In the recent WA Education Department report, which highlighted the success of PLD literacy programs, Louden asked the question – what do high performing primary schools have in common. Louden’s research reported that seven of the nine high performing schools had adopted what the researcher referred to as ‘lower variation teaching’. Lower variation teaching is […]
During April and May 2015, Emeritus Professor Bill Louden investigated and prepared a case study report on the school operations and pedagogical practices in place in nine high performing primary schools as measured by NAPLAN. The intention of the investigation was to inform the Department of Education’s understanding of the conditions required for a school […]
Look-Cover-Say-Write-Check is a great strategy for children learning to spell. In this PLD insight, Diana Rigg discusses how to gain the maximum benefit from this technique. The video demonstrates how to slow down and focus children on the process. You can download this poster HERE. Print the poster to display in your classroom or as […]
Diana and the team at PLD have always made it a focus to highlight the importance of phonics as part of a wider skills set for successful teaching of students from the age of 3 up to Year 6. The entirety of PLD’s resources employ a practical and highly functional style beneficial to both the […]
Following on from our previous popular post on Teaching Spelling in Junior Primary is this new post on applying the concepts to Middle and Upper Primary. So welcome again to another PLD Literacy and Learning Insight. These short 5 minute videos are designed to assist the teaching of Literacy Development. Today’s Teaching Tip is about […]
Welcome to another PLD Literacy and Learning Insight – short 5 minute videos designed to assist the teaching of Literacy Development principles. Today’s Teaching Tip is about Teaching Spelling in Junior Primary and specifically. How to slow children down to ‘sound-out’ as they spell and write. Spelling is more difficult than reading. It is relatively […]
Today’s literacy and learning insight is about students in year 2 and 3 with low literacy skills who are missing some of the basics in early literacy and may actually have gaps in year 1 level. My stance when dealing with young children is always “when in doubt always do check things out”. Small gaps […]
The Junior Primary Spelling Activities resource is intended to provide a definition of synthetic phonics and related skills, an understanding of the importance of synthetic phonics, and practical suggestions for how to teach synthetic phonics within the classroom.
As children reach middle primary school, developed language skills are critical for gaining academic understanding of content and information as well as communicating socially.In this era, many daily activities do not require children to have to use language. For example: watching tv, playing computer games, using a playstation, sitting quietly on their DS, watching DVDs whilst driving…
A PLD customer asks; “We are going to have Parent/Teacher interviews soon as we want to “share” and “source” as much information with parents as possible as early as possible. I believe that there are questions early childhood teachers should ask parents about the child’s development since birth. Can you please be of assistance.
Students often write words correctly in spelling tests but struggle when applying their new knowledge to written work. Why? As a general rule, when transferring spelling into writing, students require the activation of many more skills. Explained simply, single word spelling is quite a simple cognitive task in comparison to extended writing tasks. Dictation tasks […]
At what age should children be able to aurally discriminate between “th” and “f”? This is a great question which we are often asked. The aim of this post is to help provide strategies which you can adopt when working with children who struggle with the differences between these sounds.
To inspire and focus teachers for the term ahead, be sure to view and forward these short refresher clips. The clips provide concise, relevant, and actionable tips for effective PLD implementation within the classroom. In these succinct videos, we also explain how to cater to the range in student ability by using screening and tracking […]
To inspire and focus your teachers for the term ahead, be sure to forward them these short refresher clips. The clips provide concise, relevant, and actionable tips for effective PLD implementation within the classroom. In these succinct videos, we also explain how to cater to the range in student ability by using screening and tracking […]
PLD’s range of decodable reading books align with PLD’s Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) sequence. The type of words, word count, and amount of HFWs gradually become more complex as more phonic concepts are introduced. It is important to include decodable reading books as part of your SSP program. This article explains why. Set 1 of […]
This post relates to the picture books that form part of the PLD early learning literacy comprehension questions program and is based on a recent enquiry we received. Readers may find it useful in better understanding the association between recommended reading material and comprehension questions resources provided by PLD.
Today’s post comes from an email we received from a concerned parent about her daughter’s literacy development. We have shared it here as there are some useful strategies that you may be able to utilise when dealing with children under your own care.
One of the most common questions PLD receives is “Should students focus on a new book each day, or should students reread the same book several times?” This is a great question and one where research will be referenced to guide a response. Included also will be a summary of the evidence base for how […]
We love getting such great feedback on the PLD literacy development program and its materials. The following testimonial demonstrates how even with poor student entry levels a quality program with quality instruction and delivery can still produce positive outcomes.
What are Elkonin boxes? Elkonin boxes (or sound boxes) are a useful teaching resource in which each box represents a single sound (or phoneme) contained in a word. They are named after a Russian psychologist D. B. El’konin who first used them in the 1960’s to help students segment spoken words into sounds. Today, the […]