...because every child deserves reading success.
Essential Assessments for Kindergarten Readers “Back-to-School” is the best time of year. The kindergartners arrive at the classroom door, shining and smiling in their new school clothes, eager to learn. There is a LOT to learn. First, they have to learn how to ‘do’ school. They have to learn where the bathroom is, how to share…
The best way to begin teaching reading in kindergarten is to resist the urge to jump right into instruction. First, you need to know where to start and then you need to know where you are going. We refer to this instructional cycle as “Assess, Analyze, Instruct”. At Informed Literacy it is our core belief…
Teaching beginning readers about the closed syllable is an important first step in reading success. Kindergarten, First Grade, and emergent readers benefit from lessons that include explicit, systematic instruction of the syllable type, both in isolation and in connected text (decodable readers).
NOT drill and kill but play and play! The following low-cost or no-cost play-based activities will help lay a solid foundation for a great start to Kindergarten.
Developing Automatic Recognition of Letters and Sounds What are fluency grids? Fluency grids are a simple tool that provides targeted instruction for emergent readers. After careful analysis of a letter-sound assessment, the teacher can create a fluency grid with 2-6 letters requiring additional practice. When instructing emergent readers in letter/sound recognition (i.e. the alphabetic principle), the focus…