Adult Pen Pals
Writing to a pen pal is often recommended as a way of engaging children in writing and reading. However, after a few letter exchanges the correspondence tends to dwindle and die. Rather than setting up a peer pen pal, make … Continued
Dolch Words
The Dolch word list is a list of the words most frequently used in English. It was compiled by Edward Dolch in 1936, based on children’s books of his era. The list contains 220 ‘service words’ that have to be easily recognised in … Continued
b/d Confusion
It is not uncommon for children to confuse p/d/q/b. There is a great video clip in which an educator holds up a watch by one end of the band and asks his audience of teachers what he is holding – … Continued
Reading for Leisure
We live in a society where being literate is crucial. Rather than diminishing the need to be literate, technological advances (at least in the short term) make literacy even more important. Where once we used to pick up a phone … Continued
Reading with Fluency and the Importance of Punctuation.
Fluency is a crucial reading skill. It is the ability to rapidly and accurately decode words and understand the words once they have been decoded. If a student cannot read with fluency, it means all their mental energy is being … Continued