The alphabet has done us wrong! 😉 I know this is shocking news to many of you but let me elaborate. The alphabet is not the REAL foundation of how we learn to read. In this blog post, I’m going to reveal exactly why the alphabet isn’t the best foundation for teaching young students to read. You’ll […]
Much of educational research is bunk. There I said it. And, yes, I’m a researcher. 😮 BUT… Some educational research transcends fads, small sample sizes, and over-drawn conclusions. Some educational research truly disseminates insightful conclusions based on multiple, diverse, long-ranging studies. John Hattie’s research is one such shining example. Across many years, Hattie has demonstrated, through meta-analytic studies, which educational intervention […]
Do you have a few struggling readers that have fallen behind the rest of the class? You may have a class of 20 great readers, but perhaps a few of them aren’t quite at the same level as the rest of the other students. The underlying source of their problem is likely that they have a […]
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again – decodable texts matter! Decodable texts focus on a specific part of the phonic code. They teach kids to blend as they read, rather than merely throwing out a random guess to get the word right. Decodable texts are important because they help kids learn phonics within […]
Did you know that one of the key elements we need to provide our beginning or struggling readers is a strong text selection? What we use to read with our students makes a heap of difference, and yet the importance of decodable texts is often overlooked. In this blog post, we investigate why decodable texts matter and […]
Vocabulary is key when it comes to expressing yourself clearly and communicating with clarity. You need an extensive vocabulary to improve comprehension and all areas of communication from speaking to reading, listening and writing. Research has shown that kids need to know 50,000 word families by the end of 12th grade. To reach this milestone, they […]
Did you know that–after students become fluent in recognizing words–the main difference between a good reader and a poor reader is almost always their vocabulary knowledge? Teaching our kids to recognize how to read words is only the first hurdle. The next step is to get them to learn the meanings of hundreds, no thousands of […]
Do you focus so much on the weaker readers in your classroom that you’re not sure what you should be doing with the really strong readers? ​I have a simple answer to that question, and that is to READ WIDELY. If you’ve got gifted readers, you’ve got to nourish their love of reading to help them progress […]
Are you concerned that you’re spending so much time planning and teaching weaker readers that the higher-level readers aren’t getting enough from you? We’ve all been there. But there’s no need to feel guilty because in this blog post, I’m going to reveal the #1 goal for advanced readers. AND, how you can accomplish this goal! (To watch […]
​​​We talk about beginners and struggling readers a lot here on Reading Simplified. But not all kids struggle to get the code. Some readers accelerate faster than other members of the classroom, and it’s important to support this rapid growth so that they can become even better readers. We need to think about our readers and the stage they’re currently […]