At what point should we adapt the program, and what should we do differently?

so before i tackle exactly what's meant by what what is meant to be described by fidelity it's worth making a more general point that i think is often overlooked in these debates which is that some pupils even with exceptionally good support and instruction will find it much more difficult than others to learn to decode words initially and then to become a fluent reader and then over time to potentially also to comprehend text relatively easily.

Some people just find that much more difficult and there are a host of different reasons that might underpin that.

So it can be possible that you can be doing everything right and yet progress is relatively slow, especially with things like decoding, code knowledge, blending, et cetera.

You can often put a lot of groundwork in and you not immediately see the fruits of that labor.

It comes down the line.

But with that in mind, so I'm coming back to this idea, let's talk about this idea of fidelity, because it has warped somewhat.

But do audiobooks count as reading? Can they develop the language and knowledge needed for comprehension? might they allow weak decoding to remain hidden or perhaps all of the above

The remedy is to provide more intensive phonics instruction.

My name is Christopher Such.

I am an education consultant.

Previously, I was a primary school teacher and school leader.

I also work as part of the learning design team at Ambition Institute.

The first thing to note is that the ease with which someone learns to read varies massively between people.

And so it's perfectly possible for a very small minority of people to struggle to learn to read so much that even with perfect instruction, exceptional degrees of support, that they might still need further support at secondary school.

So what does decoding mean?