learning to read

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss consistently using affirmation, praising students for their efforts to boost confidence and encouraging positive interactions among peers.

Video Transcript

Hey there, it's Jocelyn with tip number two about maintaining high engagement in low variance instruction. My tip today is about injecting affirmation. Everybody wants to feel good about what they do. And we all love being told that we've done a good job. So, when your students do something right…

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss that a lively and positive attitude from teachers can significantly boost student engagement in a low variance lesson.

Video Transcript

Hey there, it's Tuesday and time for a tip. We're doing a little series of tips about how to maintain high engagement in low variance lessons. And this is tip number one.

If we want children to be enthusiastic about learning, we have to manage our own attitude. If we announce our reading lesson by saying, Okay, come o…

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss the importance of foundational skills.

Video Transcript

Hey there folks, it's Jocelyn and it's time for a Tuesday tip. Foundational skills are critical if children are going to engage deeply with reading and writing, but it can feel like a struggle to fit it all in, as well as all of that more robust deep learning. My tip today is about having a Absolute laser focus on building foundational skills for students, regardless of age.

If students need phonics,…

I am due to write about vocabulary instruction this week, but today a member of my On the Science of Reading Bus Facebook Group posted about how confused they felt starting their Science of Reading journey and so I am shifting focus for a bit to help them (and others) out.   Over the past 2 years I have written 125 blog post, all intended to support teachers to implement the recommendations of research in classrooms.  125 posts is a lot to read (and to be honest, most haven't made it to be re-pu…

Sometimes our students get stuck in an apparently endless beginning phase of reading, sounding out word by word.  Where other children make steady progress in building fluency, reasonably quickly arriving at the point where they can recognise and read many words, our ‘stuck’ kids make little progress. 

We know that the first step in learning to decode is to use our knowledge of phonics and combine it with our phonemic skills to sound out words. Everyone works through this phase …