Did you know that silent e does more than just make the previous vowel say its name? In fact, a final silent e has 6 other jobs in addition to this! I didn’t know about these other jobs but once I learned, it made so much sense. Hopefully, this overview helps you understand the other…
There are so many strategies that we learn to teach reading comprehension but in this post, I share my favorite visualizing reading strategy that helps struggling readers improve their reading comprehension: visualization with structure words. This visualizing reading strategy is the foundation of the extremely successful reading program Lindamood-Bell Visualizing & Verbalizing. It is the…
Orthographic mapping is the process where children learn to recognize each letter of the alphabet and how each letter represents one sound. It’s how words become sight words. In this post, you’ll learn about how orthographic mapping develops, and how to use phoneme grapheme mapping in your literacy instruction to develop students’ orthographic mapping skills….
The debate over whether to use decodable books or leveled books has really been firing up lately. Opinions are polarized with many teachers totally ditching leveled readers and others staying away from “boring” decodable texts. So what should you use? Which one is better to use? Well, the truth is that they are both good…
Do you struggle with teaching CVC words to your students? Or are you looking for new and different ways to teach the CVC pattern? In this blog post, you will learn what a CVC word is, how to teach them, plus download my FREE CVC words list to help you plan your activities. What is…
Phoneme segmentation is a foundational skill for reading and writing. It’s important to start teaching phoneme segmentation skills early so children can develop this skill before it becomes more difficult to learn. Mastering phoneme segmentation helps readers break apart sounds in a word, blend them together, and read! Here are five activities you can do…
Ask any teacher what their students struggle with the most in reading, and all will say fluency, decoding, or comprehension. And those are the 3 key areas of reading instruction so they are important areas to work on every day. In this post, I’m explaining what reading fluency is and sharing the different ways you…
Since I have written about the science of reading, heart words, and explicit phonics instruction, so many of you have reached out and asked, “so how do I set up my literacy block and work with students in small groups?” I know it can be overwhelming learning that what you’ve been doing needs to change,…
If you’re looking for effective high frequency word instruction, then the Heart Word Method is exactly what you want. This method will transform your sight word instruction and your students will thank you for it. Read on to find out what heart words are, how to teach them, and why you should be teaching high…