Using the Developmental Writing Scale. #AGOSCI2019

Yesterday I was honoured to present again with Molly Sharp from The Grove Education Centre at the 2019 AGOSCI Conference in Perth, Western Australia. The Developmental Writing Scale (Sturm et al, 2012) allows us to track a student’s writing progress from emergent to conventional with a 14 point scale.  Additionally, it is the first writing

Building Language Through Emergent Writing: #AGOSCI2019

Today was the first day of the 2019 AGOSCI Conference in Perth WA. It was an awesome day, starting with a very interesting (and awe inspiring) plenary presentation by Professor Janice Murray and then breaking up into a number of concurrent streams. I presented a workshop on “Building Language Through Emergent Writing” and promised the

2019 Literacy Intensive

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

Tools for Writing: a Suggestion and Selection Guide

For many of the students I work with, some of whom have complex communication needs and/or relatively limited experiences of generating language, writing presents many challenges. To develop writing skills they need to learn to generate an idea, to think about language, think about the words, the spelling, controlling their “pencil”, etc. For many people,

Emergent Writing: Moving onto Form

It’s been a big time lapse (sorry!) – but this is the second of a series of blog posts about writing – and about assisting all students to become stronger writers. So moving on from the very beginnings of writing, let’s move to talk about the next stage. Early Emergent Writing: Moving onto Form In

Emergent Writing: Focus on Function

This is the first of a series of blog posts about writing – and about assisting all students to become stronger writers. Let’s start by talking about the very beginnings of writing. Early Emergent Writing: Focus on Function Mathilda is 17 months old.  She loves drawing – and her parents are pretty happy when she

ASSERT Communication and Literacy Conference 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