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Trying to read out the words sample during lecture was challenging ! It was also very interesting to note that while we engage in the effort to decode a word, this effort actually lessens the understanding of the passage. And now I also see why sight words can lessen the load for a child.

My partner Adi was very kind and encouraging during the paired work. I struggled with remembering the sounds of the letters. I wondered how I learnt reading in my childhood. I may have subconsiously be reading aloud in mind. Maybe this helped.

It's also good to know many parts of my brain are working together in harmony when I read. Grateful and thankful.

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1. Trying out the phonics screening tests were fun yet challenging. I realised how easy it is to stumble over my words when reading the instructions and that I will probably need to practice a lot to be fluent in administering these tools.

2. It was interesting to find out that sight words are not words that cannot be sounded out but rather words that we want to train automacy as they are high frequency and it will help lessen the cognitive load of the children when reading.

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I learnt that reading can be affected by many different underlying factors, not just learning, processing or developmental factors. We should seek to understand and be open to other reasons for why a person can't read, such as not being able to see clearly, having difficulty with certain text fonts, having too little exposure, or being unmotivated.

In this lesson, we finally touched on phonics, which was a topic I really wanted to learn when undergoing the school stint. I found the way we are being taught to be much more structured than my attempts to learn phonics during my school stint.

The different yet similar sounding terms are still confusing though- morphemes, phonics, phonetics, graphemes, etc.

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I learnt about the need to discriminate sound; about the difficulties in elaboration phase whereby child see letters correctly but could not process in correct sequence.

I also learned that there is no need to remove ruler if the child is comfortable to read using rulers. Learnt that Reading is always one direction from left to right; Phonemes is smallest unit of spoken language.

Thank you! Dr.Liz

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I learnt that conducting literacy assessments requires a lot of multitasking, something which I am not fully confident in. Would definitely need more consistent practice in it to improve. I also did not have much prior knowledge in phonics and learnt many new concepts and terms. The pair work also allowed me to learn from my more knowledgable peer and it truly showcased ZPD in action.

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1. I learnt during the lecture that print is not involved when developing phonemic awareness. It is important to teach students to sound out the words before whole word recognition. Phonemic awareness is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.

2. During the pair work activity, despite being the phonogram leader there were things that I had to refresh my memory as I went through the different phonograms with my partner. I studied a different phonetic system in my linguistic degree so it was a good activity for me to recap, learn and teach my pair partner! Hopefully she could understand my explanations :')

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I went back to basics and learnt about how the different phonemes sound - at least for the first 26 of the phonogram cards

I have also learnt that there are interesting and creative ways to teach phonics - the example shown whereby you can use different coloured strings and tie them together for the visual representation to teach students how to blend a work together

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I learnt one trick during W2's lecture, which is how I can use a ruler as a visual reference to support students who struggle to consistently read in a left to right direction. By showing them that the numbers on a ruler start at 1 on the left and increase as you move right, the ruler becomes a concrete reminder that reading follows the same direction.

I was also surprised to learn that using the onset-rime method to teach students how to read is not an instructional practice supported by scientific evidence... As I used that when conducting literacy lessons with my students at EI.

I learnt that Dr Liz not only shares knowledge with us, but also cares for us by filling our tummies during lessons 😆 Thank you Dr Liz!

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I learnt that even though students may be able to sound out phonemes and technically 'read', they may not understand the context, which makes decoding even harder for them.

I also learnt a lot from my pair when practicing sounding out the phonemes (e.g. how some sounds come from the back of the throat vs the front)

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Personally, this module can be overwhelming. There is a lot for me to unlearn and relearn.

I also recalled something that was mentioned during the lecture, ''Reading is not a simple process; it is a complex process. Those who cannot decode words, they require explicit instructions".

I will always remember to give my student concise, clear directions to make the reading process easier for them.

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At the start, I had little background knowledge of phonics. However, through this lesson and the practice with my paired partner, I gained a clearer understanding of how to break down words into sounds.

I also realised that phonics is important even for older children, as it helps them strengthen their reading foundation, become more confident in spelling and decoding and also better understand unfamiliar words.

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I find it quite interesting and often overlooked that while us adults can easily recognise an object, e.g a pen, regardless of its orientation, students often struggle with this concept when it comes to letters. For example, when letters such as b, d, p, and q are rotated or flipped, many students become confused. This makes sense, as I noticed during withdrawal sessions that many students consistently struggled to differentiate between these letters, despite being taught various methods to remember them.

I also learned that most sight words can be decoded. When introducing these words, it’s important to sound them out to the students. With repeated exposure through flashcards, we can help them build automatic recognition. I particularly appreciate Professor Lian’s approach, where instead of using traditional examples like "A is for apple," we can use "A is for at," a common sight word. This method supports students in embedding sight words more effectively into their memory.

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I learnt new ways of using ruler other than using it for measuring.

1. "If need ruler to read line by line, no need to remove the ruler (e.g. if need glasses to read, do you remove the glasses?)

2. Aid student who need reminder to read from left to right by following the ruler direction.

What is sight / high frequency words: When these high frequency words can be read ‘on sight’ then it is considered sight words.

Video – Blending sounds to read words

Strategy: Use string (blue white red) touch the string and sound it out faster and faster. 2 ways – w a g / dog

*If the word is long with many sounds, use more strings?

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Another enriching week of learning!...Some strategies I would like to adopt or have seen successful results during my stint:

1. Structural analysis - how this helps to break down the word further into morphemes. E.g. unhelpful = un + help + ful. I have seen the English teachers asking the students what "smaller words" can they see in the big word? Most students could pick up the spelling of new words more easily this way.

2. I find the slide on "11 useful questions - when I don't know the word" useful. They serve as possible question prompts for me to ask when necessary during future interventions with my students.

3. Teaching phonemics are essential for both reading and spelling. The need to strengthen their phonemic awareness will go a long way, even when in secondary schools.

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i’ve learnt that multi sensory approach - coloured string method seems to work better for someone who struggles with phonics, especially if they are already avoiding it.. learning can be fun!

it was an eye opener that how language that we take granted for, that comes so naturally for most, have some necessary foundation steps that cannot be missed during the formative years..

teaching in secondary sch, trying to help students with dyslexia, there’s no short cut, the foundation are fundamentally necessary..

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I learn to administer literacy assessmnet tools, and boy it's not easy! There is a script to read, and even that we make mistakes.

Also today Sciene of reading (SoR) where some examples are not backed up by science evidence, such as sight words. and that 85% of english words are decodable!

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I learnt the importance of sight words, in terms of being a cognitive offload (especially in a long written text), such that students do not spend so much time decoding how to read the word, that they lose the meaning of the entire text

I learnt that emphasis on words per minute or speed might not be an accurate way to determine a child's reading fluency as a child might be fluent in certain texts due to repetition but this cannot be generalized to other texts. Having a high words per minute/speed does not determine whether a child can also understand the text.

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I learn that we should introduce new phonemes by sounding it out and having the student listen instead of introducing the phonemes with flashcards.

I also learnt how strings can be made into a multi-sensorial tool to teach blending and segmenting.

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i learnt more in depth about phonics - phonemes and phonograms. despite having some prior knowledge to phonics, i was not officially trained. however it was a good experience doing the pair teaching!

i also made a new friend today ☺︎. [Response: That's great!]

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I learnt that eating 2 hotdogs requires 1 and a half coffee cup to balance out the salt intake. Also, some cvc or silent e words can be taught easily using SIGHT words teaching strategies.

Response to first part of comment: Oh dear... Hope you are okay.

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I learnt how choosing CVC word examples might be easier when teaching phonemes Eg. ‘dog’ instead of ‘lid’ to teach /d/.

I learnt about additional resources to teach and familiarise with phonemes sounds Eg. Jolly Phonics songs (paired with hand actions) and Phonogram sounds app.

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I learnt that administrating literacy assessment tools is not an easy feat. It requires a lot of practice to smoothen the process.

I learnt that the difference between phonemes and phonograms.