Section 1 Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)
1. Simplified Instruction
BRI instruction is spare and unambiguous. No time is wasted before children begin their reading journey. A teacher simply introduces any new correspondences before instructing ‘Say the sound and read the word’ followed, if necessary, by error correction. The pupil then carefully decodes through each word. The avoidance of ambiguity ensures significant savings in time, money and also – for the struggling reader – human misery.
“If a student is reading – if they’ve broken the code – instruction can focus on the many more things that need to be learned to become a skilled reader. Instructional time is limited and the clock is ticking down.” Mark Seidenberg. Language at the Speed of Sight
“There are so many curriculum myths, fear and over complicating of primary curriculum design enactment.” Emma Turner. Education and Leadership Specialist
2. Building Knowledge
Words and correspondences are regularly revisited. All new sound/letter(s) are repeated many times in each short story and in subsequent stories.
"Learning requires long-term memory retention, and what most aids retention is frequent retrieval practice." Joe Kirby. Director of Education, Athena
3. Preventing Memory Overload
Only five graphemes and three words are introduced in the early stories. Children with poor short-term memory gain confidence by narrowing the focus of their attention and learning new material at their own pace.
"Approximately 70% of children with learning difficulties in reading obtain very low scores on tests of working memory that are rare in children with no special educational needs." Gathercole & Alloway. Working Memory and Learning: A Practical Guide for Teachers
4. No Confusing Mixed Strategies
Children learn best when they aren’t grappling with too many confusing ideas (i.e. multi-cueing). Complexity is detrimental to Alphabetic Code understanding.
"We have overcomplicated teaching." Jo Facer. ResearchEd 2016
5. Multiple Exposures
BRI’s Beginning to Read stories provide examples of ‘controlled’ words and sound/letter correspondences repeated in the same, and also in different, contexts.
"The best way to help the brain to ‘remember’ the code’s patterns with minimum effort is through ‘controlled exposure and varied repetition’." Diane McGuinness. Early Reading Instruction
6. Interleaving (Mixing Related but Distinct Material)
As they progress through the early books, children learn how to deal with ‘variation’ in the code (same sound represented in more than one spelling: e.g. me, meet) and ‘overlap’ (the same spelling representing more than one sound: e.g. on, no).
“The mixing of items, skills, or concepts during practice, over the longer term, seems to help us to not only see the distinctions between them but also to achieve a clearer grasp of each one individually.” Benedict Carey. How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why it Happens
7. Strengthening Memory
Rereading, retelling and discussing the short BRI stories provide numerous opportunities to strengthen both memory and understanding.
“The act of pulling information out tends to strengthen our understanding and memory.” Peps Mccrea. Expert Teaching: What is it, and how might we develop it?
8. Processing in Depth
Years devoted to explicit learning of the 200+ phoneme/grapheme correspondences has undoubted benefits but may delay the transition to extended reading and the opportunity to process in depth. BRI’s introduction of narratives from the start of instruction addresses this problem.
“When information is processed deeply and meaningfully, it will be better remembered than if processed on the basis of its surface characteristics like shape, colour or sound!” Efrat Furst. Learning-in-the-Brain
Section 2 Technical Matters
9. Phonemic Awareness
Training children to ‘hear’ discrete phonemes is particularly helpful for those with phonological difficulties.
“We learn phonemic awareness THROUGH learning to read.” Professor Usha Goswani
10. Blending Made Easy
Careful selection of specific sounds in the early books helps children to make the connection between sound and letter. BRI’s structure contains a simple VC or CVC structure, with a minimum of straightforward ‘Advanced Code’ words alerting children to the flexible thinking required when the ‘Advanced Code’ is introduced.
For children with SEN and those who struggle to blend, the prominence of the sibilant /s/ sound in a variety of neighboring words makes it easier for them to ‘hear’ each sound while blending sounds into words. The introduction of ‘plosive’ sounds, e.g. /p/, are delayed and words which contain a /ə/ (schwa) sound are introduced later still.
“A beginner reader is also a beginner blender of sounds. Decoding requires you to identify the sound being represented and to then blend that into the next sound. This can be hard at first, especially when even the code knowledge is new, so the first words a child is asked to read should have a very simple VC or CVC structure.” Monica Nowers: Decodables – How to Teach Reading
11. Visually Similar Words
Juxtaposing look-alike words (e.g. sheet/shall/shell/shut/sell) directs attention to each grapheme within a word, thus ensuring that the easy but fatal option – guessing – is eliminated.
12. Looking and Listening
BRI seamlessly combines looking and listening protocols, ensuring that children carefully sound right through the word (for reading/decoding) while remaining alert to every sound (for spelling/encoding), both sounding and seeing words in varied semantic contexts.
“Learning to listen is a taught skill.” Nicola Benedetti. Edinburgh Festival Director. Benedetti Foundation
13. No Unconnected Code Learning
With the exception of SEN pupils, for whom BRI provides letter/sound flashcards, children learn exclusively through reading decodable stories rather than by teaching phoneme/graphemes disconnected from text with a later addition of decodable books.
“Comprehension is best served when both code-focused and meaning-focused instruction are promoted in parallel.” Rice et al.
“The human mind seems exquisitely tuned to understand and remember stories – so much so that psychologists sometimes refer to stories as ‘psychologically privileged,’ meaning that they are treated differently in memory than other types of material.” Daniel T. Willingham. The Reading Mind, Why Don’t Children Like School
14. Removing the Need for Extensive Code Explanation
The Literacy Lead needs knowledge of the full Alphabet Code. Children do not. BRI ‘does the work’ to guide them slowly and sequentially through the code by means of carefully constructed stories with information on new code introduced before each story.
“The key to ensuring that all children become proficient readers is the Literacy Lead. Without a member of staff overseeing and reporting on literacy teaching throughout primary, children continue to fail.” Nathaniel Hansford. Pedagogy Non Grata
Anecdotal evidence suggests that significant and increasing numbers of neurodiverse children find adjustment from the basic (transparent) code to the advanced (complex) code to be a major stumbling block. BRI circumvents a tendency to inflexibility by including a limited number of Advanced Code spellings.
15. Set for Variability from the very first story.
16. Ensuring Sufficient Blending Practice
The blending process presents difficulties for many children and illiteracy is often exacerbated by insufficient practice in blending skills. BRI emphasises the need to take the necessary time to master blending, while providing routine practice for the mastery of all foundational skills, in advance of introducing spelling.
“The key to master blending is repetition. Some children need more repeated practice than others, but they all need some degree of repetition, and continuous exposure to words and reading!” learningreadinghub.com
17. Spelling with BRI
Introducing spelling only after pupils complete at least one reading of a story means that a laser-like focus on blending and automaticity of essential routines and practices are in place. Spelling with BRI thereafter concentrates on complementing decoding with encoding. Short dictation sentences and extensive word lists incorporate additional ‘Extended Code’ words in addition to expanding ‘Basic Code’ vocabulary.
Section 3 Language
18. Oral Language
The most important predictor of progress in the early years is oral language. BRI stimulates development of both oral language and comprehension by encouraging curiosity and dialogue about the relationships, behaviour and lively personalities of the many animal characters. The questions provided with each story offer more opportunities to explore communication skills, in addition to comprehension and factual recall.
“We know that in areas of social deprivation there are larger numbers of children who haven’t had the opportunity to develop their language and communication skills.” Louisa Reeves. Lead Communication Advisor, I CAN
19. Vocabulary
BRI’s 88 tales kick-start the early habit of sustained reading, facilitating the acquisition of new vocabulary.
“After the age of 5, we acquire most new vocabulary through reading. But if we don’t read, we don’t acquire it.” David Didau. Closing the Language Gap
20. Speech Development
The repeated emphasis on sounding through the word plays a particularly important role in speech development.
“When we articulate a sound a sensory and motor reference is created in the brain.” Oxford Brookes University, Babylab 2015
21. Language Concepts
BRI explores the questions What? Why? Where? Who?, triggering children’s curiosity to help build both language structure and understanding.
“It is clear that providing children with the tool of communication sets them up for a lifetime of success.” Paul Main. Oracy in the Classroom
22. Varied Exposure and Oral Language Engagement
Speech, language and communication questions are offered with every story to prompt a wider discussion in addition to the important task of double-checking on comprehension.
“If at-risk learners are to master new vocabulary they need new words to be carefully introduced using multiple relevant exposures, then to engage actively with those words in oral language activities.” Beck, McKeown, & Kucan. Bringing Words to Life
23. Visual Supports
Lively, engaging illustrations act as visual supports, helping children to understand narrative. The illustrations – which never aid and abet guessing – are of crucial help to those with Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and those with Speech Language Impairment (SLI).
“Children with SLI need lots of visual support systems to help with understanding.” SLI Handbook
24. Prosodic Reading
BRI provides limitless opportunities to read with prosody, injecting expression into the exchanges between the animal characters.
“Prosodic reading, or reading with expression, is considered one of the hallmarks of fluent reading.” Paula J. Schwanenflugel, Anne Marie Hamilton, Joseph M. Wisenbaker, Melanie R. Kuhn, Steven A. Stahl. Reading Skill and Prosodic Features in the Oral Reading of Young Readers
Section 4 Motivation
25. Rereading Stories
Rereading the short BRI stories helps to embed skills, enhance comprehension, encourage expression, and develop fluency, at the same time as boosting motivation and confidence.
“On rereading a book an adult can ‘scaffold’ a child’s learning, asking questions, providing guidance, helping a child make new connections or drawing on past experiences, supporting not only learning of educational material, but also ‘soft skills’ necessary to succeed: focus, patience, persistence, resilience.” Annie Murphy Paul. The Brilliant Blog
26. Fostering a Love of Reading
BRI stories focus on loveable animals with thinking, feeling and reactive personalities. A precise focus on foundational decoding skills in no way detracts from a child’s excitement and ability to immerse themselves in new worlds with humorous plots, and engaging characters.
“Reading creates empathy. In reading we project ourselves into others. ”Horatio Speaks. ThinkReading
“Children need more than explicit instruction.” Castles, Nation, Rastle. Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition from Novice to Expert
27. Importance of Comprehension
Learning to read solely via fiction activates numerous levers of comprehension, such as sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, layers of meaning. True motivation derives from the satisfaction of being able to read and fully understand what is being read.
“The goal of teaching phonics is to support students in getting to automaticity as quickly as possible, so that they can comprehend. Phonics is how we get the child across the bridge.” Pamela Snow. Professor of Cognitive Science
28. Focus on Understanding
Every step of the BRI structure enhances both foundational skills and understanding. Designing instruction around stories immediately motivates children to engage in their meaning, sparking interest in a lively range of characters. Confidence in understanding, in reading ‘know-how’ coupled with the joys of reading, is a potent lever for motivation.
“Children with good foundational reading skills will be able to read, understand what they are reading, and derive pleasure from books leading to a virtuous cycle.” Kathy Rastle. ResearchEd Annual Conference 2024
29. Motivating Teachers
A teacher needs no more than a few hours with the Piper Books website and Getting Started with BRI booklet to grasp the fundamentals of teaching BRI: introduce and practice each new letter/sound correspondence; instruct the pupil to 'say the sounds and read the word'; instantly flag up and if necessary correct any errors; use the questions provided as a springboard for discussion. The books themselves are designed to do the teaching, with the initial and mastery assessments providing clear proof of progress.
30. No Children Left Behind
BRI is a complete reading programme that is equally suitable as a supplement to other Synthetic Phonics programmes. It offers high-ability children the opportunity to explore plot and character while consolidating their phonics knowledge. It offers pupils in small-group tuition the wealth of additional phonics, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary practice that they still require. And it offers those requiring extensive one-to-one tutoring the simplicity of instruction, wealth of practice, and clear, gradual building up of the Alphabetic Code that can save them from a lifetime of illiteracy.
For more information, visit Piper Books online to explore the BRI phonics reading program and other resources.
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