Another step to a literate Tasmania

Rosalie Martin sings the praises of the Year One Phonics Check system

LET’S applaud Minister Rockliff, Premier Gutwein and their teams for expanding the Year One Phonics Check more widely into Tasmanian schools. And let’s applaud the Department of Education and its teams for accelerating into this bend in the road. There’s no oncoming traffic around this corner. It’s a clear straight to # 100PercentLiteracy.

Just look at what happened in South Australia! The check was introduced there, along with appropriate teacher training, and in two years the number of students achieving at or above minimum standard rose by 20 per cent. This outcome matches what happened in the UK when the Year One Phonics Check was introduced there in 2012.

Is this incredible? Yes and no. It’s definitely fabulous. But no more than the systematic process of building knowledge in how to teach reading and writing using processes that have evidence to show they work. And then systematically applying those processes.

We can do this in Tasmania too. The Minister’s decision and the Department of Education’s eagerness to implement it in alignment with its Literacy Strategy will make Tasmania part of the movement of early adopters of process that will lead our beautiful state to # 100PercentLiteracy.

The Premier’s media release ( November 26) stated “Phonics is especially important for students in Prep and Year One and is best taught explicitly as part of a balanced approach to literacy learning.”

To have confidence in what the state is about to do, we need to know what a

“balanced approach to literacy learning” is.

“Balance” gives us an image of Lady Justice. She stands forth with the fullness of all she symbolises radiating from her. Her blindfold blinds her to power, wealth, gender and race. She can meet all comers equally. In her scales she weighs evidence, on its merit. She weighs it against the actions taken.

Balanced literacy means her scales are level. It can only mean the approach to literacy instruction is balanced with evidence. The evidence and the actions level each other.

There is clear evidence about how to deliver literacy instruction to all comers. The evidence is for systematic, explicit, synthetic phonics.

“Synthetic” refers to the discernment of the speech sounds and their synthesis with the alphabetic symbols. It also refers to the synthesis of the sounds and symbols to form words. Then, synthesis of the words into larger units of language and meaning. Each part of this process from the smallest units of speech and language, to the largest, can and must be taught and practised.

For perfect balance in a literacy approach, this is the evidence our statewide actions must be weighed against.

Lady Justice can be satisfied when the state’s approach to literacy learning widely implements the actions of systematic, explicit, synthetic phonics. The introduction of the Year One Phonics Check is an excellent step on the way.

It’s not only this bronzy and beautiful Lady of our higher selves who will be satisfied. So will teachers and parents and students. It is so incredibly satisfying to teach literacy with clarity and with solid, established understanding about how what we do is working, and with knowledge about what exactly to do next when there is trouble to shoot.

Take a bow, leaders, teachers and advocates. Let’s throw our hats and streamers in the air. And let the hatthrowing buoy our energy — for we must roll up our sleeves now, and get stuck into the exciting work and learning that lie around the corner. We’re heading into a straight that will take us directly to increases in public health, mental health, wellbeing, opportunity, flourishing and innovation. Brace for the ride.