Understanding Cognitive Load Theory and its Classroom Impact Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) explains how the mental effort required by learning tasks can hinder students’ ability to process new information and form long-term memories. This theory, developed by Australian cognitive scientist John Sweller in 1988, helps teachers apply more effective teaching methods and how to recognise […]
What is interleaving? You may have heard of interleaving, and wondered what it is, especially within the literacy world. Interleaving is already a well-documented learning technique for studying, and today we will explore what this means when working with a structured approach to literacy. Let’s begin by breaking down the word: The word “interleaving” contains […]
This blog post is the fourth in a series about writing. I was prompted to write these after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow a few weekends ago. The post described a parent’s frustration with their child’s writing process. Although the child writes extensively to express their ideas, the resulting […]
This blog post is the third in a series about writing. I was prompted to write these after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow a few weekends ago. The post described a parent’s frustration with their child’s writing process. Although the child writes extensively to express their ideas, the resulting […]
This blog post is the second in a few about writing. I’m not sure how many parts there will be yet! As I discussed in part one, I was prompted to write this after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow over the weekend. The post described a parent’s frustration with […]
This blog post is the first in a few about writing. I’m not sure how many parts there will be yet! I was prompted to write this after coming across a post about writing in a forum I follow over the weekend. The post described a parent’s frustration with their child’s writing process. Although the […]
Sometimes I get it wrong! This week I wanted to reflect on not always getting it right. It’s pretty challenging to get everything right all the time, even with the best tools at our disposal! At the end of last term, I was working my way steadily through slides in The Syntax Project, and with […]
In my role as a private intervention tutor, I’m very familiar with invented spelling and see it a lot when carrying out literacy screening. But what exactly is it? Invented spelling can be good on one hand, as it tells us important milestones are being reached, however, we also need to be mindful of when […]
In this blog post, I’ll briefly explore strategies for working with older dyslexic students while preserving their sense of intelligence and capability. As educators, it’s crucial to acknowledge and honor the mana, or inherent dignity and worth, of dyslexic students throughout their learning journey. This term, I have ended up working with many more older […]
A daily practice for any of the students who come through my door and sit down with me for literacy tutoring is to write the date in full. Initially, it’s time-consuming for many students; however, as they begin to build automaticity with this task, the time once taken soon disappears. Why do I do this? […]
