Welcome to my blog

Hi, my name is Christine and I am here to help you with questions you may have about reading, writing or spelling. You might just want some advice or need some information about a particular topic. As this is a new website, please keep checking back for news and updates. I look forward to talking with you soon. Please visit my other blogs at

http://dailyreadingtips.blogspot.com
http://irlensyndrome-chawkins.blogspot.com

Thank you
Christine

Monday, September 27, 2010

Types of Bullying-teasing

Bullying is a very upsetting thing to happen to anyone, to say the least. It is so damaging to the victim. There are 4 main categories of bullying. I will be highlighting each one over the course of the week. The first one I would like to talk about is teasing.  Teasing, put another way, is verbal violence and girls especially, are very, very good at doing it.  It is mostly related to how you look, your sexuality and the level of social acceptance of the victim. The teasing includes the following: name calling, harassing and insulting, verbal demands/threats, doing something when the target/victim walks past like rolling the eyes and of course, cyber bullying which includes texting, internet and email.
This usually happens on a regular basis and is so hurtful to the victim!

Teens with Aspergers- anger

Teens with Aspergers are prone to anger outbursts.This may be because they have difficulty communicating their feelings. It can be a common reaction in friendships, other relationships and even in the workplace. Sometimes they will be calm, often just minutes after an angry outburst. As parents or co workers, we can struggle with this and have difficulty understanding what has happened. That's ok too. So, what can I do? Once you understand that the Aspergers child or Teen, has trouble controlling their anger, then you can help them acknowledge this too. They need to realise they have an anger problem. When this happens, they can then start to respond in other ways to manage their anger.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

How do children learn to read words?

There are 4 levels that children progress through when learning to read words:
1. Linking spoken and written words - this is when children start to make the links between what they hear and what they see by  memorising certain parts of words, convert letters into a sound then a blend ie 'sh' or use the first part of the word together with meaning.
2. Recognising letter-groups and words - at this stage, children are beginning to learn how to actually recode a letter cluster as a sound pattern. This is when THRASS is a useful tool for students to use when working with words.
3. Reading words directly - Children at this stage are now reading words using their phonemic and orthographic knowledge. This is when they start to make analogies with words that they know. For example, if the unknown word is 'lay' they may remember the word 'd + ay = day' and use this word to help them problem solve the unknown word.
4. Reading words of two or more syllables - at this stage, children are now combining segments of words, manipulating stress patterns in words and recognising smaller words within words and base words.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Teaching Phonics

Read Write Inc. is a UK literacy teaching program based on synthetic phonics, developed by Ruth Miskin and published by Oxford University Press. Ruth Miskin is a former Head Teacher and a leading practitioner of synthetic phonics in the UK. The Read Write Inc. program was initially introduced in her own school, a disadvantaged school in East London. Following the success of the program in raising the achievement levels of the disadvantaged students at this school, the program has been commercially published and is now widely used in the UK and in other countries. Further information regarding the program can be found on the Read Write Inc. website at http://www.oup.com/oxed/primary/rwi/aboutrwi/ The training Workshops in Australia will be in January, with a Workshop in Queensland on the 20th to 21st January and one in Perth on 31st January to 1st February.