Teaching of Word Level Work in the Literacy Hour and Its Implications for Educational Psychologists' Assessment and Intervention

This paper describes initial research into the teaching of literacy in Bedfordshire by the Educational Psychology Service. The majority of lower schools in the authority follow the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) and teach the Literacy Hour daily. Five of these hours were observed in seven Year 1 classes across the country. Particular attention was given to the teaching of word level work, as this has been found to be most influential in learning to read. Instances of word level work were timed and categorised in terms of the approach used. The results demonstrated a large amount of variation in the delivery of the NLS in these schools, particularly in time spent on word level work. Most schools favoured onset-rime as an approach to teaching word level work, which reflects the emphasis of the NLS. These findings are related to recent and ongoing research into the most effective ways of teaching word level work.