Issue 11, June 2021

In this edition, we tackle a critical question: are we there yet, on the long winding road towards improving reading instruction? Pamela Snow provides her thoughts.

With COVID-19 and remote learning still dominating headlines, we look at some of the impacts – whether on student wellbeing or our love of a ‘real’ book. Tanya Serry draws comparisons between a hypothetical COVID-19 Screening Check and the Phonics Screening Check, while Jennifer Buckingham delves into the research on how this simple test influences reading outcomes.

Elsewhere in this edition, we feature contributions, among others, from Anna Desjardins on ‘print-to-speech’ and ‘speech-to-print’, Timothy Shanahan on another hot topic – sequences of instruction, and Kevin and Robyn Wheldall on curriculum-based measurement in reading.

You can view a digital edition of Nomanis here, download a PDF of the whole edition here (2mb), or read the individual articles below:

• Editorial – My husband is a guinea pig: Robyn Wheldall

• What we've been reading

• On sequences of instruction: Tim Shanahan

• But what if there was a screening test for COVID-19?: Tanya Serry

• Are we there yet? The long, steep and winding road towards improved reading instruction: Pamela Snow

• Does the Year 1 Phonics Check lead to improved reading outcomes?: Jennifer Buckingham

• Remote learning didn’t affect most NSW primary students in our study academically – but wellbeing suffered: Jenny Gore, Andrew Miller, Jess Harris and Leanne Fray

• Mentioning the WARs – Let’s do the timed WARP again: Kevin and Robyn Wheldall

• Independent research and the Arrowsmith Program: Caroline Bowen

• Sugata Mitra and the Hole in the Research: Tom Bennett

• After a year of digital learning and virtual teaching, let’s hear it for the joy of a real book: Kathryn MacCallum

• Two sides of a single coin – speech-to-print, print-to-speech – let’s not devalue the currency: Anna Desjardins

• Book review – The Power of Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction: Nicola Bell

• Nomanis Note – What is Applied Behaviour Analysis?: Kevin Wheldall, Micaela Rafferty, Jill Hellemans and Mark Carter

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