plough is p - l - ow, and school is s - k - oo - l. Encoding skills (i.e. spelling) is the same process in reverse. Direct instruction (also known as Explicit Instruction ): A teaching style that is characterized by "carefully designed instruction" that usually includes a fast pace, small steps, demonstrations, active participation, coaching, immediate correction, and positive feedback. intensive instruction: teaching or tutoring that include some of the following: more time; peer-assisted strategies; and instruction in small groups or one-on-one. peer-assisted literacy strategies: learners work in pairs (taking turns as teacher and learner) to learn a structured sequence of literacy skills, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, sound blending, passage reading, and story retelling. supportive instruction: teaching or tutoring that supports the student both emotionally and cognitively. This includes encouragement, immediate feedback, positive reinforcement, and instructional scaffolding (i.e. clear structure, small steps, guiding with questions). History The teaching of reading and writing has varied over the years from spelling and phonetic methods to the fashions for look-say and whole language methods. In America in the eighteenth century, Noah Webster introduced spelling approaches with syllabaries and in England the use of James Pitman's Initial Teaching Alphabet was popular in the 1960s. Recently phonic methods have been revived. Australia In December 2005 the Department of Education, Science and Training of the Australian Government published a report entitled a National Inquiry into the Teaching of Reading. The report recommends direct and systematic instruction in phonics as the foundation of early reading instruction. It is not clear if all of the findings of the report are reflected in the Australian Curriculum. The report was critiqued by Phillip Cormack, University of South Australia, who states that the key to success in a reading lesson is the relationship between the teacher, the child and the material to be read. Some of the findings of the report are: Among the successful schools visited, there were a number of key similarities. Three of those similarities are: a belief that each child can learn to read and write regardless of background; an early, systematic, and "explicit" (i.e. specific and clear) teaching of phonics; the phonics instruction was followed by "direct teaching". Students learn best from an approach that includes phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and comprehension. (Executive Summary) A whole-language approach, "on its own, is not in the best interests of children, particularly those experiencing