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ACS Whole Faculty Language Comprehension + Read Alouds Onsite 2025 (2)

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ACS Sunflower Multilingual Learners Sept 2025 (2)

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Heart (Irregular) Words & Orthographic Mapping

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Heart (Irregular) Words & Orthographic Mapping

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Heart Word Magic - Help Students Learn to Read and Spell High-Frequency and Sight Words

Heart 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 Activities

What Is a Heart Word?

Show your students this video to introduce them to Heart Word Magic! We use animations and practice techniques to clearly show students that the alphabetic principle doesn't completely disappear in Tricky Heart Words. The same skills students use for decoding are also helpful in learning to read and spell these less-decodable words. Heart Word Magic helps them to "make the tricky sticky."

What is Phonics Suite?

How can you give your students the skills they need to become strong decoders and accurate and fluent readers? Really Great Reading has a solution. It's called Phonics Suite, a comprehensive set of tools to diagnose, group, and teach students with weaknesses in their foundational reading skills. There are even tools to monitor progress, report, and adjust. Click here to read more>>

Explore Our Library of Heart Word Magic Animations

After showing your students the Heart Word Magic animations, try these fun, hands-on activities with your kids.

Highlight the Tricky to Make It Sticky

One easy way to help students focus on and remember the parts of Tricky Heart Words they need to remember by heart is to simply have students highlight the part of the word that is "tricky" (the phonologically irregular part), such as the letter a in what. Check out our activities below.

Heart Word Magic Spelling Activity Sheet

This activity allows students to practice spelling Heart Words (high-frequency words) with irregular letter-sound relationships by filling in a heart above the irregular part of the word that must be learned "by heart." Below are some suggested directions and sample scripts to use with the words said, have, from, and the.Click here to download Heart Word Magic Spelling Student Activity>>

Heart Word Magic Scaffolded Spelling Activity Sheet

This activity allows students to practice spelling Heart Words (high-frequency words) with irregular letter-sound relationships by listening to the individual phonemes in a word and then writing down the corresponding spellings. The teacher can give students the spelling for the irregular part of the word that must be learned "by heart." Below are some suggested directions and sample scripts to use with the words said, from, his, and of.
Click here to download Heart Word Magic Scaffolded Spelling Activity>>

Heart Word Magic Dissect a Word Activity Sheet

This activity allows students to practice dissecting Heart Words (high-frequency words) with irregular letter-sound relationships by listening to the individual phonemes in a word and then filling in the corresponding spellings. They fill in a heart above the irregular part of the word that must be learned "by heart" and write that tricky part again. Below are some suggested directions and sample scripts to use with the words said, from, his, of, and could.
Click here to download the Heart Word Magic Dissect a Word Student Activity>>

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Heart Word Magic - Read and Spell High Frequency Words

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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.

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Rossie Apt

rossieapt@gmail.com

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Join the EKC Literacy Community of Teachers

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Join the EKC Literacy Community of Teachers

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https://erinkentconsulting.com/community

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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About the Community | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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A few special gifts for signing up now: a strategy call with Erin Kent or an EKC Senior Strategist to get started using the EKC Community to support your current literacy initiatives; and 5 free spots in our live, virtual winter courses ($1495 value!)

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

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The Six Shifts Where Science of Reading Meets Balanced Literacy. We provide resources, professional development, and literacy audits for busy literacy educators like you.

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The newest addition to Scholastic's "Science of Reading" collection is an early literacy handbook written by a teacher for teachers. This book is about decoding and phonics. Lindsey uses her impeccable body of research to create a powerful translational work interpreting reading science. She employs a scaffolded approach to teaching foundational skills, starting with decoding and oral language, moving through phonemic awareness and sound-spelling knowledge, and ending with fluency. Of particular value is the focus on bridging to practice: activities and lessons presented here can be used immediately in the classroom. The book is predicated on the "Essential Instructional Swap" of substituting ineffective activities for more effective, evidence-based routines. For example, "Fewer Rhymes, More Phonemes" and "Less Pointing to Text in Predictable Books, More Engaging in Shared Reading." The depth of research backing this text cannot be overstated. Lindsey refers to the findings of meta-analyses throughout, and the book sports a beefy and current reference section. VERDICT This title can be used as a handbook for professional educators; its clear organization and focused language will be useful for early literacy teachers.-Jennifer Townesα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

" Reading Above the Fray is a wonderful resource, a book I read from cover to cover. The scholarship is impeccable, citing the central and most impactful studies surrounding foundational skills and their importance to reading acquisition. Authored by a passionate educator, the book is rich in stories, lessons, activities, and ideas. It is a joy to read and will become a well-worn guide for teachers and students of reading!"Book Smart: How to , Julia masterfully connects the deep research base on how kids learn to read to what teachers can do tomorrow in their classrooms. What I love even more about the book is her focus on the joy of helping students develop the tools they need to achieve reading success."

- ANNE E. CUNNINGHAM, Professor, Learning Sciences and Human Development, University of California, Berkeley; author of Develop and Support Successful, Motivated Readers Letter Lessons and First Words: Phonics Foundations That Work

"This book speaks to something near and dear to my heart-the power of early literacy to lead to lifelong learning and immeasurable opportunities. With clarity and precision, Dr. Lindsey cuts through the distracting noise around reading instruction. Her book should be required reading in preservice and inservice programs. With it, we can chart a course forward to literacy for all."

- SHARIF EL-MEKKI, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Black Educator Development

"One of the best books I've read on decoding and phonics. With passion for teaching, Dr. Lindsey interprets reading science in ways that are directly transferable to the classroom. Her book is chock full of techniques, activities, and strategies-a veritable 'go-to' resource. This is exactly the kind of translational work the field needs!"

- SUSANNE NOBLES, Chief Academic Officer, ReadWorks

"Accessible, timely, and easy to use, this is a book that needed to be written for teachers, literacy coaches, and school administrators looking to develop efficient and effective literacy instruction. Dr. Lindsey simplifies the complexities of foundational skills instruction, synthesizes research by bridging it to practice, and provides routines that can be implemented the very next day. I predict it will become a primary resource that educators return to time and again."

- REBECCA MILES, Early Literacy Consultant and Coach Coordinator, Berrien Regional Educational Service Agency

"If you think a professional book about decoding and foundational skills can't be engaging, think again! Dr. Lindsey artfully combines wit, wisdom, and classroom realism with evidence-based routines that we can implement immediately. Most important, she centers each chapter on children, calling us to value and build upon the strengths, perspectives, and cultural assets they bring. This book is a win for educators and, by extension, the children and families they serve!"

- ANNIE PETROZZELLI SPEAR, Literacy Specialist, Consultant, and Author

"Elementary teachers have been waiting for this one! Dr. Lindsey explains not only the 'why' behind the essential elements of decoding, but also provides explicit guidance and routines to help any teacher swap out ineffective practices for more effective and efficient research-based ones. She makes it easy to align instruction to reading science
and teach 'above the fray.'"

- KATHARINE NOONAN, English Language Arts Instructional Coach, District of Columbia Public Schools
- HEIDI ANNE MESMER, Professor of Literacy Education, Virginia Tech; author of Reading Above the Fray

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Reading Above the Fray: Reliable, Research-Based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills (The Science of Reading in Practice)

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Julia Lindsey's evidence-backed routines help young readers decode words efficiently so they can spend more energy on comprehending--and enjoying--what they read! You'll find:1. need-to-know essentials of how kids learn to read.2. principles of high-quality foundational skills instruction.3. teac...

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

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Choosing and Using Decodable Texts: Practical Tips and Strategies for Enhancing Phonics Instruction

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Amazon.com: Choosing and Using Decodable Texts: Practical Tips and Strategies for Enhancing Phonics Instruction: 9781338714630: Blevins, Wiley: Books

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Morphology- Common Prefixes,  Suffixes & Roots

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Morphology- Common Prefixes,  Suffixes & Roots

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Copy of Phonics Focused Small Group Planner (UFLI)

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3-5 Download_Template for Explicit Morphology Instruction    (1)

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UFLI Passages
The Measured Mom-Fiction  Nonfiction
Core Knowledge Student Readers
Beyond Decodables
Speld Phonic Books
Open Source Phonics (Passages)
Flyleaf Publishing
Starfall

Other decodable books to purchase

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Think Flexibly about Time within the Workshop Model

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Think Flexibly about Time within the Workshop Model

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Components of a Daily Schedule- Dr. Julia Lindsey 

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Components of a Daily Schedule- Dr. Julia Lindsey 

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Phonemic Awareness: In the Dark or With Print? 

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Phonemic Awareness: In the Dark or With Print? 

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Free Heggerty Webinar

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Workshop Planning Across Week -Mock-up Detailed

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Planning Across a Week Planning Template

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Planning Across a Week Planning Template

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Planning For Word Study Across Literacy Blocks

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Planning For Word Study Across Literacy Blocks

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PreK/K - Embedding Phonological Awareness 

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PreK/K - Embedding Phonological Awareness 

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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 1 Lessons

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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 2 Lessons

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UFLI Foundations: Progress Monitoring and Differentiation

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UFLI structure guide with ideas for transitions & rituals 

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Differentiation in WHOLE group UFIL lessons

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Differentiation in WHOLE group UFIL lessons

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Lesson Resources

The UFLI Foundations Toolbox contains all the lesson resources to accompany the lesson plans provided in the UFLI Foundations manual. (Don't have a manual yet? Click here to order one) Every lesson has companion resources that will help you implement the lessons efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

Some of the companion lesson resources you will find below include:

Lesson slide decks (in PowerPoint and Google Slide formats)

Decodable passages

Homework sheets

Games and activities for additional practice

We have grouped the lessons into smaller units so you can access these resources more easily. Scroll down to use the buttons below to find the resources for each lesson or groups of lessons.

Please note that we are still building out these free resources, and we will be editing this page over the next few weeks. We wanted you to be able to access some materials as soon as possible, but be sure to come back later to see the rest!
New to UFLI Foundations? Learn about its development, check out a sample lesson plan, view the scope and sequence, and more.

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The UFLI Foundations Toolbox contains all the lesson resources to accompany the lesson plans provided in the UFLI Foundations manual. (Don't have a manual yet? Click here to order one) Every lesson has companion resources that will help you implement the lessons efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

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The Sound Wall materials provided here align with the UFLI Foundations lessons. Included in the UFLI Sound Wall set are the following:

phoneme cards with mouth pictures to represent the articulatory gesture associated with each phoneme,

labels for the sound wall displays, including the place and manner of articulation for consonants, and

grapheme cards that can be added to the sound wall one at a time, as the grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught.

We have also provided printable version of the Individual Sound wall charts. You may choose to glue them into a file folder for each student or print them front/back to laminate. These may also be enlarged and printed as posters if your classroom space does not allow for the full UFLI Sound Wall displays.
Individual Sound Wall: Consonants Individual Sound Wall: Vowels

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Printable Resources | UF Literacy Institute

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The Sound Wall materials provided here align with the UFLI Foundations lessons. Included in the UFLI Sound Wall set are the following: phoneme cards with mouth pictures to represent the articulatory gesture associated with each phoneme, labels for the sound wall displays, including the place and manner of articulation for consonants, and grapheme cards that can be added to the sound wall one at a time, as the grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught.

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EKC/UFLI Progress Monitoring Weekly Planner

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EKC/UFLI Progress Monitoring Weekly Planner

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UFLI Progress Monitoring Assessment Template

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Copy of Grade 1 UFLI Progress Monitoring Spelling Assessment Master

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Transition Song. New Curriculum means new song!  Use my song I just made up to transition to UFLI! They have to be sitting criss cross before the song is done ✅ . #ufli #uflifoundations #uflireading #phonemicawarenesswarmup #freesongsforyou #mrssmithscatchysongs #elementarycurriculum #teachphonemicawareness 

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@mrssmithscatchysongs
Transition Song. New Curriculum means new song! Use my song I just made up to transition to UFLI! They have to be sitting criss cross before the song is done ✅ . #ufli #uflifoundations #uflireading #phonemicawarenesswarmup #freesongsforyou #mrssmithscatchysongs #elementarycurriculum #teachphonemicawareness
♬ original sound - MrsSmithsCatchySongs

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Interesting Research on Sound Walls and Word Walls

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Interesting Research on Sound Walls and Word Walls

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Sound Walls and Letter Sound Articulation Training

Within the context of sound walls there is debate over whether or not we should use sound walls based on pictures to help students remember sounds (think "van" for "v"), just letters, or mouth articulation pictures. Tangentially, there is also a looming disagreement between word walls and sound walls, within the greater context of the Reading Wars debate. I have to admit, I was initially biased towards letters only sound walls. Personally, I started off my career as a high school teacher and truthfully, I think this has left me biased against anything that seems "cute". Admittedly, my own classroom is often quite Spartan and I have never used either a word wall or a sound wall myself (I know blasphemy!)

That being said I have found the articulation pictures especially hard to believe in, because they seem so removed from reading instruction. Biases disclosed, these mouth articulation pictures have recently become very popular to use with sound walls. However, I believe they likely originated from speech and language pathologists teaching students with speech difficulties and slowly made their way into the circulation for dyslexic students. Indeed, some of the older tutoring programs for dyslexic students, heavily feature mouth articulation videos. As I researched this issue, I reflected with many friends and colleagues in the industry and many of them assured me that my bias was incorrect.

As I dove into the research. I started off by checking what Dr. Shanahan had to say on the issue, because truthfully, while I don't always agree with everything he says, I do believe he is the leading authority in the world on the Science of Reading. He wrote an article on the topic of sound walls vs word walls in April of 2022 and he appeared to come to the conclusion that there had been no meaningful research conducted on the topic, writing "Research is mute on this issue." He also seemed to believe that neither sound walls or word walls were particularly helpful. While his commentary was interesting, it did not necessarily directly answer my own questions.

I went to the Education Source and Scholars Portal databases and searched for experimental research on "sound walls", "word walls", and "mouth articulation and reading instruction". I also put a call out on social media looking for experimental papers on the topic. I found no experimental papers on the topic of specifically sound walls or word walls. On the topic of articulation instruction, there were about 2 dozen papers, most were theoretical but three were experimental. To my pleasant surprise, two of the experimental papers were conducted by Dr. Linnea Ehri, et al, for whose work I have immense respect.

The most recent study was an RCT conducted in 2011. It was conducted on pre-k students in a wealthy American private school. The students were divided into three equated groups. In one group, the students received phonemic awareness instruction with letters and sound articulation pictures. In the second group the students received phonemic awareness instruction with letters. And in the third group the students received their business as usual instruction. (This is a phenomenal experimental design by the way!)

The experiment conducted standarized tests, immediately after the intervention and again, 7 days afterwards. The original authors found a mean effect size of 1.25 for the letter picture articulation group and a mean effect size of .38 for phonemic awareness instruction, with just letters. However, I wanted to compare the effect of PA instruction combined with articulation training and just PA instruction to see if the letter articulation training added any benefits. I recalculated the effect sizes using a Hedge's g calculation, with the combined group as the treatment group and the PA only group as the control group. To ensure accuracy, I had a second author review and independently recalculate all effect sizes, in the case of a disagreement, bother authors re-did their calculations and discussed to find consensus. I have summarized the results, in the below chart. Please note, I did not include the delayed results.

The original authors showed that providing students with phonemic awareness training with letters vs providing no phonemic awareness training, clearly demonstrated vastly superior results. However, the above results show that providing phonemic awareness training that included letter articulation instruction showed even greater effects. Indeed the letter picture articulation group outperformed the letter only group by a statistically high amount.

Results aside, the authors also provided a fairly convincing argument for the use of articulation instruction. To paraphrase, the authors theorized that this type of instruction helped to reinforce to students that letters and graphemes were not just arbitrary visual representations, but rather meaningful representations of units of sound (phonemes).

The next most recent paper was conducted by Maria Castiglioni-Spalten and Linnea Ehri in 2003. This paper used the same RCT design as the 2011 paper. The authors concluded that "Results revealed that both types of phonemic awareness instruction were effective in teaching phonemic segmentation and in enhancing children's ability to spell the sounds in words even though letters were not used during training. However, only articulator instruction enhanced processes that enabled children to read words."

This study included 45 students from urban low socio-economic kindergarten classes, which did not normally include any reading instruction. The study was extremely high quality. The treatment and control groups were randomly equated, fidelity was tracked, and the same instructor taught all three groups to ensure results were related to the treatment. Each student received 3-6 training sessions lasting 20-30 minutes each. The authors calculated a mean effect size of 1.01 compared to the business as usual group for mouth articulation instruction and a mean effect size of .80 for phonemic awareness instruction that did not include mouth articulation training. This suggested a statistically significant improvement for using mouth articulation training. However, in the previous study, I calculated the effects for phonemic awareness instruction with mouth articulation vs phonemic awareness instruction without mouth articulation training. To standardize my results between studies, I re-calculated the results, by comparing the two training groups instead of against the business as usual control group, which received no phonemic awareness instruction. To ensure accuracy, I had a second author review and independently recalculate all effect sizes, in the case of a disagreement, bother authors re-did their calculations and discussed to find consensus. The results can be seen in the below graph.

The mean effect of this experiment did not suggest a statistically meaningful benefit for including letter articulation training with phonemic awareness instruction. There was also seemingly no benefit for articulation training on phonemic awareness skills. However, there was a strong benefit for actual reading outcomes.

The last study I found was conducted by Wise, Et, al in 1999. This study was an RCT study of 122 struggling readers between the grades of 2 and 5. The experiment included 5 months of training sessions, with students receiving 60 30 minute long training sessions. In this study design the authors compared providing letter articulation training with phonemic awareness instruction to providing only phonemic awareness instruction and only letter articulation instruction. This study was the only study with a sample size above 50 and a duration longer than 1 week. However, the study also looked at a dramatically different demographic, by focusing on tier 2/3 instruction for older students; whereas the previous studies looked at core instruction for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. I calculated the effect sizes for the letter articulation and PA group vs PA only and articulation only group, in comparison to the control groups, using a Cohen's d calculation. To ensure accuracy, I had a second author review and independently recalculate all effect sizes, in the case of a disagreement, bother authors re-did their calculations and discussed to find consensus.. The results can be seen on the next page.

The above results suggested no meaningful difference between providing both letter articulation as well as phonemic awareness instruction and only phonemic awareness instruction. The results also suggested a small benefit for including phonemic awareness instruction opposed to only letter articulation instruction.

In terms of finding the efficacy for letter sound articulation training, there are three different ways we can really analyze the above results. You could take a mean of the three studies, which would result in a mean effect size of .25, suggesting a small but statistically significant benefit. You could also say that we have three studies, with three very different results. One study showed really positive outcomes. One study showed a small but statistically significant benefit. And one study showed a statistically insignificant, but negative outcome. You could interpret these results to say there is too much variability in the results to be meaningful. However, I would argue that what we are actually likely seeing is different results for different demographics. The study on pre-k students showed very significant results, the study on kindergarten students showed positive but small results, and the study on older struggling readers showed no benefit. I would look at these results and hypothesize that mouth articulation might be beneficial only for very young readers or students with very specific needs.

That being said, in science, we should be looking for replicated results, before we call something an established fact. As best as I can tell there really is not yet enough research on this issue.

So Should I Use a Picture Sound Wall, Letter Sound Wall, or a Mouth Articulation Sound Wall? Or a Word Wall?

In order to answer this question properly we would need experimental evidence directly studying it. IE, a study that compared the use of picture sound walls, mouth articulation sound walls, letter sound walls, and word walls. To the best of my knowledge no such studies exist. However, we do have strong indirect evidence for sound walls as a phonics tool, given the immense number of studies on phonics, showing strong efficacy. With this in mind, I think it's fair to say using any type of sound wall is a research based strategy. That being said, At the beginning of this article, I acknowledged that I was somewhat biased against sound walls and specifically mouth articulation instruction. Having looked at this research, Dr. Ehri has once again convinced me that I am wrong and that there is a potential benefit to articulation training.

While, we do not have any direct evidence for or against word walls. It is a whole language strategy, which we know generally speaking shows low results. That being said, I think considering that we do not have any research directly on word walls, it may actually be too early to tell people that they must be taken down in favor of sound walls. As I would personally like to be able to point to direct research to support my position.

Written by Nathaniel Hansford & Joshua King

Last Edited 2022-08-31

References:

Wise, B. W., Ring, J., & Olson, R. K. (1999). Training Phonological Awareness with and without Explicit Attention to Articulation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 72(4), 271-304. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1999.2490

Castiglioni-Spalten, M. L., & Ehri, L. C. (2003). Phonemic Awareness Instruction: Contribution of Articulatory Segmentation to Novice Beginners' Reading and Spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(1), 25-52. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532799XSSR0701_03

Boyer, N., & Ehri, L. C. (2011). Contribution of phonemic segmentation instruction with letters and articulation pictures to word reading and spelling in beginners. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(5), 440-470. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2010.520778

Sanahan, t. (2022). Should We Build a (Word) Wall or Not? Shanahan On Literacy. Retrieved from < https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/should-we-build-a-word-wall-or-not#sthash.1YJ2Ni2f.dpbs>. Should We Build a (Word) Wall or Not?

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Sound Walls and Letter Sound Articulation Training Within the context of sound walls there is debate over whether or not we should use sound walls based on pictures to help students remember sounds (think "van" for "v"), just letters, or mouth articulation pictures.

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UFLI Phonics Diagnostic Assessment - linked directly to UFLI. (Helpful to administer to students in G3+ who are struggling with decoding and may be scoring low on accuracy on Oral Reading Fluency passages).

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CORE Phonics Survey (Diagnostic Example) 

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CORE Phonics Survey (Diagnostic Example) 

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Phonics Diagnostic. Very similar to the UFLI assessment above - just another alternative. (This one includes letter names/sounds).

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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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Strategies to Support MLLs in Foundational Skills

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Strategies to Support MLLs in Foundational Skills

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Edweek Article: Instructional Strategies for MLs

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Edweek Article: Instructional Strategies for MLs

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What is the single most effective instructional strategy you have used to teach English-language learners?
This series is part of a longer series of questions and answers inviting educators from various disciplines to share their "single most effective instructional strategy."

There are many more to come!

Today, Valentina Gonzalez, Denita Harris, Cindy Garcia, and Deedy Camarena offer their responses.

Before we get to today's guest, I'd like to share my own answer.

Two that contributors to this series don't mention and are ones I like to use often are the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and Total Physical Response (TPR).

Two particularly useful posts that have not yet made it into that summary collection (I update them every summer) are Thirteen Instructional Strategies for Supporting ELL Newcomers and Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online.

Now, to responses from today's guests:

Picture Word Inductive Model
Valentina Gonzalez is a former classroom teacher with over 20 years in education serving also as a district facilitator for English-learners, a professional-development specialist for ELs, and as an educational consultant. Valentina delivers professional development and coaches teachers on sheltered instruction strategies. Her work can be found on Seidlitz Education and on MiddleWeb. You can reach her through her website or on Twitter @ValentinaESL:
Shifting the way we approach teaching English-learners can have a positive effect on their success in our schools. When we see our English-learners' assets first, we recognize everything they come with and value not only their culture but also the content and literacy they bring to the table.

I've found the Picture Word Inductive Model (Calhoun, 1998) to be one of the most effective instructional techniques in my experience teaching ELs. The benefits of using PWIM with English-learners are many. This literacy technique is quite flexible and can be used cross-curricularly no matter the grade level, language level, or content. PWIM leverages students' funds of knowledge and builds upon them. Through the PWIM, ELs are engaged in thinking and in all language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing with scaffolds and supports such as visuals and sentence stems or frames. This method can be used in all grade levels and cross-curricularly.

These are the steps I use to implement an adapted version of PWIM with English-learners and how each step benefits ELs:

This engaging instructional strategy helps to lower students' anxiety levels, which increases participation. After using the PWIM with numerous student groups, these are some tips I can offer to educators who haven't tried it before:

Carefully select images that are compelling to your age group of students.

Try color coding or chunking labeled words (ex.: all verbs in orange, adjectives in blue, etc.).

Keep in mind students' language-proficiency levels when creating sentence stems and frames. Students with advanced English proficiency will benefit from more sophisticated sentence structures.

Don't stress about doing it all in one day. Gage your students and make adjustments as needed.

On a subsequent day, use the generated words as a sorting activity. Ask students to work with a partner to put the words in groups and label the groups.

Co-create a sentence-patterning chart with the class. Some groups of students may need this level of support during Step 7.

Below is an example of a PWIM and sentence-patterning chart mash up. Combining these two techniques enhances ELs' listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.

Sentence Frames
Denita Harris is a curriculum coordinator for the MSD of Wayne Township, Indianapolis. She has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, and district-level administrator. Harris is the recipient of the 2019 INTESOL (Indiana Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Best of the Best in K-12 Education, and the 2017 and 2020 African American Excellence in Education Award. Find her on Twitter @HarrisLeads:
The single most effective strategy I have used and would highly recommend when teaching English-language learners is the use of sentence frames for writing and speaking, the productive skills, accompanied with a word bank, word phrases, and/or pictures.

English-languagelearners possess a wealth of knowledge, and it is our obligation, as educators, to tap into their knowledge and continue to build upon what our students already know and can do. We must remember our students are in the process of learning a new language and are not in the process of learning a language; therefore, we can provide the words and the grammatical structures of the new language to help guide them in speaking and writing.

Here is an analogy to consider. English-language learners have the tools (vocabulary in their native language). They come to us with these tools; however, while learning English, they may not yet know the names of all the tools or how to use them properly to accomplish a task completely (speaking or writing in English). Our responsibility is to provide our students with the names of each tool (vocabulary in English) and demonstrate to them, through sentence frames, how they might utilize these tools to accomplish a complete task (express a complete thought or sentence in English). A sentence frame can be made up of only one sentence or several sentences to assist students in structuring paragraphs.

The use of sentence frames for writing and speaking not only give English-language learners a framework to communicate through both oral and written language, sentence frames also help build students' self-efficacy. When students have the language to contribute to classroom discussions and are able to express their thoughts on paper, they begin to feel a part of the classroom community, and that makes all the difference.

Comprehensible Input
Cindy Garcia has been a bilingual educator for 14 years and is currently a district instructional specialist for PK-6 bilingual/ESL mathematics. She is active onTwitter @CindyGarciaTX and on her blog:
The single most effective strategy that I used to teach English-language learners is comprehensible input. Comprehensible input means that the teacher speaks in such a way that students are able to understand what is being said even when they do not know or understand all of the words being stated. Below are some strategies to make input comprehensible:

Slow down rate of speech and enunciate clearly. As students are listening, they are also working to process what is being said and how that fits with what they already know. At the same time, ELLs are translanguaging and making sense of teachers' academic language. ELLs are developing their English language, and it is very important that they hear those initial and ending sounds of words in order to add them to their vocabulary. Sometimes when we speak too quickly, we drop important sounds such as "ing".

Avoid figurative language and idioms. While these phrases might make sense to you and emphasize a point, to ELLs they might break down their comprehension. Students will probably end up with a literal translation that makes no sense. For example, saying it was a piece of cake will be translated to it was a portion of a dessert, not it was easy! Not only that, but ELLs might stop listening as they try to figure what that idiom means.

Use gestures and total physical response (TPR). Language can sometimes be abstract and not precise. There can also be words that exist in English that do not exist in other languages. For example, toes do not have a Spanish equivalent. In Spanish, we have hand fingers and feet fingers. Using exaggerated gestures can help make the meaning of new vocabulary more clear to students. Using TPR, students also learn to associate a movement with a word, and that will make it more likely that they internalize that new vocabulary.

Collaborative Summarizing
Deedy Camarena is the coordinator for English-language development (ELD), dual and world languages, at the Santa Clara County Office of Education in California:
Second, students find one partner to dialogue with and " create a negotiated list that reflects their combined agreement on the three to six most important ideas." Once students have discussed the most important ideas, they turn them into one, collaborative 15-word summary. Teachers can strategically pair up students, or students can choose. Students must first determine the negotiating rules they will follow. For example, act respectively, cite evidence to prove your opinion, or use academic-language sentence frames, such as Kate Kinsella's, for discussing and collaboration. Students use these sentence frames to support the function of negotiating and intentionally use academically language correctly. The purpose of negotiating with their partner is to "identify who or what is the most important in the section, [and] identify what the subject is doing,"( English Learner Toolkit of Strategies).

Third, have each pair meet with another pair. One student from each pair reads their summary. Then, they dive in and renegotiate a common summary for their new group of four and add it to their graphic organizer.

Fourth, each group of four chooses another group of four to repeat the renegotiating process. Once again, the group will add this new summary to their graphic organizer.

Fifth, ask groups to edit their summaries for meaning, language, and word choice. As the focus of Collaborative Summarizing is utilizing purposeful dialogue to practice oracy, this could be an optional step.

Sixth, chose one student from the group to present the summary to the class. As ELLs have varying comfort levels of reading in front of a class, give the students time to practice in their group. Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, bring the class together to listen to the summaries.

Thanks to Valentina, Denita, Cindy, and Deedy for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
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The Six Most Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs-According to Teachers (Opinion)

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Teachers share their "go-to" strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.

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Rock Your Literacy Block: Mighty Moves to Organize Your Day and Optimize Student Learning: Mighty Moves to Organize Your Day and Optimize Student Learning : Kemeny, Lindsay: Amazon.ca: Books

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Rock Your Literacy Block: Mighty Moves to Organize Your Day and Optimize Student Learning: Mighty Moves to Organize Your Day and Optimize Student Learning : Kemeny, Lindsay: Amazon.ca: Books