by Jan and Kari | Jan 20, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Fluency, High-Frequency Words, Knowledge Building, Language Comprehension, Literacy Leadership, Meaningful Independent Practices, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Strategy Instruction, Vocabulary, Word Reading Instruction
What about small-group instruction? What changes in light of new learning? What stays the same? If you’re like many of the educators we work with, questions like these are top of mind as you consider shifts to more brain-friendly literacy instruction for early...
by Jan and Kari | Nov 15, 2022 | Blog, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
Have you ever set out to make a big purchase like a washing machine (TV, car, computer), only to discover that you don’t know enough about the two options to make an informed decision? Chances are you’ve been there. You’ve been standing on the sales floor of...
by Jan and Kari | Nov 11, 2022 | Blog, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
After our last blog series exploring each component of our Explicit Phonics Lesson Template, we knew we had to revisit one component in particular: Explicit Skill Practice. In our initial post about this lesson component, we looked at the focused skill practice from...
by Jan and Kari | Oct 18, 2022 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Fluency, High-Frequency Words, Language Comprehension, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
Today’s post introduces the final component of our Explicit Phonics Lesson Template. Your readers have made it to the finish line. They’re ready to read connected text! Having navigated the previous components of the template, you’ve provided a supportive base for...
by Jan and Kari | Oct 7, 2022 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Fluency, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
We’ve all had them! The kind of days when you just need to call a teacher friend on the way home from school to talk to someone who just “gets it.”This is your person! The one who offers a listening ear, offering empathy, and encouragement. And the great thing about a...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 29, 2022 | Blog, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
This week, we help students develop trust. Trust?! YES, trust! Students will take the skills they’ve learned in the first two components of our Explicit Phonics Lesson Template and put them together in one orchestrated action. The Blending section of The Template...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 23, 2022 | Blog, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Word Reading Instruction
Last week we warmed up our phonological processors during the Phonemic Awareness Warm-up component of the Explicit Phonics Lesson Template, (If you missed that post you can find it here.)Now that your students are all warmed up, you are ready to roll up your sleeves...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 15, 2022 | Blog, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics
Let’s get reeeeaaadyy for a warm-up! No, not that kind of warm-up! The phonemic awareness warm-up portion of the Explicit Phonics Lesson Template won’t have you breaking a sweat, but it WILL support your students while they exercise their phonological processors! Last...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 13, 2022 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Fluency, Literacy Leadership, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
The start of the 2022-2023 school year is here! One wonderful thing about being an educator is the gift of fresh beginnings that a new school year brings! If only we could bottle the special mix of emotions that accompanies the back-to-school season–excitement,...
by Jan and Kari | Aug 26, 2022 | Blog, High-Frequency Words, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
Orthographic mapping (Ehri, 2014) is essentially alignment work. It is the brain making sense of, or proving, how the sounds in a spoken word (phonemes) match up with the series of sound-spellings in the same word (graphemes). So, if orthographic mapping is truly an...
