Author Archives: Dianne Murphy

thinkingreadingwritings Teachers of any subject will be familiar with the student who struggles to work their way through a text. Not only do these students find difficulty completing classwork, because they often have trouble extracting information from reading material. It’s … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings.wordpress.com/2020/05/23/removing-barriers-to-success-the-bridge-over-the-reading-gap-part-6/

thinkingreadingwritings “Teaching reading at secondary is very niche.” I’ve heard it said, in different ways, many times. It is a very common view, and it is also a mistaken one. Every teacher needs to know about reading because every student … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings There is a tremendous amount of potential in education research. Sadly, this potential is largely untapped because teachers are not taught this material systematically. As a result, they have to find it out for themselves – if they do … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings Why being sympathetic doesn’t cut it as a reading teacher The first rule of effective teaching of reading is: they don’t need our sympathy. Quite the reverse. An attitude of sympathy for ‘poor Johnny’ or ‘poor Jemima’ makes them … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings We have been privileged to have the enormously talented Alison Rounce (@ali_rounce) working with us in the north-east of England. We asked her to write about her journey, and this is the result: Making a career change when you … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings The focus is changing! It’s exciting to see the shift in attitude and intent towards teaching struggling readers at secondary school. When we started blogging on this subject six years ago (Why is there a reading problem in secondary … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings Do secondary students need one-to-one tuition to catch up, or can they be taught in groups? The answer is, both – depending on how far behind they are. Groups can be an effective format for teaching if four conditions … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings We often find ourselves answering questions about the striking results that Thinking Reading students achieve. Teachers are used to seeing modest outcomes at best from reading interventions, so responses range from surprise to scepticism. By way of explanation, here … Continue reading →

thinkingreadingwritings How leaders deal with problems determines  . . . well, everything. It’s an awkward truth that some leaders feel safest in a state of crisis. In a crisis, everyone is too preoccupied with how to cope to raise awkward … Continue reading →