Nelson, N. (2025, April,14)  Edu Research Matters.

This short, thoughtful post was published in April 2025 in the AARE Blog, Edu Research Matters. It scrutinises the new Phonics Plus lesson plans provided to teachers by the Victorian Government.

The author, Naomi Nelson, makes it very clear that the lesson plans are not mandatory, but suggests that they ‘set the standard for classroom instruction’. Nelson identifies a number of issues with the lesson plans:

1. long scripted lessons;
2. learning sequence problems;
3. a lack of differentiation created by a ‘spray and pray’ approach to instruction;
4. fluency without meaning; and
5. neglect of meaning-making. Nelson challenges the Victorian government to balance phonics with meaningful reading experiences. 

Link: https://blog.aare.edu.au/phonics-plus-does-the-new-victorian-approach-to-reading-miss-differentiation-and-meaning-making/