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My long journey towards the Science of Reading
[This is the third story in a series about the journeys educators have been on to change literacy practices in schools. This story is...

Emina McLean
Sep 12, 20204 min read
1,916 views
42 comments


I was told to "immerse the child in print".
[This is the second story in what will hopefully be a series about the journeys educators have been on to change literacy practices in...

Emina McLean
Sep 12, 20204 min read
3,421 views
32 comments


Seeing the light
[This is the first story in what will hopefully be a series about the journeys educators have been on to change literacy practices in...

Emina McLean
Sep 11, 20208 min read
3,202 views
39 comments


Considerations for Science of Reading conversations: Can I change your mind about changing minds?
We already know quite a lot about what works best in reading (and writing) instruction. We have had access to this body of knowledge for...

Emina McLean
Sep 8, 202017 min read
4,277 views
32 comments


Where do you stand?
Last night Professor Pamela Snow and I ran a Bendigo Early Language and Literacy Community of Practice conversation via Zoom. We...

Emina McLean
Aug 14, 20201 min read
1,714 views
33 comments


The importance of distrust and scepticism in education
This year I have read and re-read Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw’s book, ‘A Matter of Fact: Talking Truth in a Post-Truth World’. She is an...

Emina McLean
Jul 27, 20207 min read
2,097 views
47 comments


Spelling instruction: What’s the evidence?
Every teacher teaches spelling, but like with word-level reading instruction, what is taught and how it is taught are highly variable...

Emina McLean
Jul 23, 20206 min read
5,074 views
45 comments


Teaching word-level reading
Two significant papers were published in the last fortnight. They were: Buckingham, J. (2020). Systematic phonics instruction belongs in...

Emina McLean
Jun 23, 20207 min read
3,311 views
36 comments


Curriculum, learning progression, scope and sequence and lesson plan
The Australian Curriculum: English It aims to ensure that students “learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on...

Emina McLean
Jun 15, 20208 min read
8,406 views
42 comments


How to teach: It is bigger than The Reading Wars
What are The Reading Wars? A quick Google will tell you that most major newspapers have written about The Reading Wars here in Australia...

Emina McLean
Jun 11, 20208 min read
5,307 views
79 comments


Is professional learning effective?
I had the privilege of speaking on this topic at researchED Melbourne last year. This blogpost is an updated expansion. Schools are as...

Emina McLean
Jun 2, 20209 min read
2,218 views
58 comments


The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children: Literacy in higher education and beyond
I spent the first twenty years of my life fervently Christian, then five to ten years as a furious atheist, and now five to ten years...

Emina McLean
May 21, 20208 min read
1,540 views
35 comments


Adolescent literacy in Australia: Part 2
As evidenced in my previous blogpost, adolescent literacy skills leave a lot to be desired in Australia. Our Year 9 students perform...

Emina McLean
May 15, 202013 min read
2,369 views
48 comments


Adolescent literacy in Australia: Part 1
This is a two-part series about adolescent literacy. Appropriately, when we talk about literacy, we tend to focus on the early years in...

Emina McLean
May 4, 20204 min read
2,606 views
31 comments


Reading assessment in Victorian schools
When familiar with the Simple View of Reading and the cognitive science regarding effective teaching and learning, teachers and school...

Emina McLean
May 1, 20204 min read
7,742 views
39 comments


How to teach vocabulary for reading comprehension
A little about vocabulary Vocabulary tiers Vocabulary can be divided into three tiers. They are: Tier 1 - common in oral language, likely...

Emina McLean
Mar 20, 202012 min read
14,814 views
40 comments


Should I teach oral language as part of LC in The Simple View?
Yes but…. Don’t throw away your oral language curriculum just yet. What Timothy Shanahan is saying (according to my interpretation) is...

Emina McLean
Mar 11, 20205 min read
1,663 views
88 comments


Linguistic Comprehension: Not a Simple View of Language
Over the weekend, Timothy Shanahan threw a cat among the pigeons again: https://shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/why-following-the-simple-view...

Emina McLean
Mar 10, 20206 min read
5,786 views
89 comments
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