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Decodable Texts Q&A (Part 4): What Else to Look For – The MEANING
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...
Decodable Texts Q&A (Part 3): What to Look for – The WORDS
In the last couple of blogs, we’ve unpacked these three questions about decodable texts: Who really needs decodable texts, anyway?...
Decodable Texts Q&A (Part 2): How many?
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...
Decodable Texts Q&A (Part 1): What? Why? Who?
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...
What do Dark Chocolate, Coffee, and Literacy Instruction Have in Common?
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...
Adjustments to Small-Group Instruction (Part 2):What else is STILL IMPORTANT, and What else NEEDS RECONSIDERING?
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...
Adjustments to Small-Group Instruction (Part 1): What’s STILL IMPORTANT and What NEEDS RECONSIDERING?
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...
Using our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 8): Spelling Comparisons
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...
Using our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 7): Word Chains
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...
Using Our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 6): Reading Text
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...
Using Our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 5): Writing
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...
Using Our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 4): Blending Words
This week, we help students develop trust. Trust?! YES, trust! Students will take the skills they’ve learned in the first two components of our Explicit...
Using Our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 3): Explicit Skills Practice
Last week we warmed up our phonological processors during the Phonemic Awareness Warm-up component of the Explicit Phonics Lesson Template, (If you missed...
Using Our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template (Part 2): The Phonemic Awareness Warm-up
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...
Using Our Flexible Phonics Lesson Template Part 1: An Introduction
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...
School leaders! Want to customize literacy PD for your school this year? We can help.
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...
4 Simple Steps for Using Elkonin Boxes to Help Children Lock Words in Memory
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...
Sight Word learning in 1-4 exposures! That’s crazy talk! Or is it?
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...
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