Protect authors’ livelihoods from the unlicensed use of their work in AI training - Sign the Petition! chng.it/Ld45KhGTrY via change.org

You are cordially invited to our new website! Explore, enjoy and ask questions. thatreadingthing.com

Please share with your primary teacher friends.

Been working with teens excluded from school. All have #SEND (most commonly ASD/ADHD/DLD) but were either diagnosed too late or not even assessed until after they were excluded. It’s heartbreaking ‘81% of children with behavioural disorders have significant language difficulties’

Hmmm - considering that NZ women won the vote in 1893, I think not 🙄

The education select committee has an inquiry on 'Solving the SEND crisis.' The list of questions is long and the time is short (Jan 30th), but even a short response mentioning your concerns about #DevLangDis and #SLCN can make a difference. committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evi...

Reading is not just about having a love of books, nor just being able to accurately lift words off the page. It's a product of both. The simple view of reading, by Gough & Tunmer (1986) is something all teachers should be aware of. Professional learning for teachers www.impact.wales

Can we please stretch this to including students on the very fringes of education, even the ones some teachers have written off? A youth worker/TRT tutor was asked if That Reading Thing is fun & she answered, 'No, (shocked silence), but it's so satisfying they come back for more.' Best review ever.

Favourite mnemonic? Labelling of axes on graphs. Y’d awake, vertical. X’hausted, horizontal.

Tan y Gaer Coffi has arrived! Ethically sourced, roasted by @wrexhambean, and proudly supporting @Teams4u. Students in our Alternative Provision are involved in every step of the process, from concept to delivery. Learning skills and making a difference. hoffcoffi.com

A whole English lesson in a meme. Poetry, homographs (UK & Canada), homonyms (USA, apparently), using context to check meaning, synonyms across dialects (sack, bag & refuse, garbage, rubbish, trash).

Officially a bilingual speller (cause @theguardian.com tells me so). How about you? www.theguardian.com/science/2024...

@ged10.bsky.social Glad you made it!

We've been missing a trick here at That Reading Thing.

‪ Getting ready for tomorrow's session for NATECLA and Novus. Phonics for prison ESOL tutors. Including the famous British English final schwa conundrum which plagues even native speakers.

If you have a moment, I'd love for you to read my new article: INNER BRIGHTNESS IS NEEDED MORE IN DARKER NIGHTS AND SHORTER DAYS gurdeeppandher.substack.com/p/inner-brig...

@susangodsland.bsky.social Good to see you!

Others writers and content creators who use MS Office might find this interesting and worrisome. It's vague, but it appears that disallowing MS from scraping content from your documents requires turning off autosave. Get used to frequent saving while you write! answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffi...

This resonates.

Mika madly wrestling with the carpet and her little green ball. Hold it. Mika doesn't have a little green ball.

@felitmov.bsky.social Marvellous to see you here!

A note on "comic sans is easier for dyslexics to read:" there's no evidence of the efficacy of "dyslexic friendly" fonts: dyslexiaida.org/do-special-f... Other studies have similarly shown no difference between common fonts for reading speed and fluency

My first contribution as a columnist for Special Needs Jungle. My main focus will be on Alternative Provision #thisisAP #SEMH

Lift

This is a great episode - I leap at any opportunity to learn from @trttricia.bsky.social. Too much to summarize here, but I appreciate her commitment to developing tools that non-experts can use. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/e...

@jobyrne.bsky.social Yay!! This makes me so happy.

Updated my starter pack on the Effective Teaching of Reading - researchers, practitioners and advocates 👇🏼 go.bsky.app/Usy7iDv

This is the best way I can think to introduce That Reading Thing (TRT) to #thisisAP. What happens in the very 1st session? TRT is meticulously structured so students feel safe as they make measurable gains.

@pruenglish.bsky.social Was literally (in the proper English teacher sense) just wondering if there was a PRU English account to follow and up you popped!

Today’s poem is called ‘Eye Rhyme Calamity at the Annual World Limerick Contest’.

Wow, a treasure trove of research and resources on speech, language and communication here! languageandliteracyinyoungpeople.com

A very short 🧵about creating a culture of spelling that is both rigorous and inclusive. Let's dream a little... 🟢What if, in every upper primary, middle and high school classroom, spelling became a conversation that anyone could initiate? 1/3

High school literacy plan: 🟣 A quick 1-1 & SOR supported intervention like That Reading Thing for those who need it. 🟢Every teacher confident in a quick spelling approach that won't take up more than a couple of minutes of class time. That Spelling Thing available from Amazon in your country.

Always a fan of “somewhere in between.” 👍👍 Why?🧐 Because people who do the work know that the answers can be nuanced. FRIDAY!! The Literacy View!! 🎧🎙️👀 thatspellingthing.com/plural-cance... #theliteracyview #edusky #WLS25 @trttricia.bsky.social

***Next Up*** Getting Real with Tricia Millar She does the work! 💪 Roll up your sleeves and join us for some real talk 🎙️ . . . . . . #theliteracyview #realteachers #lettingloose #WLS25 #edchat #literacy #teachers #education #edusky

Mika has branched out, though still stuck in initial code. Fat cat sat in a bag. (She's not fat!)

Three weeks to go to @DiscoverInclusion’s Access to Academic Learning Conference. A super opportunity for some CPD for teachers and TAs working with children with complex needs. Access all the videos throughout October and watch the presentations at your leisure.

My article in TES on my concerns about widespread adoption of AI to plan on our behalf. www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

New post: relieving the anxiety felt by struggling readers. Some hide their anxiety and suffer quietly while others express it in disruptive or self-harming behaviour. There are young people who panic at the sight of text in every secondary school. Read more... thatreadingthing.com/teens-anxiet...

Intro 3 This is Mika the tiny cat who shows up occasionally. She's her own being - brings us gifts of leaves & moss rather than wildlife. Does a mean 'fat cat sat on mat' (Hollywood 'fat'; she only weighs 2.5kg) & is branching out into centerpiece modelling but suffers from resting grump face.

Intro part 2...if the JSTOR chapter is our history, here's a wonderful part of our current situation as TRT reaches beyond schools settings into prison: Reading a Rehabilitation with Novus. www.novus.ac.uk/news/reading...

This is useful for new Bluesky folk ⬇️

I've just finished recording my presentation for Discover Inclusion's up-coming conference on Access to Academic Learning. I hope you'll join me as I talk about literacy opportunities for all - and I do mean ALL! More information about the conference can be found here: discoverinclusion.co.uk

I figure this is a good first Bluesky post. Our chapter on JSTOR. It's the story of the roots, whys & wherefores of That Reading Thing told with help from Stef Boyle (a youth worker) & Laney Muir (a support assistant). www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv...