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Use this document to consider if a read aloud is complex and worthy of an interactive read aloud.

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What Makes This Read Aloud Complex - 1pgr (1)

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Many common words present challenges to children because they are irregular in some way. An irregular word is a word that presents a challenge for decoding. These words contain elements that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences. Some words are permanently irregular. In these words, the sounds of the letters are unique to that word or to a very small number of words. Other words are temporarily irregular. This means that the student has not yet learned the letter-sound correspondences in the word.

Although irregular words can be challenging, there are effective methods for teaching them. The good news is that, in most common irregular words, only one or two letters don't adhere to expected phoneme-grapheme correspondences. This means children can learn to decode most of the word, and they only have to learn one or two letters "by heart." The Heart Words materials below can be used to teach irregular words this way. This approach can promote children's orthographic mapping.

Once an irregular word has been introduced and taught, which includes sounding out the decodable parts and recognizing the part(s) that need to be learned by heart, flash cards can be an effective tool for practice. For many readers, irregular words are committed to memory after only a few (1-4) exposures. A struggling reader may need 20 or more exposures to the same word before it can be recognized on sight.

Here's a helpful article about teaching irregular words.
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/new-model-teaching-high-frequency-words
Irregular "Heart" Words

This collection of "heart word"slides contains some words that are permanently irregular and others that are temporarily irregular. Each slide includes teacher guidance in the notes section to explain the irregularities in the word. You can also download and print these Heart Word Cards on card stock.
Heart Word Slides (PowerPoint) Heart Word Slides (Google Slides) Heart Word Tutorial
Irregular Word Cards

We also have traditional irregular or "hot" word flash cards and word slides for reviewing with children.
Irregular Word Flash Cards (PowerPoint) Irregular Word Flash Cards (Google Slides) Irregular Word Slides (Powerpoint) Irregular Word Slides (Google Slides)
Tutorials and Sample Lessons
Sample Lesson - Irregular Words

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Irregular and High Frequency Words | UF Literacy Institute

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Many common words present challenges to children because they are irregular in some way. An irregular word is a word that presents a challenge for decoding. These words contain elements that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences. Some words are permanently irregular.

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Free Decodable Texts | Right to Read Initiative

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Right to Read Inquiry in an EFI Special Ed Classroom

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Are you looking for free decodable books to use with your learners in the classroom or at home?

You're in the right spot!

My experience with decodable books

I admit it. As a first grade teacher, I was in the anti-decodable books camp.

A big reason for that had to do with my misunderstanding of how children learn to read. I thought kids should use three-cueing as they read leveled books.

Now, however, I understand that students need to read decodable text so they get practice applying the phonics skills we've taught them.

Another reason I was anti-decodable was that I was less than impressed with the decodable books in the market. At the time (*ahem years ago), most decodable books were boring, stilted, and not something kids would want to read again and again.

Times have changed, and now you can choose from a huge variety of quality, decodable books.

I'm adding my free decodable books to the mix because I want everyone to have access to quality decodables, regardless of their budget.

At the end of this post, you'll find the foldable, color version of each book for FREE when you join my free newsletter.

What about comprehension and decodable text?

Another reason I used to be anti-decodable was that I thought kids would read them sooo sloowwwly they wouldn't be able to comprehend the text. (Either that, or the text was so stilted they wouldn't be able to comprehend it no matter how fast they read it!)

It turns out that I was partly right.

When you understand the Simple View of Reading, you know that reading comprehension is the product of decoding ability AND language comprehension. Students must become proficient decoders and understand the language to become fluent. Fluency is the bridge between phonics and comprehension.

When kids are first learning to read, decoding takes a lot of mental energy. As students become more fluent, their brains are freed up for comprehension.
But that doesn't mean that students shouldn't make sense of the decodable text that they read!
I hired a custom illustrator for these books because I wanted the full story to be available through the pictures. (After all, an author can only include so many words when kids only know six letter sounds.)

Don't get me wrong - students don't need the pictures to read these books - but the pictures themselves provide opportunities for predicting, questioning, inferring, and other higher level skills.

Each book comes with a set of low and high level comprehension questions on the final page.

Just check out this flip book to see the first book in action!

What's included in the full set?

The free books below are all you truly need to get started. But you'll be blown away by the supplementary materials, as pictured below.

When you purchase the complete set of level 1 books with accompanying resources, you will receive:

Each book in multiple printing formats (each includes black and white)

A single-page lesson plan for each book with introductory activities and tips for reading the book with students

Blending lines that give decoding practice before reading

A cut-and-paste retelling activity so students can retell the story using the pictures

A dictation exercise so students connect letter-sound knowledge to spelling

Each book on a single page with just one picture; use for partner reading and assessment at the end of the week!

Set 1a: Consonants, Short Vowels & Digraphs

Click on each book to get it for free! You'll see a pop-up to enter your name and email address so the book comes right to your inbox.

You'll also see a special offer to get the full set with supplementary materials (as described above).

P.S. Some people would rather not enter their email address for each book. We have a solution for that!

Don't want to enter your email address for each book? Purchase here!

Set 1b: FLOSS Rule, Blends, ng/nk, and more!

Click on each book to get it for free! You'll see a pop-up to enter your name and email address so the book comes right to your inbox.

You'll also see a special offer to get the full set with supplementary materials (as described above).

P.S. Some people would rather not enter their email address for each book. We have a solution for that!

Don't want to enter your email address for each book? Purchase here!

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Get a set of FREE decodable books that teach short vowels and simple digraphs! These are perfect for beginning readers!

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Timothy Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University. He has written over 150 articles and has authored, co-authored or edited over 15 books or curriculum programs on reading education.

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Many common words present challenges to children because they are irregular in some way. An irregular word is a word that presents a challenge for decoding. These words contain elements that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences. Some words are permanently irregular. In these words, the sounds of the letters are unique to that word or to a very small number of words. Other words are temporarily irregular. This means that the student has not yet learned the letter-sound correspondences in the word.

Although irregular words can be challenging, there are effective methods for teaching them. The good news is that, in most common irregular words, only one or two letters don't adhere to expected phoneme-grapheme correspondences. This means children can learn to decode most of the word, and they only have to learn one or two letters "by heart." The Heart Words materials below can be used to teach irregular words this way. This approach can promote children's orthographic mapping.

Once an irregular word has been introduced and taught, which includes sounding out the decodable parts and recognizing the part(s) that need to be learned by heart, flash cards can be an effective tool for practice. For many readers, irregular words are committed to memory after only a few (1-4) exposures. A struggling reader may need 20 or more exposures to the same word before it can be recognized on sight.

Here's a helpful article about teaching irregular words.
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/new-model-teaching-high-frequency-words
Irregular "Heart" Words

This collection of "heart word"slides contains some words that are permanently irregular and others that are temporarily irregular. Each slide includes teacher guidance in the notes section to explain the irregularities in the word. You can also download and print these Heart Word Cards on card stock.
Heart Word Slides (PowerPoint) Heart Word Slides (Google Slides) Heart Word Tutorial
Irregular Word Cards

We also have traditional irregular or "hot" word flash cards and word slides for reviewing with children.
Irregular Word Flash Cards (PowerPoint) Irregular Word Flash Cards (Google Slides) Irregular Word Slides (Powerpoint) Irregular Word Slides (Google Slides)
Tutorials and Sample Lessons
Sample Lesson - Irregular Words

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Irregular and High Frequency Words | UF Literacy Institute

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Many common words present challenges to children because they are irregular in some way. An irregular word is a word that presents a challenge for decoding. These words contain elements that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences. Some words are permanently irregular.

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Overview of suggested restructuring

Teach 10-15 "sight words" before phonics instruction begins

Flash Words and Heart Words defined

Flash Words with advanced vowels to teach with early phonics instruction

Flash Words with two and three syllables

Implementing the new model

You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words

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Integrating high-frequency words into phonics lessons allows students to make sense of spelling patterns for these words. To do this, high-frequency words need to be categorized according to whether they are spelled entirely regularly or not. This article describes how to "rethink" teaching of high-frequency words.

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Phinder | A Resource for Phonics Lessons

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This is a free website that allows teachers and researchers to find words that match certain letter-sound patterns. Teachers can create word lists for phonics lessons, and researchers can find words for word recognition research.

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Mrs. Winter's Bliss - Resources For Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd Grade

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In this post, I explain what dictation practice is and how it helps emerging readers and writers. I provide you with a dictation routine and tips and leave you with a FREE dictation worksheet perfect for your kindergarten, first, and second-grade classroom.
Cn u rd ths? Of course, you can! Invented spelling is something we as primary teachers are accustomed to seeing (and deciphering)! Students spell in this way because they are able to apply the phonics skills they learn to their reading before they can apply them to their writing. While this type of spelling can make us smile, it isn't a phase we want students to stay in for too long. So how can we help our students writing and spelling catch up to their reading?

One powerful way is through dictation practice. DIctation practice was one of the BEST things I did with my first graders. They loved it and it was impactful! So today I'm excited to explain what dictation practice is and how it can help your emerging readers and spellers. I'll provide you with a dictation routine and tips, and finally leave you with a FREE dictation sheet you can begin using right away!

What is Dictation?

Dictation is a whole or small group activity that offers students guided spelling practice. It is a systematic way for you to connect the skills you teach in reading to student writing.

We know that children progress at a much faster rate in phonics when the majority of the time is spent applying the skills to authentic reading and writing experiences. Application is how the skills stick. Just as decodable texts give students the opportunity to apply the phonics skills you have taught to their reading, dictation practice allows them to apply the skills to their writing.

Research shows that students learn letter-sound relationships and spelling as they write. Dictation practice offers students an engaging way to accelerate their writing and spelling skills, with your guidance and corrective feedback to support them.

Dictation is not an assessment. It allows you to check students' understanding of sound-spelling correspondences, but do not expect mastery. Your dictation exercise will contain the new target sound-spelling (these are sounds they are just learning), as well as review words from previous weeks. Dictation gives them extra practice they need to eventually reach mastery. When there are errors, provide them with immediate corrective feedback.

A Routine for Dictation Practice

The more opportunities students have to try out writing their new skills, the better! Ideally, dictation practice takes place twice a week and begins as early as kindergarten.

In the beginning, it may consist of you saying a sound and the students writing the letter. As students progress it can grow and build in length and complexity.
While this activity can be done in different ways, this is the dictation routine I followed with my first graders.

Row 1- Sounds only. I say a sound, they echo and write the sound they hear.

Row 2- Phoneme manipulation activities. Ex: I say "train, now delete the /t/ from the word then write the new word." Or I say the word "wait" and then say, "Now change the beginning to make the word bait".

Row 3 & 4- I dictate and they write target spelling words or challenge words using the rule of the week.

Row 5- I dictate a sentence that uses target spelling words, high-frequency words, and words with skills from the previous 4-6 weeks. Students write it.

When you begin to see students applying recently taught phonics skills in their writing, then you will know dictation is having a positive impact. Wiley Blevins encourages you to occasionally analyze students writing and look for evidence that they are transferring the phonics skills you teach in reading to their writing. Then adjust your instruction as needed. Form small groups for students who have not yet begun to transfer the skills to writing, as they will need additional practice.

Tips For Providing Extra Support in Dictation

In his book, Choosing and Using Decodable Texts, Wiley Blevins offers 3 things you can do to ensure all students are successful with dictation practice. They are:

1. Model how you segment the word. If you have students who have difficulty hearing sounds in words, support them by showing how you segment the sounds. Do this by mapping out the word. Word Mapping offers a physical way to represent the relationship between the phonemes and graphemes. Students physically connect or match the letters with the sounds they represent; this helps promote the process of orthographic mapping.

2. Observe and assist students as they write. As students write, walk around the room and assist them as needed. You may need to help students with the proper stroke procedure for writing letters or direct them to the correct spelling of a sound on your sound wall. When you read the full sentence, encourage students to focus on one word at a time. For multisyllabic words, focus on one syllable at a time.

3. Offer feedback. After each word is completed, write the word on the board so students can correct their own work. A key component of dictation is self-correction! It is important for students to begin to notice and correct their own errors.

Free Dictation Resources

To help you get a dictation routine started in your classroom, I'm happy to share these FREE dictation worksheets! This freebie offers you multiple options for dictation. You can use the half sheet for a quick dictation check in or the full sheet for extended practice. I've also included primary and secondary lined versions to differentiate for students' needs. Download it here and begin using it right away!

I hope the information and resources I have shared today help you to better understand the importance of dictation and motivate you to bring this powerful phonics practice routine into your classroom!

- PIN for LATER -

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In this post, I explain what dictation practice is and how it helps emerging readers and writers. I provide you with a dictation routine and tips and leave you with a FREE dictation worksheet perfect for your kindergarten, first, and second-grade classroom. Cn u rd ths? Of course, you can!

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Information - examples - and templates

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Heart Word Magic - Read and Spell High Frequency Words | Really Great Reading

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Heart Word Magic - Help Students Learn to Read and Spell High-Frequency and Sight WordsHeart Word Magic is a complimentary teaching tool designed to help students learn to read and spell high-frequency words and sight words, particularly those that aren’t very decodable. Show your students the animations, then try these fun, hands-on free Student Practice

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At the bottom there is a link to sign up for free cards.

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Learning letter sounds is an important milestone for young children. As soon as they can connect a handful of graphemes to their corresponding phonemes, they're on their way to reading short words like at, in, and sat. Making meaning through print with decodable sentences and stories will soon be within reach. Exciting times!

But with so many options at our disposal - songs, gestures, keywords, sandpaper letters, etc. - what's the best way to teach those essential letter-sound connections?

I taught first grade for six years before becoming a special education teacher and later an intervention specialist. At the time, my district trained us in a popular phonics program that used a keyword approach to teach letter sounds. We showed students a card and asked them to repeat the letter name, the keyword, and the sound. The picture of the keyword was on the card but not embedded into the letter.

The majority of my first graders learned their sounds just fine. They mostly learned them from the same program in Kindergarten. By the end of the year, most of the children were reading on grade level. But I was stumped as to why it took so long for some of my students to learn letter sounds. This was especially true with the short vowels and often-confusing consonants like b and d. One of my kids seemed unable to retain very many at all no matter what I tried.

It wasn't until I attended a training recommended by a speech-language pathologist friend during my time as a special education teacher that I was introduced to the idea of pictures of the keywords actually embedded in the letters. It made so much sense!

What Are Embedded Picture Mnemonics?

Imagine if I showed you this symbol and asked you to remember to say the /p/ sound every time you saw it.

Then I strung it next to some other shapes, all representing different sounds. What if memory wasn't one of your strengths? That's essentially what we ask students (especially young ones and those at-risk for reading struggles) to do every day.

Printed letters are abstract symbols with no inherent meaning. To a young child or older struggling reader, the letters abc may seem no different than Japanese characters or scribbles written by a toddler.

But what if I showed you that same symbol and turned it into a picture of a piece of pie? How likely would you be to remember that /p/ sound?

Providing a visual, in this case a photograph of a slice of pumpkin pie, acts as a cue to get your brain to connect the sound /p/ to the symbol .

A mnemonic is simply a memory support.

What Does the Research Say?

Not only does this concept make sense, it's also backed by solid research. Dr. Timothy Shanahan gives his stamp of approval in his article, A Question I Hate: Should We Use Pictures When Teaching Phonics?, in which he cites various studies (Ehri, 2014; Ehri, Deffner, & Wilce, 1984; McNamara, 2012; Schmidman & Ehri, 2010). He explains the findings that using embedded mnemonic pictures can help children learn letter sounds more quickly and with less confusion. Sounds like a win-win! Not only that, but kids are better able to retain the letter sounds in long-term memory AND apply them in decoding and encoding practice.

By the way, Dr. Shanahan admits he hates that question only because as a professor to preservice teachers, he used to erroneously tell them that it was NOT a good idea to use pictures to learn letter sounds. He thought it would be too much for kids to memorize and that it'd just end up confusing them. However, after learning of the research cited above, he changed his stance. As Maya Angelou has said, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." There's no shame in admitting when we're wrong!

The Dopamine Factor

One reason I personally prefer using embedded letter cards is that pictures are fun for kids. When our brains see something engaging, like interesting pictures within a letter, we are likely to pay more attention. When we pay more attention, we learn more. We also get a little extra dose of dopamine and that makes us feel good. When students learn letter sounds, especially with the help of embedded mnemonics that are fun to look at, it aids in feelings of success and growing confidence. When children feel good and successful, they'll likely be more willing to learn new sounds and read more. Growth and nice feelings all around. What's not to love?

Final Thoughts on Embedded Mnemonics

If you're using a keyword approach, or any other approach mentioned at the beginning of this article, and visuals are not embedded in the letters, I'm not here to tell you to drop everything and change. But if you have any students who are struggling to retain new sounds, or if you are in the market to adopt a new program or set of letter cards, then it's definitely something to consider.

If you could use a free embedded-picture mnemonic alphabet to help your students quickly master letter sounds, I am giving away my set for free as a thank-you gift to all of my newsletter (also free) members.

By signing up with this link, you will receive a color and black-and-white set. You'll also start receiving my monthly emails of structured literacy teaching tips.

Using embedded picture mnemonics to teach letter sounds has been one of the best instructional decisions I've ever made. The process was less intimidating and more engaging than the approaches I'd tried with my students before. If you decide to give it a try, I wish your students success in mastering those sounds so they can be well on their way to reading with confidence!

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Is Using Embedded Mnemonics the Best Way to Teach Letter Sounds? - PhonoLovable Literacy

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Learn how using embedded mnemonics can help young children reach the important milestone of learning their letter sounds in an engaging way.

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Fabulous Phonics resources- Specialist Dyslexia resources, freely downloadable, to support teaching phonics and spelling to children with dyslexia or literacy difficulties. Follows synesthetic learning principles of multi-modal learning. Uses pictures and gesture cues to support memory with integrat

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Many children with literacy difficulties find it hard to blend phonemes together. Word Chains games allow a child to focus on sounds without the distraction of graphemes, as each sound is represented by a counter. A single phoneme is changed and the child 're-blends' to make a new word. The Word Chain lists progress from simple CVC words, like 'dog' and 'cat', to more complex words with initial and final blends, like 'stand' and 'crisp'. This allows targeted practice of a very specific skill in just a few minutes.

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Blending Phonemes - Word Chains - Dyslexic Logic

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Resources and word-chains (also called word ladders or word chains) to support teaching blending skills for children with poor phonological awareness, from basic CVC blends to CCVCC words with long and short medial vowels.

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Accent Modification, Communication Skills : Packard

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Common Pronunciation Errors for Portuguese Speakers Learning English

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Learn about how your Portuguese native speaking skills may influence your English production in terms of grammar and pronunciation!

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Sound walls guide students to investigate phonemes and make informed choices when they're unsure how to spell out a sound.

Dominic Trevett / Ikon Images

A colleague recently messaged us, "How and why should teachers use sound walls-and are they different from word walls?" We believe that both word walls and sound walls can be of value in the classroom, but there are distinct differences between the two.

Word walls, a print-to-speech tool, are organized by a word's initial letter. This can get tricky when you have a word like knot, which begins with the letter K and the sound N. That's where the sound wall comes into play, helping students spell words by listening to the phonemes, or the smallest unit of sound in speech in a word.

Sound walls are speech-to-print tools used to categorize phonemes. The word cat, for example, has three phonemes, c/a/t. In the English language, we identify about 44 phonemes using the 26 letters of the alphabet. In many ways, grasping the sounds of the 44 phonemes is like cracking a code for our early learners. Sound walls allow students to investigate sounds and eventually learn high-frequency words.

Some common materials for sound walls include mouth articulation cards, phoneme group labels, sound cards for phonemes, and sound spelling cards with power bar. For instance, the power bar is a visual cue to show how often the particular spelling of the sound is used. The sound /k/ has three different spelling patterns: "c," "k," and "ck." The power bar cards give clues to show students how often a certain spelling pattern is used in words. This way, students can make more informed spelling choices when they're unsure about how to spell out a sound.
Courtesy of TN Department of Education
Here, the "c" spelling has the largest bar, so this is the spelling most often used for the /k/ sound.

Organizing the Wall

Creating the sound wall before school begins can help teachers consider exactly where each new sound should be positioned. Arranging common sound patterns, mouth position cards, and power bar cards together creates organization.

When setting up the sound wall, arrange consonants on the left and the vowels on the right. The consonants are organized according to the type of sound/phoneme (stops, fricatives, affricates, glides, liquids, and nasals) and if the sound is voiced or unvoiced. The vowels are organized in a V shape called the vowel valley. The vowel valley on your classroom wall will show how the mouth looks and feels as each vowel sound is vocalized. At the top of the valley, the mouth is mostly closed, and slowly, as you descend in the valley, the mouth opens.
Courtesy of Danielle Rusk Carter
Once the sound wall is organized and affixed to your classroom wall, cover each sound with a piece of paper (in the image above, blue paper was used). When sounds that have not been taught are concealed, the wall is initially a mystery to students. Each day, review the sounds already introduced, and reveal a new sound by removing the blue paper. Finally, if appropriate, add the sound card. The sound card is an image and matching word serving as the example for the phoneme.

Depending on the grade, sound walls may look and progress differently. In kindergarten, for example, not all sound patterns are introduced, so the wall may not be completely uncovered at the end of the year.

In my (Danielle's) kindergarten classroom, the following five steps help me support my students:

1. Review: Reviewing all previously learned sounds and reciting a chant for each sound: /d/, /d/, /d/, /d/ as in dog (the word being the sound example for that pattern).

2. Practice: Practice the new sound for the day, focusing on mouth and tongue positions. We use small mirrors when possible to observe our mouths.

3. Notice: Notice if the chin drops to determine whether the sound is a consonant or a vowel. Ask students to place the top of their hand flat under their chin to feel the drop. Query students, "Did you feel your chin drop? Does the sound belong in our vowel valley?"

4. Explore: Explore the new sound. Practice singing the sound together. Can the sound be held out, or does it stop? Query students, "Can you hold the sound out like a musical note?"

5. Determine: Determine if the sound is voiced or unvoiced by feeling for vibrations in the throat. Ask students to place their entire hand lightly around their neck. Then, make the sound and feel for vibrations, and ask them, "Can you feel the vibration?"
Courtesy of Danielle Rusk Carter
Spicing Up the Sound Wall

If you're looking to add some color to your basic sound wall configuration, consider taking photos of your students' mouths making the stops, nasals, fricatives (and so on) and post their mouth images on classroom walls or on your classroom digital portfolio. Students can then use these images to make individual mini-books for future reference; and if they have access to iPads, the Book Creator app works nicely for this purpose. Teachers can even generate QR codes on each sound and capture video of student mouth positions with sound. Now students can use the QR code to verify sounds and mouth positions.

Highlight use of the sounds; continually refer to the wall throughout the day and not just during the literacy block.

When teachers notice that students have mastered a sound, it can be uplifting to let students teach their peers about the sounds they're familiar with-for example, saying "Wow, Oliver and Samhar both have the "oo" sound; if you need help, ask Oliver or Samhar."

Set up mirrors in front of the sound wall to get students to practice the sounds as part of their daily routine.

Add a lowered table or floor space under the sound wall where students can freely sit while writing. They can use the wall for referencing sound card words, self-checking spellings, and practicing sounding out to support independent writing.

To ensure that students retain the sounds they've learned, here are a few tips to incorporate sound wall learning into the existing school schedule:

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Using Sound Walls in Early Elementary Classrooms

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Sound walls guide students to investigate phonemes and make informed choices when they're unsure how to spell out a sound.

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls

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Sound walls support students with learning those tricky high-frequency words. They also support students in retaining and learning to read unfamiliar words on their own. A sound wall does the work of matching our articulation of speech sounds/phonemes to the letters/graphemes that represent those sounds.

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Should We Build a (Word) Wall or Not? | Shanahan on Literacy

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This blog entry explains why traditional word walls and the newer sound walls are not particularly supportive of students’ word learning. It proposes an approach that guides students to construct word reading knowledge more effectively.

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Kindergarten and First Grade Student Center Activities Phonological Awareness | Phonics | Fluency | Vocabulary | Comprehension

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Blachman, B. A., Ball, E. W., Black, R., & Tangel, D. M. (2000). Road to the code: A phonological awareness program for young children. Baltimore: Brookes.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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Elkonin boxes are used to build phonological awareness skills by having children segment spoken words into their individual sounds (phonemes). To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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"Finally, a book that has the power to stop the literacy pendulum swings! In Shifting the Balance, Burkins and Yates skillfully explore 'balanced literacy' and 'the science of reading' to find the sweet spots where they overlap, connect, and actually complement one another. The result is a resource that raises our level of instruction while helping children discover and reap the joyful rewards of reading."

"What are the research-based, critical elements for teaching reading? In Shifting the Balance, Jan and Kari give you the information, classroom examples, and tools to help you make the best decisions around six key shifts for instruction. After reviewing the misunderstandings, the science, and the needs of your students, you will be able to audit your current practices (individually, in a PLC, or system-wide) to provide responsive and effective literacy learning for all your students."

"In Shifting the Balance, Jan and Kari invite us to reflect and reexamine our beliefs about teaching reading. They gently nudge us to rethink and possibly adjust our early literacy practices. Jan and Kari have taken on this controversial topic by embracing vulnerability and modeling what it means to be truly reflective practitioners. This book is a must read for new and veteran teachers!"

"In Shifting the Balance, Kari and Jan have masterfully dispelled many of the myths and misunderstandings associated with reading instruction. Additionally, they offer classroom teachers and coaches six simple, practical shifts that have the power to transform the way we teach children how to read. Indeed, balanced literacy and science do exist in harmony, and we practitioners can offer our children both concurrently. Thank you, Kari and Jan, for this important work that is sure to change lives!"

"In Shifting the Balance, Jan Burkins and Kari Yates provide a safe space for teachers to courageously examine some long-held balanced literacy practices and turn a critical eye to where those practices have gotten out of balance. If you're willing to be vulnerable and move towards resolving the gap between research and practice, this book provides actionable steps you can take to shift your thinking and bring instruction into alignment with the scientific evidence."

"Shifting the Balance is a welcoming opportunity to reexamine our familiar teaching practices. Without judgment, Burkins and Yates invigorate these practices by inviting educators to make scientific shifts in the systems that have been in place for years. This book will revolutionize reading instruction and in turn, the lives of countless students."

"This book speaks to teachers. It is overwhelmingly clear that Jan Burkins and Kari Yates have been and are immersed in the world of today's classrooms. Shifting the Balance will help many rethink instruction in ways that will support all students. In the current version of the Reading Wars, it is difficult for any of us to say we were wrong about some of our beliefs or practices. And thus, few do. However, Jan Burkins and Kari Yates have done just that. This is as commendable as it is unusual."

"This book found me at just the right time! Shifting the Balance gives voice to the questions I've had in my mind about Balanced Literacy and the Science of Reading and provides clear insights on how to connect the best parts of both to benefit early readers. Throughout the book, Jan and Kari confirm practices worth holding onto while providing actionable next steps I can't wait to implement with students to strengthen my reading instruction."

Dr. Jan Burkins was an elementary classroom teacher for seven years and a literacy coach for seven years. She has worked as a part-time assistant professor, a district literacy leader, and is currently a fulltime writer and consultant.

Kari Yates is an author, speaker, consultant and staff developer with a passion for helping busy literacy educators thrive. Her experiences include classroom teacher, special education, Reading Recovery teacher, elementary principal and district literacy coordinator.

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Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

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Amazon.com: Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom: 9781625315106: Burkins, Jan, Yates, Kari: Books

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By Louise Spear-Swerling, PhD

Recently the topic of Structured Literacy teaching has sparked considerable interest. Educators and parents often have questions about this approach:

What does it involve?

How is it different from the ways that children are usually taught to read?

Why is it effective for children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties?

Here is an explanation of what structured literacy means and why schools should use it.
What Is Structured Literacy?
Structured literacy (SL) approaches emphasize highly explicit and systematic teaching of all important components of literacy. These components include both foundational skills (e.g., decoding, spelling) and higher-level literacy skills (e.g., reading comprehension, written expression). SL also emphasizes oral language abilities essential to literacy development, including phonemic awareness, sensitivity to speech sounds in oral language, and the ability to manipulate those sounds.

Explicit teaching means that teachers clearly explain and model key skills; they do not expect children to infer these skills only from exposure. Systematic means that there is a well-organized sequence of instruction, with important prerequisite skills taught before more advanced skills. For instance, children master decoding and spelling simpler consonant-vowel-consonant words (e.g., tap) with short vowel sounds before learning more complex short-vowel words (e.g., stamp or tapped) with consonant blends or affixes.

Explicit, systematic teaching requires teacher-led instruction. Teacher-led instruction also enables educators to provide prompt, targeted feedback in response to children's mistakes, another characteristic of SL. For example, suppose that children are practicing reading words with short vowel sounds and consonant blends (e.g., stamp) aloud, and a child misreads stamp as stump. Rather than just telling the child the word, the teacher might point to the vowel to draw the child's attention to it. If that cue did not help, the teacher would provide additional feedback focused on the child's specific error (e.g., "short sound for a is pronounced /ă/ ").

...the emphasis is on patterns rather than specific words. This is because the teacher is trying to foster a decoding (and encoding) process or strategy-instead of teaching children to memorize individual words by overall visual appearance.

Structured literacy approaches use books and other instructional materials that lend themselves to this kind of teaching. Educators teach from a sequence of phonics materials proceeding from use of simpler to more complex patterns. Children read books containing the phonics word patterns they have been taught. Reading of texts and phonics instruction are coordinated so that as children's decoding skills develop, they are able to read increasingly complex texts. Similarly, spelling is coordinated with decoding, so that each reinforces the other.

Here is an example of coordination of decoding and spelling. Suppose that beginning decoders are learning to decode simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words such as tap, win, or fit. Their spelling instruction would employ similar CVC word patterns, such as nag, sip, and hat. Notice that the emphasis is on patterns rather than specific words. This is because the teacher is trying to foster a decoding (and encoding) process or strategy-instead of teaching children to memorize individual words by overall visual appearance.

Figure 1 provides one example of a structured literacy activity for decoding and spelling, a phoneme-grapheme mapping task. The teacher dictates a chain of patterned words for children to spell in a grid, one word at a time, with one phoneme (speech sound) per box. (For decoding, the teacher can write the words and have children decode them.) The chain involves a variety of single-phoneme changes in words, not just changes in the first phoneme (spelling) or grapheme (decoding).

Words in the chain are carefully chosen. All are phonetically regular and involve only letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) relationships children have been taught. For example, in the second row of the grid, tar would not be an appropriate choice to follow tap, because tar contains a vowel- r pattern ( ar) with a different vowel sound that children have not been taught at this early stage.

This SL activity and other similar activities promote careful attention to all the letters in a word-and all the phonemes they represent. They help children to grasp the alphabetic principle-the idea that reading involves a code in which sounds in spoken words map onto letters (graphemes) in printed words-as well as to develop strong phonemic awareness, decoding, and spelling skills.

They help children to grasp the alphabetic principle-the idea that reading involves a code in which sounds in spoken words map onto letters (graphemes) in printed words-as well as to develop strong phonemic awareness, decoding, and spelling skills.

A number of instructional programs and approaches have the features of SL. There is not one "best" SL approach for all children with dyslexia or other learning problems. Still, some instructional approaches and materials are simply incompatible with SL. Unfortunately, many of these are widely used in schools.
How Is Literacy Usually Taught?
Literacy instruction in many schools is not highly explicit or systematic. Important foundational skills (e.g., phonemic awareness and decoding) often receive limited emphasis, even for beginners or struggling decoders (Moats, 2017).

Literacy instruction in many schools is not highly explicit or systematic. Important foundational skills (e.g., phonemic awareness and decoding) often receive limited emphasis, even for beginners or struggling decoders (Moats, 2017).

Typical literacy instruction frequently uses loosely structured types of approaches, such as "reader's workshop" or "writer's workshop." Considerable classroom time is spent having children work independently on reading and writing tasks of their own choosing. Teachers do supervise this work and spend time "conferencing" with individual children. However, the way that instruction is organized means that time for teacher-led, explicit instruction is minimal.

Another key problem is that commonly used instructional materials do not lend themselves to explicit, systematic teaching of important foundational components of literacy. These problems may undermine the effectiveness even of a highly capable teacher.

For example, many schools do not provide teachers with a systematic phonics program and accompanying sets of words, texts, and materials. It is very difficult to teach phonics well, especially to large groups of children or those who struggle, without appropriate instructional materials.

Many schools do not provide teachers with a systematic phonics program and accompanying sets of words, texts, and materials. It is very difficult to teach phonics well, especially to large groups of children or those who struggle, without appropriate instructional materials.

Instead, teachers may be told to post "word walls" in the classroom; these "word walls" often contain common words that vary greatly in spelling patterns and pronunciation. (See Figure 2.) Some words (e.g., are, again) are irregular (i.e., exceptions to phonics generalizations). Other words are regular, but involve a wide range of patterns, including some difficult ones for beginners (e.g., two-syllable words like better). These kinds of materials do not help children understand the predictability of phonics patterns in words. Instead, they encourage memorization of whole words, a strategy that will not help children learn to read well in the long run.
More About Phonics in Typical Literacy Instruction
A frequent response from schools using typical literacy practices is, "But we do teach phonics!" This is generally true. However, in addition to limited emphasis and lack of explicitness, there are other problems with phonics instruction in many schools.

Research over the past couple of decades has suggested that, although any phonics is better than no phonics at all, certain types of phonics approaches are more effective than others. Specifically, an initial phoneme-grapheme level approach-that is characteristic of structured literacy-is more effective than a larger-unit phonics approach such as onset-rime, analytic phonics, or word families. (See Brady, 2011, for a review.) Typical literacy instruction often favors a larger unit approach to phonics.

Following are examples of how different phonics approaches might teach children to decode an unfamiliar word such as stack:

In a word families approach, children would learn to decode stack by comparing it to a known word such as back.

In an onset-rime approach, children would learn the sound for two parts of the word, the onset (st→/st/) and the rime (-ack→/ăk/). They would then blend the two parts to form the word (/st/) →/ăk/)→/stack/).

In a phoneme-grapheme level approach, children would learn sounds for the graphemes that represent each phoneme (s→/s/ t→/t/ a→/ă/and ck→/k/), then how to blend all four parts into a whole word (/s/ /t//ă/ /k/ →/stack/.

Research over the past couple of decades has suggested that, although any phonics is better than no phonics at all, certain types of phonics approaches are more effective than others. Specifically, an initial phoneme-grapheme level approach-that is characteristic of structured literacy-is more effective than a larger-unit phonics approach such as onset-rime, analytic phonics, or word families. (See Brady, 2011, for a review.) Typical literacy instruction often favors a larger unit approach to phonics.

Why is an initial phoneme-grapheme level phonics approach generally preferable to other phonics approaches? One reason may be that the phoneme-grapheme approach promotes closer attention to spelling (grapheme) and speech sound (phoneme) sequences in words than do other phonics approaches. Careful attention to letter sequences in words is fundamental for developing good decoding skills. Also, this approach generally includes explicit teaching of phoneme segmentation and blending, important phonemic awareness skills-foundational skills for both spelling and decoding.

In a phoneme-grapheme level approach, children would eventually learn to attend to larger patterns in words, including common orthographic patterns, such as graphemes (e.g., ar, ee, au, igh) and morphemes (e.g., common roots/base elements, prefixes, and suffixes). Some very common morphemes (e.g., ​-ing, ​-ed​ [​​indicating tense​]​) often would be taught relatively early. However, an emphasis on larger units mostly comes later, as children advance to more complex words, rather than at the very beginning of phonics teaching. Furthermore, all of these elements-phonemes, graphemes, and morphemes-would be taught in an explicit, systematic way.

In addition to basic phonics instruction, children need to practice applying their phonics skills while reading texts (Foorman et al., 2016). While their decoding is still developing-and particularly for children who struggle with decoding-oral reading of texts with teacher guidance and feedback is essential. Texts should include many words that children can decode. Otherwise, children may just guess at words.

In addition to basic phonics instruction, children need to practice applying their phonics skills while reading texts (Foorman et al., 2016). While their decoding is still developing-and particularly for children who struggle with decoding-oral reading of texts with teacher guidance and feedback is essential.

Unfortunately, in typical literacy instruction, children often read leveled or predictable texts. These texts use many words that poor decoders cannot read, with pictures that usually encourage guessing.

For instance, a predictable text about a child getting ready to go to school in the morning might have sentences such as William found his lunch, William found his crayons, and William found his backpack, with accompanying pictures of William getting his lunch, crayons, and backpack. With words spelled with varied and relatively complex phonics patterns, and pictures that enable guessing, this type of text does not encourage children to look carefully at the letters in words to decode them-and the letters and their sequence are what make one word different from another.

Teacher feedback to children's decoding errors also matters. This feedback should emphasize attention to the print and application of decoding skills, as would occur as part of a structured literacy approach. However, many teachers are trained to believe that small errors such as reading a for the or this for that can be ignored, because they do not greatly alter meaning (Spear-Swerling, 2018). Nevertheless, beyond the earliest grades, good readers decode with a very high degree of accuracy and do not make frequent errors of this type (e.g., Daane, Campbell, Grigg, Goodman & Oranje, 2005).

Are there children who learn to read well with typical literacy practices? Certainly. However, the typical literacy practices outlined in this section are not nearly as effective for children with dyslexia and other literacy difficulties as are structured literacy practices (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2018; Foorman et al., 2016; International Dyslexia Association, 2017).
Why Is Structured Literacy Effective?
First, SL explicitly and effectively addresses foundational literacy skills, a core need of children with dyslexia as well as many other struggling students. Also, in all components of literacy, SL emphasizes teaching that is clear, systematic, and unambiguous to the learner-all important qualities for students experiencing difficulty.

Finally, SL instruction can be very engaging to struggling students. Explicit teaching has been criticized as "drill and kill" that dulls interest and creativity, with typical literacy practices presented as inherently more engaging to children. Little research supports this view (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Reading children's literature with beautiful pictures or extended opportunities to write for pleasure can indeed be motivating-but not for students who cannot decode or write well enough to enjoy them. Helping children to succeed at literacy is a key way to motivate and engage them, as well as to prepare them for ongoing, higher-level literacy learning.

Reading children's literature with beautiful pictures or extended opportunities to write for pleasure can indeed be motivating-but not for students who cannot decode or write well enough to enjoy them. Helping children to succeed at literacy is a key way to motivate and engage them, as well as to prepare them for ongoing, higher-level literacy learning.
Moving Forward
Structured literacy approaches are much more successful than many typical literacy practices for meeting the needs of children with dyslexia and other literacy problems. SL prioritizes teacher-led, explicit instruction in all important components of literacy. Initial phonics instruction uses a phoneme-grapheme (encoding) and grapheme-phoneme (decoding) level approach. Texts and other materials are well coordinated with the phonics program.

If educators are prepared to implement this kind of instruction, and are given appropriate instructional materials, they can reach a much wider range of children than with typical literacy practices. Virtually all teachers want to be effective with their students. Let's give them the knowledge and tools to do so.
References
Archer, A., & Hughes, C. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. New York, NY: Guilford.

Brady, S. (2011). Efficacy of phonics teaching for reading outcomes: Indications from post-NRP research. In S. Brady, D. Braze, & C. Fowler (Eds.), Explaining individual differences in reading: Theory and evidence (pp. 69-96). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Daane, M. C., Campbell, J. R., Grigg, W. S., Goodman, M. J., & Oranje, A. (2005). F ourth-grade students reading aloud: NAEP 2002 Special Study of Oral Reading (NCES 2006-469). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2018). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford.

Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J.,...Wagner, R. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

International Dyslexia Association. (2017). Effective reading instruction for students with dyslexia (fact sheet). Retrieved fromhttps://dyslexiaida.org/effective-reading-instruction/

Moats, L. C. (2017). Can prevailing approaches to reading instruction accomplish the goals of RTI? Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 43, 15-22.

Spear-Swerling, L. (2018). Structured literacy and typical literacy practices: Understanding differences to create instructional opportunities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 51, 201-211.

Louise Spear-Swerling, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita in the Department of Special Education at Southern Connecticut State University. She has prepared both general and special educators to teach literacy for many years. Dr. Spear-Swerling helped to write IDA's Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading. Her most recent book, published by Brookes, is The Power of RTI and Reading Profiles: A Blueprint for Solving Reading Problems.
Copyright © 2019 International Dyslexia Association (IDA). Opinions expressed in The Examiner and/or via links do not necessarily reflect those of IDA. We encourage sharing of Examiner articles. If portions are cited, please make appropriate reference. Articles may not be reprinted for the purpose of resale. Permission to republish this article is available from info@dyslexia.org.

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Here's Why Schools Should Use Structured Literacy - International Dyslexia Association

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Recently the topic of Structured Literacy teaching has sparked considerable interest. Educators and parents often have questions about this approach:

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Although we may not be aware of it, we do not skip over words, read print selectively, or recognize words by sampling a few letters of the print, as whole language theorists proposed in the 1970s. Reading is accomplished with letter-by-letter processing of the word.

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Qualitative Dimensions of Text Complexity Chart: Scales for evaluating the qualitative features of text complexity: text structure, language clarity and conventions, knowledge demands, and levels of meaning/purpose

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Qualitative Dimensions of Text Complexity Chart: Scales for evaluating the qualitative features of text complexity: text structure, language clarity and conventions, knowledge demands, and levels of meaning/purpose

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Find out how strong your vocabulary is and learn new words at Vocabulary.com.

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Vocabulary.com helps you learn new words, play games that improve your vocabulary, and explore language.

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Teaching vocabulary is complex. What words are important for a child to know and in what context? In this excerpt from Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, the authors consider what principles might be used for selecting which words to explicitly teach.

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Guiding preschool and early elementary students to interact with texts can engage and empower them to develop their reading skills.

When teachers read aloud and also let students interact with a text in meaningful ways, they're offering one of the highest-impact instructional moves-interactive read-alouds (IRAs). Interactive read-alouds are important all year, but especially at the beginning of the year.

Through IRA, students can see themselves and learn about others; we can build community and normalize the range of feelings that students have at the beginning of the school year. When we offer a range of texts, we honor students' funds of knowledge. When teachers read to students, we provide a model of expert reading. The following are some ideas for high-quality IRAs to start the school year.

Making a Read-Aloud Interactive

Stop and think.

Stop and jot down a few words or a quick sketch.

Turn and talk: After some time to think, students turn and talk to a partner. (Often partners are assigned, so the students have built a relationship and a talk routine.)

Gesture by giving a thumbs-up/thumbs-down, a fist to five, etc.

Act it out: Make a facial expression or use body language to show an emotion that a character may be feeling.

A read-aloud becomes interactive when a teacher strategically plans for opportunities for students to interact with the text. By reading the text to students, the teacher is taking on the cognitive load of decoding, enabling students to think deeply about a text. I recommend stopping for interaction four times during a 10-minute read-aloud; don't stop too many times-it feels choppy and inauthentic. The interaction can include a question or noticing followed by asking students to do one of the following:

When planning for interactions, I consider the standards I'm teaching. Then I preview the text and choose where I'll stop and what I'll ask students to do, and then write these on a sticky note to refer to when I read. Often I'll also provide sentence stems to support discourse and thinking.

IRA is one of the most impactful teaching strategies teachers can use; it gives students opportunities to interact with complex, grade-level text, which is necessary for rigor and growth. It provides a teacher with modeling fluency, effective comprehension, and vocabulary strategies, all of which students need for strong reading development.

An interactive read-aloud builds listening comprehension, which is important for our youngest students. Beginning readers read simpler texts, so teachers need to expose young students to texts with higher language demands early in order to prepare them for later reading. (Students can read from within several levels, depending on interest and background knowledge, so you'll be choosing texts more personalized for each student during their small group and individual reading.)

Interactive reading provides oral language opportunities that are crucial for building vocabulary and knowledge. It helps unpack the code of written text that empowers students both as readers and in their own choices as writers. According to Shifting the Balance, by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, "Interactive read-aloud provides an important bridge between spoken and written language combining a more conversational guided experience with the more complex and formal language of books."

Selecting a narrative text

An effective IRA begins with carefully selecting a text. I ask myself, "Of all the texts in the world, why am I choosing this one for this group of students?" Students need to feel a sense of belonging in order to learn and that a sense of belonging can grow from seeing one's identity represented in the texts read.

Over time, I strive to provide a variety of narratives with diverse characters to expose my students to new perspectives. By offering a variety of perspectives, I model that we value and learn from differences. By presenting a range of human experiences, I strive to normalize the range of emotions we have as humans. Carefully selected texts provide windows and doors into others' experiences and reflections of one's own experiences. They have the potential to humanize the classroom and the curriculum.

Choosing a range of texts

IRAs can take the form of a variety of texts beyond narratives. I use Gholdy Muhammad's definition of text: " anything that can be read-both print texts and nonprint texts." I've used poetry, lyrics, images, video clips, letters, and nonfiction texts, depending on the priority standards of a lesson and what students will find the most engaging.

Texts can both honor the funds of knowledge, interests, and expertise that students bring to the classroom and expose students to new topics and build background. Nonfiction texts can help students grow skills and expertise in a variety of subject areas, increasing their disciplinary literacy. They can read like a scientist, an artist, and more. This is empowering and helps nurture a learner identity.

When we choose texts intentionally, students feel seen, heard, valued. Stories and texts can normalize the range of human experiences. We sit together in community to read and delve into the text, which builds a sense of belonging. IRA is a beautiful and important strategy to use at the beginning of the school year and throughout the year.

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Interactive Read-Alouds in the Early Grades

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Guiding preschool and early elementary students to interact with texts can engage and empower them to develop their reading skills.

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Steps in Planning an Interactive Read Aloud

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Steps in Planning an Interactive Read Aloud

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PAST - Phonological Awareness Diagnostic

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PAST - Phonological Awareness Diagnostic

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HD Words Skills - (comprehensive) diagnostic

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HD Words Skills - (comprehensive) diagnostic