...because every child deserves reading success.
You know that assessing with leveled readers is just not giving you the information you need to help your students, but what is a teacher to do? The answer is to use decodable running records. Some folks are suggesting that running records are not a helpful assessment tool and teachers should not bother administering them….
If it hasn’t happened yet in your district, now is the time to shift to the science of reading. Teachers and administrators need to know that the ‘jig is up’, the ’emperor has no clothes’ and balanced literacy is a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. Okay, enough with the idioms. Let’s get to the point. Thanks…
An r-controlled vowel refers to a specific syllable pattern. Syllables that contain the r-controlled vowel pattern have one vowel that is immediately followed by an r. The r changes the sound of the vowel so that the vowel makes neither the short sound nor the long sound. What are the sounds of an r-controlled vowel?…
The open syllable is a great way to introduce beginning readers to the long vowel sound as it appears in print. Hopefully, you’ve continued to work on Phonemic Awareness with a variety of vowel sounds so when students begin to connect the sound to print, they will have had previous exposure to the long vowel…
Just like in kindergarten and first grade, we begin teaching second grade readers with baseline assessments. Your second-grade students have spent two years on their reading journey, but they are not all in the same local. Assessments will help you determine where each of your students are in their travels. As their guide, you need…
The first step in your journey of teaching reading to first graders begins with assessment. Stay with me here. Think of assessment as your roadmap (or GPS). In order to ensure that you reach your destination of a classroom full of successful readers, you need a roadmap, so you (and your students) don’t get lost….