MY TEACHER SAYS
YOU'RE A WITCH
Jane Schaffer (2007)
Seven Arches Publishing, England
ISBN 978-0-9556169-0-7
"It
turned out to be an amazing session of phonic teaching using a
system called THRASS which stands for Teaching Handwriting Reading
And Spelling Skills."
I didn’t get
burnt at the stake, but as an Ofsted Inspector it was a close thing.
When working on inspection, a small boy really did say: “Are you a
witch?” And yes, there was great consternation on the part of his
teachers.
The book is set in 1996, which is back in the dark ages as far as
Ofsted Inspection go. It was at a time when Chris Woodhead had
convinced the government and populace alike that teachers and
schools needed to buck up their ideas. Ofsted carried out its
dreaded inspections across the length and breadth of the land, but
Jane Schaffer’s book asks the question...
Did Ofsted Inspections make a
difference?
For nine-year-old
Steven, whose chaotic home life and severe dyslexia make him
unpopular with his teacher, it does. In the four days of the
school’s inspection, Steven’s teacher picks up a handful of the
much-feared unsatisfactory grades and so passes the point of
professional acceptability. She leaves the school, and Steven and
his classmates get a new teacher who is good at her job. Outcomes,
however, are not always as happy. Judge for yourself, as you read
the complex and enthralling descriptions of each inspection if after
the inspectors leave things improve.
Page 55
It turned out to be an amazing session of phonic
teaching using a system called THRASS which stands for Teaching
Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills. I had, to my detriment,
only dimly heard of it before but then that was the same for the
others on the team. THRASS teaches the forty-four phonemes (speech
sounds) of spoken English and the graphemes of written English
together. Children learn to read and spell and form the letters at
the same time. It has charts, pictures and a range of resources.
Very well-thought out and researched, it uses something that in 1996
no one paid much attention to – a multi-sensory approach. I sat and
watched the session, captivated. The children knew exactly what to
expect and followed the teacher’s commands to a child – not an eye
wandered, a head turned. I came out, (after giving a smiling and
genuine thank-you to the teacher), wondering how I was going to make
the small comments I had been able to get down on my form into a
legible and reasoned argument for what surely could only be an
excellent lesson.
Page 60-61
“But the English in the infant department is
wonderful.” She positively bubbled with excitement at these
unexpected findings. “They have introduced a simply splendid system
of teaching phonics – it’s remarkable. I would have used it in my
own school if I had known about it.” This was praise indeed. Mary’s
school, it went without saying, was a model of excellence. She went
on to expand on the virtues of the THRASS system. She had been given
the teachers' instruction manual for this relatively new innovation
by the English co-ordinator, who it appeared also met with Mary’s
approval. “She’s a lively lass, go-ahead and knows just what needs
to be done to move the school forward. I’m really expecting great
things from her lesson tomorrow.”
Abby contributed to the conversation about THRASS
with equal enthusiasm, her usual irritation with Mary completely
forgotten in their combined cause, and it only took my giving Mary
my lesson observation from Year 1, with its shinning ‘ones’, to make
Nigel give up any attempt at trying to regain the conversation back
on to the parlous state of IT.
Source:
Seven Arches Publishing.
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