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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 your...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

If we asked you to guess how many encounters with a new word a typical reader needs to be able to retrieve the word instantly and automatically, without guessing, decoding, or relying on other hacks . . . what number would you guess? 20? 30? 40? More? Well, you might...

If you’re looking for a bit of magic in your sight word instruction, you’re in the right place! The real magic, of course, comes from HOW you teach high-frequency words. And spoiler alert - successful word instruction has everything to do with leveraging the power of...

We’ve all been there! We’ve all said some version of this phrase! After chanting and practicing and highlighting and rainbow writing a word repeatedly, a student encounters the word in print (or goes to use it in their writing) and looks at it like it’s a martian with...