by Jan and Kari | Oct 18, 2024 | Blog
It’s surprisingly common to find upper elementary students who still need help with foundational spelling patterns, like short vowel sounds in closed syllable (CVC) words. But with older kids, not only is time of the essence—they need to catch up without missing out...
by Jan and Kari | Oct 12, 2024 | Blog, Phonics
It’s surprisingly common to find upper elementary students who still need help with foundational spelling patterns, like short vowel sounds in closed syllable (CVC) words. But with older kids, not only is time of the essence—they need to catch up without missing out...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 1, 2024 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
It’s surprisingly common to find upper elementary students who still need help with foundational spelling patterns, like short vowel sounds in closed syllable (CVC) words. But with older kids, not only is time of the essence—they need to catch up without missing out...
by Jan and Kari | Aug 4, 2024 | Blog, Knowledge Building, Strategy Instruction, Vocabulary
If you teach developing readers, you are probably thinking about strategy instruction. Maybe a lot.In many classrooms, strategy instruction has been the primary vehicle for helping children develop and enhance their reading comprehension.After all, kids can’t learn to...
by Jan and Kari | Jul 27, 2024 | Blog, Language Comprehension, Vocabulary
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 its simplicity and power, we wanted to invite you to brush up on this classic and maybe sprinkle in a few new...
by Jan and Kari | May 19, 2024 | Blog, Knowledge Building, Strategy Instruction, Vocabulary
It’s discouraging to work hard and continue to see some students struggle to comprehend despite hours and hours of strategy instruction year after year after year. You might wonder: Am I missing something? Am I teaching the “right strategies”? Are there some...
by Jan and Kari | Apr 21, 2024 | Blog, Language Comprehension, Vocabulary
Reading Comprehension Can’t Happen Without Language Comprehension Lately, we’ve noticed that some small but mighty practices for supporting language development aren’t showing up so much in classrooms. These instructional moves are ways to teach vocabulary or language...
by Jan and Kari | Apr 13, 2024 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Language Comprehension, Phonics, Vocabulary, Word Reading 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 systematic phonics and word study instruction. This is part of an effort to ensure that the students get...
by Jan and Kari | Mar 9, 2024 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Literacy Leadership, Prompting & Feedback, Word Reading Instruction
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 all. We’ve written a lot about decodable texts—exploring their significance, selection criteria, creative...
by Jan and Kari | Mar 2, 2024 | Blog, Literacy Leadership, Phonemic Awareness
We all know that teachers, not programs, make the difference when it comes to effective instruction. Scientific research bears out this idea that teachers matter more than programs, especially when it comes to beginning reading (Bond 1966; Readence & Barone 1997)....
