Last year, 50 South Australian schools trialed a phonics test aimed at improving student literacy under a plan the Federal Government hopes to roll out to other states and territories by 2019.
The proposed test involves students learning how to decode words by sounding out their letters and is modelled on a controversial phonics check in the UK which asks students to read aloud 40 real and made-up words.
However, the plan has faced opposition from many teachers and academics who say the test takes too narrow a view of literacy teaching and has not delivered improvement in students’ literacy outcomes.
Denyse Ritchie, co-author of successful teaching practice THRASS, said that mandating a check and the collection of data on this “small piece of the pie” will result in teachers potentially limiting early literacy learning.
This is because teachers will focus on simple phonics and pseudo-words and teaching words out of context at the expense of other highly critical skills required in early literacy learning,” Ritchie told The Educator.
“We regularly hear the comment: ‘literacy results have fallen over the past decade’ so we should look at what was happening in our schools prior to this fall and see what has changed. Teaching has changed to accommodate NAPLAN.”
Ritchie said teaching “has been narrowed in formative learning from rich language teaching and skill integration between curriculum areas to concentrating on specific skills and genre to accommodate NAPLAN
“This narrowing, I believe and have observed, manifests in the failing of Year five, seven and nine students. The proposed phonics check in its current form will create a further narrowing of our literacy curriculum,” Ritchie said.
“Why not check for all the critical skills of early literacy development?”
Phonics not a strong suit of Australian teachers
Ritchie said many Australian teachers have not been exposed to phonics or, have had very restricted exposure to phonics in their own learning or during teacher training.
“This proves problematic as research provides evidence of the critical role phonics plays in teaching reading and writing,” Ritchie said.
“As a teacher and teacher trainer I was very aware of this when working in schools and, as a consequence, I concentrated on developing professional development to enhance teacher knowledge and understanding of phonics and the critical role that phonics plays in teaching and developing literacy skills within a rich language environment,” she said.
Ritchie said THRASS Professional Development provides teachers with skills and strategies for explicit phonics teaching across all areas of the curriculum at all levels.
Phonics teaching requires the explicit understanding of the Alphabetic Principle, the phonemes of spoken English and the phonics patterns (graphemes) of written English.
Ritchie said the THRASSCHARTS were created to provide a graphic, pictorial reference of each of these components and are central to THRASS training.
“They provide a charted ‘whole picture’ display of the English phonics system and are the explicit teaching tools used to explain the spelling of any word, to any learner, at any level,” Ritchie said.
Ritchie said that understanding the phonics system of English “eliminates the need for reference to sight words, tricky words and rules with more exceptions than examples”.
“Having correct understanding and knowledge of phonics gives teachers the tools to analyse and diagnose reading and spelling and, where necessary, provide the correct intervention and remediation,” Ritchie said.
Related stories:
Phonics test will ‘undermine professional judgment of teachers’
How principals can deliver a whole school literacy curriculum
Flexible literacy program showing promising results