This sounds incredible, but it is true – and in one of the most deprived areas of Scotland.
It was an article about this 10-year experiment that encouraged me to keep going. The sort of approach I was using and the resources that I had been developing for my students were heading in the right direction.
Engagement and fun are key elements.
How can children from deprived backgrounds keep up with those from homes filled with books, stories and language?
The key is to teach the sounds of letters, and groups of letters, and how to blend them into words – first, fast and in a way that is fun. This is what is now known as “synthetic phonics” or “systematic phonics”, but it had been virtually forgotten and resources were very hard to find in 1986 when I first started helping students with difficulties with reading and spelling.
“/e/ is for egg divided in two, with a hole in the side to let out the goo.”
Over time I have continued to develop memory aids and rhymes, interactive books, computer programs and games (including one on how to write letters), actions, board and card games, graded books for children to practise what they have learned … whatever my students, and later my grandchildren, needed.
Here is the link to that original article. What do you think?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/jul/10/schools.primaryeducation
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