Follow up by reading this link. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/scripted-lessons-start-a-classroom-revival-20100528-wlba.html
Here are the six types of questions that Socrates asked his pupils. Probably often to their initial annoyance but more often to their ultimate delight. He was a man of remarkable integrity and his story makes for marvelous reading.
Reading has always been a fundamental concept taught in adult basic education (ABE). The methods and contexts for reading instruction, however, have varied over time according to practitioners' theoretical perspectives and belief systems about the reading process. For example, the teaching of reading often has been imbedded in instructional content rather than addressed as a discrete skill. Because of the variations in instructional approach, it sometimes has been difficult to discern the extent to which reading is being taught in ABE programs.
Favorite rave review:
"Evidence that the internet is not as idiotic as it often looks. This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor. It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news." (From commonbeauty.)
NOEL Pearson's plans for a root-and-branch reformation of indigenous schooling have already been reviewed in the October ALR by Steven Schwartz in a wider discussion of Australian educational practices. But Pearson's Quarterly Essay, titled Radical Hope, is his most evolved statement of his strategies to preserve distinctively Aboriginal communities and a distinctively Aboriginal culture on this continent, and if we latte-sipping, chardonnay-swigging, soft-left southerners are to go on throwing good money after bad (the Pearson project will cost a lot of money), I think we need to look again at the evidence and the assumptions on which we will make our decisions, rather than risk retreating, in confusion, exhaustion or despair, to our individual igloos of pre-cast ideology.
Useful web addresses. Go in here and you may never come out.
Professor Kevin Wheldall was appointed Professor of Education and Director of Macquarie University Special Education Centre in 1990. In 1995, he established the MULTILIT (Making Up Lost Time In Literacy) Initiative, to research and develop intensive literacy interventions for low-progress readers. The MULTILIT Initiative has attracted over $12 million in research and research consultancy income since 1996 including the extensive Commonwealth Government funded evaluation project, An Evaluation of MULTILIT. Since 2006, Wheldall has also been the Director of the MULTILIT Research Unit. He was Associate Dean (Research) for ACES between 2004 and 2006, was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2006 and of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities in 2007, and is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and College of Preceptors (UK). In 2008 Wheldall was awarded the Mona Tobias award of Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA) in recognition of his services to learning difficulties in Australia. In 2009 he was inducted into the Macquarie Innovators Hall of Fame for his MULTILIT work. In Macquarie’s last externally evaluated review of research quality, Professor Wheldall was ranked in the highest category, as being within the top ten per cent of researchers in his field internationally.
Media mentions on reading spec relating to Prof Kevin Wheldall of MULTILIT.
Professor Kevin Wheldall (MULTILIT): has achieved great success with disadvantaged children using his MULTILIT program. The Australian, 7th February 2008. Professor Kevin Wheldall (MULTILIT): said children need direct instruction in learning to read. Sydney Morning Herald, 20th March 2008.
Professor Kevin Wheldall (MULTILIT): said it was common for parents of low-progress readers to be told their children would “get it” and not to worry. Herald Sun, 15th April 2008.