Writing – Jane Farrall Consulting

Writing Mini-Lessons for Conventional Writers: Groups G & H

Aug 16, 2026

Once a writer can write one or more simple sentences, then they need to learn to write more with coherence and cohesion, including writing expanded (longer) sentences. These are the skills we are working to teach students in Groups G & H on the Writing with All Tools Continuum. When teaching students to write more,

Writing Mini-Lessons for Conventional Writers: Groups D, E and F

Jul 26, 20262 Comments

I have blogged a lot about emergent writers and helping students to develop their writing skills. My two favourite posts about emergent writing are Emergent Writing: Focus on Function and Emergent Writing: Moving onto Form. Additionally, I have developed (with lots of help) the Writing with All Tools Continuum, a 35-point ordinal scale consisting of qualitative writing levels from

Flip Keyboard Version 3: Updates to the Emergent Writing Tool

Apr 21, 20261 Comment

Flip Keyboard is an emergent writing tool. It can be used on any device with an internet connection and a browser. On an iPad you can also convert it into an app by sharing it to the Home Screen of your device (see the Instructions in Flip Keyboard for more information). In the most recent

Flip Keyboard Updates

Feb 14, 20267 Comments

In November 2025 I was very excited to share a new emergent writing tool – https://flipkeyboard.com/. It has been great to hear from those of you who are using it – and to get lots of requests for changes and additions. As a result, there are now a number of changes to the original version.

Writing Tools: Download or Customise!

Dec 11, 20252 Comments

Every year, I find I spend time creating custom resources for different writers I am privileged to work with. I truly believe that every writer has an appropriate writing tool – and sometimes we just need to spend time figuring out what that tool might be. It’s really important that the writing tool minimises the

Flip Keyboard: A new option for Emergent Writers

Nov 20, 202510 Comments

I am very excited to announce the launch of Flip Keyboard – a new writing option for emergent writers. Flip keyboard provides access to the alphabet in groups of letters (similar to a non-electronic flip chart), with a range of settings you can use to customise for each writer’s needs. You can access Flip Keyboard

2025 Literacy Intensive

Nov 18, 20245 Comments

We’re excited to announce the details of the 2025 Literacy Intensive Course. The course will be held in July next year, at Glenroy Specialist School, in Melbourne. The course is a 5 day deep dive into comprehensive literacy instruction for all students, with a focus on students with significant disabilities. The course includes units on:

The Importance of Keyboarding

Sep 15, 20241 Comment

A few weeks ago I was talking with a teacher – and she told me that she had a student whose parents didn’t want them to use a keyboard, which puzzled me. Keyboarding is a very important skill for all of us to develop. It is how we do a large part of our writing

Using the Simple View of Reading for Guiding Comprehensive Literacy Instruction with Literacy Learners with Significant Disabilities

Sep 1, 2024

This is a long blog post – if you would rather read it offline or have a copy of it, you can download it as a PDF below. Literacy and Individuals with Significant Disabilities Evidence is clear that children with intellectual and developmental disability can gain meaningful literacy skills with explicit instruction (Allor et al.,

Tools for Writing 2024 Style: A suggestion and selection guide

Jun 22, 20241 Comment

Learning to write can be really challenging – and teaching it can be really challenging too! When I started implementing Comprehensive Literacy Instruction, it was the area that I struggled most to implement. Some of the students I was working with weren’t able to hold a traditional pen or pencil – and some of them