Podcast and Blog
teaching spelling
S4 Ep4 - Connecting Explicit Teaching and Engagement in Years 3 to 6 Spelling
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast.
I'm Jocelyn, and today we're diving into a topic that's pretty important for teachers in grades three to six:
How do we connect explicit, structured spelling instruction with opportunities for application and engagement?
Now I know what some of you might be thinking, Jocelyn isn't explicit teaching of spelling just about repeated practice and low variance instruction? Yes, that's a f…
Tuesday Tip - Should I have a stand-alone spelling program?
In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss integrating phonics and spelling in literacy instruction, as it can improve learning and reduce cognitive load for students.
Video Transcript
Many classrooms and schools still have their literacy blocks divided into reading time and writing time. This may well include phonics for reading and spelling as connected to writing. When we do this, the impact's threefold. Firstly, we're taking up key instructional time that we know there is never eno…
Tuesday Tip - Improve Fluency
In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss helping struggling readers improve fluency by identifying and underlining text, fostering independent thinking and fluency development.
Video Transcript
Welcome to this week's Tuesday Tip. Now you might not know, but I've worked with struggling readers for about 15 years now. Actually they're my favourite students to work with. And one of the things that I see happen with them is they learn the phoneme-grapheme correspondence. They learn their word le…
S3 Ep19 - How To Make Sure That Your Spelling Instruction Is Explicit
Hello, hello and welcome to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast recorded here in Pataway, Burnie, the lands of the Palawa people. I'm Jocelyn and I'd like to start this episode with some words of encouragement.
So many teachers and leaders are way too hard on themselves. I'm going to bet that includes you. The very fact that you're listening to this podcast means that you want to do a great job for kids.
You're on the bus and you are prepared to …
Tuesday Tip - Evaluate Student Engagement
In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss the concept of children actively doing in the classroom.
Video Transcript
Jocelyn here with a Tuesday Tip. This is number four in our series about maintaining high engagement in low variance instruction. And today's tip is about making sure that children have enough to do. In the words of Anita Archer, explicit teaching is about, I do something, you do something. I say something, you say something.
Watching, copying, learning, listening, they, and just doin…
Tuesday Tip - Avoid Suffixing Shortcuts
In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss suffixes and avoiding using shortcuts when teaching students.
Video Transcript
It's Jocelyn here with a Tuesday tip. It's easy to fall into the trap of sharing shortcuts with children about how words are spelled. So perhaps the word raked comes up. Well, you might say, well, we have to add the suffix -ed, but there's already an E there, so just whack a D on the end. Well, that actually doesn't help children understand how that particular convention works.
…Tuesday Tip - Aim for Functional Understanding, Not Perfection
In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss function over perfection.
Video Transcript
Hi everyone. It's Tuesday and here's my tip. The goal of word study in the primary school is not to teach a full linguistics course to our students or to teach them every single thing about every word. It is to help them have a functional understanding of how words work so that they can use this knowledge later in their own work.
So when you're deciding how deep do I go in the explanation here? How much do I have…
S2 E11 - How do I help my students who aren't blending?
00:00:00
Introduction.
Well, hello. Hello. It's Jocelyn here. Welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast. The place where we discuss everything about structured literacy and the complexity of making it happen in our schools and classrooms. I'd like to begin by paying my respects to the Palawa people of Tasmania and particularly the people of Padaway Burnie, where this episode is recorded.
00:02:25
Today's topic - Questions from our Facebook Group.
In this episod…
S1 E25 - How can I teach spelling well when I don't feel like I know what I need to?
00:00:00
Introduction
Hi there. Welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast, the place where we keep it real about the rewards and challenges of bringing structured literacy to life in our classrooms and schools. My name is Jocelyn Seamer. I'd like to begin by paying my respects to the Palawa people of Tasmania, on whose lands this podcast is recorded and to the people of Gunditjmara country in Victoria, where it is edited.
We are currently producing a series of po…
S1 E24 - How can I kickstart my upper primary spelling improvement journey?
00:00:00
Introduction
Hi there. It's Jocelyn here from Jocelyn Seamer Education, and I'd like to welcome you to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast. I'd like to pay my respects to the Palawa people of Tasmania, where this podcast is recorded and also to the people of Gunditjimara Country in Victoria, where it is edited.
In our last episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, we talked about early years spelling and, if we aren't doing rainbow writing and lo…