Literacy Titbits 

Below are lots of tips to assist you in teaching literacy.


CONFUSING b AND d 

Are your students confusing b and d, p and q in their reading and writing? This article covers several ways to help learners with different learning stylestackle the letters b,d, p and q. 

Confusing b d p q

THE 5 PARTS to PREFIX AND SUFFIX TEACHING

Simply presenting prefixes and suffixes and talking about their spelling is NOT enough. 

Check out Pelican Talk's 5 part teaching model. 

ADDING -ed

-ed is one of the early suffixes that young learners wish to use.  Here is a handy tipsheet with rules to explore and words to use in practise. Adding -ed

SPELLING BLENDS

Blends, also called 'clusters', are  two consonant sounds represented by two consonant letters (e.g. br-, tr-, bl-, sl-, -ft, -mp, cl-). Some students can find these particularly challenging in spelling.  These article looks at how to help students spell blends in words correctly.

Blend Spelling. 

S Blends present a different issue for some spellers. Words beginning with S Blends include skin, spot and step.  Why would students spell these sgin, sbot and sdep?  The answer is here: 

S Blend Spelling.

THE EVIL SCHWA 

If you are teaching students at Year Two level and beyond, you need to know about the schwa. It's the unstressed vowel sound that causes havoc when students try and spell long words. You can overcome its evils.  Read  The Evil Schwa

THE ONE-ONE-ONE RULE

This is one way to teach when to double consonants in the adding of suffixes. 

The One-One-One Rule

HIDDEN SYLLABLES

Some multisyllabic words have what I call HIDDEN SYLLABLES.  These are syllables that appear in the written word, but we do not pronounce them (in Australian English).  For example, "brilliant" has two spoken syllables only.  These words can be problematic for spelling.  Hidden Syllables.

CONFUSING SOUNDS WITH LETTER NAMES

Some students stumble in literacy because they confuse sounds with letter names.  For example, they  believe the letter r is used to write the sound in the middle of shark.  This is important to identify early. There are ways that we can prevent this from happening too!

Sounds and Letter Names. 

L FLAVOURS VOWELS

This is an interesting one for Australian spellers, particularly those in Victoria and QLD. It explains why students may use the letter a when writing the word "help". I see this error a lot and am constantly explaining to teachers why it occurs. 

L Flavours Vowels. 

READING MULTISYLLABIC WORDS

Here you will find some really useful tips to help students tackle the reading of words with two or more syllables. 

Include in teaching at Year Two and up. Very relevant for any older student struggling with reading. 

One page of teaching tips and 11 pages of words for practice. 

Reading Multisyllabic Words.