Pre-Reading Activities
This is the second of my “Back in the old days when I first started teaching” posts. As I mentioned in my previous post, Year 1 was the first year of formal learning and there were three terms each year. … 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
Explicit Instruction
For a substantial period of time the preferred method of instruction has been focused on enquiry learning and direct, explicit instruction has been viewed negatively. Yet, there is a large body of research demonstrating the benefits of direct, explicit instruction … Continued