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eLr - What's New
Home Page Support	Summary of additions and changes to eLr Comments to support@elr.com.au

1. February 2019

   • New eLr Materials

     Forty-nine new tasks have been added to the "Systematics synthetic phonics" section within "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills". These new tasks continue our current focus, which is developing tasks to teach early word reading skills using a systematic synthetic phonics approach. The tasks are organised according to the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence. In previous editions we covered the first three sets: 1: /s, a, t, p, i, n/; 2: /c/k/ck, e, h, r, m, d/; and 3: /g, o, u, l, f, b/. This edition adds materials for the fourth set - /ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or/.

     Each of these sets is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks to introduce each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships in the sets up to that level. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out and blend the sounds to read each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords provides a fun activity to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.

2. January 2019

   • New eLr Materials

     Fifty-nine new tasks have been added to the "Systematics synthetic phonics" section within "Reading & Spelling - Early Skills". We have been developing tasks to teach the main spelling patterns for 42 sounds in English using a Systematic Synthetic Phonics approach, and arranged according to the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence. In last month's update we covered the first two sets - /s, a, t, p, i, n/ and /c|k|ck, e, h, r, m, d/. This edition adds materials for the third set - /g, o, u, l, f, b/.

     Each of these sets is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks to introduce each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships in the sets to that point. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out and blend the sounds to read each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords provides a fun activity to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.

3. December 2018

   • Changed and New eLr Materials

     Changes - "Reading and Spelling" divided into two section

     This month we have made a substantial change to the organisation of the "Reading and Spelling" section by dividing it into two sections. The first section, "Reading and Spelling - Early Skills" focuses on materials to teach the alphabetic code, while the second section "Reading and Spelling - Later Skills", provides materials targeting more advanced areas, such as morphology (eg prefixes, suffixes, verb tense) and orthographic knowledge for specific word forms (eg homographs and homophones).

     This change reflects developments that have occurred over the past 10 years as a result of research into the most effective methods for early reading instruction, and more importantly, evidence-based instruction and intervention for children with reading impairment.

     New Tasks

     Eighty-eight new tasks have been added to a new subsection "Systematic Synthetic Phonics", within "Reading and Spelling - Early Skills". This subsection provides material to teach early reading and spelling skills using a Systematic Synthetic Phonics approach - an evidence-based method of teaching early word reading skills.

     The new tasks cover the first two sets of grapheme-phoneme correspondences using the Jolly Phonics scope and sequence (set 1, "s, a, t, p, i, n", and set 2, "c|k|ck, e, h, r, m, d"). Each set is divided into two subsections. One subsection provides a range of tasks targeting each grapheme (letter/s), and the second subsection targets all grapheme-phoneme relationships within that set. A range of models (activities) are used within each subsection. The WordSound Buttons and WordSearch models encourage the student to sound out each word; LookThenCover and SmileyMan support the student's ability to recall spelling patterns; and MemoryWords provides a fun activity to consolidate automatic recognition of previously decoded words (sight words). A further model, Typing with Phrases, provides sets of decodable sentences which encourage accurate decoding within context, and an activity (rearranging either phrases or words) to consolidate meaning and grammatical knowledge.

4. November 2018

   • New eLr Materials

     Eighty four new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /z/ sound. These additions continue our current goal of providing activities to assist teaching letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) relationships of all the consonant sounds of English. To date we have added tasks which target the /p, b, k, ch, dge, f, s, sh and th/ sounds.

     The target this month is /z/ which is a "long" consonant sound. It is produced by putting the teeth together and producing voice on the outgoing breath; hence it is called a "voiced" sound. The "long voiced" production of the /z/ sound may be contrasted with the /s/ sound which is produced in a similar manner (also teeth together) but since it does not have voice on the outgoing breath, it is referred to as a "voiceless" sound.

     Within the new /z/ section there are five subsections representing the main spelling patterns for this sound: "z" (zoo), "zz" (buzz), "ze" (breeze), "s" (music), and "se" (noise). Within each of the subsections, a range of tasks are used, which together, provide a variety of ways to reinforce both reading and spelling of target words. WordSound Buttons encourages the student to segment the word into sounds or syllables and WordSearch provides an opportunity to practice decoding and eventually automatic recognition of words. SmileyMan reinforces spelling, MemoryWords and ConnectWords are further fun ways of encouraging formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition (sight words), and LookThenCover may be used to encourage the student to write the words and consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns.

5. October 2018

   • New eLr Materials

     For this month there is just one new eLr task - a "User Guide" for Systematic Synthetic Phonics. This is a topic which we have been concentrating on for several months, with revisions to our Directory structure and some existing tasks, as well as the addition of a number of new tasks. You can find detailed descriptions about this approach to early reading and spelling instruction in our previous edition (Sep 2017) of ELR-News.

     Over the years we have developed a range of these User Guides to provide registered users with quick summaries of the layout, contents, and suggested usage of eLr. This new one is in the "User Guides and Screening Tools - Where is" subsection which are particularly to assist clinicians in locating and using eLr tasks for specific goals. There are now "Where is" Guides covering:

     • Blending and segmenting activities
     • Basic concept words
     • Similarities and differences
     • Word finding
     • Categorisation
     • Verb tense
     • Non-words for literacy development
     • Sequencing
     • Pronouns
     • Auditory processing
     • Systematic Synthetic Phonics

6. September 2018

   • Revised eLr Materials

     Sixty-six tasks have been revised in "Phonological Awareness" in the "Letter names and sounds" subsection which provides material to teach the relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) of English - an essential skill in the early stages of reading and spelling development. Issues relating to the introduction of graphemes include the decision about the order in which the letters are introduced (scope and sequence), and how to reinforce use of phoneme-grapheme knowledge to read words. Recent research supports a systematic synthetic phonics to address both of these issues. The revisions in this edition have re-organised the task content to be consistent with the sequences used in Jolly Phonics - a commonly used synthetic phonics approach.

7. August 2018

   • New eLr Materials

     Eighty-four new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds / Short consonant sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /p/ sound ("p" eg pan, hop, and "pp" eg slipper), and the /b/ sound ("b" eg bus, rib, and "bb" eg rabbit). This continues our current goal of providing activities that may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. To date we have added tasks which target the /k/, /ch/, /dge/, /f/, /s/, and /sh/ sounds.

     Both /p/ and /b/ are "short" consonant sounds - referred to as "plosives", that is, they are both produced by holding air in the mouth and releasing the sound with a small explosion of air. Hence the main articulators used for both sounds are the lips. The difference between the /p/ and /b/ sounds is that the /p/ sound is a quiet sound - no voice is used, while the /b/ sound is a louder sound because voice is used. Voice is produced by the voice box (larynx) in the neck. If you hold your hand on your larynx ("Adam's apple") and say /p/ followed by /b/, you will feel vibration for the /b/ sound but not the /p/ sound. When doing this activity you need to ensure you are articulating the /p/ sound accurately, ie, say /p/ not /puh/.

     A range of tasks are used, which together, provide a variety of ways to reinforce both reading and spelling of target words. WordSound Buttons encourages the student to segment the word into sounds or syllables, WordSearch provides an opportunity to practice decoding and eventually automatic recognition of words, SmileyMan reinforces spelling, MemoryWords and ConnectWords are fun ways of encouraging formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition - sight words), and LookThenCover may be used to encourage the student to write the words and consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns.

8. July 2018

   • New eLr Materials

     Ninety new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds - Long consonant sounds" subsection targeting spelling options for the /s/ sound. Over the last few editions we have focused on developing materials which may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. Our strategy has been to start with the consonant sounds which have a number of spelling options. For example, the /k/ sounds may be spelled with "k" (kite), "c" (cup), "ck" (sock), "ch" (school), and "q" (quiet).

     The new tasks are in the "/s/ sound" subsection and also have a number of spelling options. The /s/ sound (as in "Sue") is a long consonant sound (as opposed to short consonant sounds such as the /b/, or /t/sounds). It is a voiceless sound, ie no voice is used, in contrast to the /z/ sound (as in "zoo" which is produced with the same teeth, tongue and lip position, but with voice. Within the /s/ sound subsection, there are six subsections which contain materials to teach the main spelling patterns for the /s/ sound: "s" (soap), "ss" (grass", "se" (house), "c" (cent), and "ce" (fence).

     Within each of the subsections, a range of tasks are used, which together, provide a variety of ways to reinforce both reading and spelling of target words. WordSound Buttons encourages the student to segment the word into sounds or syllables, WordSearch provides an opportunity to practice decoding and eventually automatic recognition of words, SmileyMan reinforces spelling, MemoryWords and ConnectWords are fun ways of encouraging formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition - sight words), and LookThenCover may be used to encourage the student to write the words and consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns.

9. June 2018

   Ninety new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds" subsection. Our current goal is to continue to develop materials which may be useful when teaching letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English. The new tasks are in the /sh/ sound subsection. The /sh/ sound (as in "ship" and "machine") is a long consonant sound (as opposed to short consonant sounds such as the /b/, or /t/sounds). It is a voiceless sound, ie no voice is used, in contrast to the /zh/ sound (as in "measure" which is produced with the same tongue and lip positions, but with voice.

   Within the /sh/ sound subsection, we've made seven subsections which contain materials to teach the main spelling patterns for the /sh/ sound (eg sh, ch), as well for words with suffixes which result in spelling patterns such as "ti" and "ci" being pronounced as /sh/ (eg action, special). The new subsections are:

   1. /sh/ spelled with "sh", eg ship, push
   2. /sh/ spelled with "ch", eg champagne, machine
   3. words with the "ion" suffix where the /sh/ sound is represented by "ti" (eg action, direction), "ss" (eg mission), and "s" (eg mansion)
   4. words with the "ial" suffix where the /sh/ sound is represented by "ti" (eg partial), and "ci" (eg crucial)
   5. words with the "ous" suffix where the /sh/ sound is represented by "ti" (eg cautious), and "ci" (eg precious)
   6. words with the "ian" suffix where the /sh/ sound is represented by "ti" (eg musician)
   7. words with the "ent" suffix where the /sh/ sound is represented by "ti" (eg patient), and "ci" (eg ancient)

   Within each of the subsections, a range of tasks are used, which together, provide a variety of ways to reinforce both reading and spelling of target words. WordSound Buttons encourages the student to segment the word into sounds or syllables; WordSearch provides an opportunity to practice decoding and eventually automatic recognition of words; SmileyMan reinforces spelling; MemoryWords and ConnectWords are fun ways of encouraging formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition - sight words); and LookThenCover may be used to encourage the student to write the words and consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns.

   As with all eLr tasks, the role of the instructor is to (a) ensure that accurate decoding and reading has occurred, (b) to encourage the student to expand knowledge of word meanings (eg by talking about the meaning, and using the word in a range of sentences), and (c), in this instance, to encourage the learner to discover the regularities within English spelling, in particular, how suffixes affect pronunciation and spelling of words.

   For additional information about the development of these tasks, please refer to the newsletter in the February edition which outlines the rationale and evidence base for the speech-to-print approach to teaching early reading and spelling skills was discussed.

10. May 2018

    • New eLr Materials

      Sixty six new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds" subsection. This edition continues our current goal which is to provide materials to teach letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English.

      The new tasks are in the "/f/ sound" subsection. The /f/ sound (as in fan, muffin, phone and laugh) is a "long" consonant sound (as opposed to short consonant sounds such as the /p/, or /t/sounds). It is a voiceless sound, ie no voice is used, in contrast to the /v/ sound which is produced with the same lip position, but with voice.

      Within the /f/ sound subsection, there are four further subsections which contain materials to teach each of the main spelling patterns for the /f/ sound:

      1. /f/ spelled with "f", eg fan, deaf
      2. /f/ spelled with "ph", which occurs in a small number of words, eg phone, graph
      3. /f/ spelled with "gh", which also only occurs in a small number of words and never at the start of a word, eg laugh, cough
      4. /f/ spelled with "ff", which never occurs at the start of words, eg puff, muffin

      Within each of the subsections, a range of tasks are used: WordSound Buttons (segmenting the word into sounds), WordSearch (decoding and reading practice), SmileyMan (recalling the spelling), MemoryWords and ConnectWords (encourage formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition - sight words), and LookThenCover

11. April 2018

    • New eLr Materials

      Thirty-six new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling", in the "Consonant Sounds" subsection. This section is currently under development and aims to provide materials to teach sound-letter (phoneme-grapheme) relationships of the consonant sounds of English.

      The new tasks are in the "/dge/ sound" subsection. The /dge/ sound (as in jar, germ, and large) is a "short" consonant sound (as opposed to long consonant sounds such as the /f/, /s/, or /m/ sounds). It is a voiced sound, in contrast to the /ch/ sound which is produced in the same manner (eg with the same tongue position), but without voice.

      Within the "/dge/ sound" subsection, there are four further subsections which contain materials to teach each of the main spelling patterns for the /dge/ sound:

      1. /dge/ spelled with "j", which only occurs in the initial position of words, eg jar, jet, join)
      2. /dge/ spelled with "g", which also occurs in the initial position of a small number of words (eg germ, gym, gem)
      3. /dge/ spelled with "ge", which only occurs at the ends of words (eg large, cage)
      4. /dge/ spelled with "dge", which only occurs at the ends of words that have short vowel sounds (eg badge, hedge, edge)

      Within each of the subsections, a range of tasks are used: WordSound Buttons (segmenting the word into sounds), WordSearch (decoding and reading practice), SmileyMan (recalling the spelling), MemoryWords and ConnectWords (encourage formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition - sight words), and LookThenCover (to encourage the student to write the words and consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns). This range of activities provides the learner with repetition within fun and enjoyable activities.

      As with all eLr tasks, the role of the instructor is (a) to ensure that accurate decoding and reading has occurred, (b) to encourage the learner to discover the regularities within English spelling (eg that "ge" and "dge" only occur at the ends of words, and that "dge" occurs after short vowel sounds), and (c) and to encourage the student to expand knowledge of word meanings (eg by talking about the meaning, and using the word in a range of sentences).

      For additional information about the development of these tasks, please refer to the newsletter in the February edition which outlines the rationale and evidence base for the speech-to-print approach to teaching early reading and spelling skills was discussed.

12. March 2018

    • New and Changed eLr Materials

      We have added 60 new tasks to "Reading and Spelling" in the "Consonant Sounds" sub-section. This is a new sub-section which aims to provide materials to teach letter-sound relationships of the consonant sounds of English.

      The new tasks are in the /k/ sound sub-section. The /k/ sound is a "short" consonant sound (ie it is produced as a little "explosion" after the breath has been completely stopped by the back of the tongue touching the soft palate); and it is a voiceless sound (ie no voice is used). In contrast the /ng/ and /g/ sounds (which are produced with the same tongue position as the /k/ sound) are long (in the case of /ng/) and voiced (for both /g/ and /ng/).

      Within the /k/ sound sub-section, there are five further sub-sections which contain materials to teach each of the main spelling patterns for the /k/ sound:

      1. /k/ spelled with "c", which only occurs in the initial position of words (eg can, crash, coach)
      2. /k/ spelled with "k", which occurs in the initial position of some words (eg kid, key, king), and the final position of others (eg dark, creek, bank, brake)
      3. /k/ spelled with "ck", which only occurs at the ends of words with short vowels (eg pick, suck, click). (This sub-section previously existed in the now replaced "Consonant digraphs" section).
      4. /k/ spelled with "ch" (eg chord, school)
      5. /k/ spelled with "q" (eg queen, quick)

      Within each of the sub-sections, a range of tasks are used: WordSound Buttons (segmenting the word into sounds), WordSearch (decoding and reading practice), SmileyMan (recalling the spelling), MemoryWords and ConnectWords (to encourage formation of clear mental images of words to develop automatic recognition - sight words), and LookThenCover (to encourage the student to write the words and consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns). This range of activities provides the learner with repetition within a range of enjoyable activities.

      As with all eLr tasks, the role of the instructor is to ensure that accurate decoding and reading has occurred, and to encourage the student to expand knowledge of word meanings (eg by talking about the meaning, and using the word in a range of sentences).

      For additional information about the development of these tasks, please refer to the February 2018 edition of ELR-News: the rationale and evidence base for the speech-to-print approach to teaching early reading and spelling skills was discussed there.

13. February 2018

    • New and Changed eLr Materials

      This month we began development of new sub-sections within the "Reading and Spelling" section which will target all the consonant sounds of English and the spelling options which represent each sound, providing users with materials to support a systematic, evidence-based approach for teaching early reading and spelling skills.

      As background, eLr has been developed over the last 17 years to support interventions for people with speech, language, and literacy impairment. Two sections specifically target development of early literacy skills. They are: "Phonological Awareness" which targets foundation skills for reading and spelling (eg identifying sounds in words, breaking words into sounds, and early alphabet knowledge), and "Reading and Spelling" which provides material to teach word reading skills (eg decoding, sight word development, multi-syllabic words, prefixes and suffixes, homophones and homographs, and verb tenses).

      To date, the focus in the decoding sub-sections of "Reading and Spelling" has been on the vowel sounds (short, long, and diphthongs) which we've arranged using a "speech-to-print" approach. This approach teaches the sound first and then the spelling patterns that represent each sound. While there were also sub-sections for some of the common consonant digraphs (eg "sh, ch, tch, ph, wh), our new sub-sections will use this same "speech-to-print" approach to provide materials to systematically teach each of the consonant sounds. For example, one sub-section will target the /k/ sound (which has a number of different spelling patterns, eg "k" kite, "c" cup, "ck" sock, "ch" echo, and "q" quiet), and another will target the /s/ sound with spelling patterns such as "s" soap, "ss" grass, "se" house, "c" cent, and "ce" fence, and so on.

      The development of these new materials will take time. In this edition, we have slightly re-structured the main Directory and made modifications to some of the existing consonant digraph tasks. Over the coming months we will be developing new sub-sections and tasks which may be useful in reading and spelling instruction focusing on the alphabetic code. As usual, we appreciate your feedback about our continual update of existing materials and the development of new intervention material.

14. January 2018

    • New eLr Materials

      Fourty-four new tasks have been added to "Phonology-Skills and Early Sounds" in the "Early Consonant Sounds" subsection. As we did last month for words with the /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ sounds in the medial position, the new tasks aim to provide word based (in addition to the existing picture based) activities to strengthen production of words, this time with with the /m/ /n/ /ng/ and /w/ sounds . These activities may be useful for older learners who have speech sound disorders, eg people with hearing impairment or dyspraxia.

      Within each sound subsection there are three sets of words. The easier set only contains earlier developing consonant sounds, eg in the /m/ subsection, the /t/ and /h/ in "hermit" and "timer" are earlier developing sounds and usually easier to produce. The more difficult set contains later developing consonant sounds, eg in "mammoth" and "charming" the /th/ and /ch/ sounds develop later and are usually more difficult to produce for many people with speech sound disorders. The third set contains words with consonant blends in the medial position, eg "shampoo" and "symbol" as consonant blends may be more complex for some people.

      Four models are used for each set of words. The WordSearch model is a word search activity; SmileyMan is like a "hangman" game; MemoryWords a memory game; and ConnectWords (a "Connect 4" type game). The aim of each activity is to provide an enjoyable way for the learner to practice production of the target sound in words.

      These tasks are best used under the guidance of a speech pathologist. Following a speech pathology assessment the clinician is able to determine (a) the nature of the learner's speech sound disorder (b) appropriate strategies for individual learners, and (c) progression to use of target words in phrases and sentences. As with all eLr tasks the role of the clinician, teacher or support person is crucial in providing feedback about accuracy of production, and ways of encouraging extension activities. These may include a discussion about the meaning of the words and other modifications to help the learner generalise new skills to conversational speech.

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