alphabet – Jane Farrall Consulting

Teaching the Alphabet – With Variety

Nov 2, 20232 Comments

Many of us work with students who are just starting on their journey of learning the alphabet – or who are at different stages in learning the alphabet. Erickson and Koppenhaver (2019) identified 10 success factors that are important to be included in literacy instruction with students with significant disabilities. Number 3 on this list

Let’s Chat with Personalised Alphabet Cards

Jan 20, 20206 Comments

Last October, Sally Clendon and I ran a literacy course at Currumbin Community Special School. The school were fabulous hosts – and while we were there, we were able to see many of the great resources they use. One which particularly impressed us was their personalised alphabet cards. They credited me with this idea –

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

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

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

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.

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

Lots of alternatives – “pencils” for everyone

Dec 19, 201213 Comments

When I first started teaching literacy I focused on teaching reading. At the time, I was working with adults with physical disabilities and writing seemed so hard. None of my class would be able to use a pen or even a keyboard and mouse, which was all I had access to (or so I thought).

Letter of the Week: Resources for Older Students

Aug 26, 20128 Comments

This year, I’m working with quite a few teachers who have older students in their class who need to improve their recognition of the letters of the alphabet. They need to be able to instantly and quickly identify letters so that they can move further along their journey of becoming readers and writers. This means