Literacy – Page 8 – Jane Farrall Consulting

ASSERT Communication and Literacy Conference 2017

Jul 23, 2017

In May I was lucky enough to attend the ASSERT Communication and Literacy Conference in Coventry in the UK. The conference ran for three days – and I promised I would share my presentations on my website. To those who attended – my sincere apologies that it has taken me so long to get this

AGOSCI 2017 Presentations

May 18, 20172 Comments

Today I went to one of my very happy places – an AGOSCI conference. I love AGOSCI. The Australian AAC Community is so inclusive and supportive – and extremely clever! The AGOSCI 2017 conference was fabulous as always – and I’m just sorry that for the first time in 25 years I’m not attending the whole

Why Do I Believe in Literacy for All?

Feb 13, 201730 Comments

Let’s imagine that you are a toddler. Someone says “I don’t think xxx Is ever going to read.” And you don’t. This is due to a simple cause and effect. You “aren’t capable” – so therefore people don’t read books to you; they don’t provide letters for you to play with; they don’t assume competence

Targeting Onset Rime with Emergent Literacy Learners

Feb 10, 20178 Comments

Phonemic awareness is an important skill – it is what we use to hear sounds in speech. Without phonemic awareness, we cannot break words down and decode them to read unfamiliar words. We also find it extremely hard to re-code words to spell them. Therefore, phonemic awareness is a very important skill in learning to

Word Walls: Using the Word Wall

Feb 1, 201712 Comments

Last month I wrote about getting your word wall ready for use. Now they are ready – we need to use them. There is no point having a word wall that you don’t use! Word Walls are an important resource for conventional readers and writers. Our job, as educators, is to teach them how helpful

Word Walls: Getting the resources ready

Jan 13, 201717 Comments

In the next couple of weeks in Australia and New Zealand, our schools will finish their summer holidays, and students and teachers will return to the classrooms. This means that lots of teachers are currently getting their resources together for the new school year ahead – including me. For students who are conventional readers and

Teaching (and Learning) the Alphabet: Playing with Letter Shapes and Sounds

Jan 4, 201624 Comments

It is currently the summer break in Australia and I’ve had a few emails and messages from teachers who are spending time over the break getting ready for the next school year. Several of these emails have been about alphabet activities and resources – so I thought I’d do a post about my ideas as

Comprehensive Literacy Instruction: Meeting the Instructional Needs of ALL Students in our Classrooms

Nov 21, 20152 Comments

Many of the schools that I work with have been consistently implementing good, comprehensive literacy instruction for some time – and as a result there are a greater number of conventional readers and writers in our schools. This has led to an increased need for differentiation in our classrooms, and for more teachers to provide

Alphabet Books Galore!

Aug 23, 20159 Comments

It’s Book Week here in Australia – with the wonderful theme of “Books Light Up Our World”. In honour of Book Week I thought I’d write about alphabet books. Alphabet books come in all sizes and types and for all ages. They can be fiction and non-fiction, based on photographs or illustrations, customised or generic.

Teaching the Use of Inner Voice in Reading

Jul 18, 201511 Comments

Reading silently WITH comprehension is the goal of all reading instruction. Every literacy learner and every literacy teacher is aiming towards this goal. Many students go through a process at school where they learn first to read “out loud” and then move to using their inner voice. But for students with complex communication needs (CCN),