There is nothing in place of effective teaching

I am always perplexed when commercial enterprises spruce their new education hardware. When working in U.S.A. publishers there created a manual which dictated what the teachers taught each day. The teachers did not plan, assess or differentiate learning. The manual was supposed to fix the failures by giving teachers a foolproof way of teaching. It did not fix the failures.

I have the same view of  'gimmicks' as the below author expresses, so it was refreshing to read her comment in her latest book.

Quick fixes, current fads, marketing and publishing companies hone in on an aspect of reading theory in order to produce and package a quick fix – products that guarantee increased profit margins.
(Kay Lowe, PETAA, 2016).

She is the first author I have read who has been brave enough to forward this view to a wide audience.

Teaching is not easy and teachers need to be knowledgeable about their children and about strategies they use, to assist their learning. It is my opinion, that the well entrenched pedagogical practices that have built up over the years, Shared Reading and Writing, deconstructing and constructing texts in front of the children, Literature-based learning and Read Aloud should always be essential teaching in the classroom. As well, children should learn about Genre structures and the accompanying language structures. Diagnostic and Formative Assessment  promotes more personalised learning and these assessments are all part of ‘Guided Reading’, ‘Guided Writing’, ‘Interactive Writing’ and collaborative discussion groups, ‘Reciprocal Teaching’ and ‘Book Clubs’ (where analysis and critical/creative thinking dominates). We could not do without children working in collaborative groups to study issues and topics through Inquiry. 

Teaching is not easy so marketing companies should not distract teachers with ruses. Quick fixes do not work only good solid teaching does.