Jane Farrall Consulting

Writing Mini-Lessons for Conventional Writers: Groups G & H

Aug 16, 2026

Once a writer can write one or more simple sentences, then they need to learn to write more with coherence and cohesion, including writing expanded (longer) sentences. These are the skills we are working to teach students in Groups G & H on the Writing with All Tools Continuum. When teaching students to write more,

Writing Mini-Lessons for Conventional Writers: Groups D, E and F

Jul 26, 20262 Comments

I have blogged a lot about emergent writers and helping students to develop their writing skills. My two favourite posts about emergent writing are Emergent Writing: Focus on Function and Emergent Writing: Moving onto Form. Additionally, I have developed (with lots of help) the Writing with All Tools Continuum, a 35-point ordinal scale consisting of qualitative writing levels from

Word Families for Phonemic Awareness

Jul 20, 20261 Comment

I have blogged in the past about using word families to help emergent readers and writers to develop their phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is one of the important strands in literacy that emergent literacy learners need to start developing (Scarborough, 2001). To support people to do this, I have developed a bunch of resources to print and use

Flip Keyboard Version 3: Updates to the Emergent Writing Tool

Apr 21, 20261 Comment

Flip Keyboard is an emergent writing tool. It can be used on any device with an internet connection and a browser. On an iPad you can also convert it into an app by sharing it to the Home Screen of your device (see the Instructions in Flip Keyboard for more information). In the most recent

Flip Keyboard Updates

Feb 14, 20267 Comments

In November 2025 I was very excited to share a new emergent writing tool – https://flipkeyboard.com/. It has been great to hear from those of you who are using it – and to get lots of requests for changes and additions. As a result, there are now a number of changes to the original version.

Writing Tools: Download or Customise!

Dec 11, 20252 Comments

Every year, I find I spend time creating custom resources for different writers I am privileged to work with. I truly believe that every writer has an appropriate writing tool – and sometimes we just need to spend time figuring out what that tool might be. It’s really important that the writing tool minimises the

The next Literacy Intensive

Nov 28, 20254 Comments

This is a really brief posting to let people know what is happening with the literacy intensive course. If you’ve already emailed about the course, then we should have responded. If we have missed responding to you then I apologise. Unfortunately, I have some personal issues which need to take priority next year – and

Flip Keyboard: A new option for Emergent Writers

Nov 20, 202510 Comments

I am very excited to announce the launch of Flip Keyboard – a new writing option for emergent writers. Flip keyboard provides access to the alphabet in groups of letters (similar to a non-electronic flip chart), with a range of settings you can use to customise for each writer’s needs. You can access Flip Keyboard

Phonics Implementation with People Who Need AAC: What Does the Evidence Base Say?

Apr 22, 20251 Comment

Today I had the pleasure of presenting a webinar with the awesome Nick Drover. We talked through some of what the evidence base says (and doesn’t say) about implementing phonics with people who need AAC. As promised, we recorded this session. The handout that goes with the video is below – and then the video

Writing Tools to Download, Share and Customise

Apr 5, 20258 Comments

For many of the students I work with, focusing on learning to write with traditional writing tools (pens, pencils, crayons, etc) can be a barrier in their writing development. Traditional writing tools are a physical barrier for many, due to the motor control required. For some students, having to hold pens and pencils is a