John Bald/language and literacy

Alison Clarke, a new friend from Australia.

Alison is a speech pathologist and member of the Council of Learning Difficulties Australia. She has posted several excellent videos on Youtube detailing the reasons why some children find the teaching they receive confusing, and suggesting ways of unpacking them. This video is a particularly clear illustration of the problems that arise from using the first letter of a word and guessing from accompanying pictures.  How phonics got framed is a very clear explanation of the conflict between "whole language" and phonics. My approach on this site is based on phonics, but with systematic explanation of the elements of English that are not phonically regular, so that children are not confused when letters do not convey the information they expect. 

Many thanks to Karina McLachlain for putting us in touch with each other.

Books Plus - Flip PDF professional

Flip pdf professional is an extraordinary piece of software that allows us to integrate video and audio clips into a screen-based books that simulate normal reading experience - page turning, flicking through - while bringing all dimensions of language learning together. I started to investigate it on the recommendation of my friend John Keeble, who has written several publications, including this book on photography, and immediately found that it made my teaching assistant's handbook much more attractive and flexible. I'm going to revise this and all of my other publications using this software, adding illustrations and video wherever possible. Flip offers a 50% discount to educational users, which it has extended to this site, making the cost to schools just under £100 for the full version. It will bring professional presentation to the book, which can then be used on every conceivable platform, and allow schools and clusters complete control over their own materials. It's also so easy to use that it will make writing almost a pleasure... 

SATIPS training courses

SATIPs (Support and Training in Prep, Primary and Senior Schools Ltd) is a training organisation offering courses which are mostly taken up by the private sector, but open to all. Satips have arranged the following courses which will allow further investigation of the teaching techniques set out on this site:

18th November, 2013 London Mathematical Society. Tackling problems with reading, spelling, handwriting and grammar.

27th Janary 2014, Exeter House, Salisbury. Teaching Languages to Dyslexic Pupils.

March 20th 2014, Birmingham venue. Eliminating Failure in Language Learning.

Details here.