One of the most common questions we get is how to help students with their spelling. This makes sense because… Spelling is hard! Students need to make multiple connections to spell effectively. They need to: Hear/interpret the word correctly Identify all the individual sounds Pair each of those sounds with the appropriate letter or letter group Consider any applicable rules How can we support students in this process? We like to use graphic organizers and step-by-step instructions for students whenever possible. In this case, we use a 4-step process that we call “Scoop Spelling.” How ..read more

By now, many of us have heard the term “the Science of Reading” and while there is absolutely science behind the neural process of reading, and evidence-based instructional strategies, it must be noted that Reading instruction is as much an art as a science. And, we are going to go even further to state that the process of implementing data-driven instruction (very “sciency”) also has an art to it. Specifically, let’s talk about the art of assessment. Now assessment that drives instruction should absolutely be based on evidence-based practices. We talk frequently about the Literacy Processing ..read more

Do your students ever struggle to make appropriate inferences or predictions from a story or passage they've just heard or read? If so, not to worry, this is a high-level concept! And, we’re here to share our explicit teaching strategy to help students begin to “take leaps” with information by making inferences and predictions. If you’ve read our other Reading Comprehension Strategies blogs, you may already know that when we teach comprehension, we teach the skills in a spiral fashion. We start with a big picture overview for students so they understand each of the 5 levels of comprehension an ..read more

Do your students ever struggle to figure out the main idea of a story or passage they've just heard or read? This is really common because it’s a tricky concept! And, we’re here to share our explicit teaching strategy to help students identify and produce a main idea. If you’ve read our other Reading Comprehension Strategies blogs, you may already know that when we teach comprehension, we teach the skills in a spiral fashion. We start with a big picture overview for students so they understand each of the 5 levels of comprehension and then we break it down and focus on each of the individual l ..read more

Do your students ever struggle to recall important information directly from a story or passage they've just heard or read? If so, don’t worry, it's very common! And, we’re here to share our explicit teaching strategy to help students recall important information. Now, when we teach comprehension, we teach the skills in a spiral fashion. Specifically, we provide a big picture overview for students of each of the 5 levels of comprehension we should consider as we listen to or read something, then we break it down and focus on each of the individual levels and strategies with each level. We alw ..read more

Have your students ever struggled to apply explicitly taught strategies to reading chapter books? Have you ever struggled to keep your students motivated and engaged in your literacy instruction? If so you are not alone! One of the best strategies to help your students apply strategies while keeping them motivated and engaged is to build a structured and systematic SOR-aligned lesson and pair it with a chapter book. But what exactly does that process look like? Let’s take a look at one of our favorites from the Magic Tree House - Dingoes at Dinnertime When building this unit, we broke the boo ..read more

We know that 3rd grade is a pivotal year where students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. It is important that we give students the necessary foundations starting in those earlier grades to ensure we are setting them up for success later on. Today, we’re talking about how you can use your students’ favorite books to create evidence-based lesson plans that align with the Science of Reading so that students can receive instruction and solidify these necessary foundational skills. This process requires 5 steps: Step 1: Outline the Skills We recommend that you start by outlini ..read more

When it comes to literacy instruction, there are a LOT of materials out there.  Dry erase boards, letter tiles, multisensory items (like sand or shaving cream), pencils, worksheets, binders…the list goes on and on.  Now, I don't know about all of you, but when I started out delivering literacy intervention privately, I was on a tight budget to get all the supplies I needed for my students! And I was traveling to see my students so I needed materials that were easy to take along with me.  After a few years, I narrowed down the exact materials that I could not live without. Materi ..read more

You can't teach comprehension explicitly. ...at least, that's what we were told when we started in this field.  After working with hundreds of students, we realized that comprehension can and should be taught explicitly. ...and that teaching it doesn't need to be as hard as we once believed. It just relies on us recognizing one important detail before we jump in. The first step in teaching comprehension explicitly… …is recognizing that there are different styles of comprehension and that each requires different levels of processing. The way we answer a direct recall question is ..read more

We all remember it, right?  A stack of flashcards rubber-banded together. A word on one side, definitions on another. Quizzing our friends at lunch just trying to learn the words in time for our vocabulary tests.  …only to forget them as the bell rang and we went on to our next class. When it comes to vocabulary instruction, rote memorization of definitions has been the go-to strategy for students for a looooooong time. While this flashcard strategy can be an effective way to learn new words, it ultimately isn't effective for long-term retention.  This is important because stude ..read more