What do we mean by ‘sound it out’ and what does it entail? When a child gets stuck on a word we often remind them to ‘sound it out’. As fluent readers, we assume this is very straightforward. We recognise these words automatically and skip all the stages that beginner readers need to go through […]
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I love the way Christopher Such writes about teaching reading, and if you haven’t read his book The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading – do. I have found it is very accessible and really useful for busy teachers to keep up with recent research into reading instruction. What I like most about his […]
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Older, struggling readers often have gaps in the their phonics knowledge and skills. They find alternative spellings particularly confusing. Many suffer from low self esteem so offering them decodable materials that are age-appropriate is vital. Vital because if the reading materiasl can engage the disaffected reader, his/her motivation to try and read will grow. Without […]
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Teach step-by-step You don’t need to teach the whole alphabet to get reading going. Start with just a few letters, and get children to build words from them. Phonic Books starts with ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’, ‘i’ and ‘m’. Work with word-building Word-building is the best way to teach reading and spelling. Write letters on cards […]
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Do you have children who spell the word ‘jumped’ as ‘jumpt’, and ‘wanted’ as ‘wantid’? This is because they are listening to the sounds at the ends of words. After all, we tell them to listen to sounds when they spell. Sometimes, it is very helpful to bring a bit of morphology into the teaching […]
Read MoreIn the context of reading instruction, the ‘Matthew effect’ is the idea that children who learn to read in the first three years of their education become increasingly fluent readers. They read more and learn more vocabulary, which enables them to even read more and comprehend more-advanced texts – so they advance further. Conversely, children […]
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We recently received this kind message from Rebecca Sloane, a teacher at Kingswood School House. “As a special-needs teacher who works with mainly Key Stage 2 children, I’m always looking for materials that not only interest my students but also enable them to practise the early phonics they have missed out on. The Moon Dog […]
Read MoreMany children struggle when reading words with adjacent consonants. These are words that have two consonants side by side within a word, e.g. f l a g. The leap from three-sound words (e.g. h a t) to four-sound words (e.g. l i m p) is very difficult for many beginner and struggling readers. The step […]
Read MoreIn advance of our visit to the USA to the IDA conference in November, we have asked some of the educators using our books their students in the USA to tell us what they think about them. Here are some of their responses.
Read MoreA teacher has written in, sharing written work by struggling readers and writers using the Magic Belt, Totem and Talisman series. We very much appreciate this feedback. Below are the samples of work she has sent in. They include a plot summary, a book review, descriptive writing, figurative language, the rewriting of a story and […]
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