Reading comprehension in high-poverty schools: how should it be taught and how well does it work
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2011

A description and appraisal of a reading comprehension programme that was aimed at Grade 6 learners and teachers and implemented in different ways in two high-poverty primary schools where reading levels were very low. The results of the comprehension programme for the learners' reading abilities in their home language, Northern Sotho, and in English are reported and lessons learned identified.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy, Intermediate
The End of Illiteracy? The Holy Grail of Clackmannanshire
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 1999

Essentially a study of the initial stages of the rise of synthetic phonics as the preferred approach to teaching reading in the United Kingdom. It is useful because it gives an account of the Clackmannanshire study of 1992/93 and other studies that provided the crucial empirical evidence that synthetic phonics was far superior to the analytic phonics/whole language approach and, crucially, worked well with both advantaged and disadvantaged children.

Keywords: Language, Literacy
What we have learned in the past decade: RTI’s approach to early grade literacy instruction
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2017

A paper describes the core elements that we have found to improve early grade literacy instruction and learner outcomes: the approach to teaching, the availability of quality, relevant learner materials, the effective use of instructional time, the use of formative assessment to guide instruction, and provision of instruction in the most effective language. This paper focuses on the acquisition of literacy in alphabetic and alphasyllabic languages in the early primary years (most typically, academic levels 1 through 3) and the kinds of exposures, instruction, and support learners need to become fully literate. These are the elements of a literacy program that can be taught, that should be present in teaching and learning materials and in teacher trainings, and that relate specifically to what happens in a classroom.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
What we have learned in the past decade: RTI’s approach to early grade literacy instruction
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2017

A paper describes the core elements that we have found to improve early grade literacy instruction and learner outcomes: the approach to teaching, the availability of quality, relevant learner materials, the effective use of instructional time, the use of formative assessment to guide instruction, and provision of instruction in the most effective language. This paper focuses on the acquisition of literacy in alphabetic and alphasyllabic languages in the early primary years (most typically, academic levels 1 through 3) and the kinds of exposures, instruction, and support learners need to become fully literate. These are the elements of a literacy program that can be taught, that should be present in teaching and learning materials and in teacher trainings, and that relate specifically to what happens in a classroom.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
A history of disputes about reading instruction
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2013

Discusses the disputes internationally and in Australia on how reading is taught and raises the important issue of the lack of impact of research on teaching practice.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
“Sixty words per minute for all”: Why this goal for the early grades?
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2010

Short paper arguing that failure to learn reading is the primary reason for repetition in the early grades. Students cannot learn from books until they can read fluently, and they may even be unable to solve verbal problems written in maths books. Abadzi argues that by by the end of grade 1 students should be able to read very common words, albeit haltingly. By the end of grade 2 at the latest, students should be reading simple texts fluently, at a rate of at least 60 words per minute.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
Reading in English as a First Additional Language. An annotated bibliography 2007-2021
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2021

This annotated bibliography was compiled by Claire Biesman-Simons and Kerryn Dixon with Elizabeth Pretorius as part of the Primary Teacher Education Project (PrimTEd). It gives a summary account of South African research that has been done on reading in English as a First Additional Language from 2007 to 2021. It comprises a set of annotated entries, mainly research articles from accredited journals and also lists several other sources closely related to reading in EFAL. Originally compiled in 2018 and 2019 and then revised in 2021, it is designed in such a way that new entries can be added to it as new research emerges.

Keywords: EFAL, Reading
Illiteracy: The neuropsychology of cognition without reading
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2010

This literature review records that learning to read reinforces and modifies certain fundamental abilities, such as verbal and visual memory, phonological awareness, and visuospatial and visuomotor skills and that that literacy and education influence the pathways used by the brain for problem-solving. It includes an interesting finding that learning to read in adulthood is a process supported by different brain structures from the ones used when learning occurs at the usual age in childhood.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
Why can’t a teacher be more like a scientist? Science, Pseudoscience and the Art of Teaching
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2008

The article provides a useful examination of the distinction between science and pseudoscience, outlines the characteristics of good educational research and exposes that much educational thinking, including much special education, exhibits the core values of pseudoscience. It provides some interesting examples from Australia in the field of reading instruction.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy, Research
Ending the Reading Wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2018

An exceedingly thorough and comprehensive up to date review of the science of learning to read, spanning from children’s earliest alphabetic skills through to the fluent word recognition and skilled text comprehension characteristic of expert readers. Phonics is highlighted as central to learning in a writing system such as English but other research is reviewed on what else children need to learn to become expert readers. Consideration is also given to how these findings might be translated into effective classroom practice.

Keywords: Language, Literacy
Foundation and Intermediate Phase B.Ed. programmes at selected South African universities: languages and literacies components
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2019

To inform the work of the Primary Teacher Education Project the Literacy Working Group conducted an audit of language and literacy teacher education at ten South African universities in the 2017 to 2018. In addition an analysis was made of the Bachelor of Education modules taught in sixteen universities. The final report was compiled by Professor Yvonne Reed of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Keywords: Language, Literacy, Curriculum, Initial teacher education
Are we country of cognitive genocide?
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2018

Full version of an article published in a condensed form by The Conversation on 26 February 2018 as "South Africa’s reading crisis is a cognitive catastrophe".

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
Initial Teacher Education Research Project
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2016

The ITERP project – a collaboration between the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the Education Deans' Forum, and JET Education Services – was to gather up-to-date information on the state of initial teacher education (ITE) in South Africa and to examine the extent to which the ITE programmes offered by universities are adequately preparing teachers to teach in South African schools.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy, Teacher eduction and training
CITE-ITEL
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2017

CITE-TEL is a web-based resource, the Critical, Interactive, Transparent & Evolving literature review in Initial Teacher Education in Literacy, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. It seeks to list the research literature that is focused on initial teacher preparation in literacy and provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to engage with this growing body of research.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy, Initial teacher education
Lifewide learning for early reading development
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2017

A large scale study of the influence of the home and community literacy environments in Asia and Africa that found that a modest but consistent relationship between students’ home literacy environments and reading scores, and a strong relationship between reading gains and participation in community reading activities.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS)
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2017

This research study sought to examine the results of three interventions to improve teachers’ instructional practice – one with block training twice a year (which included provision of scripted lesson plans, materials and training), another with the same block training and ongoing support from a reading coach, and a third involving parents. The intervention with reading coaches was found to be a critical component in the persistence of gains.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy, Primary
Foundation Phase Matters: Language and Learning in South African Rural Classrooms
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2017

The study looks at teacher instructional practice, learner performance outcomes, and intervention process design. It was designed to help develop an instructional toolkit for Grades R to 3 in the Eastern Cape context. The report concludes with an identification and of the binding constraints in the system and presents proposals for key interventions that could contribute to the transformation of foundation phase instructional practice on a wider system scale.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy, Foundation Phase
Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read?
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2018

Popular article from the United States of America that argues that, thought scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught, many educators and teacher educators do not known the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As as a result, millions of children are set up to fail.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy
The science is clear about 'mother-tongue' education. So why are we attacking it?
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2019

Article noting the contradiction between empirical research evidence backed up by the constitutional support for mother-tongue instruction with the current education system’s failure to teach students to read and write and its prioritization of English.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy
Back to basics: comparing the orthographic, phonic and grammatical features of English and African languages to improve literacy teaching
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2020

Presentation made to a PrimTEd seminar in February 2020 illustrating some of the differences and similarities in the orthography, phonics and syntax between the Nguni, Sotho and English languages that are important for teachers to have knowledge of when they are teaching languages.

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy
Accessing Foundation Phase literacy resources in all our official languages, focusing on African languages
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2020

Presentation made to a PrimTEd seminar in February 2020 that outlines the Molteno Institute’s work on graded readers basic on the phonics of South African languages as well as briefly describing other resources (ZENEX, EGRS 2 and the Department of Basic Education’s new National Framework for the Teaching of Reading in African Languages in the Foundation Phase).

Keywords: Language, Reading, Literacy
Knowledge and Practice Standards for primary teacher education graduates: language and literacy
Author: aitchisonjjw@gmail.com
Published: 2020

These draft standards were prepared by members of the Consolidated Literacy Working Group of the Primary Teacher Education Project (PrimTEd). These have been discussed within the group, examined at a national consultation, and revised accordingly. They are now open for a further consultation and it must be emphasized that they are draft standards, standards are only truly such when they are recognized by the appropriate authority or authorities. They are standards that apply specifically to initial language and literacy teacher education with a specific focus on: • Developing new graduate teachers’ ability to teach literacy in African languages as home or additional languages, with a special focus on reading and writing; • English as a First Additional language with a special focus on reading and writing; and on using English as the medium of instruction across the curriculum • Developing new graduate teachers’ ability to teach literacy in English as a home or first additional language in multilingual contexts.

Keywords: Reading, Literacy, Primary, Standards

© JET Education Services | CMS Website by Juizi