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Leveling students: Why we do it, why we shouldn't, and what we should do instead- Dr. Matt Burns

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Reading League Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines

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Reading League Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines

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We will use this throughout our sessions - keep available

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Great Phonics Resources/ Blending, Heart Words

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Great Phonics Resources/ Blending, Heart Words

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Welcome to the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI, pronounced "you fly"). UFLI is an ongoing effort by UF faculty, students, and staff to improve literacy outcomes for children learning to read.

The work of UFLI focuses on two main areas: teacher development and reader development. The place where those two overlap ... that is where the work of UFLI lives. Our programs and resources are designed to help teachers become more confident and more successful in their capacity to help kids learn to read. We do this through:

Academic programs for both pre-service and practicing educators to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective reading teachers

Professional learning opportunities to help classroom reading teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders expand their knowledge, enhance their teaching practices, and build capacity in their schools

Resources for teachers, parents, and teacher educators to use in their reading instruction

Much, much more!

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UF Literacy Institute | Where teacher development and reader development overlap

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Welcome to the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI, pronounced "you fly"). UFLI is an ongoing effort by UF faculty, students, and staff to improve literacy outcomes for children learning to read. The work of UFLI focuses on two main areas: teacher development and reader development. The place where those two overlap ...

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CBMs - what are they and what do they mean?

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CBMs - what are they and what do they mean?

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What Is Curriculum-Based Measurement and What Does It Mean to My Child?

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Not only must schools teach academic skills, but they must measure how successful each child is acquiring these skills. One way to do this is Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM), which uses brief, timed tests made up of academic material taken from the child's school curriculum.

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ISL UFLI Differentiation Implementation Planning

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EKC/UFLI Progress Monitoring Weekly Planner

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EKC/UFLI Progress Monitoring Weekly Planner

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M.Ed. - Character Education

Post-Grad. Cert. - Early Literacy Development

25+ years PK-G2 classroom teacher

Literacy Coach, Mentor Program Coordinator

Finds joy in: word study, creating caring classrooms, reigniting teacher’s joy, eating ice cream, swimming and travel

miles@erinkentconsulting.com

linkedin.com/in/milesmadison/

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(5 min)

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Illuminating (but polarizing!) Podcast - Sold A Story

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Illuminating (but polarizing!) Podcast - Sold A Story

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences - children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They'd catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.
Sold a Story is an independent investigative journalism project from American Public Media. We rely on your donations to support this kind of rigorous reporting.
The controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade. Explore a map of school districts.

More states are now requiring districts to adopt curriculum that adheres to the science of reading. Look up the policy in your state.

At least 15 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since the Sold a Story podcast was released in 2022, but there is pushback.

Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford.

This discussion guide, created by a teacher, invites educators, parents, community members and kids to have a conversation about the podcast.

Emails and voice messages poured in from people who listened to Sold a Story.

We'll let you know when we release new episodes of the podcast. Enter your address below.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

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There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read.

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A Quick Guide to Foundational Literacy Assessments

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A Quick Guide to Foundational Literacy Assessments

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In our work with schools and systems across the country, we've found that leaders and teachers often don't get the support they need to deeply understand 1) the different kinds of student learning data they collect and 2) how to use those data to drive mastery of foundational reading skills.

That's unfortunate because we know that student data can provide invaluable insight into the skills that students have and have not yet mastered-and, therefore, what areas of focus will help teachers make the most of their instructional time. Ensuring that teams have a strategic set of strong assessments in place and that educators know how, when, and why to administer them is the first step to empowering educators to use data to accelerate student outcomes.

In this quick guide to foundational literacy assessments, we'll go over the purposes and uses of four main types of assessment, using the story of a 1st-grade student named Verna to explore how each fits together to make all the difference for her learning experiences and outcomes.

Here's a little background on Verna and her 1st-grade teacher, Ms. Wilson:
Verna attended pre-K in 2019-20, but her mom pulled her out once the pandemic began in early spring. Wary of virtual learning, her family decided not to enroll Verna in kindergarten in 2020-21. Without that year of kindergarten under her belt, when Verna started 1st grade in the fall of 2021, Ms. Wilson knew that she'd have to keep an eye out for unfinished learning in her foundational literacy skills.
1. Universal screeners (aka benchmarks)

A universal screener is given to all students at intervals throughout the year (usually beginning, middle, and end). These assessments determine where students are on the right track and where they may be at risk for reading difficulties by measuring their performance against nationally normed proficiency benchmarks. They are often used to set learning goals for students (i.e., results on the beginning-of-year assessment inform goals/targets for performance on middle-/end-of-year assessments). Screeners work by isolating a few skills that predict student risk. There are two things that are especially important to know about universal screeners:

They provide different kinds of information: A universal screener isn't a universal screener isn't a universal screener. Some tell you about students' overall reading level. Some provide insight into mastery of a particular domain. It may sound obvious, but understanding what the test is measuring (i.e., the skills it is using to determine whether a student is below, on, or above grade level) is a critical first step toward ensuring your teams are gathering actionable data.

No matter what they're measuring, the information that universal screeners provide is limited: Because universal screeners provide a high-level snapshot of student performance, they don't take much time, which is great in terms of being able to gather information quickly. However, it also means that screeners don't provide much detail. The long and short of it is, universal screeners can tell us where a student may be having difficulty, but not why (e.g., a screener may identify that a student is not meeting their grade-level expectation for letter name/letter sound identification, but it's unlikely to tell you which letters/sounds they have not yet mastered).

Here's how Verna's school used a universal screener to collect information about what she already knew at the beginning of 1st grade:
In the first few weeks of her 1st-grade year, the reading team at Verna's elementary school assessed individual students using DIBELS, a reliable and valid universal screener. Verna's scores revealed that she performed on grade level in some skill areas but significantly below grade level in letter-naming fluency, phoneme segmentation, and letter sounds. These results gave Ms. Wilson a good picture of where Verna's gaps lay, though not what those gaps were precisely. To find out exactly what skills Verna had not yet mastered, Ms. Wilson knew she'd have to dig a bit deeper.
2. Diagnostics

Diagnostics help add detail to the big picture that universal screeners offer. Diagnostics are given to students when we need more information about why they may be struggling in a particular area. Where a universal screener will tell you that a student is not on grade level for letter sounds, a diagnostic will tell you that the student has not mastered the short /o/. That level of detail is invaluable for educators in determining how to use their small-group time as well as in setting learning targets for individual students. For example, if a student has mastered all vowel sounds except the short /o/, a diagnostic would enable their teacher to jump straight to working with them on that sound rather than reviewing all vowel sounds.

In our work across the country, we've found that diagnostics tend to be underused, even though many curricula provide them in their packages, and, if not, there are open source diagnostics that schools can access (e.g., the PAST Test ).

One reason that schools often choose not to use diagnostics is that they take a long time and they're high effort: typically, they are administered one-on-one, educator and student. So, in the face of capacity limitations, it's easy to find reasons not to administer them.

We always remind our partners that diagnostics provide a clear picture of what individual students need to move forward-and investing the time to narrow in on students' particular roadblocks can help us advance their skills much more effectively and efficiently during instructional time. In my experience, the time it takes to administer these assessments is well worth the investment.

In Verna's case, Ms. Wilson used diagnostics to get a better understanding of the picture painted by her universal screener results:
Ms. Wilson used a phonics screener from the curriculum to diagnose the exact letter names and sounds that Verna has and has not yet mastered. Ms. Wilson knew that phonemic awareness, as tested on DIBELS PSF, is a subset of phonological awareness. She administered a few phonological awareness tasks from the PAST Test to Verna in order to pinpoint her precise gaps. After these two diagnostics, it was clear that Verna needed support blending and segmenting phonemes in words and identifying the sounds for the letters "d," "g," "i," "j," "n," "o," "v," and "w."
3. and 4. Progress monitoring assessments and formative assessments

Ok! So, you used a universal screener to determine what area(s) a student has not yet mastered and a diagnostic to pinpoint the specific skills they need to work on, and you started targeting your instruction to help students master those skills. Now, how do you know if it's working? There are two primary types of assessment that can give you insights:

Progress monitoring assessments: This type of assessment tells you how students are progressing relative to their individual learning goals that were set based on their universal screener results. The results can help teachers understand if the current instructional approach is effectively moving students toward their goal(s) or if an adjustment to that approach is necessary because students are not moving toward their goal(s). Without progress monitoring, a teacher might have to wait months between administrations of the universal screener to understand students' progress, which could cause them to lose valuable instructional time to approaches that aren't working.

Formative assessments: This type of assessment gives you insight into whether students mastered what was being taught in a particular unit or lessons. Formative assessments can be:

Curriculum-embedded (i.e., some formative assessments are often included in curriculum packages).

Teacher-created (i.e., it's common for teachers to develop quick assessments-such as teacher-completed checklists, exit tickets, or notes jotted down on a sticky note-as checks for understanding; often these assessments are slightly shorter than their curriculum-embedded counterparts).

Though progress monitoring and formative assessments are slightly different, using them in combination can help you keep an accurate pulse on how students, both as a group and individually, are progressing and make informed instructional decisions for students.

Ms. Wilson was able to use these types of assessments to determine how to focus instruction for Verna:
Ms. Wilson reviewed Verna's DIBELS progress monitoring data and was pleased with the progress she was making toward her goals. However, she did notice that the data from Verna's weekly curriculum dictation test indicated that Verna was still struggling to represent the /w/ and /g/ sounds with the appropriate letter. Ms. Wilson made a note to make this the primary focus of her small-group work with Verna the next week and to do a quick white board task to assess where she is or is not moving toward mastery of those targeted skills.
Strategically using the four types of assessments discussed above can help anchor conversations in specific evidence of improvement or continued struggle, help educators isolate instructional strategies that are and are not working, monitor students' progress over time, and make informed decisions about what to try next.

Still, we know that developing an assessment strategy isn't easy. That's why we outlined a step-by-step Early Literacy Playbook , including a handy dandy assessment inventory , that details specific ways leaders can implement best practices for student data that support their early literacy system. Get started today!

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A Quick Guide to Foundational Literacy Assessments - Instruction Partners

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How to leverage data from four types of foundational literacy assessments: Universal screeners 2) Diagnostics progress 3) Monitoring 4) Formative

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Overview

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Video: You get good at what you practice

You get good at what you practice. We are teaching children the letters of how to blend them together. Decodable texts match that. So decodable texts are generally, are, are written using the letters, our knowledge that the children have been, have been taught. There will inevitably be sight words and perhaps a couple of content words, but the large percentage of that text is material that they should be able to read on their own.

That is what will help them practice. You're giving them opportunities to practice what you've been trying to teach them. Of course, they should be being read to that. The children should be hearing lots of other stories so that they're building their vocabulary at their well knowledge and more sophisticated language structures. Because literate language books are always, have more sophisticated language than oral language, of course, that that should be happening.

But for their own little bit of a, of practice, they should start with decodable text. That is clearly where the evidence goes. And it's logical, isn't it? You get good at what, what you practice.

Video: Using decodable texts in the classroom

Okay. Are you ready? I want you to look at the first page for me, and I want you to look at the first two words, and I want you to read it for me. Okay. A hat.

A hat.

Good. Let's look at the word hat for a second and let's look at the, the, the, um, graphemes in hat. Everyone put their fingers under hats. Good. How many phonemes are in hats? Let's say it. Oh, go for it. Tell me. Hats.

Excellent. Did, did you count three? Yeah. Three phonemes in hats. Let's say them together.

Look at the last, the last grapheme. Say T. So it says well done when we blend those phonemes together, we have the word hat. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to be blending our phonemes names together. Let's look at the next page. Can you read the next page? Uh, cat in a hat.

Beautiful turnover. Let's see who else is in a hat? cat .What? Goodness me. Let's, let's go read the next page. Cat in a Beautiful And the next one. Mouth. Oh. Could you check? Is it the first grapheme?

Oh, it's not, is it? We better check. Let's, let's put our finger underneath and let's look at the grapheme. I want you to say the phonemes that go with them. Rat. Good. Blending. Well done. We blend them back together. Rat. There you go. A Rat In a hat. Turn the page. Okay.

Let's look at the first word. Get your mouth ready. Blend the phonemes together. Girl. Girl, try again. Blend them together from the beginning. Let's start with the M. E. G, well done. Let's do it together. Mm. Good. Meg, this is, this is her name.

That's Meg. Okay. Let's start from there. Meg. Meg in a hat. Excellent Ah, kid. Ooh. Did you blend it together? Show me how you did it. Good job. Kid. Kid. A kid in a hat. A man in a hat

Well done. We saw some words in there. And you did a great job of blending those together.

Video: A look at decodable texts

Let's have a look through some decodable texts from various publishers, and let's see if they have the features that we really want to see in a good decodable text. Remembering that a decodable text allows students to practice blending and segmenting through the learnt phoneme-grapheme that they have been practicing in class. We want students to recognise and verbalise high frequency sight words with growing independence on continuous text.

First, the majority of words must be decodable, providing that the phoneme-grapheme correspondences have been taught. I'm going to refer to the phoneme-grapheme correspondences as GPCs from now on. It's just easier. So we're going to look at a book called My Hat, which I've chosen for my reader who has recently learned the GPCs of AHTB, L, G, T, and P.

We can easily see that a very high proportion of this text is decodable with words like hat, fat, big and bag.

My reader has also been practicing the high frequency sight words, my, is, and the, and I'm pretty confident my reader is going to manage this book. There's nothing in here that they haven't been taught, and they'll get a chance to practice what I've been teaching explicitly and they'll show me what they can do independently.

Now, most publishers provide a sequence of these GPCs, and let's look at this sequence from Little Learners Love Literacy. It's just here on the back, it shows the phonemes and grapheme that have been taught and which ones are the target for this particular title. And Decodable Australia shows the included or the target phonemes on the back as well. For example, this one indicates c with the ck. When you are looking at decodable text critically, make sure that the target phoneme is represented in a variety of words, not just the same word repeated a couple of times.

An effective decodable text uses the target phoneme-grapheme numerous times in a variety of words with that target represented in different positions throughout the words. And when we look at the text, there are many opportunities to practice the ck with that grapheme in words like stick, stuck and rocks, if that's appropriate. This book by InitiaLit also follows a sequence which is shown on the back of the book.

Decodable text will also feature sight words from early on. They help the text make sense in this book, pip, is and the would be taught as sight words. Notice how the text, even though it's simple, it's written in complete sentences and it makes sense. It uses punctuation with a capital at the start and a full stop at the end. As my reader begins to learn more of these GPCs and more high frequency sight words, of course, the text will include more words and the sentence length will increase, and there'll be more words on the page as there are here in Ned.

My reader now has the opportunity to practice a return sweep. As more GPCs are taught, obvious, more interesting words can be created. For example, I like my room, but not when it is a mess. And here's another one at Sunset Pit packs up the cups, the rocks and the mud.

Mud picnics are fun. Let's tell mom.

We still have opportunities to learn about responding to other punctuations, such as speech marks, exclamation marks, and question marks. As we can see in this book from the series Dandelion Launches, there are also good little storylines to promote comprehension. This book 'Dad and his Hot dog' is a funny little story.

Please remember that these early readers, including decodable texts, do not proclaim to be fine literature. The purpose is explicit practice of what has been taught.

This text of dad and his hot dog is a personal favourite. It contains only 69 words, and it's about meeting dad at the hot dog van and dad getting mad because his hot dog was cold. So it reads, the man got my dad 10 hot dogs. Yes, 10. So this could provide the stimulus for discussion following after the text, is it fair that dad got cranky at the hot dog man? Why or why not? What could dad do with 10 hot dogs now.

There are also non-fiction decodable texts. These are from Oxford Reading Tree.You can also find free decodable texts online. One place is Speld.

So remember, be discerning, be clear about your target, and choose a text that provides opportunities to engage in learning that meets the very simple criteria of that a very high proportion of the text is decodable at least 80%.

There is opportunity to practice the high frequency site words that have been introduced

That the position of the target GPC is in a variety of positions in a word.

And the target GPC is represented in a variety of words.

Decodable text gives students a great opportunity to demonstrate their ability to blend and segment through words on continuous text.

They can show you their growing mastery of responding to punctuation and concepts about print.

Video: Decodable texts example

It was Plant a Tree Day at school. Mr. Beam was teaching the children about seeds. See this teeny little seed here? It contains a teeny little tree. You can have one each. Plant them deep, keep them wet, and then, and then what? Mr. Beam said, Pip, just wait and see. Pip and Molly planted the seeds in a pea green pot.

Do you really think we can grow a tree? Maybe.

But for one very long week, the pots just sat there. There was no tree to be seen. This is silly. Keep them wet and wait. Then one happy day. In the second week, pip saw a teeny green stem peeping out of the pot, and Molly saw a soft green leaf. You have a tree, said Mr Beam.

"Yippee!" said Pip and Molly. But the next day, the teeny green stem and the soft green leaf had vanished. Molly was very sad. Oh dear. She said, and a little tear fell down her cheek. Hmm said Mr. Beam, it looks like snails. To me. A soft green leaf is a yummy treat for snails. They have teeny little teeth that go munch, munch, munch. And if we look and eek, Molly was screaming, Mr. Beam, look three fat snails were sneaking along Mr. Beam's feet.

No need to scream, said Mr. Beam, we will let these greedy snails go free. There is plenty to eat in the street, but can someone please tell me how did they get in?

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Decodable texts are specifically written for beginning readers as they are developing their blending and segmenting skills and their knowledge of the alphabetic code. Decodable texts support students as they practise by using a continuous meaningful text.

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UFLI Lesson Routines/Parts Teacher Talk cards

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UFLI Lesson Routines/Parts Teacher Talk cards

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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 1 Lessons

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jordan@erinkentconsulting.com

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Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls

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Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls

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30. Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls | 2022 Literacy Symposium

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Teachers are tired and want to be excited about teaching again. Too often, professional development is boring, not substantive, or lacks a practical how-to approach. The Literacy View invites viewers to sit with Faith Borkowsky and Judy Boksner to discuss best literacy practices in easy-to-implement...

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Reading 101: Self-Paced Learning Modules

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Core knowledge about reading is a key to effective literacy instruction. Our free, self-paced learning modules can help you deepen your understanding of the building blocks of reading and writing.

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When I was in my second year of teaching Kindergarten, I tried something new.

A few times a week, I started having my students practice writing sounds on whiteboards. For example, I might say the /m/ sound and students would write the letter m.

Eventually, they began writing words - at first, with lots of help from me.

After that, they began writing sentences. (Again, with lots of help at first.)

I noticed that this several-times-weekly practice seemed to be really helpful. It appeared to be improving their letter sound knowledge, their decoding, and their overall phonics knowledge.

A year or two later, I learned that I was not the first teacher to have discovered this practice.

This instructional practice - the one I thought I'd "invented" - had a name. It was called a dictation.

And - good news - it WAS an effective practice!

But the funny thing about a dictation is that it seems SO simple...and yet there are lots of nuances.

So we're going to cover all of this in this post:

What is a dictation?

How do you give a dictation?

How do you support students who need extra help? (Or a challenge?)

Sound Dictation

As I mentioned, I began by having my Kindergarten students write sounds (or rather, the letter for a sound).

But hold on! Even if you teach 1st grade, 2nd grade, or above, you will still want to include sounds on some of your dictations.

For example, you might say the sound /ō/ (long o, as in "oatmeal") - and then your students would need to write all of the following:

You would have them write as many ways as they've learned to spell the sound. So if they only know "o" and "oa," for example, they would only be responsible for writing those two spellings.

Sound dictations aren't just for Kindergarteners! ?

Here are the steps I follow when I do a sound dictation:

Teacher: "The sound is /ch/. Repeat."

Students: "/ch/"

Students write "ch" on their whiteboards / paper.

Teacher: "What says /ch/?"

Students: (pointing to the letters) "C-h says /ch/." (They're naming the letters and giving the sound.)

Teacher writes "ch" on the board and students fix their work if needed. (Note: If you see many students spelling the sound incorrectly, you can do this step before asking "What says /ch/?". Either way, the kids get almost immediate feedback on their work and make changes if needed.)

Notice how I have them repeat the sound before they write it - and after they write it.

Word Dictation

Except for the first few weeks of Kindergarten, I always include individual words in my dictations.

I choose words that have our target phonics patterns PLUS some review patterns from previous weeks. Kids are only asked to spell sounds / patterns that they've already been taught.

(However, they might be asked to spell unfamiliar words, so that I can see if they can apply their sound knowledge to spell a new word.)

This is what it might look like in practice:

Teacher: "The word is flip. Repeat."

Students: "Flip"

Teacher: "She can do a flip on the monkey bars. Let's say the sounds in 'flip.'"

Teacher + Students: /f/ /l/ /ĭ/ /p/

Teacher: "Write 'flip.'"

Students write "flip" on their whiteboards / paper.

Once students are finished, the teacher writes "flip" on the board and students fix their work (if necessary).

You can then do some quick work with the word. For example:

Teacher: "Let's say the sounds in flip and touch the letters as we say them. Ready?"

Students + Teacher: "/f/ /l/ /ĭ/ /p/" (all pointing to each letter as they say the sounds)

Teacher: "What's the blend in this word?"

Students: "F-L"

Teacher: "What's the vowel sound in this word?"

Students: "/ĭ/"

Teacher: "Which letter says /ĭ/?"

Students: "i"

You don't need to go through all that for EVERY word, but I usually do discuss 1-2 of the words in depth in each dictation.

If you're thinking right now, "Well, some (or all) of my kids wouldn't be able to do that" - no worries! I've got you covered!
Ways to Provide More Support with Word Dictation

Tell students each sound in the word. (Like "/f/ /l/ /ĭ/ /p/," in the example above.) Have them repeat the sounds after you finish.

Tell them each sound, one at a time. After you say the sound, students write the corresponding letter(s). (Only do this if students truly need a lot of support.)

Ways to Provide Less Support with Word Dictation

Have students say the sounds in the word without your help.

Don't say the sounds in the word as a group - require students to say the sounds and write the word on their own.

You can provide more (or less) support if needed.

Sentence Dictation

Last but not least, my dictations usually include at least one (sometimes two) sentences.

High frequency words that I've taught

Words with sounds / spelling patterns that I've taught

The sentences only include:

In other words, students are practicing concepts they've already been introduced to (just like the sound and word dictations).

Have students repeat the sentence twice.

For younger students (Kinder and early 1st grade), consider drawing a line for each word to help students space correctly and develop concept of word. As they repeat the sentence a second or third time, they can touch each line as they say each corresponding word.

Keep the sentences shorter for younger students.

Incorporate high frequency words from previous weeks for review.

After you dictate the sentence, write it correctly so students get immediate feedback. Younger students do better with re-writing the entire sentence (as opposed to fixing their mistakes in their original work) - erasing can cause paper tears and other drama.

Use this opportunity to remind students about capitalizing the first letter in the sentence and ending the sentence with a punctuation mark.

Here are some tips for success with the sentence dictation:

Putting It All Together

Many times, I'll dictate sounds, words, AND sentences for students to write. We do this in a 7-10 minute dictation.

If it sounds like a lot to fit into 10 minutes...it is! Earlier in the school year, we don't do very many words. Once students get in the routine, things do move more quickly!

As I mentioned, dictations can be done on whiteboards.

But I also like to do them on paper. In mid-Kindergarten and up, at least one weekly dictation is done on paper like this:

This dictation paper comes from my phonics program, From Sounds to Spelling. The lessons tell you exactly what sounds, words, and sentences to dictate to students - so that you cover your weekly patterns AND review previous patterns.

Notice that there are 2 columns for the sounds and words ("My letters" and "Copied letters;" "My words" and "Copied words"). This gives students a place to write the correct sounds and words after they see the teacher's version. ALL students re-copy, even if they were correct the first time. They leave their original work as-is, so that you can see their mistakes.

You may also have noticed that the "My words" column has sound boxes. These can be used to guide students in writing words. One sound goes in each box. The larger box in #5 is for a digraph, like "ch" or "sh."

Here's another version of a dictation paper. Notice how we aren't practicing sounds during this particular dictation. There are no sound boxes, and there are no individual word lines in the sentence:

As you can see, there are tons of minor variations and adaptations that you can make to the dictation process! It's all about meeting the needs of your students. You want to provide them with enough support so that they can be successful - but not too much support so that the tasks are easy.

Do you use dictations in the classroom? Or do you plan on giving them a try? Let me know in the comments!

And if you need a ready-to-use program to guide you in using dictations and other phonics teaching practices, check out From Sounds to Spelling. The program includes professional development videos to help you understand the "why" behind many phonics concepts - plus ALL the materials you need to teach phonics, phonological awareness, and spelling to Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade students.

Happy teaching!

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What Is a Dictation and Why Is It Valuable? - Learning at the Primary Pond

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Dictations are amazing for teaching phonics. But what is a dictation? How can it be used with K-2 students?

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HFW that make up 50% of words in children's texts

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HFW that make up 50% of words in children's texts

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Screener
K/1-Letter names/sounds, phonemic awareness
G2+-ORF+Vocab

(Acadience, DIBELS/mClass,  EasyCBM and AIMSWEB are the most popular and best researched data storage brands)

Diagnostic Tools
Decoding (CORE Phonics Survey)--sourced from here
Phonemic Awareness (CORE) or check out Heggerty--remember the phoneme level is the important focus

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PA & Phonics Application Word Study Planner - Blank

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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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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 2 Lessons

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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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From Reading Rockets

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‎„Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™“ auf Apple Podcasts

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Phonemic Awareness Screener

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Step by Step Example of Language Comprehension Planning

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Step by Step Example of Language Comprehension Planning

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Shanahan on Organizing Daily Literacy Instruction

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Shanahan on Organizing Daily Literacy Instruction

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Post 1

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These are high quality decodables and FREE!

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Free Books for Kids | Consonant Digraphs | Beyond Decodables | Teacher Resources

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Beyond Decodables provides access to free kids books online with a focus on phonics and diversity. Kids books include decodable words related to CVC words, consonant diagraphs, CVCe Words, Multisyllabic Words, Consonant Blends, and Long Vowel Patterns.

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(see above for student diagnostic)

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Interested in this bundle? Email us at [email protected]

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Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

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‎„Science of Reading: The Podcast" auf Apple Podcasts

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Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

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Science of Reading-Reading League Defining Guide

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Science of Reading-Reading League Defining Guide

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40 pg Presentation--user friendly!

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It Matters - Sample Read Aloud for Language Comprehension

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It Matters - Sample Read Aloud for Language Comprehension

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Youtube Video for UFLI PMing & Differentiation

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Youtube Video for UFLI PMing & Differentiation

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UFLI Foundations: Progress Monitoring and Differentiation

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G1-2 (look at inspired by slide deck for more details)

G2-3

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Early in Sequence
End of Sequence

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UFLI Foundations: Progress Monitoring and Differentiation

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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From Early Literacy Framework

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Lots of Resources available on this website! You may have to register...

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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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Cortex in the Classroom: Advancing the Science of Reading in the Early Years

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Cortex in the Classroom: Advancing the Science of Reading in the Early Years

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Advancing Science of Reading in the Early Years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | Amplify CKLA

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KG-G2 Read Aloud Planner (using Reading Rope)

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KG-G2 Read Aloud Planner (using Reading Rope)

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Ready- to -go literacy centers by grade level

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

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Podcast & blog series following shifts- Casey Jergens (KG/G1 teacher

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Podcast & blog series following shifts- Casey Jergens (KG/G1 teacher

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Melissa & Lori Love Literacy Episode 142- Casey with Natalie Wexler

Putting the Structure in Structured Literacy

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

Post 4

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UFLI Progress Monitoring Assessment Template