Spelfabet

There now seems to be a firestorm of people around the English-speaking world working to ensure reading and spelling skills are taught in accordance with current scientific research. Publishers/suppliers involved in this effort already have their contacts under the “phonics resources” menu, but here are some others. Let me know if you have suggested additions.

Click here for US public media journalist Emily Hanford’s plain-English documentaries and podcast on how mainstream literacy-teaching approaches have let both students and teachers down.

Australia

• AUSPELD and its state-based affiliates, is a group behind the Primary Reading Pledge, and has a great website called Understanding Learning Difficulties for Parents.
• The Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy is part of the Australian Catholic University.
• Code READ Dyslexia Network
• Dyslexia Victoria Support‘s website links to parent-run facebook groups nationwide. One of their founders, Heidi Gregory, also offers parent advocacy in Melbourne.
• Emina McLean writes a blog about language and literacy best practice.
• Five from Five is a project to promote evidence-based reading instruction.
• Greg Ashman is a teacher in Ballarat who writes a blog about educational research.
• Kerry Hempenstall is a Melbourne academic with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the reading /learning research, which he shares here in his blogs.
• Tasmanian teacher Jocelyn Seamer writes a blog and has a podcast for teachers.
• Learning Difficulties Australia‘s purpose is to assist students with learning difficulties through effective practices based on scientific research.
• The Literacy Hub is a federal-government-funded website with lots of useful resources.
• Linguist Lyn Stone writes a blog and has many Youtube videos.
• Ollie Lovell is a Melbourne teacher responsible for the Education Research Reading Room podcast.
• PhOrMeS is a free Primary literacy curriculum by Shane Pearson and colleagues at Brandon Park PS.
• Professor Pamela Snow writes an excellent blog, The Snow Report, and heads up the Science of Language And Reading (SOLAR) lab at La Trobe University with Associate Professor Tanya Serry. Pam is also one of the people behind the Bendigo Early Language and Literacy Community of Practice.
• Queensland dyslexia advocate Tanya Forbes made the Outside the Square films now on YouTube.
• Science of Teaching and Learning (SOTLA) is a nonprofit promoting research-aligned teaching.
• Sharing Best Practice is a Facebook group which runs affordable professional development days.
• Reading Science in Schools is a professionals’ group promoting evidence-based literacy instruction in Australian Schools. It grew from its Facebook group.
• Reading Teachers Australia is another Facebook community and has a website.
• The Tasmanian Literacy Alliance “envisions a 100% literate Tasmania”.
• Think Forward Educators is now a national community of educators seeking to build literacy for social equity.

Canada

• Dyslexia Canada
• Pedagogy Non Grata is a website about educational research.

International

• Developmental Disorders of Language and Literacy Network (DDOLL) is an email-based network of professionals seeking to close the gap between research and practice in literacy teaching.
• The International Dyslexia Association has branches/affiliates around the world.
• The International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction shares information.
• I’m not sure where it’s based, but The Reading Ape blog is always interesting.
• ResearchEd is a teacher-led initiative to raise the research literacy of educators and bridge the gap between research and practice in education. Their amazing Youtube channel is here.
• The Society for the Scientific Study of Reading sponsors conferences and has a journal.

New Zealand

• Learning Difficulties Association of New Zealand
• Lifting Literacy Aotearoa now has a website as well as a facebook page.

United Kingdom

Systematic, explicit synthetic phonics teaching is mandated in the early years in the UK, so the main focus of advocates is struggling older readers and related difficulties like Developmental Language Disorders:

• Debbie Heppelwhite has been a leading campaigner in the UK for evidence-based teaching.
• How To Teach Reading is a blog by UK specialist reading/dyslexia tutor Monique Nowers.
• Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder is mainly about oral language difficulties, but these very often co-occur with decoding and spelling difficulties.
• Reading Reform Foundation
• Susan Godsland’s website is a cornucopia of interesting ideas and links.
• The Literacy Blog is by John Walker of Sounds-Write, but discusses broader topics.
• The Thinking Reading blog by Dianne and James Murphy focuses mainly on adolescents.

United States

• The Children of the Code website is a vast trove of useful information.
• DLD and Me focuses on learners with oral language difficulties, who often have decoding/encoding difficulties.
• The Florida Center for Reading Research has been an engine-room for evidence-based teaching for many years and has many great resources.
• The International Dyslexia Association website and Youtube channel are both full of helpful information.
• As mentioned above, journalist Emily Hanford at APM Reports is a powerful advocate for evidence-based literacy-teaching.
• Teacher Jared Cooney has some great videos about research translation in education, including two on the Reading Wars here and here.
• The Melissa and Lori Love Literacy podcast has many great interviews with international experts.
• National Institute for Direct Instruction (nifty acronym NIFDI).
• The PATTAN network‘s literacy team has a YouTube channel, and some of their key literacy videos are on this playlist.
• Teach My Kid To Read a nonprofit working with libraries and communities, has a YouTube channel.
• The Reading League – teachers, academics and others promoting the science of reading, has chapters around the US, and this great Curriculum Evaluation Tool and Youtube channel.
• Reading Rockets is a national public media literacy initiative full of good information.
• Reading specialist teacher Tiffany Peltier writes a blog called Understanding The Science of Reading.
• The SpellTalk listserve is a US-based professional discussion group.
• The University of Florida Literacy Institute works on reader development and teacher development, and produces the mostly free UFLI Foundations program for F-2. They and AUSPELD have now produced an Australian UFLI Foundations manual, and state SPELDs offer UFLI Foundations training.
• Wiley Blevins is a teacher and author whose website contains useful information.