Greg Ashman's blog Filling the Pail: On Balance

[debbie]

https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/on-balance/

On Balance

Posted: March 20, 2015 | Author: gregashman |

To be on the side of balance.

I am a little concerned that the discussion about explicit instruction is in danger of being framed as one that pits those in favour of balance against explicit instruction fundamentalism. This would be an error.

In fact, all teachers use a wide range of teaching strategies and so balance will be evident pretty much everywhere. Despite the fact that I have been pointing to the evidence in favour of explicit instruction, I use a range of strategies in the classroom. Let’s take the example of science practical work. I believe that it is not the best basis for learning scientific principles because conducting the practical work requires all of the students’ attention, leaving little left to ponder the science. However, I still use practical work because I believe it is motivating and that it provides a hook on which to hang later learning; “Do you remember when we did the experiment with the pendulum? Well…”

I have noted how the proponents of systematic synthetic phonics – who are just as interested in comprehension as anyone else – have suffered from being portrayed as antagonistic towards balance. This obfuscates a worthwhile discussion.

Instead, we should be discussing the nature of the balance of approaches that different practitioners use.

Do all teachers know, for instance, that there is a great deal of evidence in favour of explicit instruction? Certainly, early in my career, I would often use explicit instruction but feel guilty about it because I thought that I should be facilitating group work or inquiry learning instead. So this was still a balance but of an unsatisfactory kind.

[debbie]

This is my reader's comment:

Thanks for this post, Greg. Over and again I highlight the Simple View of Reading diagram when it comes to confirming or explaining that, yes, Systematic Synthetic Phonics addresses the technical alphabetic code knowledge and phonics skills and that, of course, there is more to reading than ‘just phonics’. The phonics content, however, is best taught systematically and explicitly because the English alphabetic code is the most complex alphabetic code in the world so why wouldn’t teachers unpick it and teach it well (why indeed?!).

The conclusions of the national review of the research on how children read and how best to teach reading in the US in 2000 listed ‘five pillars of literacy’ or ‘the big five’. These are phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. All five of these features should be features of a good Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme – and then, of course, there is additional higher-order language, literacy and literature enrichment in school and at home. That is the balance!