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Interventions for literacy skills

This unit examines effective teaching of literacy skills in light of research suggesting that the quality of the delivery of a programme is much more important in explaining outcomes than the content of the programme itself. It discusses the principles of literacy interventions and describes the processes involved in carrying out interventions in a school setting.

The unit covers the following areas:

  • The role of quality teaching in literacy interventions.
  • Planning individualised interventions for pupils who do not respond to a thorough phonics-based programme.
  • Setting targets for progress.
  • Precision teaching.
  • Developing comprehension skills using reciprocal teaching.
  • Strategies used to teach spelling.
  • Strategies for helping students with handwriting difficulties.

These graphs give a basic representation of the correlation between quality teaching and effective interventions, as described in your PDF.

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The importance of quality teaching in interventions

Graph
               showing teacher’s skill against the outcome for pupil

Teacher’s skill

Outcome for pupil

Graph showing pupils’ difficulties against
               the kill required from the teacher

Pupils’ difficulties

Skill required from teacher

Good phonics programmes

This mind map shows the different elements of a good phonics programme, as described in your PDF. Select any element to find out more.

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Good phonics programmes are...

  • Synthetic

    Synthetic phonics involves teaching the letter sounds first and moves on to melding the sounds together to reach the full pronunciation.

    Close
  • Structured

    Structuring the process, such as working through how certain letter sequences sound, facilitates learning, although this should not be too rigid – allow room for flexibility.

    Close
  • Sequential

    Sequential teaching allows pupils to track their progress by noting it down. They can then revisit what they have previously learnt as they combine certain phonic sequences.

    Close
  • Cumulative

    A cumulative programme, building on each phonic element the pupil has learnt, helps them to gradually sound-out words.

    Close

There are many irregular words in the English language that do not follow phonetic conventions in the way they are spelt. These include certain letter sequences that are pronounced in different ways, and silent letters. Some words are temporarily irregular as pupils learn how to say particular letter sequences.

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Irregular words

Same letters – different sound

Rough
Though
Thought

Silent letters

Knee
Ghost
Behaviour

Temporarily irregular

Down
Stray
Curl

This mind map shows the principles of good practice for phonics teaching, as described in your PDF. Select each principle to find out more.

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Principles of good practice

  • Little and often

    Pupils learn best when they are regularly taught in short sessions. Using this method ensures that learning is frequently revised and knowledge is applied in new contexts.

    Close
  • Use all your senses

    A pupil’s learning will be most effective when they use all their senses. As such, you should use teaching methods that engage their sight, hearing, speech and sense of touch.

    Close
  • Avoid learning confusion

    Don’t muddle learning through teaching more than one thing at a time. Teaching two things concurrently is likely to result in future confusion.

    Close
  • 'Shape' complex behaviour

    Model behaviour for the pupil, and move from simple to complex in a series of steps. Praise the pupil as they gradually move towards a learning goal.

    Close
  • Encourage 'deep' learning

    Rather than purely telling rules to pupils, allow them to work them out for themselves. Support them in correcting errors and provide examples when necessary.

    Close

This graphic shows the process of precision teaching, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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Precision teaching

  1. Target words
  2. Set timer
  3. Record and compare
  4. Praise and compare
  1. Give the pupil 10-15 target words on cards. These should be carefully chosen to ensure the pupil can successfully read the initial selection.

  2. Set a timer to 20 seconds, during which time the pupil should read the words aloud. Put any words they do not know to one side.

  3. Ask the pupil to stop reading when the timer sounds and record the number of words read in the 20 seconds. Then compare the result against the goal for the session; if it has not been met, reset the timer and repeat the process.

  4. Praise the pupil when the session goal is reached. Keep records of performance over time so the pupil can compare and celebrate their learning.

  • Interventions to support children with SpLD

    This video was filmed at Hawes Side Primary School in Blackpool, where around 30% of pupils are on the SEN register. It shows how the school’s inclusion team use careful differentiation in the classroom, employing a wide range of group interventions to support the needs of individual pupils with specific learning difficulties.

    This video clip relates to the ‘Developing comprehension skills’ section of your PDF of unit 15.

    Show transcript

    Narrator:

    Hawes Side is a large three-form entry school in Blackpool, with around 30% of pupils on the Special Educational Needs register. For those pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties, the school’s inclusion team uses careful differentiation in the classroom, with a range of group interventions, focussing on pupils’ individual requirements, such as phonic skills, spelling, and fine or gross motor skills. A multi-sensory support is also employed to ensure the child is making steady progress.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Good boy

    Gill Holt – Inclusion Manager

    Children with specific difficulties often have great difficulty with fine and gross motor skills.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Concentrate, you hold this paper as well. That’s it. On the dots. See these here?

    Pupil: Yes.

    Teacher: That’s what we’re going to cut around.

    Gill:

    Manual dexterity is a great difficulty, so we look at the whole child, we look at their posture when they’re doing their handwriting; we ensure that they’ve got a correct pencil grip.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Right hold it tight, tight, tight.

    Gill:

    We use a multi-sensory approach so the child may make the grapheme in the sand.

    We may utilise threading beads, and do lots of work on left to right orientation with them.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Pupil: A little circle, a square and a … a cylinder.

    Teacher: Good girl.

    Gill:

    Lots of infants benefit from activities to develop the pincer grip when they’re doing that.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher 1: Right through, that’s it, you’ve got it now.

    Teacher 2: Lift your finger and your thumb there, and I want you to press it

    Gill:

    Therapeutic property is a resource that we’ve sourced from occupational therapy and it’s a very useful tool to develop strength in the hand.

    All the fine motor skills certainly help the child to develop the acquired skills to improve hand writing.

    Narrator:

    When teaching spelling, the school employs a variety of strategies, with some children benefitting from a phonic approach, whilst others respond to a more visual method.

    A common strategy is simultaneous oral spelling, which is visual, multi-sensory, and repetitive, so the child retains the required vocabulary.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: This morning we’re going to have a look at spelling the word ‘could’, and we’re going to have a think about the letter names, alright. So if you see this word here? Would you tell me the letter names in this word ‘could’?

    Pupil: Kuh, suh, see

    Teacher: Good boy.

    Pupil: O

    Teacher: Have a go. Have a little look at this one.

    Pupil: U

    Teacher: Good boy

    Gill:

    The child writes the word in a cursive script, and we repeat it several times using coloured pens. The child then writes the word from memory; they look at the shape of the word. Very often we use magnetic letters also to make the word, and then the child writes the word again from memory, we check it. We never say that the child is wrong. If there’s an error we say, well done! You’re nearly there, you’ve nearly achieved your target.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Well done. Can you see? I can see all your letter names there, well done.

    Gill:

    And then the child will write the word in a sentence.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: I want you to think of a sentence that includes this word ‘could’. Go on then.

    Pupil: I could go to the shop.

    Teacher: Perfect. Ok.

    Gill:

    We will check all the spellings in the sentence, but we’re particularly focussed on the target word, and if the child is correct, we praise, and we will revisit skills probably on several occasions to retain the spelling. It is very difficult for a child with SpLD to learn spellings, it’s a really difficult skill for them to acquire.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Well done. What have you put on the end?

    Pupil: A full stop.

    Teacher: Super, that’s brilliant. Well thank you Joshua, you’ve done really well there.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: Hello Kayleigh, how are you today?

    Kayleigh: I’m fine thank you.

    Narrator:

    Year 5 pupil Kayleigh is given an exercise by her learning mentor to help improve her reading comprehension.

    Gill:

    She’s so focussed on the reading process, decoding words, remembering the shape of the words, the fluency, that she doesn’t take in the information she’s reading. So the text is presented in a very structured way. We just chunk the passage and focus on specific paragraphs.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: So what we’re going today is to read some text from an author that I know we’ve actually been working on in school, and it’s Roald Dahl.

    The characters are Mr and Mrs Twit, we’re going to read the story, but you’re going to read it for me. We’re going to read it in sections then I’m going to ask you some questions about what you’ve read.

    Kayleigh: (Reading) “Mrs Twit sneaked out into the garden”

    “At 1 o’clock, she cooked spaghetti for lunch.”

    Learning mentor: Well done.

    Gill:

    If the child needs the paragraph reading to her, then we do that. She may read the paragraph herself, and then answer specific questions about the paragraph.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: Will you tell me a little bit about what you’ve read? What happened in the first part of the story with Mrs Twit?

    Kayleigh: She went into the garden, and got some worms and cooked them to play a trick on her husband.

    Learning mentor: Fantastic, well done. Why do you think Mr Twit didn’t see the worms on his plate?

    Kayleigh: Because it was covered in cheese and tomato sauce.

    Kayleigh: Fantastic, well done

    Gill:

    It helps the child to concentrate on the content of the text, and it’s only through practice, regular reading, breaking the passage down into chunks that the child will acquire the skills to be successful at comprehension which is a vital skill to become fluent readers and skilled readers.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: How do you think you got on reading it?

    Kayleigh: I think I got on well, but I got stuck on a couple of words.

    Learning mentor: That’s fine because there were some really difficult words in that story to read, some that I might have struggled on.

    Kayleigh: I think I did well.

    Learning mentor: I think you did too, I think you did super. Well done.

This graphic shows the process of the reciprocal teaching, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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Reciprocal teaching

  1. Set groups and roles
  2. Read
  3. Summarise
  4. Questions
  5. Switch
  1. Put the pupils into groups of four and identify a role for each child: summariser; questioner; clarifier; predictor.

  2. Ask the pupils to read a few paragraphs of some given text. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky notes to help them better prepare for their role in the discussion.

  3. Now ask the summariser to highlight the key ideas within the text that the group has hitherto read.

  4. At this point, the questioner asks any questions they may have about the text. The clarifier will attempt to answer these and the predictor can guess about the content of the following text.

  5. The pupils then switch roles with the person to the right and repeat the process, until the entire text is read.

This graphic shows the process of the phonics first intervention, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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The spelling toolkit: phonics first

  1. Target spellings
  2. Use objects
  3. Sound-out
  4. Speak
  5. Rewrite and check
  1. First, ask the pupil to write the target spellings that you have set.

  2. Spell out each incorrect word using plastic or wooden letters, or letters written on small pieces of card.

  3. Say each sound in the word, such as /b/ /i/ /g/ (big), /s/ /t/ /ay/ (stay).

  4. Now say the whole word for the pupil, and then ask them to say the sounds in the word and repeat it in its entirety, just as you have said it.

  5. Ask the pupil to write the word and check that it is right.

This progress bar graphic shows the process of the ‘look, cover, write, check’ intervention, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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The spelling toolkit: look, cover, write, check

  1. Target spellings
  2. Amend
  3. Review, cover, rewrite
  4. Check and talk
  1. Ask the child to write the target spellings.

  2. For each word that is wrong, write the word correctly.

  3. Ask the pupil to look at the word carefully, allowing about 10 seconds, then cover it. Now ask them to write the word again.

  4. Ask the child to check their spelling of each amended word against the correct spelling. You can then talk about any mistakes.

This progress bar graphic shows the process of the neurolinguistic programming intervention, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step. Visit the Magical Spelling website to see a similar technique.

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The spelling toolkit: neurolinguistic programming

  1. Think visually
  2. Week’s spellings
  3. Amendments
  4. Talk
  5. Check
  1. First, help the pupil to think visually, explaining that we can all take pictures in our head, just like a camera. Ask them to visualise a room that’s familiar to them, and then tell you about details such as where furniture is, where doors or windows are, and how they open. You only need to do this ‘seeing work’ the first time.

  2. Ask the pupil to write the spellings for this week.

  3. Clearly write each word that has been incorrectly spelt on an individual piece of paper of roughly A5 size. Hold this three-feet in front of the pupil, about one foot to their left and one foot above their face, so they can see it.

  4. While you’re holding the word, talk about it with the pupil. Discuss its meaning, its shape, bits that stick up or down (e.g. like long), words that are in the word, and beginnings or endings of the word (like playing).

  5. Ask the child to write the word and check it is right.

This progress bar graphic shows the process of the simultaneous oral spelling intervention, as described in your PDF. The ‘teacher’ in this activity could be a parent helper, study buddy or teaching assistant, each of whom would have to be trained. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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The spelling toolkit: simultaneous oral spelling

  1. Target spellings
  2. Amendments
  3. Write and say
  4. Say and check
  1. Ask the pupil to write the target spellings.

  2. Write each incorrectly spelt word correctly, saying each letter name as it is written.

  3. Ask the pupil to write the word and say each letter’s name as it is written.

  4. Ask the pupil to say the whole word and check it is right against the teacher’s writing.

  • Interventions to support children with SpLD

    This video was filmed at Hawes Side Primary School in Blackpool, where around 30% of pupils are on the SEN register. It shows how the school’s inclusion team use careful differentiation in the classroom, employing a wide range of group interventions to support the needs of individual pupils with specific learning difficulties.

    This video clip relates to the ‘Simultaneous oral spelling’ section of ‘The spelling toolkit’ in your PDF of unit 15.

    Show transcript

    Narrator:

    Hawes Side is a large three-form entry school in Blackpool, with around 30% of pupils on the Special Educational Needs register. For those pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties, the school’s inclusion team uses careful differentiation in the classroom, with a range of group interventions, focussing on pupils’ individual requirements, such as phonic skills, spelling, and fine or gross motor skills. A multi-sensory support is also employed to ensure the child is making steady progress.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Good boy

    Gill Holt – Inclusion Manager

    Children with specific difficulties often have great difficulty with fine and gross motor skills.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Concentrate, you hold this paper as well. That’s it. On the dots. See these here?

    Pupil: Yes.

    Teacher: That’s what we’re going to cut around.

    Gill:

    Manual dexterity is a great difficulty, so we look at the whole child, we look at their posture when they’re doing their handwriting; we ensure that they’ve got a correct pencil grip.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Right hold it tight, tight, tight.

    Gill:

    We use a multi-sensory approach so the child may make the grapheme in the sand.

    We may utilise threading beads, and do lots of work on left to right orientation with them.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Pupil: A little circle, a square and a … a cylinder.

    Teacher: Good girl.

    Gill:

    Lots of infants benefit from activities to develop the pincer grip when they’re doing that.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher 1: Right through, that’s it, you’ve got it now.

    Teacher 2: Lift your finger and your thumb there, and I want you to press it

    Gill:

    Therapeutic property is a resource that we’ve sourced from occupational therapy and it’s a very useful tool to develop strength in the hand.

    All the fine motor skills certainly help the child to develop the acquired skills to improve hand writing.

    Narrator:

    When teaching spelling, the school employs a variety of strategies, with some children benefitting from a phonic approach, whilst others respond to a more visual method.

    A common strategy is simultaneous oral spelling, which is visual, multi-sensory, and repetitive, so the child retains the required vocabulary.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: This morning we’re going to have a look at spelling the word ‘could’, and we’re going to have a think about the letter names, alright. So if you see this word here? Would you tell me the letter names in this word ‘could’?

    Pupil: Kuh, suh, see

    Teacher: Good boy.

    Pupil: O

    Teacher: Have a go. Have a little look at this one.

    Pupil: U

    Teacher: Good boy

    Gill:

    The child writes the word in a cursive script, and we repeat it several times using coloured pens. The child then writes the word from memory; they look at the shape of the word. Very often we use magnetic letters also to make the word, and then the child writes the word again from memory, we check it. We never say that the child is wrong. If there’s an error we say, well done! You’re nearly there, you’ve nearly achieved your target.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Well done. Can you see? I can see all your letter names there, well done.

    Gill:

    And then the child will write the word in a sentence.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: I want you to think of a sentence that includes this word ‘could’. Go on then.

    Pupil: I could go to the shop.

    Teacher: Perfect. Ok.

    Gill:

    We will check all the spellings in the sentence, but we’re particularly focussed on the target word, and if the child is correct, we praise, and we will revisit skills probably on several occasions to retain the spelling. It is very difficult for a child with SpLD to learn spellings, it’s a really difficult skill for them to acquire.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Well done. What have you put on the end?

    Pupil: A full stop.

    Teacher: Super, that’s brilliant. Well thank you Joshua, you’ve done really well there.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: Hello Kayleigh, how are you today?

    Kayleigh: I’m fine thank you.

    Narrator:

    Year 5 pupil Kayleigh is given an exercise by her learning mentor to help improve her reading comprehension.

    Gill:

    She’s so focussed on the reading process, decoding words, remembering the shape of the words, the fluency, that she doesn’t take in the information she’s reading. So the text is presented in a very structured way. We just chunk the passage and focus on specific paragraphs.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: So what we’re going today is to read some text from an author that I know we’ve actually been working on in school, and it’s Roald Dahl.

    The characters are Mr and Mrs Twit, we’re going to read the story, but you’re going to read it for me. We’re going to read it in sections then I’m going to ask you some questions about what you’ve read.

    Kayleigh: (Reading) “Mrs Twit sneaked out into the garden”

    “At 1 o’clock, she cooked spaghetti for lunch.”

    Learning mentor: Well done.

    Gill:

    If the child needs the paragraph reading to her, then we do that. She may read the paragraph herself, and then answer specific questions about the paragraph.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: Will you tell me a little bit about what you’ve read? What happened in the first part of the story with Mrs Twit?

    Kayleigh: She went into the garden, and got some worms and cooked them to play a trick on her husband.

    Learning mentor: Fantastic, well done. Why do you think Mr Twit didn’t see the worms on his plate?

    Kayleigh: Because it was covered in cheese and tomato sauce.

    Kayleigh: Fantastic, well done

    Gill:

    It helps the child to concentrate on the content of the text, and it’s only through practice, regular reading, breaking the passage down into chunks that the child will acquire the skills to be successful at comprehension which is a vital skill to become fluent readers and skilled readers.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: How do you think you got on reading it?

    Kayleigh: I think I got on well, but I got stuck on a couple of words.

    Learning mentor: That’s fine because there were some really difficult words in that story to read, some that I might have struggled on.

    Kayleigh: I think I did well.

    Learning mentor: I think you did too, I think you did super. Well done.

This progress bar graphic shows the process of the cued spelling intervention, as described in your PDF. The speller needs a practice buddy for this approach. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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The spelling toolkit: cued spelling

  1. Before starting
  2. Choose and check
  3. Read
  4. Cues
  5. Cues and writing
  6. Write fast
  7. Review
  1. The pupil’s helper in this approach should keep these principles in mind:

    • The helper covers previous attempts
    • The speller checks their own attempt
    • If the attempt is wrong, repeat the previous step
    • The helper praises the speller when they succeed
  2. First, the speller chooses a word, checks the right spelling, and then writes it in their word diary.

  3. At this point, the speller should read the word alone, and also with the helper.

  4. The helper chooses cues – such as patterns and rules or a mnemonic – and says these with the speller.

  5. The speller now says the cues, and the helper writes the word, then vice versa. The speller then both says the cues and writes the word.

  6. The speller writes the word quickly, and then reads the word.

  7. The speller has a daily speed review, writing all the words for the day quickly, and checks them. For any word spelt incorrectly, they repeat the previous steps.

    On a weekly basis, the speller completes a ‘mastery review’, writing all the words for the week quickly, and then checking them. At this point, evaluate what to do about the words they have incorrectly spelt.

This progress bar graphic shows the process of the mnemonics intervention, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

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The spelling toolkit: mnemonics

  1. Target spellings
  2. Amendments
  3. Saying
  4. Repeat
  5. Spell with saying
  1. Ask the pupil to write the target spellings.

  2. Write down each word that has been spelt incorrectly for the pupil.

  3. Create an acronym for each word. So for example, our cat eats at night

  4. The pupil repeats and learns the saying to help remember the word’s spelling.

  5. The pupil then spells the word using the saying.

This progress bar graphic shows the process of the ‘own voice’ intervention, as described in your PDF. Select each stage to work through it step-by-step.

Hide

The spelling toolkit: own voice

  1. Target spellings
  2. Record
  3. Listen
  4. Check
  1. Ask the pupil to write the target spellings.

  2. The pupil records each word they have spelt incorrectly into a voice recorder, along with the individual letter names – rather than sounds – and then again the whole word. So in the given example, house, h-o-u-s-e, house.

  3. The pupil then listens to the recording and writes the word again.

  4. Check the spelling with the pupil and repeat the process as necessary.

Support with handwriting difficulties

  • Keyboard familiarity

    Helping pupils with their keyboard skills can expedite their writing when using a computer. Teaching touch typing skills can help pupils with dyslexia concentrate on the core focus of their work, and reduce the detrimental effects of writing difficulties.

    Close
  • Pencil grip

    Some pupils’ troubles with handwriting may relate to how they hold a pencil or pen; identifying a suitable pencil grip can help alleviate this. However, a non-standard grip – for example one that is not a tripod or flexible – can hamper handwriting.

    Close
  • Using a scribe

    You could consider using a scribe, to whom the pupil dictates their work to be written down, in some cases. Make sure the pupil is comfortable using this method.

    Close
  • Posture

    Think about the pupil’s posture and if they have a suitably comfortable desk and seat. As noted in Spelling, handwriting and dyslexia: overcoming barriers to learning (Montgomery, 2006), an inappropriate furniture set-up can place stress upon pupils, particularly those that are growing rapidly or have coordination difficulties. A child’s back should be straight, their feet resting on the floor, and their book should be slanted to the left if right-handed, and vice versa if left-handed.

    Close
  • Pattern-making

    Handwriting patterns can help pupils with handwriting difficulties find a comfortable position for their books and paper. These can simplify the practice of handwriting, help the pupil think about how they hold their pen, and also remove complications of spelling. You can see an example handwriting pattern on the following resource within this unit.

    Close

This is an example of a handwriting pattern. Such patterns can help to alleviate dyslexic pupils’ difficulties with handwriting.

Hide

Example of a handwriting pattern

Handwriting pattern
  • Interventions to support children with SpLD

    This video was filmed at Hawes Side Primary School in Blackpool, where around 30% of pupils are on the SEN register. It shows how the school’s inclusion team use careful differentiation in the classroom, employing a wide range of group interventions to support the needs of individual pupils with specific learning difficulties.

    This video clip relates to the ‘Supporting with handwriting difficulties’ section of your PDF of unit 15.

    Show transcript

    Narrator:

    Hawes Side is a large three-form entry school in Blackpool, with around 30% of pupils on the Special Educational Needs register. For those pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties, the school’s inclusion team uses careful differentiation in the classroom, with a range of group interventions, focussing on pupils’ individual requirements, such as phonic skills, spelling, and fine or gross motor skills. A multi-sensory support is also employed to ensure the child is making steady progress.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Good boy

    Gill Holt – Inclusion Manager

    Children with specific difficulties often have great difficulty with fine and gross motor skills.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Concentrate, you hold this paper as well. That’s it. On the dots. See these here?

    Pupil: Yes.

    Teacher: That’s what we’re going to cut around.

    Gill:

    Manual dexterity is a great difficulty, so we look at the whole child, we look at their posture when they’re doing their handwriting; we ensure that they’ve got a correct pencil grip.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Right hold it tight, tight, tight.

    Gill:

    We use a multi-sensory approach so the child may make the grapheme in the sand.

    We may utilise threading beads, and do lots of work on left to right orientation with them.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Pupil: A little circle, a square and a … a cylinder.

    Teacher: Good girl.

    Gill:

    Lots of infants benefit from activities to develop the pincer grip when they’re doing that.

    Group Intervention interaction

    Teacher 1: Right through, that’s it, you’ve got it now.

    Teacher 2: Lift your finger and your thumb there, and I want you to press it

    Gill:

    Therapeutic property is a resource that we’ve sourced from occupational therapy and it’s a very useful tool to develop strength in the hand.

    All the fine motor skills certainly help the child to develop the acquired skills to improve hand writing.

    Narrator:

    When teaching spelling, the school employs a variety of strategies, with some children benefitting from a phonic approach, whilst others respond to a more visual method.

    A common strategy is simultaneous oral spelling, which is visual, multi-sensory, and repetitive, so the child retains the required vocabulary.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: This morning we’re going to have a look at spelling the word ‘could’, and we’re going to have a think about the letter names, alright. So if you see this word here? Would you tell me the letter names in this word ‘could’?

    Pupil: Kuh, suh, see

    Teacher: Good boy.

    Pupil: O

    Teacher: Have a go. Have a little look at this one.

    Pupil: U

    Teacher: Good boy

    Gill:

    The child writes the word in a cursive script, and we repeat it several times using coloured pens. The child then writes the word from memory; they look at the shape of the word. Very often we use magnetic letters also to make the word, and then the child writes the word again from memory, we check it. We never say that the child is wrong. If there’s an error we say, well done! You’re nearly there, you’ve nearly achieved your target.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Well done. Can you see? I can see all your letter names there, well done.

    Gill:

    And then the child will write the word in a sentence.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: I want you to think of a sentence that includes this word ‘could’. Go on then.

    Pupil: I could go to the shop.

    Teacher: Perfect. Ok.

    Gill:

    We will check all the spellings in the sentence, but we’re particularly focussed on the target word, and if the child is correct, we praise, and we will revisit skills probably on several occasions to retain the spelling. It is very difficult for a child with SpLD to learn spellings, it’s a really difficult skill for them to acquire.

    Simultaneous Oral Spelling Intervention interaction

    Teacher: Well done. What have you put on the end?

    Pupil: A full stop.

    Teacher: Super, that’s brilliant. Well thank you Joshua, you’ve done really well there.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: Hello Kayleigh, how are you today?

    Kayleigh: I’m fine thank you.

    Narrator:

    Year 5 pupil Kayleigh is given an exercise by her learning mentor to help improve her reading comprehension.

    Gill:

    She’s so focussed on the reading process, decoding words, remembering the shape of the words, the fluency, that she doesn’t take in the information she’s reading. So the text is presented in a very structured way. We just chunk the passage and focus on specific paragraphs.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: So what we’re going today is to read some text from an author that I know we’ve actually been working on in school, and it’s Roald Dahl.

    The characters are Mr and Mrs Twit, we’re going to read the story, but you’re going to read it for me. We’re going to read it in sections then I’m going to ask you some questions about what you’ve read.

    Kayleigh: (Reading) “Mrs Twit sneaked out into the garden”

    “At 1 o’clock, she cooked spaghetti for lunch.”

    Learning mentor: Well done.

    Gill:

    If the child needs the paragraph reading to her, then we do that. She may read the paragraph herself, and then answer specific questions about the paragraph.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: Will you tell me a little bit about what you’ve read? What happened in the first part of the story with Mrs Twit?

    Kayleigh: She went into the garden, and got some worms and cooked them to play a trick on her husband.

    Learning mentor: Fantastic, well done. Why do you think Mr Twit didn’t see the worms on his plate?

    Kayleigh: Because it was covered in cheese and tomato sauce.

    Kayleigh: Fantastic, well done

    Gill:

    It helps the child to concentrate on the content of the text, and it’s only through practice, regular reading, breaking the passage down into chunks that the child will acquire the skills to be successful at comprehension which is a vital skill to become fluent readers and skilled readers.

    Comprehension Intervention interaction

    Learning mentor: How do you think you got on reading it?

    Kayleigh: I think I got on well, but I got stuck on a couple of words.

    Learning mentor: That’s fine because there were some really difficult words in that story to read, some that I might have struggled on.

    Kayleigh: I think I did well.

    Learning mentor: I think you did too, I think you did super. Well done.

These note-taking strategies can be useful for older pupils.

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Note-taking strategies

Note

Using a voice recorder helps pupils focus on the lesson and reduces the need for note-taking. They can note salient points and then review the audio file for further insight if required.

Leaving the margin clear allows room to jot down questions, review notes, and text reinforcements. Keeping notes well spaced-out makes it easier to read them back.

Pupils should write down the date, any reference or textbook chapter number, and the subject at the top of lesson notes.

Using one colour for underlining headings, and another for questions, makes them easier to find when scanning notes.

Using a clear system for noting down points and sub-points makes it easier to find salient information for future reference (e.g. 1 a, b, c ... 2 a, b, c...).

Visual elements can be helpful for illustrating concepts.

Leaving the bottom two inches of a page blank allows room for a summary.

  • Supporting SpLD in the general classroom

    This video shows Year 5/6 team leader Lyn Brimson teaching a Year 6 literacy class, in which several pupils have specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia. Lyn explains different ways to engage pupils with SEN in their learning, and talks us through using a topic-specific vocabulary (TSV) board.

    This video clip relates to activity 6 in your PDF of unit 15.

    Show transcript

    Narrator:

    Orchard Vale is a Primary School in Barnstaple, Devon, with an intake of 350 pupils, around 40% of whom have Special Educational Needs.

    Lyn Brimson is teaching a Year Six Literacy class, which includes several pupils with specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia.

    Lyn Brimson – Year 5/6 Team Leader

    We’re at the beginning of a unit of literacy work at the moment dealing with autobiographical and biographical texts. So we’ve looked at a range of those and we’ve highlighted the text for key vocabulary that we’ve seen, we’re beginning to look at talking about themselves, so they could feel important, they could share some interesting facts with their friends, and they were then going to write a biography.

    Narrator:

    Lyn begins the lesson with a warm up task, using familiar characters such as Harry Potter to engage the pupils in an immediate, and non-threatening way.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: Ok then team, what’s the first target of the day in today’s Literacy lesson? What the first thing we’re looking for today in particular? Dionne.

    Dionne: (Reading) “Which words will you use to describe this person?”

    Lyn: Ok talk to the person next to you. What makes a good word? What are we looking for in this activity? Off you go.

    Narrator:

    She then asks everyone to work with a talk partner, which not only generates vocabulary ideas, but also encourages inclusion.

    Lyn:

    The people with Special Education Needs or dyslexia in the classroom, need to feel that they have other qualities that they can add to the classroom, and they don’t need to feel as though they can’t write that they can’t take part. Actually, as we have seen today, that Dani, she was able to take part through use of the spoken voice.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: What have we got then for our success criteria? What’s going to make this a really good lesson? What am I looking for? Noah.

    Noah: Adjectives.

    Lyn: Good boy. So first of all I’m looking for adjectives. Dani.

    Dani: Wow words.

    Lyn: Wow words, exactly.

    Lyn:

    Danielle is a child who is on the dyslexia spectrum, and because of her spelling needs in class, and her phonic ability, and the fact that she has, she goes out for intervention group support as well, means that we have put in place in class things like coloured overlays, word banks, word banks on the wall, and special word banks for Danielle with her white board, and access to laptops at all times. We’ve given her strategies in order to be ready

    Classroom interaction

    Dani: So what have you got to put what type of house?

    Dionne: Yes so it could be like a terrace or flat.

    Dani: Yes. Have we got to put another question? No we weren’t meant to do that.

    Dani:

    If we’re all together, if you don’t know a word, it’s easier to talk to each other because we’re all at the same level, and they’re not going to be like well “I know that word” because there are lots of different words that we all don’t know and some of us do know. So it’s easier.

    Lyn:

    I’m also really keen in order to make children feel confident with writing, like Dani, that she doesn’t have to feel as though she has to write everything down with a pen, so we’ve made ICT, a resource for her in the classroom, and she presents her learning on the computer there, which is a benefit to her, because sometimes children when they’ve type it, it looks different, I think, to how when they write it and it makes it clearer for them on the screen. And then they can sort out whether they need to change some of their phonics, they can read it back, they can press the space bar so it’s actually a physical response to press the space bar so they’ve got spaces between the words. And once they’ve got spaces between the words they can then look at individual word patterns and see where they’re making the mistakes and what they need to do next.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: OK we’re looking at our TSV board now to help us with our writing in five minutes time.

    Narrator

    To encourage the use of a wider range of vocabulary in the classroom, Lyn also uses a Topic Specific Vocabulary board, highlighting key words and phrases which relate to the lesson’s subject.

    Classroom interaction

    Pupil: c, o, u, n, t, r, y.

    Lyn: Good boy, country.

    Lyn:

    You could argue that that TSV board is primarily for people like Dani, but actually throughout the class there are other children in there who need to have the written word written down for them, and then they can copy the word successfully or they can have a go, or they can access to richer vocabulary. So the whole class has got it; nobody is being singled out at all, and then everybody can have access to that good language which we’re aiming for in schools today.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: Ok now what do you notice about the “P” in the size to the “a”?

    Pupil: It has a longer stick.

    Lyn:

    Children with dyslexia and anybody on the Special Educational Needs register, in order to help them further with their spelling, what we will do we will highlight a key word maybe from a text that the children need to recap on, so I will ask the children first of all to have a go on their whiteboards, what do they think that word might look like? So the children will have a go, they will discuss it together.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: So we’re looking at type of pet, what’s that that can go on our TSV board.

    Pupil: Breed.

    Lyn: Breed. Good girl. Breed. Now that’s a tricky one.

    Lyn:

    And they will discuss with me that sometimes the digraph “E” is made with double “E” and sometimes is made with “E”, “A”.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: We’ve got the “ee” sound in there, so how do we make the sound “ee” when we’re talking about “breed”? Owen.

    Owen: B, R, E, E, D.

    Lyn: Good. Just out of interest, if we swapped to B, R, E, A, D, what would that make us? Which word would that give us Bryony?

    Bryony: Would it be “bread”?

    Lyn: It would be “bread”, good girl, well done. So we’ve got...

    Lyn:

    So then as a class we will then discuss which words have the sound “ee” with “E”, “E” in and which with “E”, “A”, so they’ll have two lists, two columns on the white board of possibilities, and then we’ll highlight that and I’ll refer back to that in the following lesson as well so if we suddenly notice another pattern, we’ll then add that in and so they’re building up a bank of words that they’re familiar with.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: Wow, Nemesis, what does that mean Antz?

    Antz: Enemy.

    Lyn: Good boy, I’m going to write up nemesis because that’s a fantastic word.

    Teacher:

    The main aim then was for them to use that good language, like the word from Antz, which was Nemesis, and put it into a sentence. So therefore, raising profile of literacy and not accepting either a basic sentence. It was about asking children to evaluate their sentence and improve it at all times.

    Gareth who stood at the front of the white board, he can get quite stutter sometimes and he can get quite nervous, and sometimes he doesn’t organise his thoughts clearly before he voices an answer.

    Classroom interaction

    Gareth: (Reading) “Harry Potter’s nemesis is Professor Snipe and Voldemort, but his teacher is Dumbledore.”

    Lyn: Fantastic, right...

    Lyn:

    He was able to guide the talking. He was looking at the white board. The children in the classroom were telling Gareth what he needed to do to improve on his mistakes, he was then marking his work in front of the whole class through their guidance.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: So which word has he got a capital letter for?

    Pupil: Harry?

    Lyn: Have a look at the board for evidence, gather your evidence, you’re a detective.

    Pupil: Harry Potter?

    Lyn: Well done. Have a look at Potter though. Karen what does he need on the Potter?

    Karen: A capital “P”.

    Lyn: Good girl. Gareth can you just change your “puh” on your “Potter”? Does it look like a capital to us? Oh look at that, well done.

    Narrator:

    As part of their biography theme, Lyn then asks the children to think about what makes a good question, and how they can find out more about their learning partner, with each table group being given differentiated question sheets.

    Teacher:

    Some children need more support with questioning. Questioning for a couple of children in my class is really hard. The “what”, the “where”, they “why” questions, they can’t access those as questions, so they needed maybe be some cue words in the boxes. And then the child then writes a sentence by themselves using the key words that have been identified. And then what I would like them to do is to read that sentence back, in order to check, does it make sense? Danielle earlier on today was very keen on the fact that her sentence made sense so she read it back, she checked it, and she realised there was a missing, so she identified the missing word and she put it in.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: Danielle, before you get writing, can you tell me the question first?

    Dani: What’s your full name?

    Lyn: “What” or “what is” your full name? Ok, look at me, can you say that again?

    Dani: What is your full name?

    Lyn: Right, and how many words has that sentence got in it?

    Dani: (mutters under her breath) Five.

    Lyn:

    I think all those little processes, all those little steps, help her, and when she then writes more independently she then knows the steps she needs in order to write a successful paragraph.

    Classroom interaction

    Dionne: Blackburn.

    Dani: How do you spell Dionne?

    Dionne: D, I, O, N, N, E

    Dani: And Margaret?

    Lyn:

    Danielle did really well today in terms of speaking to her partner, speaking out in front of the class, answering lots of questions, she was really, really confident. She completed her framework sheet as well, and she was beginning to then put her answers down on the laptop.

    Dani:

    I feel like I’m part of the class, even though I do need help with my spelling and reading, it’s not like they don’t include me because of it. Miss still lets me read out the things even if I get the words wrong. But, now that I have my help I don’t usually get them wrong.

    Classroom interaction

    Lyn: Well done Dani.

In Torgesen et al’s study, the majority of pupils maintained gains for two years after the intervention. However, there were some that did not.

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Issues of frequency and regularity

Four children

1 in 4
Approximately 1 in 4 children lost most of the standard score gains they experienced from the intervention during the 2-year follow-up period.

Graph

Only slightly more than half were able to sustain or improve their gains once the intensive intervention period was over.

Use the calculator to determine the ratio gain (RG) made in an intervention.

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Ratio gains

months
months
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Calculation