Sight Words: A Cognitive Approach
Students should analyze the phoneme-grapheme relationships of a word, it’s meaning, syllable type, spelling pattern, morphemic parts, and etymology to help make it a sight word!
Sight words: A Template for Teaching
Teach any word to be a sight word with this template!
Assessment to Instruction
Free resource for organizing assessment data
Assessing Reading
It is the beginning of the school year, and we are eager to see how our students read and what skills we need to teach them. How do we accomplish both? We do so with a comprehensive reading assessment that covers all skills needed for reading. Science of Reading and a Reading Assessment …
Word Ladders
Word Ladders (sometimes called word chains) are a powerful way to connect phonemic awareness and phonics.
Orthographic Mapping
Orthographic mapping is a process and not a skill. There are instructional practices and skills that promote orthographic mapping.
Language at the Speed of Sight
Mark Seidenberg’s 2017 book, Language at the Speed of Light explains how human brains learn to read and how educational instructional practices can support this complex process. By highlighting the decades of the science of reading, Seidenberg explains the gap between the science and current educational practices. He also offers suggestions for how teachers can…
Think Like a Scientist
The Science of Reading: A Few Considerations There are too many “wars” happening right now. Political wars, reading wars, vaccine wars, and actual wars. We are divided into groups with whom we agree on topics that are important and relevant to us. But how many of us act like a scientist and actually read the…
Reading in the Brain
If you are curious about what happens in the brain when humans read, this is the book for you! I am not qualified to write a true book review (nor am I attempting to), but I hope to summarize some of the main topics in the book. What happens in the brain when we are…
I Love Being Wrong
For some people, saying the words, “I am wrong,” might be incredibly difficult. But for me, saying or thinking the words excite me. I am energized by learning something that contradicts what I previously thought. Is that odd to admit? As organizational psychologist, Adam Grant said in his podcast and in his new book, Think…
Orton Gillingham Lesson-Part 2
In the first part of an Orton Gillingham lesson we practice phonemic awareness, blending, and letter-sound correspondence. After that, it is crucial that students review and reinforce previously learned skills. The student must also learn new information and practice this new skill in their reading and writing. Concepts taught and reviewed cover ALL strands of…
Orton Gillingham Lesson
This is Part 1 of a series of posts about what is included in an Orton Gillingham lesson plan. Many assume an Orton Gillingham lesson only includes phonics. While explicit instruction of many phonics skills is a large part of an OG lesson, a quality lesson covers SO many more aspects of our language. This…