Busy and Bury
Why is the ‘u’ in ‘busy’ pronounced as /i/ and in ‘bury’ pronounced as /e/? It relates to the fact that how we pronounce words can be different in different dialects of English and that the pronunciation of words often … Continued
The Comprehension Continuum
Comprehension moves from the basic recall of information through to making inferences and finally making evaluative judgements. Each of these types of comprehension have a place to play in our understanding of the text. However, many comprehension activities don’t move … Continued
Letter Sounds Matter
Which is more important – knowing the name of letters or knowing the sound of the letters? The importance of knowing letter names versus letter sounds in early literacy development has long been debated. Similarly, should we be teaching letter … Continued
What do we Know about Fluency?
There is no doubt that being able to read with fluency is an important component of reading. Hasbrouck (2020) provides a succinct overview of the information contained in the National Reading Panel report, published 20 years ago, and assesses it … Continued
An Owed to the Spelling Checker
By Jerry Zar Northwestern Illinois University Copy and paste this poem into a word document and then run it through the normal spell checker. Although a few of the words will be underlined in blue (indicating a grammatical … Continued