Teaching phonics doesn’t have to feel like memorizing a giant list of exceptions. The rules of English spelling follow clear patterns, and once you know them, you can help students decode and spell with confidence. This page is designed to be a teacher’s reference hub. You’ll find the rules: ? Before you scroll, grab the…
Do you wonder why some words are spelled with a double consonant at the end, like miss, and others aren’t (like rob)? There is actually a reason this happens, and it’s called The Floss Rule. The Floss Rule is one of the first spelling rules students learn after short vowels.. In this blog post, we’ll…
You’ve assessed your students. You’ve created your small groups. But a few weeks in, things start to shift.Some kids are breezing through the lessons. Others are stuck. And your carefully grouped students? Not so aligned anymore. This is where most reading group plans fall apart, not because teachers don’t care or don’t try, but because…
Reading groups can feel overwhelming. You have students who need very different things, but you’re often expected to sort them by level and hope for the best. But what if we stopped grouping by reading level altogether? Skill-based grouping is a better way to meet your students where they actually are. Instead of lumping students…
Summer is the perfect time to brush up on your teaching skills and learn about any new or updated teaching strategies. I’m sharing my top recommendations for professional development books for reading and phonics. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I love a good book on the latest research and recommendations for educators,…
And what to do next—without a curriculum or complicated assessments Teaching reading at home can feel like trying to hit a moving target.One day your child sounds out cat, and the next they’re guessing cheese from a picture. Are they behind? Are they in the “right level”? What are you even supposed to teach next?…
When you’re teaching reading at home, without a curriculum, it’s easy to second-guess everything. Should we be working on sight words?Are they ready to spell?Do we need more phonics? It’s not that you’re not willing to help. It’s that no one told you where to begin. And without knowing what your child actually needs, it’s…
Because not every child needs to practice sight words right now When you’re teaching reading at home, it’s easy to feel like you have to teach everything.Letters. Sounds. Sight words. Spelling rules. Fluency. Comprehension. But here’s the truth:Not every skill needs to be taught right now. The key to building reading skills that stick is…
Phonics practice doesn’t have to be flashy to be effective. If you’ve ever watched your students read “tap” as “pat” or write “slip” when they meant “flip,” you already know that hearing and working with sounds is one of the hardest things for early readers to master. That’s exactly why word chains and ladders belong…