© 2012 Teach to Read
Are you looking for up-to-date training in teaching reading?
Elizabeth of ‘Teach to Read’ provides training in synthetic phonics, the method now officially advocated by the English government for the initial teaching of reading.
Is synthetic phonics really the most effective way to teach reading?
Elizabeth's answer is 'yes'. However, as professionals, many teachers are asking themselves why they should change their methods.
- What are the benefits for those they teach?
- How is synthetic phonics different from other phonics?
- At what age are children ready for phonics?
- What activities help children learn to read?
- When should children begin to read books?
- How do spelling and handwriting fit in?
- What is the best way to cater for individual learning styles?
- What about comprehension?
- What about a literacy rich environment?
- How can teachers help older children and adults learn to read?
- What programmes are available to support teaching and how do they choose between them? If they have the government’s programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’, do schools need another programme?
If you would like answers to any of these questions, please contact Teach to Read. Elizabeth will tailor her training according to your circumstances and the questions raised by your staff.
Training can be about the initial teaching of reading, or progression, or helping older children or adults with reading difficulties, or preparing children to read in a pre-school setting. It can be adapted for advisors, headteachers, teachers, student teachers, teaching assistants, preschool staff, carers and parents.
For the past forty years, many teachers have been told that children should learn everything by discovery and problem solving. With this philosophy, the role of the teacher is not to teach, but to organise activities and provide the right learning environment. There is no doubt that this is effective in some situations, but for learning how to read words, direct teaching is more effective. Certainly a few children are able to work out the alphabetic code by themselves and some manage when they are trained to guess from a range of clues. However, at least 20% of children fail to learn to read without direct teaching. In fact, all children benefit when their teacher’s role is to teach to read.
Elizabeth is an experienced teacher and an expert in synthetic phonics teaching methods.
She provides training in the UK and abroad, advises teachers and has led a project to introduce synthetic phonics to islands in the Caribbean. To find out more, click here:
Read testimonials from a range of schools and experts: Sue Lloyd, Ruth Miskin, Debbie Hepplewhite, Marlynne Grant, Susan Godsland ...
Y1 Phonics Screening Check In June 2012 all children in Year 1 in state maintained schools in England will be asked to read a list of words. The aim is to find out which six year olds have learned to decode to an acceptable standard and which will need catch-up in Year 2. The ‘check’ will include real words and nonwords. How will it be conducted? What are the implications of including nonwords?
Read or save (pdf):
Every Child a Reader (ECAR) in England. Click here and follow the link to an evaluation of the evidence.
Find out how Jolly Phonics fits in with the Phases of Letters and Sounds (pdf) to help you plan for progression.
State funded schools in England with Key Stage 1 pupils can claim up to £3,000, if they match that funding, to spend on training and resources which meet the Department for Education’s criteria for high-quality phonics teaching.
Teach to Read has now been approved for match funding.
You may book training for Foundation and Key Stage 1 staff or for all your primary school staff. Training can be generic or illustrated with Jolly Phonics, Sound Discovery, Phonics International or Letters and Sounds. It can be for mainstream, catch-up or both.
If you would like to book training for match funding, please contact Teach to Read.
