Did you know you can access resources and information from the National Institute for Direct Instruction through Pinterest? If you're not familiar with Pinterest, it is a website where users can create and follow virtual bulletin boards of information, ideas and resources. When you "pin" something to one of your self-named Pinterest boards, you store a link to the item for future reference--much like a traditional bulletin board you may keep near your workspace. Only this one is kept online--and you can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection!

NIFDI currently hosts 17 different boards with pins from videos and research information to announcements and recommended reading. We invite you to check out our boards at pinterest.com/nifdi and start creating your own quick links to critical resources today!

Great news! If you like keeping up with Drs. Hempenstall and Kozloff's blogs, you can now subscribe to their posts via RSS! Find Dr. Hempenstall's RSS feed at: http://ow.ly/vA2rh and Dr. Kozloff's at: http://ow.ly/vA2fo.

You can also visit their respective blogs and click on the subscribe to RSS button.

Dr. Hempenstall Blog
Dr. Kozloff's Blog

Love Direct Instruction? Want to live in Australia? Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy (CYAAA) is seeking a Director of Instruction. The Academy, which has operated three schools in the far north of Australia since 2010, plans to expand into other sites in Queensland and across Australia.

The Director of Instruction is charged with leading the reform efforts for underperforming schools to bring student performance up to meet national standards and to develop schools that will serve as strong models for improving the education of children in Australia. Potential applicants must have at least five years experience teaching and supervising the implementation of DI programs and exhibit strong supervisory and management skills. Additional qualification requirements and application information is available in the job posting, available here: http://ow.ly/vA3q9. 

Applications are due by April 28, 2014. For questions, email Lisa Heubusch at lheubusch@cyaaa.com.au.

The phonemic awareness concept has had a significant influence on understanding reading and its acquisition. Students with it tend to become better readers than those without it. This feature has led to interest in teaching it prior to reading instruction. However, this focus raises several issues about phonemic awareness that are as yet not fully resolved. Is phonemic awareness causal to reading acquisition? Consequential? Or is there a mediating variable between it and reading? Is the confusion due to differences in the chosen assessment methods? Can and should it be taught independent of graphemes? If it is to be taught, which activities are important? Rhyming and alliteration? Onsets and rimes? Elision? Blending and segmenting? All of the above?

Click here to read on and find out!