I'd like to start this post by throwing my past teacher self under the bus. That's right, I can honestly tell you that I made a lot of mistakes for years. Was I dedicated? Heck yeah! Did I have the right intentions? For sure! Did I think I was doing the right thing? You betcha! For many years,  I treated spelling as an afterthought at best. Sure, I had spelling tests and did a little phonics instruction here and there, but I wasn't teaching it well and I wasn't assessing it properly either. Most importantly, I wasn't understanding the role that spelling has on students' success with learni ..read more

Hi everyone! This post has been a long time coming. I started it almost a year ago, but teaching and life got in the way. I've slowly added to it, but I decided to buckle down now that summer is here and get it done. This post uses information from a few different resources, which I will list at the bottom of the post. I highly recommend reading these books when you get a chance. This is just an overview, and I'm hoping that it inspires you all to dig deeper with those books.  (Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert. I'm just super interested in all of this and have been studying and att ..read more

Hi everyone! I've written before about syllable division, but I've mainly focused on the first three rules with open and closed syllables. I made some new visuals to go with the step by step posters, so I figured it was a good time for another post.  What is syllable division? Syllable division rules show us how to break up a multi-syllable word into its syllable parts. There are six main syllable division rules to guide us. How is it done? It all starts with the vowels. Find the vowels in the word. It helps to underline or highlight them.Find the patten of the consonants and vowels (VCV, VCCV ..read more

Hi friends! It's been a while, but I'm excited to say that I have several posts coming soon. I have most of them half done. LOL! I know, I know, focus Sarah! Get one done and then the next. ha! I have had a lot of questions recently about syllable types and syllable division rules. (That post coming next.)  What are Syllable Types?There are 7 written syllable types used in English spelling (six if you combine vowel teams and diphthongs). To read and spell, students need to know these syllable types. Knowing these syllable types makes decoding and encoding easier and more efficient. There are ..read more

Good morning! Today I'm excited to write about the most common vowel sound that I never knew even existed. That's right, I got through high school, college, grad school,  and several years of teaching and I had never heard of the schwa. If you've been following me on Instagram or on this blog, you probably know about five or six years ago I really started digging deeper into understanding how we learn to read and why it is so difficult for some people. I went to workshops, took online classes, and started reading books, post, articles, and research about reading and all of its subtopics. The m ..read more