A new book that aims to upskill teachers and parents attacks the kind of thinking that allows poor practice in schools and leads to unacceptable levels of illiteracy in society.
Reading for Life: High Quality Literacy Instruction For All, is linguist and literacy consultant Lyn Stone’s third book and is bound to ruffle some feathers in the education sphere.
But she doesn’t mind.
“Too bad,” Ms Stone said.
“I speak for thousands of specialists in literacy instruction when I say enough is enough.”
According to the OECD, 43.6 per cent of Australians between the ages of 15-74 are below proficiency level in literacy.
That’s more than seven million people in this country who risk unemployment and social exclusion.
Similarly depressing figures can be found all over the English-speaking world.
The moment education systems started embracing the notion that children should ‘discover’ learning for themselves rather than be systematically, explicitly taught, was the moment reading scores began to take a nosedive.
“We are begging initial teacher training institutes and school leaders to stop creating ideological casualties of the Reading Wars,” Ms Stone said.
“Those who can afford external tutoring, get help, but woe betide those who can’t. So many end up in the criminal justice system.”
Ms Stone’s book provides fully referenced definitions of all the key terms in reading instruction, including phonics, whole language, balanced literacy and dyslexia.
It outlines the history of the Reading Wars and lists the key players and their contribution to the field.
There is a section devoted to flaws in thinking that lead to poor practice and finally, a whole section packed with ideas and guidance to help struggling readers get back on track.
This is accompanied by a one-day workshop, touring Australia in 2019 and soon to be available online.
“I’d like to be redundant. But instead, my colleagues and I spend thousands of hours a week undoing dreadful habits embedded in literacy instruction,” she said.
“This robs vulnerable children of crucial decoding practice and creates weak spellers.”
Though it’s common to be accused of teacher-bashing, Ms Stone maintains that nothing could be further from the truth.
“I have the greatest admiration for teachers and have worked alongside them throughout my career,” she said.
“But I won’t cynically suck up to them either and tell them everything is fine. It’s not.”
Her first two books, Spelling For Life and Language For Life have been popular with educators worldwide since their release.
Reading for Life is available at www.lifelongliteracy.com and all reputable online book outlets. RRP $35
