Education resources for parents and teachers
If you ask this question in a Facebook group, watch out. People on both sides of the aisle have strong opinions, and many of them will tell you that their opinions are absolutely backed by research. At a recent Reading League event, Dr. Steven Dykstra joked that people on both sides of this debate will start pulling punches if you put them in the same room! (I think he was only sort of joking.) So … who’s ... Read More
In this final post in our fluency series, we look at how to use the research-backed practice of repeated reading! Repeated reading is reading the same text multiple times until a certain (or better) level of fluency is reached. We've known since the 1970's that repeated reading improves fluency. It helps readers achieve automaticity - so that they can decode without thinking about decoding (Shanahan, ... Read More
Are you looking for more ways to build fluency? Try partner reading! Partner reading (sometimes called buddy reading) is when students are paired up to read together. How partner reading works Benefits of partner reading Buddy reading can be an excellent alternative to the familiar "sustained silent reading," because struggling students can get the support they need and are less likely to be off ... Read More
Do you have students with poor oral reading fluency? It's no surprise, then, that they lack a good understanding of the text. After all, fluency is the bridge from decoding to comprehension. The good news is that repeated reading has been shown to improve reading fluency. There are many ways to do repeated reading (that's coming in a future blog post), but today we're focusing on improving oral reading ... Read More
Are you wondering how to improve reading fluency? You're in the right place! This post is the first in a four-part series all about building fluency. Do you have students who struggle with reading fluency? Maybe they read in a stilted, word-by-word fashion. Maybe they read accurately, but ooooh so slowly. Or maybe you know readers who trip over words. To them, reading is awkward and painful. I personally know a ... Read More
Welcome back to our Balanced to Structured Literacy series! Today we're tackling a topic that many people think isn't even part of the science of reading: comprehension. It feels like phonics get talked about the most - which is probably true. After all, kids must have strong phonics (and phonemic awareness) skills to lay the foundation for reading. After they get more automatic with those skills, they ... Read More
Welcome to the first post in our series about making the switch from balanced to structured literacy! Today we're tackling phonics. Specifically, systematic phonics instruction. Before we begin, let's be clear. I am not saying that balanced literacy teachers don't teach phonics. The concern I have is that this instruction is often neither systematic nor explicit. In other words ... a ... Read More
I was a committed balanced literacy educator for 20 years. To me, balanced literacy meant that I taught both basic skills and a love of reading. I put a greater emphasis on the activities - shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, read aloud, and centers - than on foundational skills. Sure, I taught phonics ... but I didn't want to overdo it. So I didn't use a phonics program; I taught phonics on ... Read More
Do you suspect that one of your students may have dyslexia? Here's what every teacher should know! As I look back to the students that I taught, I can picture one particular little boy who I'm sure had dyslexia. He was a bright, articulate, and kind first grader. On one particularly rough day of teaching, he gave me a little blue gem shaped like a heart. "This is for you, because you're the nicest ... Read More
How do you teach students with dyslexia? With explicit instruction. But what IS explicit instruction anyway? In their book, Anita Archer and Charles A. Hughes tell us that explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented. If you have a few minutes, check out this helpful video from Anita Archer. It feels a little weird to use the word explicit when talking about teaching because ... Read More
