Greg Ashman's 'Throwing the kitchen sink at reading' and my comments

  

Here are some extracts from a post by Greg Ashman and my comments. I have told this guy to stick with what he is good at - Math and Physics – and not to stick his fingers in what he knows nothing about but this guy is just too stubborn or naive.  I have not seen his tweets for a long time as he decided to mute me for asking questions he could not respond to. He has learned well from the ostrich.

Greg Says:

 

There is a very small percentage of children who have cognitive impairments that will always make reading a struggle (some estimates claim around 5%), but the overwhelming majority of kids, including many of those labelled as dyslexic can, with the right methods, learn to read.

 

My comment:

 

What is the right method? If I Ask him he will probably block me again.

 

Why have we not implemented this so-called ‘right method’ that Greg has discovered, in Australia and around the world?

 

I have told him from as early as 2018 that kids shut down/ disengage from learning to read when confused as a result of being taught the sounds represented by consonants with an extraneous sound. He does not understand and yet will not ask me for an explanation. He’d rather ‘mute’ me and stick his head in the sand.

 

Greg Says: 

I’m not sure I would behave particularly well and this perhaps explains a link between reading and behaviour problems seen in research. And it also likely explains the prevalence of literacy issues among young offenders.

 

My comment:

 

I have written a post on shame avoidance and behaviour of kids in my blog post here. This was already determined by David Boulton more than ten years ago, from his multi-million study of more than 100 experts and numerous kids who were unable to read. 

 

Greg says:

 

So, what are the right methods to treat reading problems. Firstly, children should receive systematic phonics instruction.

 

My comment:

 

I believe the UK has been teaching systematic phonics for about 10 years and the kids leaving school as functional illiterates has not reduced. So, what ‘systematic phonics instruction’ is our Greg talking about? Is it not being taught in any of the schools in Australia?        

 

Greg Says:

 

We must move away from a model where children receive initial reading instruction and, if that fails, we don’t know and we don’t do anything about it and when the parents notice, we suggest their child is just not ready to learn to read yet. We need screening assessments and a graduated set of tiered interventions, based on Response to Intervention, where we throw the kitchen sink - resources and research - at those few holdout students who are still making inadequate progress.

 

My comment:

 

Have we not heard this same nonsense over the past few decades? 

 

"... and if that fails...", Greg, ask yourself why it fails? Why should it fail if the kids have no acuity problems? 

 

But there are no excuses for failing students so fundamentally that only 23 percent are proficient readers. There are no excuses for that at all.

 

My comment:

 

Of course not! Greg, you are welcome to a Zoom meeting and be educated on what exactly is the reason why kids are unable to read. Otherwise, get a copy of my book and then question me if you do not understand what is in that simple book. Stop tweeting for tweeting sake.