Review of Yes, We Can Read (2011) By L. Coleman and N. Ainley
ISBN 987 1842310 755
Gatehouse Books
Yes We Can Read is a ‘one to one reading scheme for learners from 8 -80’, published by dyslexia support, and available through Gatehouse Books. It is a phonics based programme which aims to develop reading for meaning, through a guided reading programme, to be delivered by non-specialists. It suggests that anyone who can ‘read fluently’ can ‘teach a non-reader or poor reader to read in six months or less.
The book is written in a clear, easy to follow style that describes a simple process for helping someone learn to read, modelling a structured multi sensory approach by linking visual imagery to letter sounds and including the look, say, write approach for words not spelt phonetically. One home educator said ‘it was really helpful to have some direction and coaching as a tutor and it gave me lots of confidence because I know it’s a tried and tested method.’ Two people who have used the book have commented on the ‘waste of space’, for example ‘I felt that the contents could have been spaced out more and maybe have a larger font for SEN learners’ and ‘there seems to be a lot of space which is not being utilised’.
The programme includes a ‘photo alphabet’, which claims to be unique, but is actually a variation on a method that has been used to teach children to read for many years – linking a letter (not a sound) to a picture which mirrors this shape – so, for example, the letter b is represented by a bat next to a ball, making the ‘b’ shape. One parent remarked ‘I really liked the photo alphabet, haven’t seen this before. This was really good for children with special needs because it’s so visual’.
However adults may find it confusing - many adults will have their own form of visual imagery that may be different to that described in the book that links to the letters; for example, a dyslexic learner may link the spelling of leaf and feather because they have an image of these two things floating down in the air, a visual image rather than a phonetic link.
The book provides information on approaches to working with adults who are just beginning to read, that is essential for non-specialist staff such as learning mentors, intermediaries, and it does promote a recognised and successful approach to learning reading for adults with dyslexia. However, I think those working with adults may have a number of issues with using the programme, despite the fact that it has glowing reviews by those who support or teach adults reading.
The programme promotes coaching reading in isolation from writing, (although being clear it is for 20 minute sessions, three times a week) and speaking and listening, and NIACE suggest quite strongly that adults with poor literacy need support with all aspects of literacy. Speaking and listening skills are at the heart of improving literacy, and concentrating on reading alone is not best practice for learners. It is likely that unqualified tutors will not be aware of broader approaches that support and reinforce literacy learning.
The programme, having been developed for work with children, uses nonsense sentences, such as ‘the thin man sat on the fat dog’, for progression purposes, which adults could find childish and patronising. Good adult literacy teaching recognises, uses and builds on adults’ own experiences that they bring to class, and working with adults as individuals.
Overall, this book offers an excellent tool for those supporting children at home, for those working with young people with poor literacy on a one to one basis. Use of it with children and young people in school needs to be seen as a part of an overall educational programme, and should be seen as such. Using the programme with adults, especially those who have ‘coped’ for many years with poor skills, needs a range of supporting mechanisms such as encouraging reading for pleasure, for example through using Quick Reads, development of speaking and listening skills and the development of writing skills. Some adults may love working on this programme; others may not. Those supporting adults with their literacy build on and use a learner’s own uses of literacy – this might not be the tool for that.
Reviewed by Carol Taylor
Director of Research and Development
NIACE
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
Title: All Talk: English 14-19.
Authors: J. Blake et al.
Publisher: BT.
ISBN 978-1-904709-28-2
Free resource.
This review was written by Amanda Stec, PGCE English, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
All Talk is a resource that can be used by teachers and students in English lessons. It focuses on routine everyday talk and is a tool for building an understanding of communication in everyday interaction.
Each of the fifteen modules outlines an aspect of communication in everyday interaction within four main categories: talk about the self (names, idiolects, multilingual talk), online and offline talk (texting, chatting and paralinguistic features), dialect and accent and public talk. The book provides materials for discussion and reflection, whilst emphasising practical approaches to teaching about language. All Talk teaches skilful ways of talking for different purposes, such as with the module on spoken word poetry and performance talk. It also teaches ways of interacting in a variety of contexts such as talk in school – both on- and off-task – and with family and friends.
This resource adopts a multimodal approach to teaching about spoken language. For example, one of the activities involves students preparing a storyboard and making a podcast about linguistic diversity. It also includes alternative aspects of language such as a module on British Sign Language and activities in which students analyse a translated transcript of British Sign Language in written standard English. All Talk contains helpful teacher guides, lesson builders, planned activities, web links, word clouds and graphs as well as text in order to support a variety of lesson activities.
Rather than being an add-on, the DVD is a resource in its own right and helps to illustrate many points that the book makes. It includes voxpop videos, scripted representations of interactions, video soundbites, recordings of speakers, samples of face to face chats, interviews, improvised student performances and a themed collection of performed poems.
All Talk would be valuable for teaching the Spoken Language requirement in GCSE English Language. It also directly supports the Speaking and Listening curriculum topic of GCSE English and GCSE English Language. It could be used to support some Year 9 and Year 12 lessons.
As a trainee teacher I found the materials offered enough structure to help me incorporate it into my lesson plans. The abundance of ideas and resources also facilitated my teaching of the English Language course.
Jaki Moody
A teacher who made a difference
The teacher who made a difference to me was Mr James, who taught me when I was in Year 5 and 6 at the village primary school in the late 1960s. Having the same teacher for two consecutive years could have been a disaster for some children, but not if that teacher was Mr. James.
I had always had books to read at home, and belonged to the local library as well as an additional library in the nearest town, but my choices were not challenged either by what I was introduced to at school, or by what had been read to me at home. All that changed in Year 5 and 6!
We listened to a poetry programme on the radio each week, sometimes following the written texts and always talking about what we had heard and learning poetry to recite. I can still recite poetry learned then, so in many ways those poems and their writers have been my friends for almost as long as I can remember. We read playscripts, taking on a role and sometimes performing to each other within our own class.
Every day I looked forward to the next episode in the class novel Mr. James was reading to us. Sometimes we read round the class, but I preferred it when his voice took me to a different place and sometimes a different time, as when he read us Ian Serraillier’s Silver Sword. I can still feel the frisson, a mixture of excitement and terror, that each event in the story evoked. I think I modelled the way I read to children in classes I have taught, and to my own sons, on the way he read to us, stopping at a cliff-hanger so we were desperate for story time the next day to arrive.
One year Mr James wrote on my report, ‘Jacqueline spends much of her time with her head inside her desk, where she usually has a book secreted’.
Mmm, now I wonder who we could blame for that then?!
In my primary school it was Mr Davies who told us the story of Prince Llewellyn and Gelert (and I cried a lot which he didn't like! - but it's a very sad story) and read 'The Wind in the Willows' to us - what a wonderful chapter 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' is... and in secondary school the wonderful Miss Flint who suggested we read 'Lord of the Rings'. I've now read it several times - and saw the wonderful films... but also it was the poetry.
lizwalsh, Dec 4 2011
I don’t know whether you spotted the announcements at the LIBDEM conference last week about the pupil premium. First we had Sarah Teather announce an increase to the pupil premium: http://www.libdems.org.uk/latest_news_detail.aspx?title=Sarah_Teather%E2%80%99s_speech_to_Liberal_Democrat_Autumn_Conference&pPK=0b20f466-bd30-4abc-842a-3a273aed6f5c Then the next day Nick Clegg decided how much…Read more >
