Independent Education Magazine

Mark Hayter, deputy-headmaster, St Peter’s Preparatory School, writes about literacy and the THRASS programme. 

From May 2008, Mark Hayter will be the Principal of Grayston Preparatory School.

Learning to read is a critical educational goal. For both children and adults, the ability to read opens up new worlds and opportunities. It enables us to gain new knowledge, enjoy literature and do everything that is part and parcel of modern life. Most people learn to read in their native or first language without experiencing learning problems. Many, but not all, learn to read as children, while some children and adults require additional help. Reading instruction needs to take into account different types of pupils and their needs. 

Reading is about the comprehension of written texts. These are complex activities that involve both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word-recognition and comprehension. Word-recognition is the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected texts. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text. 

Increasing demands
The ability to read is highly valued and important for social and economic achievement. In the technological society in which we live, the demands on literacy are ever-increasing, creating greater consequences for those who fall short of being literate. 

Effective reading instruction is built on a foundation that recognises that reading ability is determined by multiple factors; many factors that correlate with reading ability fail to explain it; many experiences contribute to reading development without being a pre-requisite for reading development; and although there are many pre-requisites for reading development, none of them, singularly, are considered sufficient. Therefore, the development of a reading programme is an extremely difficult task and needs to include the recommendations such as those of the National Reading Programme, USA:

• alphabetics • phonemic awareness instruction • phonics instruction • fluency
•  comprehension • vocabulary instruction • text comprehension instruction • teacher preparation and comprehension strategies instruction • teacher education and reading instruction • computer technology and reading instruction. 

THRASS
One recent approach to the development of reading and spelling is presented by the THRASS (Teaching, Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills) programme, which was developed in the United Kingdom by educational psychologist, Alan Davies.

The THRASS programme differs from the traditional method of teaching reading, spelling and phonics. Traditionally in schools in South Africa the OLMOSM (one-letter-makes-one–sound method), in which the initial sounds are introduced, is used. These are the 23 phonemes (sounds) of the 44 that are found in the English language. The THRASS programme introduces the pupil to the 44 phonemes of spoken English, using 120 keywords, each containing a key grapheme (spelling choice). The letters of the alphabet are identified by name, rather than by sound as in OLMOSM, so that the pupils have, with appropriate guidance, the natural ability to blend (synthesise) and segment (analyse) all of the phonemes of English. An essential factor in the THRASS programme is that there is no need for any “unlearning” to take place before there is progression to all phonemes and the graphemes. 

Speaking and listening skills, sequential skills, word synthesis (part-to-whole skills) and word analysis skills (whole-to-part) are taught by continual reference to pictures, letters, keywords, phoneme-boxes and/or key graphemes displayed on charts (whole picture charts). Pupils, as stated by Jean Piaget, are constructivists. The continual reference to “whole picture” charts helps pupils to make sense of the literacy process and does much to reduce or remove the feeling of “learned helplessness” displayed by pupils confused by the “letter sounds” of old phonics that frequently leads to poor social behaviour, low self-esteem and academic depression. ” 

Advantages
THRASS fulfils the criteria detailed in the NRP report and as a whole school literacy programme, includes the following benefits:

• Whole school programme applicable to Grades 0 - 7

• All staff working from the same point of departure

• All staff trained in the use of common charts, resources and programmes

• The THRASS programme allows for the integration of classroom teaching with the remedial, occupational therapy and speech therapy departments. Classroom practices are mirrored in the therapy environment

• IT resources are available for the children to practice various reading and spelling skills

• Cross-curricular references for foundation phase teachers

• A systematic approach to phonemic awareness, a key indicator for reading success 

The THRASS programme has been running at St Peter’s Prep School since 2005. The spelling and reading ages of all pupils were measured prior to the introduction of THRASS and in the years after implementation have shown outstanding gains in reading and spelling ages. The spelling ages achieved a ratio gain of 1.9 (with the norm being 1) and reading age gains of up to 2.7. The reading age gains can be attributed to THRASS coupled with the introduction of Paired Reading using peer tutoring as developed by Prof. Keith Topping, University of Dundee. 

Reflections of a Grade 2 co-ordinator
Gillian Ilsley

As with anything new, THRASS was a challenge but after working with it for the last three and a half years, it’s clear that the benefits are endless. Most importantly – change your mind set. Agreed, there are no pretty pictures with matching stories, but there are picture charts and overwriting charts at the child’s finger tips. These are valuable tools which the pupils are able to use on their own or with the teacher. 

Grade 2 seems to be the age when pupils begin to reap the benefits of this learning method. As most of the vowel blends are taught during this year, learning that a phoneme may have more than one grapheme choice is hugely beneficial. For example, when introducing the phoneme “I” as in light, pupils were able to list words such as night, sky and pipe. They understand that the phoneme was the same in all the words, yet their grapheme choice differs. They may write the word incorrectly the first time but, often notice their mistake, and are able to self correct. A valuable tool in any learning situation. 

Many teachers debate whether Grade 2 pupils should be encouraged to use words such as graph, digraph, trigraph, grapheme and phoneme. My experience is that pupils clearly understand the meaning of these words, especially in the context of THRASS. They even come up with inventive ideas/clues to help those that may not have a clear understanding. 

The greatest achievement with THRASS is that many children become independent, confident spellers by the end of Grade 2. I think the reason is that the pupil is encouraged to try until they succeed – they are not seen as a failure when trying to spell a new word as there is always another option if the first choice is incorrect. 

Source: Independent Education Magazine

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