Literacy Sites
Phonological Awareness
These sites all have an emphasis on developing phonological awareness. The term
Phonological Awareness began to appear in research literature in the late 70s
and refers to an individual's awareness of and ability to manipulate the sound
structures of spoken words at syllable, onset-rime and phoneme level
(Gail Gillon, 2004:4).
Phonological Awareness can be taught. Training in this awareness has been shown
to positively influence the development of beginning reading and writing skills.
Dr Kerry Hempenstall from the Psychology and Disability Study Dept of Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology reported the research concerning phonological
awareness as being the “single most powerful advance in the science and pedagogy
of reading this century” (Adams, 1991 in Hempanstall, 2004).
Grammar
Spelling
| Site |
Comments |
Target Age Group |
| BBC Skillswise: Spelling | Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and online games for development of spelling skills. | 8-11 |
| Boardgames:Syllabification | Printable gameboards for teaching syllabification. | 8-11 |
| Gamequarium | Games that include activities for putting in your own lists and and strategies such as Look, cover, Write, Check | 7-11 |
| Sparklebox | Excellent set of posters and templates for learning spelling strategies | 7-11 |
| Super Teacher Ideas | Lots of ideas for spelling games and activities | 7-11 |
| A-Z Teacher Stuff | Plenty of spelling lesson ideas | 5-7 |
| School Express | Quick and easy way to create wordsearches for spelling lists | 7-11 |
| School Express | Make a quiz for spelling list words | 7-11 |
| PBS Kids | Many reading and spelling interactive whiteboard games | 5-8 |
| Learning Planet | Interactive whiteboard game to make many words within a time limit | 7-11 |
Reading
| Site |
Comments |
Target Age Group |
| BBC Skillswise | Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and online games targeting skills such as skimming, scanning, summarising and analysis of text types. | 8-12 |
| Starfall: It's fun to Read | A variety of online games to practise early reading skills. | 5-6 |
| Sparklebox | Excellent visual aides to go with popular books and fairy tales. | 5-8 |
| Sparklebox | Sets of high frequency words and themed words on flashcards, beautifully illustrared | 5-8 |
| MES English | An extensive collection of flashcards available for printing or as powerpoint presentations | 5-8 (or older if using to teach English) |
| Kelly's Kindergarten | A range of ideas and reading games to make. | 5-6 |
| Mrs Jones Room | A collection of printable mini books | 5-8 |
| School Express | Simple practice activity worksheets focusing on sight words and rhyming | 5-8 |
| PBS Kids | Many reading and spelling interactive whiteboard games | 5-8 |
| Superteacher | Large range of worksheets focusing on various comprehension strategies | 6-11 |
Writing
| Site |
Comments |
Target Age Group |
| BBC Skillswise | Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and games targeting skills such as planning, structure and proofreading | 8-12 |
| Creativity Portal | An excellent range of writing and photo prompts | 8-12 |
| Writing Fun | Good information on text types and graphic organisers for writing | 8-12 |
Listening
| Site |
Comments |
Target Age Group |
| BBC Skillswise | Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and games targeting skills such as listening for specific information | 8-11 |
| Teaching Ideas | Games and ideas for encouraging speaking and listening skills | 8-11 |
| Teacher's TV | video clips with great ideas for teaching | 5-8 |