Get all children reading…

Give them the five keys to
unlock literacy

WHAT’S NEW?

recent publications

New Nomanis

Nomanis Issue 10 has articles by Tim Shanahan, Tom Bennett, Stephanie Le Lievre, Emina McLean, Beth Budden, Nicola Bell, James Chapman and more…

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New blog post

Threading together the sciences of reading, by Dr Nicola Bell

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WHAT DOES FIVE FROM FIVE MEAN?

Children need explicit instruction in the five essential components
of reading in every classroom, every day.

This should begin in the foundation year of school when most children turn five years old.

THE FIVE KEYS TO READING

Phonemic Awareness

PHONEMIC AWARENESS

PHONICS

FLUENCY

VOCABULARY

COMPREHENSION

HOW TO TEACH READING

Major reviews of reading not only agree on the key components of reading programs – the five ‘keys’ to reading – but also the most effective way of teaching them. They find that explicit or ‘direct’ instruction is the most effective teaching method, especially for the fundamental code-based components ­― phonemic awareness and phonics.

EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION

EXPLICIT PHONICS INSTRUCTION

WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

The findings of this review argue strongly for the inclusion of a vigorous, programme of phonic work to be securely embedded within a broad and language-rich curriculum.

It is …crucial to teach phonic work systematically, regularly and explicitly, there is ample evidence to support the recommendation of the interim report that, for most children, it is highly worthwhile and appropriate to begin a systematic programme of phonic work by the age of five, if not before for some children, the way having been paved by related activities designed, for example, to build phonological awareness.

Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading, UK, 2006

That direct instruction in alphabetic coding facilitates early reading acquisition is one of the most well established conclusions in all of behavioural science.

Keith E. Stanovich, 2000
In sum, the incontrovertible finding from the extensive body of local and international evidence-based literacy research is that for children during the early years of schooling (and subsequently if needed), to be able to link their knowledge of spoken language to their knowledge of written language, they must first master the alphabetic code – the system of grapheme-phoneme correspondences that link written words to their pronunciations.

Because these are both foundational and essential skills for the development of competence in reading, writing and spelling, they must be taught explicitly, systematically, early and well.

Report of the National Inquiry into Teaching Literacy, Australia, 2005

There is strong, scientific evidence that the most effective way to teach these skills to all children is using reading instruction methods that are explicit, systematic, and sequential.
This is especially important for teaching phonics, which unlocks the alphabetic code.