Jane Farrall Consulting

Writing in Our Classrooms

Jun 22, 20153 Comments

Chloe re-writing a favourite book from Tar Heel Reader Writing is a complex task, involving ideas, language, words, spelling and transcribing or selecting letters. We need to teach all of these skills – and eventually students need to be able to do all of these, within the one task, to become writers. Overall guidelines Do

Shared Reading: Focus on Interaction

Jun 7, 20158 Comments

Shared reading is a collaborative learning activity that emulates and builds on the bedtime book experiences that many children and parents have together. The focus during shared reading is on the interaction. Shared reading is appropriate for any emergent reader, no matter their age and can be done individually or in small groups. Focus on

Leading to Literacy

Jun 5, 20156 Comments

I was very privileged to be invited to do a plenary presentation at the Queensland Association of Special Education Leaders‘ annual conference. Below is the presentation I gave on “Leading to Literacy” where I got to talk about the fabulous Willans Hill School and the four years of our journey implementing balanced literacy instruction

Working with Letters, Sounds and Words in our Classrooms

May 28, 20154 Comments

Working with letters, sounds and words are important components of literacy instruction in our classrooms. Emergent students need explicit and incidental instruction around the alphabet and sounds, to improve their alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. Conventional students need to learn how words work. Below is a checklist I use with teachers in working through the

Self-Selected Reading in Our Classrooms

May 21, 20154 Comments

Self-selected reading is often seen as the easiest literacy block. However, to develop a student’s love of reading requires careful resource curation and an awareness of their interests and preferences. Below is a checklist I use with teachers in working through the self-selected reading block in their classroom. The two main guiding rules are: It

Literacy Through Curriculum: Using the Australian Curriculum as a Springboard for Literacy

May 16, 20151 Comment

It’s the final day of #AGOSCI2015 – I’m always sad when a fabulous conference ends! But I love all the great ideas and tips I’ve learned that I get to go back and try! And AGOSCI is always so practical – which is one of the reasons it’s one of my favourite conferences 🙂 My

AAC and Literacy in Partnership to Develop Language

May 15, 2015

Today I was lucky enough to present at the AGOSCI 2015 National Conference with the amazing Helen Tainsh on using literacy and AAC intervention to develop language. Helen works in both early intervention at the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre and in private practice, where she supports a number of students in mainstream schools. Currently, I’m

Self-Selected Reading: Books for Every Reader

May 15, 20151 Comment

The AGOSCI Conference continued today. My first presentation for the day was with the fabulous Sally Clendon on the topic of Self-Selected Reading. As promised, the handout for the presentation is shared here. Display content from SlideShare Click here to display content from SlideShare. Learn more in SlideShare’s privacy policy. Always display content from SlideShare

Do’s and Dont’s of Implementing Real Communication Through AAC

May 14, 20158 Comments

Today I was delighted to present with David Niemeijer from AssistiveWare on this topic on the first day of the AGOSCI National Conference. As promised during the presentation, the handout can be accessed here. For those of you who can’t be at the conference – check out lots of great information on Twitter using the

AAC: Systemic Change for Individual Success

May 14, 20154 Comments

Last year I wrote a blog post about AAC: Systemic Change for Individual Success. This is something I feel very strongly about – so I also submitted it as a presentation for this year’s National AGOSCI Conference. The presentation was today, Day 1 of #AGOSCI2015 – and I promised those attending that I would share