Thirty Three Ways to Help with Reading equips teachers and teaching assistants with a wide range of practical resources to help children who are having difficulties learning the basic skills of reading.

By providing a range of activities and games which engage children and encourage motivation in the classroom, the book provides ready-to-use material that doesn’t need lengthy forward preparation. These practical and fun ideas incorporate a range of learning styles, using kinaesthetic and auditory techniques, which put the emphasis on ‘games’ rather than ‘work’. The activities are therefore ideal for use with children who do not benefit from a traditional approach to reading. The book works step-by-step through activities which cover the key stages in the process of learning to read:

• Learning letters
• Recalling frequently used words
• Hearing sounds in words
• Blending sounds
• Reading for meaning

The ‘how to help’ approach of the book is ideal for teachers and teaching assistants wanting to give quality learning experiences for those children experiencing difficulties with reading. With all the resources needed for the games included, the book provides quick and easy to use ideas, which can be implemented instantly in the classroom.

The Routledge ’33 ways…’ series of practical ‘how-to’ books is for teachers, teaching assistants and SENCOs who are in need of fresh ideas to teach pupils in their care who are struggling with basic skills. It provides them with the tools to make good provision for a range of children in their class, and are planned to be a resource from which they can extract ideas and materials without having to plough through chapters of theory and research.

Raewyn Hickey is an experienced classroom teacher who has worked in both the Literacy Initiative for Teachers project in Westminster and as a consultant for the Primary Strategy.