Prompting & Feedback
Explore articles, free downloads, and practical instructional resources to support prompting and feedback that help readers solve words with print first.
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The “Look Before You Leap” Routine: Problem-Solving Using V-MS
A routine for helping readers begin with the letters in a word, then check whether the word they read makes...
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V-MS Decoding Analysis Form
We’ve breathed fresh life into a familiar tool, helping you move from miscue analysis to decoding analysis and identify skills...
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Showing Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Learning (Bonus): The Power of Teaching Readers to Try Alternate Sounds
Explore how prompting readers to try an alternate sound can support flexible decoding when their first attempt at a word...
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Go Deeper, Together
The Six Shifts taught by Kari and Jan, with classroom video and practical routines.
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Shifting the Balance: Beginning Readers
K–2 teachers, reading specialists, coaches, and teams supporting beginning readers.
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Showing Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Learning (Part 6): The Power of Teaching Students to Blend Words
Explore how to prompt beginning readers to blend through words, using sound-spelling information from beginning to end to support decoding.
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Showing Young Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Reading (Part 5): The Downsides of Asking Children to Search for Chunks in Words
Reconsider prompts that ask beginning readers to search for familiar chunks, and explore how those prompts fit with students’ developing...
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Showing Young Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Reading (Part 4): Why Skipping the Word Is Problematic
Examine what happens when we teach readers to skip unfamiliar words, and how to keep their attention on the information...
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Showing Young Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Reading (Part 3): Why Looking at the First Letter of the Word Isn’t Enough (even when “read” correctly)
Explore why looking at the first letter isn’t enough, even when a reader guesses correctly, and how prompting can support...
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Showing Young Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Reading (Part 2): Why Looking at the Pictures Isn’t as Helpful as We Thought
Reconsider asking readers to use pictures to identify unfamiliar words, with attention to the word-learning processes that support increasingly independent...
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Showing Young Readers How to Navigate the Phases of Word Reading (Part 1): A Journey Through Ehri’s Phases
Use Ehri’s phases of word learning as a map for understanding beginning readers and choosing prompts that help them move...
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Shifting the Balance: Answers to Some Important Questions
Read answers to questions about Shifting the Balance, including the intentions behind the book and its invitation to reconsider familiar...
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A Message to Literacy Educators from Jan and Kari
A message from Jan and Kari about the purpose of Shifting the Balance and its invitation to bring reading research...
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Explore classroom tools and professional learning designed to support prompting andamp; feedback.
The Shift in a Nutshell
In Shifting the Balance (K–2), Shift 5, “Reinventing the Ways We Use MSV (3 Cueing Systems),” names a common practice to reconsider: “Treating decoding as a strategy of last resort.” The shift it recommends: