by Jan and Kari | Jan 27, 2023 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Fluency, High-Frequency Words, Knowledge Building, Language Comprehension, Literacy Leadership, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Strategy Instruction, Vocabulary, Word Reading Instruction
Last week, we shared 5 adjustments that can help you bring small-group instruction for early decoders more in line with your other shifts to early literacy instruction. If you missed it, you can find that post here. We hope that you have taken some time this week to...
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 | 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 30, 2022 | Beyond the Book, Literacy Leadership
If you’re a school leader, an instructional coach, or a teacher longing for science-aligned but practical professional development, we have something that can help. With the current push for more science-aligned literacy practices and with the start of a new school...
by Jan and Kari | Jun 25, 2022 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Fluency, High-Frequency Words, Language Comprehension, Literacy Leadership, Meaningful Independent Practices, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Prompting & Feedback, Word Reading Instruction
If you are a teacher or literacy interventionist struggling to: assess students in meaningful ways, provide more effective differentiated instruction, manage the diverse needs of your students with limited time, or find the instructional resources you need (like...
by Jan and Kari | May 21, 2022 | Blog, Decodable Texts, Literacy Leadership, Phonics, Word Reading Instruction
What could be more fun than thinking about pups? We really can’t think of much.Speaking of puppies, if you’re familiar with our book, Shifting the Balance, then you know that Chapter 6 is about finding “aligned” texts for students. Aligned texts are more than...
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 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, . . .....
