Rachel Parke

I am a Primary Teacher and as such, teach a variety of subject areas. I enjoy finding out the interests and learning styles of students to cater to the individual.

Previously, with students who are of a musical background wanting to improve their multiplication facts, we reinvented their favourite songs but created numerical lyrics to help them remember their multiplication facts. Similarly, with students wanting to recall their number doubles, we made rhymes with practical images to retain in their minds (e.g. one and one is two, eyes on you. Two and two is four, chair legs on the floor, etc.)

When teaching phonics and phonemic/phonological awareness, I use the structure of Scarborough's reading rope. This is done by learning the reading code in a way of sight recognition of graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) and their associated phonemes (sounds), practicing verbalising these sounds, segmenting and blending known sounds (sounding out and putting them back together) and applying the skill of writing the sounds in words. Personally, I learn best using music and songs so try to incorporate this where possible, particularly if it suits the learning style of students. For kinaesthetic learners, I enjoy teaching the Jolly Phonics actions to match the sounds, encouraging movement to retain knowledge.

Please reach out if you have any questions!