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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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This concise and practical guide integrates effective reading strategies from each perspective. Every chapter of Shifting the Balance focuses on one of the six simple and scientifically sound shifts reading teachers can make to strengthen their approach to early reading instruction in these ar...

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Jamey Peavler - Targeted Small Group Instruction

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Jamey Peavler - Targeted Small Group Instruction

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Series 3: Ep. 2- Targeted Small Group Literacy Instruction with Jamey Peavler

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Katie Cunningham (Author), Jan Burkins (Author), Kari Yates (Author) & 0 more

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Shifting the Balance, Grades 3-5: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom

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Amazon.com: Shifting the Balance, Grades 3-5: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom: 9781625315977: Cunningham, Katie, Burkins, Jan, Yates, Kari: Books

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Teaching Language Comprehension vs Strategies Each Week

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Teaching Language Comprehension vs Strategies Each Week

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System--and How to Fix it

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System-and How to Fix it [Wexler, Natalie] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System-and How to Fix it

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This collection is intended to provide detailed information about reading development and acquisition, evidence-based reading instruction and…

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The Myth of Leveling Students in Reading

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The Myth of Leveling Students in Reading

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

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Article on Reading Levels vs Instructional Reading

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Article on Reading Levels vs Instructional Reading

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Every two weeks, they went to the library together and picked out as many books as they could carry, she said. Kelley signed him up for his own library card to double their maximum checkout to 60 books. She bought books wherever she could find them - at garage sales and thrift stores - and filled bookcases in their apartment.

In kindergarten, Kelley asked the teacher what kind of books her son should be reading at home. She wanted something to match the BAS level she'd heard so much about. The kindergarten teacher said to let her son pick out the books.

The boy always seemed to gravitate to the books he'd had since he was 3 years old, which he'd practically memorized. When Kelley asked him to try the new library books, he'd look at the pictures to guess what the sentences said. Kelley tried to help him sound out the words, but he'd get upset. He was adamant that she was wrong: He wasn't supposed to read that way, she recalled him saying.

Kelley said her son's writing was the biggest giveaway. When she went in for first-grade parent-teacher conferences, she opened his writer's notebook. "I flipped through his notebooks, and I saw a date and nothing: no writing, no input, zero. And I looked around the classroom and I saw other kids had, like, little paragraphs or little sentences. And he had nothing," she said. "Blank."

That was when Kelley convinced the school to give her son a full assessment. He was found to be dyslexic. But by the end of that school year, the BAS once again said he was close to where he should be. Kelley didn't buy it. She kept thinking to herself: "I'm losing time, I'm losing time."

A debunked theory

It's no surprise that Kelley's son used pictures to figure out what the words on the page said. That's one strategy Fountas and Pinnell encourage students to use. Other popular curricula teach similar strategies, even though research dating back to the 1970s has shown that the approach is ineffective and potentially harmful to children's progress in reading.

The books used to score the BAS often reward those problematic strategies. Especially at the lower levels, the books use repetitive sentence patterns accompanied by illustrations that make guessing words easy so a student can "read" them even if they can't sound out the words in the sentences.

As a child reads for the BAS, the teacher notes every word the child misses and decides which of three sources of information - sometimes called cues - might have thrown them off: Did the incorrect word make sense in the story context? Did it fit grammatically? Did it match any letters? The results are meant to reveal a pattern, hinting at students' strategies as they make their way through text.

At a November 2021 forum, Lisa Levin, an administrator at San Francisco Unified, told parents that teachers in the district used the BAS to understand "what readers are doing at the point of difficulty" - which cues they are using to decipher words, and which ones are throwing them off.

If a student is relying too heavily on the pictures, a teacher would want to draw their attention to the letters, she said. Conversely, if a student is relying too much on phonics, "like all they're doing is sounding it out, so their fluency kind of is chunky and not fluid," they might tell a very young reader to look at the picture, she said.

Levin gave the example of a 5-year-old who comes across the word "umbrella." Rather than "having to pause and stop and trying to sound out those long words," they should just look at the picture, she said.

However, decades of research by cognitive scientists have shown that encouraging students to use those clues to read can be detrimental to their progress in reading and, therefore, to their entire education.

"That's not the way that we want kids to read words," said Mark Seidenberg, a cognitive scientist at the University of Wisconsin who has conducted extensive research on how the brain processes language. "The idea that the child should be using all types of information all the time to read words is fundamentally wrong."

Seidenberg said Fountas and Pinnell have it "backwards." Their materials prompt students to use patterns, pictures and context. They give students "strategies for dealing with their failures," rather than teaching them to read, he said. And the BAS measures how well they use all those flawed strategies.

Rebecca Fedorko, a special education teacher who worked with children like Kelley's son in San Francisco schools, told administrators at the 2021 forum that Fountas and Pinnell's materials only made her job harder. She said she had to undo the bad habits their system taught struggling readers to rely on.

After resisting that kind of criticism for years, Fountas and Pinnell now appear to be working on revisions to the BAS and their curriculum. Last year, their publisher offered teachers $25 Amazon gift cards to review a proposed test version that de-emphasizes the use of cues, according to an email one participant shared with APM Reports.

'The damage has been done'

During the summer after her son was diagnosed with dyslexia, Kelley got him a scholarship to Lindamood-Bell, a tutoring company specializing in intensive reading instruction. And for the first time, she saw that there was another way to do it, one that seemed much more effective than the one his school had used.

The Lindamood-Bell tutors helped her son break spoken words into individual sounds and showed how those sounds matched up with letters. It was so different from what the teachers in San Francisco schools had done, she remembered thinking. Kelley said her son had "one lightning-bolt moment after another" with the lessons.

But when the school year began, teachers still pushed him to use pictures and context to figure out words - not to rely on sounding them out. Kelley could see the toll it was taking on her son. He knew he was behind, and he was frustrated. He'd complain of terrible headaches. When it was time to read, he'd sometimes go to the nurse with a stomachache. "There's only so much he can take," Kelley said.

As Kelley's son progressed through second, third and fourth grades, he kept moving up the BAS' levels. His scores were so high at one point that the principal suggested they discontinue special education services.

In fifth grade, when her son received a full reevaluation of his learning disability, as required under federal special education law, the results showed he'd made little progress on some reading measures compared to his peers. On others, he'd even slid backward. The evaluator said that, in some respects, Kelley's son was still effectively reading at a first-grade level.

Kelley said getting such inaccurate information from the BAS has been disorienting. The school had told her all along that he was meeting his goals based on Fountas and Pinnell's measures. But every outside assessment had given her different results, nearly "the complete opposite of what I'd been hearing," she said. In early 2022, halfway through fifth grade, Kelley transferred her son to a specialized school for children with disabilities.

About half of San Francisco's third graders aren't where they should be in reading. On last year's state test, 49% scored below grade-level standards. And there are stark disparities by race and ethnicity. Only 23% of Black third graders and 24% of Hispanic third graders met the standard in reading.

A spokesperson for San Francisco Unified declined APM Reports' repeated requests to make district officials available for an interview.

Officials at San Francisco Unified are only now acknowledging that the BAS distorted their view of students' early reading abilities. They've read the research parent advocates sent them showing there are likely other children in the district, like Kelley's son, that the test missed.

"Can a student succeed on [the Benchmark Assessment System] and not be literate?" Superintendent Wayne asked rhetorically at the March school board meeting. "That's the thing: Yes."

Wayne said he doesn't want teachers to feel that they can't sit with children and listen to them read aloud. However, he said the district needs an early reading test to accurately measure foundational skills such as sounding out words. "And that's the piece that's missing," Wayne said.

Kelley is now collaborating with the district. She's been meeting with administrators as they select a new language arts curriculum and accompanying assessments. She says she's advocating for San Francisco's other struggling readers. But she says the changes are coming too late for her family.

Her son is now in seventh grade and still struggles with reading, "just throwing out words" when he's stuck.

"The damage has been done, and it's not an easy fix. It's going to take a lot of time to get him just to that baseline," Kelley said. "And I still don't know if we're going to be OK."
Additional reporting by Emily Hanford and Will Callan.

This story was co-published with APM Reports. Its podcastSold a Story investigates how teaching kids to read went so wrong.

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Students' Reading Struggles Tied to Flawed Assessment. So Why Do Schools Use It? | KQED

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"Flipping a coin would actually be better" for identifying struggling readers, one researcher said of the test used in dozens of California school districts - including, until recently, San Francisco's.

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Testing What Has been Taught  Theres no Such Thing as a Reading test Hamilton.pdf

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Rethinking How to Promote Reading Comprehension

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Rethinking How to Promote Reading Comprehension

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Rethinking How We Promote Reading Comprehension.pdf

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Building Reading Comprehension for Readers in K-2

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Building Reading Comprehension for Readers in K-2

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This teacher shares lots of great FREEBIES!

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Jessica Farmer (@farmerlovesphonics) * Instagram photos and videos

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This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. See our disclosure policy.

The ultimate list of totally FREE decodable readers, books, e-books and PDFs available online in 2023, all compiled in a simple list. Included are 15 direct links for easy access to hundreds of FREE decodable texts.

Free Decodable Resources

Current research supporting the Science of Reading (SOR) shows that decodable texts are needed to establish effective reading skills to reinforce the phonics skills taught. So we've been searching high and low to compile a list of totally free resources and want to share with you.

In recent years, many companies saw the need to release free resources to educators to help us do our jobs with research-based best practices in place. Many companies have continued (at least for now) sharing these resources, including decodable books, readers, passages, and e-books.

As educators, we spend so much of our own money purchasing items for our classrooms to use with our students. But some of those resources are just so expensive!

A motto our grandpa loved to share with us that we now greatly appreciate and value is: "If it's free, it's for me!"

SPELD SA

SPELD SA Decodable Readers are the top choice from the list below. And the best part is that they have released their sets of decodable readers online for free!

❤ Why We Love It

Each book can be used online in an HTML version OR downloaded as a free PDF that can be printed as an actual book. This resource is the most comprehensive and includes various formats, including special versions for ipads or tablets.

Worksheets and fluency charts accompany each book! There are ten total sets of readers with many books included in each set.

This is an excellent resource within the classroom or to share with parents for effective at-home learning! If you want to learn more about decodable readers, watch this webinar from SPELD SA to find out all you need to know.

Tips & Information

Remember that decodables are a valuable tool in your toolbox...but they're not the only tool. And if you're new to Science of Reading (SOR), you may be staring at your bookshelves filled with leveled readers and wondering what to do next.

If you're interested in learning about using decodable AND leveled readers appropriately, watch this informative webinar. Be assured, there is a place both types of texts within your classroom for your students!

The Free Resources

Below is the list of resources that include free decodable readers. We listed them in order of personal preference, but be sure to check them all out! Click the links for direct access to the free resources.

1. SPELD-SA (New Series)

2. SPELD-SA (Old Series)

3. Flyleaf (Available again for 2022-2023 school year)

4. Beyond Decodables

5. TN Dept. of Education

6. UFLI Decodable Passages

7. Teach My Kid To Read

8. Half-Pint Readers

9. Auburn University Free Decodable Books

10. Academic Success for All Learners

11. Core Knowledge

12. Success for All

13. Printable and Online Decodable Books

14. Sounds-Write (Requires you to create a free account to access)

15. Moon At Home Series (10 free books)

A big THANK YOU to all of the publishers and organizations listed above. You saw a great need to help teachers make the switch to practices that support the Science of Reading, and you stepped up to meet it.

We appreciate your hard work and dedication to ensuring literacy for ALL!

More Decoding Resources

We'd love to hear about your experience with decodable readers, especially those online! If you have any other suggestions, we'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or tag us on Instagram @literacylearn.

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Hundreds of Free Decodable Readers, Books, PDFs, & eBooks (2023)

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The ultimate list of FREE decodable readers, books, e-books & PDFs available online in 2022, compiled in a list with direct links for access.

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What is the Science of Reading?  by UFLI

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What is the Science of Reading?  by UFLI

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Indiana:  Science of Reading - What I Should Have Learned in College

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Indiana:  Science of Reading - What I Should Have Learned in College

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Indiana: Science of Reading - What I Should Have Learned in College has 315 members. The purpose of this group is to help engage educators, learn about the body of work called the "Science of...

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At The Measured Mom®, our mission is to share high quality educational resources that are engaging for students and easy for educators.

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apmreports.org-Many kids struggle with reading  and children of color are far less likely to get the help they need

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Science of Reading - What I Should Have Learned in College

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Science of Reading - What I Should Have Learned in College

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

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Science of Reading: The Podcast, hosted by Susan Lambert, delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Listen today!

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A Shifting the Balance podcast, featuring authors Katie Egan Cunningham, Dr. Jan Burkins and Kari Yates.

A Shifting the Balance podcast, featuring authors Katie Egan Cunningham, Dr. Jan Burkins and Kari Yates.

Perfect Preview!

I think is an excellent podcast! The episodes are short previews of what to expect in each chapter/shift and gives the background behind their thinking. Have listened to each episode several times and would recommend to anyone reading or considering reading the book.

Waste of time

These authors jumped on SOR bandwagon after they knew they would be out of work if they continued to promote balanced literacy. They promoted leveled readers for kindergarten as recently as 2020. They couldn't give suggestions for decodable books. Total frauds! The MomsLuv2Read review definitely is also fake!

Surface level

It begins with the premise that balanced literacy can incorporate the science! They contradict one another! Nothing about literacy is balanced! Listen to amplify or Melissa and Lori if you want real science of reading info!

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A Shifting the Balance podcast, featuring authors Katie Egan Cunningham, Dr. Jan Burkins and Kari Yates.

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality instructional materials! Join Melissa and Lori as they learn about new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of their experience has been in the classroom from primary through high school, but they also have experience at district and state leadership levels in literacy. Guests include school-based educators and leaders, district leaders, literacy researchers and experts, and passionate parents and community members. Website: www.literacypodcast.com

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality instructional materials! Join Melissa and Lori as they learn about new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of their experience has been in the classroom from primary through high school, but they also have experience at district and state leadership levels in literacy. Guests include school-based educators and leaders, district leaders, literacy researchers and experts, and passionate parents and community members. Website: www.literacypodcast.com

More confident teacher

I am grateful for the things that I learn from this podcast that help me be a more confident teacher.

Very informative-thank you!!

I love this podcast, specifically Episode 150 with the focus on secondary learners! As a high school remedial ELA teacher, I appreciate Melissa and Lori taking the time to shine the spotlight on literacy needs at the secondary level, a group majorly overlooked by research and intervention programs (aside from Dr. Archer's REWARDS). I would greatly appreciate additional podcasts focused on secondary students, ones that really hone in on multisyllabic decoding, and eventually, reading comprehension. Although these skills need to be taught similarly to primary reading intervention, my students are young adults that need the strategies taught to them in a more age-appropriate way. Building a classroom culture of acceptance and support really doesn't cut it with teens living on the street or on drugs.

Thought Provoking

The speakers that these ladies have on their show always leave me thinking about how I can improve my instruction and implement all the things they talk about. I love how Melissa and Lori put themselves in the teacher's position and ask the questions teachers would have. Every episode is applicable, and I have huge takeaways from each. Thank you for all of the work you put in to making this podcast amazing.

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‎Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ on Apple Podcasts

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality instructional materials! Join Melissa and Lori as they learn about new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of their exp...

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How Many Sight Words Do You Have in Your Orthographic Lexicon or Sight Word Memory?

Did you know that literate adults have a library of 30,000 to 70,000 words they can read automatically, accurately, and effortlessly? These words are considered "sight words" because we instantly recognize them by sight. This library of sight words is called your "orthographic lexicon" or "sight word memory."

What does it take for a word to get anchored in our "orthographic lexicon" or "sight word memory?" Why is it easier for some students to recognize words instantly while other students struggle significantly more? Are there instructional methods that can have a greater impact than others? How many sight words should we teach our students?

Read our blog below and join us for our Science of Reading Virtual Workshop to learn all about the science behind how we anchor sight words into our orthographic lexicon. Additionally, learn how to access our free resource Heart Word Magic and help your students make tricky high-frequency words sticky.

How to Make Sight Words Sticky & Heart Word Magic!

You may have noticed we've used the term "sight word" differently than how it is used in many classrooms. Many educators use the terms "sight words" and "high-frequency words" interchangeably. In this series, we will be careful to differentiate between these two terms, so let's start with a few key definitions:

What Are Sight Words?

These are any words that we decode quickly and effortlessly. Sight words are not just words like to, from, the, and is; they can also be words like majestic, subtropical, and encyclopedia. We can typically read these familiar words in less than .20/second or 200 milliseconds without any conscious effort. This effortless retrieval of words allows literate adults to read 300 words a minute, faster than we can comprehend speech (Farrall, 2018).

What Is Sight Word Memory or Orthographic Lexicon?

This is the whole library of words that a person can read effortlessly. Everyone's sight word memory or orthographic lexicon is different. Many doctors can read words like paresthesia, fasciculation, and diaphragmatic effortlessly, while people not in the medical community cannot. Read the following paragraph below. Were you able to read paresthesia, fasciculation, and diaphragmatic effortlessly? Perhaps you can't, but doctors probably can. That's because doctors have decoded them successfully several times, thus anchoring them into their sight word memory. In fact, the primary goal of decoding is to build words into our sight word memoryor orthographic lexicon.

*Paresthesia is that tingling feeling you get when your hand or foot "falls asleep" and then starts to wake back up. Fasciculation is a tiny twitch you sometimes feel under your skin. Diaphragmatic describes something that relates to your diaphragm; a synchronous diaphragmatic flutter, for example, is a fancy word for a hiccup! (Okrent, 2017)

What Are High-Frequency Words?

These words are the most common words in print. The Dolch and Fry are commonly used high-frequency word lists. In education, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on getting students to recognize high-frequency words automatically and for good reason. In her book Uncovering the Logic of English, Denise Eide (2012) reports that "...according to some counts, the 100 most frequently used words make up 50% of all that we read and write." At Really Great Reading, we like to call these words Heart Words because we want students to know them "by heart."

Heart Words can be categorized into two groups - Regularly Spelled and Irregularly Spelled.

What Are Regularly Spelled Heart Words? Words that can be decoded using common phonics knowledge and letter-sound relationships (decodable words). These are words like and, it, in, and but. Notice that in each of these words, the consonant and vowel letters make the sounds that we expect. We can call these regularly spelled high-frequency words Simple Heart Words.

What Are Irregularly Spelled Heart Words? Words that deviate from common phonics patterns or familiar letter-sound relationships (non-decodable words). These are words like from, what, give, and do. Each of these words has at least one letter that spells a sound we do not typically expect it to spell. When words are irregularly spelled, research suggests that they are harder to anchor into our sight word memory. Let's call these Tricky Heart Words.

How Do Heart Words Become Sight Words in Our Orthographic Lexicon?

Getting students to instantly recognize Heart Words, whether regularly spelled or irregularly spelled, is a common focus in primary grades. How educators anchor these words into a child's memory varies. The most common technique is simply rote memorization through multiple exposures to the whole word, essentially practicing the word many times until it sticks. Research suggests, however, that there may be more productive techniques.

In his book Equipped for Reading Success (2016), Dr. David Kilpatrick describes how we permanently store words in our sight word memory. He calls this process Orthographic Mapping. When a word is sufficiently "mapped," it can be retrieved effortlessly. He explains, "To be good orthographic mappers, children need to develop three skills: 1) automatic letter-sound associations, 2) highly proficient phoneme awareness, and 3) word study" (p.41). In essence, word study is the unconscious or conscious process of connecting the phonemes (sounds) to the written form of the word (Kilpatrick, 2016). Kilpatrick continues, "The word-study aspect of mapping is the superglue that anchors words into permanent memory" (p. 41).

When trying to teach our kids to read and spell Heart Words by rote memorization, we often leave out word study! We forget about helping students see the connections between the letters and sounds, even though Kilpatrick (2015) tells us that "the vast majority of irregular words have only a single irregular letter-sound relationship" (p. 105), making the letter-sound relationships quite useful for learning a word. This makes word study a much more powerful tool than "flashcard rote memorization."

Rote memorization relies on a sufficient number (and "sufficient" can vary greatly from student to student) of pictorial imprints to trigger a word's phonological representation (the actual spoken word). This rote memorization approach is not much different from having a child look at the shape of a state and trying to remember if it is Missouri or Arkansas. But we know from Kilpatrick and others that storing words in our sight word memory should include phonics and phonemic awareness. Involving word study will help many of our students.

Fast Facts - From Literacy Experts

It may seem counterintuitive that word study and predictable phoneme-grapheme relationships should play a large role in how we help students remember irregular Heart Words. Take a moment to consider what Kilpatrick (2015) points out about most irregular words though: "The vast majority of irregular words have only a single irregular letter-sound relationship" (p. 105). Consider words like to, do, from, what, and want. Not only are all but one of the letter-sound relationships in these words predictable, knowledge of the unpredictable parts will help students later in their decoding careers. To say it another way, it's not like we look at the word from and say "glorb." Our phoneme-grapheme knowledge gets us most of the way there with these Tricky Heart Words-and Heart Word Magic can get us the rest of the way, helping us remember that the o in from spells short u, just like in the word of.

Words of the Week - Word Level Discovery

Orthographic Lexicon = The collection of words a person can read effortlessly. This is the term researchers use for our sight word memory.

We Love Educator Feedback & Questions

Contact us anytime. Our mission is to provide educators with the most efficient and effective tools for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics concepts, word attack skills, accurate reading, and fluency. Student outcomes are our number one goal. No one knows their students better than educators. Therefore, your thoughts, strategies, student successes, speed bumps, and feedback are held in high esteem! Send us your feedback and experiences>>

References

Eide, D. (2011). Uncovering the logic of English: A common-sense approach to reading, spelling, and literacy. Minneapolis: Pedia Learning.

Farrall, M. (2018, October). Understanding reading fluency: Research implications for assessment and instruction. Session presented at the Annual International Dyslexia Association's Reading, Learning, & Literacy Conference, Mashantucket, CT.

Kilpatrick, D. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Kilpatrick, D. (2016). Equipped for reading success: A comprehensive step-by-step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition. Syracuse, NY: Casey & Kirsch.

Okrent, A. (2017). 21 fancy medical terms for mundane problems. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/58463/21-fancy-medical-terms-mundane-prob...

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Make Tricky Sight Words Sticky - Really Great Reading Blog

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row][oneThird]Visit Our Library of Heart Word Magic Videos>>Register for a Science of Reading Virtual Workshop>>[/oneThird][twoThird]How Many Sight Words Do You Have in Your Orthographic Lexicon or Sight Word Memory?Did you know that literate adults have a library of 30,000 to 70,000 words they can read automatically, accurately, and effortlessly?

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Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science, bu Louisa C. Moats

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Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science, bu Louisa C. Moats

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What’s So Important About the Alphabetic Principle? - The Literacy Nest

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What is the alphabetic principle? Find out the most effective activities to build and strengthen knowledge of the alphabetic principle.

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When we think of classrooms, we almost always envision an alphabet with pictures posted somewhere in the room. We may not realize that the keywords or images used in alphabet posters and books matter - a lot more than you may think! Many cute and colorful alphabet posters are available, and we may gravitate toward what is aesthetically pleasing, but these are not the best choices for our students and classrooms.

Analyzing Our ABC Charts - Why It Matters

Reading is the ability to connect spoken sounds to their letter representations. We want students to elicit the smallest unit of spoken sound, or phoneme, in its purest form. For this reason, being mindful of keywords is essential.

What does this mean? The ability to segment phonemes (sounds) into their smallest units and then blend those sounds into words is what is needed to read and spell. Keywords or pictures we choose to link to graphemes (letter/s) need to connect directly to the individual phoneme (sound).

In English, sounds are altered in pronunciation during running speech. The letters surrounding one another can be coarticulated and shift the sounds. Our awareness of individual speech sounds versus sound production in words when speaking is necessary as we analyze what keywords to use.

What Impacts Sounds?

Coarticulation - Coarticulation is the phenomenon that occurs when one speech sound impacts another. This neighboring of speech changes the phoneme production. We end up with overlapping speech sounds. When we speak, we produce, on average, 15 phonemes per second. For this to occur, we simultaneously engage our vocal tract, mouth movements, etc., to create this rapid speech. As this happens, we naturally anticipate the next sound, making this coarticulation of speech.

Dialect - How we pronounce words varies based on dialect, regional influences, culture, etc. There was a recent social media survey about how the word "crayon" is pronounced differently. Some people say "cray-on"; others say "cran," while some may say "crown." I am originally from MN, so I say "cran" in 1-syllable, while my husband says "cray-on." If you haven't seen the "crayon" survey - check it out here . You can see that regional influences impacted the pronunciation of the word.

Allophonic variations - There are some predictable ways in which speech sounds may vary. These sounds are usually impacted by the surrounding sounds. One common allophonic variant is nasalization. The influence of the nasal /m/, /n/, and /ng/ can impact surrounding phoneme sound production. This is why keywords like "ant" and "under" or "umbrella" do not produce the pure sound of /a/ and /u/. The nasal alters the vowel sound.

What keywords and sounds do we need to monitor closely?

We should be mindful of every picture/keyword we choose to connect phonemes to graphemes, but some continuously prove problematic.

Does Individual Phoneme Production Really Matter?

Yes! Individual phoneme production is an integral part of reading and spelling instruction. Students need to be able to isolate phonemes to segment. The skill of segmenting is the ability to take apart individual phonemes, or sounds, within words. Think of these as the parking spots for the letters representing these sounds. When we help students identify the placement of their mouth for individual sound production, we create a connection between what we are hearing and how that sound feels in our mouth. Researchers have found that 25% of students receiving services for a Speech Sound Disorder also have a reading disability. We want to ensure that we are connecting keywords that assist students in producing correct sounds.

Short Vowel Sounds

Short vowel sounds make up almost 50% of all syllable types, therefore, we need students to solidify their knowledge and production of short vowel sounds. Since most alphabet charts are used in early grades where students are learning to link speech sounds to print, it makes sense that the pictures associated with the vowel letters represent the short vowel sounds.

👆Watch this video with movements and keywords to elicit the short vowel sounds for more details.

Most of our classroom posters use the image of an apple for short a, which is helpful as it elicits a pure sound of /a/. When analyzing images on classroom charts and materials, we want to avoid those which would have "ant" or "airplane" as the keyword. Why? In the word "ant," the letter a is followed by the nasal /n/ which creates an allophonic variation distorting the sound of /a/. Say "ant" to yourself and listen to the difference in that sound versus the sound when we say "apple". You can hear how in "ant" there is a nasal sound that slightly impacts the vowel sound. It reminds me of a whiny sound. Keeping to the keyword "apple" elicits the pure sound for short a.

Short e /e/

Many posters will use the image of an elephant or an egg. Upon first glance, this may not seem problematic; however, when we segment the sounds in the word elephant, we often hear a clipped short e with more emphasis on /l/. In addition, some children, when saying "elephant," will associate the letter L, as that is what they hear when we say the keyword. ELaphant, L. Another common picture choice is an egg. For many, depending on dialect, the /e/ can be said as /A/. It can be challenging for some children to elicit a pure sound /e/ from these word choices. Instead, words like "echo" and "edge" allow us to elongate the initial phoneme while maintaining its sound.

Another vowel sound impacted by the picture choice is /i/. Many times, alphabet charts will showcase words like "ice cream" or "igloo" or "in". Beginning readers need to gain clear knowledge and application of short vowel sound production. The keyword "ice cream" also has a slight vowel shift into /ye/ - /i/-/ye/-/s/-/k/-/r/-/E/-/m/. The keyword "igloo" has some dialect differences and can may be said with a slight /e/ sound. The word "in" is problematic because of the vowel /i/ nasalization, which picks up a slight /e/ because of the following /n/. Instead, we can use words like "icky" or "itchy" to elicit the /i/ sound in the purest form. I add these keywords before my image of an insect so my students will say and act out, "itchy insect." as we itch our arms or "icky insect" as we pretend to shoo away a bug.

Short u /u/

In many alphabet posters, we see pictures like "unicorn" and "umbrella". The word "unicorn" begins with a gliding /y/ - /yu/-/n-/i/-/k/-/or/-/n/. This hidden 'y' shifts the vowel sound. The keyword "umbrella" has a nasal variant where /m/ alters the short u sound slightly. An easy way to adjust this keyword is to draw an arrow pointing up by the umbrella. My students will act out putting their umbrella up as we say /u/.

Common Consonant Keywords To Analyze

We know that short vowel sound production and precise keywords are critical; there are some commonly used images for consonants that need reflection.

Pictures for x

In a short Google© search, the keywords for x are visibly problematic. The image of an x-ray is seen on alphabet charts across classrooms and publishing companies, but this is not the best keyword to help students elicit the sound for x, which is /k/-/s/. When you say x-ray, you are first producing the short e sound, which is a distortion for the letter x. Another keyword seen on alphabet charts that need to be analyzed and removed is the word "xylophone." In the word "xylophone" the x represents the /z/ sound, which is not the most common sound association for the letter x. We always want to move students from the most common sound-letter production to the least. Instead, use keywords like "fox" and "box" to allow students to pronounce and isolate the /k/-/s/ sound for the letter x while reinforcing the most common sound-spelling relationship.

Pictures for g

The more common sound for the letter g is the hard /g/ as in goat and gum. The letter g represents /j/ when preceding the letter e, i, or y. This spelling generalization is referred to as soft g. When using alphabet charts to link speech sounds to print, especially for those beginning readers, we want to use keywords that elicit /g/. When charts use the keyword "giraffe", it is confusing for students for several reasons. First, when saying the name of the letter g, the first sound we say if /j/. /j/-/E/ Second, the picture of the giraffe represents the soft g sound, /j/. When beginning readers are practicing decoding, they are using the hard g sound in the earlier CVC patterns like gum, go, and got.

Initial Blends

When we use words like "grape" for /g/ or "star" for /s/, we are not providing students with a sound-letter-keyword linkage that elicits the pure sound. Keywords like "dragon" or "train" are not good choices because when we say "dragon" it sounds more like "jragon" and "train" sounds more like "chrain" in running speech.

What Educators Should Do About ABC Charts

As you can see, the keywords and images that we choose to showcase on our alphabet posters and charts in our classroom have a deep impact on beginning readers and their knowledge of sound-letter correspondences. Using our knowledge as educators, we can shift our practices and analyze our materials through the lens of research and the elements of structured literacy.

You don't need to purchase new materials; you can analyze your materials and make the necessary changes to align your keywords with sound production.

If you are looking for alphabet posters aligned with speech production, these alphabet wall posters with 4 different font options and teacher guide for sound production and keyword linkages.

Looking for videos of sound production in isolation? You can find my whole series on sound production, including videos HERE

Reference
Tambyraja, S.R., Farquharson, K., & Justice, L. (2020). Reading risk in children with speech sound disorder: prevalence, persistence, and predictors. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00108

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When we think of classrooms, we almost always envision an alphabet with pictures posted somewhere in the room. We may not realize that the keywords or images used in alphabet posters and books matter - a lot more than you may think!

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Are you working toward building a common literacy language around the Science of Reading in your school? Share these reading and spelling prompts with your classroom teams and get on the same page with helping kids read and spell words.

There are five different prompts for decoding words and spelling prompts for single syllable and multisyllabic words.

Enjoy!

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Strategy Posters for Reading & Spelling Words: Science of Reading

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Are you working toward building a common literacy language around the Science of Reading in your school? Share these reading and spelling prompts with your classroom teams and get on the same page with helping kids read and spell words. There are five different prompts for decoding words and spelli...

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Hi everyone! This post has been a LONG time coming. The more I learn about reading and the brain, the more hungry I get for even more information! I keep hearing experts say "reading is rocket science". I completely agree! Understanding the "science of reading" has transformed the way I teach.

This post is part of a series that I'm doing about dyslexia. Make sure you check out the other posts about dyslexia here. This post doesn't quite dive into dyslexia, but it sure does set the stage! This is all about how our brain reads. I find this all SO fascinating!

Before I go any further, I have to say a little disclaimer: I am not a brain scientist. I do not have a PHD or anything like that. This comes from several years of reading articles and books, taking online classes and other pd workshops on the topic. I am slightly obsessed with the topic of dyslexia, but I don't feel like I can call myself an expert. I do feel like it is SO important to share the knowledge that I do have.

After reading this post and m y other posts about dyslexia, I encourage you to keep learning and start making adjustments to your teaching so you can meet the needs of students with dyslexia (which happen to be 1 in 5.) I'm STILL making these adjustments, learning, and trying to meet the needs of these students. It's not easy, but I feel like it's so important to at least get this dialogue started (or continue it if you've already started) so we can make positive changes together. Okay, my little speech is over and now to the good stuff! 🙂

Since this blog post is SO long and has so much information, I've made a little "key" to help organize all this.

I think it's best to start with this little nugget:

I first heard this when I went to a hear Dr. Louisa Moats speak. She's amazing! To read an interview with her, click here. The first time I heard this was from Dr. Louisa Moats, it totally woke me up! I had never really realized this or even thought about it! Now that I have been teaching reading for so long, it makes a lot of sense. Reading is an incredibly complex skill!

So if the brain is not "wired to read", how do we do it?

When we speak and listen, we don't need to break apart the individual phonemes that make up words. In fact, we aren't really aware of them at first. We say words as bigger parts.

When we learn to read and write, we must first figure out that all of our words are made up of smaller phonemes, or sounds. Instead of hearing and saying a word as a whole, we must break it apart into much smaller sounds.

We rely on our language modules in our brains to convert this print into the linguistic code (phonetic code) we have created. We can't do this until we have that ability to break apart words into their individual phonemes. "70-80% of American children learn how to transform printed symbols into a phonetic code without much difficulty." (Shaywitz, 2003) Think about that. Are you thinking about the remaining 20-30%?

You may have seen this Scarborough rope before. Basically, it's showing you what it takes to be a truly "skilled" readers. Many of our dyslexic students have the language comprehension, but the skills involved in the word recognition part is a roadblock. For this post, we will be focusing on that bottom part of this "rope."

This is the same information, just another way to look at it:

Since reading skills are tied to these language skills, it is important to look at all of them. I will come back to this slide later, when I talk more about reading instruction.

The Process of Learning To Read

Before we jump to the brain, let's look a little more at the skills involved in the learning to read.

Students need to learn how to decode and then develop word recognition before they can read for meaning. However, you can still develop language comprehension from an early age that will later help them when they have the tools to read the actual words.

Breaking it down, here is how a child learns to read.

Phonological awareness comes easier to some kids than others. Many children develop it without any real instruction by the time they need to learn to read. Others need a little boost in the form of fun nursery rhymes, games that play with words, and minimal instruction. Still, there are many who need intensive instruction with phonemic awareness before beginning to learn to read.

To read more about phonological awareness, click HERE.

The alphabet principal is the idea that those lines and circles actually carry meaning when they are linked together. Words are made up of letters and letters represent sounds. To read about I teach the alphabet using a research-based approach, click here.

Applying decoding skills and developing word recognition is faster for some and slower for others. For many children, it can be incredible difficult. To read more about phonics, click here.

After students are able to decode words, they can start committing them to memory. To store a new word into long-term memory, the reader needs to link the sequence of letters to the pronunciation and meaning. The average reader needs to see a word 4-14 times before they can read it with automaticity. (Dyslexic readers need to see it 40+ times!) The more a reader is exposed to words, the quicker they are committing these words to memory. To read more about h ow we learn words, click here.

According to research, teaching students to sound out words actually "sparks more optimal brain circuitry than instructing them to memorize the word." Isn't that interesting?! (You can read more from this article HERE.) You will see below where in the brain this all happens.

I won't be getting into comprehension in this post very much (because this is already too long), but obviously that is the end goal. It's the whole reason why we teach phonics. Phonemic awareness and alphabetic principal leads to breaking the phonetic code which leads to automatic word retrieval which leads to fluency which allows the reader to truly gain access to the text and, hopefully, read for meaning.

Of course there are those students who can word call like crazy but can't comprehend. That's because that skill happens as a result of activation in a different part of the brain.

To read about how I teach comprehension, click here.

What is Happening in the Brain While we Read?

Now, onto what is happening in our brains when we are reading. Above is the process t hat we can see. As teachers, we see this happening every year with our students. They start out sounding out words, and as they year goes on, they become more and more fluent. By the end of first grade, most kids are reading 40-80 words/minute.

So, how does this happen? Why do some kids still struggle after loads of practice and quality instruction? The answers are all there, thanks to fMRI's (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.) Scientists can now literally see what is happening in our brains when we read and what is happening in the brains of struggling readers. I'm going to try to break it down as best I can. Keep in mind, science was not my subject in school at all. I also have no background in brain anything. 😉

Brain clip art: copyright Away With The Pixels

Reading is supported by a network of regions in the LEFT hemisphere.

Remember when I mentioned that reading is not a natural skill that we are born to do? There are no parts of the brain that are innately dedicated to learning to read. Instead there are parts of the brain that are used for spoken language and object recognition, which we use for reading. (Dehaene &Cohen, 2007)

Brain Systems Most Active While Reading

Through fMRI's, scientists have found that there are four main brain systems that are active while reading.

This information is from Sally Shaywitz book: Overcoming Dyslexia

Two of these pathways for reading are in the posterior system (back of the brain):

Think about our beginning readers. They are relying on this because they have not had enough exposure to automatically identify every word. (You'll learn more about this in a sec.) Our new readers need multiple opportunities to practice this skill.

1. They need to know the letters and the sounds they represent with automaticity. If they don't have these sounds down, it will slow them down with this process. Simply knowing the letters and letter combinations isn't enough. We need to give students plenty of practice to master this skill and develop automaticity.

2. They need to have phonemic awareness (they must be able to pull those sounds apart and blend the individual sounds together with relative ease.)

3. Systematic, explicit phonics and morphology instruction helps students make the connections they need to turn print into meaning.

This is the part of the brain that we hope is getting busy as our students finish first grade and entering second grade, right?! This made a few things pop in my head when I read over this.

It does start with phonics. Repetitive exposures to sounding out those words (reading and spelling) DOES usually lead to eventually recognizing the word with automaticity later.

Phonics is a tool that gets us to that goal of automaticity.

Back to that research I mentioned above. They found in the study that when teaching two groups using different methods (teaching phonics vs. whole word memorizing,) that the brain showed more activation on the left with the phonics method and more on the right with the whole word method. Strong activation on the left was the "hallmark" for skilled readers, which also happens to be lacking in struggling readers.

I recently went to an excellent teacher training by PDX Reading Specialist, Barbara Steinberg. She pointed out that our brains can only hold so many words to be memorized. So what we are actually doing is memorizing word parts more often. These parts are what we retrieve so quickly and link together to make more words. This points more to the importance of teaching phonics and morphology.

The third pathway is in the front of the brain in the Broca's area. The frontal system is responsible for phonological processing and semantic processing (word analysis). (Willis, 2008)

The Broca's area helps a person vocalize words and start to analyzing phonemes.

Neuro-typical readers rely on the left side of the brain for reading. Students with dyslexia rely more on the right side of the brain, resulting in reading that is slower and more labored.

With dyslexia, there is a neurobiological reason for why students struggle with reading. My next blog post is all about how a dyslexic brain reads. Here's a hint- there are different levels of activation in various parts of the brain that I've mentioned.

The Language Processes of Skilled Readers

This brings us back to the yellow slides. When these brain systems all work together, it seems like reading is seamless. Let's review the types of language processing that need to occur to be a skilled reader.

These are the major components of the structure of our language:

These pieces all work together to create meaningful communication (whether it be oral or written).

We all know how important this is! I've had students who seem to have great phonemic awareness but they cannot remember a word! They sound out words every time.

This slide above is to help with all the vocab I'm throwing at you...

These next slides show the higher level language skills. It's important to start focusing on these even with our beginning readers. The frontal lobe is responsible for comprehension. Have you ever had a student that is a slow reader and bad speller BUT has awesome comprehension. Here's why: The frontal systems are working like crazy. They are bright kids and they get it. Their brains are just not using the same pathways that would make their reading fluent. This is why we want to make sure that, although our remedial instruction is at their reading level, they are still exposed to TONS of literature at their intellectual level. Read-alouds and audio books are great for this. Have you ever had a struggling reader who is the first one to raise his/her hand with a thoughtful comment or question about your read-aloud? Yep. They need that and we need to make sure we are engaging their brains and helping them grow their vocabulary and higher-order thinking skills. (I promise- more about this in future posts!)

What Does This Mean for Educators?

Click here to read a post about an instructional approach called Structured Literacy.

Other Blog Posts about Dyslexia

Acknowledgements

I highly recommend reading Sally Shaywitz's book called O vercoming Dyslexia.

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Reading and the Brain - Sarah's Teaching Snippets

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Reading is a complex skill. Our brains are wired to speak, but not to read and write. Various parts of the brain work together in order to read.

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Access various reading and math resources and educational tools related to Lexile and Quantile levels for teachers and parents.

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The Brain Prize Presents: Stanislas Dehaene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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