Do you know all of the vowel phonemes of English? Like most people, I thought the vowels of English were a, e, i, o u, and sometimes y.  Those letters are the vowel letters of English. I am about to share more than you ever probably wanted to know about vowels!  Then again, maybe you are like me and wish someone had shared all of this information with you sooner.  It sure would have improved my teaching sooner!  It has taken me time to internalize and “own” this knowledge.  Give yourself some time and some grace as well if this is new information to you.   I ..read more

Our brains are wired for speech, not for reading. Humans have not been reading and writing long enough for our brains to have evolved to be wired for learning how to read.  Children are born with their brains wired for speech. Think about it.  No one has to “teach” a child to speak.  If surrounded by people speaking in their first years of life, they just begin to speak.  If we want children to learn to read, we all need to understand why speech sounds in English are the key to reading! Some children seem to naturally learn to read. Most children do not.  Far too ..read more

Phonological and phonemic awareness activities are key to beginning a research-proven lesson plan for beginning reading.  I love doing these activities with students and I want you and your students to love them too!   If you aren’t sure where phonological and phonemic awareness activities fit into the big picture of reading instruction, you may want to check out my Seven Key Components to Teaching & Learning How to Read in the Primary Grades.  Get it delivered to your inbox by filling out the form on the right of this page. These are the components that are the of my ..read more

Lesson Planning for reading in 2021-2022 is going to be more organized and easier for me than last year and I want to help you do the same!  I am going digital. If you are interested in what that is going to look like, please keep reading. Even if digital planning isn’t for you, I have some reading lesson planning suggestions you won’t want to miss. The daily lesson planning template I have will work for small groups in the classroom or intervention groups.  Lesson Planning for Reading Intervention Lesson planning for reading can be challenging and time-consuming.  Let’s change ..read more

If you are unsure of the difference between phonemic and phonological awareness, you are not alone!  First, let me help you sort out the difference. AND once we sort out the difference between phonemic and phonological awareness, we will learn why phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are so important. Phonological Awareness Phonological awareness is the big umbrella term that includes all levels of the awareness of speech sounds.  The reason I am starting with phonological awareness is that phonological awareness includes phonemic awareness.  If you have phonological aw ..read more

What in the world is orthographic mapping? Orthographic mapping is how written words are read and remembered.  It explains how we build a large volume of words into words that we recognize by sight.  It is a process that we use as readers.  Many people develop this skill of orthographic mapping easily, on their own, and unconsciously.  However, students with reading difficulties do not develop this skill and need direct and explicit instruction of orthographic mapping skills.   Orthographic Mapping and Word Reading According to Kilpatrick, there are four component ..read more

The number of opportunities to respond during a reading lesson is something I have been hearing quite a bit about lately.  I recently attended an online conference all around Dyslexia and it came up in more than one presentation. If we want our students to master what we are teaching, they need to practice.  We need to provide students with more opportunities to respond during our lessons so they get the amount of practice they need to master the foundational skills in reading. If you want to learn a sport or musical instrument, you have to practice.  Learning to read is the sam ..read more

Science of Reading: The Beginning of my Journey My journey to the science of reading really started before I went to Kindergarten.  I went to Kindergarten ready to read.  As long ago as I can remember, I always wanted to be a teacher.  When I graduated with my undergraduate degree in elementary education with a middle school endorsement in 1997 I couldn’t find a teaching job.  There were hundreds of applicants for every position.  I thought I wanted to teach middle school math. Instead I got a tutoring position in an elementary school, which led to a Title I teaching p ..read more

What is Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence? The term phoneme-grapheme correspondence is the matching of the sounds we say to the letters and letter combinations we use to spell the words we say. Most Common Sounds When children are first learning the sounds that letters make, it is helpful to introduce only the most common sounds that letters make.  This is especially true if a child is finding letter-name and letter-sound learning difficult. In the following video, I will demonstrate the most common sounds for letters.  The most common sounds are the sounds letter make in short, one-sy ..read more

CVC Words segmenting and blending is essential to learning to read and spell. CVC Words Words that have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern are therefore called CVC words.  So examples of CVC words would be:  cat, net, wig, log, and sun. One of the important concepts in learning to read CVC words is the understanding that a vowel between two consonants is usually a short vowel sound. Segmenting Segmenting words is breaking words into their separate sounds. The easiest way to understand this concept and explain it to students is to think of a word you want to write down and spell.&nbs ..read more