Many parents have reached out to us with the question of, “How can I help my struggling reader at home?” You have probably heard ad infinitum, ‘be sure to read to your child.’ Reading to your child is lovely AND necessary for so many reasons. But, that’s a different topic. If you are reading this post, you have probably made trips to the library and reading bedtime stories a common occurrence. You want to know what MORE you can do, because the practices you are currently engaging in just aren’t helping your child close the reading gap. Take heart. There are a lot of short, fun activities that parents can implement at home to strengthen the various components of structured...
Here are some extracts from an article by Five from five found here and my comments. Five from five: ‘Word study will have limited success if the learner has weak letter-sound associations and/or weak phonemic awareness.’ More often than not it is not weak letter sound association and/or weak phonemic awareness that results in the limited success of kids learning to read. It is almost always the confusion that sets in when consonants are taught wrongly by teachers/schools. We teach kids consonants with extraneous sounds and then say ‘the learner has weak letter-sound relationship and or weak phonemic awareness’. We complain that kids are unable to blend cuhahtuh to form cat. LINK. Read what a teacher tweeted in December...
Are you teaching students to read? Having the right resources at your fingertips is so important and will make your life so much easier! If you have beginning readers and you want to help them with their reading skills, this post is for you! These printable activities help students learn to read in a fun way! Alphabet Activities If we want students to be good readers, they first need to know the letters of the alphabet and letter sounds. Check out this blog post for my favorite ideas on teaching the alphabet to preschoolers. Phonological Awareness Phonological awareness is the deep understanding of the unit of sounds in a spoken language. Written language is a code of 44 speech sounds represented by 26 letters, so it’s...
From the Renaissance Era to our Digital Age, music has remained the method that expresses the language that we cannot. And contrary to what one might think, research has shown music can help heal the heart. Its sounds release dopamine and endorphins that “can induce happy moods and relieve pain” — specifically for the mind. And contemporarily, one could argue that rapper Kid Cudi has become an ambassador for mental health awareness. The 38-year-old employed his lyrics and iconic hums to destigmatize being not okay is okay. But what if I were to say music has always carried this tune and has always been a vessel to discuss personal pains? Before we dive into the 21st century, we need to...
If you're looking up end of the year reading projects, then that means something amazing – summer is approaching! This time of year always re-energizes me because state testing is behind us, summer is ahead of us, and we get to have some fun in the moment. One of my favorite ways to end the school year is with some sort of reading project. Throughout the years, I have tried out several different reading projects and even created some of my own along the way. I want to share some of the projects I have used with students that always get a student vote of approval! Inferencing Reading Project For this inferencing project, I take my students on an (imaginary)...
