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What does PLD recommend when catering for strong spellers and students achieving high scores in subsequent PLD Stages? PLD recommends that teachers avoid accelerating students through the Stages. Instead, we recommend that teachers provide challenging tasks linked to existing concepts. Exploring how words are built and related (word study/morphology) helps strengthen spelling, reading and vocabulary. […]

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Step 1: Registering and Setting up PLD Tracking Sheets Step 2: Teachers and Education Assistants to Complete Relevant Online Course (Minimum of Two Hours) Depending on the schools, this training may take place on the Term 3 pupil-free day or during staff meetings. The online courses provide a comprehensive overview of PLD’s implementation in primary […]

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As the Science of Reading takes its rightful place in Australian classrooms, many traditional literacy practices are being scrutinised. The “Look, Cover, Say, Write, Check” (LCSWC) method is often at the top of the list for potential removal. Many literacy consultants and school leaders now advise teachers to abandon the technique entirely. They argue it […]

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Step 1: Registering and Setting up PLD Tracking Sheets Step 2: Teachers and Education Assistants to Complete Relevant Online Course (Minimum of Two Hours) Depending on the school, this training may take place on the Term 2 pupil-free day or during staff meetings. The online courses provide a comprehensive overview of PLD’s implementation in primary […]

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The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 8th Edition is a norm-referenced assessment used to assess reading skills from the beginning of schooling through the end of eighth grade. DIBELS is also a criterion-referenced assessment (meaning it measures a student’s performance against a fixed set of predetermined standards or benchmarks.) DIBELS can be […]

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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 teaching sequence implementation within the classroom. In these succinct videos, we also explain how to cater to the range in student ability by using screening […]

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Step 1: Register for & set up the PLD Tracking Sheets. Step 2: Teachers and Education Assistants need to view at least two hours of the relevant online course. Depending on the school, this training may take place on a pupil-free day or during staff meetings. The online courses provide a comprehensive overview of PLD’s […]

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In today’s digital-first classrooms, finding the right tools to support foundational literacy can feel like a daunting task. With over 9,000 apps on the market claiming to teach children how to read, how do you distinguish between a high-quality educational tool and a “gamified” distraction? A world-first, systematic study recently published in the Early Childhood […]

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Step 1: Registering and Setting up PLD Tracking Sheets Step 2: Teachers and Education Assistants to Complete Relevant Online Course (Minimum of Two Hours) Depending on the school, this training may take place on the Term 4 pupil-free day or during staff meetings. The online courses provide a comprehensive overview of PLD’s implementation in primary […]

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Step 1: Registering and Setting Up PLD Tracking Sheets Step 2: The participating classes will need to administer screening in the final week(s) of the school year and hand this information over to next year’s teachers to use when they are viewing the online courses. Early Years Within the Early Years Screening & Tracking Manual, […]

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PLD routinely revisits and reviews the existing research to ensure our programs continue to reflect current best practices. This blog revisits and extends the topic of fluency. An earlier blog on the topic can be found here.  Helping students become accurate and automatic readers is central to reading comprehension and confidence. Reading fluency is generally […]

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What are HFWs? High-frequency words (HFWs) are words that have been identified as commonly appearing in children’s literature. The majority of HFWs can be decoded once students have learned the grapheme correspondences within those words. These words are then repeatedly read until students are able to read them in flash. PLD refers to these as […]

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Clearing Up Terminology Teachers often encounter confusion regarding the term ‘sight words’. It’s crucial to clarify that sight words represent instructional outcomes, not instructional inputs. Words become ‘sight words’ only once students can automatically read them through the process of orthographic mapping. Associate Professor Lorraine Hammond humorously summarises this concept: ‘Every word wants to be […]

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One of the most common questions teachers ask is, “Which children are at risk of struggling with reading?” Identifying these risk factors early is not only useful for intervention but also for the implementation of preventative programs that support early literacy development. Research consistently shows that certain factors increase the likelihood of reading difficulties, and […]

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The most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read, spell and write. Literacy affects academic performance in all subjects and is associated with later social, emotional, economic and physical health. The UK Phonics Screening Check assists teachers in identifying early gaps in students’ reading ability. After decades of multidisciplinary research, the scientific community […]

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To develop strong literacy skills in the junior primary years, students need accurate and fluent vocabulary, comprehension, and oral language skills. The most effective way to teach these skills to students is through the explicit teaching method called “Systematic Synthetic Phonics”. As of 2023, the Year 1 Phonics Check has been implemented across Australia in NSW, […]

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Letter-sound knowledge acquisition is one of the key elements driving early reading acquisition. For young learners, cracking the alphabet code can be challenging due to the arbitrary nature of letters and their sound correspondences. Mnemonics offers a bridge between familiar images and the letters, facilitating strong letter-sound relationships. Research Base Behind Mnemonics Mnemonics is a […]

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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 phonic sequence implementation within the classroom. These succinct videos, provide reminders, on the PLD sequence, teaching, testing, tracking, and catering to the range in student […]

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What Junior Primary Font Does PLD Recommend?  At PLD we advocate for the use of a foundation font when learning to read, spell and write. Based on our experience across the disciplines of speech pathology, occupational therapy and education, and our research into this area, we believe that the use of a foundation font gives […]