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Adjective order infographic

Something that native speakers of English seem to absorb with no effort at all is the general order of adjectives. When there are several being used before a noun, they arrange themselves into a kind of pecking order, encompassing ten or so qualities, and most native speakers have no trouble with it. This general order goes something like:

  • opinion, size, physical quality, shape, age, colour, origin, material, type, purpose

The infographic illustrates. You can find out more about adjectives and other parts of speech in the Language for Life Online Course.

The 21 Day Writing Challenge

Want to help develop the writing habit? This ‘how to’ pdf shows you the way to do it over a 21 day period.

The Decoding Dragon

Are you sick of all those so-called ‘balanced literacy’ animals trying to teach children to guess? You know the ones: Skippy Frog, Eagle Eye, Flippy Dolphin, Tryin’ Lion, Lips the Fish and Helpful Kangaroo?

Well I went into my Frankenstein lab and smooshed them all together to create the Guessing Monster.
Never fear! Decoding Dragon will chase that thing away!

For teachers who understand and want to implement the science of reading and not the philosophy of guessing!
#DontLeaveReadingToChance

 

Independent Spelling Activities: Toxic to Helpful

I wrote this piece for the Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA) Bulletin as a guide to helping teachers avoid and select spelling activities for students. Some activities will help, some activities will actually cause damage. 

W or WH?

There are countless posts and questions about teaching words beginning with ‘w’ or ‘wh’ on social media. Many of the answers are just plain wrong and actually a bit snobby/racist.

Don’t be that teacher.

How your students say words is how they say words. You’re no better than they are because you have a different dialect.

Pronunciation comes up a LOT when trying to teach students how to distinguish these words. Time to leave that behind. This simple infographic will guide you.

A spelling bee guide for everyone

Spelling bees can be fun – if spelling is something you do with ease. For everyone else, it’s a nightmare. Here’s a guide to practising spelling out loud in a lighthearted, cooperative way. Make sure you always give an option to not participate, and most of all, have fun!

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