Welcome to ABCD Literacy
ABCD Literacy is a passion project of Frances Prentice (B Sp Path, B Early Childhood). It is designed to provide support for all educators (parents, teachers and allied health professionals) in their quest to help students become literate.
Frances is a Registered Instructor in the LEM Phonics program which she has been using to teach students in classrooms, small groups and individually for over 20 years. She has developed an online course especially for homeschooling parents and other educators who cannot attend a face-to-face course. This course has also been divided into 16 modules which are available for separate purchase, for those who just want extra training in a specific area at a more affordable price. Module 1.1 (Background to LEM Phonics) and Module 2.1 (LEM Phonics Resources) are free to view. If you decide to upgrade to the complete course, the cost of modules purchased will be discounted from the introductory course price.
The LEM Phonics program has all new resources which may be purchased through Frances Prentice’s Instructor Page on the website. This includes a comprehensive manual, flash cards for phonograms (with spelling and reading rules on reverse side), and posters of phonograms and sound charts, as well as teaching materials from Prep – Year 6. Frances has made a PDF and a video describing the official LEM Phonics resources. Additionally, the LEM Phonics website has free downloads including two videos of the phonogram sounds, a phonological awareness test, reproducibles to go with their teaching materials and some information about how the program has been updated since 2020.
As an irrepressible creative, Frances has also developed a number of resources which complement both the LEM Phonics program and any other structured synthetic phonics program.
The resources she has made to specifically support people using the LEM Phonics program include videos of actions for the Single Phonograms and Multiple Phonograms, a Spoken Phonogram Checklist (to record student’s progress in learning the phonograms), and a chart that organises High Frequency Words according to the LEM Phonics rules and patterns.
Frances homeschooled her two youngest children for over a year, and in 2022 she presented at the Australian Home Schooling Summit. The topic for her talk was The Early Years, The Sight Word Controversy and Tips and Tricks for Spelling. (Coming Soon) This 1.5 hour video is available for individual purchase on this website or as part of the AHS 2022 summit package.
After tutoring students from Kindergarten to Year 12 over the past 20 years, Frances has developed an understanding of which key elements need to be taught to fill in the gaps for remedial students. She is a firm believer in building on a solid foundation. To this end, Frances is currently developing a series of worksheets,(Coming Soon) each with an accompanying lesson plan which can be completed over one or more sessions. These worksheets may be used with people using LEM Phonics or any other systematic synthetic phonics program.
Frances recommends that worksheets are printed onto off-white, cream, light grey or other light pastel coloured paper for students who have visual sensitivity or visual perceptual problems like Irlen Syndrome. This may include students with ASD or ADHD. Frances is currently training to become an Irlen screener after her daughter was diagnosed with this syndrome. Please check with your student whether the words on the page always stay clear, stable (still) and are comfortable to read. If they do not, she recommends you investigate Irlen syndrome.
If you have any further questions, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions (Coming Soon) section of the website, or contact Frances by email using the Contact form.
Be sure to check out the Testimonials and if you would like to share a testimonial with Frances, she would love to hear from you.