Jean's Dyslexia Tuition

10/11/2022

This image shows the different ways to look at a word and we use a selection of these in my sessions.

Morphology is particularly useful as not only does it extend vocabulary but, when it is explicitly taught, the student can deconstruct words by looking for familiar chunks.

School texts or books contain a fair amount of complex, polysyllabic or unfamiliar words composed of multiple morphemes (the root word + one or more affixes). The reader with strong morphological awareness is better equipped to problem-solve these unfamiliar words by looking for familiar chunks (morphemes) and then blending morphemes together.

10/11/2022

Very proud of this young student who really concentrated while revising the high frequency/irregular words he's been learning with me. He also used his knowledge of a spelling rule for words ending in the /ch/ sound - listening to the word and deciding which column to write in. One of his targets was to write next to the margin and he smashed that too. We also looked at creating sentences with punctuation, while reminding him about the doubling rule for swim-swimming. Great work.

08/11/2022

A card game of high/low to reinforce this student's learning of some of those tricky 'ough' words. The selection of 'ough' words here make three different sounds /uff/ as in rough, /ō/ as in though and /ort/ as in bought. We spend time looking, listening, practising and writing, and follow up with games to consolidate. I also included some '-sion' words that the student had already learned. We regularly revise previous spelling rules to keep them fresh.

25/05/2022

It is so important that students are given overlearning opportunities. Overlearning consolidates new learning, enables transfer to long-term memory and helps to build up automaticity.

When spelling or word reading can be retrieved quickly and automatically, bandwidth is freed up for higher-level cognitive processes, such as the development of comprehension and inference skills.

Repetition needn't be boring. Today my student continued with words ending in -tion by way of an old favourite, snakes and ladders.

18/05/2022

Enjoyed this game with a student while we practised words ending in -tion.

09/03/2022

Today's card game focused on the soft 'c' sound.

08/03/2022

Irregular words need a bit of imagination to help remember them. We talk about the 'tricky' bit and give it a visual cue or mnemonic. Games are used for overlearning opportunities.

08/03/2022

It's so lovely when a student begins to understand open and closed syllables. This young lady marked the vowels and consonants and worked hard to listen to the long or short vowel sounds. Using this technique she was able to determine whether the first syllable was open or closed and split the syllables accordingly.

01/12/2021

01/12/2021

A very popular Connect 4 game with my students. This one focuses on '-ch' or '-tch' endings and is one fun way to practise the teaching point. They usually beat me too!

11/11/2021

Syllables are so useful when tackling longer words for reading and writing. This student split and matched up words using the tactics he's learned about open and closed syllables.

06/11/2021

Trugs is a great activity to extend reading in a fun and competitive card game. This set concentrates on the soft 'g'.