Thank you Susan Godsland from www.dyslexics.org.uk for flagging up an interesting summary by Spelfabet (www.spelfabet.com.au) of an article by Mark S. Seidenberg: ‘The Science of Reading and its Educational Implications’. This is a useful summary for busy teachers as it raises some really important issues: 1. The rift between the scientific research academic approach and […]
Read MoreLearning to Read
High expectations and quality teaching – see St George’s SATs results
St. George’s is a primary school in Wandsworth, South London, in an area of deprivation. See the fantastic results of high expectations and investment in quality teaching. Also, great school leadership. By the way, in St. George’s all the staff were trained in the Sounds-Write Reading and Spelling programme and uses Dandelion Books as their decodable reading […]
Read MoreWhat is so great about dictation?
I have been working with an 8 year old pupil on the spelling ‘ck’. We also need to revisit ‘sh, ch and th’ which she tends to forget and confuse. Every week we do a bit of dictation including the graphemes we need to revise. This dictation is based on a Dandelion Launcher book ‘Which Shall I […]
Read MoreHow to start a reading intervention programme
Read here how Mel from Top Notch Teaching uses Sounds-Write assessment tools to establish an intervention programme for her pupil: http://topnotchteaching.com/lesson-ideas/essential-reading-intervention-student-with-dyslexia/
Read More55-65 year olds more literate and numerate than 16-24 year olds
An alarming report about literacy and numeracy levels of young people in England. Read Robert Peston’s report. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24442248
Read MoreWho’s afraid of dictation?
Phonic Books has just published a new workbook , the ‘Dandelion Book of Dictation’. It consists of dictation and punctuation exercises which follow the progression of the Dandelion Books reading scheme, Units 1-20. Yes, we love dictation. It is a really useful way to get children to practise spelling words and sentences as they develop their reading. It […]
Read MoreQuality of teaching = quality of training
Read the feedback from a recent Sounds-Write course given by John Walker and Mary Gladstone in Perth, Australia. That is just how I felt when I attended the course! http://topnotchteaching.com/lesson-ideas/teach-children-to-read/ To find out more about Sounds-Write visit: http://www.sounds-write.co.uk/
Read MoreHow to teach so that all children learn
Read John Walker’s article based on Barak Rosenshine’s six principles of direct instruction. This is how all teaching should be delivered so that no child is left behind! http://literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Read MoreHow decodable texts help beginner and catch-up readers
The new National Curriculum now requires teachers to use decodable texts with children learning to read. Children are offered ‘controlled’ texts that include words they can decode independently, using the phonic knowledge they have been taught. These decodable texts enable pupils to focus on a specific spelling or group of spellings at each level. Pupils […]
Read MoreAlba Series reviewed in the DSF Bulletin
The Dyslexia – SPELD Foundation’s publication ‘The bulletin’, Autumn 2013, has just published an article reviewing the ‘Alba’ reading series. I have scanned it – but the print is a bit small so here is the summary: “As with the very popular existing catch-up readers produced by Phonic Books, this series will develop reading skills and confidence through […]
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