It is not uncommon for reading interventionists to encounter students who try to use words within words as a spelling strategy. Some teachers may think that helping students remember how to spell a word that they can already spell, e.g., the word ‘hat’, may be useful to teach the word ‘that’. They then teach the […]
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Scarborough’s Reading Rope is a wonderful theoretical framework for describing the complexity of reading and what we need to teach children in order for them to become fluent readers who can comprehend a text successfully. Decoding is on one strand of the rope, and language comprehension is on the other strand. These strands become increasingly […]
Read MoreTami Reis-Frankfort, one of the founders of Phonic Books, has been thinking of how to organise a complex Alphabetic Code. *** The English Alphabetic Code is complex. How can we help children learn a code that has 176+ spellings for 44 sounds that uses only 26 letters of the alphabet? If we understand the Alphabetic […]
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If asked, many early years and special school teachers would probably say that one of the first things children should learn is to recognise, and later write, their name. One single word, yet many children seem to find this difficult and it can take a surprisingly long time to achieve. The main reason for this […]
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Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook for research in early literacy (pp. 97-110). New York: Guilford Press. The Reading Rope was developed by Dr. Hollis Scarborough to provide a framework for understanding the different skills that are necessary […]
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By Clair Wilson This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of Dystinct Magazine. Click here for free access to this issue until December 2024. Reading is one of the most important skills we want our children to learn. We want our children to be able to read books and access information online, […]
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What are homophones? Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. The word ‘homophone’ has a Greek origin: ‘Homo’ meaning ‘same’ and ‘phone’ meaning ‘sound’. So, the word ‘homophone’ means same-sounding words that have different meanings. Some homophones have the same spellings: for example, the words ‘row’ as in ‘to row a […]
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I recently listened to a webinar by Dr Susan Brady and there some really important points I wanted to summarise for busy teachers. Focus what is supported by evidence to accelerate learning We are now racing against time to reverse the learning loss that took place over COVID. It is so important that we focus […]
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We know that phonological awareness is one of the 6 components of learning to read: phonological awareness – being able to identify sounds in words which includes syllables, rhyme, alliteration and phonemes. phonics – to recognise letters and combinations of letters that represent the 44 sounds of English fluency – ability to read with pace, […]
Read MoreIt is that time of year and, although in this COVID year everything seems subdued, we have Christmas messages, wishes and advertising everywhere. Children will be busy writing lists for Santa and decorating Christmas cards. You just can’t escape the words ‘Merry Christmas’! This is a good opportunity for some ‘incidental phonics’ teaching. So, what […]
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