Understanding spelling well enough to explain it to kids 2

Please note that we ran the same workshop as this in March. Due to popular demand we are running the session again as per these dates.

Outline:

This workshop will be suitable for parents of primary and secondary school students.

A 90-minute workshop for parents and interested others on:

• Why English spelling is complex and difficult (etymology)
• What the sounds of spoken English are (phonology)
• How each one is spelt (phoneme-grapheme correspondences)
• How word type and structure affects spelling (morphology, phonotactics, orthotactics)
• Assessment of spelling - useful and less useful approaches
• Key spelling concepts and strategies for teaching in a structured systematic, cumulative way
• Excess baggage for teaching spelling - rules, "silent" letters, onset-rime and blends

Presenter:

Alison Clarke has been a Speech Pathologist since 1988. She has a Masters in Applied Linguistics and has worked extensively with school-aged children, both in Australia and the UK, becoming increasingly interested in the way spoken and written language reinforce each other. She is also an ESL teacher and has taught English at RMIT, and at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.

Alison works at the Clifton Hill Child and Adolescent Therapy Group in Melbourne, runs the synthetic phonics website www.spelfabet.com.au and is Vice President of Learning Difficulties Australia.