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A New (Free) Decodable Text: Cat Naps!
Who doesn’t love a cat nap? We know we do! We kind of needed one after we wrestled with using AI-generated images to illustrate a decodable text. We found...
What is Explicit Vocabulary Instruction?
As you think about vocabulary instruction, it can be easy to assume that “explicit” means you need to have children memorize definitions, write sentences with...
Layers of Vocabulary Learning: A Slice of Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary is a hot topic in the world of literacy right now. More and more educators wonder, “What is effective vocabulary instruction?” Perhaps vocabulary...
Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonics: Untangling Some Confusion
Despite the recent shift to providing students with more science-aligned foundational skills instruction, we find that a...
BIGGER Kids Need BIGGER Words—Accelerating Decoding Skills With Multisyllabic Words
It’s surprisingly common to find upper elementary students who still need help with foundational spelling patterns, like short vowel...
6 Truths About Strategy Instruction That Just Might Surprise You!
If you teach developing readers, you are probably thinking about strategy instruction. Maybe a lot.In many classrooms, strategy...
Teaching Turn and Talk Routines: Strong Starts for Strong Academic Conversation
We’re confident you’re already familiar with Turn and Talk; it’s perhaps one of the most widely known yet underutilized instructional strategies. But given...
Are You Teaching the Key Comprehension Strategies Students Really Need
It’s discouraging to work hard and continue to see some students struggle to comprehend despite hours and hours of strategy...
5 Vital Language Development Strategies for Every Classroom
Reading Comprehension Can’t Happen Without Language Comprehension Lately, we’ve noticed that some small but mighty practices for supporting language...
Making Phonics and Word Study Meaning-FULL: 10 EASY Ways to Embed More Meaning Into Decoding Instruction
Systematic and Explicit Phonics Instruction is a big deal, but . . . Everywhere we go these days, teachers are working hard to provide more explicit and...
Exploring Decodable Texts: A Go-To Resource
Talk of decodable texts is everywhere these days. And if you’re like many educators we know, you might be working to sort through the hype to make sense of it...
“The GOOD” and “The BAD” of Curriculum Evaluation and Literacy Program Selection
We all know that teachers, not programs, make the difference when it comes to effective instruction. Scientific research bears out this idea that teachers...
Sound Boxes: Using Elkonin Boxes to Enhance Phonemic Awareness in Early Literacy
Elkonin Sound Boxes: What They Are & How to Use Them Phonemic awareness serves as the foundation for a child's journey into the world of literacy, and...
Developing Word Power: How to Teach Morphology
In this post, we offer a simple Morphology Lesson Planning Template that provides a systematic approach to integrating morphology instruction into your...
Sight Words vs. High Frequency Words
Do We Really Have to Know the Difference Between Sight Words and High-Frequency Words? If you're like us, you've likely used these two terms – high-frequency...
Getting to Know the Shifting the Balance for the Upper Elementary Classroom: Q&A with the Authors – Part 2
Last week, we shared the first part of our two-part Q&A series about how the newest Shifting the Balance 3-5 book that we wrote with Katie Egan Cunningham...
Getting to Know Shifting the Balance for the Upper Elementary Classroom: Q&A with the Authors – Part 1
Q: Want to learn more about the newest Shifting the Balance book, which explores 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom?...
Don’t be Fooled by a Fake! 12 Clues that a Copy of Shifting the Balance May be a Counterfeit
We have been touched by readers’ responses to our books, including our latest title, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the...
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