[senco-forum] Pilot research project

Aly - I don't recognise the dichotomy of 'whole word' or ' phonics'   It is not possible to read without phonics -  phonics IShe code.  My strategy does not involve learning whole words - indeed learning list of words is specifically excluded in the strategy. In the hypothesis I am testing, words are used to expose older poor readers to all of the grapheme/phonemem correspondences so that they can internalise these correspondences. These need not even be real words. Those who have not internalised these correspondences simply cannot read.

What I hypothesize, is an alternative strategy for securing the internalisation of the grapheme/phoneme for older children who have failed to learn to read.

I hope in a year's time, to be in a position to quantify very precisely, any advantage which might be the result of using this approach. A pilot study proves nothing. Proof can only emerge from a study which involved a valid sample of children and I propose to use a minimim of one thousand Year 6 poor readers working over the period of almost an entire academic year.

Eddie C.