“This too, shall pass.” The world has entered unchartered territory with the global fight against COVID-19. We are all in this together, trying to navigate through unfamiliar and unstable terrain and are dealing with challenging and unprecedented times. This is our new global reality. Part of this reality involves schools moving towards distance learning. Children are required to stay at home and carry out their school work online, while parents try to maintain their jobs and care for their families. The burden is becoming heavy and overwhelming for many. We know the challenges are emotional ..read more

    you know that the term advocate comes from the Latin word advocare meaning to “add” a “voice”? To advocate is to add a voice of support or concern for a cause or a person.    Parents who have a child with learning or attention issues need to “be that voice” in order to get the support their child needs to be successful. Ask yourself these questions: If your child was struggling with their vision, would you go to the optometrist and ask for an assessment to determine what they needed to see better? Would you get your child eyeglasses if they needed them to see the board or read a book? Woul ..read more

    In my previous blogs on the subject of vocabulary building I have been discussing introducing Tier Two vocabulary words out of context and from what the authors of “Bringing Words to Life” tell us this is the most effective and productive way of teaching vocabulary words. This book says that for most teachers “using context clues is usually listed as one of the main strategies for figuring out the meaning of words, coming right in between ‘ask someone’ and ‘look it up in the dictionary.’” Conventional wisdom tells us that for students’ vocabulary to be developed they should focus on learn ..read more

  In my previous blog, “Building Vocabulary With Books,” I discussed and demonstrated ways to build vocabulary in the lower elementary grades. I included an example I had used with a student, of how to teach three Tier Two vocabulary words from the book The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy. In this article, I discuss and demonstrate ways to build vocabulary in the upper elementary grades, and I discuss how those ideas can be built upon to serve students in middle school and high school.    The inspiration for designing the following activities comes from the book, “Bringing Wor ..read more

  The authors of Bringing Words to Life tell us that, contrary to what we might believe, young children do not build their vocabulary by reading books but rather by having books read to them.   Why is this so?    The books that young children are able to read are intended to help them practice their reading skills rather than build their vocabulary. While we can use these books to build the vocabulary knowledge of young children, it takes some effort and thought on the part of the teacher, tutor, or parent.    How do we do this?    Let me explain and then provide an example that I created and ..read more

  Students need to have multiple encounters with words in order for their word knowledge to grow. It is simply not enough to provide them even with very deep and rich explanations of words as this won’t result in a lasting knowledge of a particular word. This article focuses on what you should do after a vocabulary word has been introduced to enable knowledge of that word to be retained.    As I have already said, it is simply not enough to provide a word definition as  each vocabulary word is introduced, and then move on to the next one. This is not an effective way of learning the meaning o ..read more

Just how do we select words to teach to students? You are perhaps thinking that the selection should be words students don’t know. Often the selection of words we teach as vocabulary words can have a very random feel about them, but the book “Bringing Words to Life” offers some very helpful solutions that I highlight in this blog. We will also put those solutions into practice by selecting some vocabulary words to teach from a passage taken from Eric Carle’s book for 4-8 year olds, called “The Grouchy Ladybug” in the USA and “The Bad-Tempered Ladybird” in the UK. As you can see, vocabulary s ..read more

In a recent webinar I attended, led by Maryanne Wolf of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at ULCA, she said the following, “The more you know about a word, the easier you can decode it.” In this blog, I will cover the difference between the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and how we develop a depth of vocabulary knowledge in our students and why it is important to do so.  I would like to quote the definitions for breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge from the InferCabulary web site. We use this program with the students in our practice, and for furt ..read more

“Sometimes referred to as rapid naming, RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming) refers to the skill of quickly accessing presumably rote information (numbers, letters, colors, or objects.) Students slower than average with RAN typically struggle with word-level reading.” David Kilpatrick from “Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties.”  So how do RAN issues manifest themselves? Students with RAN issues often have great difficulty retrieving words, although they can frequently describe them. They make a lot of substitution errors, are often slow to respond orally, and ..read more

1. Investigate what is making your child feel anxious Ask your child what the specific worries are regarding assessments. It might be the material is too complicated, a particular subject area creates anxiety, or time to complete the assessment is limited. Once you understand the worries, you can work on some strategies or accommodations that will help. 2. Reassure your child that test accommodations are in place If your child has a learning difference or attention issues, ensure that the 504 plan or IEP includes testing accommodations. These should be in place at the beginning of the scho ..read more