by Jan and Kari | Jun 26, 2023 | Blog, High-Frequency Words, Literacy Leadership, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Word Reading Instruction
This post is our third in a 6-part series about how you can support readers who are trying to read a word they don’t know. Deciding how to prompt readers when they are stuck or uncertain is one of the most nuanced and critical jobs of literacy educators, and its...
by Jan and Kari | Jun 23, 2023 | Blog, High-Frequency Words, Literacy Leadership, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Word Reading Instruction
In our last blog, we used a map-reading metaphor to introduce Linnea Ehri’s phases of word learning (1987, 1995, 2002, 2005, 2017). Today we take that conversation a step further by l unpacking a specific (and in many cases beloved) prompt that we’ve relied on to...
by Jan and Kari | May 26, 2023 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership
We think every day is the right day to celebrate the work of educators. So, for every single teacher committed to making our schools better places for kids, this one’s for you. Today, we celebrate educators. We celebrate those committed to finding more ways to make...
by Jan and Kari | May 5, 2023 | Blog, Literacy Leadership
Friends, When we wrote our little book, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom, we wanted it to be an invitation for balanced literacy educators to take an honest second look at some current practices. Turns...
by Jan and Kari | Apr 14, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Literacy Leadership, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Word Reading Instruction
In this Decodable Text Series, we’ve been exploring questions about the place, the purpose, and the practicality of using decodable texts with beginning readers. You can catch up here if you’ve missed our previous posts. Today’s question: What are some other...
by Jan and Kari | Mar 30, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Knowledge Building, Language Comprehension, Literacy Leadership, Vocabulary, Word Reading Instruction
We love finding a Netflix or Prime series that we can count on – one that gives us something to think about after watching as well as something to look forward to in the next episode. In the same way, we hope that you find this “Decodable Text: Questions and...
by Jan and Kari | Mar 20, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, High-Frequency Words, Literacy Leadership, Word Reading Instruction
In the last couple of blogs, we’ve unpacked these three questions about decodable texts: Who really needs decodable texts, anyway? What is a decodable text, really? How many decodable texts do I need? If you missed those posts, you can catch up here and here. As...
by Jan and Kari | Feb 24, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Literacy Leadership, Word Reading Instruction
Last week we launched a series focused on questions and answers about the very hot topic of decodable texts. We explored what decodable texts are, why they are important, and who really needs them. You can revisit that post here. This week we are thinking about your...
by Jan and Kari | Feb 17, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Literacy Leadership, Meaningful Independent Practices, Word Reading Instruction
Decodable texts! Conversations about them seem to be popping up everywhere these days!If we’re honest, we have to admit that we both started this journey with a whole bunch of baggage that left us feeling more than a little bit leery of decodable texts. But more and...
by Jan and Kari | Feb 10, 2023 | Blog, Literacy Leadership, Video
It’s tempting to look for research to prove an opinion we already hold and feel deeply committed to. Kari loves dark chocolate. And she knows there’s research that shows it has many sweet benefits. Jan loves coffee.And she’s relieved to know there’s research to show...