Christopher Such

I've made a blog-post where all the resources I've shared - from science curriculum documents to tier two vocabulary lists - can be downloaded. Help yourself! primarycolour.home.blog/2019/11/02/one…

@jimmyholms That's a tough question to answer on here as I'd want to share flow diagrams, links to resources, etc. If you drop me an email via this page, I'll respond with the depth that the question deserves: primarycolourhome.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

@Suchmo83 Always enjoy reading your work. We are looking at having one member of staff as a reading LSA. What materials would you suggest we use to ensure we impact and can see clear milestones please. Thank you.

Two things can be true: 1. Schools should bear the ultimate responsibility for whether children learn to read. 2. One-to-one reading with an adult massive accelerates reading development, and schools simply don't have the capacity to provide more than a small amount of this.

@MrJ_Evans Obviously, breadth of reading experience also supports language comprehension, but the primary value in 1:1 reading (or any form of scaffolded reading practice) is building kids' word recognition automaticity, and fluency as a consequence.

@MrJ_Evans Primarily, yes, which is why I would always target it at those with issues relating to word recognition automaticity relative to their peers. >>

Exciting news! My new book is part of the @Waterstones promotion this week. - The offer runs until 23.59 Friday 24th July - You will need to enter SUMMER26 at the checkout to redeem the offer to receive 25% off RRP waterstones.com/book/how-to-le…

@BarryPCotter @NewtimberSteph Correction: 'have unsupervised access' not 'do not have unsupervised access'

@BarryPCotter @NewtimberSteph I would argue that the understandable revealed preference of government in this case is to minimise the possibility that people with criminal records that make them unsuitable to work with children do not have unsupervised access to children in schools.

@BarryPCotter @NewtimberSteph There is an argument to be made generally about the trade-offs of most safety legislation, but I don't think anyone with experience of safeguarding in schools would believe that all women are de facto safe to have unsupervised access to children, with or without references.

@Suchmo83 @NewtimberSteph Yes; this is different from minimising harm to children while maximising access to safe volunteer labour. They could e.g. demand criminal background checks only for men or only for men under 30 with less than three character references from parents of children in the school.

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint Having seen some of these apps, I'm fairly aware of their strengths and limitations, at least as they currently exist. I've no doubt they can already support those who find learning read relatively easy to pick up some basics and to consolidate things learned elsewhere.

@Suchmo83 @InhaledThePoint It seems to me you are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good enough. This seems an unworthy hill to die on.

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint May I ask whether the child in question used the app independently or with supervision? And did they engage with other forms of teaching to support reading (e.g. being repeatedly read loud to while the words are visible)?

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint It's worth noting that some kids learn to read so easily they they barely need organised instruction at all. I would be wary of judging the efficacy of apps on the basis of individual experiences. >>

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint Which apps currently exist that allow phonics to be taught to children to an effective standard without adult input to provide feedback? I've seen a few of these apps, but I'm open to the suggestion that some company already has cracked the speech recognition problem.

@Suchmo83 @InhaledThePoint I know this is not true for first language learners from first hand experience but if ESL students need extra help don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint Because you believe a lot of time is already wasted, schools potentially wasting more of this time is unimportant? You could just as easily argue the opposite.

@Suchmo83 @InhaledThePoint Every single government educational system I’m aware of wastes the majority of the time of the top 20%, possibly the top 40% of primary school students, so this is not a meaningful objection.

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint An eventual solution - if it is to be designed to work with various accents - will need to be initially trained on the accent of the individual child learning to read to allow recognition of errors and meaningful feedback.

@BarryPCotter @InhaledThePoint Specifically, speech recognition software currently lacks the capability to recognise phoneme-level inaccuracies and offer meaningful feedback. Even then, the big challenge will be dealing with various accents. >>

@Cathari18465929 @MrJ_Evans I certainly don't disagree with this.

@Suchmo83 @MrJ_Evans Could I suggest also that the children with parents who read with them 1:1 might (generally) be expected make good progress with reading... because they come from a home with parents who will do 1:1 reading practice with their children?

@theawfulMrD @JayKloppenberg @rpondiscio Apologies if I've come across as forthright or evangelical on this subject. I just know how much this misconception about reading hurts parents who desperately want their children to find learning to read easy and enjoyable, but who have to do the hard yards instead.

@theawfulMrD @JayKloppenberg @rpondiscio This is why I try to push back on the counterproductive misconception that motivation and a love of books is some kind of magic bullet, despite my belief that offering children pleasurable, meaningful experiences with books *is* an essential component of a good education.

I liked this post because it matches the "knives out" concept. It is also very, very wrong! @rpondiscio I'm happy to have a conversation about why.