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 right? Should ... 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, 2017).in 1979, J. ... Read More
Looking for books that will help you teach place value? Try these!Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens, by Cindy NeuschwanderIn this clever book, Sir Cumference and Lady Di are planning a surprise birthday party for King Arthur, but so many guests have arrived that they can't keep track of them. When the knight and lady count tens, hundreds, and thousands of partygoers, listeners will get a fun lesson in place ... Read More
Disclosure: This blog post is sponsored by Just Right Reader. All opinions are my own. I only promote products I know and love!Are you looking for decodable books to fill your classroom library? You can't go wrong with Just Right Reader!When Just Right Reader asked to sponsor this blog post, I jumped at the chance. That's because their giant collection of over 300 books is one every primary teacher and reading ... 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 worksBenefits of partner readingBuddy 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 task.Buddy reading is ... 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 fluency using ... 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 reader ... 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 start to become ... 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 balanced literacy teacher may lack 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 a ... Read More
