Practical Fluency Activities that Actually Work Now that we understand the why from Part 1 of the Fluency blog post, let us talk about the how. The strongest fluency routines have three things in common: Below are classroom-ready reading fluency routines & structures grounded in research and real classrooms. 1. The 5-Read Fluency Cycle (Whole…
What It Is, Why It Matters, and How We Build It If you want to understand fluency, sit next to a disfluent reader. You will hear the effort.You will see the stops and starts.You will feel the comprehension fall apart in real time. Fluency is not about racing through a passage. It is about reading…
Teachers hear it every day: “Why is English spelling so weird?” And honestly, students are not wrong—at least not at first glance. English spelling looks confusing when we treat it as a system based only on sound. But once we understand how English developed, everything starts to make sense. Even better?When students understand why spellings…
Have you ever noticed that some students can orally blend sounds all day long — but when it comes to reading or spelling, the skills just don’t transfer? They can orally segment the sounds /s/ /u/ /n/, but when they see the word sun in text, they guess. That disconnect between hearing sounds and reading…
You know that moment when your student looks at the first letter of a word, takes a wild guess, and keeps reading as if nothing happened? You pause, your teacher heart sighs, and you think: We’ve gone over this a hundred times… why does he still guess words? You’re not alone. I’ve seen this happen…
You are the teacher who wants independent work that actually teaches—not fluffy worksheets and not tasks kids can’t do alone. You need science of reading–aligned, independent ELA resources for 1st grade & 2nd grade that move the needle while you pull small groups. Skilled reading is not built by phonics alone. As Scarborough’s Reading Rope…
I still remember the exact moment I stood in the checkout line at the teacher supply store, sweating a little as I handed over my debit card. I had just spent over $250 on decodable books, games, and posters that I hoped would help my struggling readers. I wanted so badly to do right by…
The Guide to Discussing Student Struggles with Confidence Parent teacher conferences can be nerve-wracking especially when you need to share that a student is struggling. You want to be honest, but you also want to preserve trust and hope. As a Fellow-in-Training with the Orton Gillingham Academy, I have had these hard conversations many times—and…