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2013 Member
E-News Aug/Sept, 2013 No. 14
CONTACT DETAILS
SPELD NSW Inc.
2/172 Majors Bay Rd CONCORD NSW 2137
Phone:
(02) 9739 6277
Fax: (02) 8765 1487
E-mail:
Web:
www.speldnsw.org.au
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www.youtube.com/speldnsw1
If you do not wish to receive further email
notifications from SPELD NSW, please
email: [email protected]
and include “UNSUBSCRIBE” in
the subject line.
President’s Report This month I would like to touch on the process of assessments. Whatever problem
exists that needs to be solved, from building a jet plane to learning to read and
write, requires an assessment. The big issue with assessments is just how far does
one need to go before it can reasonably be said that they have a sufficient
understanding of the issues. All assessments carry a cost and naturally the more
specialised the testing process the more expense. Real care needs to be taken that
only necessary testing is incurred.
Once that understanding is reached, a program or plan needs to be established in
order to correct or satisfactorily modify the existing situation. This is a perfectly
reasonable approach, however the next part is critical, that is to have a re-
assessment at a previously determined time after the program has started in order
to evaluate that the program is working and if not, to change whatever needs to be
modified.
The challenge that exists today is to develop a system of providing low cost
assessments and re-assessments with built-in recording, so that the process can be
improved with time and experience. The biggest concern is the cost of having the
people available with the necessary training and experience to provide these
services.
Ken Washburn
President
Volunteers Needed! Christmas is fast approaching and again we will be selling Christmas Cards in the
City. We need volunteers for
- 10 October or 11 October - 24 October or 25 October
- 7 November or 8 November - 21 November or 22 November
- 5 December or 6 December
At this time this is the main fundraiser of the year. We desperately need help with
raising funds and if you have any great ideas and would like to help SPELD NSW in
any way we would love to hear from you. Please contact the office.
Contents: Page 1 President’s Report
Page 2 Book Review & new Dandelion Readers
Page 4 Spelling Assessment Case Study by Tanya Townsend
Page 10 Policymakers need to rethink how reading is taught by Deb Wilkinson
Page 13 What’s On for 2013 (NEW WORKSHOPS)
2
Considering visiting
Taronga Zoo?
Taronga Zoo
Gold Pass
(Proudly
sponsored by
HMAS Penguin)
As a SPELD NSW
member you can
have access to
the Gold Pass
to
Taronga Zoo.
To book your day
at the zoo please
A donation of $50
is requested
which will admits
4 people.
Thank you to Multilit
SPELD NSW would like to thank Multilit for their generous donation of a Multilit
Reading Tutor program. The Reading Tutor Program (RTP) caters for students who
have not acquired the basic skills needed to become functional readers. Children
who have failed to learn to read in the first few years of schooling need intensive,
systematic reading instruction if they are not to fall further behind, or even become
a complete non-reader.
This program is on display in our Library, and will be used by our in-house tutors.
Bestseller Book
Making Differentiation a Habit
How to Ensure Success in Academically Diverse Classrooms
By Diane Heacox
If you're a teacher with an academically diverse classroom (and
what classrooms aren't today?), you need this resource.
Framed around the critical elements for success in today's
classrooms, Making Differentiation a Habit gives educators
specific, user-friendly tools to optimize teaching, learning, and
assessment.
Following on the heels of Diane Heacox's best-selling teacher resource,
Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom, this book offers new ideas,
fresh perspectives, and additional research-based strategies to help teachers
seamlessly integrate differentiation practices into their daily routines.
With Making Differentiation a Habit you get all this and more:
• Cutting-edge research that connects differentiation and Response to
Intervention (RTI)
• Easy-to-follow structure that helps you experience success in the classroom
• Practical and specific tools, surveys, templates, and checklists
3
SPELD NSW is selling Dandelion Phonic Readers
For further details see our website.
A Synthetic phonics based
reading program – offers whole class
instruction and catch up
instruction.
5%
discount
for
Members
• 100 illustrative figures and diagrams
• In-depth information on assessment, choice opportunities, tiered
assignments, grouping methods, student independence, grading,
differentiating for gifted learners, teacher leaders, and school wide action
plans
• CD-ROM with dozens of useful reproducible forms and templates
As you implement these best practices, you will be making differentiation a regular
part of your teaching. "The habit of differentiation results in students
enthusiastically engaged in learning, experiencing increasing levels of success, and
gaining confidence in themselves as learners," writes Heacox. "It results in teachers
who welcome and celebrate the diversity of lives, talents, interests, and passions of
their students."
2009, 178 pages, large paperback format, incl. CD-ROM, Price: $54.95
Announcing the new Alba Series in Dandelion
Phonic Readers
To order books please contact SPELD NSW – [email protected] or
Tel: 9739 6277
4
“Error analysis
performed on
this test helped
to identify more
areas for future
spelling
instruction.”
SPELLING CASE STUDY
By
Tanya Townsend 2013 TCC Student
The assessment and lesson plans case study was part of the
Teachers’ Certificate Course. All the worksheets and related
games were compiled by the author and the full article can be
found on our website.
General Description:
Abby (pseudonym) is a 9 year old girl attending 3rd grade of her local primary school.
Since starting school her teachers have all reported that Abby struggles to make
adequate progress in all areas of literacy. Since Year 2 she has been receiving weekly
speech pathology to help her catch up with reading and spelling. She has also been
receiving additional instruction in reading through her schools learning support
program. Abby’s parents have reported that despite this additional work Abby is still
working approximately a year below grade level. They also report that Abby is aware
that she finds school work more difficult than her peers and that this affects her
confidence in class and when completing her homework.
Initial Spelling Assessment:
I chose the Ants in the Apple Level 2 Spelling Assessment, as I expected that if she
were still working at a Year 2 level the words in this list would reveal some areas of
difficulty.
Abby scored 40/48 on the spelling test, which was a better result than I had
anticipated. Her spelling errors were as follows; wen for when; booyl for boil; beet
for beat; stok for stock; quickle for quickly; rusht for rushed and soop for soup. In
both the correct and incorrect words I also observed that she had some incorrectly
formed letters and incorrect use of capitals.
The results of my error analysis were that:
• Abby has good phonemic awareness, as she has a grapheme for each sound in the
words and when incorrect has chosen reasonable approximations. Abby can spell
cvc words, words with initial and final consonant blends and a number of vowel
and consonant digraphs. She was also able to correctly spell simple bossy “e”
words, soft g followed by e, doubling ff on short vowel word huff and y saying long
e on the end of lady.
• Possible areas of spelling difficulty are when to use the digraphs/ trigraph wh,
oi/oy, ea, ck, tch, ou and the suffixes ing, ly and ed.
• Abby’s handwriting, whilst quite neat, with most letters the correct size and case
had the following errors. A ‘z’ reversal in quiz, an incorrectly formed capital Y on
yes, capital j’s on the start of jut and jump and 15 large s’s that were the size of
capitals throughout her words. Correct size of s was observed only once.
5
“Although Abby
made many
handwriting
errors her
handwriting is
neat and legible,
therefore spelling
will be
remediated first
as this will
support her
reading
development.”
Follow- up Assessment
In order to get a better idea of Abby’s spelling difficulties I assessed her using the
next level of spelling assessment. In this assessment Abby scored 31/48. She also
made many handwriting errors. Error analysis performed on this test helped to
identify more areas for future spelling instruction.
Although Abby made many handwriting errors her handwriting is neat and legible,
therefore spelling will be remediated first as this will support her reading
development.
The sequence for remediation will be as follows:
• initial consonant blends with bossy “e”.
• doubling 4 ll, ff, ss, zz
• digraph ng
• when to use ch/tch
• vowel digraph ai.
• digraph or
• digraph ee
• homophones using ai digraph and bossy “e” with vowel a
• soft c followed by i/e/y
• soft g followed by i/e/y
Remediation Program
The first area that I have targeted for instruction is initial consonant blends with
bossy “e” because she made multiples errors in this area and also due to the high
frequency of words with a bossy “e”.
Learning Outcomes:
WS2.11 (NSW English Syllabus)
Uses knowledge of letter- sound correspondences, common letter patterns and a
range of strategies to spell familiar and unfamiliar words.
Lesson Plan for Initial consonant blend followed by bossy “e”.
Teach Abby to read the short and long vowel sounds fluently and how to mark them
with a short smile (breve) or a long line (macron).
Teach Abby the bossy “e” rule.
Practise discriminating between minimally different initial consonant blend bossy
“e” and initial consonant blend short vowel consonant words. (e.g. strip, stripe)
Practise spelling initial consonant blend bossy “e” words.
Play a game to further practise when to apply the rule.
Refer to Conference Presentations (Members Section) of our Website for lesson
script
6
“Uses knowledge
of letter- sound
correspondences,
common letter
patterns and a
range of
strategies to spell
familiar and
unfamiliar
words.”
The bossy “e” card game with a game board. The rules are as follows:
Lay out 3 piles of cards face down, the first pile is a set of initial consonant blend
cards, the next a set of vowel cards and the third is a set of single consonant cards
(no j, x or y). There is also a bossy “e” card. (See the lay out below)
Player 1 turns over the top card from each pile. For example str, o, m. Then they
decide whether their word will be pronounced with a long or a short vowel sound.
Once they have decided, they will tell player 2 my word is _________. The player 2
must then decide if they need a bossy “e” or not to spell the made up word
correctly. If it does need the “e” they slide this next to the other letters. If the player
correctly does or does not supply the letter “e”, they may then roll the dice and
move their piece on the board. If they make a mistake, then they may not roll the
dice. This process is then repeated with player 2 making the word. The player whose
piece reaches the end first wins.
Evaluation:
Abby was able to understand the bossy “e” rule and apply it well throughout the
lesson. She particularly enjoyed playing the bossy “e” game at the end and showed a
very good understanding of when to and when not to apply bossy “e”. She found
Part C, involving finding the matching synonym too difficult. This lesson could be
improved by showing how these words are used, as well as learning how to spell
them. Vocabulary work such as:
• looking meanings up in the dictionary;
• exploring the use of these words in sayings/ expressions;
• using twine in some in-class activities;
• looking at the different plumes and stripes on various animals; and
• using words as base words to build upon (e.g. plume- plumage, etc).
Vocabulary building like this would be beneficial in supporting her reading
comprehension. However, I am only able to work with Abby once a week, so I am
not able to complete this type of work.
Lesson Plan for Consonant vowel followed by doubling 4 lesson plan.
Revise short and long vowel sounds.
Teach the doubling four rule, which states that when a word has one short vowel
sound and is followed by f, l, s or z, you must double the f, l, s, or z).
Practise learning when to apply doubling four rule to positive examples and negative
examples.
Teach the mnemonic, buzz off Miss Hill, to assist with remembering the doubling
four.
Practise using the “Buzz off Miss Hill” game.
Refer to Members Section of our Website for lesson script
Initial
blends
vowels Single
consonants
e
7
“The Doubling
Four Rule states
that when a
word has one
short vowel
sound and is
followed by f, l, s
or z, you must
double the f, l, s,
or z”
Next play the doubling four game. The rules are as follows:
Materials: A doubling four game board. It is a laminated A4 page that looks like the
picture below.
Bu o Mi Hi .
A deck of cards with single syllable words that are either: doubling four words; long
vowel words; or short vowel that doesn’t end in z, f, s or l. A picture of the word is
on one side. The spelling of the word is on the other side. Doubling four words have
the double letters in a different colour.
A deck of small cards with singular z, f, s and l cards that will fit on the letters of the
above game.
How to play:
Each player takes a game board. The word cards are placed in a pile with the picture
side up. The small letter cards are spread out face down.
Player 1 takes the top word card. They must look at the picture and state whether
or not it is a doubling four word. They then turn over the card to check if they are
correct. If they are correct they may then take a small letter card and match it to
their board. If they pick up a letter and they already have both of them, return it to
the centre. If they are incorrect about the word they picked up they do not pick up
another letter. Game play then passes to the other player. When a player has
completed the sentence buzz off miss hill by picking up all of the missing letters, (i.e.
picked up two z’s, 2 s’s, 2 l’s and 2 f’s) they must say “Buzz off Miss Hill.” The first
player to complete their sentence and say this is the winner.
Evaluation:
Abby found this lesson very easy, she was able to correctly choose whether or not to
apply the doubling four rule to the words at the beginning of the lesson very well.
She again particularly enjoyed the game and was skillful in her application of the
doubling four rule to the words in the game pile. Again, the vocabulary work was
minimal, though she found selecting the right word for a sentence much simpler
than matching to synonyms in the bossy “e” lesson. This lesson could be improved
with more work being done to learn the meanings of the words spelled.
8
Some examples are:
• looking meanings up in the dictionary;
• exploring the use of these words in sayings/ expressions;
• listening to some jazz music and learning about famous jazz musicians;
• learning about the hull on a ship and Australia’s famous America’s Cup win with
unique hull; and
• using words as base words to build upon (e.g. boss, bossier, bossiest, etc).
Lesson Plan for Consonant Vowel followed by Digraph ng
Practise identifying words ending with this sound (though not words with nk) from
other cvc words ending with the other nasal sounds m and n.
Learn that the/ng/ sound is often spelled with the letters ng.
Practise using and not using this digraph, by spelling words ending with ng and
words ending with n and m.
Play a game to practise more ng word spelling.
Next play the ‘ng’ board game.
The rules are as follows: Player 2 picks up a word from the pile (pile has cvc words
ending in n and m and cvng words) and asks player 1 to spell it, if they get it right,
then player 1 may roll the dice and move their piece on the game board. If they get
it wrong they may not move and it is player 2’s turn to attempt to spell a word. First
person around the board wins.
Evaluation:
The lesson worked well. The initial phonemic awareness practise was valuable as she
initially made some errors distinguishing between the /ng/ sound and the n sound.
This may be why she spelled clang incorrectly in the initial test.
As with the other lesson more time on vocabulary development would be useful. For
instance:
• looking meanings up in the dictionary;
• exploring the use of these words in sayings/ expressions;
• exploring the countries in the world who still have a king, learning about some
famous Kings from history;
• finding out about things that are famous for being long, such as longest animal,
longest race, longest day of the year, longest movie, longest word, etc ; and
• using words as base words to build upon (e.g. king, kingly, kingdom, etc).
Performance Student Monitoring As Abby was required to respond orally throughout the lessons, it was easy to check
her understanding as the lessons were being taught. In order to check that she had
learnt the spelling skill being taught and was ready to move to the next lesson she
completed a specific spelling assessment at least one week after her lesson.
9
“Vocabulary
building like this
would be
beneficial in
supporting her
reading
comprehension”
I wanted to check for generalisation of the spelling rule, rather than memorisation
of a list. I also wanted to check whether the spelling skills were generalising to
contexts similar to a composition task.
That is why each test had 3 parts. The first part, involved spelling five words. These
were words that had not been taught in the lesson. Three words were new
examples of the rule being taught, whilst two were words to which the rule did not
apply. Part 2 involved checking the spelling in a sentence where the two incorrectly
spelled words had been taught. Part 3 involved writing a dictated sentence, which
also used words that had been taught. Taught words were used in the editing and
dictation as these tasks are more difficult than writing words in isolation. The table
below shows the words assessed. In order to move to the next lesson a score of
greater than 80% was required.
Question
number
Bossy “e” words Doubling four
words
Digraph ng
words
Part 1 Slime smoke crud
spine plan
Well din maze
less fizz
Tong pang run
bang ting
Part 2 - editing The plume rolled
down the slop.
The dogg made
a mes.
I had fung when
I tried lon jump.
Part 3-dictation The cat with the black
stripe likes to play
with a scrap of twine.
Do not make a
mess or my boss
will be mad.
The king hung
his coat on the
thin, gold ring.
Abby’s score in the assessments is in the table below.
Bossy “e” test Doubling four
test
Digraph ng test
Score 90% 100% 100%
Self-Evaluation of Lessons: Abby’s test results demonstrate that she was able to successfully learn the three
spelling strategies that were taught. However, as I only have limited time with her
and no access to her work at school, I do not know whether there has been any
generalisation of this knowledge to her school work.
Using the direct instruction approach was valuable as it meant I could monitor her
understanding of what was being taught during the lesson through her oral answers.
This limits practising errors and allows immediate feedback. Using explicit teaching
of the rules and sequencing the lessons so that the necessary steps were taught in
small steps with guided practice, before practising independently also seems to have
been effective.
At times Abby did not appear to be enjoying the direct instruction approach. The use
of a sticker book helped to keep motivation high. The games on the other hand were
both a useful way to reinforce what was being learnt and a fun motivating activity
for her. The lessons may have been more enjoyable if I had used a word sort to draw
attention to the spelling pattern being taught as well. For instance, after practising
the short and long vowel sounds in the bossy “e” lesson, I could have given her the
minimally different pairs as words to sort (i.e., plum/ plume, strip/ stripe, etc.) into
long and short vowel words. I could have then followed this with questioning to
encourage Abby to identify the rule.
10
“This shows that
she understood
the bossy “e”,
doubling four
and ng lessons.
With more
vocabulary work,
some more
challenging
words and the
use of word sorts,
these lessons
could be even
more effective.”
The use of both examples and specifically targeted non examples was good as she
appears to be able to discriminate when to apply and not apply the spelling rules
taught. In planning the lesson on the digraph ng, it also became apparent that this
lesson would need to be followed in a few weeks by a lesson on nk as words such as
bank, honk dunk, etc. as they have the /ng/ sound. In addition, it would be
necessary, several weeks after the doubling four lesson to have a lesson addressing
the common exceptions to the doubling four rule. Words that contain a short vowel
sound and end in a doubling four letter, such as, if, bus, nil, his and this would need
to be learnt.
As Abby seemed to learn the three spelling concepts quite easily the words I chose
may have been too easy. It could have been better to have taught doubling four
words and /ng/ words with initial consonant blends and/ or initial digraphs such as
sh and ch.
Furthermore, as I stated in the evaluations, more time and different activities would
be needed to make these spelling lessons useful for teaching vocabulary. She would
be more likely to use these words in her own writing if she had a clear
understanding of their meaning.
In summary, Abby performed well in her post lesson assessments. This shows that
she understood the bossy “e”, doubling four and ng lessons. With more vocabulary
work, some more challenging words and the use of word sorts, these lessons could
be even more effective.
Policymakers need to rethink
how reading is taught courtesy of Deb Wilkinson
ABC The Drum
Australia ranks poorly in
literacy when compared with
other English-speaking nations.
It's time to reform the way
reading is taught in Australian
schools, writes Deb Wilkinson.
Over the past two years debate
about education policy has been
dominated by reforms to school
funding.
Photo: The next federal government must reform the teaching of
reading in Australian schools. (Getty Creative Images)
11
“the resulting
report
highlighted the
importance of
teaching
phonological
awareness — as
part of an
integrated
reading program
that supports the
development of
oral language,
vocabulary,
reading fluency
and
comprehension.”
While important, these reforms have overshadowed systemic failures in reading
instruction. Unless these failures are addressed, much of the increased funding now
pledged by both major parties could be wasted.
In Australia today it is conservatively estimated that 20 per cent of Australian
children are struggling with learning difficulties.
Some have a developmental learning disability like dyslexia; the rest are suffering
from poor instruction. Reading academics call them 'instructional casualties'.
The Commonwealth Government has known of the systemic problems in reading
instruction since the mid-2000s. In 2004, then Education Minister Brendan Nelson
established a national inquiry into the teaching of reading at the behest of a group
of reading academics.
The resulting report highlighted the importance of teaching phonological
awareness (the ability to understand, identify and manipulate the sounds of spoken
words) and phonics (the relationship between a letter and its corresponding sound )
— as part of an integrated reading program that supports the development of oral
language, vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension.
It stated:
There is now a strong body of scientific evidence that children are greatly assisted in
learning to become proficient readers if their reading tuition is grounded in direct,
explicit and systematic phonics instruction.
Yet the inquiry found that most schools were not providing such instruction due to a
lack of teacher training and the dominance of 'whole language' pedagogy.
In a typical Australian classroom, 'whole language'-dominant instruction involves
exposure to a rich and meaningful oral and written language environment (which is
necessary), a focus on comprehension and sight word recognition (also necessary),
and, more recently, to what reading academics call analytical or implicit phonics.
Advocates of whole language say that this is the teaching of phonics 'in context’;
from the top down.
They also say that this type of phonics can be taught explicitly and systematically but
the reality is that in many classrooms it is not.
Lacking decoding skills, students are taught to guess at words using the first letter of
a word or the pictures in a book and are expected to just 'get it' through constant
exposure to oral and written language and some limited phonics instruction.
While some students do just get it others don't and they languish.
Sadly, the hope offered to struggling students through the Nelson inquiry did not
come to fruition.
Two years after it was released in 2005, Max Coltheart and Margot Prior released a
report for the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia which reported slow progress
in the implementation of the inquiry’s recommendations.
12
“it is essential
that the federal
government, in
collaboration
with the states
and territories
and university
teacher training
providers,
reforms the
teaching of
reading in
Australian
schools.”
The authors stated:
As far as we know ... none of the Australian tertiary institutions which provide
teacher training, nor any of the State Departments of Education except in Victoria,
have yet acted in any way in response to the review and its recommendations. We
know of no plans for the universities to improve the training of teachers in the
science of reading, and in evidence-based methods for teaching reading and
assisting children with difficulties in learning to read.
Six years on from this report, and again, not enough has changed.
While there are differences between jurisdictions and some progress has been made
through Commonwealth and state and territory intervention, far too many schools
have not yet integrated direct, explicit, systematic phonics instruction into their
reading programs.
In some cases, the language of the policy documents has changed but the teaching
in schools hasn't.
The situation in Australia contrasts with that of the United States and England where
national reviews led to widespread changes in reading instruction. There is some
evidence that these countries are now doing much better than Australia.
In the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) — which
essentially examines reading comprehension amongst Grade 4 students — the
United States came sixth out of 45 countries (in terms of mean scores) and England
came eleventh.
By contrast, Australia, participating for the first time, came in at number 27 out of
45 countries, which was the lowest ranking out of all English-speaking nations.
The results for our weakest students were bleak. Australia had 17 per cent of
students that met only the low benchmark and a further seven per cent that failed
to meet even this minimum standard.
Irrespective of who wins the federal election, it is essential that the federal
government, in collaboration with the states and territories and university teacher
training providers, reforms the teaching of reading in Australian schools.
This should include that, by the end of the next term of government:
• reading tuition in every primary school includes direct, explicit and systematic
phonics instruction as part of an integrated reading program;
• every primary teacher training degree includes a substantial component
dedicated to training student teachers to provide such tuition;
• all practising primary teachers are trained in the required teaching methods;
and
• all state and territory education departments are able to verify high quality
reading instruction in every school.
Deb Wilkinson is a writer and policy researcher.
View the Article online to use the imbedded links
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-03/wilkinson-learning-to-read/4931970
13
CONCORD
SEMINARS
Audience: Teachers,
Tutors and Parents
Cost: $50.00 for
Members, and
$70.00 for Non-
Members
Bookings Essential
as we can only
cater for small
groups
RSVP:
To make payment
Tel: 02 9739 6277
or email: [email protected]
What’s on in SPELD NSW
in 2013
2014 Dates TBA Certificate Course for Teachers of Students with
Specific Learning Difficulties – Concord offices
If you are still interested and would like to be placed on our waiting list for 2014
please email Carolyn Washburn on [email protected]
25 July, 2014 Pie Corbet – UK based educationalist and author, is
well-known for his books on teaching creative
writing, as well as many other educational books,
schemes and anthologies. Pie will be giving a one
day workshop on Writing.
An AUSPELD Tour. So watch this space.
WORKSHOP ABSTRACT FOR CONCORD PRESENTERS:
The Seeds of Literacy: Early Indicators of Later Literacy
& Dyslexia
Wednesday 16 October, 2013 – 6.30pm – 9.00pm
Prof. Denis Burnham & Dr Marina Kalashnikova Prof. Denis Burnham, Professor in Psychology and Director, MARCS Institute,
University of Western Sydney. Prof. Burnham will be accompanied by Dr Marina
Kalashnikova, a Postdoctoral Fellow working on the ‘Seeds of Literacy’ project.
Since 1999 Prof. Burnham has been Director of the MARCS Institute which consists
of 100+ people working in 5 different research programs. He has more than 35
years’ experience conducting research on infant and child speech perception
development and associated areas such as literacy; and at MARCS he is Leader of
the Speech & Language Research Program and Leader of the MARCS BabyLab.
The Seeds of Literacy: Early Indicators of Later Literacy and Dyslexia
This talk has 2 sessions:
1. To convey information about research being conducted at the MARCS
Institute BabyLab concerning literacy and dyslexia and
2. An open forum for sharing and gathering information from the audience
regarding their experiences with dyslexic children.
Session 1: - Information about MARCS Institute BabyLab Research.
The Seed of Literacy is funded by the Australian Research Council and is concerned
with identifying early indicators of later literacy and dyslexia. The project has two
main parts and in the first part of the talk Prof. Burnham will cover:
14
SPELD NSW
welcomes any
feedback
regarding
articles,
workshops or on
any matter that
our MEMBERS
need.
Seeds Project Part 1: Infants from 5 months and children:
• 5 year longitudinal study in which 120 infants are followed from 5 months
through to 5 years.
• Longitudinal part of the ‘Seeds’ project involves behavioural and brain
imaging tests of auditory thresholds, attunement to native language sounds
and measures of caretakers’ infant-directed speech and later tests of
phonological awareness, speech production and reading.
• Research showing:
i) Intimate connections between infants’ auditory discrimination,
Caretakers’ infant directed speech and Child’s later vocabulary level
ii) Infants’ attunement to native language sounds is related to
measures of cognitive maturity and possibly to delay in infants at-
risk of dyslexia.
iii) Various measures of acoustic sensitivity are strong predictors of
dyslexia in school-aged children.
• The ‘Seeds’ project involves:
i) Auditory processing tests
ii) Profile infants’ perceptual ability
iii) Evaluate whether early abilities predict later language and reading
development
iv) It is hoped to provide early indices against which other infants’ and
children’s abilities may be compared.
Seeds Project Part 2: Toddlers and School-Aged Children
The ‘Seeds’ project also incorporates cross-sectional studies at particular older ages
– from toddlers through to school-aged children. Pre-school and school aged
children who are at risk for dyslexia (by virtue of having at least one dyslexic parent),
children who have already been diagnosed to be dyslexic, and children who are not
at risk for dyslexia will be studied in this part of the project in a range of studies.
One particular study will be described and ideas for another set out.
Session 2 – Open Forum for Sharing and Gathering Information
This session we are particularly interested in hearing from teachers, parents and
other interested parties:
• On their experiences with dyslexic children and views about dyslexia
• With their comments and input on the two parts of the ‘Seeds’ project
• Children who could participate in the project.
Due to an overwhelming response we are running
another YARC workshop on:
Friday 18 October, 2013 – 9.30am – 12.30pm
WALTER HOWE Educational Psychologist and Director, Psychological Assessments Australia Pty Ltd
(PAA).
Disclaimer
Walter Howe and his company, PAA, derive income from the sale of various
standardised assessment instruments, including those discussed in this proposed
workshop.
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To make you smile!
The closest town
to France is
Dover. You can
get to France on
a train or you can
go on a fairy.
☺
Walter Howe is a Sydney based Educational and Developmental Psychologist. He
worked as a secondary teacher and school counsellor in NSW before becoming
involved in test publishing in 1988. He has managed Australian standardisation
studies for the WISC III, the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities and
Tests of Achievement (WJ III) and the York Assessment of Reading for
Comprehension (YARC). He is the Director of Psychological Assessments Australia
(PAA), which distributes a wide variety of assessment products, including the WJ III
and the YARC.
He is a member of the Australian Psychological Society, the American Psychological
Association and the National Association of School Psychologists (USA). He is a
regular presenter at professional conferences on topics ranging from dyslexia to
emotional intelligence.
Standardised Assessments of Reading:
York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC) –
Australian Edition and the Woodcock-Johnson III Australian Edition (WJIII) – Tests of Achievement (Australian Edition)
Overview
The widely used Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA) is now 15 years old and no
new edition is planned. The UK published York Assessment of Reading for
Comprehension (YARC) was designed as its replacement. The Australian edition,
standardised in 2011, was published in February, 2012. It retains many of the
excellent features of the NARA, but with many improvements.
The Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Achievement (Australian Adaptation) is becoming
an increasingly popular way for specialist teachers and psychologists to assess a
wide cross section of individual student achievement in reading, writing, spelling,
oral language and mathematics. It also provides the most comprehensive range of
diagnostic tests available in any single test battery currently sold in Australia.
This 3-hour workshop will introduce these two different individual assessments and
explain how they can be used to provide useful data for
students, parents, schools and teachers to assist students make better progress in
learning.
The contents of the workshop are as follows:
1. What is reading? The US National Reading Panel’s Five Pillars.
The Simple View of Reading
2. Why do some students struggle to learn to read?
Dyslexia
Other reading difficulties
Which cognitive factors are important in reading
difficulties?
3. YARC: overview; administration; scoring; reporting
• Early Reading: letter sound knowledge; sound deletion; sound isolation;
early word recognition
• Passage Comprehension: word recognition; oral reading accuracy; oral
comprehension; oral reading rate
• Passage Comprehension – Secondary: word recognition; silent reading
comprehension; silent reading rate and oral reading fluency; testing weaker
readers.
16
LIKE ANY
INFORMATION
IN THIS
E-NEWS
PLEASE FORWARD
TO OTHER
PARENTS, TUTORS
OR TEACHERS
4. WJ 3 Achievement Tests: overview; administration; scoring; reporting
• Reading tests: word reading; comprehension; fluency
• Tests of written expression: spelling; fluency; sentence writing
• Additional diagnostic tests: non word reading and spelling; phonemic
awareness; reading vocabulary; oral language.
5. Case studies
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST ANY OTHER
WORKSHOPS OR IF FRIDAY MORNINGS OR
WEDNESDAY EVENINGS ARE NOT CONVENIENT
PLEASE LET US KNOW.
