Did you know that there are 109 words in the English language that account for 50% of written English in children’s texts? Did you know that 13 of those account for 25% We call these high-frequency words. These high-leverage, high-frequency words are absolutely worth teaching. In fact, we want these high-frequency words to become sight …
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Reading Instruction
Make Your Teaching Stickier by Being More Explicit
Years ago, if I had been asked the question “Are you teaching or just telling?”, I would have been insulted. Of course I was teaching! Or was I? I have done a lot of self-reflection on my own instruction, and one thing I have worked really hard at is making my teaching as.explicit.as.possible. It has …
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[FREE WEBINAR] How to Increase Student Engagement, Thinking, and Comprehension
Kids Need to Talk in Order to Learn Kids like to talk. No, kids LOVE to talk. I know I’m not telling you anything new. Managing talkative students can be one of our most challenging classroom management issues. But did you know that kids NEED to talk in order to learn? In fact, whoever is …
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How to Make the Best Use of Time in Your Literacy Classroom
We Never Have Enough Time When you are an educator, time is a precious resource. I have had a lot of conversations with teachers over the years about TIME. There just isn’t enough of it… EVER. As a classroom teacher, I felt it, too. Lately these conversations with teachers seem to be the only conversations I’m having. …
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How to Make Sense of the Science of Reading vs. Balanced Literacy Conversation
Not long after I started teaching in the late 1980s, literacy educators were involved in a “reading war”. For those too young to remember, it was the “whole language vs. phonics” debate. While I embraced much of the whole language philosophy, I never abandoned systematic phonics instruction. I learned to read with a phonics approach and couldn’t imagine …
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How to Show Students and Families What Matters in Our Reading Classrooms
Last week, the school district where my children learn and grow started posting on social media about their newest outdoor learning space. This might be the most beautiful garden I’ve ever laid my eyes on and I couldn’t wait to share it with you. This is literally a garden that grows readers. Check it out here. You just have …
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How to Reach Your Disengaged and Reluctant Readers with Home Run Books
If you are like me, you are always searching for ways to reach your struggling, disengaged, and reluctant readers. The truth is, there are many ways that a reader can struggle and many reasons why they are struggling. For some students it is at least partly an engagement issue: they don’t like to read, so …
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Book Recommendation: Change Sings! Happy Autumn Equinox!
I finally received my copy of the much-anticipated book Change Sings! How many of you pre-ordered this book like I did after hearing Amanda Gorman recite her goosebump-inducing poem The Hill We Climb on Inauguration Day? Even though I’ve been waiting 8 long months for the arrival of this book, it seems it couldn’t have arrived on …
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