In 2020 as part of my studies I wrote ... According to the detailed ‘Best Start Literacy Approach’ (BSLA) website “The approach is based on several years of research trials investigating the most efficient and effective methods to support children’s early reading, writing and oral language success.” For any teacher on a passionate quest for the answer or the magic bullet, it does sound just like that. The programme and accompanying resources, the ‘Ready to Read Phonics Plus texts, have recently been released by the Ministry of Education. The programme is presented as a 3 pronged approach encompassing ‘evidenced based’ literacy teaching, monitoring assessments and whanau engagement. So is it the answer?
The BSLA has been designed and developed particularly for New Zealand children and the NZ context, researched by both Massey University and the University of Canterbury. The research of Gail Gillon and others, provides compelling evidence to suggest that this ‘one size fits all’ approach is part of the answer.
This structured approach does not appear to have regard for ‘exploration, risk taking or agency’ and is prescriptive in nature. In fact the texts are specifically designed to be “constrained in word and sentence structure” (BSLA Summary) and one would have to question how engaging these could be? Furthermore this approach seems to diminish the importance of all the other skills and knowledge or competencies that the child brings as a reader, explicitly teaching the learner to focus at the phonemic level to decode words first and foremost. This approach could see the learner overly focus on deconstruction of a word rather than meaning making. While this resource and pedagogy clearly builds on the known it does not appear to consider the ‘funds of knowledge’ that the child brings to the classroom. Gaffney & Jesson (2019) explain “Each child’s existing expertise, reservoirs of knowledge, and ways of knowing and doing, are their unique resource base to contribute to their continued learning” and this approach does not seem to harness this resource effectively.
After A critical examination considering both learning principles, theory and literature... I concluded,
When reviewing the literature for the BSLA, two themes or features of the research resonate. Firstly, the resource and research that underpins it, appears to have a rather narrow focus on phonological awareness and the importance of the development of these skills to set children up for success. Secondly, the initial research on which this resource is based was done with children that had SLI (Gillon et al., 2020). Therefore, I am brought back to the question raised by Gaffney, Smith, Commack, Ash, Mackie and Mudgway (2019) “Which ones are worthy of children’s time?” (p.5). In considering this resource the research that is missing is a longitudinal study to examine whether children who have acquired the sequence of skills and learnt to decode books are set up as lifelong readers? As Nicholson (2006) states “ long-term success is the litmus test of every intervention” (p.33).
This programme, in conjunction with the PLD offered, (which provides for teachers to develop their own linguistic, content, and pedagogical knowledge) along with the texts that support this curricula, is a positive resource for teachers doing their utmost to be responsive to the needs of their learner. However, there is an element of caution which suggests that we may be inclined to ‘throw the baby with the bathwater’.
This year I have been lucky enough to be trained as a facilitator for BSLA and mentoring a teacher in our school so that we can together look at how effective this intervention is in our context for our learners. The most current research shows promising results so I am excited to see what impact we can have on our tamariki. So we are learning by doing and in the process continuing to put a critical lens on everything we do so that we can find what works for our kids.
Watch this space!!
