Oh. I have an audience!

Really - although 2 comments are from encouraging friends (thanks) it gave me such a buzz to think there are people out there reading my entries - whoo! Better watch my p's and q's. Which reminds me about the WRAP course I am teaching this year to year 8's - The Writing and Reading Approach to Literacy based on the program developed by Romalda Spaulding. This approach takes the alphabet and breaks it into 70 different phonograms or codes which encapsulates the English Language. Along with 29 Rules, handwriting focus and a whole lots of other fun things this is a really exciting insight into how children can learn spelling and reading. It address the 3 pathways of learning – seeing, saying and doing – not all of which are satisfied in the old “Whole language” approach which has dominated the way language has been taught in primary schools for a long time. So there are many children who have not had their learning pathways opened up and end up in high school with big gaps in their reading and spelling and writing competency. So, with a number of colleagues, I recently completed 2 certificate courses in how to deliver this program and have started delivering it to a group of yr8’s who have been identified since leaving grade 6 as needing extra assistance. I have felt enthused and even inspired but inevitably this is wearing a bit thin in the face of student resistance and lack of cooperation amongst some members of my class. Because we have started with the easier phonograms some are complaining that this is babyish. I tell them it’s going to get harder – and so it will. The King of the phonograms has 6 different sounds- “ough” (oh,oo,uff,off, or,ou ). I’m just home from a parent info night about this program and only 4 sets of parents out of my 17 students turned up. However, I’ll be hanging in there and things can only start getting better.