Primary Reading Simplified
Primary Reading Simplified: A Practical Guide to Classroom Teaching and Whole-School Implementation
by Christopher Such
A guide to how to implement the ‘science of reading’ in your classroom
Why is this book needed?
Primary Reading Simplified is a follow-up to Chris Such’s excellent book The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading (reviewed here). Chris describes his reasons for writing Primary Reading Simplified as follows:
“I have become increasingly convinced that there is an appetite for much more than a set of evidence-informed principles… this book describes my preferred route through that terrain [reading instruction]”.
I think he’s absolutely right about the need for this approach. Having spent a long time getting to grips with the research behind how to teach literacy, I’ve had many moments of thinking “OK, but what is the best way to actually do this?”
What it’s about
The book starts with an overview of ‘What Every Teacher Needs to Know about Reading’, before going into detail about how to organise and implement teaching in phonics, spoken language development, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary within the classroom. I liked the way that Chris tackled the minor but troublesome issues that are bound to come up, but which are not addressed in research papers. For example, how do you deal with exceptionally fluent readers reading ahead in the text during read-alouds? Or, what do you do if pupils read too loudly during paired reading?
Later sections of the book cover implementation at a more general level – professional development, developing a reading curriculum, nurturing a reading culture, and addressing barriers to reading development.
The best thing
What I really like about this book is that it goes beyond what the research tells us. This might not sound like a good thing – surely we need to be implementing evidence-based practices? But actually, although research can tell us a lot about what and how to teach, it doesn’t tell us everything. So, experience, common-sense, pragmatism and practicality have to feed into what teachers actually do in the classroom – as well as research. And, as an experienced teacher, teacher trainer and education consultant, Chris Such is the perfect person to give teachers some practical advice.
Who is it for?
I’d recommend this to primary teachers and leaders. As in literacy interventionist, many of the structures and routines that are in this book aren’t directly applicable to my job. Nevertheless, I found it useful as guide to how to approach teaching: it’s OK take the research and build on it in ways that take account of practical considerations, with the aim of developing resources and routines that work.
Podcast pairing
If you’re interested in finding out more, Christopher Such and Zach Groshell discuss practical ways to implement the science of reading in an excellent episode of the Progressively Incorrect podcast, linked below.