previously documented ‘reading circuit’ was recruited during letter perception only after handwriting not after typing or tracing experiences. They found that the initial duplication process mattered a great deal. When children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write. By contrast children who typed or traced the letter or shape showed no such effects. They concluded that in free-form handwriting attention to form, planning and action are required but this is not the case when we have a traceable outline to follow. It indicated that freeform writing must be a specific component in handwriting teaching in Reception and Year 1 to support reading. It was also found to be an essential contribution to remediating dyslexia in all the original specialist dyslexia programmes discussed earlier. Virginia Berninger’s (2012) analysis was that handwriting differed from typing because it required executing sequential strokes to form a letter, keyboarding involves selecting a whole letter by touching a key. Brain scans illustrated that sequential finger movements activated massive regions involved in thinking, language and working memory. This is the system for temporarily storing and managing information and makes teaching methods for handwriting much more significant than the tracing and copying strategies that are widely in use in England.

Chapter Six

90

Using a teacher questionnaire (N=39) Anna Barnett and her colleagues in 2006, found that although most teachers considered handwriting to be an important skill, school policies for the teaching of handwriting varied and many teachers were not well prepared to teach it, and there was little time for children to practice. In addition, teachers often found teaching writing challenging and reported being inadequately prepared to teach it (Graham et al., 2008, 2014). The model of writing development adopted by the DfE (2006, 2013) was a simple one and is described as the product of the development of transcription (spelling and handwriting), text generation skills at word, sentence and text level, and executive functions including planning, reviewing and revising and this defined the research of Julie Dockrell et al., (2016). Berninger (2008) however in her extensive studies of writing over several decades proposed a more complex triangular model in which handwriting and its developmental skills and patterns are on one side of the triangle, spelling skills, patterns and developments on the other (the two basic skills) and the platform linking them is the higher order skills of composition and executive functions. Decoupling handwriting from spelling in the research to be reported has proved insightful in helping struggling writers and in promoting their spelling and reading. The investigations were prompted by student teachers’ needs on teaching practices to help struggling writers and those with dyslexia, beginning well before the National Curriculum was introduced.

1. DfE on Developing motor skills for handwriting i) In the early years the general guidelines expect that by the age of 5 years a child should have good control over large and small movements, move confidently in a range of ways and handle equipment and tools effectively including pencils for writing. Between 3 to 5 years, a teacher should be able to expect a child to have: x x x x x x

Established hand dominance Be able to circle with pencil anti-clockwise and clockwise Make vertical strokes Form letters correctly Copy some letters Use one-handed tools

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

91

x Use eating utensils correctly x Dress self This may be the expected skills level but as many as a third of a Reception class may not be able to perform all these items. In disadvantaged areas only a few children may have these competencies, many cannot dress themselves and are not toilet trained. Teachers and TAs therefore need more advice during training to be able help these children. Parenting classes and studies for parenting in secondary schools are also a necessary component as recommended to government by the Fawcett Society Education Committee chaired by Judith Parris, as early as 1982. Fawcett is named after Dame Millicent Fawcett leading suffragist, to whom a statue was recently erected in Parliament Square, London. ii) DfE (2017) Handwriting SATs. The criteria for each attainment level in Writing were defined as follows: Key Stage 1: (ages 6-7) Working towards the expected standard •

•

•

•

•

Forming lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place (Comment: This is more easily achieved with cursive and by Reception year children) Forming lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another in some of the writing (Cursive and double lines can support this especially as fluency develops) Using the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters in some of their writing (Cursive enables this in all of the writing from the outset) Writing capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower case letters (Check for coordination difficulties in Chapter 7) Using spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters (Defined by the letter ‘o’ not a finger)

Working at greater depth within the expected standard. (What does this involve?) Key Stage 2 (ages 10 -11) Working towards the expected standard •

Producing legible joined handwriting.ီWorking at the expected standard (This should be achievable by the end of Key Stage 1, not KS2)

Chapter Six

92

•

•

Maintaining legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether or ီnot to join specific letters. Working at greater depth within the expected standard. (With cursive this can all be achieved by most pupils by the end of Year 1 and Year 2 by all) No additional requirements

It is evident that the guidance describes what is seen in successful children’s scripts using traditional methods rather than what should or could be seen with different guidance. It is also problematic that the Guidance recommends teaching a simple print first them working towatds joining, not recognising that once a motor programme for print is established it is difficult to change to a joined one. If the child has some coordination difficulties then learning two motor programmes rather than settling on just one from the outset is very problematic and disadvantages the disadvantaged even further.

Figure 6.1. Alice age 7 had been taught to make ligatures but to no purpose. It has also resulted in extra flourishes, errors that will be difficult to overcome now they are established motor programmes. There are also a number of legibility problems that will need correcting, see Chapter Seven for T-HFL a Test of Handwriting Form and Legibility.

iii) DfE (2021) Framework for Reading The document advises that ‘lead-in’ lines and ‘cursive from the beginning’ are no longer required. This appears to be based upon the head teachers’ views collected by OFSTED in 2015.

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

93

15 April 2021 · “Breaking News! The DfE announces the end of the leadin stroke and teaching cursive handwriting from the start.” BBC website.

This puts us back to the Handwriting wars of the 1980s where custom and practice wins over children’s needs, research evidence and historical evidence where all children learned Civil Service Hand from the outset in the 1920s (See Figure 2.2). Children in those days learnt this handwriting form from the outset and it is only modified in a small way today by omitting loops above the body line to aid clarity although these were maintained for longer as well as cursive in Scotland.

2. Handwriting i) Copy writing- Copy writing was usually used to support Look and Say methods for teaching reading when children copied their ‘news’. The assumption being that spelling would be ‘caught’ as Margaret Peters (1967; 1985) found and reading reinforced. Copy writing, a 19th century tradition, is often given little attention in busy classrooms because it occupies the children quietly whilst the teacher can hear individuals read. What it also does is introduce vocabulary beyond the Look and Say schemes and requires some attention to the visual forms of the letters. But it does not necessarily involve subvocalisation and sounding out as freeform writing does so is relatively ineffective on both counts. However as writing practice it can help strengthen pencil grip and control. In Figure 6.2 below Harry was set to copy his news but had clearly not been taught how letters are most efficiently formed using a single line (monoline) format. The form he is given to copy is also poor and has a capital P in the middle of the sentence showing the TA needed training. The letters in the word ‘went’ in the TAs’ model for example start at 4 different points. If Harry had been given a line to copy on it would have provided a single starting point to aim for after the capital I. It would also have helped if he had been given some pattern recognition features analysis training (Montgomery, 1977; 1979; Farnham-Diggory, 1978). See Appendix 8D on Mediations for pattern recognition training for reading.

94

Chapter Six

Figure 6.2. Harry aged 4.9 years ‘a rising 5’ has drawn his letters.

ii) Freeform news and story writing- Children are often set at regular intervals to write their news or a story without any spelling or handwriting help from the teacher or TA. If they are given lines to write on, they can organise their attempts in space and know where on the line to start each letter and word. Observation can reveal if they know how to hold the pencil and which side, right or left to start from. It will also reveal how much reading and spelling knowledge they have accumulated to that point and also shows what they need to be taught next. Marie Clay (1986) found that what children write freeform they can also read. In addition: “The errors children make when they write are neither random nor thoughtless-examined diagnostically they reveal systematic application of the child’s level of understanding”. (Rosencrans, 1998 p. 9)

Examples of the freeform levels that children entering Reception in England have recently achieved in advantaged and disadvantaged environments can be found in Section 8. Handwriting tests such as Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting, DASH (Barnett et al., 2007) include alphabet tests, near point and far point copying, neat and fast free writing. It takes about 45 minutes to administer whereas a freeform news or story-writing test occupies 10 minutes of a

child’s time and none of the teacher’s.

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

95

iii) Fluency or legibility? A focus on fluency is more important than a focus on legibility in handwriting instruction for the young child (Vintner et al., 2010). As children develop fluency in writing, their reading fluency also develops (Rose, 2004). The goal of fluency is the opposite of current and past custom and practice. In teaching writing, legibility is and has been the main objective in most UK schools but this is problematic. a) Legibility- When teaching manuscript printing teachers usually emphasise an analytical visual approach focusing on the characteristics of specific strokes and spacing. Research shows that independent handwriting practice, such as tracing dotted lines in the shape of a letter or visually copying perfectly formed letters, focuses the child’s attention internally on the eye-hand coordination process required for precise movements. The focus is on perfect legibility, not on fluency. The problem found is that a child’s time taken to look repeatedly at the visual form of the letter or word hampers the development of fluency (Chartrel et al., 2008). This can be observed in Harry’s copy writing in Figure 6.2 above. b) Fluency- In order to teach for fluency, it is necessary to teach a cursive or joined fluid form from the outset as was done in the early part of the 20th century. This is not favoured by teachers according to the DfE (2021) because they think it is too hard and slows down the child’s progress once writing has begun but this is because the model they follow is not the correct one in the first place. It requires a change from one established set of motor programmes to another and is especially difficult for young pupils even with mild coordination difficulties. Teacher surveys 25 years earlier showed they held the same opinion against cursive, as did their tutors. In 1998 when courses on handwriting were provided in the Learning Difficulties Research Project for teachers from 6 different LEAs in London and the Southeast their views were collected on the subject of teaching cursive and their responses were as follows: x x x x x x

We don’t do it in the Infant school. Our head doesn’t agree with it. It is too difficult for little children. They like to do it in the junior school. The college told us it was wrong to use it first. It is not in their reading books so they get confused.

96

Chapter Six

Table 6.1. Different writing styles in Year 7 (N=441) in 2008 ___________________________________________________________ Print Semi-joined Cursive All Pupils 26.25.% 46.55.% 26.75% Boys 24.5% 40.1% 34.5% Girls 28.0% 53.0% 19.0% __________________________________________________________ The numbers in Table 6.1 above show that despite the government guidelines for ligatures and promotion of joining in KS2, or indeed because of them, only a quarter of these Year 7 pupils had developed a fast-running hand on entry to KS3. Marin and La Voie et al., (2012) showed that those taught cursive from the outset made more progress in speedy writing of words followed by semijoined, slowest were those taught print. They advocated teaching cursive from the outset as switching was too hard for most children. iv) Mirror writing. When reversals in some children’s writing was observed it became a populist theory although there was no evidence for it, that it was the cause of dyslexia. Reversals in words (frist instead of first) are common up to an age of about 7-8 years and simply indicate a lack of knowledge of the blend fr- especially when taught by Look and Say. Unfortunately, if no reversals were seen then the diagnosis of dyslexia was often withheld! Mirror writing itself is not uncommon and most children soon learn to cross the midline and start writing from left to right in English orthography. In reading the eyes have to scan from left to right for English text. Initially it can be expected that the eyes will travel across text from right to left or left to right quite randomly and need training to adjust. Some languages such as Arabic are written from right to left others vertically as in Chinese and are no more difficult for children to adjust to. In writing it can easily be taught by giving lines to write on and marking the starting point on the left with a dot although even this can prove difficult for children with visuo-spatial difficulties (see the next chapter figure 7. 3). Studies of normal subjects show that large numbers of them have crossed laterality or mixed laterality. It is therefore not of use as a diagnostic indicator or ‘soft neurological sign’. A child may be right-handed, left-eyed and right-footed for example. Although right-handedness does not accurately indicate the dominance of the left-brain hemisphere for language,

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

97

surprisingly foot preference does. The foot chosen to kick a ball or start mounting steps if on the right side is likely to indicate the language function is situated in the left hemisphere and vice versa (Elias et al., 2003) they related it to postural efficiencies. v) Handedness- Lateralisation does not become evident until a baby is over 10 months old when a preference will begin to emerge. What is of concern is when lateralisation is very evident at this stage it suggests that the child may have a problem with the non-preferred side. The right hand side of the brain controls the left side’s movements of the body. A person who has a stroke affecting control of the arm and leg on the right hand side of the body will\ have had a problem in the left hemisphere of the brain and is likely to have become speech impaired.

left dominant hem. right dominant hem. bilaterally dominant left handed 64% 20% 16% right handed 90% 10% 0 ambidextrous 60% 10% 30% Table 6.2 shows percentages of dominances (Kepler 2002) In the past it was thought that there was a close relationship between hemisphere dominance and handedness, Now the relationship is thought not be so definitive as indicated in table 6.2 above. Left-handers still show a tendency to be ‘left brained’ whilst right-handers also exhibit a strong tendency to be ‘left-brained’ (a stronger relationship here). Ambidextrous data more closely approximates the left-handed distribution but shows a greater tendency toward bi-laterally dominant brains. In the early part of the 20th century all UK children were made to write with their right hands even if they were naturally left-handed. For some children with the neurological difficulties this could prove very stressful and could make them ill and some developed stuttering as a result. Ambidextrous children quickly adapted but might lapse into changing hands or sometimes engaged in mirror writing.

98

Chapter Six

3. Ergonomics. Handwriting skill is best taught when the children model the teacher’s movement in air in one large continuous flowing movement. It is important for them to repeat it until they can do it from memory and with eyes closed. They then form it with the same movement but smaller and smaller until it fits onto a page in finger painting and then their writing book with a pencil. The reasons why this method is necessary is because a child’s attention devoted to periodically looking at the visual image (Harry, Figure 6.2 above) while writing keeps the image of the letter form in short term memory, thus preventing it from moving into long-term memory (Bara et al, 2011). Independent handwriting practice in tracing or copying even perfectly formed letters, impaired the development of fluency by preventing the conscious visual memory of the letter from flowing unconsciously to the muscle memory (Overvelde et al., 2012), and it delayed memorisation of the letter forms. Shadmehr (1997) using PET brain scans found that the instructional method affected how the child's brain stored the memory in either short-term memory or long-term memory. The brain activity generated by active movement began within one hour after the active movement, even when the active movement had ceased or remained unchanged. The brain did not respond to passive activity in the same manner. The muscle memory stored after active movement either remained in the short-term memory for up to five hours before dissipating, or moved into the long-term memory. This showed that children must generate their own movements to develop muscle memory for writing fluency and it needs to start with big in-air movements and in singing games and even whole body circular movements in dance and P.E. The ability to write the letter correctly with eyes closed indicates the imprinting of the letter into muscle memory (Nelson et al., 2003). This handwriting instruction method has been effective with all children, and must be used with children with learning difficulties (Wedell, 1973) and those with dysgraphia (Nelson et al., 2003). It was a method used by the remedial teachers who wrote the TRTS programme (Cowdery et al., 1983-7; 1994). They would also draw the letter on the backs of the pupils to see if they could guess the letter and pupil pairs would do the same. The origins are to be found in the early specialist

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

99

dyslexia remedial programmes (Gillingham et al., 1940, 1956; Fernald, 1943; Monroe, 1932). Unfortunately, there is still a rigidly held belief held by early years teachers, educators and administrators at the DfE that cursive is too difficult for little children not realising that they are the ones who are holding the children back, damaging their writing prospects and later academic success.

4. Why cursive from the outset? A fast-running hand is the ultimate purpose of handwriting teaching. There are also a number of other reasons for encouraging children to learn cursive even when they have been taught print or semi-joined scripts. It is especially important as a remedial support in dyslexia and dyspraxia. Klaus Wedell (1973) concluded from his research that it was essential for children with coordination difficulties to learn cursive from the outset. Learning print first then switching to cursive means that two motor programmes have to be learnt which is difficult for those with DCD or slower development, or poor tool skills. Inefficient teaching will make their difficulties and disadvantages even worse. It is not true that a cursive letter gives a confusing image for beginners. Children’s eyes can soon recognise the basic form in each letter and produce the correct sound. The different forms can be shown in wall display diagrams to support the learning. The ovoid form in Figure 6.3 below is better than the round upright style because it is more fluid for a ‘running hand’ (Jarman, 1979). ‘Ghost in’ lines are also possible that keep the same starting point on the line whilst leadout lines are maintained and contribute to the flow. Why teach cursive? * Aids left to right movement through words across the page. * Eliminates reversals and inversions of letters. * Eliminates the need to relearn a whole new set of motor programmes after the infant years. * Induces greater fluency in writing which enables greater speed to be developed without loss of legibility. * The motor programmes for spelling whole words and syllables are stored together and so improve spelling accuracy.

100

Chapter Six

* Space between letters and between words is orderly and automatic. * All words and single letters begin in the same place, on the line even when a ‘ghost-in’ line is used. * All letters are made with a continuous line from one starting point, not 4 different points. * A more efficient, fluent and personal style can be developed. * It reinforces multisensory learning linking spelling, reading, and speaking to the word memory store * Pupils with mild handwriting coordination difficulties experience less pain and difficulty. * It improves the legibility of those with coordination difficulties unless they have severe problems when alternative support is needed. For example, only some with severe DCD can manage speedy word processing and may need a voice activation system or a scribe - amanuensis.

Figure 6.3. Example of LDRP ovoid cursive

5. Handwriting forms In addition to the form of written scripts there are also styles such as Roman, Copperplate, Italic, and Gothic and there are dozens of different fonts available on computers. There are also variations in form and style favoured

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

101

by artists and authors. Prior to the National Curriculum well-known ones were by Marion Richardson, Ruth Fagg, Christopher Jarman and the ScottForesman company in the US. The print forms in the UK evolved from upright ‘ball and stick’ to monoline etc. as shown in Figure 6.4 below.

Figure 6.4 Handwriting forms, Roman style

6. Handwriting Skills Assessment in Reception To investigate early handwriting skills four schools were recruited. The purpose was to examine what was happening in these typical English Reception classes in relation to the acquisition and development of

Chapter Six

102

handwriting. Table 6.3 below shows the results of the freeform story writing test soon after entry into the Reception classes. Table 6.3. The results of the Handwriting test on entry to Reception School /classes

FSM Nos

Boys

Girls Mean H

Mean words Schools A1/2 & B1 2.0 56 3.19 4.2 3.52 (6.91) School C1/2 0.5 55 4.00 5.95 4.98 (5.74) School D1/2/3 Private 0.0 64 5.43 6.82 5.86 (9.00) __________________________________________________________ 175 4.21 5.67 4.79 (7.38) FSM 2.0 indicates that the school has twice the national average (23% at present) of pupils requiring Free School Meals, a standard Government metric. The national average for FSM at that time was 17% (Dockrell, et al., 2016) indicating the disadvantage in the sample was even greater. Table 6.3 above shows that boys in all 4 schools and 8 classes were poorer at writing than girls and that those in schools in the disadvantaged areas had poorer skills than those in higher socioeconomic-area schools. In the national writing SATs at 12 years of age boys’ writing achievement is annually significantly lower than girls’ in gaining level 4 or above (e.g., Boys 74% and Girls 83%). Many attempts and projects have been undertaken to improve boy’s writing but they all focused upon the cognitive aspects, creativity and motivation when they might have had even more success if they addressed the mechanical or basic skills aspect as well. In fact, it might make learning to write easier for boys in particular. Scoring ‘first marks on paper’ for the copy writing and free writing The same ranking procedure was used as for the spelling assessment detailed in Chapter 4. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4.

Letters all the same moderate size on a line With clear ascenders and descenders Spaces between words With appropriate capitals Bodies sit on the line, real or imaginary Letters formed in a single fluid monoline movement Distinct letter shapes

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

3. 2. 1. 0.

103

Drawn letters Mandelas and letter-like shapes in a line Some letter-type marks in a line across the paper Random scribble and faint marks

In this scale the points up to 5 are assigned in ascending order of skill. After this, the next 5 points can be awarded in any order of appearance as 5+1+1+1 etc. It was argued that handwriting skill appropriately encouraged and trained can improve the situation for boys and all the children enabling them to learn to write more easily and fluently. This would enhance reading and spelling development and lift achievement (Montgomery, 2020). Table 6.4 shows writing speed and spelling results from the Year 2 (N=93) schools in the survey The pupils matched from the Reception year survey were retested on entry to Year 2 with a 10-minute writing speed test. School B left the project (New Head teacher).

Nos. W.P.M Sp. errors Sp. Err % ___________________________Means___________________ School A 35 5.61 13.88 24.0% School C 58 7.86 12.31 15.5% W.P.M. = words per minute Note the significantly slower writing speed of those in the disadvantaged area school.

7. Handwriting tools i) Penhold- In order for infants to learn a fluent legible script many need more structured help than simply being set to copy their names and simple sentences of news. Tracing over letters is not an effective method for developing this motor skill. Instead, they need to learn to write individual letters in monoline form as one continuous movement to form each letter with a lead-out stroke (ligature) to enable joining as soon as the next letter has been learnt. When they start modelling the teacher’s letter with a hand on the desk and it lifts to start the letter this is in fact a natural lead-in line. On paper it can be made as a ‘ghost-in’ line if preferred. Another important source of experience is the handling of tools. In particular eating utensils. Some may only have used a spoon and hands to

104

Chapter Six

put food in their mouths and a weak grip may be responsible for this or even the result. Others may have little or no experience of drawing and colouring and so need plenty of opportunities to gain this experience and strengthen the finger hold and develop a mature grip on pencils and paper.

Figure 6.5. The flexible tripod pencil grip

The target pencil hold is the flexible tripod grip shown in figure 6.5. above. Left-handers must hold the pencil further from the point so that they can see what they are writing. It is also important that left-handers should sit on the left of peers so that their handwriting arm is free to move and not be hampered in any way. They also need to be taught to write letters by the teacher modelling the process with the left hand. It can be expected that 12% of any class will be left-handed, that is two or three children in every classroom and occasionally an ambidextrous child. Grips. Not all children will be able to achieve the tripod grip at the ‘right’ time because they have some immaturity in development, lack of practice opportunities in disadvantaging environments, or a coordination problem. A wide range of the adjustments that children try to make can be seen in any walk around a classroom and even in a conference hall full of adults. There is a range of grips that may be used but the standard one is the flexible tripod grip seen in Figure 6.5 above for right and left hands. The second most popular grip is the rigid tripod grip with two fingers-index and middle on top of the pencil. Writers may switch to it during long periods of writing or it may be their typical grip adopted to gain better control of the pen in the earlier years. This may have been because of lack of finger strength at that time, bendy reflexed joints or long finger lengths. A tripod grip in which the pen rests between the index and the middle finger resting on the third finger is also adopted by some pupils during long writing

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

105

periods. The most developmentally immature is the fist grip followed by the fork or stab grip. In addition, there are others less common, the ‘thumb over’ or quadruped grip (Figure 6.6 below) and variations on this wrap-around type and the ‘hooker’ or a palm up grip. The ‘hooker’ is thought to be adopted when the child has some neurological difficulty so that the writing hand has to be switched to the left hand in the right-handed or to the left in the righthanded. It is not a good idea to try to change the hooker grip.

Figure 6.6 Ben’s Thumb over wrap around grip and two fingers on top

ii) Paper position a)

b)

Figure 6.7 Paper position for left- handers (a) and right-handers (b)

Chapter Six

106

Paper position is another important consideration and it should not be squared up with the table and placed upright in front of the child. The paper should be placed slightly angled to the right for right-handers (6.7b) and with a bigger slope to the left for left-handers (6.7a) to enable them to see what they have written. The left-handed pull the pencil down towards the midline and right-handers push the pen outwards and upwards both making the need for paper placement along the line of the writing arm. The elbow should be locked in each case and the hand allowed to sweep on its natural way in an arc and the slope of the paper will be seen to be the comfortable position parallel with the forearm. This makes the line of writing correctly horizontally placed across the page. Inexperienced parents and Teaching Assistants will often attempt to ‘correct’ and straighten the paper making it almost impossible for some children to write anything. If they do manage to write they adjust by making the writing slope down the page instead and this can be why some teachers refuse to allow them to have lines to write on at first. In a few cases such as with ‘hookers’ the most comfortable paper position is at a right angle to the pupil’s body so he or she can pull the writing down the page along the line towards them (lefties) or push it up vertically for righties. It is important to have large diagrams of the flexible tripod penhold up on the wall to show the target grip pupils in general should be aiming for. Then discuss the reasons why and how to deal with any problems they might have so that grips can be adjusted to suit needs and can be changed when the skill becomes more developed. Plastic or clay moulds can be added to the pencil to guide towards the tripod grip. Another contribution to the mix is the tools offered for writing. iii) Tools – the pens and pencils- Schools generally provide a set of pencils usually HB grade, neither too hard nor too soft. Pupils may also bring their own sets especially as they grow older. However, it is much more important to set out a range of pencils and later some pens for them to select one that fits their purpose. E.g. x x x x

Small pencils for tiny hands such as diary pencils Long pencils for larger hands and long fingers Fat pencils for weak grips Plastic moulds to guide the fingers to the tripod grip and not too near the point

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

107

x Commercially produced pens such as Stabilo and Komfygrip etc.to try if necessary. Extraordinarily, given a range of choice of tools the child will usually pick up the most suitable pencil to use or will try one or two and then quickly settle on a particular one that feels best. iv) Lines are an essential for writing from the beginning. Give pupils just one line to write on at first. It helps them organise their sentence and find where to start the letters. A small coloured dot at the beginning of the line can remind them to start writing from left to right. The paper should be placed on an exercise book or some cardboard as many school desks are hard and pitted and spoil the effect. A story-writing book or folder can enable progress to be collected and recorded and can be discussed with the child. Lines are not traditionally used in most Reception classrooms now but they once were found in almost all of them. Writing books were also produced with wide lines and then half a page for drawing a picture but as they are more expensive many schools will not buy them now. It might be a good idea if we provided writing books and separate drawing pages to clip in to give each recognition and status. In earlier times double and treble lines were frequently to be found in writing books so that pupils learned to write at an ‘appropriate’ size. Now these can easily be designed and printed off as needed. Sometimes a yellow marker pen cut at an angle can show the size needed for older writers to form. v) Furniture- The chair and table should be the correct height for the age group. The pupils should be encouraged to sit on the chair with both feet firmly on the floor. The writing arm should rest comfortably on the tabletop so that the elbow can be placed on it and the forearm is nearly at a right angle to the upper arm. This means that the elbow can be ‘locked’ and the hand moves in an arc across the page from there and not from the shoulder. A desk top about 10-12 inches below the eyes of the writer should initially be the comfortable distance. Short sightedness will cause the pupil to bring the head down closer to the paper. Some may even write best with one eye closed and head on arm looking along it. This is fairly rare and not necessarully due to tiredness and an eye test is advised.

108

Chapter Six

Children with coordination difficulties may find a slightly sloping desk easier to write on than a flat one. Before any investment is made in such adjustments the effect can be simulated by an empty hard-back file to find if it helps.

7. Learning support Research over several decades has not shown that TAs are effective in improving the achievements of children with SEN although they are able to help in managing some of the more attention-seeking behaviours. In a large longitudinal research study 2005-2010 about Teaching Assistants’ effectiveness (Webster et al., 2021) in relation to ‘catch-up’ in the time of Covid, said that it confirmed earlier research studies. It was found that: x The pupils who received the most TA support did less well in the core subjects of English, maths and science compared with those who received no support or just a very small amount. Those with SEN were most affected because they had the most support. x Their poor results were nothing to do with their special needs or the TAs’ work, nor their previous lack of attainment or deprivation. Instead, it was the result of ineffective decision-making around the TAs’ deployment. The school leaders and teachers did not know how to conduct lessons with the TA present and just directed them to sit with the pupils and try to help them get the correct answers. They were reactive. There was also no time for teachers to meet the TAs to guide them (if they knew how) and induction training that some Local Authorities used to organise 20 years ago had lapsed because the funding had gone and the TAs were not paid to attend although some did do so anyway. The result was that the pupils receiving support became dependent on the help the TAs gave and developed ‘learned helplessness’. Teachers tended to benefit because it reduced some of their workload but the children lost out. Inclusion policies have not worked in these situations and pupils’ independence and ability to scaffold their own learning has been reduced. Webster is now engaged in an intervention research programme called Maximising the Impact of TAs, MITA. Specific copy pages sections in the Appendices 8A to 8H on Mediations later in this book can be given to TAs to show them what to look for as they

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

109

move round the class and how they can help the children or make notes on what they observe to discuss with the teacher.

8. The contribution of handwriting speed to academic performance Handwriting difficulties begin in Reception and can be seen across the school years if no remedial help is given. One of the key diagnostic indicators of UAch is writing SPEED and some serious speed problems in schools were found. Caroline Roaf (1998) asked pupils in a large secondary school to write as rapidly as possible on a topic of interest ‘my favourite-- - -’ for 10 minutes. She found that pupils writing at a speed slower than 15 words per minute were failing in all areas of the curriculum and poor handwriting skill and lack of legibility contributed to low self-esteem and underachievement (UAch). 25% of her school cohort from Year 7 to Year 11 were writing at a slow speed, under 15 words per minute. 12% of the population had motor coordination difficulties and 2-3% had severe writing difficulties. In an MA SpLD dissertation project Penny Allcock (2001) designed a 20minute speed writing test to resemble the writing tasks in her secondary school and tried it in a sample of secondary schools (N=2701 pupils). They had to write on their favourite subject as rapidly as possible for 20 minutes. The task was designed to match the length of writing tasks that secondary school pupils are required to do. This provided a set of norms to indicate speeds at which pupils were writing and identified difficulties when they were slower than 25 % and 40 % below the means for the age group. Those writing 25% more slowly, she concluded, needed 25% extra time in examinations and those writing at a speed of 40% slower needed an amanuensis. Table 6.5 to show average writing speeds in secondary schools in words per minute (Allcock, 2001) (N=2701) Year (Chron. age) Y 7 (12 ) Mean speed 13.9 40% slower 8.3

Y 8 (13) Y 9 (14) Y 10 (15) Y 11 (16) 14.6 15.7 16.3 16.9 8.8 9.4 9.9 10.1

As a rough guide the pupils were writing at one or more word per minute faster than their chronological age.

Chapter Six

110

This CA +1 was also seen in the writing of infants and in a Year 7 followup study after 2, 4 and 7 years of the National Literacy Strategy (Montgomery, 2008). This gave the following results as shown in Table 6.6 below. Table 6.6 to find if there is a problem with Writing in Year 7s after 2, 4, and 7 years of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) School Numb. A (2000) 125 B (2002) 160 C (2005) 251 Total N 536

w.p.m. Mean Sp. Err 13.97 12.73 13.64 12.18 12.44 10.79 13.10 10.90

Dyslexic 10.0% 18.5% 15.6 16.7%

The criterion for identifying potential dyslexic scripts was that they made 10 or more different spelling errors per 100 words, the poorest 4% based on the British Dyslexia Association’s reported incidence of severe dyslexia. Summary of results from cohort A The mean handwriting speed of this Year 7 cohort was 13.97 words per minute * * * *

91 % could not write at a speed faster than 20 words per minute 27 % wrote significantly too slowly (10.4 or fewer words per minute) 10 % wrote at speeds slower than 8.3 words per minute (40% slower) 31 % made more than 5 spelling errors per 100 words (HMI criterion) * 13 % showed a ‘dyslexic’ type profile in spelling (more than 19/20 different errors per script, or 14/15 in very low word counts). They were spread across all sets. The more able pupils in Set One, as in table 6.7 below were considerably faster writers and better spellers. Could this be contributing to their placement in Set one? Table 6.7 to show differential data from the different Sets SCH A. After 2 years of the NLS (2001) Nos. Total Words Mean speed. Set 1 27 320.33 16.02 Sets 2,3,4 65 238.23 11.91 Set 5 18 241.68 12.08 Set 6 15 217.40 10.87

SP err per100 words 6.52 ‘Top set’ 8.50 14.28 14.07

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

111

The data in Table 6.7 above show that the ‘more able’ pupils wrote at a speed that met the curriculum needs. They were able to write more because of this and their spelling was better and closer to the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate (2001) guidance that they should make no more than 5 errors per 100 words. The conclusion is that if we speed up writing in schools it could help raise the academic achievement of many more pupils and become part of the ‘levelling-up’ agenda. Summary of results from cohort B The mean hand writing speed of this Year 7 cohort was 13.64 words per minute. x x x x

95 % could not write at a speed faster than 20 words per minute. 26 % wrote significantly slowly (below 10.4 words per minute). 16 % wrote slower than 8.3 words per minute. 31 % made more than 5 spelling errors per 100 words.

Summary of results from Cohort C After seven years following the NLS overall this cohort was writing significantly more slowly (12.44 w.p.m.) than expected for their age and experience (13.9 w.p.m. Allcock, 2001). * 1 girl was writing at a speed of 26 words per minute. * 0.6 % wrote at 20 - 24 words per minute (3 boys and 12 girls). The obverse is that: * * * * *

99.4% were not writing quickly enough. 32 % pupils) were writing significantly slowly. 16 % were writing at very slow speeds (40 % below the mean). 35 % (85 pupils), made more than 5 spelling errors per 100 words. 20 % (39 pupils) showed a ‘dyslexic’ type spelling profile.

School C was in a coastal area and such areas have been regularly shown in school inspections by Ofsted and national statistics to have lower academic results than schools in more advantaged areas. The data in table 6.7 above indicates that poor writing speed does contribute to UAch.

Chapter Six

112

In order to investigate the speed issue further data was collected in a 10minute writing speed test from younger age groups. 10 minutes was a more suitable length of test for younger pupils. School A was the only one that singled out the pupils on a cognitive abilities test and the differential writing results are shown in Table 6.7 above. Table 6.8 The number of errors of the 4% poorest scripts in Cohort C Mean speed Mean errors Group A N=10 Faster writers Group B N=12 Slower writers

Ratio of boys to girls

14.92 w.p.m

40.4 sp. err.

2:3

7.74 w.p.m

22.17 sp. err

5:1

23 % showed a ‘dyslexic’ type profile in spelling

When the 20-minute speed test was given to two year 9 cohorts in a specialist school for the language arts in an advantaged area in 2007 and 2008 the results were: (N=179); 19.43 words per minute; cursive N=31; semi joined N=64; print N=84. These data show how writing speed is promoted by advantage and gives access to specialist provision but cursive has been achieved in only17% of the pupils. Table 6.9 Writing speeds in Year 7 boys/girls (N=536) 20-minute test School A (N=125) School B (N=160) Boys 11.84 (N=75) 12.89 (N=61) Girls 14.32 (N=50) 14.77 (N=99) Means 12.78 14.05

School C (N=251) Means 11.14 (N=123) 11.96 13.69 (N=127) 14.26 12.44 Total mean 13.1

Boys' writing speed in Table 6.9 above in all three different schools was significantly poorer than that of girls. The lowest scores for both sexes were found in School C in the coastal area. The highest scores for both were found in the more advantaged area School B. Following this survey scripts were collected from the primary age range to check if the pattern was similar. In order to find out the standards of writing prior to year 7 a further series of data collection studies were made.

The Contribution of Handwriting to Reading

113

Table 6.10 Writing speed on entry to the Primary years, 10-minute test School Year Numbers w.p.m. Age expect Mixed SES Year 2 152 7.32 7+ 1 Mixed SES Year 3 21 7.50 8 +1 Middle SES Year 4 84 9.95 9+1 Mixed SES Year 5 137 9.20 10+1 Breakdown by SES in some more samples below Middle SES W Year 5 59 10.66 10+ 1 (Advantaged area, small town) Middle SES X 85 10.04 10+ 1 (Church school, rural) Mixed SES Y 60 8.05 10+1 (Rural area school) Disadv SES Z 52 7.81 10+1 (Costal area. disadvantaged estate) N= 393 Mean 9.15 (All Yr 5s) 11 SES stands for Socio economic status. At age 10 years the mean speed should be 11+ w.p.m. Once again, the same pattern is detectable with the slower speeds found in the poorest areas. Following the free writing research with the Reception classes that began in 2012 the pupils were followed through into Year 2 and given the 10-minute writing speed test. The results are shown on Table 6.11 below. Table 6.11 To show writing speed and spelling results entry to Year 2 Nos. ____________ School A 1 18 School A 2 17 Totals 35 School C 1 33 School C 2 25 Totals 58

W.P.M Sp errors Sp Err % means___ means______________________ 5.57 13.41 22.4% 5.66 14.34 25.7% 5.61 13.88 24.05% 7.93 14.61 18.26% 7.76 9.28 12.67% 7.86 12.31 15.47%

School A is in a disadvantaged area and has twice the national average for Free School meals/Pupil Premium. School C is in an advantaged area in the same town and has 0.5% with FSM/PP. Once again, the disparity in handwriting speed is seen and will cause the School A pupils to be lower in school attainments throughout their education unless some more writing

114

Chapter Six

support and training for their teachers is given. It showed the advantaged area pupils were already well ahead of the rest in terms of writing and that girls in every situation were more skillful than the boys.

Conclusion The role of handwriting in underpinning and supporting the initial stages in learning to read has not been known in mainstream classrooms although it was significant in all the successful remedial programmes for over 100 years. In this chapter evidence supports this practice. Slowness in handwriting development and lack of fluency over the age ranges creates significant limitations on children’s academic achievements in school and then beyond in colleges and universities and limits many career choices. The data show that a simple free writing test at any age can identify slow speeds and coordination difficulties from the outset of each year and then attention can be given to speed strategies. The most important of which and the main starting point is to teach for fluency using a monoline form and enable cursive or joined writing from the outset, not the current practice of teaching manuscript print and then switching to joining. As Marion Richardson (1935) advised we must start as we mean to go on. The recourse to word processing does not overcome any of the handwriting problems as Pam Mueller and her colleagues found in their research in 2014 entitled The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard. In fact, there are distinct disadvantages unless the individual has a handwriting disorder. Even then many are no better or faster working a keyboard than they are at handwriting although it will make their work more legible. A further consideration is that 80% of pupils’ time may be spent in many classrooms especially in secondary schools on writing tasks when there are other modes of response available that may be more suitable and creative. If they have weak handwriting skill they will suffer from pain and seek to avoid any form of writing whenever they can. The more they can write the better they can read and plumb the deeper aspects of textual meaning. In the next chapter the nature of writing difficulties and disorders will be explored to show some of the hidden difficulties that pupils experience and how they can be helped to overcome them and raise their academic achievements.

CHAPTER SEVEN HANDWRITING DIFFICULTIES AND DISORDERS

Introduction In 1994 The American Psychiatric Association (APA) adopted the term Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) for the dyspraxias and found the incidence was between 5 and 6%. World wide the incidence of DCD is thought to be 3 to 5% (Kirby, 2020) and this means that in the UK there are about 1 million people with the problem. Developmental Coordination Disorders are problems in the development and use of motor skills (APA 1994). In the UK the incidence is generally 5% with 1-2% of them severe cases. Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD) is a difficulty that affects the motor co-ordination skills, such as in locomotion, and daily living and learning, but without the problems in organisation of movement evident in dyspraxia the original medical term. Dyspraxia is an ideational problem, for example an inability to perform the motions of unlocking a door with a key in the absence of the key. In DCD there is usually an absence of overt physical cause and it is found across the ability range. It may in some cases have a genetic inheritance. In general, it often seems to be a result of difficult births and anoxia, or cases of ‘blue babies’. The origins of the difficulties may arise in a number of ways: x Developmentally immature brain x Inherited or family difficulty x Anoxia at birth so that small areas of the brain are damaged. Early training can help other areas to take over these functions whilst the brain is plastic. x Premature or difficult births

116

Chapter Seven

x Deprivation problems, e.g., in spina-bifida children are confined by lack of mobility in the early years and so lack integrative experience in the perceptuo-motor areas. DCD is frequently associated with attentional and social skills difficulties. It is possible that DCD is a less complex variant of the dyspraxic spectrum but which affects only the motor pathways and not deeper areas of the brain concerned with perception and cognition. Alternatively, some researchers and the APA DSM-V (2000) now regard the two terms as interchangeable and prefer to use DCD as the diagnosis. “The essential feature of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a marked impairment in the development of motor coordination.....that significantly interferes with academic achievement or the activities of daily living” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000 p. 56).

1. Types of DCD a) Gross motor skills difficulties in running, walking, swimming etc. They used to be termed ‘clumsy’ children (Gubbay, 1975) and take much longer than others to learn a new skill such as riding a bicycle. Later they came to be termed ‘dyspraxic’. b) Fine motor skills difficulties in drawing, handwriting, sewing, buttoning, bead threading etc. Handwriting disorders/difficulties are also termed ‘dysgraphia’. c) Visuo-motor skills difficulties in ball skills, jigsaws, knot-tying, orientation and spatial difficulties. d) Specific difficulties such as in dressing dyspraxia, and motor speech difficulties (dysarthria). In English education it is more likely that the term used for most DCDs is developmental coordination difficulties rather than disorders. The difficulties will become apparent during games and P.E. and the child will not be picked by others to join teams and they will often be bullied. As they walk down the corridors those with gross coordination difficulties will be seen to veer to one side and the gait may be unsteady and the balance poor. The term disorder is generally used for the 1-2% at the more extreme end of the continuum.

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

117

The Dyspraxia Foundation website statement, 2017 “Dyspraxia is a form of developmental coordination disorder that affects gross and fine motor coordination in around 5% of the population and 2% severely. It also affects organisation, planning and time management, and can affect speech. Males are up to three times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia sometimes runs in families and there are believed to be one to two children affected in every class of 30. Almost two in every three of staff polled (65%) said that awareness of dyspraxia in their schools was poor or very poor with 71% saying that lack of awareness and understanding affected children’s opportunities and achievement”.

In response a DfE spokesperson stated: “We know how important it is that children with medical conditions are supported to enjoy a full education. That is why we introduced a new duty to require governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions and have provided statutory guidance outlining schools’ responsibilities in this area”.

This response indicates how narrow the understanding is at the DfE and in the wider public of the nature and breadth of underachievement caused by DCD. Especially in handwriting difficulties where a medical disorder is not necessarily an accurate or relevant diagnosis and even when it is parents report how difficult it is to get that diagnosis or any support (evidence from 70 handwriting case studies referred to the LDRP (2016-2018). Handwriting difficulties are highly significant in causing educational underachievement. But they are the poor relation or Cinderella of the special needs in schools and the wider community. What is not often realised is that handwriting difficulties are the biggest contributor to underachievement in schools amongst the gifted worldwide (Silverman, 2004, Berninger 2015)) and across the range of ability (Montgomery, 2017a; 2020). In the survey of handwriting skills on entry to the four schools cited in Chapter 6 above (N=175): x Boys’ skills overall were 22% poorer than girls’ on entry to the Reception classes. x The pupils in the disadvantaged area schools were 35% poorer at handwriting than those in the advantaged areas.

118

Chapter Seven

2. Copy Writing Problems and DCD It is unhelpful to leave children to copy write if they have not been taught to make the letter forms in one continuous movement. They need to be taught this with a few letters before being left to copy. Tracing over letters is also not found to be an effective or efficient way of establishing handwriting skill.

Figure 7.1 Sam, age 5 years copies his news ‘I went to the seaside’

Sam has been set to copy a faint and small script when he has not been taught how best to make letters. He is drawing the letters as best he can using visual cues and is not laying down efficient motor memories for later use. He needs to be taught monoline form starting with just a few letters to demonstrate the idea, then see how he progresses. Repeat the procedure as necessary at the beginning of a copy task. As he tires with the effort the writing becomes fainter and less controlled. He needs to be shown how to copy the letters and needs a line to write them on to help organise his efforts. Copy writing can have a purpose in strengthening the finger grip and control. Support this with finger painting to encourage smoother movements and roundels.

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

119

In figure 7.2 below Olly is also copying his news. Again, the model is very faint and there are no lines to guide him. He draws the letters and appears to have difficulties crossing the midline (visuo-spatial DCD) as well as some coordination difficulties. He is right-handed and writing in the right hemi-space. He needs visuo-motor training to help him cross the midline and lines to form his words on. During reading his eyes will jump at the midpoint and he may lose line and place. It may help if he moves his finger or places a card above the words to help move forward across the mid line and not lose place.

Figure 7.2- Olly age 5.1 ‘I play with my dog.’ He has visuo-spatial DCD

When pencils and jigsaw pieces are placed on the left hand side, he will pick them up with the left hand and transfer them to the right instead of moving his right hand across the paper or midline to pick them up. This is an easy way to check for this difficulty. When coiling ropes or in ball skills, older pupils do the same transfers. Dance, music and movement and drawing and painting can help them. Another check is to hold a pencil 10 inches from his eyes and move it slowly to the left then back across the midline to the right. At the midpoint the teacher will see his eyes jump as they cross it.

Chapter Seven

120

This visuo-motor difficulty can cause reading problems because the pupil will lose place in the text as the eyes flick.

3. Dysgraphia Learning difficulties arise because early handwriting skills contribute significantly to learning to read (James et al., 2012) and can delay its progress (see details in Chapter 4). Any slowness in developing handwriting skills also leads to slower progress in spelling. Both can lead to slower handwriting speed and to lower grades in all writing tasks (Roaf, 1998; Berninger, 2015; Montgomery, 2017a). Lack of legibility may also result and be a problem leading to lower grades. Teachers often find poor writing and lack of legibility unacceptable and think it is due to lack of care or laziness on the part of the child and can become very critical and downgrade the content. This leads to low self-esteem and distress in the learner for being unable to do anything to improve the situation without some help. Dysgraphia is a difficulty in developing and learning fine motor skills and the precision needed for them, it is a coordination problem. It may arise with or without gross motor coordination difficulties and can result from: • • • • • •

Poor muscle tone and control General weakness in hand and finger coordination Bendy joints Lack of earlier opportunities to engage in fine motor skills development Some anoxia during birth Premature birth

The 1-2% of children who have severe difficulties will need a scribe or voice recognition support. Laptops are not always an answer as pupils may also have slowness and difficulty with them. Boys in the speed researches were more vulnerable to severe handwriting difficulties than girls in the ratio of 3:1 (Montgomery, 2008). Some typical older case examples of dysgraphia (2018) Ben had a difficult birth and has gross motor DCD. At age 7 years it is his poor handwriting that has become an issue at school. It takes him double the time of peers to write anything and he has to put a lot of effort into it. Some of this can be seen in the redness (darkness) of thumb and finger ends (Figure 7.4 below) showing the pressure he has to put on the pen to control

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

121

it. He is becoming distressed by his difficulties and refuses to write whenever he possibly can especially in relation to homework. The school does not give him lined paper so his ability to organise and place his writing is made worse as can be seen in the figure 7.3 below. The sentence he is writing swerves down and across the page. He is left-handed and the paper is placed in the wrong position as if he was right-handed! He is holding the pen in the correct tripod grip but too close to the point for a left-hander and so cannot so see what he is writing even if the paper was correctly placed. His thumb it seems is extra long and should be bent a little at the first joint to guide the pen more precisely, on the ball rather than the side of the thumb.

Figure 7.3 To show Ben’s free writing. He writes “My tooth came out in the Back garden and I cant find it” from Juniper XXX (address) Ben is left-handed and the paper position (see figure 7.4 below) is at the wrong slope for him as can be seen in his writing arcing down towards the midline. The paper edge should follow the line of his forearm. He also needs lines to write on to guide place and position on the page. His spelling is good.

Chapter Seven

122

Figure 7.4 Shows Ben’s bendy finger-joints and grasp effort, the redness (darkened image) at the finger and thumb end. It is typical that pupils with dysgraphia produce writing that has a number of significant indicators.

4. Assessing coordination difficulties Coordination difficulties may become confused with legibility issues because poor coordination can result in malformed letters and problems in positioning letters and words on the lines. There are however distinct indicators of coordination difficulties that observation of children writing and the scripts produced can reveal as follows: x x x x x x

Script drags in from the margin Rivers of space run down the page The script is very faint The script is spiky Words wave about above the lines and drag below them There is a variation in pressure seen in darker and lighter letters and words x Pressure may be so strong ridges appear on the reverse of the paper x Script may be very large and faint x The writer may complain of pain after a few minutes x Particular lowercase letters may look like capitals e.g. S, K, W, F because they are more difficult to form precisely and small

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

123

x T’s appear as capitals because the cross bar cannot added precisely enough down the upright x Other letters such as U and M and N may randomly be formed extra large as the coordination control is lost x There may be holes in and ink blots on the paper

Figure 7.5 Evan, a 6 year-old with dysgraphia given lines to write on

He writes, “I love technalagy. I hate writing, I hate school. My favorite subject is maths. I hate my brother. I have freinds.” His spelling is good for a 6-year old but the print script and dysgraphic difficulties will hamper his achievement throughout school. Already his difficulties are not considered to be severe enough for the school to give some additional support. It is a pity that he has not been taught well enough in the first place with monoline form. In Figure 7.6 below Elliott’s coordination disorder is seen in the faint and dark lines, oversized letters, shake and wobble on the strokes, poor letter forms, failure to settle letters on the line, repeat reworking of some letters, very slow speed and a lot of effort. It was his second attempt to copy this traditional test sentence. Elliott has a severe form of DCD in gross and fine motor skills. It is evident that he should be using a laptop for all school writing tasks and needs specialist occupational therapy help. In the future he may not be able to use the word processor easily enough either although it will help with legibility. He will need a scribe for all test situations if he is to be able to do himself justice.

124

Chapter Seven

Figure 7.6 Elliott’s severe dysgraphia at 6yrs 10 mos. 1/2 size

5. Dual and multiple exceptionality (DME) cases

Figure 7.7 James, 18 years old is both dysgraphic and dyslexic and highly able (DME) (one third original size). He writes, “Mum I swapped this for a £5 note from your purse hope you don’t mind. James X X “Mum --- Some cooked bacon for a sandwich if you want”.

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

125

James was born blue after a difficult birth. Although his parents continually pressed for an SEN assessment in the primary school this was denied as he was ‘coping’! They were reading everything for him at home. In school he was using his high ability to engage in all manner of strategies to conceal his difficulties. James was only identified as dyslexic on entry to secondary school and was given some remedial help mainly addressing study skills and then a scribe for GCSEs, A levels and later for his degree course. He has never been able to read a book. He now uses a laptop or Siri and teaches maths and Music technology 3 days a week in a secondary school. He needs the other days to prepare for this work. When he was in year 9, he dictated his ‘story’ to a scribe and the lengthy essay describes how he concealed his difficulties and what the teachers were unable to do to meet his needs. There is a copy of this work in the introduction to Dyslexia–friendly Strategies for Reading, Spelling and Handwriting (Montgomery, 2017a). When dyslexia is accompanied by severe dysgraphia it is much more difficult to remediate even by the specialist programmes and especially when it is not addressed in Reception and Year One.

Figure 7.8 Hisham’s free writing on entry to Year 2, in 2014 age 7 years (half size). He has dyslexia and dysgraphia.

On entry to Year 2: He writes: ‘wusrp. (Once upon a time) The wus a Boiy (There was a boy) He wet to the sheoos (He went to the shops) and He wet pust a Tugl ) He went past a tugl). The to tugL bin The to hat a most (That

Chapter Seven

126

tugl had a monster with him) The most (monster) flew at him. he runb (he runned) and the boy got lost (then that boy got lost). then tat boy nev bin seen agn’ (Then that boy never been seen again). He has not been taught to make letters in monoline or with ligatures but has had some phonics exposure in Year 1 with MAPT but later than he needed although he is in a better position than Steven was or James at his age. Hisham’s earlier case reports: (2012 and 2013) Reception 1. Emergent writing on entry to Reception (scores 0): Makes some firm strokes down near the bottom of the page some marks nearly look like an ‘m’. This possibly derives from his name, not from the word ‘cinema’ which his news is about. Reception 2. Freeform writing at end of term 2, 6 months later, scores (2): Writes his name as H I M and then makes some marks and letter shapes sloping up the page ‘q S § O - - -’ The message is “In space something crashed”. His marks are firmly made but shaky and indicate a coordination difficulty. He has not cracked the alphabetic code yet. Dyslexia researches by Yvonne Liberman, 1973; Peter Bryant et al, 1985; Frank Vellutino, 1979; Margaret Snowling, 2000; Derrick Bourassa et al 2003 showed that the critical problem in the earliest phase of dyslexia, the logographic phase was a failure to develop the following skills: x x x x

Symbol to sound correspondence Alphabetic knowledge Appreciation of rhyme Phonemic awareness

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

127

Figure 7.9 Chelsea 5.6 years, dyslexic. Free writing after 6 mos. in class

Chelsea in Figure 7.9 above has not been taught to write. She uses capitals from her name C and H, and O and OO possibly from SCHOOL which have caught her attention. But as can be seen she has not ‘cracked the code’ and needs to be taught to make lower case monoline letters and learn to build words with them as shown in Appendix 8.H. The use of the simplest large capital forms suggests she has a mild coordination difficulty and perhaps a grandparent trying to help her. It is also a typical strategy dyslexics resort to as they find this more memorable than using lower case forms and they are stored in a different place in the brain (Berninger, 2008). As soon as pupils can draw a roundel or mandala, they can begin to learn to write holding a pencil. Practice in scribble and colouring patterns can help towards this and with finger strengthening and accuracy. There is a need to check how they use eating implements as some homes do not bother to do this and may only provide a spoon. Schools can monitor and teach them how to use these tools as well as work tools such as scissors, saws, etc. Grandparents and helpers often encourage the use of capital letters. The only capitals that are initially useful are of the name’s vowels A.E.I.O.U. The names are also the long sounds of the vowels in some closed syllables e.g. pint.

6. General handwriting difficulties These are the less severe forms on the dysgraphia continuum and they frequently go undiagnosed. They may arise from problems with speed,

128

Chapter Seven

formation, style, legibility, fluency, penhold, and coordination. The average target speed as a rough guide is 1 word per minute more than the chronological age e.g. at 7 years=8 w.p.m, at 12 years=13 w.p.m. However, a speed of 15 wpm is needed in secondary schools to meet the curriculum requirements (Roaf, 1998) otherwise there was a failure in all subjects leading to UAch and low self-esteem. The mean speed of Year 7’s in 2 schools was 12.4 w.p.m. and slightly more in the advantaged school at 13.2 w.p.m. (N=521). Pupils in private schools wrote faster than those in State schools and even there the girls wrote faster than the boys (Lyth, 2004; N=10,000, MIDYIS data). It shows that the teaching of handwriting in our schools is not as good as it could be and current methods actually keep the disadvantaged in a lower place and leads to their underachievement

8. Legibility The seven ‘S Rules’ - size, shape, start, space, seat, slope, speed. Size. The letter bodies and ascenders and descenders need to be a reasonable size. Very frequently the body of letters is so large it fills nearly all the space between the lines. This makes the work difficult to read and the ascenders and descenders become mixed in with the bodies. Other writing is so tiny that it too is difficult for teachers to read without a lens. Big writing often looks babyish and immature in a teenager and more girls than boys seem to favour this and content can be downgraded for it. Shape. Correct letter shape is essential for legibility. Open body joins and angular bodies make for poorer legibility and lack neatness. Gothic style and Italic should also be avoided as they slow down writing speed and disrupt the normal rhythm. They are best saved for artwork or on illustrations and posters. Start. Initial lowercase letters and single letters should begin on the line with a ghost lead-in stroke this makes it easier for beginners and those with DCD. Space. Spaces between words and within words should all be regular and be the equivalent of an ‘o’ not a finger. Finger poking disrupts the flow. Seat. All the bodies of the letters should be seated on the line. Lines are important for improving legibility and finding the position in paper space.

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

129

Slope. All the ascenders and descenders should slope in the same direction. The direction of the slopes does not matter as long as they are parallel. Speed. A good speed and rhythm are essential so that all the necessary information can be written down in the time available. Assessing form and legibility. The pupils should be given a copy of T-HFL (Figure 7.10 below) and sit with a peer or tutor and study a page or paragraph of their own writing and try to work out the type of legibility problems it demonstrates. Do not focus on letters that look like capitals. Whatever problems are discovered only two interventions work: ii Make all the bodies of the letters the same size on the line. ii) Make all the ascenders and descenders slope in parallel.

130

Chapter Seven

Figure 7.10 T-HFL Test of Handwriting Form and Legibility copy page

To help make the writing more legible give the pupil 3 lines to write on as in the example below and adjust the spaces so that it is suitable for the age and skill of the pupil, wider apart for younger pupils’ larger letter-forms. Instruction:

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

131

i) “Copy the standard sentence writing task below into the three lines in joined up writing” The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog ii) How long did you take?” (Provide a timer). To start, get them to focus on the bodies of the letters all one size. Then when a bit of rhythm builds, target the parallel slope of the ‘tops and tails’. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Remember: x Do not let the ascenders quite touch the top line. x ‘t’ is a small letter. x Ignore the fact that some letters that are more complex e.g. s, w and k and look like their capital letter forms, it is the DCD effect. Other letters might just vary in size at intervals also because of the DCD. The ‘fox’ sentence uses every letter in the alphabet so that their formation can also be checked and remedial attention given to them if necessary. This is often undertaken by writing rows and groups of the letters in monoline and then selected words that are frequently used, or words for spelling that need correcting using Simultaneous Oral Spelling.

Figure 7.11a Before. James, dyslexic age 8.5 years. A dictation example before intervention with the TRTS dyslexia programme.

132

Chapter Seven

Figure 7.11b James, age 9.8 years. A dictation example just over a year later after 2 sessions per week on TRTS

In Figure 12a below Mark age 10 years was becoming distressed because his teacher had begun to treat him unkindly because of his poor script and spelling problem.

Figure 7.12 b. above Mark’ handwriting after 2 weeks, freeform letter and word practice.

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

133

Copy writing and tracing but lack of any teaching of form prior to this caused Mark’s problems. He wanted to learn to write like his new teacher (the student) and so he was helped to model his writing on the student’s. He learned to form letters in monoline with lead-in and lead out cursive forms and then moved on to useful words. The key component is that the pupils must want to change their writing form by being convinced of the logic of the case especially as they grow older and have already stored the old motor programmes.

9. Some Remedial Motor Skills Programmes for schools i) Motorway to ABC. Attention-Balance-Coordination programme (Upton, et al., 2008) Three specialists from Blackpool Council’s Physical, Sensory and Complex Learning Difficulties Service designed a programme to help pupils with DCD in primary schools in their area. At the end of Year 2 all the pupils in schools opting into the programme undertook an ABC PE lesson. The teachers observed and identified the children with problems who might benefit from the programme. They looked for children with: * * * * * * *

Difficulties in maintaining a still posture Poor sense of rhythm Difficulties with spatial awareness Problems carrying out a sequence of movements Poor balance Difficulties controlling direction Difficulties controlling force

They then took a handwriting sample and made a baseline assessment of the skills of the group selected for the ABC programme. Parents were asked for their consent for their children to participate and teachers and TAs and interested staff were trained in the procedures. The programme ran for three periods of six weeks, one each term for groups of four pupils and preferably two trained Teaching Assistants in case one was ill. The sessions were regularly timetabled to take place at least three times per week and preferably every day in the PE hall or a special room for the purpose. A regular routine was established that began with walking along the corridor, then settling in the room, dressing and undressing, and listening. Gym shoes were worn or feet were bare, sweatshirts and ties were removed and the sessions began with a ‘warm-up’ activity and the series

134

Chapter Seven

begins with ‘body awareness’ training. One of the series was devoted to fine motor skills. The creativity of the TA’s and all involved was encouraged so that new games based on old themes were brought in and adapted so that the children enjoyed what they did. The children’s progress was recorded and monitored by the staff. The children themselves had records and charts with stickers for their achievements. At the end of the year another handwriting sample was taken for discussion and comparison and a final assessment was made. The children were formally presented at a school assembly with their certificates and this was an opportunity for many to succeed who had not done so before. The questionnaires from the children and the staff showed that the programme was a successful one and raised the esteem and the skills of the participants including their handwriting. The schools came to value it highly. ii) Laszlo’s (1988) Kinaesthetic training An example of the Laszlo training technique includes the use of large inflated balls. The child is laid backwards over the ball with head and feet dangling down. They are then rocked to and fro for five minutes. It looks strange but the purpose is to exercise the kinaesthetic and balance senses in these unusual patterns so that gradually the child begins to develop a sense of self in space and an ability to use the feedback. After these training sessions Laszlo found that a whole range of motor skills including handwriting improved. As can be inferred practice in catching a ball or ball skills is unlikely to improve until more basic kinaesthetic information can be coordinated. It is presumably why in these cases ordinary practice does not make perfect. It would seem possible for schools that identified clumsy children to offer such special remedial tutorials in small groups on a regular basis for a term. They would need to buy the large balls and perhaps persuade parents to come in and help with the sessions. Wobble boards that children learn to stand on also help serve the same purpose. They are helping the vestibular system responsible for balance develop and strengthen. The Dyslexia Screening Tests devised by Angela Fawcett and Rob Nicholson (1996) included such items. For example, they found that many dyslexics at their screening centres could not stand with eyes closed and arms outstretched

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

135

without allowing their arms to drop to a significant degree. Rather than being part of their dyslexia we might conclude that it was a symptom of some aspect of DCD that was comorbid/concurrent with it. Schoemaker et al., (1994) showed that compared with controls those with DCD were more anxious, lacking in self-esteem, more introverted and judged themselves to be less able both physically and socially. This was even in children as young as six years. They put this down to the importance placed upon proficiency in physical activities by the child and the peer group. Some put success in sport especially football as a higher goal than success in the classroom. It used to be believed that clumsiness was grown out of by adulthood but longitudinal studies (Cantell and Smyth et al., 1994) clearly showed that this was not generally the case. They found that those diagnosed as having motor difficulties at five still had delays and impairments at fifteen, their academic achievements were generally lower than peers and they had fewer social pastimes and hobbies. Some early remedial support could have been helpful to them. iii) Write Dance - Ragnhild Oussoren Voors Write Dance was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by the author in Sweden. She then moved to The Netherlands and introduced the method there. It is now used every day as a ‘getting ready for writing programme’ in schools in Sweden, Holland, Denmark and Germany. It aims to develop pupils’ coordination skills through a combination of movement, dance, music and drawing. The sessions are incremental and combine responses to music to develop large motor movements that are then transferred to paper using both hands. The part of the scheme available in the UK develops prewriting skills, teaching movements and marks that make up cursive writing. The author is a strong advocate of looped ascenders and descenders that are the more natural flowing forms but caution is needed here. Looped ascenders can collide and present a more cluttered appearance and may need to be avoided. Looped descenders are however essential for the follow through to the next letter in joined writing. There are nine themes each with its piece of music on CD and there is a manual with detailed instructions on development. Some example themes

136

Chapter Seven

are Volcano, Train, Growing tree. Each teaches a particular movement form involved in writing such as circles, downward loops and straight lines. Each section has a story, suggested large body movements made to music, drawing to music, paper games in twos, threes and fours and a rhyme. The programme is suggested for use with 5-8 year olds but it could be used with younger children entering nursery and Reception in the UK. It follows the principles of ergonomics detailed in chapter 6. iv) Brain Gym - Dennison and Dennison (1998) The Dennisons developed Brain Gym in the 1980s and 90s and now thousands of schools and Occupational Therapists (OTs) worldwide are reported by them to be using the system. There are 37 named Brain Gym exercises and there are breakdowns of skills purported to underpin reading, spelling and handwriting. In handwriting for example 7 sub-skills are identified that include - postural control, shoulder girdle strength, finger strength, visual and spatial skills, midline crossing, and hand-eye coordination. An observer might well identify these sub-skills when looking at a writer but their position in the hierarchy and the sub-skills involved in each may be marginal to the final product. The result is that teachers and OTs train away on unnecessary activities and get no transfer to the target skill. This is the problem with Brain Gym that there is as yet no hard and independent evidence that supports the claims made. However primary school children involved really enjoyed many of the exercises. Research shows that other than improving attention on tasks there is no transfer and improvement. The neurodevelopmental claims made appear to have little foundation. The idea behind Brain Gym is that the physical exercises are designed to increase the brain’s effectiveness and that if the right and left sides of the brain work in unison then the student will find learning easier. The teacher is free to choose the exercises she thinks would be most beneficial. One of the main issues that arise is the degree to which a gentle exercise regime can promote brain development and change. The second issue is, to what extent do the exercises designed by the Dennisons and selected by the teacher target the relevant movement areas especially in children with DCD?

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

137

Some examples of Brain Gym exercises * It is important in the procedures that exercises carried out on one side of the body must be carried out on the other side. * The exercises must be completed slowly Midline Movements Cross Crawl is a contra-lateral movement, one arm is moved with the opposite leg. Any movement can be made, the most well known one is crossing one hand or elbow to touch the opposite knee. It is believed to access both brain hemispheres because it crosses the midline. It might help those with visuo-spatial difficulties. Lazy 8s is the figure eight lying on its side. The pupil is at the central point drawing the figure starting up to the left from the central point. Righthanders should start from the left and vice versa. It is said to activate both eyes and integrates the two visual fields. Double Doodle in which the pupils draw bilaterally. They can draw anything as long as both hands are doing the same thing. This is said to develop right-left discrimination. Alphabet 8s is an adapted form of the Lazy 8. The pupil can use the flow of the eight to start forming the lowercase letters a, c, d, e, f, g, o, q and s on the left-hand side and b, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, u, v, w, y, z on the right side. It is designed to help with the forming of letters and crossing the midline easily. Elephant is an extension of the Lazy 8. The pupil holds one arm straight and this is ‘glued’ to the head. Then with the knees bent the pupil draws the eight in the air with the head and upper torso following. The purpose is to reduce tension in the neck and activate the inner ear to help improve balance and equilibrium. Neck Rolls - the head is rolled slowly from side to side to relax the neck muscles and to ‘help cross the visual midline’ The Rocker, Belly Breathing, Cross Crawl, Sit-ups and The Energiser are further activities in this series for crossing the midline. Another series is Energy Exercises and Deepening Attitudes in which the authors argue that water conducts electrical energy and two thirds of our bodies are made

138

Chapter Seven

up of water so it is important to drink plenty. This series consists of Brain Buttons, Earth Buttons, Balance Buttons, Space Buttons, The Energy Yawn, The Thinking Cap, Hook-ups, and Positive Points. Thinking Cap involves the pupil ‘unrolling’ his or her ears, beginning at the top and working down. This is said to touch all the acupuncture points on the ear. It must be started at the top as this is said to be where the points for the feet are!

Conclusion Developmental coordination difficulties not only affect children’s ability to engage in sports and other physical activities so that peers may bully or exclude them but also most often result in handwriting difficulties and these can impact on reading ability and academic achievement. The DCD especially affects writing speed because of weak grips and poor teaching methods. The difficulties may go unobserved and not reach a level at which the difficulties can be diagnosed with current procedures and bring some specialist help. However, with a little light training according to Christianson et al., (2000) takes only about an hour, all teachers could be made alert to the problems and learn basic intervention strategies that will improve the situation. At the extreme lower end of the continuum of DCD the condition is in the ‘neurological disorder’ category. There will be about 2% of such cases and they may have in addition some speech difficulties and others may have difficulties with emotional control and inhibition. They may engage in explosive outbursts so they become regarded as a behaviour control case or get a diagnosis of ADHD. DCD can easily be identified as shown in the cases above using the diagnostic criteria. Advice from an Occupational Therapist can be very supportive but the route to formal assessment and an Education and Health Care Plan that includes OT help is fraught with difficulties and delays because of handwriting’s low status in the special needs hierarchy. DCD is a difficulty hidden in full sight. As with dyslexic problems identification and funding may not be made available until the pupil reaches secondary school and is very troubled. Laptops are not the answer and even speech recognition systems may fail because the DCD may also affect the speech. A scribe is essential for all test and examinations in the most severe cases. In the early years it is frequently the parents or guardian who provide this service if they are in a position to pay.

Handwriting Difficulties and Disorders

139

Boys, even from advantaged backgrounds are slower to develop the necessary writing skills in comparison with girls but can catch up when given the necessary time and by using appropriate training techniques. Writing underpins learning to read in the early years and any difficulties make the situation doubly disadvantaging. Writing development should then focus upon fluency rather than legibility and will overcome all but the severest DCDs.

EPILOGUE

A 7-point plan for the levelling-up agenda In order to raise reading standards and maths achievements and thereby the achievements of all pupils across the curriculum sooner, faster and better despite the differences in skills that they bring to education, the following 7 strategies are recommended: x Make 44 graphemes to represent the 44 phonemes in the English language as in chapter 1. x Use two reading teaching techniques from the outset, both Phonics and Look and Say because the two routes contribute differently to improving reading skills. x Allow time and give support for ‘self-teaching’ in the development process by encouraging ‘creative spelling’ and texting. x Monitor literacy progress by using freeform writing at all ages and levels to assess literacy as well as subject knowledge and to determine necessary interventions. x Encourage speedier writing and teach for fluency in all age groups. This means teaching joined writing from the outset starting as you mean to go on. x Teach the basic spelling curriculum as in Chapter 5 at all age levels encouraging the Spelling Detective approach. x Institute handwriting legibility and remedial techniques across all ages to improve achievement in the subject areas. Professor Dr. Diane Montgomery, Honorary Fellow of the Social Science Research Council (USA)

APPENDICES MEDIATION COPY PAGES

Introduction This section contains protocols and copy pages based on the research in the previous chapters. When children do not respond well to what has been taught it may be that they are not ready at a particular point or they do not have command of the sub-skills involved. With large classes of beginners the TAs can act as extra observers and give feedback to the teacher or if they feel competent can follow the protocol and make an intervention and give feedback to the pupil. This is not remediation but a more individual and robust developmental intervention in which the TA and the teacher undertake mediations. This may involve modifying the medium, the method, or the mechanics. Initially it is helpful to make an assessment of the literacy level to determine subsequent needs as follows:

144

Appendices

Appendix A. Assessment of Sub Skills for Writing

Figure 8.1. Part example of developmental test items (adapted from Clements, 1973)

Above is a set of figures that children of different ages were on average found to be able to draw derived from research. As a test it was designed for children from 6 years and upwards in the diagnosis of Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD). Administration: ‘Make me a copy on your paper to look like the one I make’ Teacher then draws the shape as in the example. The TA can be asked to check which children can draw any of the first 3-4 shapes and especially the first two because they underpin handwriting movements. In order to get them all ready the action song ‘The wheels on the bus go round and round’ can be used to check that all of them can make the

Mediation Copy Pages

145

correct circular motions and which hands they are using. The circular activities can be developed and reinforced in music and movement with the whole body moving round in a circle individually and then in groups. Country dancing used to be a good basis for this. The Write-Dance programme provides some good examples.

Appendix B. Baseline assessment on entry to the Reception class using Freeform Writing What children can write they can also read. * Before the end of the first month in Reception ask each child to write a story or news without any help – freeform. * Name the scripts and write the message the child has told. * Collect in the scripts and sort them into 4 piles (LEVELS) see section 4. * This enables each child’s progress to be charted. * Then the interventions can be determined and undertaken. * Repeat story task at intervals. The errors children make when they write if examined diagnostically they reveal systematic application of the child’s level of understanding.

Appendix C. Assessment on Entry to Subsequent Years Primary and Secondary schools - The 10-Minute Speed Test At the outset of the Year settle the pupils with pens and paper and ask them to write about their favourite topic - a sport, a friend, a pet, a holiday etc. Explain that it is a speed-writing test lasting 10 minutes. Tell them not to bother about the spelling but just make a guess. If they run out of ideas on one topic they should go on to their next one. Give them a minute or two to think what they will write about. At the end of 10 minutes they should stop and put a line/dash to show the end in case they want to continue to the end of the sentence. Next they should count the number of words they have written in the 10 minutes and write this at the top of their script near their names. A partner can check the score.

Appendices

146

Collect in the papers and record the results. x This should include speed, in words per minute – w.p.m. x A list of the key spelling errors can be made for later intervention from Year One. x Note any with signs of DCD see checklist in chapter 6. x Note writing form: print, semi-joined, or cursive in older children and discuss the need for any changes and the reasons why.

Appendix D. Assessment of Levels of freeform writing Level One: Figure 8.2a to 8.2 All scripts were written by 5 year-olds on entry to Reception class

a. Izzie ‘I play with lots of toys’ (Right to left – weak grip)

b. Jason ‘I went to my friends’ (Right to left)

Mediation Copy Pages

147

c. Thomas ‘I went to nanny’s and popsys. We had dinner. We watched the film. We played with toys.’ (Right to left)

d. Fynlay ‘A cat in a hat’. Draws the ‘picture’.

148

Appendices

e James ‘On my birthday I am going to buy some new chickens and buy new fish’ (Left to right)

f. Zainab ‘I like going to the park. I feed the ducks. (Right to left)

1. Izzie, Jason, Thomas and Zainab need to be taught to write from left to right. Give them a line to write on and a dot to show where to start. Give Izzie a fatter pencil to try because she has a potential weak grip. See also pattern training examples in appendix 8D below. 2. Fynlay needs help to make his scribble lines from left to right for words. Here he is drawing a picture. 3. James is ready for learning some letters and sounds. He already makes capital letter I and an m shape. 4. Zainab is making roundels and word spaces and is ready to learn some letter sounds and symbols. Give lines and a dot to show

Mediation Copy Pages

149

where to start on the left. Show her in shared reading how to follow the letter line from left to right. Level Two.

8.2g. Jamie ‘The tractor goes on a truck’

8.2h. Millie ’I went to nanny’s;

8.2i. Abi ‘I had a Hello Kitty birthday cake’

1. All three pupils are on the borderline for breaking the alphabetic code. 2. They are all writing from left to right 3. They have letters from their names in their scripts as well as other relevant ones. 4. Check if they know the sounds to match them. 5. Start MAPT and add their letter sounds

150

Appendices

Level Three.

8.3j Jasmine ‘My mummy is going to cook’

8.3k. Lixu ‘I went to Portugal on my holiday’

8.3l. Harrison ‘Red hen had some bread’

8.3m. ‘I went to bed, Yacob’

Mediation Copy Pages

151

1. All 4 writers at Level Three have ‘cracked the code’ with Jasmine just beginning.. 2. Lixu is further advanced but ‘Portugal’ is too difficult at present but is still aware of the initial sound and makes some more letter forms. 3. Harrison and Jacob are more advanced and in the phonetic transcription phase. Level Four.

8.4n. Amber ‘I am going to tea with Mrs Myers’

8.4o. Sahana ‘I do my homework after school’

152

Appendices

8 4p. Richard ‘I took granddad to the library’ (coordination diffs)

8 4q. Frankie ‘Red hen milled the flour’ (severe coordination diffs.)

r. Anna ‘I took nanny to the cooking room’ (coordination diffs)

1. All 5 pupils have some good knowledge of letter sounds and word structures. 2. Amber, Richard and Anna have a weak pencil grip and mild coordination difficulty shown in the faintness of the scripts. They

Mediation Copy Pages

153

need finger, arm and hand strengthening activities. Fatter pencils may help or moulded pencil grips. They will be susceptible to fatigue. 3. Frankie has a coordination disorder indicated in wobble and shake and variability in size of the script making it difficult to read. She needs motor coordination support and strengthening activities, sand writing, finger painting, use of tools, music and dance etc. Check motor skills in PE and games. Learning to swim and play a musical instrument may help develop smoother movements. Check up on Motorway to ABC and Write-Dance in chapter 6.

Appendix E. Pattern Recognition Training features analysis

Figure 8.Ea. Pattern copying with coloured counters

Administration: Using coloured adhesive discs make some little 5-page booklets with the patterns suggested above. Provide a pack of coloured counters and ask the child to copy the patterns underneath, not place them on top, 5 per day. E.g. Week 1, Page 1 Green Green Green Green. Page 2. Red Orange Red Orange Red etc.

154

Appendices

Figure 8.Eb Jigsaw examples using real words

TAs can make the jigsaws on thick cardboard cut as on the dotted lines and each separate word can be placed in an envelope. The pupil has to reform the pieces to make the word with and without a plan to copy and then name it. This was a ‘features analysis’ pattern recognition task that promoted reading abilities in beginning readers (Montgomery, 1977, 1979) and was also enjoyed by the Reception pupils and younger playgroup children. A range of diagnostic cues can also be observed as the pupils tackle the tasks and the ‘games’ can be used to reinforce left to right eye scanning and writing as well as fine manipulative skills and handedness. It can also reveal colour blindness.

Appendix F. Handwriting Teaching Monoline Form Continuous in-air large tracing of the letter pattern is essential to make the motor memory pass into long term memory. x Draw the letter on the board. x Pupils guess its sound. x Teacher draws the letter large in air with back to pupils. They copy saying the sound. x Teacher repeats for the left-handers with the left hand. x Pupils trace the letter in air freeform starting with hand on the desk. x Pupils copy-trace the letter in the air several times with full arm movements saying the sound. x Observe all round and help. Repeat as necessary. This follows the cursive form with lead-in and lead-out strokes. x The pupils try to draw the letter in air then on paper with eyes shut.

Mediation Copy Pages

155

x Pupils make a line of the letter in joined groups of three on paper. This can be built upon to show single closed syllable structure e.g. CVC, t-i-p, p-i-t, s-i-t.

. Figure 8.Fa. To show monoline ovoid forms for MAPT

Figure 8 Fb. some reminders

Appendices

156

Appendix G. MAPT Multisensory Articulatory Phonogram Training mini-lessons Lesson 1. Teaching letter i sound (i) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Ask the pupils to show you their ‘smiley faces’. Check round and ask them to show their smiley face to a partner. Pupils describe –mouth open, top teeth showing Write a large lower case letter ‘i’ on a line on the board with lead in and lead out strokes. Ask the pupils to copy the letter in the air with index and middle fingers together as pointers. They must repeat this several times so they can all be observed. Teacher talks them through the movement ‘from the desk line-up, then line down, round and up a bit and dot’. Ask if anyone knows the sound the letter makes (i). All say the sound (i). The pupils say (i) facing their partner. What can they see? Get them to compare (i) to the smiley face, lips open, wide stretch, teeth showing Teacher writes a line of 3 joined letter i’s on the board. Pupils copy the movements in air rhythmically and say the sound as they do so. Check for straight lines on the down stroke. Ask the pupils if they can now write the letter with the two fingers on the desktop. Check all round at each table. Ask one or two pupils to come and write the letter on the board and talk themselves through it. The model should be covered first. Pupils pick up a pencil and check to see if they can make the tripod grip (diagrams on the wall) or as close as possible. Now the pupils draw the letter on the line in the book on their desks if they feel they are ready to. Check all round as they make several more letter ‘i’s and say its sound. Ask the pupils to look at their efforts and decide if any advice or help might improve the formation. Ask if any pupils can think of something beginning with the sound (i) e.g. igloo, Indian, ink, insect. Some pictures or drawings will help here so they can choose one to act as their clue word and draw it.

NOTE. At this point the use of a lead-in stroke may be a ghost-in one. Suggest that they use the line as a location point and then ‘ghost in’ the up

Mediation Copy Pages

157

line so that they can move to the top of the ‘i’ stroke then down and flick up, then add dot. MAPT Lesson 2. Teach letter sound and feel of (t) and clue word x Ask who can remember the first letter ‘i’ and its sound. x Several children write the letter ‘i’ on the board and give its sound (i). x Now write a large lower case letter ‘t’ on a line on the board with lead in and lead out lines and also ‘ghost in’ line. x Ask the pupils to copy the letter in the air with index and middle fingers together as pointers. x Teacher talks them through the movement ‘from the line-up-downround and then add the cross bar’. x Ask if anyone knows the sound the letter makes (t). x All say the sound (t) several times (Not ‘tuh’) x Now they look at their partner’s face as he or she makes the sound (t) x Get them to try to describe the look and feel of (t). What is the tongue doing this time? x Put fingers in front of mouth and say (t) ‘What do you feel?’ The puff. x Pupils copy the ‘t’ movements in air rhythmically and say the sound as they do so. x They now ‘draw’ a letter ‘t’ on the desk with fingers and say the sound. x Demonstrate letter ‘t’ for left-handers if necessary. x Several pupils come up and draw a letter ‘t’ on the board with the original covered and talk themselves round it. Then they check theirs with the original. Discuss. x Teacher writes a line of three joined letter ‘t’s on the board. x Pupils do the same in their books saying the sound. x Ask if anyone knows a word that begins with the sound tin, table, tie, tip. x Ask if anyone has a name that begins with (t). x Play the I-Spy game (having ensured there are a few t objects around) x Pupils draw their clue word for (t).

Appendices

158

‘Our first word’ – Put ‘i’ and ‘t’ close together on a line on the board and ask pupils to try to say the word. (i-t). Demonstrate. x Pupils write a line of the word ‘it’ in their books and as they do so say the word each time. x Write the word ‘tit’. Can they say the word (ignore body part!) show pictures of the bird family blue tit, coal tit, great tit, longtailed tit. Encourage any seen locally to be discussed and to report where. MAPT Lesson 3. Teaching capital letter I and name x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Write a large capital letter I on the board Ask if anyone knows what it says. Its name is (I) Explain that some letters (the VOWELS) have two sounds. Vowel I has a short sound (i) and a long sound (I) (I) is also the letter’s name Can they think of some words that begin with the long sound (I)? E.g. ice, island, ibis, idol, item, idea, Iceland The long sound (I) is also a word by itself Ask for some examples – I am a girl, I am a boy, I am the teacher, I play football, I want some more examples, Can I have one? etc. Show how to write the name I with a long down stroke and two cross bars. Pupils practice the letter on their desk with two fingers Friend checks the movement Pupils write groups of three I I I s along a line III III III Below this write three groups of little I iii iii iii joined

What four things have we learnt about the letter I? 1. 2. 3. 4.

It is a word on its own ‘I’ and says its alphabet (big letter) name. It has a short sound (i) It has a long sound (I) and says its name It is a vowel. Vowels have two sounds.

MAPT Lesson 4. Teach letter sound and feel of (p) and clue word x Revise the first 2 letters they were taught, their sounds and word (it)

Mediation Copy Pages

159

x Several children write the letters on the board and give the sounds. x Now write a large lower case letter ‘p’ on a line on the board with lead in (or ghost up line) and lead out line. x Ask the pupils to copy the letter in the air with index and middle fingers together as pointers. x Talk them through the movement. ‘From the line-up-down-upround and out’. x Ask if anyone knows the sound the letter makes (p). x All say the sound (p). Can they feel it? What are their lips doing? x Can they feel the puff of air they make? x How is the shape and feel of ‘t’ different from that of ‘p’? x Pupils copy the movements in air rhythmically and say the (p) sound as they do so and feel the puff of air. x If anyone is unsure provide a few mirrors so they can see the mouth shape and the lips closed and then puffing. x They now draw a letter ‘p’ on the desk with fingers and say the sound. x Demonstrate letter ‘p’ for left-handers if necessary. x Several pupils come up and draw a letter ‘p’ on the board with the original covered and talk themselves round it. Then they check theirs with the original. Discuss. x Can they name something beginning with the sound (p)? pen, pill, pig, pot, potato, pet. x They choose one to act as a clue word and draw it x Play the I-Spy game. Note children’s names beginning with the (p) sound. x Names are started with ‘big’ letters - Peter, Pat, Paul not peter or pat. It shows they are important. MAPT Lesson 5. Our first words with i, t, and p x Can they remember making some words with i and t? x Ask them to write them if they can. x Put the words on the board with the pupils giving the spelling orders. x Now can they make a new word with the help of ‘p’ e.g. it, pit, tip x Class spell and say the words aloud and the teacher writes them on the board.

160

Appendices

MAPT Lesson 6. Teach letter sound and feel of (n) and clue word (nuts) x Revise the first 3 letters they were taught and their sounds. x Teacher writes a large lower case letter ‘n’ on a line on the board with lead in (ghost in) and lead out lines. x Ask the pupils to copy the letter in the air with index and middle fingers together as pointers. x Talk them through the movement. “from the line-up-down-up-and over and out”. x Ask if anyone knows the sound the letter makes (n). x Encourage (nnn) sound not ‘nuh’. x All say the sound (n). Can they feel it? What are their lips doing? x What happens if they try to say (n) and hold their noses? Discuss. x Pupils copy the ‘n’ movements in air rhythmically and say the (n) sound. x They now draw a letter ‘n’ on the desk with fingers and say the sound. x Demonstrate letter ‘n’ for left-handers as necessary. x Several pupils come up and draw a letter ‘n’ on the board with the original covered and talk themselves round it. Then they check theirs with the original. Discuss. x Can they make any new words with the help of letter ‘n’? How many? x For example n-i-p, n-i-t, t-i-n, pin, pit. x Can they name something beginning with the sound (n)? nut, nit, nose etc. x Choose one to act as a clue word and draw it. x Play the I-Spy game. Include children’s names beginning with the (n) sound. x Show them the ‘big’ letter for names with N but do not go further at this stage. MAPT Lesson 7. Teach sound and feel of the letter s and clue word x Revise the first 4 letters they were taught and their sounds x Now write a large lower case letter ‘s’ on a line on the board with lead-in and lead out lines. Ask if anyone knows the sound the letter makes (s). x Encourage ‘ssss’ sound not ‘suh’.

Mediation Copy Pages

161

x Ask the pupils to copy the letter in the air with index and middle fingers together as pointers. x Talk them through the movement. “From the line-slope up-round and down and out’. x All say the sound (s). Can they feel it? What are their lips and teeth doing? Where is the tip of the tongue? x Pupils copy the ‘s’ movements in air rhythmically and say the (sss) sound. x They now draw a letter ‘s’ on the desk with fingers and say the sound. x Demonstrate letter ‘s’ for left-handers if necessary. x Several pupils come up and draw a letter ‘s’ on the board with the original covered and talk themselves round it. Then they check theirs with the original. Discuss. x Pupils draw a line of s s s sss sss in their books. x Can they make some new words with the help of letter ‘s’? x For example: s-i-t, s-i-p, s-i-n, x Can they name something beginning with the sound (s)? e.g. sack, soot, spoon. x Choose one to act as a clue word and draw it. (Sammy snake!) x Play the I-Spy game - include children’s names beginning with the (s) sound. x Show them the ‘big’ letter form for names round the class e.g. S Sam, Susan, Stella Tell them that t p n s can all be felt in our mouths and are called CONSONANTS x Look at the way their words are built e.g. s-i-t, C-V-C etc. (Leave out the second sound of S (z) at this stage, as in measure, and please, a rule can be defined later.) MAPT Lesson 8. Teach initial letter blends (sp- st- sn-) x Several children write the letters learned so far on the board and give the sounds “i, t, p, n, s” x Explain that with just these five letters we can make a lot of new words by making some letter blends e.g. sp-. st-, sn, x For example the word ‘it’ can become sp-it.

Appendices

162

x x x x

We can also make nonsense words sn-it and st-it. In pairs pupils think of some other words that begin with spTeacher records these on the board. Pupils choose a (sp-) word from the board and copy it into their books. x Making a (sn-) word – snip. x Pupils write on lines freeform in their books any words they have learnt. x In pairs pupil generate as many words as they can from the letters i t p n s and the initial blends sp- st- snE.g. it, pit, pin, sit, sin; snip, snip, snip; spit, spit, spit; stin, stip, stin. MAPT Lesson 9. Teach letter end blends (-sp -st -sn) x Several children write the beginning letter blends learned so far on the board and give the sounds, sp- st- snx Explain that with our five letters we can make a lot of new words by making some end blends e.g. -sp, -nt, -st, x It will be hard for most so write some examples on the board to give them some help. Can they read them? ti-nt, st-i-nt, pi-nt. x Is there such a word as ‘pint’ with the short sound? What happens if we use the name of (i) e.g. (I)? Sometimes the vowel name is useful if the short sound does not make sense, try its long sound. x Show some non-words ni-sp, pi-sp, pi-nt, ni-st, ti-sp. Ask the pupils to read them out. x Pupils copy these real words from the board into their books. it, in, is, nip, pin, pit, sit, sin, tint, spit, spin, snip x Note any pupils who have problems with far-point copying. x If so, arrange an eyesight check. x Ask them to replace the letters with their codes e.g. s-p-i-n becomes CCVC MAPT Lesson 10. The sounds and names of letters ‘a’ and ‘d’ x Introduce the small letter and sound of (a) using MAPT as in previous examples. x Decide on a clue word such as ‘apple’ ‘ant’ x Explain that it is also a vowel and does not have a feel just a shape, and place in an open mouth.

Mediation Copy Pages

163

x It is used as a word on its own as in ‘This is (a) book’. x Vowel ‘a’ has a short sound (a) and a long sound (A) x In the long sound the letter says its own name “A”. Letter ‘d’ x x x x x x x x x x

Introduce the letter ’d’ and its sound (d) using MAPT Discuss clue words such as dog, dinner, dig, din Write the word ‘and’ on the board in joined letters. Can they say the word? It is a very useful word. Pupils write a line of ‘and’s in their books. Help and advise as necessary- and and and. Can they write its code? e.g. VCC Teacher reads the list of ands to the pupils tapping the board for each one. Repeats. Pupils tap each word. Each tap is represents a SYLLABLE Is (d) a vowel? No, it is a consonant because we can feel it in our mouths. Pupils describe the feel of ‘d’

MAPT Lesson 11. Syllable structure x Tell them the beats/taps in words are called ‘syllables’. Class repeat the name ‘syllable’. Some may remember next time. x Teacher names some of the pupils e.g. Ke-vin, Sar-ah, Pet-er, Em-ily and taps the syllables. x Ask if the pupils can do it too. Name some more pupils and ask the class to make the correct beats/taps. x Name some objects around the room and the pupils tap the beats. x A syllable is a beat in words most often made up of the codes CVC or CCVC or CVCC or CCVCC and CV and VC x What do all these syllables have in English? (A vowel in them). x A (a) and I (i) are called? (VOWELS) x There are only 5 vowels a e i o u x All the rest are called ? (CONSONANTS) t p n s d etc. x Children test the teacher by giving a name or a word and the teacher translates it into a syllable structure. CVC, VCC, VCC, CVVC etc. x Teacher tests the pupils with words already taught. x Pupils check each other’s answers.

164

Appendices

At appropriate points after this introduce more letters using MAPT as necessary especially if orthographic mapping does not take place so easily for some.. Different dictation effects. Johnson et al. (1967, p.241) found different effects on a 15 year-old dyslexic’s spelling as follows: i) Writing spellings from his own head: “cabinet” kntrs; “window” wror; “recorder” rkrrd. ii) Words dictated one syllable at a time: “hun-dred” hundred; “indent” indent; “rep-re-sent” represent. iii) Words dictated at normal speed: “pencil” pnsl; “manufacture” mufnctur; “candidate” cndati. These examples show the power of citation mode and subvocalisation for improving spelling. Strangely enough many pupils do not seem to use syllabification to aid their spelling of multi-syllabled words. MAPT Lesson 12. Some letter names and capitals x Explain that all the letters of the alphabet not only have sounds but they also have names, the alphabet or ABC. Ask if anyone knows some alphabet names. (Usually a number of children will have been taught the alphabet at home and sometimes the alphabet song and may remember their “A B C”. x They are called capital or the big letters and all names are written with a capital letter. x Children write their names with help as necessary. Check to see if any have written the name with its capital letter and praise. x When a word does not make sense if we use its sound e.g. (pint) but if we try its name it sometimes does make sense e.g. (pInt) but we do not write it as a capital/big letter in the middle of a word or if it is not a name. x Ask them for the names of the letters t p n s and show them the capital letters for T. P, N. and S x Invite them to copy them down in their books if they wish. They do not need to join the capitals. x Find a set of wooden capital letters and let the children take turns in laying them out in an alphabet arc. ABC etc.

Mediation Copy Pages

165

See Chapter 4 on Dictionary work and the Spelling Agenda.

Appendix H. Examples from Spelling Detective Dictionary a 1. A is the indefinite article and usually has the unstressed short vowel sound (-uh-) as in ‘a book’, ‘a person’. ____________________________________________________________ abroad - (uhbrord) abrord, abrowd: 1. syllabify the word for spelling (ab-road) and (a-road). 2. teach prefix ab- meaning from 3. look for the “road” in abroad. “Get on the road and go abroad”. ____________________________________________________________ absolutely absouletley, absousletly, absoustly, absulutly, abosultly, aboutaly, aboustly, absolutly, absultly 1. syllabify and articulate clearly for spelling (ab-so-lute-ly) 2. identify the basewords “solve” and solution from Latin absolutus. 3. teach prefix ab- meaning from 4 teach “so-lute” with long vowel (O) in open syllables, so to no and go. 5. teach the long vowel pattern (-VCe) denoted by silent (e) in (- lute). 6. simply ADD final stable syllable -ly. ____________________________________________________________ actually actully 1. identify the base word “actual” 2. over-articulate and syllabify for spelling act-u-al. 3. simply ADD final stable syllable -ly after a consonant ____________________________________________________________ addict adict 1. articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling ad-dict. 2. after a short vowel sound in a two-syllabled word there must be two consonants to preserve the short vowel pattern (-VCCV-) to hold the vowel in. 3. teach the suffix rule DOUBLE ‘a-d-dict’ to preserve the short vowel pattern e.g. addict, rabbit, puppet. ____________________________________________________________ adventure adventurus, eventruse, evetchers 1. identify the baseword “venture” with the prefix ad- meaning from 2. syllabify for spelling ad-vent-ure. 3. note the long vowel sound and pattern -VCe denoted by silent (e) in (-ure)

166

Appendices

4. teach the DROP rule when attaching suffixes to words with silent ‘e’ endings. e. g. ad-vent-ur-ous’ 5. the suffix -ous is an adjectival ending e.g. adventurous, nervous 6. the suffix -us is a noun ending e.g. circus, virus, bonus and is also an ending for Latin words e.g. minimus, calculus, Ranunculus, narcissus ____________________________________________________________ aeroplane, plane, aerobus, but airplane (not airoplane), aircraft, airport 1. this is a compound word made from “aero” and “plane” 2. “aero” is a Greek word meaning air, we now use it as a prefix 3. other words using the prefix are aerobatics, aerobics, aeronaut 4. we can convert the compound word aeroplane to English words air and plane e.g. airplane, airbus, airport ____________________________________________________________ again agen, agn. agian 1. articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (a-gain) 2. note the long vowel sound and pattern in the second syllable (VVC) 3. teach the 2-vowel rule. “When two vowels go walking the first one usually does the talking and says its own name” as in (-ai-) again, rain, train 4. (uh-gen) is what we hear in running speech 5. “agian” error is a result of spelling by eye and from the overexercise of ‘Look and say’ methods. ____________________________________________________________ allowed alowed, aloud, alaud 1. articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (a -lowed) 2. teach the DOUBLING rule, that after a short vowel sound in two syllabled words we need to have two consonants so we double ‘l’ e. g. ‘al - l - ow’, allow, swallow, follow, marrow, mellow, tomorrow, yellow 3. the word comes from the Latin words “ad – locare” and “ad ‘laudare” in English we assimilate ad - low to allow it makes it easier to pronounce. 4. ‘to allow’ or permit is the basic verb to which we ADD the past tense ending -ed e.g. allow-ed, passed, picked. ____________________________________________________________ always (and already etc.) alway, allway, allways, allwas, allways, allwaz, allwase, 1. articulate and syllabify for spelling all-way-s) 2. note that it is a compound word made up from “all” and “ways”

Mediation Copy Pages

167

3. teach the l-f-s rule “all, well, full, till rule” that when these words are added to others to make a compound word they must drop one ‘l’ e.g. all + ways, al-ways, also, alright, already, altogether, almost, welcome, helpful, until ____________________________________________________________ also aslo 1. overemphasis of a ‘look and say’ approach in reading can cause this misspelling. 2. teach clear articulation and syllabification for spelling (al-so) the feel of the sequence of the consonants in the mouth gives the concrete clue. 3. note that it is a compound word made up from ‘all’ and ‘so’ 4. teach the ‘l-f-s rule’ that when these words are added to others to make a compound word they must drop one ‘l’ e.g. all + ways to al-ways, also, alright, already, altogether, almost, welcome, helpful, until ____________________________________________________________ amount ammount, amout, amant (dialect), amo 1. articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling “a–mount”. 2. teach the “ou’ sound as a diphthong a double vowel sound (ah-oo) 3. the ‘ou’ diphthong is used in the middle of words and the “ow” diphthong at the end of words e.g. a-mount, fount, grout, pout; and how, now, brown, cow. 4. check the articulation of the ‘-nt’ end blend to capture nasal ‘n’ before ‘t’ by holding the nose and trying to say some “-nt” wordscount, tent, sent. 5. very few words beginning with ‘am’ double the ‘m’, they are usually specialist scientific words - ammonia, ammeter Ammonite and ammunition. ____________________________________________________________ amusement amusment 1. identify the baseword ‘muse’, see note 5 above in ‘amount’ 2. the long vowel (U) in ‘-use’ is denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (VCe) as in use, muse, fuse 3. teach the ADD suffixing rule that after a vowel we just add consonant suffixes -ment, amuse-ment, advertisement ____________________________________________________________ N.B. A complimentary copy of the ‘Spelling Detective Dictionary’ can be obtained via www.ldrp.org.uk

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ainley, J. and Clarke, R. (1980) Early Language Programme London: Globe Education Allan, M.D. (1965) “Training in perceptual skill”. Paper presented at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, April. American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV (4th Edition revised) Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.. American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association. Augur, J. and Briggs, S. (eds) (1992) The Hickey Multisensory Language Course (2nd edition) London: Whurr Bannatyne, A.D. and Wichiarajote, P. (1969) “Relationships between written spelling motor functioning and sequencing skills”. Journal of Learning Disabilities 2 (1) 4-16 Bara, F. and Gentaz, E. (2011) “Haptics in teaching handwriting: The role of perceptual and visuo-motor skills.” Human Movement Science 30, 745-759. Barbiero, C. (2021) “Developmental dyslexia in Spain”. Dyslexia Croatia: Intech Open Books Barnett, A., Henderson, S.E., Scheib, B. and Schutz, J. (2007) DASH Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting www.pearsonuk.com/dash Barbe, W.B. (1965) Teaching Reading; Selected Materials New York: Oxford University Press Berninger, V.W. and Graham, S. (1998) “Language by hand: a synthesis of a decade of research on handwriting”. Handwriting Review 12 11-25 Berninger, V.W. (2004) “The role of mechanics in composing of Elementary students: A review of research and interventions”. Keynote lecture, Annual DCD Conference Oxford: April Berninger, V.W. (2008) “Writing problems in developmental dyslexia. Under-recognised and under-treated”. Journal of School Psychology 46 1-21 Berninger, V.W., Abbott, R.D., Nagy, W., and Carlisle, J. (2010) “Growth in phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness in Grades

170

Bibliography

1 to 6”. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 39 (2)141-163 Berninger, V.W. (ed.) (2012) Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Cognitive Writing Research to Cognitive Psychology New York: Psychology Press/Taylor Francis Group. Berninger article retrieved November 25, (2015) from http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527487046315045755319 32754922518 Biemiller, A. (2005) “Size and sequence in vocabulary development: Implications for choosing words for primary grade vocabulary instruction”. In A. Hiebert and M. Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: Bringing Research to Practice Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate 223-242 British Dyslexia Association (2023) www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk Britton, J. (1970) Language and Learning Harmondsworth: Penguin Boxall, M. (2002) Nurture Groups in Schools: Principles and Practice London: Sage Bryant, P.E. and Bradley, L. (1985) Children’s Reading Difficulties Oxford: Blackwell Cantell, M., Smyth, M.M. and Ahonon, T.P. (1994) “Clumsiness in adolescence: Education, motor and social outcomes of motor delay detected at 5 years” in S. E. Henderson (ed) Developmental Coordination Disorder: Special Issue of Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly Human Kinetics Chall, J. (1967) Learning to Read: The Great Debate New York: McGraw- Hill Chall, J. (1985) Stages in Reading Development New York: McGraw-Hill Chartrel, E., and Vinter, A. (2008) “The impact of spatio-temporal constraints on cursive letter handwriting in children”. Learning and Instruction 18 537-547 doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.11.003 Accessed 23/10/2008 Chesson, R., McKay, C. and Stephenson, E. (1991) “The consequences of motor/learning difficulties In school age children and their teachers. Some parental views”. Support for Learning 6, (4) 172-177 Christensen, C. A. and Jones, D. (2000) “Handwriting: An underestimated skill in the development of written language”. Handwriting Today 2 56-69 Clark, M. M. (1970) Reading Difficulties in Schools Harmondsworth: Penguin Clarke, L.K. (1989) “Encouraging invented spelling in first graders’ writing: Effects on learning to spell and read”. Research in the Teaching of English, 22 281–309.

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

171

Clay, M.M. (1986) Reading: The Patterning of Complex Behaviour 2nd edition London: Heinemann Education Clements, S.D. (1973) “Geometric designs”. Screening for Minimal Brain Dysfunction U.S.A.: CIBA Medical Horizons p. 39 Cochrane, G. and Brooks, G. (2022). “Where should phonics teaching start? ‘satpin’ and its origins, rivals and implications”. British Educational Research Journal, 00, 1–18. Connelly, V., Dockrell, J. and Barnett, A. (2005) “The slow handwriting of undergraduates constrains the overall performance in exam essays”. Educational Technology 25 (1) 99-109 Conrad, N. (2019) “Orthographic learning of children’s invented spellings of pseudo-words”. Symposium paper 26th Annual Meeting, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. August Coltheart, M. (1984) “Writing systems and reading disorders”. In L. Henderson (ed) Orthographies and Reading Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum 67-79 Cotterell, G. (1974) “A remedial approach to spelling disability”. In B. Wade, and K. Wedell, Spelling: Task and Learner. Educational Review Birmingham University 51-55 Cowdery, L.L., Montgomery, D., Morse, P. and Prince-Bruce, M. (1994) Teaching Reading Through Spelling Series 1 -7 Reprint Wrexham: TRTS Publishing 1983-1987 LDRP Kingston on Thames Crombie, M. (2022) “Simplifying dyslexia assessment”. The Psychologist April, p 6 Crystal, D. (2008) “:Txtng the gr8 db8” New York: Oxford University Press, 131–137 Dale, N. (1899) On the Teaching of English Reading London: N. Dale de Bono, E. (1976) Thinking Action Blandford Forum: Direct Education Services Ltd. Denckla, M.B. and Rudel, R.G. (1976) “Rapid automatized naming (RAN) dyslexia differentiated from other learning disabilities”. Neuropsychologica, 14 (4), 471-479 Dennison, P E. and Dennison, G.E (1997) Brain Gym Handbook Ventura CA: Edu-Kinaesthetics Inc. DES (1988) The National Curriculum for England London: DES DfEE (1998) The National Literacy Strategy London: DfEE DfES (2006) Primary National Strategy: Framework for Literacy and Mathematics London: DfES DfE (2014) National Curriculum, Key Stages 1 and 2. Framework for English and Mathematics London: DfE DfE (2017)

172

Bibliography

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-education-andskillsmeasures-announced DfE (2021) The Reading Framework. Teaching the foundations of literacy London: DfE Dockrell J.E., Marshall, C.R. and Wyse, D. (2016) “Teachers’ reported practices for teaching writing in England”. Reading and Writing 29 (3) DOI:10.1007/s11145-015-9605-9 Accessed 16/12/2022 Downing, J. (1964) The initial teaching alphabet 2nd edition London: Cassell Dyspraxia Foundation (2014) www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/ Ehri, L.C. (2006) “Alphabetics instruction helps children learn to read”. In R.M. Joshi and P.G. Aaron (eds.) Handbook of Orthography and Literacy Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 649-678 Ehri, L.C.(2018) “Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues”. Keynote speech BDA International Conference April Telford UK Dejerine, J. (1892) “Contribution a l’etude anatomo-pathologique et clinique des differents varietes de cecite verbale” Scean Societe Biologique 4 61-90 Fassett, J.H. (1929) The New Beacon Readers. Teachers’ Manual (revised edition) London: Ginn Farnham-Diggory, S. (1978) Learning Disabilities Harmondsworth: Penguin Fawcett, A.J. and Nicholson, R.J. (1995) The Dyslexia Early Screening Test (DEST) London: The Psychological Corporation Fernald, G.M. and Keller, H. (1921) “The effect of kinaesthetic factors in the development of word recognition in the case of non-readers”. The Journal of Educational Research 4 (5) 355-377 Fernald, G.M. (1943) Remedial Techniques in Basic School Subjects New York: McGraw-Hill Ferreiro, E. and Teberosky, A. (1982) Literacy Before Schooling Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Fry, E.B. (1964) “A frequency approach to phonics”. Elementary English, 22, 759–766. Gattegno C. (1962) Words in Colour Fishguard, Wales: Cuisinaire Company Gelb, I.J. (1963) A Study of Writing 2nd edition London: University of Chicago Press Geschwind, N. (1979) “Specialisations of the human brain”. Scientific American 231 3 156-67

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

173

Gentry, J.R.(1981) “Learning to spell developmentally”. The Reading Teacher 34 (4) 378-81 Gentry, J. R. (1982) “An analysis of developmental spelling in Gnys at Wrk”. The Reading Teacher, 36 192–200. Gillingham, A.M., and Stillman, B.U. (1940 and 1956) Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling and Penmanship Bath: Basic Books Glass N. (1999) “Sure Start: The Development of an early intervention programme for young children in the United Kingdom”. Children and Society. 13 (4) 257–264. Golinkoff, R.M. (1978) “Phoneme awareness skills and reading achievement”. In F.B. Murray and J.J. Pikulski (eds) The Acquisition of Reading Behaviour Baltimore: University Park Press Goodacre, E. (1967) Reading in Infant Classes Windsor: NFER Goodman K.S. (1967) “Reading a psycholinguistic guessing game”. Journal of the Reading Specialist 6 (4) 126-35 Goswami, U. and Bryant, P.E. (1990) Phonological Skills and Learning to Read Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Gubbay, S.S. (1975) The Clumsy Child London: W.B. Saunders Hickey, K. (1977) Dyslexia: A Language Training Course for Teachers and Learners Wimbledon: K. Hickey (2nd Edition 1991 by J. Augur and S. Briggs London: Whurr) Hjetland, H., Brinchmann, E., Scherer, R. and Melby-Lervåg, M. (2017) Preschool Predictors of Later Reading Comprehension Ability: A Systematic Review. Oslo: Campbell Collaboration. Hinshelwood, J. (1917) Congenital Word-blindness London: Lewis Hornsby, B. and Shear, F. (1978) Alpha to Omega. The Teaching of Reading, Writing and Spelling Oxford: Heinemann Educational Hornsby, B. (2001) Dyslexics I Have Known, Reaching for the stars London: Whurr James, K. and Engelhardt, L. (2012) “The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development”. Neuroscience and Education 1 (1) 32-42 Jarman, C. (1979) The Development of Handwriting Skill Oxford: Blackwell Jerrim, J. (2013 and 2020) The Reading Gap The Sutton Trust: Millbank, London Johnson, R. and Watson, J. (2005) “The effects of Synthetic Phonics teaching on reading and spelling development. A 7-year longitudinal study”. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Education Department

174

Bibliography

Johnson, D. and Myklebust, H.R. (1967) Learning Disabilities, Principles and Practices New York: Grune and Stratton Kuczaj, S.A. (1979) “Evidence for a language learning strategy in the relative ease of acquisition of prefixes and suffixes”. Child Development 50 1-13 Lane, C.H. (1990) “Alleviating children’s reading and spelling problems”. In P.D. Pumfrey and C.D. Elliott (eds) Children’s Difficulties in Reading, Spelling and Writing London: Falmer 237-254 Law, J., Rush, R., Schoon, I. and Parsons, S. (2009) “Modelling developmental language difficulties from school entry into adulthood, literacy, mental health and employment outcomes”. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 52 (6) 1401-1416 Laszlo, M. (1987) “Children with perceptuo-motor difficulties in school”. Times Educational Supplement 3rd September, p.22 Laszlo, M., Bairstow, P. and Bartrip, P. (1988) “A new approach to perceptuo-motor dysfunction. Previously called clumsiness”. Support for Learning 3 35-40 Lerkkanen, M-K., Rasku-Puttonen, H., Aunola, K. and Nurmi, J-K. (2004) “Predicting reading performance during the first and second year of primary school”. British Educational Research Journal 30 (1) 67-92 Liberman, I.Y. (1973) “Segmentation of the written word and reading acquisition”. Bulletin of the Orton Society 23 365-77 Liberman, A.M.. Shankweiler, D.P., Cooper, F.S. and Studdart-Kennedy, M. (1967) “Perception of the speech code”. Psychological Review 74 (6) 431-436 Lindamood-Bell (2018) Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes. Research Report, British Dyslexia Association 11th International Conference, Telford: LindamoodBell.co.uk Livingstone, A. (1961) A Study of Spelling Errors, “Studies in Spelling” .Scottish Council for Research in Education: University of London Press Lloyd, S. (1993) Jolly Phonics Chigwell Essex: Jolly Learning Lyth, A. (2004) “Handwriting speed: An aid to communication success?” Handwriting Today 3 30-35 Marin, M.F., La Voie, N. and Montisinos, L. (2012) “The effects of manuscript, cursive or manuscript/cursive styles on writing development in Grade 2”. Language and Literacy 14 110-124 Kirby. A. (2020) National Handwriting Association Seminar Briefing information Medwell, J. and Wray, D. (2007) “Handwriting. What do we know and what do we need to know?” Literacy 43 (1) 10-15

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

175

Monroe, M. (1932) Children Who Cannot Read Chicago Ill: University of Chicago Press Montgomery, D. (1977) “Teaching pre-reading through training in pattern recognition”. The Reading Teacher 30 (6) 216-225 Montgomery, D. (1979) The Visual Pattern Recognition Test and Manual for Early Reading Windsor: NFER Montgomery, D. (1981) “Do dyslexics have difficulty accessing articulatory information?” Psychological Research 43 235-243 Montgomery, D. (1984) “Multisensory mouth training”. In L.L. Cowdery., D. Montgomery, P. Morse, P. and N. Prince-Bruce Teaching Reading Through Spelling Series (1983-1987 LDRP Kingston on Thames 91100 Reprint 1994 Wrexham; TRTS Publishing Montgomery, D. (1997) Spelling: Remedial Strategies London: Cassell Montgomery, D. (1998) Reversing Lower Attainment London: David Fulton Montgomery, D. (2007) Spelling, Handwriting and Dyslexia London: Routledge Montgomery, D. (2008) “Cohort analysis of writing after 2, 4, and 7 years of the National Literacy Strategy.” Support for Learning 22 (1) 3-11 Montgomery, D. (2014) The Spelling Detective Dictionary Maldon LDRP www.ldrp.org.uk Montgomery, D. (2015) Teaching Gifted Children with Special Educational Needs: Supporting dual and multiple exceptionality London: Routledge Montgomery, D. (2017a) DyslexiaǦfriendly Approaches to Reading, SpellingandHandwritingLondon: Routledge Montgomery, D. (2017b) “Identifying and remediating dyslexia in the Reception year. A new possibility?” Support for Learning 31 (1) 69-80 Montgomery, D. (2017c) “Using classroom observation to improve teaching and prevent failure with the ‘Five Star Plan’ and Audit System”. In J. Bakken (ed) Classrooms: Assessment Practices for Teachers and Student Improvement Strategies New York: Nova Science Publishing Inc. 143-170 Montgomery, D. (2018) Dyslexia and Gender Bias. A critical review London: Routledge Focus Book Montgomery, D. (2020) Tackling Disadvantage and Underachievement in Schools. A Practical Guide for Teachers London: Routledge Montgomery, D. (2021) Teaching for Learning Gain in Higher Education London: Routledge Mueller, P.A. and Oppenheimer D.A. (2014) “The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking”.

176

Bibliography

Psychological Science published online 23 April 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797614524581 Accessed July 25th 2018 Neale, M.D. (1958) Neale Analysis of Reading Ability Second edition (1997) Windsor: NFER-Nelson Nelson, R. H., and Trafford, C.H. (2003) Handwriting, A Complete Guide to Instruction. Greensburg, PA: Peterson Directed Handwriting. Norrie E. (1973) The Edith Norrie Letter Case London: Helen Arkell Centre Ouellette, G. and Sénéchal, M. (2008) “Pathways to Literacy: A study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read”. Child Development 79 (4) 899-913 Oussoren-Voors, R. (2000) Write-Dance Bristol: Lucky Duck Publishing Overvelde, A. and Hulstijn, W. (2011) “Learning new movement patterns: A study on good and poor writers comparing learning conditions emphasising spatial, timing, or abstract characteristics”. Human Movement Science 30 731-744. Paul, R.W (1990) “Critical thinking in North America”. In A.J. Binker Critical Thinking. What every person needs to know in a rapidly changing world Sonoma: Sonoma State University 18-42 Peters, M.L. (1967) Spelling: Caught or Taught? 2nd edition (1985). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Pitman, Sir I. (1847) The Ehrhardt Augmented (40 sound-42 character) Lower-case Roman Alphabet Sir J. Pitman 1961 i.t.a London: Pitman Pitman, Sir J. (1961) The Initial Teaching Alphabet London: Pitman Pitman, Sir J. (1965) “The future of the teaching of reading”. in W.B. Barbe (ed) Teaching Reading. Selected materials New York: Oxford University Press 155-181 Pugh, K.R., Einar-Mencl, W. and Gore, J.C. and 12 others (2000) “The Angular Gyrus in developmental dyslexia: Task-specific differences in functional connectivity”. Cortex 11 (2) https://doi.org/10.1111/14679280.00214 Accessed 23/3/23 Read, C. (1986) Children’s Creative Spellings London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Reber, A.S. and Scarborough, D.L. (eds) (1977) Towards a Psychology of Reading Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum and Wiley Richgels, D.J. (1995) “Invented spelling ability and printed word learning in Kindergarten”. Reading Research Quarterly 30 (1) 96-109 Roaf, C. (1998) “Slow hand. A secondary school survey of handwriting speed and legibility.” Support for Learning 13 (1) 39-42 Root, B. (ed) (1986) Resources for Reading Basingstoke: UKRA/ Macmillan

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

177

Rose, R.V. (2004) “The writing/reading connection”. Retrieved from http://petersonhandwriting/Publications/PDFversions/BobRoseFluency Study.pdf Accessed 22/19/2020 Rose, J. (2006) Rose Review. Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading: Final report London: DfES Rosencrans, G. (1998) The Spelling Book. Teaching Children How to Spell USA International Reading Association Royce-Adams, W. (1977) Developing Reading Versatility New York: Rinehart and Winston p.145 Schaapkens, T. (2009) “An investigation into the feasibility of integrating cognitive process strategies into Food Technology lessons for supporting teaching and learning of spelling”. MA SpLD dissertation London: Middlesex University Schoemaker, M.M. and Calveboer, A.S. (1994) “Social and affective problems of children who are clumsy. How do they begin?” In S.E. Henderson (ed) Developmental Co-ordination Disorder. Special Issue of Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly 11, 130-141 Schonell, F.J. (1934) “The relationship between defective speech and disability in spelling”. British Journal of Educational Psychology 4 (2) 123-139 Schonell, F.J. and Schonell F. E. (1970) Diagnostic and Attainment Testing 8th Imprint, Reprint Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd SED, Scottish Education Department) (1978) The Education of Pupils with Learning Difficulties in Primary and Secondary Schools. A progress report by HMI Edinburgh: HMSO Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G. and Young, L. (2004) “Testing the concurrent and predictive relations among articulation accuracy, speech perception, and phoneme awareness”. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 89 242-269. Shadmehr, R. (1997) “Neural correlates of motor memory consolidation”. Science 277 821-825. Share, D.L.(1995) “Phonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition”. Cognition, 55, 151–218. Shortis, T. (2014) “Txtng, G8 xpkt8ns” Seminar presentation. National Association of Teachers of English Conference, Huntingdon, September Shuard, H. and Rothery, A. (1980) Children Reading Maths London: National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education Silverman, L.K. (2004) “Poor handwriting: A major cause of underachievement” http://www.visuospatial.org/Publications/ Accessed 20/4/ 2007

178

Bibliography

Skilbeck, M. (1989) School Development and New Approaches to Learning: Trends and Issues in Curriculum Reform Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Smith, F. (1971) Understanding Reading. A psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read Belmont CA: Thomson Learning Inc. Smith, F. (1988) Understanding Reading. A psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read Hillsdale: NJ: Erlbaum Snowling, M.L., Hulme, C. and Nation, K. (2020) “Defining and understanding dyslexia, past, present and future”. Oxford Review of Education 46 (4) 501-511 Solity, J. and Vousden, J. (2009) “Real books versus reading schemes. A new perspective”. Instructional Psychology 29 (4) 469-511 Solity, J. (2018) “Systematic synthetic phonics. A possible cause of pupils’ literacy difficulties”. Lecture, 11th International Conference of the BDA 12-14 April Telford UK Southgate, V. (1970) i.t.a. What is the evidence? London: Schools Council Publication Southgate, V. (1986) “Teachers of Reading: Planning the most effective use of their time”. In B. Root (ed) Resources for Reading Basingstoke: UKRA /Macmillan 80-98 Spencer, M., Wagner, R. K. and Petscher, Y. (2019) “The reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge of children with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding: Evidence from a regression-based matching approach”. Journal of Educational Psychology 111, 1–14. Stakes, R. and Hornby, G. (2000) Meeting Special Needs in Mainstream Schools. A practical guide for teachers.2nd edition London: David Fulton Stahl, S. A., and Murray, B. A. (1998) “Issues involved in defining phonological awareness and its relation to early reading”. In J. Metsala and L. C. Ehri (eds.), Word Recognition in Beginning Literacy Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum 65-87 Tymms, P. (2004) “Are standards rising in English primary schools?’ British Educational Research Journal 30 (4) 477-494 Upton, J., Duckett, J, and Boardman, M. (2008) “A Motorway to ABC”. Special Nov. 17-19 van der Craen, P. (2016) “Fostering Talent through Multilingual Education”. Lccture EU Conference on the Development of Giftedness and Talent, Bratislava, Slovakia September

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All

179

Vinter, A. and Chartrel, E. (2010) “Effects of different types of learning on handwriting movements in young children”. Learning and Instruction, 20, 476-486 Wade, B and Wedell, K. (1974) “Spelling: task and learner”. Educational Review Occasional Papers No. 5 University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham 15 Waldfogel, J. and Washbrook, E. (2010) Low Income and Early Cognitive Development in the U.K. London: Sutton Trust. Wallace, B. and Erikson, G. (eds) (2006) Diversity in Gifted Education: International perspectives on global issues London: Routledge Warrington, E.K. (1967) “The incidence of verbal disability associated with reading retardation”. Neuropsychology 5 351-361 Webster, R., Bousanquet, P. and Franklin, J. (2021) Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants in Primary Schools: A practical guide for school leaders London: Routledge Wedell, K. (1973) Learning and Perceptuo-motor Difficulties in Children New York: Wiley Wendon, L. (2003) ABC Letterland London: Letterland International Williams, A. (1974) “A study of spelling errors”. In B. Wade and K. Wedell Spelling: Task and Learner: Educational Review Occasional Papers No. 5 University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham 15. 45-50 Witty, P and Kopel, D. (1936) ‘Factors associated with the aetiology of reading disability”. Journal of Educational Research 29 449-459 Wolff, A.G. (1970) “The Gillingham-Stillman programme”. In A. Franklin White and S Naidoo (eds) Assessment and Teaching of Dyslexic Children London: ICAA 82-96 Wyse, D. and Bradbury, A. (2022) “Reading wars or reading reconciliation? A critical examination of robust research evidence, curriculum policy and teachers' practices for teaching phonics and reading”. Review in Education April 10 (1)

INDEX

ABC method 45 ADHD 138 Ainley 40 agenda spelling 58-60 Allen 24 Allcock 109 alphabet English 7 i.t.a. 8-9 revised system 38 angular gyrus 32 APA 115 Apprenticeship Approach 76 APSL 35 Arkell 33 articulation 30 awareness 38-40 test 36 training 36-8 assessment coordination 122-24 freeform 145 levels 48-9 speed 108-14 sub-skills 144

Clackmannanshire study 5 Clark 33 34 Clarke 47 Clay 25 94 Cochrane 12 41 code emphasis 19-22 Coltheart 17 20 22 comprehension 87 strategies 76-78 Connelly 4 Copperplate 46 copy writing problems 117-8 Covid-19 5 Cowdery 34 98 CPSS 55-7 Crystal 42 cueing system 23 Cunningham 25 cursive 99 reasons 99-100

barge trip ‘spells’ 61-2 Bara 98 Barnett 90 94 Bannatyne 34 Barbe 22 Barbieri 37 BDA 2 33 54 Berninger 29 89 90 120 127 bibliography 169-79 Boxall 40 Bradley 32 brain 31 57 89 Gym 136-38 Breakthrough to Literacy 25 31 Bryant 41 126

Dale 7 DASH 95 DCD 4 99 100 115-22 138 assessment 122-24 definition 115-17 origins 115-6 types 116 visuo-spatial 119 de Bono 80 decoding 21 30 73 Denckla 41 Dennisons 138 DfE 3 6 12 87 90-3 99 early years phases 41 NLS 69 dictionary skills 62-64 arc 63 quartiles 63-4 difficulties 127-8 disadvantage 1-3 17 53 94 102 103 104 109 112-3 139 teachers 64 DME cases 124-7 Dockrell 1 90 102 dual-coding 24

Cantell 135 Chall 30 32-3 87 Christianson 138 Cinderella 4 Civil Service hand 31 46

182 dysgraphia 55 120-2 dyslexia 32-8 incidence 33 54 potential 54 Dyspraxia Foundation 117 EFL 16 26 Ehri 11 48 49 ergonomics 97 Farnham-Diggory 24 93 Fassett 29-31 Fawcett 91 features analysis 24 93 Fernald 33 38 56 99 Ferreiro 47 flow-charting 81-2 fluency 67 95 freeform handwriting 6 47 51 54 94 levels 146-53 test of 145 free school meals (FSM) 53 80 Frith 48 49 furniture 107-08 Gattegno 8 Geschwind 32 Gelb 38 Gentry 43 47 Gillingham 10 33 34 99 Glass 40 Golinkoff 41 Goodacre 22 Goodman 23 Goswami 41 gothic style 45 GPCs 3 10 41 Graham 90 handwriting 4 assessment 101-03 copy 93 DfE SATs 21-23 ergonomics 97 difficulties 116-120 forms 10001 freeform 51 fluency 95 general difficulties 127-8 handedness 97 interventions 130-33 mirror 96

Index speed 109-114 styles 96 tools 103-07 window 6 hearing reading inventory (IRI) 69-7 Hickey 10 34 56 Higgins 79 Hietland 86 Hinshelwood 32 HMI criterion 111 ‘hooker’ 105 Hornsby 34 informal reading inventory, (IRI) 69-72 invented spellings 47 i.t.a. 8-9 James 89 120 Jarman 46 53 99 Jerrim 51 jigsaw words 93 154 Johnson 9 Jolly Phonics 9-10 Keller 33 56 Key Stages 1 2 3 69 kinaesthetic training 134-5 Kirby 115 Kuzjac 57 language experience method 25 76 laptops 120 Laszlo 134-5 LCWC 33 learning support 108 legibility 95 128-9 test T-HFL 129-31 Lerkkanen 29 letters 16 levelling up 141 lexicon 4 l-f-s rule 11 59 Liberman 5 12 38 Liberman Y. 41 126 Lindamood-Bell 24 lines 107 listening dogs 76

Sooner, Faster, Better Reading for All literacy 1 2 4 assessment 50 national strategy 1 Livingstone 47 Lloyd 8 9-10 Look and Say 22-24 Lyth 128 main points 62 80-3 MAPT 15 34 42 43 49 54 64 lessons 73 156-68 maths vocabulary 86-8 meaning emphasis 22-24 Medwell 42 mental ability 41 meta-analysis 34 MIDYIS 128 misspellings 56 mixed methods 26 30-2 monoline teaching 154-55 Monroe 23 33 99 morphemic 16 motor skills programmes 133-5 DfE’s 90 Motorway to ABC 133-34 Mueller 114 multimodal literacy 43

paper position 105-6 pattern processing 24-5 29 training 153-54 penhold 103-5 Peters 46 93 phases 69 reading 18 phones 50 phonics 19-22 analytic 21 basic 20 first 33 synthetic 21 readiness 7 Phoenicians 38 PIRLS 5 6 56 PISA 5 6 56 Pitman 8 poor reading 2 predictors 41 86 practice best 4 Pugh 32 Pyramidal model 35-6 questioning text 85-6

occupational therapy 138 OECD 5 onsets 39 53 opaque language 7 optimal instruction 41 oracy 2 67 orthographic mapping 49 Oussoren-Voors 135 Overvelde 98

RCTs 5 Read 47 47 Reading Recovery 23 reading comprehension 76-8 critical development 73-6 hearing 69- IRI levels 18 64 phases 69 predictors 41 teaching 17 wars 17 45 Real books 23 68 76 Reber 30 research skills 79-86 Richardson 114 Ridehalgh 34 rimes 73 Roaf 1 20 109 128 Rose 1 10 30 69 Rosencrans 51 94 Royce-Adams 78 81 rules for handwriting 103-4 spelling 14-15 59-60 suffixing 60 Rush 36-7 Rutter 2

Paul 78-9

‘satnip’ 41 SATs 1 51

National Curriculum 90 natural readers 3 Neale 47 NARA 68 Nelson 98 Norrie 33 nurture groups 40

183

184 Schaapkins 64 Schoemaker 109 Schonell 9 33 47 schools 65 SED 33 self-teaching 18 38 Semitic 38 Sénéchal 40 SENCo 4 64 sentence method 22 sequencing training 83-4 Shadmehr 98 Share 3 18 Shortis 42 Shuard 86 Silverman 4 Skilbeck 5 79 Smith 23 Snowling 41 126 Solity 10 41 Southgate 9 16 Southgate-Booth 69 74 speech 40 SOS 33 56-7 speed handwriting 109-114 test 145 spelling agenda 58-60 corrections 56-7 Detective 3 15 165-6 errors 47 subjects 61-2 invented 47 levels 48-9 51-3 ranks 50 54 rules 14-15 59-60 ‘15 Spells’ 61 scale 50 in subjects 61-2 teaching 59 60-4 Stakes 10 Stillman 33 50 study skills 79-86 subject teachers 88 sub-skills, writing 144 suffixing rules 14-15 60 summarising 84-5 supporting learning 108 Sure-Start 40 Sutton Trust 1 56-7 syllable structures 45 rules 58-9

Index synthetic phonics 21-2 talking curriculum 79 TAs teaching assistants 40 49 50 69 93 108-9 143 teaching models 78-9 self 43 texting 42 T-HFL 130-33 thinking skills 76-9 models 78 Tizard 67 TPS 79 training kinaesthetic 133-36 teachers 43 TRTS 11 56 98 Tymms 1

UAch 109 UNESCO 1 Upton 133 VAKKs 35-6 van der Craen 11 18 Vellutino 34 126 visuo-spatial difficulties 116 copying 118-120 vocabulary 86 maths 86-7 vowels 2-vowel rule 50 Wallace 5 79 Waldfogel 86 Warrington 32 Waterland 76 Wedell 98 99 word-building 32 33 whole language 22 word method 22 Witty 76 Wolff 35 Write-Dance 135-6 Writing assessments 145-53 sub skills 144-5 Wyse 3 17 25