Tailored Tutoring Services in Geelong, Victoria | Educational consultant

Tailored Tutoring Services

Locality: Geelong, Victoria

Address: shop 11/129 Pakington street 3218 Geelong, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.tailoredtutoringservices.com.au

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25.01.2022 Everyone is asking the same question: when will the pandemic end? Explore 3 ways to contain and end a pandemic:

25.01.2022 Dav Pilkey who was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia as a child is hosting virtual drawing classes for the next 8 weeks. The...y will be presented once a week on Fridays and will be presented on his Dav Pilkey at Home website. https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/books/dav-pilkey-at-home/ Activities include a Video of how Dav draws his characters for your child to follow. There are also activities that include reading, drawing, creating and fun. Lets have some fun in these uncertain times.

25.01.2022 Best decodables

24.01.2022 Reading wars hit home during lockdown lessons | Rebecca Urban | The Australian, May 23, 2020 Dogs say woof, cats say meow, what does the letter a say? A...nd so it began. Perched at the dining table, armed with a 257-page guide on teaching a child to read, I was about to try to do just that. My daughter, Margot, had been at school for two months when the niggling concerns about her reading progress began. Aged 5, she could read and write her name independently, but not much else. Despite years of reading to her, singing songs and learning rhymes many of which were learned by heart she had difficulty identifying all the letters of the alphabet consistently, while her ability to link the letters with their various sounds was hit-and-miss. Her teacher reassured me that she was where she was meant to be for a foundation-level student. Still, I was haunted by a conversation Id once had with a prominent education academic who suggested all the journalists she knew had their children reading by the time they started school. One evening, I sat down with my daughter to read one of the readers sent home from school and noticed how her eyes were automatically drawn to the pictures. It was hardly surprising; the images were obnoxiously large, overshadowing the much smaller text. As I suggested she point at each word and try to sound out each of the letters, she ignored me and started blurting out what she guessed they might be based on the image. Frustrated by my gentle attempts at bringing her attention back to the words, she told me crossly that Eagle Eye was helping her to read. As an education journalist, I know all about this Eagle Eye character who encourages children to guess an unfamiliar word by looking at the picture. Along with pals Lips the Fish (get your lips ready to try the first sound) and Skippy the Frog (lets skip that word altogether), these child-friendly characters are a common feature of classrooms that adhere to the balanced literacy approach to reading instruction. Balanced literacy emerged from whole-language reading instruction, spawned in the late 1960s, whereby children were expected to learn to read whole words naturally, merely as a result of plentiful exposure to books and writing. While balanced literacy concedes that children may need some guidance, it is based on a problematic theory called multi-cueing, also known as three-cueing, which surmises that a reader looks for meaning, structure and visual cues to help make sense of what is on the page. Countless researchers from across the globe have dismissed multi-cueing as an ineffective system on which to base reading instruction lacking in any evidentiary basis. Yet cueing strategies are popular in many primary classrooms because children often experience some early success using picture cues and context to identify words, especially when aided by repetitive and predictable texts. However, as Sir Jim Rose, whose landmark 2006 review of reading in the UK was key to the development of Britains Primary National Strategy for Reading, has pointed out, children who routinely adopt alternative cues for reading unknown words, instead of learning to decode them, later find themselves stranded when texts become more demanding and meanings less predictable. Through my work I had written about many schools that had transformed their reading results and they typically shared one common feature: they had implemented a phonics program. While the mere mention of the word phonics risks sparking an outbreak in the long-running reading wars, the debate has at least moved on from whether to teach phonics the research says we should to how it is best taught. In Victoria, where I live, the Department of Education and Training promotes a balanced literacy approach to teaching reading, in which phonics is taught in ways deemed meaningful to children, such as reading books, having fun with rhymes and writing their own stories. Phonics instruction should take place within a meaningful, communicative, rich pedagogy, and within genuine literacy events, the departments Literacy Teaching Toolkit states. With phonics in context, a typical lesson might involve the teacher reading with students and periodically stopping at a word to discuss the relationships between letters and sounds (known as phonemes). Occasionally there may be a lesson on a letter or sound, but they are not typically presented in a systematic, cumulative way. In many other states, such as NSW and South Australia, public education authorities have endorsed a different approach called systematic synthetic phonics. Also known as blended phonics, it involves teaching a child about the individual letter-sound relationships first, then having the child combine or synthesise these sounds to form words. While learning to read successfully entails more that simply learning phonics skills it also depends on the development of phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension skills major reviews of the teaching of reading in Australia, Britain and the US during the past 18 years have consistently identified phonics as a key component of an effective program. The research also comes down on the side of synthetic phonics. According to the NSW Education Departments guide for schools on effective reading instruction: There are a number of different approaches to teaching phonics, with varying levels of effectiveness. The most effective method is called synthetic phonics. The document highlights results from a longitudinal study undertaken in Scotland that compared synthetic phonics with two analytic phonics programs. At the end of these programs, children in the synthetic phonics group were reading around seven months ahead of children in the other two groups and were spelling eight to nine months ahead of the other groups. Seven years on, those in the synthetic phonics group had extended their advantage further. I was attracted to the simplicity at the core of the synthetic phonics approach; the way children were taught sequentially, starting out learning some simple letter-sound relationships, working towards the more complex end of the spectrum. For a parent with no teaching expertise, it seemed somewhat achievable. And with schools effectively set to close indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic, I finally had the time to help my daughter learn to read. Having asked several literacy specialists and teachers what programs they rated, I settled on one devised by US author Stephen Parker called Teaching a Preschooler to Read (also suitable for primary schoolers). Parker, a retired teacher, has a knack for using plain language to explain a pretty technical topic. The guide, aimed specifically at parents, maps out clearly what to teach, when to teach it and how. My first task was to refamiliarise myself with what is known in literacy circles as the alphabetic code. As Parker explains, the alphabet itself is only part of the code, with the 26 letters symbolising 44 different sounds. There are 20 vowel sounds (such as the short A in apple or axe but also the longer A in acorn) and 24 consonant sounds (B in bat and D in dad but also th and sh and the ng in king). A list of those 44 phonemes was my constant companion during the coming weeks, and I swear I started to have nightmares about mixing up those short and long vowel sounds. Stage one of the program kicked off with teaching my daughter the five short vowel sounds as well as M, N and S . With a new Sharpie I wrote each letter on an index card and we practised saying the letters and their corresponding sounds every day. We also started to pay more attention to letters in our environment. Walking down the street, Id point to the number plates on cars and ask Margot whether she could spot any of her letters, as wed call them, and sound them out. With her confidence growing, we moved on to decoding simple two and three-letter words. As with the letters, I wrote them on the index cards. To make a game, I had her flip them over and attempt to sound them out. A-n An! She got it on the first attempt. I asked when she would use such a word. I would like an apple, she replied. I was quietly impressed. She moved on to the next word. M-a-n Man. Again no problem. N-a-n Nan. Ditto. And that brought us to the word sun. She looked at it, then looked at me with a strained expression. Snake, Margot said. I asked her to try again, this time concentrating on each letter. Sam! S-s-s-sit! She was becoming frantic, reeling off any word she could think of that started with S. We were done for the day. The next time we sat down to practise phonics I introduced her to the Decoding Dragon. The invention of Melbourne linguist and author Lyn Stone, the dragons job was to chase away those Guessing Monsters, including the hit-and-miss Eagle Eye. While I was no fan of Eagle Eye, I decided to redeploy him. I told Margot that Eagle Eye had a new job and would help her focus on each of the letters as the Decoding Dragon would help her to sound them out. Our little sessions continued. Some days were great. Others quite a few actually were a grind. Small children have very short attention spans and I learned my daughter has quite a stubborn streak. Overall, I could see a trend of improvement and a growing confidence. Each time she successfully sounded out a new word, Id place the index card into her special word box. Look how many words are in your word box! I said one morning. I know, she said, Im killing it. I made a decision early on to be upfront with the school about tackling phonics at home and my intention to replace the predictable readers for decodable books. The teacher was receptive and supportive, going so far as to recommend several online apps for decodable readers, many of which were free as a result of the pandemic. However, concerned about the amount of screentime we were already having, I decided to purchase a hard-copy set. At $420 for 60 readers, they werent cheap but I felt it was a necessary investment. One morning I took to Twitter and mentioned how excited I was that the readers had arrived in the post, only to see first hand how divisive their use is in literacy circles. With titles such as Pat the Rat, The Pan and The Map, decodables are designed so a novice reader can practice reading the words they have already been explicitly taught. A pan sits! mocked one teacher. Fit rats. No thankyou. Read to your daughter with real-world words, demanded another. I wont lie; I dont particularly love the books. The language is basic and sometimes seems stilted. They wont win any literary prizes. But they are not aimed at me a proficient reader but at a child, for whom deciphering the strange squiggles on the page is a hugely laborious task. Further, they are merely a stepping stone along the path to becoming a reader Weve been at this caper for two months now and have just moved on to stage two of the program, which involves introducing the letters D, P, G and T. In the meantime Margots teachers, who have been doing an exceptional job teaching the children remotely, have introduced the digraph th as well as a bank of common English words such as the, is, was and my. With school set to resume next week, I find myself reflecting on her progress. Can she read independently? Not even close; we are still very much at the start of this process. But I no longer feel that underlying sense of guilt about whether I could be doing more to help her out. The word box is getting quite full and my daughter can now read many of them automatically. At night, when I read her a bedtime story, she will stop me to point out words she knows. The other day I told her she was starting to read like a grown up. I know, she replied, The Decoding Dragon has been helping me. RESOURCES FOR PARENTS Five from Five. Public education initiative promoting effective, evidence-based reading instruction. Includes resources for parents. https://fivefromfive.com.au/ Parker Phonics. Free guides on teaching synthetic phonics for teachers and parents https://www.parkerphonics.com/ The Snow Report. Blog by La Trobe Universitys Professor Pamela Snow, an outspoken advocate for evidence-supported practice. http://pamelasnow.blogspot.com/ Reading For Life, by Lyn Stone. An unabashed but accessible look at teaching methods for reading and writing and why some ideas prevail despite a lack of evidence. https://lifelongliteracy.com/ Spelfabet. Founded by speech pathologist Alison Clarke. Website includes some free resources for parents. https://www.spelfabet.com.au/ Fitzroy Readers, phonics books, apps and support materials https://www.fitzprog.com.au/ Effective Reading Instruction in the Early Years of School, literature review released by the NSW Centre for Education statistics and Evaluation, https://www.cese.nsw.gov.au/ #StructuredLiteracy #Phonics #ReadingWars #ReadingForLife Reading for Life Five From Five Fitzroy Readers Spelfabet Lifelong Literacy

23.01.2022 Update: These apps are no longer free. Dont forget to like and follow AUSPELD for future app alerts. Free app alert - 4 free apps from Nessy Learning. For a li...mited time, Apple and Android users can download several apps from Nessy designed to support the literacy development of our younger learners or those learners needing additional support. * Hairy Letters - assists with letter and sound recognition. (Free for Apple users) * Hairy Words 1 - Designed to support sight word knowledge (Free for Apple users) * Hairy Phonics 1 - Follow on app from Hairy Letters. This app develops phonemic awareness with the introduction of the 9 most common consonant digraphs. (Free for Apple and Android users) * Hairy Phonics 2 - Follow on app from Hairy Phonics 1. This app develops phonemic awareness with the introduction of the 9 most common vowel digraphs. (Free for Apple and Android users) To view and download available apps on Apple, visit: https://apps.apple.com//nessy-learning-limited/id410276291 For Android Users, visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev Please note: Not all Nessy apps are free or available for all devices. Please see the links above for more information about which apps are available for your device.

22.01.2022 Great free decodable books online!

22.01.2022 Teaching kids to map words enables them to self-teach "Self-teaching is an essential ingredient on the road to independent reading. Once they master the spel...ling-to-sound correspondences, children can on their own, decipher the pronunciation of a novel string and associate it with a familiar meaning. With self-teaching, the neuronal links from the letter strings to sound and meaning can be progressively automatized without any further formal instruction. Reading in the Brain, Stanislas Dahaene, pg 226 See more

21.01.2022 Free app alert! Back in April, we shared some great apps from Nessy. This time, Nessy Learning have made the Hairy Phonics 3 app available for free - but only u...ntil June 5. Get in quick! Hairy Phonics 3 is the final Hairy Phonics app and it helps students to learn vowel-r and magic e (or split digraph/VCE) letter-sound correspondences. To download the app, go to: For Apple users https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hairy-phonics-3/id938109461 EDITED TO ADD: Unfortunately, some Android users are experiencing difficulty downloading this app. Try searching for Hairy Phonics 3 in the Google Play Store. For Android users https://play.google.com/store/apps/details

17.01.2022 Older, struggling readers hate babyish-looking books! Older, struggling readers need age-appropriate decodable books (hi-interest decodable books). Many of the...se kids already suffer from low self-esteem. They know that they are behind their peers. Many feel a sense of failure. They may be reluctant to engage in reading, having given up on reading already. Babyish-looking books compound this sense of failure. Even if they are beginners - they should be able to read age-appropriate books! We know that motivation plays an important role in learning. So, we need resources that will motivate these kids. Check out our books specifically designed to fill in the phonic gaps, engage and enthuse the older struggling reader. UK editions https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/product-cat/catch-up-readers/ USA editions https://www.phonicbooks.com/product-categ/catch-up-readers/

16.01.2022 For all the working memory fams

16.01.2022 Do your kids struggle with learning to spell high-frequency words? (sight words). Many common words have complex spellings. How can we teach them without asking kids to remember them by shape? Here is how to teach them so that they link up with your phonics teaching.

16.01.2022 What is the difference between a phoneme, a grapheme and a morpheme? Confused? Here is our graphic that will help explain the difference between these terms. #phonics #learntoread #phonicsfun

15.01.2022 While our fave bookshop around the corner takes a break and moves online, we highly recommend another local shop with a great online store.

15.01.2022 FREE decodable book and resources for all to use! We are delighted to post a brand new FREE decodable book from our popular Moon Dogs series: Staying at Home.... With a topical lockdown theme, this book introduces alternative spellings ai, ay, a-e, a and ea. You can also find additional reading practice activities: sorting words, comprehension, reading fluency and games that will help your child or student. Please share! https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk//free-mini-books-for-home-s/ If you would like to see our Moon Dogs series visit https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk//catch-up-/moon-dogs-series/

14.01.2022 A zoom favourite

12.01.2022 Great for sight words, decoding words, phonics prac, vocabulary...

10.01.2022 Thanks to Snap Print & Design we have these fantastic #dyslexiaawareness A3 posters If you're local & would like one for your school or business please messa...ge or email [email protected] OR download a printable version here https://bit.ly/36k7cRm #GoRedForDyslexia #GOREDMNC #untileveryonecanread

10.01.2022 Wondered why and how decodable books help beginner and struggling readers? Here are some good reasons:

10.01.2022 A Mighty Girls popular girl-empowering summer reading list is here! One of the great joys of summer for kids is the opportunity to explore books all on their o...wn without the pressure of book reports or classroom assignments. And with so many people of all ages staying home right now, weve expanded our special feature to include summer reading recommendations for adults too. Whether she loves fantasy, humor, historical fiction, or mysteries, the empowering titles -- which include a mix of both long-time Mighty Girl favorites and recent releases -- featured in our new special feature will keep her reading all summer long! To view our special feature on A Mighty Girls 2020 Summer Reading List, visit https://www.amightygirl.com/summer-reading Of course, the books featured in this special feature are just a small sample of the over 4,000 girl-empowering books for children and teens featured on A Mighty Girl. To start exploring our full book selection - which is sortable by theme and reader age using the filters on the left menu - visit https://www.amightygirl.com/books As always, if you purchase books that you discover on A Mighty Girl via the "Buy from Amazon" and other links found within this collection and on every product page, we receive a small commission at no added cost to you, which allows us to maintain our website and continue to provide girl-empowering resources like this page for you as your own Mighty Girl grows. We appreciate your support!

09.01.2022 We love these !

08.01.2022 This is great to have when writing. Youll be surprised how often students reference a phonics chart or code! It just makes sense!

07.01.2022 https://www.instagram.com/p/CFQ9jD3DSjM/

07.01.2022 Dysgraphia Infosheet Dysgraphia is difficulty with spelling and written expression Children and adults with dysgraphia often have difficulties with handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation and organisation of written tasks. https://www.speldnsw.org.au/information/dysgraphia/

06.01.2022 Enjoyed some further training on specific learning impairments including dyscalculia. If you, or someone you know, requires support with dyscalculia or maths development, lets chat

06.01.2022 Back zooming with our favourite people. See you on screen

06.01.2022 One Sound - Different Spellings /ee/ One of the difficult concepts that kids need to understand about the English Alphabetic Code is that one sound (phoneme) ca...n be spelled in different ways. It is important to teach this systematically and explicitly. The teacher may introduce these alternative spellings in a gradual way, but students will need to be able to read and spell words with all these alternatives. Here is a graphic with the first five spellings of the sound /ee/. There are more! For this level of reading see our Dandelion Readers Level 3 (UK editions only) https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk//dandelion-readers-level-3-/ #phonics #learningtoread #teachvowelteams #phonicsforkids

05.01.2022 Look familiar? A Minecraft team is building the entirety of Sydney at 1:1 scale. Check out these amazing screenshots! The build team is working as a part of t...he megaproject BTE (Build The Earth), which is working on building the entire earth at 1:1 scale. "If youd like to come to watch our progress, spectate our server, or even build for yourself, join our discord server! (We are building anywhere within NSW borders, including the ACT)," they wrote. More info: https://discord.gg/PRZHqKH https://twitter.com/SydneyBuildTeam miniminerli

05.01.2022 One spelling - different sounds When kids learn to read they soon come across this difficult concept: a spelling they have just learned, e.g. the letter in ...'cat', represents a number of other sounds, e.g. /o/ in 'want' or /e/ in 'any'. A good phonics programme should include this difficult concept. Here is one our graphics that shows different sounds for the letter . #phonics #vowelteams #voweldigraphs #teachkidstoread

01.01.2022 How to teach the word was with a phonics approach. The word was will appear very early on in childs literacy journey. How can we introduce it to a student... without encouraging him/her to learn it by sight? The child will most probably already know how to read 2/3 of the word as he/she will have learned the letter and will probably have encountered the letter spelling the sound /z/ as in the words is, his has. So, the tricky part in the word was is the letter spelling the sound /o/. Students need to learn that letters can spell different sounds. Here is how to teach it in a visual way that is consistent with mapping letters and the sounds they spell.