It inspires me to do better things… a professional reflection on teaching reading comprehension

“I like how Daniel was nice in the end.” Matthew, age 8 “I love this book.” Tanya, age 7 “I’ve never read such a fantastic book how enemies became friends.” Anne, age 8 “It is funny. It has nice adjectives, and it is my religion and I love the story. It is the best.” Hasad,

Make a picture in your head…

It’s end of term 2 here. That means we’re all about to enjoy a much-needed two week holiday. As temperatures have dropped to 21°C (70°F) – ask any Queenslander and they’ll tell you it’s FREEZING – I’m looking forward to taking my kids to the beach and spending time in our local parks, to catch

Reader Success: Slipping Through the System

This is the fifth in a series of quick-reads where I explore Armstrong et al.’s book Reading Success in the Primary Years – An Evidence-Based Interdisciplinary Approach to Guide Assessment and Intervention. I recently learnt from a close friend that her partner could not complete his induction for his job without her help. Up to half

If You Can Read, You Can Write. If You Can Write, You Can Read

In a life before children, I spent a year living in my husband’s home town in Ukraine. For this Aussie girl, it was a wonderful, exciting, and sometimes shocking cultural experience. It was vastly different to my own. To begin with, I had entered a country where most people did not speak any English. Fortunately

Reader Success: Response to Intervention (RtI)

This is the fourth in a series of quick-reads where I explore Armstrong et al.’s book Reading Success in the Primary Years – An Evidence-Based Interdisciplinary Approach to Guide Assessment and Intervention. Armstrong et al.’s Reading Success in the Primary Years describes a three-tiered approach that is familiar to a lot of us in Queensland schools.

Reader Success: Reading Because I Want To

This is the third in a series of quick-reads where I explore Armstrong et al.’s book Reading Success in the Primary Years – An Evidence-Based Interdisciplinary Approach to Guide Assessment and Intervention. Reading has always occured in our family home and both of my children now read for pleasure. Yes, it took a little longer for

Reader Success – 5 Skills That Can Predict Future Reading Success

This is the second in a series of quick-reads where I explore Armstrong et al.’s book Reading Success in the Primary Years – An Evidence-Based Interdisciplinary Approach to Guide Assessment and Intervention. Did you know that in the years prior to schooling, babies and toddlers are already developing their literacy skills? “…research demonstrates that the

Reader Success: The SVR Model

This is the first of a series of quick-reads where I explore Westerveld et al.’s book Reading Success in the Primary Years – An Evidence-Based Interdisciplinary Approach to Guide Assessment and Intervention. In this introductory post I want to briefly explain the model that this approach is based upon: the Simple View of Reading (SVR).