teaching reading

Seven things teachers agree on about teaching reading in Australia. Stop all the political haranguing over phonics

By Robyn Ewing

There is widespread agreement among educators and school communities about the importance of teaching phonics and other code-based literacy practices in early years classrooms. Why, however, is phonics instruction, one of the processes teachers use in helping children learn to read, so foregrounded by government policymakers and bureaucrats in Australia these days?  Why is one

Teaching literacy is more than teaching simple reading skills: it can’t be done in five easy steps

By Robyn Ewing

If we truly care about all Australian children and young people becoming literate I believe it is vital we understand and define the complexity of literacy. The conflation of different terms like reading instruction and literacy is not very useful. While reading is part of literacy, literacy is a much bigger concept which is continually

This is how Australian teachers are taught how to teach children to read: not just phonics

By Eileen Honan

There is a lot of misinformation out there, as well as ill informed commentary, about how we prepare teachers to teach reading and writing in Australian schools today Of course you have heard the argument that teachers do not teach phonics any more and worse, that many early career teachers do not even know how