It’s a common complaint among teachers: “My students can read but their writing is terrible!” or “My students can’t decode but they can encode! I’m so frustrated!” If only we had a dollar for every time we heard this! The truth is, there’s a crucial balance missing in many classrooms – the balance between decoding […]
Today, we’re diving into the fascinating world of encoding and decoding —two skills that hold the key to unlocking the magic of language. I recently heard encoding and decoding compared to breathing. Encoding is the in breath and decoding is the out breath. Undoubtedly, encoding skills are as important to reading as decoding skills. “Encoding […]
In recent years, the science of reading has significantly transformed teaching practices, bringing about a more evidence-based and nuanced approach to literacy instruction. This knowledge has influenced teaching methodologies, emphasising the importance of systematic and explicit phonics instruction, decoding skills, and phonemic awareness. We’ve got a great decoding freebie here! Yet, while the primary focus […]
It can be really disheartening to read student writing and feel like your teaching hasn’t been as effective as you wished. While there are a lot of factors at play when it comes to student achievement, many factors which you aren’t responsible for, the fact is that your effectiveness as a teacher DOES matter. So, […]