Aus, NSW: 'Phonics check to be compulsory as minister declares reading wars won'
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:09 am
Here is more fantastic, positive news in The Sydney Morning Herald about further adoption of a phonics check in Australia:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/phonics ... MdA-i8yCUo
Congratulations to all the pioneers in Australia who have worked so hard as individuals and collectively to make major changes in Australia. This aspiration is not yet realised, but this latest development is a big step in the right direction!
Phonics check to be compulsory as minister declares reading wars won
by Jordan Baker
https://www.smh.com.au/national/phonics ... MdA-i8yCUo
This is a MUST read - important for the international debate, not just Australia.The controversial year 1 phonics screening check will be compulsory in NSW public schools from next year after the state's Education Minister declared the reading wars were over and phonics had won.
Sarah Mitchell also took aim at sceptics of a phonics-focused approach to teaching reading within university education faculties, telling university bosses that putting them in charge of aspiring primary teachers was like allowing anti-vaxxers to teach medical students.
“It is a crying shame that parts of the education community are so blinded by ideology they cannot bring themselves to accept the evidence in favour of phonics sitting right in front of them,” she wrote in an opinion piece for the Herald.
Results from this year's trial of the screening check, in which students read a list of words so their teacher can assess how well they know their letter-sound combinations, found 57 per cent of the children did not meet the expected achievement level.
Congratulations to all the pioneers in Australia who have worked so hard as individuals and collectively to make major changes in Australia. This aspiration is not yet realised, but this latest development is a big step in the right direction!