Hand-over-hand as a teaching strategy is increasingly being defined as restrictive practice. However, I still find that many people working in this area use hand-over-hand as a teaching strategy without being aware of the problems around it – or the fact that there are other, more effective, teaching strategies. In 2021, I published an Infographic called “The Problems with Hand-Over-Hand.” Today I have updated it with further information – and I’d love as many people as possible to share the updated infographic so that we can continue to spread the word about the problems with this approach ..read more

As requested, I am sharing the presentation I did with Lee Murray at #AGOSCI2022. I have been very fortunate to work with Lee and the other staff at Salisbury Park Primary School for the last 8 years. I was also lucky enough to spend time with Ryder both at Salisbury Park Primary School and at his previous school. [office src=”https://onedrive.live.com/embed?resid=387F61669189543F%21750&authkey=%21AJ6KVtjuEkeMabs&em=2&wdAr=1.7777777777777777″] And huge thanks to Ryder’s family for giving us permission to share this presentation in its entirety ..read more

Summer is here – and the schools in all our Australian states are either on their summer break or about to finish the school year. For me, this means I get a little more time to go through notes and pull together all the comments and feedback people have given me. And, some time to reflect, review and re-energise! A lot of people who have been using the Writing with All Tools Continuum have given me notes, suggestions and ideas. I can’t thank you enough! I’m not going to mention you all by name – but I did want to make one special thank-you to Fee Kidziak at Lee Street State Special School who ..read more

A long time ago, I learned about flip charts for emergent writers, thanks to Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver. Writing flip charts were first developed by Gretchen Hanser and staff at the Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies. Flip charts as a writing tool appealed to me for a lot of reasons.  Firstly, because I was working with a range of students with different access needs.  Some of them could point, some of them used partner assisted scanning, some of them used eye gaze.  Which meant there was a flip chart option for every single student I worked with. Another reaso ..read more

Today I had the pleasure of running a webinar about the Writing with All Tools Continuum. The session included a run through of the continuum, a discussion of some of the documents supporting the continuum and a short moderation at the end. I’m delighted to share the video of the webinar, as well as the other documents, for those who couldn’t join us. I hope you enjoy watching the recording as much as I enjoyed sharing this tool with others! Video of Writing with All Tools Continuum Webinar Main Handout Writing with All Tools Continuum webinar handoutDownload Other Documents Writing Continuum ..read more

One of the different types of writing that we want to do every day with every emergent student is Writing with Adults. This is where literacy learners and educators write together as a team to successfully publish a text, which can then be shared with others. One form of Writing with Adults is known as Predictable Chart Writing (Hall & Williams, 2001). Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to work with the fabulous students and staff at Coomera State Special School. In one classroom we completed, and videoed, a full week of Predictable Chart Writing. Sharyn, the school’s AAC Coach, compile ..read more

On Friday the 21st of October I will be running a free webinar on the Writing with All Tools Continuum: Teaching to the next level. There are 100 seats available at the webinar. If you’re interested in attending please sign up at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/writing-with-all-tools-continuum-teaching-to-the-next-level-tickets-438462552297 Many of you will need to convert the times of the webinar to your own local time zone – it is posted for 10am to 12:30pm in Australian Central Daylight Savings time (Adelaide). If you need to do a conversion please use the time zone converter at https://ww ..read more

We are very pleased to announce the details of the 2023 Literacy Intensive, which will be held at Coomera State Special School on the Gold Coast from the 25th to 29th of September. Registrations will open on Monday the 19th at https://bit.ly/3UqKFcm The flyer is shown above with further details, and you can download a copy of the flyer below: 2023-Literacy-Intensive-flyerDownload ..read more

As requested, I am sharing the presentation I did with Lee Murray at #AGOSCI2022. I have been very fortunate to work with Lee and the other staff at Salisbury Park Primary School for the last 8 years. I was also lucky enough to spend time with Ryder both at Salisbury Park Primary School and at his previous school. And huge thanks to Ryder’s family for giving us permission to share this presentation in its entirety ..read more

This blog post has been over a year in the making. It started as a result of the work I do with multiple schools and teaching literacy in AAC. Assessment is an important component of our literacy teaching – and writing assessment, as I have said many times, is a really important piece to help us to know what to teach next. For several years I have been using the Developmental Writing Scale (Sturm, Cali, Nelson, & Staskowski, 2012) as a tool to help us assess writing samples an inform our teaching. I have also been using the Hanser’s (2009) Informal Rating Scale for Emergent Writing, and, b ..read more