Learning to read and write English is a complex process and children do not become good readers and writers simply through exposure to print. They have to learn how the English language works. Joy’s experiences over the last 20 years have led her to believe that it is possible to help children who currently struggle to successfully acquire literacy skills, by improving the way we teach them understand and access the alphabetic code.
We know that children learn best from the ‘known’ to the ‘unknown’. Teaching children to use their spoken vocabularies (the ‘known’) to understand how sounds make up words and how letters represent sounds (the ‘unknown’) is the best way to teach them to master the code of written English – working from words to sounds to print.
Click here to download the article that discusses this process From Language to Literacy and watch the video below that explains it.
This approach was used in a project at Titahi Bay School between 2010 and 2012 with dramatic results. Hear about the effects of teaching this way from Kerry Delaney, principal of Titahi Bay School and Sharon Thompson, a teacher who took part in trialling this approach at Titahi Bay School .