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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

UDL Rising to Equity

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey. Do you use social media? Join the conversation happening now in the #UDLrising hashtag.
Meet the UDL Rising to Equity Advisory Board Meet the UDL Rising to Equity Stakeholder Council

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guid…

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Anchor Chart Intervention! Secrets to Making Effective AND Well-Designed Anchor Charts - Minds in Bloom

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An anchor chart can and should be a useful teaching tool, but there are tricks to making and using it that make it so. Click through to read these tips!

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Urban Teachers Accountable Teaching Practices 

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Urban Teachers Accountable Teaching Practices 

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At-A-Glance

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5 pillars of reading instruction:
phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension

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oral language, phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, concepts about print

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Developmental Progression

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Handwriting Without Tears Letter Formation

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Baby Shark - Pinkfong Kids’ Songs & Stories

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Baby Shark Dance | #babyshark Most Viewed Video | Animal Songs | PINKFONG Songs for Children

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Know this for the Praxis test

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Song

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Dinosaur Stomp | Mother Goose Club Playhouse Kids Song

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Citation: National Early Literacy Panel . ( 2008 ). Developing early literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel . Washington, DC : National Institute for Literacy .

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TheLearningStation - Kids Songs and Nursery Rhymes

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Boom Chicka Boom ♫ Action Songs Kids ♫ Brain Breaks ♫ Camp Songs ♫ Kids Songs ♫ The Learning Station

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developmentally appropriate practice chapter of a book

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If teachers were treated like pro athletes

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If teachers were treated like pro athletes

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If We Treated Teachers Like Pro Athletes - Key & Peele

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ECE Essential Practices

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Edutopia | How Learning Happens: The Power of Relationships in Schools | Turnaround for Children

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School Climate: Research shows that students who feel safe and supported by adults at school are better able to learn.

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DCPS Evaluation Tool

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Setting Up to Support Children’s Learning

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Setting Up to Support Children’s Learning

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Setting Up to Support Children’s Learning

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DCPS Evaluation Tool

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What Does 'High-Quality' Preschool Look Like? | NPR Ed

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What Does 'High-Quality' Preschool Look Like? | NPR Ed

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What Does 'High-Quality' Preschool Look Like? | NPR Ed

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video explanations

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Checks for UnderstandingPartner PracticeGroup Practice - The Teacher Toolkit

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Open Shut Them #2 | Kids Songs | Super Simple Songs

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Kindergarten Common Core Standards Unpacked

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Kindergarten Common Core Standards Unpacked

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Understanding the Common Core Standards

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Language Arts

This site gives teachers some ideas for using shared reading with younger students and less skilled readers. See example ›

Science

This site offers several examples of how activities related to learning about science topics can be centered around the shared reading strategy. Downloads of several different poems are provided. See example ›

Social Studies

This site provides five examples of shared reading lessons based upon the book Map It! by Elspeth Leacock. See example ›

Shared Reading Booklists

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Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a book or other text while guided and supported by a teacher. The teacher explicitly models the skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency and expression.

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Continuum of Reading Foundational Skills

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Continuum of Reading Foundational Skills

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Phonics and Phonological Awareness Vocabulary

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Phonics and Phonological Awareness Vocabulary

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"Be Glad Your Nose is On Your Face" by Jack Prelutsky (Poem)

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"Be Glad Your Nose is On Your Face" by Jack Prelutsky (Poem)

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As soon as Fred gets out of bed,
his underwear goes on his head.
His mother laughs, "Don't put it there,
a head's no place for underwear!"
But near his ears, above his brains,
is where Fred's underwear remains.

At night when Fred goes back to bed,
he deftly plucks it off his head.
His mother switches off the light
and softly croons, "Good night! Good night!"
And then, for reasons no one knows,
Fred's underwear goes on his toes.

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Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face - Be glad your nose is on your face,

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Up in the Sky

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Kindergarten Informational Text Writing Rubric

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Kindergarten Informational Text Writing Rubric

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get ready to write

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Organized by frequency and grade

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All the Dolch Words by Grade and Frequency " Mrs. Perkins

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The 220 Dolch words divided into grade levels and ordered by frequency.

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use these for individual students

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Ludacris Llama Llama Red Pajama Freestyle

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Today, I'm joining Teach Preschool and Pre-K Pages to bring you 15 Fabulous Fingerplays and Facts. Here at PreKinders, I am sharing 5 fingerplays and 5 facts about the skills children learn through fingerplays. Be sure to go to Teach Preschool and Pre-K Pages to see the rest!

Fingerplay Fact #1: Building Vocabulary

Fingerplays introduce children to new words to increase their vocabulary. They help children connect vocabulary to words they hear in stories and in every day conversation. They also help children learn sentence structure and practice speaking in complete sentences. An example of a fingerplay rich with new vocabulary is Wee Willie Winkie. This is a traditional nursery rhyme that becomes a fingerplay when you add movements to it. There are many nursery rhymes you can add movements to and most of these teach new vocabulary.

Some children may not know the word "town" because they may not have heard it used before - maybe they've heard the word city, but not town, so it would be a word that could be discussed with the rhyme. Most children will have a different understanding of the word, "rapping". By having them pretend to knock while saying the word rapping, they will learn that words can have more than one meaning. The word "crying" or "cry" is a word often seen in children's books to mean "call". Often children are confused by the use of "cry" in a story because they haven't yet learned that it can have another meaning.

Wee Willie Winkie
And crying through the lock
Hold hands at mouth and pretend to call out the next line
"Are the children all in bed?
Fingerplay Fact #2: Number Concepts

There are numerous fingerplays that teach number concepts. Some rhymes add one with each line of the poem, other rhymes take one away with each line. Rhymes and fingerplays teach counting forward and backward, addition and subtraction. They teach children to recite numbers in order, recognize numerals, tell what number comes before and after a number. With many rhymes you can print out clipart to go with the rhyme and place them on a magnet board or flannel board (e.g. five rabbits to go with Five Little Bunnies, five pumpkins for Five Little Pumpkins, or five monkeys for Five Little Monkeys). My prekinders also like to recite the rhyme, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, and instead of putting monkeys on a flannel board, five children get to jump on our pretend "bed" (our group carpet).

Bee Hive

Fingerplay Fact #3: Following Directions

Fingerplays teach children to listen carefully and follow directions. When fingerplays are recited, children have to pay attention and listen so they know what to do next.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, jump up high.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your nose.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your toes.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, hop around.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, sit on the ground.
He likes his home very well.
He pokes his head out when he wants to eat.
Poke thumb out of fist
Fingerplay Fact #4: Position Words and Directionality

Many fingerplays help children learn position words and directional language, such as on, over, above, under, around, etc. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear (above) is one example of this. This turtle fingerplay also uses the direction words "in" and "out", and is a favorite with my prekinders.

Fingerplay Fact #5: Social-Emotional Development

Fingerplays can build children's social-emotional development by helping children see themselves as a member of a group. They help children gain confidence in their abilities. In the rhyme, Monkey See, Monkey Do, children have a turn to think of a movement for the whole group to do. Each child sees that their classmates acted out their own idea. Demonstrate this several times yourself over several days before asking children to think of movement words.

Monkey see, monkey do,

How about you?

The rhyme is short and simple enough that children can learn quickly and recite for the group. Then, the group does the movement that child said. For children who are shy, the teacher can say the rhyme along with them, or the child could whisper the movement into the teacher's ear and the teacher would recite the rhyme with their word.

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Today, I'm joining Teach Preschool and Pre-K Pages to bring you 15 Fabulous Fingerplays and Facts. Here at PreKinders, I am sharing 5 fingerplays and 5 facts about the skills children learn through fingerplays. Be sure to go to Teach Preschool and Pre-K Pages to see the rest!

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These games help pre-K children practice Letter Sound learning in a fun, hands-on way.

Sound Cups

Use 26 disposable clear punch cups and label each cup with a letter. Letter cup labels can be downloaded below. Collect a set of small trinket objects (you can ask parents and friends to send things in), such as plastic lizard, small block, watch, plastic frog, bandaid, necklace, button, dice. Place the trinkets in a basket. Children sort each trinket into a letter cup by its beginning sound.

You can use all 26 cups at one time, or select 3-4 letter cups at a time for children to focus on. When searching for items to go in the cups, look for dollar store mini toys (especially packs of animals and bugs), look at doll house miniatures, browse craft stores for mini items.
Download: Letter Cup Labels

Erase the Sound

Draw a picture on a dry erase lap board. In the example below, I drew a snowman. Call children up one at the time to erase something that begins with something in the picture. In this picture, children can erase something that begins with H (hat), something that begins with B (buttons), something that begins with N (nose). Continue until everything is erased.

Mystery Bag

Place three objects beginning with the same letter in a bag (such as ball, bug, and button for B). Have a child pulls each item out of the bag and name each item. Have the class guess the "mystery letter".

Guess Who?

Say three words and have the kids guess whose name begins with the same sound as those three words. For example, call out:

The class would guess Levi. If you have more than one child in your class (maybe Levi, Lucy, and Layton) who start with that letter sound, the class can name all of them.

I have prepared a list of words for each letter that you can use for your students. Download the list below.
Download: Beginning Letter Sounds List

Monster Names

Have kids stand, stomp, and growl when you say their "Monster Name". Replace the first letter of each child's name with the letter M. For example, Braden's name would become "Mad Monster Maden" and Ashlyn's name would become "Mad Monster Mashlyn".

Say Two Words

Say two words, and have kids stand up if the words begin with the same sound. Have them sit down if they do not. For example,
cat - cow (stand up)
hat - goat (sit down)

Letter Sounds Listening Games

Children listen for beginning sounds in words and use bingo markers to stamp a letter each time they hear the letter sound. Get the printable game here: Letter Sounds Listening Games.

Letter Sounds Activity Cards

Children look at the picture, say the word, and find the letter that matches the beginning sound. They mark the cards by clipping it or marking it with a chip. Get the printable game here: Letter Sounds Activity Cards.

Letter Tile Mats

Children match letter tiles to the pictures on the mats by identifying the beginning sound of the words. Get the printable game here: Letter Tile Mats.

More Resources

These are available in my shop.

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These games help pre-K children practice Letter Sound learning in a fun, hands-on way. Use 26 disposable clear punch cups and label each cup with a letter. Letter cup labels can be downloaded below. Collect a set of small trinket objects (you can ask parents and friends to send things in), such as plastic lizard, small block, watch, plastic frog, bandaid, necklace, button, dice.

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Guidelines for direct instruction

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How Long Should Direct Instruction Be?

Direct instruction is great, but how long should it be - based on brain research? This is a great reminder from Eric Jensen about the length that most students can cognitively engage (in direct instruction, that is).

Thanks @DavidJHuber, for sharing this as we go back to school.

But what can be done in only 8-12 minutes? Here are 5 high-yielding strategies that fit perfectly in this short direct instruction window.

1. Expand Prior Knowledge in Direct Instruction

Part of the challenge in teaching classes of students (instead of individual students) is the range of background knowledge. Each student comes to class at a different starting point.

Direct instruction can very efficiently build prior knowledge for all students. Present visuals, videos, quick reads, or graphic organizers. Fill in prerequisite background knowledge and push the limits on enriching background knowledge.

This will allow all students to make richer connections and build schema for any given topic.

2. Focus on Concepts or Principles

More than just vocabulary instruction, use direct instruction to teach the rich concepts and principles in your curriculum.

Direct instruction can be very effective at deepening students understanding of core concepts and principles. This is especially true when mixed with examples and nonexamples.

3. Integrate Technology into Direct Instruction

There are many great edtech apps such as NearPod or EdPuzzle. These tools significantly boost engagement.

I would even venture to say that Jensen's time recommendations would skew upward if this step were implemented.

The right tech tools can make direct instruction active and hands-on.

4. Follow a You Do, We Do, I Do Approach

Typically direct instruction begins the lesson. It is followed by guided practice. It ends with independent practice.

Try flipping that.

Allow the students to struggle with the work. Then go into guided practice so they can find the best way to complete the task correctly.

Finally, use direct instruction to clarify the process or skill. The minor confusion (cognitive dissonance) caused by the earlier struggles will prime students to really listen and engage with the direct instruction.

Confusion piques interest. It gives students a reason to need the direct instruction.

5. Connect Direct Instruction to Other Disciplines

As much as possible integrate other content into your direct instruction. This will raise the relevance for the students.

For example, a science teacher might check in with the math teacher to see what concepts or skills they are currently studying. Then in a science lesson, show how that math topic relates to the science content.

Direct Instruction has an Important Place

When done right, direct instruction can be one of the most efficient instructional approaches. The research supports it, but remember a few key points to make it effective:

1. Brains have time limits.

2. Brains love engagement.

3. Brains love connections.

4. Technology boosts active participation.

5. Confusion creates motive.

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Direct instruction is great, but how long should it be - based on brain research? This is a great reminder from Eric Jensen about the length that most students can cognitively engage (in direct instruction, that is). Thanks @DavidJHuber, for sharing this as we go back to school.

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GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) Elementary School Toolkit

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Sesame Street: Common and Colbie Caillat Sing "Belly Breathe" with Elmo

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use when unpacking standards

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Jolly Jumper Pre-Primer Sight Words Game

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Jolly Jumper Pre-Primer Sight Words Game

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Put these words on a key ring and play

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This is a great game to share with families!

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Poem

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Book Review: Kinder Fave Part

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Book Review Kinder Fave Part 2

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Kid watching tool

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Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle | Poetry Foundation

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https://www.amazon.com/Strictly-No-Elephants-Lisa-Mantchev/dp/1481416472

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A mindfulness-based kindness curriculum for preschoolers

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Many wonderful free eBooks for kids are available to read Online. Stories span age ranges from preschool, young children, teens, and cover many topics!

NOTE: A lot of free programs sadly run out of funding or manpower quickly. Because of that, a lot of fantastic programs come and go. If you notice that a program listed down below is no longer live, or that we have missed sharing an awesome program, please let us know in the comments.

Free eBooks for Kids:

Open eBooks: This program is slightly tricky, and does require parents to reach out to a teacher, librarian, or other eligible person to sign up for First Book to get the code that will then give each child access to 10 books at a time through the free Open eBooks app. This awesome program is available to low-income families with kids ages 4-18 and it is filled with books that are still in copyright - which means tons of best sellers and contemporary titles! Definitely worth checking out.

International Children's Digital Library: The non-profit ICDL Foundation's library has evolved into the world's largest digital collection of children's books. Currently its digital library collection includes 4,619 books in 59 languages. The compete ICDL collection is also available as a free iPad app. A limited number of titles are included in the free ICDL iPhone app. The ICDL also created the free Story Kit app that helps users create their own electronic storybooks for reading and sharing.

Library of Congress: The Library of Congress' selection of digitized books includes illustrated children's classics for readers of all ages. The Library of Congress also makes available millions of primary sources for free online. To assist educators in teaching with primary sources, the Library offers classroom materials to help teachers engage students with content and develop critical thinking skills.

Bookshare: a free program supported by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs that provides free reading materials to anyone who has a print disability that keeps them from reading traditional print materials. An eligible Bookshare member would be someone with a visual impairment, a physical disability that impinges on reading ability, or a learning disability.

We Give Books: One of the best-looking online free book sites, We Give Books offers about 200 great titles of kids picture books to read. The books available for free online reading are a mix of fiction and nonfiction children's picture books appropriate for children through age ten. We Give Books also provides young readers the opportunity to practice philanthropy - for each book read online, We Give Books makes sure that physical books get to children's literacy programs worldwide.

Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg has 50,000 free ebooks to download or read online. These are books whose copyright has expired, so while they are not "trending," they do include many classics.

Online Books Page at University of Penn: Although a bit of a bugger to navigate, the Online Books Page at the University of Penn has an amazing collection of kids literature available! The link provided will take you to the children's bookshelf, however you can browse by alphabetical listing or even search to discover new topics!

Books Should Be Free: Perfect for introducing a child who is not yet reading or who enjoys listening to stories to literature! Books Should Be Free offers a wide selection of free audio and ebooks including many of the classics.They also have ebook formats for Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader and laptops.

MeeGenius makes it easy to keep your child reading by offering hundreds of e-books including classics, MeeGenius originals, and partner content from Sesame Street, Dr. Seuss, and P.D. Eastman. Starting out as an iPad/iPhone app MeeGenius has been one of our family favorites for years! While not all their ebooks are available for free, they do have a wide variety of free ebooks.

Oxford Owl: Oxford Owl has a nice variety of books for kids ages 3 - 11. The books marked with an 'e' are the free books. The site has some really amazing features like offering activity ideas that go with the books. With some books in the youngest (ages 3 - 5) and oldest (ages 9 - 11) age groups, there aren't any words that show up on the screen, you only hear the story. Nevertheless, a good site if you're looking for access to stories (both fiction and nonfiction) for a variety of ages.

Free Kids Books: Several self-published eBooks for children available for download.

Kids World Fun: A fun array of free animated books!

Free Read Feed: A quick and easy way to see what is available for free on the Kindle.

Free Book Sifter: Are you a nook reader? Then this site will become your best friend. This site provides a quick and easy way to search what eBooks are available for free at Barnes & Nobles.

Read Ups: A great site for older children who want to find, read, and discuss books. The site allows you to read books on the site or import books from the web or your hard drive. Read Up books can be read alone or with a group of people. The site does require a Twitter account.

Children's Books Online: This Rosetta Project site is an online library of antique illustrated children's books. Books are indexed by reading level: pre-reader, early reader, intermediate reader, advanced reader, adult reader, and foreign language reader.

Classic Reader: Classic Reader is an excellent place to find free classic ebooks. The site has a special section for young readers with more than 200 of the world's best loved classics.

Magic Keys: This site offers free illustrated ebooks for children of all ages. Storybooks are separated into three categories: young children, older children, and young adult. Other site offerings include online games, jigsaw puzzles, and interactive coloring pages.

Read Print: The Read Print library hosts thousands of free ebooks and poems, many of which are suitable for children. Most of the books on Read Print are classics, such as Peter Pan and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Free Read Aloud eBooks for Kids:
Just Books Read Aloud
eBooks for Kids on Amazon:

If you're an Amazon Prime member (link leads to FREE 30 day trial), you can borrow one eBook a month for free from Amazon. There are eBooks for young children, like Dora's Sleepover and Goodnight, Little Monster, as well as tweens and teens who are ready for eBooks like the Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games.

While not free, those with a new Kindle Fire can subscribe to Amazon's Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, which provides access to more than 1,000 eBooks suited to kids ages 3-8. It's bargain-priced at $4.99 per month, or $2.99, if you're an Amazon Prime member, and includes access to free videos and apps.

-You can install the FREE kindle reading app on most devices. We have the kindle app installed on our iPad and use it daily. The amount of free eBooks that can be found on kindle (in the daily deals section) truly is endless!

Related Posts
Reading Program Apps for Kids 100 Best Books for Preschoolers Share This! updated - 6/28/2016 Awesome Emergent Readers for Kids
&

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Many wonderful free eBooks for kids are available to read Online. Stories span age ranges from preschool, young children, teens, and cover many topics! NOTE: A lot of free programs sadly run out of funding or manpower quickly. Because of that, a lot of fantastic programs come and go.

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Playing in the Snow

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5 Little Snowmen Standing in a Row Lyric Video - The Kiboomers Preschool Songs & Nursery Rhymes

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Elementary Language Arts Curriculum

Primary Grades

In the primary grades, K-2, students apply knowledge of phonics when attempting to read unknown words. As students move from Kindergarten to 2nd grade, they learn to identify and apply knowledge of phonics ranging from consonant sounds, vowel sounds and irregular patterns to decode words. Students first learn to fix reading mistakes by looking at the pictures and initial and final consonants and eventually learn to use their knowledge of letter sounds, words, and sentences to read unknown words. By the end of 2nd grade, students will recognize at least 200 words automatically in text.

Students will read simple stories of fiction and informational text on familiar topics. Students learn to read text at a rate that is conversational and with expression. Students will show an their understanding of literary and informational text by summarizing, making connections between the pictures and story and identifying important facts. Students' vocabulary will expand in all subject areas through discussion of text that they listen to or read independently. Students will learn to express their understanding of text orally and in writing.

Intermediate Grades:

At the intermediate level, grades 3-5, students will experience a wide range of reading materials. Attention is devoted to instruction of both literary and informational text. Literary text includes short stories, mysteries, realistic fiction, chapter books, fairy tales, myths, poetry and plays. Informational text study will include content related to social studies, health, and science units. Students will learn to read textbooks, biographies, online materials, functional documents such as maps, recipes, and directions. Intermediate students read silently at a good rate and automatically use a wide range of wordsolving strategies while focusing on meaning. In oral reading, students continue to read with accuracy and expression. Readers learn to adjust their rate of reading based on the type of text and their purpose for reading. Readers learn to monitor their comprehension by recognizing when they lose understanding, and are then able to apply different strategies to regain meaning. Vocabulary instruction will focus on teaching students various ways to unlock the meaning of unfamiliar words. Students will learn to express their understanding of text orally and in writing.

Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum

Middle School

Grade 6

Students learn how to make purposeful and deliberate choices when responding to diverse media and formats. Students read grade-appropriate complex literary and informational texts while further developing the ability to cite textual evidence to support analyses when responding to text in written and spoken modes. Students analyze both the structure and content of complex, grade-appropriate text.

English 6 Units: Coming of Age, Courage, Heroes

Grade 7

Students learn how to make purposeful and deliberate choices when responding to diverse media and formats. Students proficiently read gradeappropriate complex literary and informational texts while further developing the ability to cite textual evidence to support analyses when responding to text in written and spoken modes. Students analyze both the structure and content of complex, grade-appropriate text. English 7 students expand their understanding of argument by addressing counterclaims in written and spoken responses.

English 7 Units: Perseverance, Facing Injustice, Thrills and Chills

Grade 8

Students learn how to make purposeful and deliberate choices when responding to diverse media and formats. Students proficiently read gradeappropriate complex literary and informational texts while further developing the ability to cite textual evidence to support analyses when responding to text in written and spoken modes. Students analyze both the structure and content of complex, grade-appropriate text.

English 8 Units: Love and Friendship, Freedom, Exploring the Unknown

Reading Modules in Middle School

Reading instruction in Howard County middle schools supports disciplinary literacy and the reading and writing standards while providing students with the skills that will enable them to thrive in a more competitive global economy.

Reading Module 6: Connections, Inventions, Taking Action, The Future of Water

Reading Module 7: The Citizen in Action, Opportunities, News Reporting, Careers, Digital Citizenship

Reading Module 8: The Future of Food, Economics in Action, Decisions, Advertising, Creating a Plan

High School

The Secondary English Language Arts program supports Goal 1 of Vision 2018: Fulfilling the Promise of Preparation as high school students come facetoface
with the reality that graduation and life after graduation is getting closer. The outcomes for student success include the following:

Critical readers and strategic writers who independently and effectively respond to diverse formats.

Effective communicators with a command of oratory, listening, and language skills.

An appreciation and enjoyment of diverse texts in diverse formats.

English 9 Units: Reflections: Past to Present, Dramatist as Social Commentator, Coming of Age, Imaginary Worlds

English 10 Units: Hopes and Fears, Individual and Society, The Pursuit of Power. The Hero's Journey

English 11 Units: American Dreams: The Society; American Visions: The Individual; American Perspectives: The Challenge; American Destinies: Reality and Hope

English 12 Units: European Origins: Tensions Between Humans and the Divine; Renaissance and Beyond: Hubris, Emotions, and Reasoning; Clash of Ideologies; Modern Voices: SelfActualization

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In the primary grades, K-2, students apply knowledge of phonics when attempting to read unknown words. As students move from Kindergarten to 2nd grade, they learn to identify and apply knowledge of phonics ranging from consonant sounds, vowel sounds and irregular patterns to decode words.

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Words with Bear - Donald R. Bear Literacy Professor

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Professor Donald R. Bear is a leader in literacy education.

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Fiddle Sticks - Undoubtedly the BEST game ever!!

I'm not exaggerating. Fiddle Sticks really is the best activity ever, especially for practicing skills such as sight word recognition and math facts. Invented over 30 years ago by my friend, Jill, as a fun way to practice articulation drills, the activity has been adapted by teachers to work on many different skills. Watch my video below to see how to make and the game of Fiddle Sticks!

My teacher friend, Deb, has made a set of Fiddle Sticks for each of the 9 lists (25 words each) of the Dolch 220 Sight Word list. She differentiates this activity by having groups of students play the game for the list that they are working on at the time. Of course, she uses her assessment data to group her students. Visit my Freebie section as I have the assessment form and materials for Lists 1-3.

Print the PDF below for written direction for assembling Fiddle Sticks as well as different ways to adapt the game.

Click the following link to download the directions for assembling this activity as well as the directions for playing this game: Fiddle Sticks

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Fiddle Sticks - Undoubtedly the BEST game ever!! I'm not exaggerating. Fiddle Sticks really is the best activity ever, especially for practicing skills such as sight word recognition and math facts. Invented over 30 years ago by my friend, Jill, as a fun way to practice articulation drills, the activity has been adapted by teachers [...]