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Eyes on Reading: Dr. Stanislas Dehaene with Emily Hanford

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How reading changes the way your brain works

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How reading changes the way your brain works

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How reading changes the way your brain works - BBC World Service

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Fantastic podcast to deepen your understanding around the English language being morphonemic! Great links on line too.

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Structured Word Inquiry - with Dr. Pete Bowers

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TRT Podcast #192: Structured Word Inquiry - with Dr. Pete Bowers Dr. Pete Bowers explains “structured word inquiry,” an exciting type of instruction that engages learners of all ages in making sense of our (surprise!)

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Holly Lane: Practical Strategies for Decoding and Encoding

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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One spelling - alternative sounds infographics - Phonic Books

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When kids learn to read they soon come across the difficult concept that one spelling can represent more than one sound. For example: the letter in 'cat', represents a number of other sounds, e.g. /o/ in 'want' or /e/ in 'any'. A good phonics program will include this difficult concept.

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Amazing Games and Teacher Tools for Word Chaining and sentences

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Amazing Games and Teacher Tools for Word Chaining and sentences

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Phonics & Stuff is dedicated to providing high-quality resources for learning and teaching phonics. Explore our games for learners or our sophisticated tools to create customized phonics lessons.

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

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Blending Phonemes - Word Chains - Dyslexic Logic

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

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What Is Spelling Dictation?

Dictation is a great tool for teaching spelling because it allows children to use their spelling skills in a "real world" application. Simply put, you say a phrase or sentence containing their spelling words, and students repeat it and write it down.

Because it is such a beneficial tool, spelling dictation is included in every lesson of All About Spelling.

How Can Dictation Improve Your Child's Spelling?

One of the main problems with typical spelling instruction is that kids learn the words on a list but often forget how to spell the words the next week-and that's discouraging. But one of the best ways to help new knowledge "stick" is to use it in a meaningful way, such as by writing sentences.

But when you're first learning how to spell, writing decent original sentences can be hard! For kids who haven't reached automaticity yet, it's almost impossible to focus on all aspects of writing a sentence-spelling, mechanics, creativity, word choice, and grammar-at one time.

By dictating a sentence to your child, you're separating the creative process from the spelling process, creating a stepping stone between "writing words on a list" and "writing original sentences."

Five Simple Steps for Dictation

1. Step 1: Dictate a sentence.

Depending on your child's level, you'll dictate two to five phrases or sentences each day, using only words that your child has already learned to spell. (If you are using the All About Spelling program, dictation sentences are provided in your teacher's manual.) Let your student know that he needs to focus his attention since you will only be saying the sentence once.

2. Step 2: Your child repeats the sentence.

Repeating the sentence will help your child retain it in short term memory long enough to write it down. (If your child has a hard time repeating the sentence, see Troubleshooting section below.)

3. Step 3: Your child writes the sentence.

Don't correct your child as he writes out the sentence, even if you see him start to make a spelling mistake. In fact, it's best to look away while he's writing! This will allow him to concentrate on what he's doing without feeling like he's being monitored or judged, and it allows him to "own" the process of spelling. There will be time for correcting spelling after the next step.

4. Step 4: Your child proofreads the sentence she just wrote.

In this step, your child reads her writing aloud or to herself. This is a good time for your student to practice self-correction. She should check herself by asking these questions: Am I satisfied that I spelled everything correctly? Did I use capital letters and punctuation properly?

5. Step 5: Finally, check the sentence before dictating the next one.

If you identify a misspelled word, swing into action with the steps listed in this article on how to correct spelling mistakes. This is important teaching time! Is there a specific rule or generalization that you need to review now or in tomorrow's lesson?

Dictation is a wonderful tool to use for spelling, but you might have some questions at first. Check out the solutions to some common problems in the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting for Spelling Dictation

"I've noticed that you change some of the words in the sentences that I dictate. Today I want you to write the sentence without changing any of the words. In fact, let's make it a challenge. If you can write TWO sentences correctly today, the dictation section will be over. Sound good?"

To determine the number of sentences my son writes each day, I let him roll a die. He delights in the hope that he'll roll a "1" but doesn't fuss if he has the bad luck to roll a higher number! This has completely settled the issue of "how many sentences do I have to write?" to the satisfaction of both mom and son. - Laurie H.

It's Okay If Your Child Isn't Perfect at This

The goal is to keep improving. Remind your child that he's doing something that can be difficult at first, reassure him that you know he'll get it, and reiterate that some things just take work. Your goal isn't perfection; it's simply to help your child expand what he can do, bit by bit and step by step.

For more great tips on teaching spelling, download my free " Six Ways We Make Spelling Easy " e-book.

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How to Do Spelling Dictation (+ Troubleshooting Guide)

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Dictation is a great tool for teaching spelling because it allows children to use their spelling skills in a "real world" application. Simply put, you say a phrase or sentence containing their spelling words, and students repeat it and write it down.

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Word lists by vowel pattern and consonant sounds

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Word lists by vowel pattern and consonant sounds

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Each word was entered into a database program and broken down into its component sounds with the number of syllables also entered for each word. This resulted in a 7,000 word database that can be searched for, say, all two-syllable words containing the sound /sh/.

In addition, each sound was matched to its spelling, so not only could all two-syllable words containing the sound /sh/ be located, but so could the subset of such words where the /sh/ sound was spelled, say, "ci." This search would generate words like and , while ignoring words like ip and , for example.

How Comprehensive are the Lists?

If it's a reasonably common one-syllable word, it's probably in the database.

Many two syllable words, however, were left out if they were compound words. For example background, backside, backstage, and backstroke were left out, although backbone and backpack were included.

Words not likely to be used by a child were omitted, such as cockatoo, cockle, and cockerel.

Extensions were sometimes omitted, so although backward and publish were included, backwards and publisher were not. Also, root words with suffixes are usually omitted, so while love and lovely are in the database, lover, loving, loved and lovable are not.

Of the longer words, approximately one-third were omitted. For example from page 154 the words pottery, poverty, practical, precaution, precious, precipice, prejudice, premises, and premium were included, while practically, predecessor, and prehistoric were not.

The Sense in Which the Lists Are Comprehensive

If the word list claims to list one-syllable words with the sound /ow/, for example, then every one-syllable word in the 7,000 word database that contains the sound /ow/ should be on that particular list.

If the word list claims to list just words with the sound /z/ spelled se, then every word in the 7,000 word database that contains that spelling se representing the /z/ sound will appear on that list.

Are there more words with an /ow/ sound in them, or more where /z/ is spelled se? No doubt there are, but if they aren't in the database, they aren't on any of the lists.

Before you download a particular list, you might be interested in reviewing Organization of the Word Lists.

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Sounds and Spellings: Comprehensive Word Lists | OnTrack Reading

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Each word was entered into a database program and broken down into its component sounds with the number of syllables also entered for each word. This resulted in a 7,000 word database that can be searched for, say, all two-syllable words containing the sound /sh/.

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Variety of Instructional Resources: Blending Boards, Visuals, More!

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Variety of Instructional Resources: Blending Boards, Visuals, More!

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Resources from IMSE | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook | Linktree

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Talk to check for understanding vs create understanding

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Talk to check for understanding vs create understanding

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Check for Understanding vs Create Understanding

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Why Oral Language Instruction is Critical to Literacy

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Why Oral Language Instruction is Critical to Literacy

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Ed-Talk: Oral Language Begets Literacy - Young-Suk Kim

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By Amanda Morin

Sand or shaving cream writing

Air writing (also called sky writing) reinforces the sound each letter makes through " muscle memory." It can also help reinforce commonly confused letter forms like b and d. Kids use two fingers as a pointer (keeping elbows and wrists straight) to write letters in the air. They say the sound each letter makes as they write it.

Encourage kids to imagine the letter as they write it. They can also pretend they're writing in a certain color.

Letters cut out of sandpaper can help kids retain a tactile (touch) memory of letters and their sounds. Kids trace each letter with their fingers while saying the sound of the letter out loud. They can feel the shape of the letters as they write.

Kids say each letter's sound as they lay it down. Once they've built the word, they read it out loud.

Read it, build it, write it

You can use this technique to teach sight words to one or more kids at a time. Kids each have a piece of paper with three boxes on it, labeled "Read," "Build," and "Write." They also have cards with sight words, magnetic letters (or tiles), and a marker.

Have kids read the sight word that's in the "Read" box together with you. Then have them build the word in the "Build" box, using their letters. Finally, have kids practice writing the word in the "Write" box.

Take the word bat. Kids tap an index finger to their thumb as they say the b sound. They tap their middle finger to their thumb as they say the short a sound. And they tap their ring finger to their thumb as they say the t sound. Then they put the sounds together to say bat.

Story sticks can help kids who struggle with reading comprehension visualize the elements of a story. Use a different color craft stick to represent each element. Yellow sticks might ask the question, "Who are the characters?" while blue sticks ask, "What is the setting?"

While reading together, hand kids a stick and ask them to answer the question on it. Or ask kids to highlight the elements of a printed story using the proper colors.

During shared reading, kids can use printable books. Printable books leave a space for kids to write in sight words or draw pictures to match sentences.

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the director of thought leadership at Understood and author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education." She worked as a classroom teacher and early intervention specialist for more than a decade.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Ginny Osewalt is a dually certified elementary and special education teacher with more than 15 years of experience in general education, inclusion, resource room, and self-contained settings.

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Sand or shaving cream writing Air writing (also called sky writing) reinforces the sound each letter makes through " muscle memory." It can also help reinforce commonly confused letter forms like b and d. Kids use two fingers as a pointer (keeping elbows and wrists straight) to write letters in the air.

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

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https://go.sadlier.com/school/phonics-camp-wiley-blevins-register?utm_campaign=05J_LIFE_Masterclass_OD_FPR_Camp_Child&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87238465&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9W4E3B7QgsaAheyATuP_lueR0naE4s_EfG42420HCyrXb9g6RrR2COczdSa2B5LPXpianUUO3xoGsPWivD4A5LgBJutmSrKdk7UefJvkvQHjDx_Og&utm_content=87238465&utm_source=hs_automation

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Join Wiley Blevins for a FREE, 2-part Phonics Camp that will inspire your instruction and help increase student motivation and learning. Discover how to use the characteristics of strong phonics instruction and differentiate to meet students' needs.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
Class 1: Getting Started with Strong Phonics Instruction

Discover key characteristics of strong phonics instruction

Understand the power of research-based phonics routines

Learn how to avoid phonics instruction issues

Class 2: Differentiating Students' Phonics Needs

Assessing to meet students' needs

Transitioning students to read multisyllabic words

Building fluency to aid in comprehension

Connecting phonics and vocabulary

Once you register, you'll receive your first of two class emails. Each email will give you "ON DEMAND," anytime access to the camp video, reflection questions, and featured resources for that class.

If you watch both camp classes, you'll have an opportunity to receive a Certificate of Participation. Details will follow.

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Phonics Camp with Wiley Blevins | Register Now | Sadlier School

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In Phonics Camp with Wiley Blevins, you'll discover how to use the characteristics of strong phonics instruction and differentiate to meet students' needs.

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Things to know about letter-sound relationships and how it guides your instruction

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Things to know about letter-sound relationships and how it guides your instruction

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Letter Names Can Cause Confusion and Other Things to Know About Letter–Sound Relationships

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In this article, we present 10 essential understandings about English orthography and examples of how this knowledge can help teachers appropriately support preschool and primary grade children’s literacy development.

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The Importance of Dual Language Assessment and How to Deliver It in Your Classroom

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2022 Texas ALTA Summit - Language and Literacy Intervention Among Multilingual Learners

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S5-E2: Biliteracy and assessment with Dr. Lillian Durán

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00:32:20 - Susan Lambert joins biliteracy expert and professor Dr. Lillian Durán, who holds a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Minnes…

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Literacy Foundations for Biliteracy Padlet

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Literacy Foundations for Biliteracy Padlet

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The following are side-by-side comparison documents for the 2017 revised English and Spanish language arts and reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) to be implemented in the 2019-2020 school year in kindergarten through grade 8. There is horizontal alignment between the English language arts and Spanish language arts TEKS, but due to the different conventions of the languages, there are small but noteworthy differences between the two sets of standards that influence the teaching and learning of each language. While the English and Spanish language arts TEKS contain substantively similar and equally rigorous expectations for students who are learning English or Spanish, these side-by-side documents point out the minor differences in student expectations (SEs).

The revised TEKS consist of the following strands:

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills

Comprehension skills

Response skills

Multiple genres

Author's craft

Composition

Inquiry and research

When individual SEs are identical for revised English and Spanish language arts and reading, they are not listed in these documents. Also, SEs that are similar for revised English and Spanish language arts and reading may not have the same number or may be in a different order. In that case, the sequential numbering appears in the English language arts and reading SEs, and the Spanish language arts and reading SEs are matched to them.

More information and resources for the revised TEKS can be found on the Texas Education Agency website.

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Kindergarten

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Grade 1

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Grade 2

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Grade 3

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Grade 4

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Grade 5

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS - Grade 6

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS and ELLA - Grade 7

→ ELAR/SLAR TEKS and ELLA - Grade 8

Our partners at Learning List are reviewing materials aligned to the new ELAR and SLAR TEKS. Their detailed alignment reports and analysis of each material's instructional content can help facilitate your district's selection of new materials and effective implementation of the new standards.

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The following are side-by-side comparison documents for the 2017 revised English and Spanish language arts and reading Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) to be implemented in the 2019-2020 school year in kindergarten through grade 8.

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Reading Strategies that Support Decoding

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Reading Strategies that Support Decoding

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From The Power of Retelling

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Throughout the U.S., many children are receiving some or all of their literacy instruction in Spanish. Typically, these children are in one of three types of instructional programs:

Transitional bilingual programs - Native speakers of Spanish are instructed entirely in Spanish for a period of time before transitioning into English instruction.

Dual language programs - Approximately half of the students are native Spanish speakers, and the rest are native English speakers. Students receive instruction in both languages, with the goal of all students becoming fully bilingual.

Spanish Immersion programs - Students who are not native Spanish speakers receive all of their instruction is in Spanish so that they can become fluent in the language.

Regardless of the type of program, all of these students have one thing in common. They are learning to read in a language that is in some ways very similar to English, but in other ways is very different.

Stages of Literacy Development

Whether learning to read in Spanish or in English, children pass through three broad stages of literacy development:

Video: Reading Maestros

To see Dr. Palacios in action in her preschool classroom, take a look at the "Reading Maestros" clip in our PBS show Toddling Toward Reading, hosted by Reba McEntire.

You can learn more in her Meet the Expert interview as well!

In the Emergent stage, children who cannot yet read, write, or spell are just beginning to explore the world of print. They may pretend to read books as they turn the pages, but they are not yet able to match speech to print. Their writing is also "pretend writing," made up first of scribbles and later including some symbols and even letters. Children in the emergent stage may know that writing represents ideas, but it is not until the very end of this stage that they start to understand that letters represent the sounds they hear in words. (For more information on the emergent stage, see 8 Strategies for Preschool ELLs' Language and Literacy Development.)

Children in the Beginning stage of literacy development have a solid knowledge of the alphabet and are learning to decode, or "sound out" words. They still need a lot of support when they are reading, and their reading is slow and laborious. Beginning readers read out loud, and they guide their reading by fingerpointing. Texts for beginning readers have controlled vocabulary so that children only encounter familiar words as they read. At this stage, children attempt to represent the sounds they hear in words in their writing, but their spelling is often incomplete, representing only the most salient or prominent sounds in the words they write.

In the Instructional stage, children are able to read independently, and they can read silently. They can also read for the purpose of learning new information and new vocabulary. By this stage, children have become efficient at decoding, so the focus of instruction shifts to comprehension. During the instructional stage, children no longer spell words based on sound alone. They begin to learn about spelling patterns in which multiple letters combine to form one sound.

Spanish and English: What's the Same, and What's Different?

First, children develop the essential skills in the areas of alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and print knowledge that provide a foundation for learning to read.

Next, they begin to apply those skills as they learn to decode text. During this time, they gradually build their repertoire of sight words (i.e., words that they can recognize right away "by sight" without having to sound them out), which allows them to become more fluent in their reading.

Once decoding becomes automatic and children no longer have to devote so much attention to "getting the words off the page," they can read more complex texts that place greater demands for comprehension.

Spanish and English are both alphabetic languages, and therefore the process of learning to read is essentially the same in the two languages:

English has what is often referred to as an opaque orthography, meaning that English sound-symbol correspondences are not always predictable. Think, for example, of the pronunciation of "ough" in the words though, ought, through, plough, cough, and rough. Because of such inconsistencies, children typically spend three to four years learning to decode text fluently.

Spanish, on the other hand, has a very predictable orthography, sometimes referred to as a transparent orthography. Once children learn the basic sound-symbol correspondences, they can easily decode most Spanish words. Thus, by the end of first grade, children can read most Spanish text with a high level of accuracy, regardless of the familiarity of the word patterns.

The primary difference between Spanish and English reading development and instruction occurs during the period in which children are learning to decode text. This is because of differences in the two languages' orthographies, or spelling systems.

There is one caveat, however. In Spanish, unlike in English, reading accuracy is not a strong predictor of reading comprehension (Escribano, Elosúa, Gómez-Veiga, & García-Madruga, 2013). Children can often decode text far beyond the level at which they have good comprehension of what they are reading, and this drop in comprehension is usually accompanied by a drop in reading rate. The challenge for teachers is to place students in texts that they can not only read accurately but can also read at a good rate and with good comprehension.

Instruction for the Beginning Reader in Spanish

Much of early reading instruction in English is devoted to teaching children the English vowel sounds. Like Spanish, English has five vowel letters ( a, e, i, o, and u), but those five letters can make 12 different vowel sounds, depending on the spelling patterns of the words in which they occur. For example, the letter a represents three different sounds in the words cat, car, and came. In Spanish, however, each vowel letter makes just one sound, no matter what spelling pattern it appears in, and this greatly simplifies early reading instruction.

In fact, children begin learning to read in Spanish by first learning the five vowel sounds. They then learn to combine the vowels with consonants to form open syllables (e.g., ma, me, mi, mo, mu). Open syllables, or syllables that follow a consonant-vowel (CV) pattern, represent the most frequently occurring syllable pattern in Spanish. Reading instruction begins with the consonants that are easiest for children to distinguish the sounds of and to blend with vowels (i.e., m, n, b, p, s, l, d, t, and f). Consonants are introduced one at a time and practiced with consonants that have been learned previously. For example, children who have learned m, n, t, and p syllables might practice reading words like tapa, Papi, and mano.

As children start to become adept at reading words made up of simple open syllables, they can begin examining words that include closed syllables following the VC or CVC pattern (e.g., alto and pan), as well as words with consonant blends (e.g., , , etc.) and diphthongs (e.g., , , etc.).

Although Spanish has a highly predictable orthography, there are a few silent letters ( h is always silent, u is silent after g or q), as well as letters that can make different sounds, depending on the letters that follow them. For example, the letters c and g make one sound when followed by a, o, or u and a different sound when followed by e or i. For that reason, syllables with these letters are taught somewhat later in the progression. The same is true of syllables with infrequently occurring consonants, such as z, k, x and w.

Working with Syllables and Phonemes

It is important to recognize that as children learn to create new syllables by substituting for the initial consonant (i.e., changing ma, me, mi, mo, mu into ta, te, ti, to, tu), they are actually manipulating language at the phoneme, or single sound, level (Pollard-Durodola & Simmons, 2009). To make those changes, children have to be able to 1) segment the consonant sound from the vowel sound in each pair and 2) blend a new consonant sound with each vowel sound to create a new syllable.

This ability to segment speech at the individual phoneme level has been shown to differentiate good readers from average to poor readers in Spanish (Carillo, 1994). In fact, research has demonstrated that the ability to blend and segment individual phonemes is a strong predictor of overall reading achievement in Spanish, both for monolingual Spanish-speaking children (Bravo, 2006) and for Spanish/English bilingual children (Branum-Martin, 2006).

Calling children's attention to individual phonemes in Spanish words may serve a dual function for children learning to read in U.S. schools. Whether in transitional bilingual, dual language, or Spanish immersion settings, children attending school in the U.S. will at some point be expected to learn to read in English as well as in Spanish. Having experience working with language at the phoneme level in Spanish may make it easier for them to apply what they have learned about reading in Spanish as they take on the task of learning to read in English. As Pollard-Durodola and Simmons (2009) point out, "If phoneme blending and segmentation have been taught and mastered in Spanish, then it is conceivable that the linguistic readiness primed by instruction and practice in Spanish will facilitate transfer to English, therefore allowing English phonemic awareness instruction on high-priority skills to be abbreviated" (p. 147).

Effective Literacy Activities for the Beginning Reader

Beginning readers need to have lots of opportunities to practice reading and writing throughout the school day. Oral language development, both at home and at school, is also important so that children can attach meaning to the words they read. Below are some examples of language and literacy activities for teachers and parents. While these activities can be used in any language, we've provided some examples in Spanish.

Create labels of words so that children can begin to make connections between the spoken word and the written word. With the children's help, write the labels and place them where children can see and read them.

Develop word walls with children as words are encountered. Word walls can be arranged alphabetically or by themes.

Engage children in interactive read-alouds to help them build comprehension skills and expand their vocabularies.

Provide lots of opportunities for children to write, and allow them to use phonetic or invented spelling as they are sorting out the sound-symbol correspondences in Spanish. Attempting to write the sounds they hear in words "as best they can" strengthens children's understanding of the phonetic structure of the language and helps them gradually learn conventional spelling.

Use visual or graphic organizers to help children see the connection between ideas and text. For example, on a theme about the farm, use a picture of a barn and draw lines around it with words that the children will learn (e.g., horse/caballo, cow/vaca, duck/pato) in Spanish.

Engage students in repeated reading of familiar text to help them improve both accuracy and fluency. Repeated reading also helps reinforce new vocabulary by giving children multiple exposures to words.

Create classroom books with words that the children have read, understand and can illustrate (e.g., Yo voy a comer. A mi me gusta comer ____.)

Have children help create lists of associated words (e.g., animals, family, workers, friends, transportation, play). Display the words on charts, along with illustrations.

Recognize that strategies will differ for different children based on their learning styles. Use multiple paths to learning by including different genres of books, music, drawing and designs and hands-on activities to support oral language development and use of words in context to aid comprehension.

Write language experience stories in small groups to maximize participation and to help connect speaking with writing and reading.

Involve children in creating syllables that can be manipulated to form not only words, but also nonsense words for practice by using cards or sentence strips.

Provide practice creating new words by substituting individual phonemes at the beginning, end, and middle of words (e.g., substituting a for o to change sol to sal).

Use picture cards of words with the syllables mixed up. Have children re-sort syllable cards to form the correct word (e.g., picture of a house: sa ca; picture of a bird: ro, pá, ja). Then try the same activity using individual letters instead of syllables.

Discuss the way that verbs may end in -ar, -er, or -ir. Provide examples of verbs that children can begin to conjugate (e.g., comer: como, come, comes, comió, comí).

Include cultural aspects of the Spanish language, which are important to impart to children who are learning a new language or developing in their native language.

Collaborate with families on children's needs and progress. Involve parents in the Spanish language development process, providing resources that allow non-Spanish speaking parents to learn words that will support their child at home. Invite Spanish-speaking parents to read to the children or be a guest speaker in your classroom, modeling the language.

Invite community role models to read to the children in Spanish and discuss the importance of learning Spanish.

Classroom Strategies

Create small places at home where your child can study, read and play. Areas set aside for learning and play are important for your child's development.

Stock the study area with books, pencils, pens, and paper. Encourage your child to read and then write stories using Spanish.

Have a play area where there are opportunities to play with materials. Provide labels for the materials (e.g., plastelina [clay], bloques [blocks], computadora [computer], rompecabezas [puzzles]).

Read aloud to your child in Spanish to help build vocabulary and comprehension skills. To learn more about why that can help kids become strong readers in English and Spanish, see Why Reading to Your Kids in Spanish Will Help Them Become Better Readers.

Provide opportunities to talk to your child about the world around him. Talk about things at the supermarket, during walks, or things you are doing as you cook or clean. Use the Spanish to find cognates of words in English (e.g., electricidad-electricity; plantas-plants; rocas-rocks).

Tune in to Spanish radio or Spanish TV stations to help him hear the language and pick up vocabulary, or internet sites with children's Spanish songs that children can learn.

When there is homework in Spanish, have your child read it aloud as you are cooking or during one-to-one time with your child. Support language development and let your child know how much you value his/her learning.

Learning at Home: Tips for Parents

Concluding Remarks

As many kindergarten and first-grade teachers will attest, working with beginning readers can be one of the most rewarding jobs in teaching. It's always exciting to watch young children gradually "crack the code" to figure out how written language works. Today, many children across the U.S. have the advantage of receiving early literacy instruction in Spanish, which fosters Spanish language as well as literacy development, both for native Spanish speakers and for children who are learning Spanish for the first time in dual language or Spanish immersion settings. Because many literacy skills tend to transfer across languages (August, Calderón, & Carlo, 2002; Durgunoglu, 2002), early literacy instruction in Spanish can also give children a head start on learning to read in English, putting them on track to becoming not only bilingual, but also biliterate.

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Early Literacy Instruction in Spanish: Teaching the Beginning Reader

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Throughout the U.S., many children are receiving some or all of their literacy instruction in Spanish. Typically, these children are in one of three types of instructional programs: Transitional bilingual programs - Native speakers of Spanish are instructed entirely in Spanish for a period of time before transitioning into English instruction.

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Fortunately for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), there are many similarities between English and Spanish.

First of all, both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps build a phonemic and phonological foundation.

Secondly, 30% to 40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. With similar sound, appearance, and meaning, these cognates help students transfer that word knowledge into their second language.

Thirdly, except for a couple of word order exceptions (adjective before noun in English and noun before adjective in Spanish), sentences in both languages have the same basic structures (as compared to English and Chinese or other non-Latin derived languages).

And fourth, learning to read and write uses the same basic processes (phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, writing mechanics).

When teachers and students know these basic similarities between the two languages, it saves time and guess work as students transfer their knowledge of Spanish literacy into English literacy.

Phonemic and phonological differences between Spanish and English

There are also some differences between the two languages that may interfere with English pronunciation (phonemic differences) and with decoding or spelling (phonological differences).

Perhaps the greatest difference between English and Spanish is that Spanish has only five vowel sounds while English has more than 14, depending on regional dialects. This is the reason Spanish speakers have difficulty differentiating between vowel phonemes in words like seat and sit. Both phonemes are pronounced differently from the Spanish sí ( yes), which is pronounced somewhere between those two English phonemes. These differences also affect students' spelling. Here are some other examples of possible interference from Spanish:

Here are a few differences between Spanish and English:

Combinations in Spanish that are pronounced differently: que, qui, güe, güi. For example: the u is not pronounced unless it is written as ü; therefore, students may not be sure how to pronounce words like queen, quiet, or quick

Quotation marks vs. dashes: "Come here," he said. -Ven aquí-le dijo.

Spanish does not have the following sounds (listed by category):

Strategies for Spanish-speaking ELLs

Point out differences when you introduce phonemic awareness activities (distinguishing sounds) by showing students how to make those sounds.

Say to students, for example:

To make the sound for /sh/ in ship, pronounce it like the Spanish /sh/ by letting air out between your teeth. Notice how you can stretch the /sh/ sound until you run out of air. But, to make the sound /ch/ in chip, you touch the top of your mouth with your tongue and let the air out with a little explosion. Notice how you cannot stretch that sound.

Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing the ways to pronounce the final -s in plurals and third person.

Give students examples for each as follows:

Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing the ways to pronounce the -ed in past-tense verbs.

Give students examples for each as follows:

"We pronounce it /d/ when the word ends with..."

"We pronounce it /t/ when the word ends with..."

"When the word ends with t, it sounds like /tid/ as in patted."

"When the word ends with d, it sounds like /did/ as in added."

Spanish speakers may leave out word endings when saying or spelling a word.

For example: restauran instead of restaurant; end instead of ended. They may also have problems spelling words that contain the consonant blends, initial sounds, and final sounds listed in the box above.

Additionally, students might substitute:

ll for y (because ll is the nearest sound in Spanish. For example: llelow instead of yellow.)

j for h (because h is silent in Spanish, they might use j. For example: jope instead of hope.)

There are also some differences in question and sentence structures between both languages.

Question markers

Do you want to go to the movies tonight?
¿Quieres ir al cine esta noche?
(Spanish speakers will likely leave out do)

Adjective-Nouns

white horse
caballo blanco (horse white)
(Spanish speakers will often use the adjective after the noun)

With these similarities and differences in mind, pay close attention to your Spanish-speaking ELLs' written and spoken "errors." When you recognize a student saying horse white, for example, point out that in English the noun and adjective are reversed: white horse, brown cow, etc. Once ELLs understand these patterns, they will begin to apply them on their own to new situations.

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Capitalizing on Similarities and Differences between Spanish and English

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Fortunately for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), there are many similarities between English and Spanish. First of all, both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps build a phonemic and phonological foundation. Secondly, 30% to 40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish.

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Specific Phonics Approaches

The NRP found that using synthetic phonics instruction-the explicit teaching of letter-sound correspondences and then the blending of sounds to form words-resulted in improved reading abilities and that effect sizes of these interventions were larger than other comparison interventions. In addition, the NRP found reading programs that combined synthetic phonics with a focus on larger-units also produced positive results (NICHHD, 2000, citing Lovett et al., 2000). Following the NRP report, a U.S. Department of Education teacher practice guide recommended teaching students to blend letter sounds and sound-spelling patterns from left to right to sound out a "recognizable pronunciation." The Department of Education advised teachers to begin with simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words students already know and then show students how to blend the sounds while providing feedback as they work toward independence and gradually progress to new and longer words (Foorman et al., 2016, p. 23). The NRP report indicates that systematic and explicit instruction in phonics is the most effective way to ensure reading growth (Berninger et al., 2003; Boyer & Ehri, 2011; Henry, 2003).

Teaching Both Decoding & Encoding

Research shows that to become proficient readers and writers, early readers need to learn decoding and encoding skills. Helping children understand sound-symbol connections by learning the visual-to-auditory relationship between letters and sounds is essential for learning to read (decoding) and learning the auditory-to-visual relationship is needed to write words (encoding). In a review of research in this area, Foorman et al. (2016) concluded there is strong evidence for teaching decoding and encoding skills, especially in grades K-3. Weiser and Mathes (2011) conducted a review of the research about effective instruction for learning to decode and encode words and noted that research is especially strong in support of teaching encoding skills to students who are at risk of literacy failure. They found that learning to manipulate phoneme-grapheme correspondences enhances literacy performance and there is a synergistic relationship in using encoding and decoding instruction. Weiser and Mathes conclude there are long-term benefits from teaching children encoding beginning in kindergarten.

Pairing Phonics Instruction with Text

Research conducted by Adams (1990) found that systematic instruction in phonics is more effective for all readers-struggling through advanced-when it is paired with the reading of meaningful, connected text. The NRP verified Adams' research (NICHHD, 2000), and later research confirmed the NRP review (Brady, 2012, Dehaene, 2009; Moats, 2012; Strickland, 2011). The What Works Clearinghouse recommends starting early with daily reading of connected texts as soon as students can identify a few words (Foorman et al., 2016).

Excerpt from Successful Intervention Builds Student Success: Applying the Many Layers of Structured Literacy and Reading Research for Struggling K-5 Students by Voyager Sopris Learning.

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The NRP found that using synthetic phonics instruction-the explicit teaching of letter-sound correspondences and then the blending of sounds to form words-resulted in improved reading abilities and that effect sizes of these interventions were larger than other comparison interventions.

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The BeginningReads program supports teachers, parents, and tutors in bringing children into reading. Before children learn about written language, they have developed a substantial oral language word bank. The goal of BeginningReads is to connect student's oral language knowledge with written language. The texts do this by placing a premium on words that are both highly concrete and phonetically regular-words such dog, cat, pet, and big. Each level has 12 4-page books that share a set of concepts, which allows young readers to see the same words in many different texts. Each book is provided as a double-sided PDF ready for printing.

BeginningReads is also available as iBook on iTunes!

Download BeginningReads free printable texts:

Toolkit for Tutoring Resources and Teach Your Child lessons are grouped with each Level.

Don't miss out on the additional resources that support BeginningReads:

Toolkit for Tutors, a tutoring guide for BeginningReads texts:

word cards for vocabulary instruction,

text-only texts of BeginningReads to facilitate close reading and further vocabulary instruction,

Reader's Theater to extend the learning by providing another opportunity to utilize skills and vocabulary words learned in the BeginningReads program.

Tutoring guide for BeginningReads, FYI for Kids, SummerReads, and Talking Points for Kids.

Uses resources found in ToolKit for Tutors and Teach Your Child Lessons

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The BeginningReads program supports teachers, parents, and tutors in bringing children into reading. Before children learn about written language, they have developed a substantial oral language word bank. The goal of BeginningReads is to connect student's oral language knowledge with written language.

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Rich & Multiple Contexts

The NRP report indicated that learning new vocabulary words within rich and multiple contexts is effective in helping children increase their word learning. The authors concluded that though some time needs to be devoted to direct instruction about vocabulary, it is vital and more motivating for students to spend time learning vocabulary in rich and multiple contexts. The NRP stated: "Repetition, richness of context, and motivation may... add to the efficacy of incidental learning of vocabulary" (NICHHD, 2000, p. 4-4).

Using rich texts providing different types of content helps students learn new vocabulary, whereas solely relying on isolated word drills is insufficient. Research following the release of the NRP report confirms that ideally, explicit instruction should be combined with using rich contexts. The findings indicated that this held true for all students: those with learning disabilities and those without identified challenges (Biemiller, 2011).

Guided Oral Reading to Improve Fluency

The NRP analysis found clear research support for repeated oral reading with feedback and guidance, which has been shown to have a positive effect on fluency (NICHHD, 2000). Before students have the necessary skills to read connected text, fluency instruction should include the building blocks of reading, including letters or sounds and reading regular and sight words automatically. Once students can read connected text, guided instruction in the form of oral reading using choral, echo, and repeated reading with feedback are effective practices for improving fluency and reading achievement (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Homan, Klesius, & Hite, 1993; NICHHD, 2000). Developing fluency in reading requires practice, and repeated readings can improve reading and also lead to improvement in decoding, reading rate, and comprehension (Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; NICHHD, 2000).

Excerpt from Successful Intervention Builds Student Success: Applying the Many Layers of Structured Literacy and Reading Research for Struggling K-5 Students by Voyager Sopris Learning.

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The NRP report indicated that learning new vocabulary words within rich and multiple contexts is effective in helping children increase their word learning. The authors concluded that though some time needs to be devoted to direct instruction about vocabulary, it is vital and more motivating for students to spend time learning vocabulary in rich and multiple contexts.

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Supporting Early Spanish Literacy in DL classrooms 

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Supporting Early Spanish Literacy in DL classrooms 

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http://estrellita.com/Soleado_Article.pdf

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It is February 2015, and I am at a national conference listening to a panel present the results of their research on improving reading comprehension. Several members of the panel, like myself and a few others in the room, are funded by the Institute of Education Sciences as part of the Reading for Understanding Initiative. This $120 million program supported six interconnected research teams in their efforts to improve reading achievement in the United States. ¹ Educators and policymakers had for some time been concerned about the performance of American children on tests of reading achievement. Over the last 20 years, only about a third of students have scored at the proficient level on the reading subtest of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). ² This assessment is administered biennially to a representative sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students (and every four years to 12th-graders) from across the nation. Somewhat better, though still troubling, levels of performance have also been reported on state-based reading tests, administered annually starting in third grade. The Reading for Understanding Initiative was intended to jump-start instruction in reading comprehension and significantly improve reading achievement on state and national assessments. In fact, it was described by program officials as the "moonshot" for reading comprehension.

Unfortunately, the preliminary results that the panel presented fell short of these expectations. The reported studies found that students receiving a variety of comprehension interventions made gains, compared with control groups, on assessments closely tied to the interventions-but they showed limited or no significant gains on standardized measures of reading comprehension. Needless to say, conference attendees were surprised and discouraged by these results.

Sitting in the back of the room, I clearly remember not being particularly alarmed by what the panel reported. As part of my work on the Reading for Understanding Initiative and earlier related projects, I had spent many hours thinking, studying, and talking with teachers and colleagues about reading comprehension. Through these efforts, I had come to recognize that the field's general approach to reading comprehension was shortsighted. We were treating reading comprehension as if it were a single construct that could be measured with one or more general reading tests and improved with a short-term intervention. At a deeper conceptual level, most researchers (including those funded by the Reading for Understanding Initiative) recognized that reading comprehension was multidimensional, but it had been common practice in education and research for some time to study, assess, and provide instruction as if comprehension were a skill, rather like swimming. If we teach someone to swim, they can soon transfer that skill to any body of water, whether it be a pool, lake, or ocean. But reading comprehension is not a skill someone learns and can then apply in different reading contexts. It is one of the most complex activities that we engage in on a regular basis, and our ability to comprehend is dependent upon a wide range of knowledge and skills.

The Comprehension as Skill Myth

How have we come to think of comprehension as a skill? I believe a major reason this has occurred is because we have talked and written about comprehension in the context of related skill-like abilities. Discussions about reading often include the topics of phonics, fluency, and related skills, such as phonemic awareness, together with comprehension. As an example, take the work of the National Reading Panel. ³ This panel of reading experts was convened by Congress to assess the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching reading. They examined a wide range of instructional approaches related to comprehension, but in overviews of their work, comprehension has been reduced to one of the "Big Five," along with phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary. As such, it is depicted alongside these skills as one of the "pillars" of reading. In another common graphic, the word comprehension is displayed within a box similar in design (actually smaller) to boxes for other skill-like components of reading. Whereas such a consideration and depiction are thought to form a useful heuristic, it can give the false impression that comprehension is comparable to these skills in terms of its complexity and the way it is best taught and measured.

Furthermore, widely used approaches to teaching reading comprehension reinforce this view. ⁴ Comprehension has typically been taught through the use of strategies such as "find the main idea," "make a prediction," or "monitor your comprehension." These strategies are taught and practiced in order to gain automaticity, much like what is done with other skill-like behaviors. This, in turn, can lead us to believe that comprehension can be thought of in a similar manner to these other skills.

A More Accurate and Complex Model

Despite this common view about comprehension, several lines of enquiry have recognized the true complexity of reading comprehension for some time. Nearly 20 years ago, this complexity was captured by the RAND Reading Study Group. ⁵ This federally funded group was charged with developing a research agenda to address pressing issues in literacy. As part of their 2002 report, they conceptualized reading comprehension as a combination of factors within three different categories: the reader, the text, and the activity of reading.

The reader brings a set of cognitive abilities (such as attention, memory, and reasoning), language knowledge and skills, motivations and interests, and background knowledge to the task of reading. Readers vary considerably in these factors, and this variability impacts their comprehension. Considerable research attention has been focused on reader variables, and their impact on comprehension is well documented.

The text includes such elements as genre, topic, and complexity. Students encounter texts with different genres-such as narrative, descriptive, expository, or persuasive-and these texts vary in their subject matter and level of complexity. Although not emphasized in the RAND report from 2002, texts also now vary in their form. They may be in a paper or digital form, and the latter can be displayed on a variety of devices, such as a phone, tablet, or computer. Each of these forms imposes its own set of constraints and challenges on comprehension. The notion of multiple texts can also be added to this category to account for the fact that skilled readers often rely on more than one text for comprehension.

The activity refers to the task or purpose of reading. It is often argued that the purpose of reading is comprehension. But we actually seek to comprehend for a specific reason, be it to prepare for a test, evaluate the strengths of an argument, learn the rules of a game, or enjoy a magazine article or book. Each purpose brings unique knowledge and skills that must be acquired to be successful.

Importantly, the RAND Reading Study Group viewed these various elements interacting within a sociocultural context that involves factors such as where the reading occurs (e.g., school or home), how much support there is (e.g., individual, teacher- or caregiver-led, or group activity), and what cultural value is placed on reading by students' families, peers, racial and ethnic groups, and other groups that are central to the students' identities.

Taken together, it is easy to see how any one individual may have multiple levels of comprehension ability depending upon what they are reading and why they are reading it. As a result, comprehension cannot be reduced to a single notion because it is not a single ability.

The Role of Knowledge

Chief among the factors influencing reading comprehension is background knowledge. Research clearly shows that how much readers understand about the text's topic before they read it is a major factor in how much they understand while and after they read it. ⁶ Unfortunately, much of the efforts directed toward improving reading comprehension have neglected building background knowledge. (As discussed later, there are widely used strategies for "activating" background knowledge, but they do not necessarily develop new knowledge.) It was this neglect that first alerted me to the problems with the way we were thinking about reading comprehension.

In my graduate training, many years ago, I was introduced to the role of knowledge in reading comprehension. At that time, schema theory was a popular topic in research on human cognition and learning. A schema is an organized unit of knowledge that forms the foundation for many activities involving human thought. Richard Anderson, a professor of educational psychology, brought the notion of a schema to education and argued for its critical role in reading comprehension as well as learning in general. ⁷ He was among the first to convey to me the importance of teaching knowledge to improve comprehension.

In my psychology classes, I was introduced to a study that continues to be one of my favorites. The following passage, which was designed to be ambiguous, was read aloud to college students, and they were asked to recall as much as they could.

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. ⁸

Students given the topic of the passage beforehand quickly made sense of what they heard and recalled many details. (Those students were told, "The paragraph you will hear will be about washing clothes.") But those who heard the same passage without the topic were confused and recalled little. Of particular interest, a third group of students was given the topic after they heard the passage, but they too were confused and recalled little. Of course, it was not simply the topic but rather the knowledge associated with it that allowed the students to make sense of what they had heard-but only if this knowledge was available from the start.

It was studies like this, including similar ones involving reading rather than listening, that early on clearly demonstrated for me the importance of knowledge for comprehension. But somewhere along the line, educators and researchers-myself included-got distracted and failed to pay attention to its importance. It is not exactly clear how this happened. Perhaps it was a shift in focus to bottom-up models of reading that argued that meaning was contained within the text and that the reader's job was to extract it. Or maybe it was just that knowledge took too much time to teach, and it made more sense to focus on skills that could be taught quickly and applied across topics. Also, considering comprehension alongside skill-like aspects of reading probably distracted us from the role of knowledge.

But whatever the reason, knowledge has come back to the forefront in discussions of reading comprehension. Proponents such as E. D. Hirsch Jr., Daniel T. Willingham, and Natalie Wexler have written extensively about the role of knowledge in comprehension.* Their work and that of others ⁹ has begun to have an influence on research in reading comprehension, but change has been slow. Some of the projects in the Reading for Understanding Initiative did have knowledge as a central component, but the other projects paid only limited attention to knowledge in instruction and/or assessment. Limited attention also plagued other large-scale projects, such as those within the Striving Readers program. This program funded by the US Department of Education involved a set of 17 studies designed to improve reading comprehension in middle and high school students. ¹⁰ While materials did address different topics, there was no direct effort to build knowledge as part of the intervention or assessment. Again, it is not surprising that these studies only demonstrated small effects at best on improving reading comprehension.

What Knowledge Does for Comprehension

Why is knowledge so critical for comprehension? To begin with, it provides a framework for organizing incoming information and guides us as we read through a text. We better understand what the topic is and have expectations about where a passage may be going. By doing so, knowledge keeps us on track and prevents us from going down "blind alleys" in our understanding. This framework also gives us a place to anchor new information in memory and associate it with past knowledge. We use these building blocks of the new and the old to construct an initial understanding of what we are reading and then continuously revise and add to it as we move through a text. It is this integration of the new information in the text with what we already know that brings meaning to what we read.

Background knowledge also allows us to make inferences and fill in information that is not explicitly provided. Authors rarely tell us all we need to know in order to understand a text, so we need to fill in some of the details with our background knowledge. Knowledge also enables us to more easily recognize which of the multiple meanings of a word is appropriate for the context. For example, when reading a passage about baseball, knowing that the word pitcher refers to a person rather than an object could be critical for comprehension.

Knowledge is also essential for thinking. But in certain contexts these days, it is seen as secondary to thinking. Critical thinking has become the rage in education. All too often, teachers are urged to engage students in thinking deeply and critically about what they read as if these skills were independent of the topic; meanwhile, background knowledge is downplayed as if the specific information about a topic could be looked up on the internet when necessary. ¹¹ But it is the specific information that gives students something to think critically about-and our minds are surprisingly limited in how much new information they can take in at one time. Knowledge must accumulate over time to ensure a level of depth that allows for a critical analysis of the subject matter. We can't think logically about different approaches to government without knowing a lot about different forms of government. So, in this sense, knowledge is the most critical component of critical thinking.

Knowledge also allows us to make the most use of our working memory, where much of thinking takes place. There are limitations on how much information we can hold and think about simultaneously in working memory, and this amount is heavily influenced by knowledge. Knowledge coming from long-term memory places a much smaller burden on working memory than new knowledge coming from a text (or a speaker); it also leaves us with more capacity in working memory to think about things in novel ways. As a simple example, it is easier to remember the letter sequences USA, FBI, and NBC than PDQ, RJB, and FVO. When reading, the more information related to the topic we already have stored in long-term memory, the more deeply we can think about that topic-even as we read a passage that offers new information.

Finally, the relationship between knowledge and reading comprehension is reciprocal in nature. Not only does knowledge improve comprehension, but comprehension allows the reader to build new knowledge. Creating a coherent understanding of what one reads modifies the background knowledge that is available for subsequent reading comprehension either later in the same text or in future reading of related texts. ¹²

Implications for Instruction

It should be evident from my comments that improving reading comprehension is a complex process that requires multiple levels of instruction and practice. Clearly, building background knowledge that is both deep and broad is needed to lay the foundation for comprehension and for further knowledge acquisition. However, students also need high-quality reading instruction involving decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies in order to best use their knowledge in different reading contexts and for different purposes.

For many years, the primary way knowledge has been addressed in the context of reading has been through activating background knowledge using strategies like prereading discussions, concept maps, and anticipation guides. These strategies can be effective-but they only work when the appropriate knowledge is available. Often, children will not have the requisite knowledge, or their knowledge will be impoverished or inaccurate. If inaccurate, this activation can actually be detrimental to comprehension.

Whereas knowledge activation has been widely viewed as a component of reading instruction, building knowledge often has not. In fact, instruction devoted to content knowledge has actually been replaced by other aspects of reading instruction. In most elementary schools, social studies and science instruction has been supplanted by English language arts (ELA) instruction. Surveys have shown that, on average, children in grades 1-4 receive only 2.3 hours of science instruction per week, whereas four times that amount is spent on ELA instruction teaching word-reading skills, comprehension strategies, and vocabulary. ¹³ The thinking has been that if we want children to improve their reading comprehension, we have to work on reading skills to achieve fluency before we can use reading to build knowledge. However, this false dichotomy between learning to read and reading to learn has not led to better reading achievement.

Recently, educators have begun to rethink reading instruction and consider how to better integrate knowledge acquisition with literacy in ELA instruction. ¹⁴ In these more integrated approaches, students build knowledge at the same time they are learning reading-related skills. This involves a concentrated effort to build rich and connected ideas about social studies, science, and other subjects during ELA lessons. Such instruction does not necessarily replace the science and social studies instruction that may be taking place at other times but rather supplements it. As with other content instruction, reading materials in an integrated ELA program are selected to build knowledge. Instead of reading, for example, about volcanoes one day and Rosa Parks the next, which has often been the case in ELA instruction, reading materials are arranged by topic in a logical and sequential manner and form an integrated, content-rich curriculum. In this way, knowledge is acquired and accumulated over time.

Such content-rich, connected instruction can be especially engaging and can draw children's interests to literacy and learning. Student engagement and learning can be further fostered by culturally responsive instruction. One example is a program called Readiness through Integrative Science and Engineering. ¹⁵ This program takes a home-to-school approach to connect new knowledge with culturally relevant knowledge concerning the people, places, and objects that students interact with on a daily basis. By understanding, appreciating, and connecting with this knowledge, learning can be especially enhanced for all children.

In an integrated literacy and knowledge-building curriculum, there should be a strong focus on teaching fundamental reading skills. Depending on the grade and specific skills taught, instruction in decoding, spelling, and fluency could comprise its own unit or be blended with discussion and activities designed to acquire and build content-area knowledge. Vocabulary, an important focus of ELA instruction, can be taught especially well within a content-rich, integrated curriculum. Novel words related to the content are excellent targets for instruction. These words are often repeated multiple times in a text, and their meanings are well supported by the context in which they occur. In addition, once learned, they become part of the knowledge base of the topic. General-purpose academic words, or what are sometimes referred to as Tier 2 words, also are learned more easily in a rich context. When these words are supported by content knowledge, the reader can use this knowledge to more easily infer their meaning. Also, a rich context can prove particularly helpful in learning words with multiple meanings, such as "bright" or "palm." ¹⁶

Content-rich materials are also excellent contexts in which to learn more about academic language. Written language is characterized by more complex grammar than spoken language, and students can benefit from explicit instruction in how this grammar works. Specifically, science texts tend to privilege nouns for compacting information, developing logical reasoning, and achieving precision. ¹⁷ For example, consider this text: "Asthma is a disorder in which the respiratory passages narrow significantly as a result of an allergen. This narrowing...." Here the author creates an abstract noun (i.e., "this narrowing") to represent the entire previous clause. Recognizing the referent of this abstract noun is critical to comprehension and, in cases like this, could benefit from explicit instruction. In other academic texts, students will be confronted with complex and elaborated noun phrases, rather than reduced ones, as well as challenging noun, adverbial, and adjectival clauses. For example, social studies texts use "noun clauses (e.g., 'Jefferson's next argument was that King George III had violated the colonists' rights by passing unfair laws and interfering with colonial governments'), adverbial clauses (e.g., 'Even before Washington reached Boston, the Patriots took action'), and adjectival clauses (e.g., 'He was influenced by the Enlightenment idea of the social contract, which states that governments and rulers must protect the rights of citizens') to pack a large amount of information." ¹⁸ Given this complexity, explicit instruction in how to unpack academic grammar could prove helpful to students in understanding informational texts.

Integrated approaches also can incorporate many of the same comprehension strategies employed in traditional ELA instruction. Some of these strategies, like inferencing and paraphrasing, are rather general and can be explicitly taught and used across various contexts. However, within an integrated approach, some strategies are best selected and taught based on their relevance to what is being read and for what purpose. The nature of texts and purposes for reading vary across subject matters, and thus, the strategies that may be most advantageous will vary as well.

Some of these strategies will be the common ones (e.g., mental imagery) identified by the National Reading Panel. Others will be more text- and task-specific metacognitive approaches to assist comprehension. For example, during a social studies lesson, students may be presented with an explanation or argument and asked to evaluate its validity. In such a case, students would benefit from explicit instruction and practice on how to identify a claim and judge the relevance, sufficiency, and accuracy of the evidence provided. Alternatively, science texts often provide a description of some object, animal, or process, and students are often tested on what they have learned from their reading. For such a task, students may benefit from being taught how to use a graphic organizer to summarize and categorize the information within different organizational structures. Students will also benefit from recognizing that a science text (from a trustworthy source) is an authoritative account and is different from texts in which the author's perspective is central, such as a poem or a historical figure's diary entry. This more nuanced approach to strategies becomes ever more important as students move through the grades and the comprehension skills needed are increasingly determined by the characteristics of the text and the activities carried out within the different disciplines. Nevertheless, knowledge of how disciplinary texts work, or what is called disciplinary literacy, can and should be part of instruction in the elementary grades. ¹⁹

There are now quite a few integrated, content-rich curricula being used across the country. Some of these programs are commercially available through curriculum publishers, such as Core Knowledge Language Arts and Wit & Wisdom, whereas others have been developed by researchers, such as Model of Reading Engagement. ²⁰ Some of these programs have been developed specifically to be used as part of ELA instruction. Others are truly integrated across the curriculum and operate instead of or in addition to ELA materials. There is also quite a bit of variability in the scope of literacy instruction within these programs. Nevertheless, a recent meta-analysis showed that when compared with traditional programs in which literacy and content instruction were provided separately, integrated, content-rich programs resulted in students scoring significantly better on vocabulary and comprehension (including on standardized measures of comprehension). Not surprisingly, significant gains were also made in the content taught. ²¹

Implications for Assessment

The multidimensional nature of reading comprehension presents a significant challenge for assessment. Because of the numerous factors in play, a reader's comprehension ability is more fluid than often thought. In other words, any one individual will have different levels of ability depending on what is read and for what purpose.

Perhaps the best demonstration of this variability and its impact on assessment comes from a study that included scores from 995 children who were administered four different standardized measures of reading comprehension. ²² The researchers found that the median correlation between the different tests was only .54, which was surprisingly low given that the tests purported to measure the same thing. In another analysis of the data, they identified children scoring in the lowest 10th percentile on each of the measures and compared the overlap of these groups across measures. Their results showed that, on average, only 43 percent of the children identified by one test as poor readers were also identified as poor readers on another test. In other words, the odds of any two tests diagnosing the same student as having a comprehension deficit were less than half. Further analyses showed that it was not just a problem of consistency at the lower end of the scale; there was just as much inconsistency in identifying children performing in the highest 10th percentile.

The inconsistency in the results of the different measures of reading comprehension was likely due in part to the poor reliability of these measures, something that is not uncommon for diagnostic measures of reading comprehension. On the other hand, the measures also differed in their formats, so that could have contributed to the variability. One measure employed a cloze task in which children read passages and filled in missing words. In the others, children read either passages or single sentences and then answered open-ended or multiple-choice questions. These formats are known to place different demands on reading-related processes, such as word reading, language ability, and working memory. ²³ Thus, children with different strengths and weaknesses in these processes would be expected to perform differently on the measures.

The content of the passages/sentences may also have added to the variability of the measures. That is, children were likely to have varied in their knowledge about the topics covered, and that could have influenced their performance. Such variability may be present not only across tests but also across passages within a test. For example, in the Reading for Understanding project that my colleagues and I carried out, students read four different passages from an informal reading inventory and answered open-ended questions. We observed considerable variability within students from one passage to another. It was not uncommon for a student to get nearly all the questions correct on one passage and most wrong on another. Whereas there may be several reasons for this variability, differences in background knowledge is a likely contributor.

Because of the variability due to passages, state- and national-level tests of reading use numerous passages that cover multiple topics. But, of course, this introduces the problem of these tests favoring students who have more knowledge about a broad range of topics than those with less knowledge. This has led E. D. Hirsch Jr. to argue that reading tests are actually knowledge tests in disguise. ²⁴

The fact that state and national reading tests are knowledge heavy introduces a further problem: performance on these tests will likely be more difficult to change in the short term, since knowledge acquisition is incremental in nature. Indeed, as I stated at the outset, American children's performance on NAEP has remained virtually unchanged for some time. This has been in spite of significant federal, state, and local efforts. For example, in North Carolina, the percentage of students failing to reach proficiency on state reading tests has remained largely unchanged, hovering above 50 percent, since 2013-14, when the state passed its K-3 Read to Achieve literacy act. ²⁵

Maybe the problem is not only the instructional practices teachers have been encouraged to use but also the way we are assessing comprehension. An alternative approach would be to teach children using an integrated literacy and content-rich curriculum and to test their ability to read and comprehend passages covered in that curriculum. In other words, offer a better match between instruction and assessment. Don't just test the skills and strategies that have been taught; test the specific content-area topics that have been taught. Such an approach would be fairer and more equitable for all involved. Teachers would have a clear idea of what content within which to imbed their literacy instruction. Students would have the opportunity to learn from content-rich curricula and be assessed based on what they learned in school (instead of what they may or may not have learned at home, over the summer, etc.). Also, because instruction would be better matched with assessment, there would be a greater opportunity for schools and districts to evaluate the progress they are making.

One approach that has attempted to better match instruction with assessment is being carried out within the guidelines of the Every Student Succeeds Act assessment pilot program. ²⁶ This program encourages local involvement in the development of the next generation of assessments. It allows states, with approval by the US Department of Education, to pilot new and innovative assessments in lieu of current state exams. Initially, this takes place in a small number of districts before moving on to statewide implementation. As of October 2021, five states have received approval to develop these assessments. Most notable, Louisiana has begun a multiyear process to offer a humanities assessment as an alternative to its English language arts and social studies assessments. ²⁷ The new humanities assessment draws from texts and topics that are included in the state's recommended curriculum. ²⁸ Thus, the content of the test is likely to be well matched with the instruction students receive.

A very limited pilot of this new assessment, LEAP 2025 Humanities, began in the 2018-19 school year, and then implementation was interrupted by the pandemic, ²⁹ so it will likely be several more years before researchers can evaluate the impact of this new approach. Of course, designing an assessment that is in keeping with current research on literacy development is just the first step. The extent to which the assessment will help enhance instructional practices depends on many related components, including meaningful professional development on how to use the results to inform teaching; time (appropriately allocated and compensated) for teachers to learn collaboratively as they adjust to the new assessment; genuine opportunities for all teachers to have a voice in providing feedback on the curriculum and assessment; and lower stakes tied to the assessment results such that teachers are not afraid to be innovative. In fact, one of the findings of the Reading for Understanding Initiative was that "a major roadblock to teacher uptake of new practices is the accountability infrastructure of reform movements. The more test scores matter, the less the likelihood that teachers will adopt novel teaching practices." ³⁰

Still, I am especially encouraged by Louisiana's efforts and am hopeful that other states and districts will also consider how to better align what is tested with what is taught. It is these types of programs, combined with integrated literacy and content-rich curricula, that I believe can better address comprehension. These programs move beyond characterizing comprehension as simply one of the "Big Five" and recognize its complexity and what it will take to help all children understand and learn from what they read. I look forward to attending future conferences where the results of these programs are presented.
Hugh W. Catts is a professor in the Florida State University School of Communication Science and Disorders and is affiliated with the Florida Center for Reading Research. The author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles and editor of several books, Catts has been engaged in research on language and literacy development for over four decades. Much of his work focuses on early identification and prevention of language-based reading disabilities and on reading comprehension assessment and intervention.
*For articles by Hirsch, Willingham, and Wexler on the importance of building knowledge, see the "Reading" section of American Educator's subject index. ( return to article)

Endnotes

1. P. Pearson et al., eds., Reaping the Rewards of the Reading for Understanding Initiative (Washington, DC: National Academy of Education, 2020), naeducation.org/reaping-the-rewards-of-reading-for-understanding-initiative.
2. National Assessment of Educational Progress, "National Achievement-Level Results," Grade 4, Nation's Report Card, 2019, nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/?grade=4.
3. National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction (Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child and Human Development, 2000).
4. D. T. Willingham and G. Lovette, "Can Reading Comprehension Be Taught," Teachers College Record (September 2014).
5. C. Snow, Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2002).
6. G. N. Cervetti and T. S. Wright, "The Role of Knowledge in Understanding and Learning from Text," in Handbook of Reading Research, ed. E. B. Moje et al. (Taylor and Francis Group, 2020).
7. R. Anderson, "Schema-Directed Processes in Language Comprehension," in Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, ed. A. Lesgold et al. (New York: Plenum, 1978).
8. J. Bransford and M. Johnson, "Contextual Prerequisites for Understanding: Some Investigation of Comprehension and Recall," Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 11 (1972): 722.
9. For a review written by one of these pioneers, who in turn describes several others, see S. Neuman, "The Role of Knowledge in Early Literacy," Reading Research Quarterly 36, no. 4 (November 2011): 468-75.
10. B. Boulay et al., Summary of Research Generated by Striving Readers on the Effectiveness of Interventions for Struggling Adolescent Readers, NCEE-2016-4001 (Washington, DC: US Department of Education, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, October 2015).
11. For a paper that addresses many of the widespread misconceptions about critical thinking, see D. T. Willingham, "How to Teach Critical Thinking," commissioned paper, Education: Future Frontiers (May 2019).
12. Pearson et al., Reaping the Rewards.
13. R. K. Blank, "What Is the Impact of Decline in Science Instructional Time in Elementary School?: Time for Elementary Instruction Has Declined, and Less Time for Science Is Correlated with Lower Scores on NAEP," prepared for the Noyce Foundation, 2012.
14. See, for example, the Knowledge Matters Campaign, knowledgematterscampaign.org, and Curriculum Matters, curriculummatters.org.
15. C. McWayne et al., "Incorporating Knowledge from Children's Homes and Communities," Young Children 75, no. 5 (December 2020): 20-26.
16. J. Gustafson, "Robust Vocabulary Instruction: Bringing Knowledge-Rich Curricula to Life," Achieve the Core, September 30, 2019.
17. Z. Fang, "Scientific Literacy: A Systematic Functional Linguistics Perspective," Science Education 89, no. 2 (March 2005): 335-47.
18. Y. Zhang, "Supporting English Language Learners in Social Studies: Language-Focused Strategies," Social Studies 108 (2017): 2.
19. C. Shanahan and T. Shanahan, "Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?," The Reading Teacher 67, no. 8 (2014): 636-39.
20. J. Kim et al., "Improving Reading Comprehension, Science Domain Knowledge, and Reading Engagement Through a First-Grade Content Literacy Intervention," Journal of Educational Psychology 113, no. 1 (2021): 3-26.
21. H. Hwang, S. Cabell, and R. Joyner, "Does Cultivating Content Knowledge During Literacy Instruction Support Vocabulary and Comprehension in the Elementary School Years?: A Systematic Review," Reading Psychology, manuscript under review.
22. J. Keenan and C. Meenan, "Test Differences in Diagnosing Reading Comprehension Deficits," Journal of Learning Disabilities 47, no. 2 (2014): 125-35.
23. J. Keenan, R. Betjemann, and R. Olson, "Reading Comprehension Tests Vary in the Skills They Assess: Differential Dependence on Decoding and Oral Language," Scientific Studies in Reading 12, no. 3 (2008): 281-300.
24. E. D. Hirsch Jr., Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2016).
25. S. Koon, B. Foorman, and T. Galloway, "Identifying North Carolina Students at Risk of Scoring Below Proficient in Reading at the End of Grade 3," REL 2020-030 (Washington, DC: US Department of Education, Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, August 2020).
26. Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub. L. No. 114-95 (2015).
27. For the state's documents on the assessment, see "LEAP 2025 Humanities," Assessments, Louisiana Department of Education, louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/assessment.
28. Louisiana Believes, "Louisiana's Innovative Assessment Pilot National Update," Louisiana Department of Education, August 15, 2019.
29. Louisiana Believes, "Parent Guide to the LEAP 2025 Humanities Student Reports," Louisiana Department of Education, louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/assessment/parent-guide-to-leap-2025-humanities.pdf; and N. Munyan-Penney and C. Barone, "Innovative Assessment Pilot: Louisiana's LEAP 2025 Humanities Assessment," Education Reform Now, November 2020, edreformnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Louisiana-IADA-LEAP-2025-Humanities.pdf.
30. Pearson et al., Reaping the Rewards, 5.

[Illustrations by Jessie Lin]

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Rethinking How to Promote Reading Comprehension

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It is February 2015, and I am at a national conference listening to a panel present the results of their research on improving reading comprehension. Several members of the panel, like myself and a few others in the room, are funded by the Institute of Education Sciences as part of the Reading for Understanding Initiative.

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Oczuks, L. (2003). Reciprocal teaching at work: Strategies for improving reading comprehension. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Palincsar, A. S. & Brown, A. (1984). Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension Monitoring Activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), pp. 117-175.

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Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a dialogue about what has been read.

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Welcome to our mini teaching guide on suffixes! In this post, you'll find many different tools to help you teach suffixes to your child, as well as downloadable resources and activities. Let's dig in!

What Is a Suffix?

A suffix is a word part that is placed at the end of a base word. Common suffixes include ED, ING, and EST. Take a look at more suffix examples below.

A suffix often transforms a word into a new part of speech. In the examples above, (a noun) is changed to (an adjective); (a verb) is changed to (a noun).

The Four Most Common Suffixes

The most common suffixes are S, ES, ED, and ING. These four suffixes are the most useful for beginning readers and spellers to learn because they appear frequently in words, and their meanings are easy to understand and remember.

Suffix S and ES indicate plurals.

Suffix ED indicates past tense.

Most often, suffix ING is added to verbs to indicate that something is happening in the present.

Interested in seeing more suffixes? Here's a list of 30 common suffixes you can download and print.

Adding Suffixes Is Different from Adding Prefixes

When adding a prefix to a word ( Check out our mini guide on teaching prefixes!), you simply add the prefix to the beginning of the base word (as in ). The spelling of the base word never changes. Super easy, right?

But adding a suffix to a word isn't quite as straightforward. That's because when you add a suffix, the base word often changes. For example:

Thankfully, there are some solid guidelines to follow when adding suffixes to words. Before we dive into those rules, though, let's take a quick look at the two types of suffixes.

Two Types of Suffixes

You may have noticed on the free download that the suffixes are divided into two categories.

It's important for kids to recognize whether a suffix is a consonant suffix or a vowel suffix since the rules for adding them to base words are different.

Rules for Adding Suffixes

Rule 1: Add a consonant suffix directly to the base word.

Rule 2: Check the base word before adding a vowel suffix.

Here are the first three guidelines we teach for adding vowel suffixes.

If the base word ends in two consonants, just add the vowel suffix.

If the base word has 1 syllable, 1 short vowel, and 1 final consonant, double the final consonant before adding the vowel suffix. (We teach this as the "1-1-1 Rule." Although it may sound complicated, this rule is actually quite easy to follow when you have an understanding of syllable division rules.)

If the base word ends in a Silent E , drop the E before adding the vowel suffix. (Again, this is an easy rule to understand: you don't want to have two E's in a row, so you have to drop the first E.)

Rule 3: If the base word ends in a single Y, change the Y to an I before adding the suffix.

(This rule applies to both consonant suffixes and vowel suffixes.)

There are more rules regarding vowel suffixes, but they apply to a smaller number of words. We teach them thoroughly and incrementally in All About Reading and All About Spelling, with plenty of hands-on practice.

What does hands-on practice look like? We use letter tiles for demonstration, and then we move on to interesting activity sheets!

Printable Activities for Learning about Suffixes

Would you like to see some examples? Here are a few great suffix activities from All About Reading and All About Spelling.

Have you started teaching suffixes to your child yet? How is it going? Let me know in the comments below!

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How to Teach Suffixes (Mini Teaching Guide + 5 FREE Downloads)

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Welcome to our mini teaching guide on suffixes! In this post, you'll find many different tools to help you teach suffixes to your child, as well as downloadable resources and activities. Let's dig in! A suffix is a word part that is placed at the end of a base word.

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This has the directions, teacher tracking page and one pagers for each task to display for student use.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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scroll to the bottom of the page for Naming and Describing lessons as were demonstrated in session 3.

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Accurate and Automatic Reading

Reading Readiness

Basic Language Skills

Basic Language Skills - Advanced

Language Enrichment

Language Enrichment for Older Students
LEOS Lesson Plan Template

Multisensory Grammar

Oral Language & Listening Comprehension

Colors and Shapes of Language 2

Scientific Spelling

Use these lesson plans with your school's chosen spelling curriculum.

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LEOS Lesson Plan Template Colors and Shapes of Language 2 Scientific Spelling Use these lesson plans with your school's chosen spelling curriculum.

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Short blog and good visuals to help us understand the difference in blending and digraphs. Consonant "blends" are not digraphs.

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WE BLEND ORAL SOUNDS TO MAKE WORDS - Tiny Steps Make Big Strides

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To truly teach reading in the most effective way possible that limits confusion we have to teach speech to print - blends are just another confusion.

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WE BLEND ORAL SOUNDS TO MAKE WORDS

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1. What is the purpose of progress monitoring (PM)?

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Review in the Foundational Skills Routine

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Review in the Foundational Skills Routine

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How can I add systematic review easily into my lessons?

There are several opportunities to incorporate systematic review into your lessons! We will incorporate all of the following activities into our lessons (stay tuned for more information about these activities in the coming weeks!) but depending on where students need the most support, we may pull additional games or resources to review skills at any of these levels.

Systematic Review at the Sound Level

To support students' knowledge at the sound level, we will always run through a sound drill (check out last week's blog all about the sound drill >>here<<) and an auditory drill. The sound drill is when students are shown a phonogram and asked to produce the sound. The auditory drill is an activity where students are given a sound and asked to produce the letter/letters that make that sound (i.e., if a student hears the sound /k/, they should list the letters that can make that sound). These activities support reciprocal processes needed for reading and writing by building the sound-symbol connection.

It is important to incorporate previously learned letters/patterns in both of these activities to ensure students are retaining knowledge at the sound level. If your students are struggling with specific concepts, this is a great time to individualize the sound or auditory drill to fit their specific needs! Include tricky patterns until students are able to identify the correct letter/sound with automaticity.

If you are looking for sound drill cards, you can grab our's >>here.<<

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What To Do When Your Students Need More Practice: The Importance of Systematic Review | SMARTER Intervention

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Have you ever looked through your students' lesson data and thought - "gosh, they just aren't getting this?" We've all been there. Today - we are going to break down what you can do when students need more practice and the importance of systematically reviewing previously learned concepts.

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Spelling, Sound Walls, and Sound Chains, OH MY!

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Have you ever wondered why your students misspell words (i.e., sgin for the word skin)? In the past, I may have required my students to practice writing the word(s) they misspelled 5x's each (or more). Yikes! Now I know that sometimes students make spelling errors because of the way they perceive (or don't perceive) the phonemes in a word.

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'Environmental print' is something that we have heard about forever and there are many different ways to look at this concept.

I have seen environmental print placed around a room with the hope that children will 'pick up' the words and be able to use them for a variety of purposes. This might take the form of labels around the room or lists of words placed on the wall by the teacher.

I have also seen word walls arranged by letter, somewhat like a dictionary.

'Sight words' are often a feature of word walls. You can read about my view of sight words here

Word walls might relate to a particular learning area

Or be made up of words that you hope your students will use.

The thing that I have noticed about all of these examples is that every one of them is a printed and laminated resource that the teacher has likely placed on the wall before or after school. These displays seem more decorative than interactive (despite often being identified as such). The teacher spends hours in front of the television laminating and cutting and then another hour putting things on the wall. The children then glance at the display every now and then, hardly noticing the purpose the teacher intended when putting all that time into the work. If you are now wondering how much your children are getting out your hard work in putting up displays, take note of what happens if you don't mention them. Ask your children to stand with their backs to the wall and tell you about what's on it.

Where does it all go wrong?

Word walls are often put up to provide a resource for children to be able to copy words they don't know how to spell. The idea is that with enough exposure to the words the children will remember how to spell them, but I have seen this go very wrong for our most vulnerable children. Instead of developing the skills they need to make decisions about spelling based on phonics, morphology and etymology, they learn that words are something you copy, not write yourself. Children are then so reluctant to write for themselves for fear of making an error, that they are crippled by the writing process. They never develop the automaticity of segmenting and transcribing that is necessary for effective writing. This is exacerbated by a lack of effective phonics instruction which results in memorisation and copying becoming the sole methods of spelling. Stanislas Dehaene reminds us that 'exposure' usually only leads to things reaching our sensory memory where they sit for a moment and then disappear. In order for really great learning to occur, children need to have their attention explicitly directed to what is important, become actively engaged with the materials, receive corrective feedback while they work and the have the opportunity to consolidate what they learn. You can read more about these 4 Pillars of Learning in a previous post.

While the act of putting things up on the walls is unlikely to cause children any damage, it's the way that these displays are used that makes all the difference. We all want our classrooms to look nice, but the drive for Pinterest Perfect classrooms can lead to us leaving the most important part of the picture out - the kids! I have a preference for cumulative displays that are created WITH children as part of the learning process. The display then becomes a record of learning for children to refer to and becomes a review tool, rather than a copying one. These displays are not pretty. They aren't laminated. They WILL be written in a range of (often messy) handwriting styles but they will be meaningful to children.

A record of learning from my own classroom

Sound Walls

In recent years, the idea of sound walls has really taken hold. This involves arranging words according to phoneme instead of grapheme and can be a really great way to make the alphabetic code explicit.

These days, a sound wall is more likely to look like the one below (Thanks Steph Le Lievre!) than the one above, but essentially, the idea is the same. The challenge that I see with sound walls is that many teachers still treat them like environmental print, thinking that just having them on the wall makes things better. It might, but only if it's part of a systematic, explicit approach to teaching the alphabetic code. I'd still recommend treating a sound wall as a cumulative display of learning that is co-constructed with children during instruction rather than used as a decoration hoping that children will learn from it.

You can read more advice from Steph about sound walls here.

7 Tips to make displays great:

1. Make them a record of learning rather than an attractive decoration

2. Include children in the making of the word wall. Allow them to write the cards and participate in placing them on the wall.

3. Refer to the wall often and use them as a tool to review previously learned material

4. Change the words often (as you start a new unit of work for example)

5. Be prepared to start with a blank wall and add to it as learning progresses

6. Don't laminate. It is bad for the environment and can be shiny for children to read

7. If you want children to use the wall display, place it at their eye level

The central message here is that there is a difference between decoration and purposeful recording of learning displayed on the wall. I'd love to see examples of your classroom learning displays. To share your pics, please pop on over to my Facebook group and inspire others!

If you would like to find out when the next blog post is published, simply subscribe below. I would love to hear about your own experiences in teaching. Please feel free to share in the comments box below!

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'Environmental print' is something that we have heard about forever and there are many different ways to look at this concept. I have seen environmental print placed around a room with the hope that children will 'pick up' the words and be able to use them for a variety of purposes.

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Reading deficits flow chart dyslexia revised (1).pdf

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Science before Sound Wall. Sortegories sf.pdf

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This has lips and graphemes. Please consider adding the column descriptions for consonant walls and not just the rows. You can see those descriptors in Speech to Print by Moats or on Tools4Reading.

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Recent Article from TXReads - MUST read for Educators & Parents

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Recent Article from TXReads - MUST read for Educators & Parents

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By Pamela Toman FOR THE EXPRESS-NEWS

Six in 10 students did not meet the Texas third-grade reading standard in 2018. That was before the pandemic caused record numbers of students to fall further behind in academic achievement.

According to the 2017 National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, known as the Nation's Report Card, Texas children ranked 46th in the country in fourth-grade reading proficiency, a decline of five spots since the 2015 ranking. Meanwhile, research evidence is clear: More than 95 percent of children can learn to read with effective instruction.

Scientists have captured the human brain's activation patterns using advanced imaging technology. These images confirm and strengthen evidence to guide effective methods for teaching reading.

Reading is neurobiological and not related to intelligence. The majority of children require explicit and systematic instruction to build the neural pathways necessary for reading. Most children who are not learning to read are not being taught to read correctly.

As a result of the state's alarmingly low reading outcomes, Texas lawmakers made a bold move during the 86th legislative session when they passed House Bill 3. This law requires approximately 120,000 kindergarten through third-grade teachers and elementary principals to learn the science of teaching reading by participating in the Texas Reading Academy by the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

An impressive 35,086 educators participated in the Texas Reading Academy during the first year of the state mandate. Yet there are major challenges to changing the way reading is taught.

"Balanced literacy" is a teaching method used by approximately 75 percent of teachers in the nation. Balanced literacy is rooted in the belief that children will learn to read through immersion, similar to how they learn to speak. Unfortunately, this method - even when phonics lessons are included - is in direct opposition to the extensive research showing there are five essential components of effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Effective instruction must be explicit and systematic, which is known as structured literacy.

Approximately 35 to 40 percent of students do OK with balanced literacy. However, these results are complicated because students with more financial resources often receive reading instruction outside of school, which improves their school's reading outcomes. This still leaves as many as 60 percent of students who fail to meet the grade level standard for reading.

Mississippi set a great example that change is possible. In 2013, that state's Legislature passed new literacy standards, and by 2019 Mississippi ranked No. 1 in the nation in reading score gains on the NAEP. It was the only state to improve its reading scores.

Changing student reading outcomes in Texas hinges on whether schools shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy. Unfortunately, there is strong resistance to this needed change.

School districts have made enormous financial investments in instructional materials that align with balanced literacy methods. The costs that have gone into purchasing balanced literacy materials is often cited as a reason for not changing to structured literacy. Additionally, those tasked with determining school district curriculum frequently have not been trained in the science of teaching reading and are not aware of the neurobiological aspects of learning to read.

The most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching children to read. Children who cannot read by third grade often experience chronic absences, poor behavior and fail math or language arts. This leads to a 90 percent risk that a student won't graduate on time and will have a lower earning potential.

Fortunately, reading failure can be prevented, along with the negative economic and personal consequences associated with illiteracy. The solution is structured literacy. The ideal window for addressing reading difficulties is during kindergarten and first grade. Beyond third grade the academic focus moves from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." Children who fail to read on grade level by third grade fall further and further behind.

Get involved in your school district's move to structured literacy by reaching out to your school board and district administration. Inquire about the plan of action that would support equitable literacy for all students. For more information, visit TXReads.org.

Pamela Toman is founder and executive director of TX Reads, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of Texas children reading on grade level by empowering teachers to align instruction with the science of reading.

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Shift in teaching methods would boost reading proficiency - San Antonio Express, 8/12/2021

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By Pamela Toman FOR THE EXPRESS-NEWS Six in 10 students did not meet the Texas third-grade reading standard in 2018. That was before the pandemic caused record numbers of students to fall further behind in academic achievement.

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From the Experts

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There are 44 phonemes in English, but only 26 letters. Yet, there are more than 240 ways to represent the sounds in English- whew! Sound walls are helpful instructional tools because they provide teachers with an approachable way to begin incorporating evidence-based instruction in the classroom. Thanks to Dr. Mary Dahlgren and her passion for spreading this knowledge, teachers have been eagerly implementing sound walls in classrooms around the world.

With daily use, a sound wall doesn't become wallpaper or just another poster; it becomes the canvas that students learn to use as a starting point for reading and spelling. And just as a canvas must be painted in order to become a masterpiece, a sound wall should be accessible, used, and touched by students.

There is a difference between having a sound wall and using a sound wall. If sound walls are posted but not being referenced, they will not be any more helpful than a word wall. But the exciting reality is that students and teachers can interact with sound walls during all parts of the day.

Sounds as a starting point: Sound walls prompt teachers to switch mindsets and practices by putting initial focus on sounds rather than letters. Through this lens, teachers quickly learn that consonants and vowels are sounds. Covering the graphemes can be done with sticky notes in the classroom, or by adding solid white shapes on top of the cards when teaching virtually.

1. Manner and place of articulation: Teachers spend instructional time describing the placement of the lips, tongue, and teeth; the type of airflow; and the vibration of the vocal cords. They begin to focus student attention to how and where the sound is produced.

2. Spelling analysis: As teachers learn more about each group of sounds, they develop a better understanding of why students make certain errors, as well as how to correct them.

Sound mapping: Using phoneme-grapheme mapping during phonics and spelling instruction helps students analyze sound placement and spelling within words. Students and teachers form a stronger understanding of phoneme-grapheme mapping when they see each sound on its own card on the sound wall. For example: If unsure of how to write "chirp" in sound boxes, they can count the sounds (3) and then look at each corresponding sound wall card to spell.

Daily review: Dr. Dahlgren recommends a daily or weekly review routine using the sound wall, perhaps as part of your daily calendar or morning meeting. A quick discussion about a few sounds each day will help students connect abstract sounds to the manner and place of articulation seen on a sound wall, a practice that makes fleeting sounds more concrete. Get your students involved by creating a chant or song for each category of sounds.

1. Incorporate hands-on learning: Use mirrors when introducing each new sound, reviewing sounds, or discussing errors. Encourage students to focus on the position of the lips, tongue, and teeth in the mirror. Focus attention to voicing of vowels and consonants by having students place their hands on their throats or over their ears to feel the vibration. When discussing nasal sounds, have students pinch their noses and attempt to produce the sounds. Connect students to the different types of air flow by asking them to hold tissues in front of their mouths when producing each sound.

2. Build a shared vocabulary: When introducing, reviewing, or reteaching sounds, use student-friendly definitions of vowels and consonants. Build a shared vocabulary among the class that is tied to how sounds are articulated. Teach that vowels are open sounds, while consonants are formed by blocking the air flow in some way. In short, make the sound walltheirs. Describing the sounds in easy-to-understand vocabulary will allow students to interact with the wall together.

Auditory drill: In this exercise, teachers say the sound and students write the spelling(s) of that sound. Students are only expected to write the spellings that they have been taught. If virtual, the teacher can display the card with graphemes covered. As students write each spelling, the teacher can uncover the card as a way to self-check.
Organizing practice opportunities throughout the day will help students to become more and more comfortable using the sound wall on their own. Here are some ideas to try in your classroom:
Errors related to voicing: When discussing spelling errors related to consonants, determine if voicing is the problem. Often, students will mistake a voiced consonant for an unvoiced consonant or vice versa. For example, if the student writes "spiter," point them back to the paired sounds /t/ and /d/. Teach students to focus on their mouths and throats when spelling.

Nasalization: Explicitly teach students about nasal sounds and how these can influence vowels. Even in kindergarten, students can understand that certain letters change the sound of vowels. This will greatly help young students when they are blending and segmenting words ending withm, n, ng, or nk by equipping them with the ability to segment individual sounds even when the vowel is nasalized and not quite as clear.

Various sounds of suffixes: Sound walls help students to quickly see -ed on two separate sound wall cards, providing a concrete reminder that -ed represents more than one sound in English: /d/, /t/, and /ǝd/. The same is true of -s. If students have an understanding of voiced and unvoiced consonants on a sound wall, they will better understand when -s and -ed take on their various pronunciations.
Let's explore how sound walls are beneficial to teacher knowledge of language: Meredith Nardone is a K-12 literacy specialist and a national LETRS trainer. She has taught in both public and private schools in Florida for the past six years, and also has more than three years' experience teaching English as a second language online. She graduated with a master's degree in Reading K-12 from Barry University. Meredith is the creator of the blog Creativity to the Core and loves sharing the science of reading in digestible bites on her literacy-focused Instagram account @creativitytothecore. Her passion is to share the science of reading with classroom teachers in ways that are both practical and immediately applicable. Meredith lives in Northwest Arkansas with her husband and two children.

When teaching in person, students write the various spellings for the sound, and then cross-check their answers by looking at the sound wall card. While students are writing, teachers can use personal sound walls to monitor progress and mastery of phonemes and graphemes. This is especially helpful during small-group instruction.

Reference your sound wall throughout the day to deepen your instruction, and encourage your students to interact with this tool often. As you use it more, students will as well! If you are interested in growing your knowledge of sound walls, including each English phoneme and its spelling(s), LETRS professional development is highly recommended. It will give you the content knowledge and evidence-based best practices thatyou need to be a teacher who is smarter than their program.

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There are 44 phonemes in English, but only 26 letters. Yet, there are more than 240 ways to represent the sounds in English-whew! Sound walls are helpful instructional tools because they provide teachers with an approachable way to begin incorporating evidence-based instruction in the classroom.

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Explains the Big 5 for students, parents, and teachers.

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These grade-specific, daily phonemic awareness lessons are designed to supplement existing foundational skills instruction, providing engaging, multi-sensory experiences for K-2 students. For use with both whole-class instruction or small groups, these 15-minute lessons can also be adapted to address unfinished learning for older students.
Permission and Acknowledgements: Send Feedback Best for All: Sounds First Activities for Phonemic Awareness PreK through 2nd Grade was created under the . It was developed for the Tennessee Department of Education Foundational Skills Curriculum Supplement. This Supplement is a free, open-source resource developed for teachers, parents, higher-education agencies, and others to help support students' foundational literacy skills acquisition. You are welcome to use these materials for personal and professional use, however the materials may not be sold for profit. If materials are used in professional development, we ask that you give the Tennessee Department of Education credit.

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Best for All: Sounds First Phonemic Awareness Program

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These grade-specific, daily phonemic awareness lessons are designed to supplement existing foundational skills instruction, providing engaging, multi-sensory experiences for K-2 students. For use with both whole-class instruction or small groups, these 15-minute lessons can also be adapted to address unfinished learning for older students.

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The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk

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With Strong Evidence of Effectiveness From High-Quality Research

MCPER has distilled the latest research findings for various content areas into top 10 lists, which describe the most important practices and policies, according to high-quality research, that should be in place in every school.

A Note About Online Learning

Due to COVID-19, teaching may take place partially or completely online. Limited research exists to support what strategies are most effective when engaging in virtual teaching, and we now have an excellent opportunity to study the efficacy of various online approaches. Research does support some key points that can be used to guide us toward more effective online teaching and learning.

Students learn better if students and teachers interact. This is called synchronous learning. Asynchronous learning is often logistically necessary and involves students working on their own and communicating on occasion via email, text, or some other approach. Synchronous learning with students and teacher interacting at the same time has the best outcomes.

Individual students need ongoing and frequent feedback and support from the teacher.

Students need opportunities and encouragement to establish relationships with teachers and with other students while they are participating in online learning.

Activities to solve meaningful problems and encourage creativity, gaming, and virtual simulations increase student engagement and understanding.

Students benefit from access and engagement with supplemental materials and resources that reinforce the synchronous online learning.

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10 Key Policies and Practices for All Schools

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MCPER has distilled the latest research findings for various content areas into top 10 lists, which describe the most important practices and policies, according to high-quality research, that should be in place in every school. A Note About Online Learning Due to COVID-19, teaching may take place partially or completely online.

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Power Tools for Word Work [Lane & Contesse] (1)

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This section provides specific ideas and strategies to support ELLs' language and literacy development, such as tips for planning lessons and the use of language objectives, as well as broader approaches such as using informal assessment and differentiation for varying language levels.

What You'll Find in This Section

Learn how educators can support the success of their English language learners (ELLs). They will be useful for a wide range of audiences, including new and veteran teachers of ELLs, paraprofessionals, tutors, and administrators at the school and district level.
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Each student comes to school not only with unique academic needs but also with unique background experiences, culture, language, personality, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Effective teachers recognize that all of these factors affect how students learn in the classroom, and they adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students' needs.

Here are some strategies for differentiating instruction for your English language learners, as well as ideas for taking students' level of English language proficiency into account when planning instruction.

Need some help finding ways to help your English language learners? Read these inspirational stories about English language learners, teachers and paraprofessionals who have overcome obstacles standing to achieve success.

What's even better than a bright idea? A bright idea that works! Educators from across the country have discovered excellent ways to tackle some common classroom stumbling blocks. Below are their step-by-step suggestions on how to handle issues like the fourth-grade slump or the development of critical thinking skills.

Project-based learning (PBL) offers many benefits to English language learners (ELLs), including hands-on activities, peer interaction, rich language use, and a chance to explore personal interests.

ELLs may need some additional support or guidance in order to make the most of PBL, and the following resources share ideas on how to make it a successful experience for all students.

Designing instruction based on student strengths (what the student can do) provides an important foundation for success and offers opportunities to build upon those strengths in order to address areas where the student is struggling. Learn more about this approach from the following resources and videos.

Learn how educators can support the success of their English language learners (ELLs). They will be useful for a wide range of audiences, including new and veteran teachers of ELLs, paraprofessionals, tutors, and administrators at the school and district level.
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Each student comes to school not only with unique academic needs but also with unique background experiences, culture, language, personality, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Effective teachers recognize that all of these factors affect how students learn in the classroom, and they adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students' needs.

Here are some strategies for differentiating instruction for your English language learners, as well as ideas for taking students' level of English language proficiency into account when planning instruction.

Need some help finding ways to help your English language learners? Read these inspirational stories about English language learners, teachers and paraprofessionals who have overcome obstacles standing to achieve success.

What's even better than a bright idea? A bright idea that works! Educators from across the country have discovered excellent ways to tackle some common classroom stumbling blocks. Below are their step-by-step suggestions on how to handle issues like the fourth-grade slump or the development of critical thinking skills.

Project-based learning (PBL) offers many benefits to English language learners (ELLs), including hands-on activities, peer interaction, rich language use, and a chance to explore personal interests.

ELLs may need some additional support or guidance in order to make the most of PBL, and the following resources share ideas on how to make it a successful experience for all students.

Designing instruction based on student strengths (what the student can do) provides an important foundation for success and offers opportunities to build upon those strengths in order to address areas where the student is struggling. Learn more about this approach from the following resources and videos.

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This section provides specific ideas and strategies to support ELLs' language and literacy development, such as tips for planning lessons and the use of language objectives, as well as broader approaches such as using informal assessment and differentiation for varying language levels. Learn how educators can support the success of their English language learners (ELLs).

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10 Keys for Effective Reading Interventions

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10 Keys for Effective Reading Interventions

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Meadows Center

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Resources based on SOR

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Resource Library - Haskins Global Literacy Hub

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Trusted online resources for PARENTS and EDUCATORS

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Effective Enhancements for Foundational Skills

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Reading Academy_ Sm gr Foundational Skills & comprehension

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How to break down meaning

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Gillis - Grammar and Syntax: The Building Blocks of Comprehending and Writing Sentences

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For Students Who Are Not Yet Fluent, Silent Reading Is Not the Best Use of Classroom Time

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Teachers do their best to improve students’ fluency, but sometimes the information they have to work with is incomplete and, therefore, leads them down the wrong path. For example, silent reading or ‘Round Robin’ reading seem like good ways to improve fluency. But, in fact, increasing fluency requir…

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Part 2

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I posted part 1 of Syntactic Awareness on June 2. As noted in that post, the ability to understand at the sentence level is in many ways the foundation for being able to comprehend text. The ways in which authors express their ideas through sentences greatly affects a reader's ability to access and identify those ideas. Sentences that are complex, contain a large number of ideas (also called propositions), or have unusual word order will make it difficulty for students to comprehend what they are reading, especially students who enter school with limited oral language exposure or for whom English is a second language. Developing sentence skills is also essential to becoming a good writer.

In part 1, I shared two instructional suggestions for building syntactic awareness of students across multiple grades: Sentence Scrambles and Sentence Elaboration using who, what, why, when and how questions. Part 2 includes suggestions for Sentence Elaboration using "kernel" sentences, and Sentence Combining. All of these instructional practices are part of the Keys to Early Writing professional development course.
Sentence Elaboration: Expanding Kernel Sentences
This activity helps students use more words and use more complex sentence structure. For this activity, the teacher gives a kernel sentence (i.e., the start of a simple sentence that has a noun and a verb). Students are asked to gradually add to the sentence following the sequence presented below with examples.

Start with a noun and a verb: turtle dives

Elaborate the subject - add articles, adjectives: The small, green turtle dives.

Elaborate the predicate - add adverbs: The small, green turtle dives quickly.

Add a phrase - The small, green turtle dives quickly into the seaweed.

Compound the subject - The small, green turtle and his brother dive quickly into the seaweed.

Compound the predicate - The small, green turtle and his brother dive and swim quickly into the seaweed.

Add a dependent clause to make a complex sentence - Because they are frightened, the small, green turtle and his brother dive quickly into the seaweed.

Combine two sentences into a compound sentence - Because they are frightened, the small, green turtle and his brother dive quickly into the seaweed, and they hide from predators.

Teachers from any subject can provide practice with this type of sentence elaboration. Start with a kernel sentence about a topic your students are learning in your content area. Ask them to elaborate by adding content-related facts and information. You can also give them specific vocabulary terms to include in their sentences.
Sentence Combining
Sentence combining activities were introduced in the 1960's (Strong, 1986). Research consistently finds that sentence combining is an effective method for helping students of all ages, from elementary grades through college, produce more syntactically mature sentences, and it is one of the eleven instructional practices recommended in the Writing Next research meta-analysis (Graham & Perrin, 2007; Saddler, 2012). Sentence combining provides practice with manipulating and rearranging words in sentences, expanding sentences, and clarifying sentence meaning.

Because a sentence combining activity only takes a few minutes, it is an activity that can be used as an "admit ticket" at the start of class or when ever there are a few minutes between classroom activities. It is best to start by giving students two simple sentences to combine, as in the basic examples below.

The book was good. The movie was good. (The book and movie were good.)

The boy drank lemonade. The boy was thirsty. (The thirsty boy drank lemonade.)

The girls thought the weather was perfect. The girls were playing soccer. (The girls were playing soccer because they thought the weather was perfect.)

Eventually, as students become more adept at their sentence combining, you can give them more than two sentences to combine. The more the sentences, the more options students will have for the word order they use. Teachers of any subject can provide sentence combining practice. Start by selecting a sentence from classroom text and break it into a series of short sentences. The first example below is a sentence from John Steinbeck's book "The Pearl". The second example is a sentence from a social studies text. The teacher shows the original sentence after students have done their own combining.
The ants were busy on the ground, big black ones with shiny bodies, and little dusty quick ants.

The ants were busy.

They were on the ground.

There were big ones.

The big ones were black.

The big ones had shiny bodies.

There were little ants.

The little ants were dusty.

The little ones were quick.

The fancy exterior decorations on just about every building were carved from wood, then painted to look like stone or marble.

The decorations were carved.

The decorations were fancy.

The decorations were on the exterior.

They were carved from wood.

They were on just about every building.

Then the decorations were painted.

They were painted to look like stone.

Or they were painted to look like marble.

For more suggestions about developing syntactic awareness and sentence writing, check out Bruce Saddler's book "Teacher's Guide to Effective Sentence Writing" (2012). Keys to Literacy's two writing PD programs also include sentence instruction suggestions: Keys to Early Writing and Keys to Content Writing.

References

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve the writing of adolescents in middle and high schools - A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Saddler, B. (2012). Teacher's guide to effective sentence writing. New York: Guilford Press.

Strong, W. (1986). Creative approaches to sentence combining. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills. National Council of Teachers of English.

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Syntactic Awareness: Teaching Sentence Structure Part 2 - Keys to Literacy

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I posted part 1 of Syntactic Awareness on June 2. As noted in that post, the ability to understand at the sentence level is in many ways the foundation for being able to comprehend text. The ways in which authors express their ideas through sentences greatly affects a reader's ability to access and identify those ideas.

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Part 1

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Syntactic Awareness: Teaching Sentence Structure (Part 1) - Keys to Literacy

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The ability to understand at the sentence level is in many ways the foundation for being able to comprehend text. The ways in which authors express their ideas through sentences greatly affects a reader's ability to access and identify those ideas.

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While ALL texts you pick up will have signposts, this list is that was created showing signposts in picture books. An educator on the FB Notice and Note for Educators shared it several years ago. This is another great resource for information and teacher created shared resources on Notice and Note.

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Copy of Notice and Note Signposts with Picture Books.docx

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Reading Punctuation