How important is good spelling, really? Is it still vital in a world of typed documents, emails and auto correct? Isn’t it the quality of writing we should be worried about, rather than the spelling of the words themselves? Perhaps, as Mark Twain observed, ‘anyone who can only think of one way to spell a […]
Read morePhonics
Teaching the formation of letters and how to join remains as important today as it was back in 1958 when Marion Richardson and Dr. Fletcher, in the manual ‘Quick and legible handwriting’ made the following comment: “Basic letter shapes used in print script do not lend themselves to speed and legibility. By making use of […]
Read moreTo find out more about how to group your class for effective guided reading, see my original post which takes you through using The Simple View of Reading to organise your class into guided reading groups . In a nutshell, children are organized into groups based on their strengths and weaknesses in comprehension and word recognition. This enables you to adapt your teaching style and focus your guided reading session in a more accurate way than […]
Read more We all know the power of traditional stories such as The Tortoise and the Hare and The Gingerbread Man to capture the imaginations of children. This month sees the publication of the first books in our new series of Traditional Tales home learning books, which contain well-loved traditional stories carefully retold using phonics and […]
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In 2012 the government introduced an annual phonics check for all children in England in year 1, which supports the synthetic phonics method of teaching reading in schools. You may feel unsure about how to approach helping children learn to read using phonics. In this post we’ll be explaining briefly what phonics is, along with […]
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