The Secondary School Literacy Co-ordinator

Better than Miskin!

Reviews

Better than Miskin!

The Secondary School Literacy Co-ordinator

I had my first meeting with a Year 10 young woman in a school last week. When doing the assessment, she got to the fourth word (‘temp’) in Level 1 and got stuck. By the end of the session, she was able to spell out the word ‘dentist’ and read the word ‘fantastic’ without any prompting from me. The most amazingly rewarding part of this was the look on her face when she realised what progress she had made in such a short amount of time. Words can’t describe it. My interpretation – TRT Rocks!!!

The Youth Worker

(The videos) are brilliant by the way; you come across as very approachable and you explain things very logically and clearly. I am onto lesson 3 and am enjoying it thoroughly and everything makes perfect sense.

Secondary Inclusion Teacher

From his executive summary: Average progress was 3½ times the standard rate, and certainly significant both educationally and in terms of life chances for most of the young people who participated. From his observations of teaching sessions: Overall, I was very impressed by the clear evidence that the students were learning quite rapidly, and by the skills and professionalism of the tutors.Too often there is a noticeable gap between how a scheme’s deviser intends it to be implemented and trains teachers to deliver it, on the one hand, and the enacting of it in practice on the other – but there was barely any difference between the intentions Tricia Millar stated at the South Woodford training and what I observed in Bow and Handsworth. – Greg Brooks, Emeritus professor of education, University of Sheffield, an honorary life member and past president of the UK Literacy

The Academic

Best organised scheme overall that we know. – Mark Woodruff, JJ Charitable Trust

The Funder

(On the first session of TRT~GO where 7 college staff are training together.) We all really enjoyed the first lesson and I’m very excited about going on to the second lesson, which we’re planning to do on Wednesday. One of my colleagues especially liked the idea of the teaching as being helping a learner abseil down a cliff rather than having to struggle up a mountain!

Lecturer, Learning Support

I’m using TRT to help my son… Thanks for putting this material together, it’s making a big difference.

The Parent

Overheard explaining to the SENCO what’s different about TRT: I’ll tell you what’s different! They’re not making me memorize lists of baby words. I can spell (writes on board) condition, I can spell conditioner, I can spell conditioned, I can spell conditioning.

The Year 8

I’d been struggling for some time to find appropriate materials to use with a learner in her forties who has always struggled with reading and spelling. There’s lots of phonics stuff out there but most of it is far too childish to use with adults. The TRT scheme is fantastic and just what I needed. We have only been doing this for 4 weeks but already my learner’s confidence has increased enormously and I am amazed at the progress she is making. There’s a real sense of achievement at the end of each lesson. I was recently observed by my SpLD tutor and received a glowing report for the approach I was taking, particularly the fact that I was encouraging the learner to say all the sounds out loud all the time.

The Adult Literacy Tutor

I didn’t think That Reading Thing would go this well. I was a bit nervous. I didn’t think I’d be able to get to read this fast. – Tony aged 20

The Young Adult

When I referred M to TRT in September, he lacked confidence in his abilities, was not keen on reading and had a fairly low level of literacy. Since then, he has made great progress both in the skills he has gained and in his attitude. He is engaging more, asking questions, bringing in papers from the mosque which interest him, reading complex texts, has taken a book home to read, comprehending what he is reading, responding to texts, has become more focused with greater stamina, is more punctual. He has reached Level 30.

The Teacher

Have made a start with TRT and the student (reading age of 7:0) really enjoyed it – it took me a while to find my rhythm but hopefully it’ll be easier 2nd lesson! My original dyslexia training was over 3 years ago and I’m quite rusty so it’s lovely to have a structure for me to follow as it’s a massive time saver. The learner was amazed she could spell and read admit and fantastic in the first 40 minutes.

The PRU SENCO

(from the YJB website – example of effective practice.) This programme is specifically written for teenagers and adults and overcomes the problem of finding a reading scheme which does not use ‘childlike language’. The scheme gives young people to opportunity to read words in any situation rather than just memorising specific words that are frequently encountered. It also leads to success right from the very first session; for example, one young man was able to spell a 3 syllable word (his home area of Wigan, Pemberton) at the end of session one. His response was “I didn’t think I could spell that”. This is a good alternative to programmes such as ‘Toe by Toe’ which is used successfully in the secure estate, but where young people only have limited contact with the Service.

Youth Justice Board

Tricia Millar is the developer of That Reading Thing & TRT GO. Join her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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