| "Kids
can't read properly"-  7 April
2005
The proportion of 11-year-olds unable to read and write to the level
expected at their age is "unacceptably high", MPs have said.
The Commons Education and Skills Select Committee said one in five
children does not achieve the expected levels.
The cross-party committee called on the Government to commission an
immediate review of its National Literacy Strategy.
The report said: "At age 11, around 20% of children still do not
achieve the success in reading (and writing) expected of their age.
"This figure is unacceptably high. Furthermore, there is a wide
variation in the results achieved by schools with apparently similar intakes.
"This...suggests that problems do exist, either in the
implementation of the Government's strategies or inherently in the methodology it
promotes."
Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said the committee fully
acknowledged that reading was influenced by many factors outside a school's control.
"However, we do consider that teaching methods also have a
significant impact on a child's chances of becoming a fluent reader," he said.
Sky News: Thursday April
07, 2005
"MPs
demand reading lessons review" -  7 April 2005
The number of 11-year-olds in England who fail reading tests is
"unacceptably high" and an "immediate review" of teaching methods is
needed, MPs say.
According to government figures, 17% do not reach the required
standard.
The Commons education select committee says methods such as
"synthetic phonics" - breaking words down into sounds - need to be looked at
more.
However, the committee added teaching reading was
"extremely complex" and Labour said progress had been made.
The government's National Literacy Strategy, introduced
in 1998, recommends a variety of methods to improve literacy.
These are said to increase the number of "cues" to
word recognition, such as its shape on the page and its grammatical construction.
The context in which it appears, in a sentence or phrase, is
also seen as important.
The proportion of England's 11-year-olds reaching the required
standard at reading in national tests has increased from 67% to 83% since 1997.
These figures may reflect some "teaching to the
test", the MPs' report says.
Word breakdown
Synthetic phonics breaks words into the
smallest unit of sound and combines these to make words.
For example, "street" would be broken down into five
components: "s-t-r-ee-t".
A study in schools in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, has shown
that this method can raise the rate of progress in reading.
After the second year at school, pupils taught in this way were
seven months ahead, on average, of their contemporaries across the country.
By age 11 this gap had grown to 3.5 years.
The MPs' report recommends returning to these children in later
years to see whether their gains persist.
Schools minister Stephen Twigg says the government intends to
listen to teachers on the issue.
"Very often it's the teacher who knows best for their own
child in their classroom," he said.
"Let's ensure we've got the best advice on phonics, but
let's also enable teachers to get on with the job of teaching as well."
'Intensive support'
It urges the Department for Education and Skills to carry out a
large-scale study of teaching methods in England.
This should compare the "phonics fast, first and
only" approach to the youngest children with others.
All aspects of literacy - such as word recognition, reading
comprehension and following a narrative - must be considered, the report says.
The committee report advocates "intensive" support
for children with reading difficulties, many of whom do not experience reading English at
home.
It says "inspiring an enduring enjoyment of reading"
should be key to teaching young children.
But this could be "endangered both by an overly formal
approach" in school.
Opportunities limited
Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said: "The ability to
read is the key to educational achievement.
"Poor literacy limits opportunities not only at school,
but throughout life."
Teaching reading was "an extremely complex subject",
involving schools, background, outside stimuli and brain development.
"However, we do consider that teaching methods also have a
significant impact on a child's chances of becoming a fluent reader," Mr Sheerman
added.
A Labour Party spokesman said "significant progress"
had been made on reading standards and that the national strategy had a "balanced
approach to teaching".
Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins said it was letting down
an "alarming proportion" of children and promised that a Conservative government
would put synthetic phonics "at the heart of our literacy strategy".
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said there was
no "one-size-fits-all" approach to literacy and that teachers needed to be freed
from a "tyranny of testing and targets".
The select committee report is called Teaching Children to
Read.
BBC news: Thursday, 7 April, 2005, 12:14 GMT 13:14 UK
Spelling out success in reading
MPs are calling for schools to use a reading scheme called synthetic
phonics - but what is it and how does it differ from the way reading is generally taught
today?
Most schools in England already use a version of phonics - where
children are taught the sounds of letters to make up words.
But teachers use that approach with a combination of others, such as
encouraging children to work out what a word might be from the context such as the
pictures on a page or the use of repetition of particular words.
In the past children might have been taught to learn whole words
first, probably using flash-cards, and then they were given books which had the words they
had learnt in them.
With phonics generally, children learn to read using the sounds of
letters rather than the names. So a letter 'D' is said 'duh' not 'dee'.
They learn that d-o-g spells dog.
So far so good. But there are two main types of
phonics - analytic and synthetic - and this is what the current debate is about. Most teachers do both synthetic and analytic
phonics
Primary school teacher and literacy expert Kate Ruttle believes both
methods are being used in schools, alongside several other approaches to reading, and the
debate is an academic one.
"Most parents will find their teachers are using a version of
phonics already," she said.
"Most teachers do both synthetic and analytic phonics and 90% of
teachers probably don't know the difference between the two. It's something the academic
world argues about.
"Teachers will vary their methods depending on the needs of
their class."
Scottish experience
Ms Ruttle is an editor of the Oxford Reading Tree - a reading scheme
used in many English primary schools.
She does not believe in promoting just one approach to reading - and
says the existing national literacy strategy is not opposed to phonics - it is just not
prescriptive.
"Basically, the difference between the two approaches is that
with synthetic phonics, teachers start with the word first, then they break it down into
sounds.
"So they show the word 'frog' for example to children and say
this is the word frog, f-r-o-g, telling them all the sounds.
They have no fear of attempting to read new words or write a simple
sentence
Veronica O'Grady, Menstrie Primary School
"In analytic phonics you build up the sounds to make a word. So
a teacher would say 'f-r-o-g' sounding out all the letters and then ask what is the
word?"
Under the national literacy strategy, primary school children need to
spend an hour a day on literacy. Teachers are encouraged to use phonics alongside other
methods.
In Clackmannanshire, Scotland, 300 children were taught to read using
the synthetic phonics method and were found to be well ahead of children taught in other
ways.
At Menstrie Primary School, children were given intensive instruction
in synthetic phonics for 16 weeks as soon as they started school.
By the age of 11, they were more than three years ahead of
their peers in reading age.
Head teacher Veronica O'Grady believes this method is better
than what was being done 10 years ago.
"Teaching synthetic phonics gives children strategies for
reading and writing that they wouldn't have had at the early stages using other
methods."
She added: "They have no fear of attempting to read new
words or write a simple sentence.
"These early gains seem to last - even at the top of the
school boys are reading and writing as well and as enthusiastically as girls."
BBC News: Friday, 11 February, 2005, 00:57 GMT
Sounds 'help pupils with reading'
Phonics gave pupils a
head-start, the study found
Teaching children literacy by using the sounds letters make speeds up
their progress, a report says.
Eleven-year-olds in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, who used the
"synthetic phonics" method were three years ahead in reading.
The local authority is using the technique in its 19 primary
schools.
A seven-year study by Hull and St Andrews universities also
found pupils were on average almost two years ahead of others in Scotland at spelling.
'Major effect'
The report says: "It is evident that the children in this
study have achieved well above what would be expected for their chronological age."
It adds: "We can conclude that a synthetic phonics
programme, as part of the reading curriculum, has a major and long-lasting effect on
children's reading and spelling attainment."
The pupils learned through the phonics system throughout their
primary school years.
Ronnie O'Grady, head teacher of Menstrie Primary School, said:
"Teaching synthetic phonics gives children strategies for reading and writing that
they wouldn't have had at the early stages using other methods."
She added: "They have no fear of attempting to read new
words or write a simple sentence.
"These early gains seem to last - even at the top of the
school boys are reading and writing as well and as enthusiastically as girls."
Half of all pupils in Scotland at present fail the national
writing test for 14-year-olds.
Education minister Peter Peacock has given his backing to the
use of phonics in primary schools.
Too many kids have poor literacy skills, say MPs
ITN : 9.14AM, Thu Apr 7 2005
Child literacy has been blasted by a leading committee of
Commons MPs who say the number of 11-year-olds unable to read and write properly is
"unacceptably high".
The Education and Skills Select Committee said 20 per cent of
children do not achieve the expected levels of literacy at the age of 11.
It urged the Government to immediately review its National
Literacy Strategy.
The report also questions whether current methods are the best way of
teaching reading at primary school level.
And the committee doubted the Government's insistence that
primary school children have never been more proficient readers.
The MPs noted: "Others question the true extent of this
success, claiming that the proportion of children experiencing significant difficulties
with reading is larger than the figures suggest."
The Times April 07, 2005
Schools still cannot teach pupils to read by age of 11
By Tony Halpin, Education Editor
AN IMMEDIATE review of
how children are taught to read was demanded yesterday after MPs cast doubt on one of Tony
Blair’s key reforms.
The one in five children who cannot read properly at the age of
11 is “unacceptably high” eight years after the National Literacy Strategy was
introduced in primary schools, the Education and Skills Select Committee said.
The Labour-dominated committee cast doubt on Mr Blair’s claims
that primary school standards have improved under Labour and was sceptical about
improvements in the results of the national curriculum English test at 11.
It contrasted the failing of English schools with Scotland
where the restoration of the more traditional phonics approach has recorded some
remarkable improvements.
The MPs said that a large-scale inquiry was necessary to
establish the best ways to teach children to read. It concluded: “It may be that some
methods of teaching (such as phonics) are more effective for children in danger of being
left behind.”
It disputed claims by the Department for Education and Skills
(DfES) that the literacy strategy was based on the best available research.
In Clackmannanshire, 300 children received intensive
instruction in a method known as synthetic phonics, learning the sounds of the alphabet
and combinations of letters for 16 weeks as soon as they started school. By the age of 11,
they were more than three years ahead of their peers.
There was no difference between girls and boys, unlike their
counterparts in England, and children from poor backgrounds performed as well as those
from better-off homes.
The committee’s report said that there was “some
evidence” of a rise in standards since the literacy strategy was introduced in 1997.
But the MPs noted that the Government’s figures had been
challenged by critics who believed that more children were having “significant
difficulties” with reading. They said that the results could be “skewed by
associated factors, such as teachers ‘teaching to the test’ ”. Scores have
improved from 63 per cent reaching the required standard in 1997 to 83 per cent in 2004.
The committee urged the DfES to commission an independent
evaluation of trends in reading standards to make clear “the scale and nature of the
problem”.
“Even if government figures are taken at face value, at
age 11 around 20 per cent of children still do not achieve the success in reading (and
writing) expected of their age. This figure is unacceptably high,” it said.
“Furthermore, there is a wide variation of results
achieved by schools with apparently similar intakes. This . . . suggests that problems do
exist, either in the implementation of the Government’s strategies or inherently in
the methodologies it promotes.”
The dispute centres on whether existing methods work as
effectively as synthetic phonics. The committee said that the literacy strategy had been a
compromise between competing approaches.
It included a form of phonics but also encouraged pupils to
work out the meaning of words using context, grammatical understanding and pictures. The
idea was that if one failed, others would help children to decode words. But some argue
that the strategy takes too long, leaves many children confused and encourages them to
guess. Some children come to believe that they are not good at reading and never learn.
Phonics advocates
say that children should be given intensive lessons in the 44 sounds of the language, so
that they can blend combinations of letters into words.
Tim Collins, the Shadow Education Secretary, said: “This report
is further evidence that Labour’s present literacy strategy, despite some limited
success, is still letting down an alarming proportion of children. The next Conservative
government will put synthetic phonics at the heart of our literacy strategy. We are
determined to make sure that every child who is capable of learning does so before leaving
primary school and we will not allow failed 1960s theories or 21st century political
correctness to stop us.”
Labour insists that it has got reading right and that its approach is
backed by research from the US. Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, argued in The Guardian this week that phonics was not a
“magic bullet”, saying: “We are clear that the way forward is not a
prescriptive and reductionist approach to phonics, to the exclusion of all else.”
The committee said: “The evidence in favour of synthetic
phonics is based on the belief that an early ability to ‘decode’ words is the
key to later success in reading.”
It wants a review to compare the relative effectiveness of the
literacy strategy and synthetic phonics, including the impact on different groups of
children and how long any gains were sustained, using standardised tests, rather than
relying on national curriculum test results, to measure progress.
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