Some months ago I wrote about my struggling reader. He came to the Bloomfield Learning Centre at the age of 10+ with a reading age of 6. Well, he crashed into my classroom (with his scooter) after Christmas announcing he had read two books over the holidays – ‘Holes’ and ‘Wonder’. Amazing! And true! He has […]
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How decodable texts help beginner and catch-up readers
The new National Curriculum now requires teachers to use decodable texts with children learning to read. Children are offered ‘controlled’ texts that include words they can decode independently, using the phonic knowledge they have been taught. These decodable texts enable pupils to focus on a specific spelling or group of spellings at each level. Pupils […]
Read MoreAlba Series reviewed in the DSF Bulletin
The Dyslexia – SPELD Foundation’s publication ‘The bulletin’, Autumn 2013, has just published an article reviewing the ‘Alba’ reading series. I have scanned it – but the print is a bit small so here is the summary: “As with the very popular existing catch-up readers produced by Phonic Books, this series will develop reading skills and confidence through […]
Read MoreEvidence-based teaching – fantastic reading results using Magic Belt, Totem and Talisman series
The table below shows a set of results sent to us from a teacher who has used our catch-up range Magic Belt, Totem and Talisman books and workbooks this past year. All her pupils struggled with reading and have various profiles of learning difficulties. These include speech and language difficulties, specific learning difficulties, emotional difficulties […]
Read MoreFantastic reading progress with Year 1 pupil in 5 months
A tutor wrote in to tell us about her pupil. She has been working with him since December (for five and a half months) using the Sounds-Write programme and the Dandelion Books that complement it. She wrote: “He is in Year 1 and when he came to me at the end of December he had […]
Read MoreStruggling readers – in praise of practice and consolidation
We know that any newly acquired knowledge or skill must to be practised for it to be committed to memory. In order to develop reading fluency, automaticity has to be established. This is brought about through practice and consolidation. Sometimes, teachers worry about boring their pupils by revisiting what they have taught. For many pupils, […]
Read MoreStruggling reader – a breakthrough!
I had one of those lovely experiences on Thursday, while teaching at the Bloomfield Learning Centre. One of my pupils aged 11 (Year 6) had arrived at the centre as a non-reader. He attended a school where reading had not been taught through phonics or in a systematic way. Unusually for an 11 year old […]
Read MoreAlba Series – FAQs
Here are frequenty asked questions aswered about the brand new Alba Series: Who is it for? The Alba series is aimed at older catch-up pupils who have gaps in their phonic knowledge. It is suitable for pupils in KS2 and KS3. With a strong female protagonist, it will be suitable for both boys and girls. Girls will […]
Read MoreSpeech pathologists comment on Totem and Talisman Series
We received this lovely email this week from Australia: “Hi, We are a private practice of 3 speech pathologists and we just wanted to let you know that the Totem and Talisman Series are awesome!!! Our reluctant readers now love books, some of them finishing a whole series in one day. They have discovered a […]
Read MoreWhat a teacher and her pupils say about the Magic Belt Series
This week, we received the below email from a teacher named Anne, in response to our request for testimonials on the new Magic Belt series. She reported impressive reading progress with her pupils using the Totem and Talisman series.
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