A Year in Words

 Welcome to our newest field guide, A Year in Words - orchestrating the learning.

B. Polain, 2024

This field guide invites you to step inside the early years classroom from the beginning of the school year. We are experienced primary & secondary teachers and for twenty of those years have orchestrated orthography in our classrooms.

Words are the essence of thought and communication. By shining a light on the orthography of the English language embedded in the classroom learning, we learn to read texts deeply and to write purposefully.

A Field Guide to Words, is a series of beautifully produced booklets that are thought-provoking and practical for both word lovers and teachers. The latest in the series isn’t just informative, it’s a pleasure to hold and to look at. Printed on gloss paper, its 80 pages are lavishly illustrated with artworks, and annotated diagrams and photos of word investigations in the classroom. Elegant and eclectic, our field guides are dedicated to the art of teaching and the power of words. 

Special thanks to: photographer, Brendan Polain, editor, Kezia Whiting, printer, Denni from Print it Fast.

Details for ordering the field guide coming soon!

Ann & Lyn

Beneath and Beyond the Surface of Words

Classroom orthographic investigations are planned and embedded in learning throughout the day to unfold the order, sense and meaning beneath the surface.

Read Lyn & Ann's latest Caught in the Spell of Words post to discover more by stepping into the classroom for a glimpse of how orthographic investigations unfold for all students.

There are some surprising discoveries!

A Field Guide to Words:                    Enlightening, Eclectic, Entertaining

With lavender and poppies abounding in our garden it's time to come out and PLAY after the restrictions of winter and the pandemic, to delight in the extraordinary, the hidden stories, the wonders of a word’s past and present. 

These Field Guides are the ideal companion for teachers and logophiles. 

The writers, two educators, share their passion for orthographic linguistics to celebrate the sense and order of English orthography.

With these guides in your hand, you and your students will be inspired to investigate and marvel at the richness of the English language. 

Lyn & Ann's latest Field Guide to Words: PLAY highlights:

- the written orthographic statement with teacher dialogue 

- Chancery script as the foundation for all orthographic study

- an annotated matrix 

- how to read an etymology entry

- compounds

- a key phonological investigation.

A Field Guide to Words goes beyond and beneath the surface to uncover the unity and interrelationship of the 3 components of orthography: morphology, etymology and phonology.

A reissue of SERIES 1 (a set of 3 booklets) is now available:

Cycles

Transformation & Metamorphosis 

Adaptation

TO ORDER SERIES 1 & 2:

Australia - Click on this LINK

International - Click on this LINK