Code Mapping Tool
This is a world first! Type words, and see them orthographically mapped ie to show the graphemes in each word.
Illiteracy, the inability to read or write, costs the global economy an estimated $1.19 trillion annually, a report from the World Literacy Foundation finds. In order to bring about widespread change the self-learning paradigm must be enabled by digital tools and at present, the majority of ‘self-teaching’ technology does not take into account individual differences, for example, dyslexia, or the decades of research demonstrating neuroplasticity ie the brain's ability to change and adapt due to experience. Dyslexic brains can be ‘rewired’ with specific experiences.
Technology can be used by individuals to solve their own problems, and in many cases escape economic despair and incarceration. There is currently nothing available to dyslexic adults to rewire their brains for reading, and so they either do not read, find reading difficult, or choose alternatives eg assistive technology.
I am currently part of a Special Interest Group put together specifically to reduce crime. Literacy is a key part of any crime prevention strategy. Half of UK prisoners have a reading age of an 11 year old or below, a figure that rises to 80% in the case of writing. Despite the Prison Service Order 4205, which makes statuary provision for learning and accreditation opportunities in the prison system, over 50% of prisoners do not possess the necessary skills for 96% of today’s jobs. Self-teaching technology would be especially useful as so many do not want to even try to learn to read, after years of feeling the shame of failure - not understanding they are instructional casualties. Some do not want to sit with yet another 'teacher', some just keep reading slowly and laboriously, with every reading activity overwhelmingly stressful and mentally challenging. A page is exhausting. And some use assistive technology so that the text is read to them - they may then remember the information and understand it, but it doesn't help them become fluency decoders - the hallmark of skilled reading.
I am also an ADSHE Professional Tutor - The Association of Dyslexia Specialists in Higher Education) and aware of the difficulties faced by adults with dyslexia, who have been working 'around' their dyslexia since primary school. We can rewire the dyslexic brain - something scientists have known about for decades. Why is this science ignored? Could you support us to change lives and have a wide-reaching and positive impact on the huge number of functionally illiterate adults? Get in touch! Support@TheReading Hut.com
Miss Emma x
Let's make orthographic learning even easier for children; English orthography becomes more transparent...'Code Mapping' shows the graphemes, aligned with the IPA, 'Monster Mapping' makes phonemes (speech sounds) visible.
This could be described as systematic 'Linguistic and Visual' Phonics - if you like labels!
Miss Emma uses these tools to explicitly and systematically teach phonics as the 'kick-start' to orthographic learning; explicit instruction replaced by implicit learning as quickly and easily as possible for each individual.
This way of teaching children allows for the more traditional 'print to speech' phonics approach - learning graphemes to phoneme correspondences (GPCs), blending them, using these in 'decodable readers', along with a few high frequency 'irregular' words, but it can take some children two years or more, to simply get through 100 or so commonly used correspondences (as tested in the UK Year 1 phonics screener) And if using 'synthetic' phonics the number of GPCs are limited, and DfE guidelines are clear - children are not to be given texts to read, that they cannot decode. Using Miss Emma's approach, children can explore ANY words, from week 1, and this is just one reason why they become so excited and engaged.
Motivation and engagement reflect active, self-regulated reading and predict reading ability above and beyond word recognition and language comprehension (Cartwright, Lee, et al., 2020; Taboada Barber, Klauda, & Stapleton, 2020).
Miss Emma starts 'Reading Ready Brains' students (aged 20 months to 4.5 years) with their names. These words likely have GPCs they will not be 'taught' for months (eg the split digraph in 'Jake' - J/ae/k )if at all (eg the schwa 'Lara' L/a/r/a, Maya M/ay/a, Lucas L/u/c/a/s, or Spencer S/p/e/n/cer)
Children are going 'speech to print' with
ANY words, as long as they have phonemic awareness!
They are exposed to more of 'the code'
and because of their good phonemic awareness they only need a few exposures.
They don't have to wait until they have proficiency
and are in the 'self-teaching' phase (Share 1994) - they can figure out more, earlier, with less 'teaching'.
Our students can make use of repetitive, predictable texts and also start using 'transition' readers when they have mastered the SSP Yellow Code Level - and this depends on the child (as they move through at their pace). This bridge helps more students transition from 'phonics' books to authentic texts far more easily - and because of the wider exploration of words (not just aligned with the systematic phonics) there is a HUGE focus on vocabulary knowledge and comprehension. While word recognition is important, fluency also involves semantic and syntactic knowledge, as well as knowledge of how written text features, signal prosody (Schwanenflugel & Benjamin, 2017). The activities and strategies facilitate this, earlier.
Because the text explored is not as limited - ie aligned with explicit phonics instruction - we can more easily align sessions with the children, as unique beings. The understanding of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, intentions, or desires has been included in recent models of reading and is an important contributor to reading (for a review, see Dore, Amendum, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2018). This 'Theory of Mind' develops across childhood and supports inferences about others’ actions in everyday life. We are not only teaching children to decode, we are teaching them to think, and to bring their own 'self' to the experience - at a much earlier stage.
Miss Emma's work is therefore more aligned with the Active View of Reading, therefore, than the Simple View of Reading.
She has been supporting Aussie teachers to do this for over 5 years. It wouldn't be permitted in the UK.
It's why she is working with very young children there - 2,3 and 4 year olds - hoping to shift beliefs, around 'the Simple View' and policy. Over 1 in 4 UK children can't read when they start secondary school; systematic synthetic phonics instruction and testing is mandatory, but they are not comprehending texts at grade level. They do not equate reading and spelling with 'pleasure' or as a positive aspect of their lives and self-identity; they are not 'readers'. Reading is not used to enhance their lives or knowledge of the world.
'The way the SVR equation was originally written, and is still conveyed today, decoding/word recognition and listening/language comprehension are entirely separate. There is no variable included in the model that reflects any overlap or variance shared between decoding and listening comprehension—no mechanism for them to influence each other. Indeed, the founders of the SVR suggested that these processes were not only entirely separate but also occurred sequentially, decoding first and listening comprehension second, leading to unfounded assumptions that students should be taught to decode first and then to comprehend (Houck & Ross, 2012). Some more complex depictions of reading that share intellectual roots with the SVR, discussed later, also do not allow for a construct to be included in, or affect both, word recognition and language comprehension; each construct is placed into either the word recognition or the language comprehension strand, not in both.
Contrary to the SVR, research has found that there is considerable variance shared (overlap) between word recognition/decoding and listening/language comprehension in the prediction of reading.'
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rrq.411
Please do follow my Early Years work on ReadingReadyBrains.com - 'Less Teaching, More Learning'
