by Jan and Kari | Apr 23, 2022 | Blog, Knowledge Building, Language Comprehension, Vocabulary
In Chapter 1 of Shifting the Balance, we untangle a widespread misunderstanding about reading comprehension. It is “Misunderstanding 4” in the chapter that is about language comprehension. Misunderstanding 4 goes like this,“Successful comprehension in beginning...
by Jan and Kari | Apr 9, 2022 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership
We didn’t know this word a few weeks ago. But since we first became aware of it, we seem to be noticing it more and more. Maybe it’s because we’re immersed in thinking about children’s language development these days. Maybe it’s because we’re thinking a lot about the...
by Jan and Kari | Mar 4, 2022 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
We’ve been thinking lately about the opposing tensions in our lives and the ways these tensions often leave us longing for a perfect balance. The idea that our lives will be in perfect balance is, of course, absurd. Nevertheless, balance as an imprecise descriptor of...
by Jan and Kari | Feb 25, 2022 | Blog, Phonics, Video, Word Reading Instruction
We think of offering brain-friendly phonics instruction as being a bit like saying, “Hey, would you like to learn to decipher a secret code? I can teach you.”So, this week, we thought it might be fun to take this secret code metaphor a bit further and offer an...
by Jan and Kari | Feb 11, 2022 | Blog
It has been almost a year since Shifting the Balance: Bringing the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom hit real and virtual bookshelves. We’ve been so moved by the robust response to this little book, to say the least. Quite honestly, what started...
by Jan and Kari | Feb 4, 2022 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
You may already know how much we LOVE the New Year with its fresh start and promise.But, even by the time calendar turns over to February, we can sometimes find ourselves fatiguing and starting to lose sight of our vision.It’s often easier for us to set big...
by Jan and Kari | Jan 27, 2022 | Blog, Decodable Texts, High-Frequency Words, Language Comprehension, Literacy Leadership, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Video
If you approach learning to read and write as a speech-to-print -rather than as a print-to-speech – process, . . . . . . then you will want to start by making sure children have strong oral language. And if you are going to build children’s oral language, . . .....
by Jan and Kari | Jan 21, 2022 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
Ahh, the little prefix RE- ! Small but mighty! We’re believers in fresh starts and REvised approaches. We’re advocates of taking stock and REevaluating. And in both our personal and professional lives, January has been a time of RE- for us. REflecting on how we have...
by Jan and Kari | Dec 16, 2021 | Blog, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
It’s exciting when the little people we support start to know and recite some letter names and their associated sounds in response to seeing those little black marks on a page.But the problem is . . ….we’ve all known children who know LOTS, if not ALL, of the...
by Jan and Kari | Dec 9, 2021 | Blog
Phonics?Phonological awareness? Phonemic awareness? What’s the difference, really? And how can you keep all these phon- words straight? Well, confusion about the phon- words is created not only because they sound alike, but also because there is a great deal of...
