Gareth Malone - Part 2

[IndigoBell]

Was it just me? It all seems like absolute rubbish.

If he wanted the boys to read - why didn't he just sit them down and teach them how to. Obviously some of them had not been taught very well in the first place...

All this obsession with their fathers seems bizarre. Does that mean if your father's not around you are doomed to be a bad reader?

I thought it was all gimicky and didn't look like it was having very good results for the amount of time he'd put in.

All this risk taking and competion - go to scouts. They teach it to them in bucketloads there. (And they accept girls as well - so no sexist stereotyping happening as on this programme)

I think the emphasis on enjoying reading may be because without any input at home, you aren't going to get those boys reading if they don't at least vaguely enjoy it or see that they are getting something useful out of it. After all, the reading has to compete with the X-Box... and low parental and personal expectations, which mean that the threat of doing badly in their SATS is not going to mean anything to them, as they aren't actually expected to do that well in the first place. I think in general (and this is a vast generalisation) that boys tend to learn better if they can see an immediate purpose to the task in hand(eg winning a competition) or find it fun, rather than having a nebulous future goal (eg better employment prospects, being able to enjoy more interesting books when they are better readers, etc) dangled in front of them (particularly if they come from a family with low aspirations). That certainly seems to be one of the points Gareth Malone is trying to make in the programme.

As for the boys' shocking levels of literacy, I thought that was the whole point - that they have sat through hour upon hour of literacy teaching in the classroom and spent most of the time gazing vacantly out of the window rather than paying attention, because it was BORING, whereas the girls did not appear to suffer in this way.

And the likelihood of any or many of those boys going to scouts outside of school hours????......

Perhaps it will only be when student teachers are given a good grounding in early teaching of reading that kids like the Gareth Malone kids will have a chance. When phonics is well taught it should be done and dusted by the end of year 2 (with teachers of older years having enough knowledge to help the less fluent readers and poor spellers. Now there are so many kids struggling, and teachers struggling too because they haven't got a sufficient grasp on how to get everyone reading as quickly as possible. Not the teachers fault but the paucity of phonics training.

What's the school library like?

Even the boys who had reasonable fluency in reading were avoiding reading books, though, even to the extent of not doing their homework or getting on with what they'd been asked to do in class.

With all the phonics training in the world, most children still aren't going to be able to read and understand complicated texts when they are older unless they get plenty of practice reading, thinking about what they've read, talking about it, etc, in the intervening years. Phonics just helps with the decoding of the individual words, not with the fluency and understanding.

And why all the animosity towards Gareth Malone for trying to involve the dads? If Dad agrees that reading is a pretty pointless, girly activity, I'm quite sure that isn't going to help. The boys at that school did appear to have the stereotypical attitude that only girls do reading. Why not try to bring reading under the acceptable male activities banner? Not that different, really, from trying to convince men that singing in a choir doesn't make you gay. Many men like stereotypes. Telling them that's just stupid and they should get over it is just so female... trying to extend their stereotype might work a bit better.

Personally haven't got a problem with Gareth Malone I think he is trying to make a difference when faced with a school that is failing but is afraid of change (a bit of quiet hostility detected)

Agree with mrz.

I know at dd's school, they are making efforts to interest and encourage boys particularly, because they've noticed how interest levels fall around Y1-2. We had a Dad's reading with kids (not just boys) day, and lots of new Project X books that the boys enjoy.

Having seen the Gareth programme, I'm thinking of having a chat with some of the staff to see how else the Dads could help - it'll be fun, if nothing else, and I know a few Y2 Dads who would be happy to get involved.

I hate the present emphasis on phonics - which was how I was taught - but not how I learned.
I have spent the last few months learning New Testament Greek and have discovered that I learn entirely by looking at the shape of the words (which is why I mix up words with a similar shape). I can only relate sounds to shape once I reliably recognise the shape - it is my learning style. If my teachers had realised or looked for this when I was 5 years old, it would have saved me hours of misery and confusion.

I agree with you aig. That is how I learn words too, and I picked up 3 foreign languages using that method.

Of course not every child is going to learn to read in the same way. There isn't one way of teaching anything that works for everyone.

The problem with learning all words by shape aig & claig is that in English there are estimated to be three quarters of a million words not counting obsolete words according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Then add in the fact that words don't have a unique shape take a simple words such as "not" it's shape is the same as "net" and "nut" ... so as a method it is very limited.

I want to see this week to see if there is an inprovement, I think the programme has highlighted the great problem with getting some children to read. I also think that Gareth Malone seems to really care about the boys he is with which is good.

I think that taking the children outdoors is also a good thing and that getting boys out can be very benafitial.