The power of yet!

In recent years, in class, I have used a catchy tune from Sesame Street about the Power of Yet when discussing ‘The Learning Pit’.

For those not familiar with those terms, it basically means learning can be hard, we need to show resilience and we can boost our efforts by reminding ourselves we might not be able to do something now, but rephrase it by saying: “I can’t do it…yet! But I will keep trying!”

I think this has relevance for the transition to Structured Literacy in our schools.

Instead of saying my school, or my child’s school, doesn’t do SL, I think we instead could say: “My school doesn’t do Structured Literacy, yet!”

I was prompted to write this post after seeing some emails being sent to teachers from some previously well-respected literacy facilitators who were casting doubt on SL practices that they had ‘heard about’ from junior teachers: only using decodable books, throwing out predictable readers, long phonics lessons, no shared reading, ‘one size fits all’ teaching approaches. Then they referred to a report that they implied ‘backed up’ their negative comments about decodables and SL, the said report having been funded by the publishers of the most common predictable readers used in NZ schools until now! SIGH….[Edit- This kerfuffle happened more than a month ago, and I wrote this then but didn't post this until my anger had subsided...)

Some recipients of the email felt indignant because most of the aspersions are factually incorrect:

• SL teachers still do shared reading of poems, big books and picture books

• Students in SL classes still have access to library books and often browsing boxes or pick-box books of other school readers

• Most SL schools still have their earlier reading series intact, but may be using them in other ways, or intending to repurpose them when they have more time. For instance, they are very good for using with English language learners or ESOL students, for practising oral vocabulary. (Source: Linda Farrell of Readsters.)

• SL assessments are very detailed and help us learn about the needs of our individual learners in far more depth than our earlier ‘balanced literacy’ assessments, so to me that is ‘responsive teaching’ and not ‘one-size fits all’.

But I digress…this isn’t a defence of SL. I think the data does that and will continue to do that, in greater numbers. 

This is about how we, adopters of SL, cope with the backlash that is now happening in NZ.

The ‘balanced literacy’ camp appears to be getting louder and more defensive, but instead of us getting angry or upset in turn, I think we need to celebrate - then extend an olive branch.

Not long ago, many of us were just like them and teaching in ‘balanced literacy’ classrooms.

You see, these peddlers of ‘balanced literacy’ products are passionate teachers, they want to see students learn, but they need some guidance. They are defending their beliefs, their comfort zone, their businesses and possibly their livelihoods too.

But we need to help them see the benefits of SL and that they too need to defend the rights of all students to an equitable, inclusive education.

Yes, some children pick up a love of reading easily, with a smattering of analytic phonics; and yes, some children learn to find their personal voice and practise and refine spelling patterns with ease as they write in a variety of genres.

But many kids don’t, without explicit, direct instruction.

So remember, a student may learn to read with predictable readers; they may also write a page or more about what they did last weekend. ‘Balanced literacy’ can work for some children BUT the evidence shows it is not the most effective way to teach the majority of children.

I believe the tide is truly turning in NZ, with more and more parents beginning to question schools about, ‘’What the heck is going wrong for my kid? Why can’t they read or write well?”

And more and more teachers are going, “That’s not working, what will work? Show me some data.”

I’m now showing my age by having a flashback to the classic Rachel Hunter ‘Pantene’ shampoo advert: “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.”

One of the big publishers of ‘levelled’ texts in the US is rewriting its guidance for teachers, emphasising decoding skills over teaching 3-cueing strategies; the new Australian Curriculum has also removed this vestige of ‘balanced literacy’ from its latest version; and the MOE here has just funded a trial of a gold-standard Structured Literacy intervention for senior primary school students in 15 schools, based on the Ideal approach.

People and organisations with a vested interest in ‘balanced literacy’ are spooked by the ‘writing on the wall’. They’re not ready to embrace the SL pedagogy just yet.

But with our encouragement and sharing of data, the NZ education system will change, just not overnight.

The majority of NZ schools aren’t all doing Structured Literacy, yet…but it will happen.