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Literacy
Find answers to your literacy questions here.
There is so much confusion surrounding sight words. Do you have any tips?
Tip #1: There is a need for better terminology and understanding Firstly ‘sight words’ means so many things to different people. The term ‘sight words’ often provides a false impression that these commonly used words are to be learned by sight (or visual memorisation). Research does not support teaching these words as ‘visual whole units’ without attention to the phoneme-grapheme (sound to letter) correspondences. It is far more useful
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PLD Screening tools? Which tests do I use?
Did you know, that all of the PLD assessments in their most current form are available on the website to download? The assessments can be accessed in the DOWNLOADS section of each age range. For ease, direct links have been provided below: Early Years: ‘The Early Years Pre-Literacy Screening’ can be downloaded here. Foundation: ****‘The Foundation Pre-Literacy Screening’ can be downloaded here(https://pld-lit
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Can I request the 2020 PLD excel tracking sheets, to enhance the school’s implementation of PLD by tracking student performance each term?
Time efficient tracking student development is central to the PLD process. The PLD tracking delivered each term, should assist teachers to determine the range in ability evident within the classroom. PLD advocates tracking from the Early Years until Year 6. To assist this process, PLD supplies excel (and Google) sheets which have been prepared. Tab 1 and 2 pr
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How well should students be reading at the end of the Foundation school year?
Below you will find a general skill acquisition sequence. Do note that the reading assessment (now openly available to download on the PLD website) is what schools should be utilizing to plan the class reading program and the decodable reading books required. Not all students acquire reading skills at the same pace. Those who have had a history of ear infections, speech and/or language delays or family members who have experienced difficulties with literacy, will often require repeated practice
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Do you have any tips for using the PLD excel spreadsheets for tracking student skill acquisition?
General Guidelines (for recording results) using the ‘The 2019/2020 Phonic & sight word sequence Placement Test’ Step 1: Locate the correct screen. The beginning of the year screen is located on page 10 and the end of term reviews are located on pages 23 and 24 in the 2019/2020 Phonic & sight word sequence or is available to downl
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We use a lot of PM readers, is there is a PLD to PM reading level correlation available?
The short response is, that matching structured synthetic phonic approaches with whole language type processes such as PM Bench-marking is incredibly difficult as the approaches to reading are vastly different. The lengthier response is below. The reading book sets that PLD stocks are decodable and also operate within a structured synthetic phonics approach. What does this mean? Let's look at the first set. The initial readers start with VC and CVC words with and no sight words. Gradually and
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I want to start the year well. Can you assist with the EARLY YEARS or FOUNDATION testing being recorded on the PLD Excel Tracking Sheets?
The week 7 Term 1 screening for FOUNDATION is found in the Foundation Pre-literacy screen. The results can then be entered into Excel. The template is located below. The alphabet sounds result (or score out of 26) is sourced from page 1 of Foundation Pre-literacy screen The blending 3 phonemes result (or score out of 5 which is then converted into a percentage) is sourced from the second Blending sub-test locate
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Which standardised assessment does PLD recommend?
When investigating the options to assess single word reading and spelling skills there are many testing options available. The list provides below provides some of the basic tools available to schools that are relatively easy to access, are cost effective and relatively time efficient to administer. Burt Word Reading Test (1981) Alison Gilmore, Cedric Croft and Neil Reid The Burt Word Reading Test provide
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How well should students be spelling at the end of the Foundation school year?
SPELLING: Below is a general acquisition sequence. Note that the spelling assessments (now openly available to download on the PLD website) are what school’s should be utilizing to refine the class spelling program. Be aware that young students require repeated practice and opportunities for consolidation. Only progress to higher levels of spelling ability when there is a high level of ease and accuracy being observed. Make sure that the school’s scope and sequence for the year is realis
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Do the PLD stages correspond to year levels in primary School?
No. This is not the case. Students with the national curriculum, are required to read, spell and write in their first compulsory year in school or Pre-Primary (WA), Transition (NT), Reception (SA) Prep. (QLD, VIC, TAS), Kindergarten (NSW, ACT). Hence students are required to be well into stage 1 within this Foundation year. How far students progress into stage 1 is dependant upon a range of factors; the school’s whole school literacy strategy, how effectively PLD is being implemented across c
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The PLD decodable reading books are working really well. Are there additional sets?
Decodable readers are really important for establishing early reading. Beginning readers progress more rapidly in their skills when provided with high quality reading material. For this reason, it is this age range that PLD has aimed to cater for with the PLD curated sets of reading books. The book sets have also aimed to provide ample sets of reading books, as there is an issue with many decodable sets, that the decodable reading sets progress too fast through the levels. Hence students may sta
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Why is it beneficial to integrate annual end of year standardised testing with the PLD process?
The success of any literacy program, should be supported by end of year standardised screening results. Rather than testing at the beginning and end of each school year, annual end of year screening is a recommended time efficient approach. Following a full year of literacy instruction, the majority of students should increase in their reading and spelling ability by at least 12 months. Step 1: Select a standardized reading and spelling assessment. When investigating time efficient and valid
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How many spelling words do you provide?
The PLD word lists are flexible enough to be adapted to target any of the situations below. Keep in mind, that the exact number of WEEKLY spelling list words depends upon whether you are a junior, middle or upper primary class. It also depends whether you are in a school with higher performing students or lower performing students or students with a significant range in ability. It also depends on whether students are progressing well and acquiring and mastering the skills presented,
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I am marking PLD spelling placement tests and I am not sure when to mark words as correct or incorrect?
toat - should be marked as incorrect. Likewise toats, oats, tost, toas are also marked as incorrect. toast is only marked as correct, when spelled as toast. Remember, only when the target phonic pattern is applied to all components within a word (i.e. letters that proceed and follow the phonic pattern) should it be marked as corr
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Are the PLD phonic spelling lists available in a digital format or on-line?
Are the PLD phonic spelling lists available in a digital format or on-line so teachers can copy & paste the students spelling words into their work files or for homework? Unfortunately we don’t provide the word lists in a digital or online format. The reason being that teacher discretion needs to come into the process of selecting the words. If English is not a first language, teachers may need to select words with the phonic pattern (or patterns) which consist of simple vocabulary.
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Can you help me understand the developmental milestones my child should be achieving?
We sure can! We have specific information and downloads available for each age range on our website. Choose your age range from the homepage and then select the ‘Downloads’ tabs to view and print any number of our milestone information sheets, or click on the links below: Early Years downloads Foundation downloads Year 1 & 2 downloads(https://pld-li
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After Stage 3 words on the PLD Early Reading Profile, what are the appropriate methods of tracking reading?
Before I outline the options, keep in mind that by PLD's stage 3: A decoding and word recognition screen is less useful. The Early Reading Profile is a junior primary screen (or a screen for older students still operating at a junior primary level). Students in the junior primary must learn to 'crack the code' and verbalise the print by either reading aloud or silently 'inside their heads'. The ultimate goal of 'cracking the code' is so that comprehension of the content can occur. For some st
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A proportion of students tend to plateau on PM Benchmarks. What do you suggest?
A proportion of students tend to plateau on PM Benchmarks. Why is this occurring and what suggestions do you have to counteract this occurring? The stagnation at a level or difficulty progressing through the PM Benchmark levels commonly occurs for two reasons. Below are the reasons are identified and also potential solutions are proposed. Area 1: PHONICS, DECODING and WORD ATTACK SKILLS:All students require explicit phonics instruction and reading material that supports the systemati
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How many spelling groups? I have completed the placement test, but how do I create groups?
Before we start, make sure you have requested the PLD excel-based tracking sheets: https://pld-literacy.org/monitoring/ Keep in mind the process below takes me (i.e. Diana Rigg) no more than 5 minutes. If your skills with excel/google sheets are limited, this make take more time. , a comprehensive map for skill development forms the platform for further educational needs and demands. Presented are the essential skills for 4 and 5 y
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What do we do when students are moving beyond stage 6 of the PLD programs?
If students are operating at high level stage 5 or stage 6, you will find that their spelling age exceeds 12 + years on a standardised spelling test. On one level this is wonderful as these students are clearly advanced spellers. On another level this produces challenges for the teachers who still need to cater for their needs and also integrate them into a class process. Suggestion 1: Do not just look at spelling. I would suggest changing this aspect of your literacy block to 'word study'.
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I need to work on my child's literacy skills (and particularly spelling/writing) at home. Where do I start?
Parents are often aware of when their child requires extra support within the home, to extend their performance in school. While PLD predominately works with teachers, to support their classroom programs, we do often some support the parents. The first step is to complete a spelling placement test which can be found on pages 10-16 in the 2018 Phonic & Sight Word Sequence. This will establish your child's current stage and iden
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Students who are slow to progress through PLD’s stages 1 and 2. Do you have any suggestions?
Undoubtedly, stages 1 and 2 are the more complex stages to teach. Students often require much repetition and consolidation to embed their skills. Once into stage 3, typically students pick up skills faster but the challenge then is different, because word complexity and semantics emerges. Typically students in stages 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be able to read and spell words that they do not comprehend and are unable to apply into extended writing. Students who are slow to progress through stage 1:
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When do you start decodable reading books? How do you decide upon the levels?
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FAQ: I work with students with Autism. Do you have any suggestions for training and programs?
Typically we recommend starting with training first. Each course demonstrates and explains the PLD programs. Plus after completing the online courses you will receive a discount promo code to purchase any of the PLD programs that are relevant to the needs of your students. If some of the students are presenting with an inability to read, spell and write, my first suggestion is below. For some Autistic students they can read/recognise some words (sight words) but are unable to spell and write.
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What is the difference between the PLD Decodable Reading Books sets?
At PLD we recognise that a proportion of students require decodable reading material for longer than others. This group of students may have presented at school with speech and/or language delays or have a history of ear infections. Or they may have family members who have experienced literacy and learning difficulties (and hence present with a genetic predisposition to literacy difficulties). For these reasons, three additional reading book sets have been sourced. If students have read all o
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Spelling rules. Where do they occur in PLD’s Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) program?
In the PLD process, the spelling rules are taught relative to what concepts are being instructed in-class. Location 1: If there is a spelling rule that is relevant to a phonic concept, it is outlined within the Phonic Sight Word Sequence lists. An example from the stage 4 section has been provided below: Location 2: Also contained
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I have not taught Kindy/Kindergarten for many years. Can you provide me with a quick update?
I am very happy to help as the junior primary years of school have dramatically changed. The following relates to a current application of PLD in Kindergarten (WA QLD, SA & Tas) or Preschool (ACT, NT, NSW & Vic). . If you download the following implementation booklet and then refer to pages 5, 6 and 7. These pages specifically relate to this age group. https://pld-literacy.org/product/pld-whole-school-literacy-strategy/ The current screening that is outlined on page 5 in the above impleme
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Can you clarify how to sound out (and colour code) these words?
I am thrilled to hear that this is being debated. I worry when schools are not asking these questions, because this usually means they are not doing enough of the auditory segmentation and blending. In terms of the words supplied: falling is made up of the phonemes f-all-i-ng and so the colour coding would be as follows f/all/i/ng jumped is made up of the sounds j-u-m-p-t and so the colour coding would be as follows j/u/m/p/ed needed is made up of the phonemes n-ee-d-e-d and so
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Where to after decodable reading books? What next?
In terms of where to after decodables?
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Interpreting the results from the PLD 'Early Reading Prfile'
The above reading profile can be downloaded form the web site: * https://pld-literacy.org/product/early-reading-profile-foundation-year/ * https://pld-literacy.org/product/early-reading-profile-year-1-and-2/ The screen reflects on two areas of early reading: Accuracy - can the child 'crack the code' and verbalise the words. Automaticity - can the child also do this in a manner that is efficient, (with reduced sounding and ultimately predominately whole word, with some fal
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I am a parent and I have concerns about how PLD is being implemented in my child's class.
Parents may from time to time raise concerns about a school's implementation of PLD. At PLD we are not in a position to deal with these concerns directly. At PLD we consult directly to schools and are not in a position to provide direct parent support to issues raised. This is a matter that parents will need to take up directly with the school. Schools will require an adequate level of PLD books to implement the teaching and learning well. However, in our experience purchasing the books doe
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Teaching the alphabet: The students with the PLD programs are quickly learning the alphabet sounds, but when are letter names taught?
A synthetic phonics approach to literacy instruction starts with teaching alphabet sounds, phonemic awareness, blending for decoding and segmenting for spelling. In this approach the letter names are not as important as the letter sounds, because it is the letter sounds that allow children to sound out and read words. Once a child has knowledge of the alphabet sounds and is using these to decode simple CVC words, they can then be introduced to letter names. With the introduction of digraphs (e
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Can I request a quote for the decodable reading books?
Foundation/Prep/Pre-Primary/Reception/Transition home reading books: Semester one set? Yes/No Semester two set? Yes/No Home reading books in Year 1? Semester one set? Yes/No Semester two set? Yes/No Home reading books for delayed students in Year 1 and 2? Semester one set? Yes/No Semester two set? Yes/No
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I have high school students with very low literacy levels. Is PLD relevant?
PLD's structured synthetic phonics range of materials have been designed for primary schools, however, the materials are often modified for students in other sectors with literacy levels at a primary school level. The materials will require a degree of modification when presented to high school students, indigenous students or for those for whom English is not a first language, also for Education Support students. **The only way forward to maximise functional literacy skills is to go back to
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I have 5 levels in my Year 1 class. Do you have any suggestions?
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I have a student who still struggles with onset and rime. How can I help?
While other students also would have initially experienced the same difficulty, due to your teaching the skill has developed. Now you are left with just one student. This can happen in every class, that a very complicated profile can appear. I suggest the following: Make sure that the Term 2 skill (the isolation and verbalisation of initial sounds) is solid. If this skill is 'wobbly' and difficult, even though the student may have scored 60/80 or 100% then here is the issue. I always look
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