Classroom programs for learners aged ~5-7

US and Irish materials tend to be less applicable than UK ones in Australia due to accent differences (Australian English has no syllable-final “r” sound)

Also, US Professor Janice Light has designed a literacy curriculum for learners who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication, so if your students have significant disabilities this looks well worth investigating.

11 thoughts on “02. Classroom

    1. alison Post author

      Yes, I have it (the publisher gave me a copy of the whole thing a few years ago, wow), so I show it to people and link to it from my website, but it’s a spelling program rather than integrating reading and spelling seamlessly as reciprocal processes, which is a better approach than teaching spelling and reading as though they are separate things. I understand they are doing, or have done, a rewrite of the Foundation level so that might address this problem, but as yet I haven’t had a chance this summer to take a closer look. If they can include a proper synthetic phonics teaching sequence that reflects or includes decodable books that will be excellent. All the best, Alison

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    1. alison Post author

      I don’t speak Bahasa (Sadly. My sisters both do, but it wasn’t offered at our school the year I had to choose a language) so I haven’t been looking for Indonesian things, and haven’t seen anything on how to teach phonics in Bahasa, I guess that’s what you mean.

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  4. Jo

    Hi Alison, Do you have any suggestions for older students who struggle with spelling, rather than reading? I would love to find a placement test to see where they may need to work on and then target that area. I hoped SPELD may have a free one.

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    1. alison Post author

      Hi Jo, I think most spelling/phonics programs/teaching sequences have informal, nonstandardised placement tests you could use, see for example https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/advice-and-resources/advice-and-resources-for-teachers/where-to-start/ (but use it as a spelling test not just a reading one), or you could try my free low frequency word spelling test: https://www.spelfabet.com.au/materials/low-frequency-spelling-test. I have videos for each level on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJgLJ7MlsM0&list=PLPRCsGiF_tQs8LOfvXtqzcinf7-hj7G7h&index=10&t=8s. I don’t know of a free test from SPELD but there are also some free tests on the MOTIF website https://www.motif.org.au/. Hope you find something useful out of that! Alison

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