[senco-forum] SP is boring?

SP is about children developing the very desirable skill of  phonemic awareness ie. facility with the sound/symbol relationships. There is absolutely nothing boring about SP sessions and it would be just as wrong for one teacher to reject SP sessions on the grounds that they are boring as it would be for another teacher to recommend SP sessions on the grounds that 'they do no harm!'   However, anyone who claims that it is possible to teach children things that they already know has a very limited understanding of what the word teaching actually means.  It is surely beyond dispute that a very high proportion of children develop phonemic awareness quite naturally and at a sufficiently early age,  from their own quite limited reference library of sight words, acquired naturally, unavoidably without formal tutoring. For goodness sake, dont argue that they will learn it even earlier by SP - let them be kids for just a while!

The case for using SP sessions with children who need them is very strong.  It may even be possible to make a case for using them which children who don't need them but that case has not, in my view, been made.   Elizabeth is satisfied that such a case has indeed been made for their universal use by the Clackmannanshire 7 year study. Although this is an interesting, ground-breaking study, I do not believe that it comes anywhere close to providing the kind of 'proof positive' that every teacher should insist on before supporting their universal use in all schools with all children.

Eddie C