Phonics debate in Australia

[chew8]

This debate took place today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRE2OKL6EtY&app=desktop

The preliminaries go on for about 45 minutes before the debate itself starts. The three speaking in favour of systematic synthetic phonics do an excellent job. I think the first questioner from the floor is right to suggest that those speaking on the other side have not paid careful enough attention to the wording of the topic.

Jenny C.

[chew8]

Oh dear - I wanted to watch the debate again but am now getting the message that the video has been removed by the user. I'll see if I can find another route to it.

Jenny C.``

[chew8]

This link should work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... nUNsYfrxjY

Jenny C.

[chew8]

For those not on Twitter, dozens of Twitter comments can be seen here:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/phonicsdeba ... =refgoogle

Jenny C.

[chew8]

Someone has now given the following link on Twitter:

http://howtoteachreading.org.uk/the-pho ... -in-irony/

The piece is a real tour de force - both funny and very hard-hitting.

Jenny C.

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

It certainly was a tour de force, Jenny. Thank you for flagging it up.

I started a thread featuring the debate and have included links to some good blog responses to the debate here:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... f=3&t=1044

For anyone with an interest in this topic, I think it is worth reading the responses, most of which include informative references.

[chew8]

This article has now appeared:

https://amp.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/foc ... ssion=true

Jenny C.

[Debbie Hepplewhite]

Professor Pamela Snow has written an outstanding post via The Snow Report blog with reference to the Phonics Debate - it is really worth reading in full:

It’s time for a Reading Renaissance

This article has been reproduced with permission from The Professional Educator, October 2018, special edition: The Great Literacy Debate (pp. 37-40)

http://pamelasnow.blogspot.com/2018/10/ ... sance.html

The recent Phonics Debate (Sydney, July 31) has acted as a crucible in which long-held and deeply committed views and antipathies have been exposed and stirred, possibly heralding a new chapter in a long-running, corrosive debate about early reading instruction.

Against a background of a widening gulf in Australia between the reading “haves” and “have nots”, there is cold comfort in knowing that people on both sides of this debate place a premium on the importance of early literacy attainment as a life-long asset. If this widening gulf did not exist, there would be no “Reading Wars”. The Reading Wars draw their oxygen, not from ongoing dissent, but from ongoing under-performance of Australian children, particularly those who start from behind and are doomed by a fatal mix of edu-nihilism and suboptimal instruction, to stay that way. There is also an increasingly widening gulf between the cognitive scientists, speech pathologists, and educational psychologists on the one hand, who make it their business to understand all aspects of human learning, including the acquisition of reading, and education academics on the other, whose self-selected remit in recent years, has largely been to promote in pre-service teachers, a simplistic (at best) view of the process of learning to read. This sits alongside a misplaced belief that so-called authentic children’s literature and immersion in text and spoken language, a smattering of sight (irregular/high-frequency) words, with some incidental, light-touch phonics sprinkled on top will suffice to transform all young children into proficient readers. This belief is patently incorrect.

[chew8]

The following was a recent article in the Australian publication The Conversation:

https://theconversation.com/what-are-de ... tterbutton

A response was signed by 96 people, including a few from the UK. Greg Ashman has given a link to this in his blog:

https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2018/1 ... ersation/

Jenny C.

[chew8]

Another great news story from Australia:

https://www.smh.com.au/education/i-felt ... 50hyo.html

It's heart-warming that an academic with the research credentials of Prof.Anne Castles gets involved with the nitty-gritty like this.

Jenny C.

[chew8]

Good TV interview:

https://twitter.com/9newsmelb/status/10 ... 9044501504

Jenny C.