Literacy and Dyslexia Specialist Teacher & SpLD Assessor, School SENCo and ADHD Specialist
I know many people have heard of Structured Literacy, many may feel against it, but when you begin to understand what it is and why it is so important you will love it as much as I do! 1 in 5 children are Dyslexic or have a Specific Literacy Difficulty. That means when we teach... Continue Reading →
There is nothing like the feeling of diving into an incredible story that transports you to another world. It only takes one book to captivate a child and give them a love of reading that can last a lifetime but it's finding that one book that can be the biggest challange. I have complied my... Continue Reading →
I you have a child who struggles with fluency it can really impact on their ability to read for understanding. Fluency and word recognition allows the child to focus on what they are reading, rather than on deciphering one word at a time. Repeated readings is a great intervention strategy to allow a child to... Continue Reading →
These have been a game changer for my 1-1 and small group literacy intervention sessions. Boom Cards essentially are interactive, self checking task cards that can be assigned to 1 student or a whole class to complete. Have you discovered Boom Cards yet? It get better! Students success is also collected on the activity so... Continue Reading →
The best way to teach spelling to children Structure Word Inquiry (SWI) is a scientific investigation of words: their origin, history, word parts and structure come together to tell the story of what words mean, how words are connected and how they are spelt. The foundational research was conducted by Bowers & Kirby In 2010.... Continue Reading →
Children with Dyslexia and children without both benefit from a structured, sequential approach to literacy. Why? Because 30% – 50% of children find learning to read difficult and need explicit teaching and reinforcing of both reading, spelling skills and grammar skills. Phonology, sound symbol association, syllable instruction, morphology, syntax, semantics are all components of a... Continue Reading →
When we see the written work of a child we can analyse it in great detail, looking at the letter size, shape, spacing. We can pick out punctuation errors, parts of speech used or missed. we can look at the level of language used, paragraphing, students voice in the writing, flow and progression. It's what... Continue Reading →
Having worked overseas as a teacher for over 12 years I am well versed in the difficulties EAL/ESL students have acquiring and apply the English Language to their reading and writing. Whilst phonics is a part of the English Language and enables EAL students to blend word sounds for reading and segment words for early... Continue Reading →
Adapted Learning 