Education resources for parents and teachers
Welcome back to our series about reading comprehension strategies! In this post I'll explain how an awareness of text structure can help students understand text. I'll also share a simple routine for teaching narrative text structure.What is text structure?Text structure is how an author organizes a text. Research shows that explicit instruction in text structure leads to gains in reading comprehension (Williams, ... Read More
My second son is currently a teenager with those silly cool bangs that are in style right now. Today's post brings me back to when he was a kid learning to read. He was a good decoder from early on. But by fourth grade he had developed the bad habit of speed reading. Since he would much rather play outside (or do anything rather than sit with a book) he saw reading as a word reading task only. Just read the words, ... Read More
A current debate in the science of reading community is whether teachers should build knowledge or teach reading comprehension strategies. In today's post I'll explain why both are necessary.What's the science of reading? But first ... what's the "science of reading," anyway? Five years ago, most teachers had never even heard the term. Now it's everywhere! If you follow "science of reading" influencers on Instagram ... Read More
Breaking up is hard to do. But I'm doing it.I'm breaking up with a system I've held onto for twenty years. I'm breaking up with Fountas and Pinnell's text leveling system. You know - the guided reading levels from A to Z.I was all in on F & P. I spent countless hours leveling my classroom library. I even helped other teachers level their libraries.Read on to learn why I'm replacing my popular post, "Printable ... Read More
As I listen to new podcast episodes related to the science of reading, I will add the most useful episodes to their respective categories. I hope you'll come back to this page often as you find new experts to learn from! If you're looking for a specific expert, you can search this page using Command-F on a Mac or Control-F on a PC.Enjoy!-Anna GeigerClick a category to jump right to the related episodes.Return to ... Read More
What are decodable books and passages? Why should we use them? And when should children stop using decodable books?These are all important questions that I'll be answering in today's blog post!What are decodable books and passages?Decodable texts are written to reinforce a particular phonics pattern. The vast majority of the words can be read using phonics knowledge.I like this definition from Iowa Reading ... Read More
Do you have students who can't seem to remember letter names and sounds? This post is for you!Step 1: Examine your current methods.Make sure that what you're currently doing aligns with the research (references are at the bottom of this post). Here's a summary of what we know:Step 2: Think about your goal.Letter names and sounds are a means to an end ... this knowledge is useless if students don't also learn how to ... Read More
This post is sponsored by Just Right Reader. All opinions are my own. I only promote products I know and love!Let's start the new school year off right!Did you know? Decoding is the literacy skill that slides most over the summer. Use Just Right Reader decodable books to reactivate decoding skills and give your students a reading boost! You can't go wrong with Just Right Reader's Back to School Take-Home ... Read More
This post is sponsored by Just Right Reader. All opinions are my own. I only promote products I know and love! Looking for a way to eliminate summer slide ... and accelerate reading achievement in summer school and at home? You can't go wrong with Just Right Reader's Summer Take-Home Decodable Packs! We're all too familiar with the summer slide ... and decoding is the literacy skill that slides most of all. But ... Read More
I'm often asked, "What's the best order to teach letters?" The answer is: it depends. Keep reading to find out my recommendations!Many teachers and parents wonder what's the best order for teaching letters of the alphabet. Should we go in alphabetical order? Should we start with uppercase or lowercase? What does the research say?Well, here's the first thing to know: As I stated in the first post of this series, ... Read More
