Mary responds to listener questions about time management and the components of a tutoring session. Resource Links: OG Drill information I <3 Emily Gibbon's materials at The Literacy Nest Our episode on Executive Functioning Our episode on Sight Words COME JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Our Website Facebook Instagram Shannon's TpT Store Support the show Get Literacy Support through our Patreon...
Mary discusses a brief that has been put out by the International Literacy Association that shares information about how phonics instruction must be systematic and explicit as part of an overall efficient, effective, and timely reading curriculum. Resource Links: Education Week July 18, 2019 Influential Reading Group Makes it Clear: Students Need Systematic, Explicit Phonics Brief from ILA Meeting the Challenges of Early Phonics Instruction Hard Words Why Aren't Kids Being Taught to Read (APM re...
This is the beginning of season 2! Shannon and Mary catch up about what they have been up to during the summer and how they're getting ready for the new school year. Resource Links: SMART Goals (lol) Fundations Phonics Program our Sight Words Episode our Short Vowels episode our Long Vowels episode our R-Controlled Vowels episode our Vowel Teams episode our Syllables episode our Phonemic Awareness episode Kindergarten activities for books about different colors Follow Us: Our Revised Website Fac...
Are you ready for summer? We can't wait to play with our kids! Mary and Shannon have compiled some resources for hands-on summer play to practice important reading skills outside of the classroom. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* What Mom's Love blog with 101 ideas to encourage learning with chalk Letter Sounds (Beginning, Middle, Ending sound Or or...
We share some of the unexpected phonics lessons that students need that aren't always obvious in the curriculum guides. These important and necessary phonics lessons are essential in phonics instruction. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* How To Teach Spelling by Laura Toby Rudginsky and Elizabeth C. Haskell * Emily Gibbon's of The Literacy Nest Spell...
Shannon and Mary share how to facilitate digital assignments in the reading classroom. We go into detail about using Moby Max, Imagine Learning, and Boom Learning with students. Resource Links: Digital Assignments Sheet Cult of Pedagogy Podcast - Check Your Tech: 6 Strategies Boom Learning Imagine Learning Moby Max Lexia Amplify Nessy Language Live Epic Follow Us: Our Website Instagram Shannon's TpT Store Support the show Get Literacy Support through our Patreon...
Shannon and Mary review the terms phoneme and grapheme. They're important terms to understanding the connections between letters and sounds. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* Phonics they Use Words for Reading and Writing by Patricia Cunningham Phonics A-Z by Wiley Blevins Phonemes, Graphemes, and Letters: The Word Burger 44 Phonemes in English Follo...
Shannon and Mary discuss a professional article, "Why Phonics Teaching Must Change" published in Educational Leadership, September, 2008 by Jeannine Herron. They talk about a different approach to teaching students to read. What if we focus more on encoding rather than starting with decoding? Resource Links: Article: Why Phonics Instruction Must Change Encoding, Decoding, and Understanding the Print Language Teaching Encoding and Decoding Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick Review o...
Shannon and Mary talk about pre-reading skills and other school readiness skills that students need before going to Kindergarten. They interview Emily Howland, a pre-school educator about important early literacy skills and language development. Resource Links: All About Learning - Motivation to Read 10 Tips for Preschoolers Conscious Discipline - Social/Emotional curriculum Play based curriculum Types of preschool programming Follow Us: Our Website Instagram Shannon's TpT Store Support the show...
Executive Functioning is a term being thrown around a lot in schools today. We break down what this term means and why it's important for educators to understand it. We discuss the importance of teaching these essential life-long skills. Resource Links: Executive Functioning in Plain English Executive Functioning Task Cards 5 Ways Executive Functioning Issues Can Impact Reading The Reading Brain: Executive Function Hard at Work Executive Function Skills: the Building Blocks for Reading to Learn ...
Reading and Writing go hand-in-hand. Hesitant readers tend to be hesitant writers. We ask students to do a lot of writing throughout the day. Shannon and Mary discuss the importance and elements of quality writing instruction. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* Thinking Maps The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All ...
Shannon and Mary discuss the concept of metacognition - thinking about the way you think. We discuss tips about how to teach your students how to evaluate their performances, learning, and reading. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* How Metacognition Can Help Kids Executive Functioning Task Cards Strategies that Work book link* Strategies that Work St...
Consonants deserve their own episode! We can't let vowels steal all the glory. Learn about the building blocks of language: vowels/consonants, blends, digraphs. Learn more about how we teach our students about consonants as we share our tricks, tips, and resources. Resource Links: Precise Pronunciation Digraph brothers FCRR Digraph a Word FCRR Student Center Activities Ending Blends Clip Cards PBS Videos and Resources for Consonant Blends Curated Video Playlist about Blends and Digraphs Follow U...
Mary and Shannon sort out the complex terms that are related to phonological processing. What is the difference between phonological awareness and phoneme awareness? We discuss how we teach these skills and provide resource ideas for you to try! Resource Links: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Introduction Orton Gillingham Educators' Guide Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick Phonological Awareness and Dyslexia Phonemic Awareness Overview (from U. of Oregon) Getting Ready to Read ...
Shannon and Mary discuss how to determine "just right activities" for their students by working within the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) and how analyzing your students' scores can lead to developing rigorous activities within the student's instructional level. We believe that learning to read is rigorous and teachers must continue to teach students where they are while developing their lofty learning goals. Resource Links: ZPD Overview (Wikipedia) ZPD and Scaffolding Reading Levels and ZPD...
Shannon and Mary have a conversation about reversals of letters and numbers. Many parents and teachers are concerned about reversals, but the truth is that all reversals do need to be explicitly taught. Some children will make developmentally appropriate errors, while others are struggling with working memory, visual, and phonological processing. Direct instruction with model (verbal and visual cues) and demonstration is the only research-based strategy to help children correct their reversals. ...
Shannon and Mary talk about coping behaviors that struggling readers use to hide the "big secret" that they can't read. They share details about students' actions that teachers can look for in the classroom to gather more insight about their learners. Some tactics that are labeled as troublesome are actually deflection tactics that struggling students use to mask their learning deficits. Come join the conversation! Do the children in your room display these behaviors? We think you'll recognize m...
Mary and Shannon discuss Dyslexia. There are a lot of misconceptions that are due to lack of training. Many teachers are somewhat familiar with dyslexia and may even say that they have previously taught students with dyslexia. However, the reality is that almost 20% of the population struggles with dyslexia and may or may not be formally diagnosed. Find out more about dyslexia and join the conversation. Are you wondering what you can do to keep your classroom "dyslexic-friendly?" We have plenty ...
Are you teaching sight words in your classroom? Parents, are you supporting your child's practice in learning sight words? It's important to have a large bag of tricks. Listen as Shannon and Mary discuss many different ideas for parents and teachers to reinforce multiple practice turns for students as they are gaining automaticity in reading and spelling sight words. Resource Links: Red Words Sight Word Stories by Margaret Hillert Structured Word Inquiry Webinar Sight Word Phrases Sight Word Par...
Shannon and Mary discuss the final pattern of the six syllable types: 'consonant+le'. Listen and join the conversation as they review CLOVER (closed, consonant + le, open, vowel teams, magic-e, and r-control syllable types). Find resources for how to teach syllables in your classroom and some clever tricks to reach your struggling readers. If you have students in your classroom who still haven't "cracked the code", come learn some strategies that will help you reach readers with phonics-based re...
Vowel teams are combinations of vowels (two or more) that make one sound. When students begin learning about vowel teams they have to demonstrate an understanding of sound symbol relationship where multiple vowel teams represent a single sound. This developmental decoding milestone is quite complex and is a critical step that students must take on their journey to mastering syllable patterns. Shannon and Mary will walk you through some of the important steps in teaching readers vowel teams. Reso...
Shannon and Mary discuss how they discovered the importance of teaching phonics instruction and syllable division to help their student begin to crack the code of reading. Throughout the episode they will talk about strategies and activities that include multi-sensory phonics instruction for teaching r-controlled vowel patterns. Resource Links: R-Controlled Spin game from FCRR GREAT Youtube video clips to introduce & practice the sounds! The Literacy Nest article about r-controlled vowels Sm...
Mary and Shannon describe how they teach long vowels to their struggling readers. They share their favorite resources and routines for conducting phonics lessons. Are you challenged by your struggling readers? Do you need some casual professional development without sitting in the media center? Come join the conversation and start implementing new strategies tomorrow! Resource Links: FCRR Long & Short Vowel Picture sort Long Vowels Videos Playlist Free Reading.net Decodable passages The Lite...
Shannon and Mary discuss background and strategies for teaching short vowels. You will learn facts and tidbits about literacy and why short vowels make their short, unique sounds. Hint! It has to do with the consonant next door. Learn about multi-sensory phonics based games and strategies for teaching struggling readers in your classroom. In the show notes you will find links to the resources we enjoy and use with our students. Resource Links: FCRR Short vowel reading center FCRR Real & Nons...
The process for identifying a specific learning disability such as dyslexia is complicated in the public school setting. In this episode Mary explains the RTI (Response to Intervention) process. She also breaks down how a student is eligible for special education in the public school. Key take away is ensuring that the student is receiving appropriate instruction to remediate their decoding struggles. Strong Tier 1 and 2 instruction is necessary to determine whether the student has a learning de...
You've completed the benchmark assessments. You have done what has been asked of you by the administration. But really...what does that MAP score mean? Can you explain it to your students? Is it valid? Can you help your students set meaningful goals with the data? Are you just doing what is asked to get by, or are you really able to interpret and utilize the data for meaningful support? Shannon can help you! We have both been there! It's honest talk about data. We are here to help you work smart...
How do you get to know your readers? Shannon and Mary share some of their experience using basic assessment tools to check foundational skills of their students: oral reading fluency sight words phonemic awareness decoding skills spelling Resource Links : Oral Reading Fluency (Dibels) Easy CBM Dolch Sight Words Basic Phonics Test Quick Phonological Awareness Test Words Their Way Spelling Inventory Follow Us: Our Website Instagram Support the show Get Literacy Support through our Patreon...
When was it that you first felt like you were a reading teacher who made the reading "magic" happen? When did you start to see growth from your students? What was the difference in your instruction or approach? In this episode, Shannon and Mary describe their development as literacy teachers. They talk about the "moment when it clicked" and they figured out the magic of how to teach someone how to read. Listen to this episode to learn more about the hosts and figure out their secrets to reading ...
In this first episode, Shannon and Mary (two elementary reading teachers) introduce themselves and tell the stories about why they chose education and describe their varied teaching experiences. Support the show Get Literacy Support through our Patreon
