Category Archives: Working with Words

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Using the Word Wall in Writing

Apr 13, 2020

For conventional (and transitional) students, we need to make sure they can write words which aren’t phonetically predictable – and that they can read and write high frequency words more or less instantly. The word wall activities we do in the working with words block are aimed at converting high frequency words and word family

New website: Comprehensive Literacy for ALL

Mar 31, 20206 Comments

For the last couple of months I have been working on a new resource for the schools I work with. Recently I’ve had a bit more quality time to work on it (for some reason)! As a result, it is now finished and ready to share – and given the current situation I’ve decided to

Literacy and Complex Communication Needs: Developing Language

Feb 3, 20202 Comments

This is the second video I’m sharing from the Angleman UK 2019 Communication & Literacy Conference. Thanks again to Angelman UK and See Speak Hear for making this available. In the beginning of my career, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) rapidly became the area of speech language pathology that interested me the most. I enjoyed

2019 Literacy Intensive

Feb 11, 2019

Great news! The 2019 Literacy Intensive course presented by myself (Jane Farrall) and Dr Sally Clendon is now open for registrations! Details Dates: Monday 30th September – Friday 4th of October Location Currumbin Community Special School, Currumbin 5 Hammersford Drive, Currumbin Waters, QLD 4223 Cost $1600 (includes morning tea, lunch and tea/coffee each day plus

Making Word Wall words in Boardmaker

Jan 2, 2019

Yesterday I published a post with a bunch of new word wall words as Boardmaker files. Keren made a comment that she had been trying to make her own – and that reminded me that a few people (especially Emma from Bullimbal School) had been asking me to make a “how-to” video. So – here

Word up – 2019 is here and we’re going to the wall!

Jan 1, 20193 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2019 has lots of great times in store for you all 🙂 I’m going to take a break from my string of blog posts about writing and add to my previous blog posts about the word wall that I published in February 2017. The first blog post was

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

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

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