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M.Ed. - Character Education

Post-Grad. Cert. - Early Literacy Development

25+ years PK-G2 classroom teacher

Literacy Coach, Mentor Program Coordinator

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

miles@erinkentconsulting.com

linkedin.com/in/milesmadison/

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Illuminating (but polarizing!) Podcast - Sold A Story

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Illuminating (but polarizing!) Podcast - Sold A Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Reading 101: Self-Paced Learning Modules

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

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Science of Reading-Reading League Defining Guide

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Science of Reading-Reading League Defining Guide

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40 pg Presentation--user friendly!

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

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

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

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

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‎„Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™“ auf Apple Podcasts

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

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

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‎„Science of Reading: The Podcast" auf Apple Podcasts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Overview

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Video: You get good at what you practice

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

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

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

Video: Using decodable texts in the classroom

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

A hat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video: A look at decodable texts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mud picnics are fun. Let's tell mom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video: Decodable texts example

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

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

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

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

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

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

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EKC/UFLI Progress Monitoring Weekly Planner

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EKC/UFLI Progress Monitoring Weekly Planner

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For each of these seven must haves, Wiley shares lessons, routines, word lists, tips for ELL and advanced learners, and advice on pitfalls to avoid regarding pacing, decodable texts, transition time, and more.

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A Fresh Look at Phonics, Grades K-2: Common Causes of Failure and 7 Ingredients for Success (Corwin Literacy)

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Amazon.com: A Fresh Look at Phonics, Grades K-2: Common Causes of Failure and 7 Ingredients for Success (Corwin Literacy): 9781506326887: Blevins, Wiley: Books

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These are high quality decodables and FREE!

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

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

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Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact

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Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact

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Author Wiley Blevins is renowned for changing the way educators think about teaching children to read, helping thousands of teachers implement effective phonics instruction. Now, Blevins gets us to think in powerful new ways about differentiating whole-class phonics lessons, so students at every skill level can engage. With Blevins' trademark clarity, Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact provides:

High-impact routines that focus on the skills known to develop students' literacy best.

Differentiated application of these routines―with fun multi-modal games and variations―for students working on- below-, and above grade-level expectations, and for multilingual learners

Guidelines for creating skills-based small groups for more intensive work

"Look-fors" for teachers and supervisors, to know when instruction is working or needs to be adjusted

Several reproducible phonics and spelling assessments for placement, progress monitoring, and formative assessments to keep every learner growing as readers and writers.

Differentiation needs to be in the DNA of every instructional plan―so all students′ skills progress every day. That's a tall order, but with this resource, teachers discover that over time, doing the routines gives them a nimble, global sense of their learners and makes teaching more impactful and learning to read more joyful.

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Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact: How to Scaffold Whole-Group Instruction So All Students Can Access Grade-Level Content (Corwin Literacy)

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Amazon.com: Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact: How to Scaffold Whole-Group Instruction So All Students Can Access Grade-Level Content (Corwin Literacy): 9781071894279: Blevins, Wiley: Books

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Free Decodable Story Generator for the Science of Reading · Project Read

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Generate a decodable story compatible with any Science of Reading-based phonics curriculum for free. Download a student-friendly PDF in seconds.

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Determining the Right Literacy Intervention: Using Assessment to Guide your Course: Podcast

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Determining the Right Literacy Intervention: Using Assessment to Guide your Course: Podcast

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Narrator: Welcome to EDVIEW360.

Dr. Susan Smartt: We've got to make sure that what we're doing is effective and is working, and if not, we have to determine what's the next best step for the student based on the data.

Narrator: You just heard from author and reading expert, Dr. Susan Smartt. Dr. Smartt is our guest today on EDVIEW360.

Pam Austin: Hello, this is Pam Austin. Welcome back to the EDVIEW360 podcast series. We are so excited to have you with us today. I'm conducting today's podcast from my native New Orleans, LA. Today, we are excited to welcome a respected educator, researcher, and author who has dedicated her career to reading success for every child, Dr. Susan Smartt.

Let me tell you a bit more about Dr. Smartt before we get started with our conversation. As a senior research associate at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Smartt engaged in research, writing, and teaching focused on improving teacher preparation in reading. Previously, she was a national literacy consultant with state departments, teacher preparation programs, and local school districts focusing on school reform, reading intervention for low-performing schools, using data to inform practice, developing Response to Intervention initiatives, and implementing scientifically based literacy programs.

Dr. Smartt owned and directed a reading clinic for more than 20 years. She has been a classroom teacher, a reading coach, a reading specialist, and a principal. She was an early contributor to the development of LETRS ® and past president of the Tennessee branch of the International Dyslexia Association ®. Currently, Dr. Smartt tutors and provides advocacy services for students with dyslexia. Welcome Dr. Smartt.

SS: Thank you, Pam. Great to be with you.

PA: It's awesome to have you. Let's get started. In your experience, you've worked with countless students in classrooms in your quest to help all students learn to read, with an emphasis on those with reading challenges including dyslexia. Tell us a bit about your career path and why in your opinion, accurate assessment is the essential tool to seeing every student succeed.

SS: Oh, that's a great question, Pam. Thank you. It's loaded. You know I like to talk about myself, so I will go back five decades and tell you the beginning of this literacy journey. I started in the early '70s. In my early teaching experience, I had a fifth-grade class with 43 students in it, and of those 43 students, five could read on a pre-primer level. Back then, we used the Dolch word list and we could sort through flashcards and find out exactly how many words our students could recognize, and five of my students only knew five sight words or Dolch words. That started this journey. I had been educated at one of the best teacher prep universities and was ready to go and change the world, and yet when I got these 5, 10, 11, and 12 year olds who couldn't read, that started this entire journey. Since then, I've always asked: Why do some kids have so much trouble learning to read and how do we determine the best way, the most effective way to teach struggling readers?

That was the beginning and since that time, I've asked that question and learned more and more and the research has enlightened us to begin to get more direction and assessment has been, I think the key that helps us identify where those kids are struggling and why they're struggling, and then being able to pinpoint exactly where the intervention comes.

So, I started in that classroom. I decided that more degrees would help me understand how kids learn to read better. So, I did a master's degree in reading and special ed and spent my time doing miscue analysis, counting those and getting in trouble for answering the wrong questions when asked how to help struggling readers because I would say: "Well, let's have them read nonsense words." And my professor would say: "Oh, Susan, Susan, if reading for meaning is the answer, why would you have them read nonsense words?"

That was probably in the maybe later '70s when whole language was so prominent, and that's the way that I was trained at that time, even though I had gotten phoneme correspondence classes at Florida State before that. So, I went through that period of time. I finished that degree, went over to Vanderbilt Medical Center, worked in child psychiatry. My job there was to do assessment. So, all of the students who came in to be inpatients needed to be evaluated. I started and continued my journey and assessment there.

After my time at Vanderbilt University in that kind of setting, I went into private practice and I began to see kids, all kinds of students with reading difficulties, and I continued my quest to try to understand it more and more each year, each decade that came along. And then probably around 2003, I got exposed to DIBELS. I got to go down to Florida. At that time, Florida was doing a statewide training of all their teachers in DIBELS. So, I got that training and that seemed to clarify some of my questions. If we could have a really quick instrument to screen all kids and identify those who were at risk and then pinpoint the instruction, gosh, that made a lot of sense.

After that, I went and did The Reading First and went around the country doing training, both in assessment and intervention, helped with the beginning of LETRS with assessment. And so, all of those years together have brought me to this point where I write books about it now, and I have written some books trying to help early teachers understand the importance of assessment and how it can provide a road map for what we do in the classroom.

That's a quick overview of the five decades, Pam, how I got started and where I am now, and how I'm just convinced that assessment gives us a really clear road map and the best way to help kids.

PA: Wow. Susan, that was five decades in a nutshell.

PA: The beginning only wanting to know why, why some of your students struggling and continuing to ask the why. Only to discover that assessment is the key, right?

SS: Absolutely. Helps us with so much.

PA: Right, definitely. You mentioned DIBELS is that avenue, which is now Acadience ® with Dr. Roland Good and Dr. Ruth Kaminski. I can see you've had experience with that form of assessment myself. You recently shared a quote from Charles Dickens as you described the landscape of literacy across America today by saying, and I quote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," from The Tale of Two Cities.

PA: Tell me why this resonates with you and how it applies to reading instruction.

SS: Well, Pam, you probably experienced this too. When we talk to educators, we hear their excitement about there's so much we know now. We know so much more about how the brain learns to read. We've got brain imaging. We've got five decades of research that's consensus research. So, we've got so much more information than we've ever had. It's at our fingertips on social media anytime of the day. But on the other hand, the worst of times we have unprecedented challenges as educators. We have growing workloads, we have less time to provide the students with individual attention. We have politicians who've never studied literacy or the science of learning telling us how we can teach. We are trying to accelerate from the learning loss that we've had.

We've got summer school going on, we've got lots of tutoring going on, students with such divergent needs, too few resources, and teacher shortages. So, on the one hand, it's the best of times because of the knowledge that we've acquired. It's a really challenging time for educators as well. Sec. Cardona (U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona) said a few weeks ago, although we've got all of this going on and divisiveness as well politically related to educators, all through it all, you as educators focus on what matters most. Educators are continuing to focus their attention on their students, and I think that captures it really well, and it's a difficult time for teachers.

PA: Yes. I would have to agree with you because now we have the knowledge, but a clear path for applying that knowledge is not directly there.

PA: How do you see educators moving into a more positive place, thinking about all those challenges you just discussed, for them to feel more confident that they are providing an evidence-based reading instruction for all their learners, especially for our struggling readers?

SS: Well, recently, Deb Glaser and I revised the Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Interventions that we wrote back in 2010, and in this version, we just narrowed all of the chatter down into two primary focuses that we think will make the biggest difference for teachers. One is Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and the other is Structured Literacy. I think those are the two, gosh, methods, approaches that educators could lean into and see that they're getting better outcomes for their students.

PA: Great. I like the term narrow the chatter. It gives a laser focus for teachers. Could you define or elaborate on those two concepts there?

SS: Yeah. Probably a better description would be two proven practices, and I think of these as game changers as we sort through that chatter. Let's talk first about what is Structured Literacy. We've got decades of reading intervention research with compelling evidence that teaching phoneme awareness and phonics, orthography, morphology, syntax, semantics in an integrated and woven simultaneous manner through explicit instruction and lots of opportunities to read connected texts will improve reading outcomes for all students who are struggling to read, including those students with dyslexia. This body of research comes together, this evidence makes up Structured Literacy, and it's the foundation for the science of reading as we hear a lot about today.

PA: So, the research says foundation, and then MTSS?

SS: Multi-Tiered Systems of Support is the framework for implementing the Structured Literacy. Structured Literacy, you might think of as the content or what of the big puzzle and then MTSS or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support is the how, how do we do that? It's the framework for implementing it, and it includes three tiers of instruction, which are all given to students with varying levels of support that they may need. With Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, it requires a comprehensive system of assessments. We look at screening, we look at progress monitoring, we look at diagnostic assessment and outcome evaluation, and the goal of assessment under MTSS is then to guide the instruction and the intervention so that we match the instruction to the assessment data to the individual student's needs. Those are the two things that I think will make a tremendous difference in some of the noise or chatter we talked about if teachers can begin to move into Structured Literacy and MTSS.

PA: Understanding the what and the how. As simple as that, right?

SS: Yeah. Yeah.

PA: Let's talk a bit about the results of an assessment in the next step. What exactly is an educator looking for and where does he go from there?

SS: Well, one of the things that we've done in this book is provide what's called the Oral Reading Fluency Decision Tree. In that decision tree, we help teachers take their assessment data from a curriculum-based measure, Oral Reading Fluency, take the screening and then drill down depending on how the student performs on the screener. We talk about a diagnostic measure, and then we talk about the importance of progress monitoring. So, that is included, and I think your participants have access to that Oral Reading Fluency Decision Tree when they listen to the podcast and they can follow along. I can go into more detail with that, Pam. Would that be helpful to tell listeners how to use that decision tree?

PA: I think so, because understanding what to do next, having your finger on the pulse of where students are so that you can take that next step with confidence.

SS: Yeah, and next step is right, but the first step of the next step, which would be to do a formative assessment and to use this Oral Reading Fluency Measure to do that, and then we look for trouble spots in there. For example, if you have a student read and a student scores below 95 percent, it's time to dig deeper. If the student scores above 95 percent on the Oral Reading Fluency measure, you congratulate your student and you celebrate. That student would appear to be on track for reading success. But as we go down deeper into the decision tree, we look at what would you do if the child was not reading on the path to be successful?

So, if you have a student whose accuracy is below 95 percent, the first thing you would do is ask the student to read, listen to the student read. Are the errors of result of reading too fast? Then, talk to the student about when we read to learn something, we redefine out what the author wants us to learn, and that means we need to read every word carefully. So, keep up your pace while you're reading to help you remember, read carefully. That's an example of if you listen to the student, what you might find out. You might find out that they're having trouble decoding. They're just not recognizing the words. If the student is more below benchmark and you're concerned about the type of errors that they make, then you know that intervention on word recognition or decoding would be the focus of your instruction. Sometimes, students can read the words accurately and they just read slowly. Then, you would begin to consider improving the fluency of the reading and maybe not need so much to work on the decoding.

Those are the kinds of things we would ask first, and then we would dig deeper and say: "Well, perhaps we need to do a phonics assessment." We would recommend, and in the decision tree, you'll see the different routes to go depending on how the students perform. In the phonics assessment, you may use the Acadience ® Nonsense Word Fluency or Letter Naming and begin to ask, are they reading sound by sound? Are they reading only the first word? Are they reading final words? And then there are phonic surveys that can dig deeper. Some are free. We talk about those in the book, some can be purchased. Then, we follow up that diagnostic query and assessment with systematic, explicit, cumulative scope and sequence, and corrective feedback.

So, if phonics is where the area of weakness is, that gives you a road map of what to do. Sometimes, it's phoneme awareness. So, we talk about if it looks like it's a phoneme awareness issue and you can diagnose that, and then we talk about the instruction needed for phoneme awareness. Are the students not segmenting yet? Do they just know initial sounds? Are they inconsistent? We, of course, progress monitor, and that's part of the decision tree and the road map. We've got to make sure that what we're doing is effective and is working, and if not, we have to determine what's the next best step for the student based on the data.

The other thing would be we talk about how frequency words as part of that. Is that where the breakdown is for this student? Does it have to do with those, as we call them Dolch and Fry words back in the day that we think of today as high-frequency words? And so we have screening diagnostic measures also to help teachers pinpoint which of those words they need to focus their instruction on. So, that's a quick summary, Pam, of this tool that we think is going to cut out, decrease the chatter and some of the frustration as teachers begin to look at their data and make decisions about how to plan effective instruction.

PA: Right. What you've just done for us is using that decision tree. You've walked through many of those trouble spots in literacy. You mentioned fluency, phonemic awareness, the phonics. It sounds like these are major important parts that instruction for literacy needs to fit in. And if we're thinking about all the five components, where does vocabulary and comprehension fit in as well when we think about integrating all five of those essential components of reading during instruction for all students, not just during intervention, correct?

SS: Exactly. We're talking about all students. We're talking about Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III. We're talking about small-group instruction, but the need to integrate or weave together, all five of those essential components happens all day and every day. I can give you an example. If we were teaching kindergartners, when we were teaching phoneme awareness and we were saying, "We're going to learn a new sound today. It's the /m/ sound. Everybody make that /m/ sound. Rub your tummy as you have a delicious treat, /m/ sound." And we could talk about how it resonates in their nose and their lips and so forth. And then we could say, "This letter represents the /m/ sound." Then, we could talk about a word "map" and we could write a sentence and show them how the /m/ sound is represented by the M grapheme and what the word map is. We could build in conversations about what is a map, who's seen a map, what's an example of a map or a mop or whatever the word may be.

So, we could talk about vocabulary there. We could ask the kids to turn to their buddy and give them a sentence with a word with that /m/ sound in it. So, throughout teaching phoneme awareness or phonics, we are also integrating language and vocabulary. It's woven together. The last page and then the last slide when we would present this training across the country was a woven slide that showed all of the five components woven together. Pam, it looked a little bit like the pot holders. Remember back in the day when we had a loom and we could take these different pieces of fabric and weave them together to make a potholder. This may be before your time, but that's the graphic, that's the image that we use to try to help represent the interrelatedness of the five components. They are simultaneously taught, they are woven together throughout the day. It's interactive with kids talking to each other.

Mark Seidenberg, a few years ago, wrote about the silos and what are the outcomes of the National Reading Panel in 2000 was, yes, we got these five essential components of reading identified, and yes, we went around the country in Reading First, teaching all those five components, but many of us lacked the focus on integration and synthesis and weaving together simultaneously. I think that's another takeaway is that yes, we have to teach, it's essential, we teach all five of the components, but throughout our instruction throughout the day, we weave them together. So, we're building the oral language, the comprehension, as well as those foundation skills.

PA: So, integration is the key. Would you say that, Susan?

SS: I would. I'm trying to think of other words. Integration, simultaneously, weaving together. We try to think of as many ways as we can to make that point of not isolation. You just don't do phoneme awareness and then go do something else. Or you don't just do phonics and then go do something else. Throughout your lesson, you're integrating.

PA: Getting back to assessment, in a nutshell, tell our listeners how to take the guesswork out of intervention and transform those struggling students into skilled readers.

SS: Yeah. Assessment, formative assessment, which are typically curriculum-based measures, are typically one-minute quick assessments that are a flashlight, a guide light. The information you get from that provides the map for the intervention, and it helps you pinpoint exactly where your instruction needs to be. The other part you must do is progress monitoring to ask: "Is this working? Am I doing effective intervention?" So, if we just had the map and all we did, Pam, was identify the area and provide intervention, that's only half the ball game. We have to know and document and measure if our intervention is working and change it if it's not working. Try something that might be more effective.

PA: Are we doing the right things and are we doing the things right?

SS: Yes. Brilliant. Can I quote you?

PA: Well, it didn't come from me. I'm not sure who I am quoting, but I just love that saying.

SS: Yes, I may borrow that.

PA: Definitely. So, just as a reminder, you have provided a handout called Oral Reading Fluency Decision Tree that you walked through with us just a little while ago. Listeners can download this handbook from our website. I do want to say thank you for joining us today, Dr. Smartt. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. It's been inspiring, and I know I speak for educators everywhere when I say we thank you for your dedication to literacy learning through appropriate reading intervention. Please tell our listeners how they can learn more about you, your research, and the new edition of your book, Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Intervention.

SS: Thanks, Pam. The new book will be published. It's Brookes Publishing. It should come out in September of this year. The title is Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Intervention, and Deb Glaser is my co-author on that. So, look for that. The other claim to fame in 2020, Marty Haugen and I published a textbook for literacy instruction for those 18-, 19-year-old young people who want to be teachers, and the name of that book is Fundamentals of Literacy Instruction & Assessment. This time, when we did this revision in 2020, it was also identified as exemplary by the National Council on Teacher Quality. So, my hope is that we're catching teachers early and helping them understand the importance of assessment with intervention and effective instruction.

PA: Thank you, Dr. Smartt, for sharing such high-quality resources, and yes, we want to catch teachers early.

PA: Great. Thank you once again. This is Pam Austin, bringing the best thought leaders in education directly to you. Please join us next month for another great EDVIEW360 podcast.

Narrator: This has been an EDVIEW360 podcast. For additional thought-provoking discussions, sign up for our blog, webinar, and podcast series at voyagersopris.com/edview360. If you enjoyed the show, we'd love a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts and to help other people like you find our show. Thank you.

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Determining the Right Literacy Intervention: Using Assessment to Guide your Course

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What happens after a formative literacy assessment? How can educators translate the results into targeted interventions and improved reading outcomes?

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Decodable Text Source - The Reading League

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Decodable Text Source - The Reading League

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The Reading League has compiled a list of options, not recommendations, of frequently requested decodable texts.

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Early in Sequence
End of Sequence

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Maximizing Small Group Reading Instruction

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Maximizing Small Group Reading Instruction

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Great Phonics Resources/ Blending, Heart Words

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Great Phonics Resources/ Blending, Heart Words

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

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

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

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

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

Much, much more!

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UF Literacy Institute | Where teacher development and reader development overlap

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

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Youtube Video for UFLI PMing & Differentiation

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Youtube Video for UFLI PMing & Differentiation

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UFLI Foundations: Progress Monitoring and Differentiation

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Passages that match the phonics feature you are using...

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CBMs - what are they and what do they mean?

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CBMs - what are they and what do they mean?

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

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

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ISL EY Pre-Conventional Reader Small Group Planning Guide

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UFLI Progress Monitoring Assessment Template

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of assessment and instruction in today's classrooms. supplies K-12 educators with in-depth knowledge of the structure and function of language-fundamentals they need to deliver successful structured literacy instruction. Renowned literacy expert Louisa Cook Moats gives current and future teachers comprehensive, accurate, and accessible information on the underpinnings of language instruction, including: their students should be taught. Ideal for use in preservice courses and in-service professional development sessions, this essential textbook will give educators the strong foundation they need to teach language and reading skills to students with and without disabilities. Support your instruction with a complete package of online companion materials, including chapter quizzes, a sample syllabus/course outline, PowerPoints to accompany each chapter, PDF handouts for selected concepts, and a video demonstrating production of all the sounds in the English language. Learn more about the new edition! Speech to Print has been a bestselling, widely adopted textbook on explicit, high-quality literacy instruction. Now the anticipated third edition is here, fully updated with ten years of new research, a complete package of supporting materials, and expanded guidance on the how Speech to Print

Filling a critical gap in teacher preparation courses,

the history of the English language and its effect on spelling

English phonology, including speech sounds and their distinctive features

how print represents speech in English

the morphological aspects of words

syntax and its instruction

how meaning is conveyed with language

how
Through case studies, activities, recommended teaching principles, and close analysis of real-world student work samples, teachers will also receive invaluable insight into WHAT'S NEW:

New and expanded practical content on the how of language and reading instruction

New and updated chapter exercises

New faculty support materials

More on key topics like program and curricula selection, frameworks for instructional planning, and problem solving when students are slow to respond to intervention

More accessible, undergraduate-friendly tone and structure

Additional graphics to illustrate key concepts

NEW FACULTY SUPPORT MATERIALS!

Watch the webinar recording

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers

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Speech to Print: Language... by Moats Ed.D., Louisa Cook

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Possibilities for Writing about Reading for primary...

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Ready- to -go literacy centers by grade level

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

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Flyleaf Publishing - Online Materials Portal

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For Students - Flyleaf Publishing - Online Materials Portal

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ISL UFLI Differentiation Implementation Planning

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

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

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

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

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

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Printable Resources | UF Literacy Institute

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

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(5 min)

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Cult of Pedagogy w/ J. Serravallo - What to do with leveled texts?

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Cult of Pedagogy w/ J. Serravallo - What to do with leveled texts?

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There's a lot of confusion about how to use leveled texts in the classroom. In this episode, I interview literacy expert Jen Serravallo about the mistakes teachers and administrators make with leveled texts and which practices Serravallo has found to be most effective.

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‎The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast: 107: The Best Ways to Use Leveled Texts auf Apple Podcasts

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There's a lot of confusion about how to use leveled texts in the classroom. In this episode, I interview literacy expert Jen Serravallo about the mistakes teachers and administrators make with leveled texts and which practices Serravallo has found to be most effective.

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Step by Step Example of Language Comprehension Planning

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Step by Step Example of Language Comprehension Planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And - good news - it WAS an effective practice!

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

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

What is a dictation?

How do you give a dictation?

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

Sound Dictation

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

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

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

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

Sound dictations aren't just for Kindergarteners! ?

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

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

Students: "/ch/"

Students write "ch" on their whiteboards / paper.

Teacher: "What says /ch/?"

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

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

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

Word Dictation

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

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

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

This is what it might look like in practice:

Teacher: "The word is flip. Repeat."

Students: "Flip"

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

Teacher + Students: /f/ /l/ /ĭ/ /p/

Teacher: "Write 'flip.'"

Students write "flip" on their whiteboards / paper.

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

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

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

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

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

Students: "F-L"

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

Students: "/ĭ/"

Teacher: "Which letter says /ĭ/?"

Students: "i"

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

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

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

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

Ways to Provide Less Support with Word Dictation

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

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

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

Sentence Dictation

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

High frequency words that I've taught

Words with sounds / spelling patterns that I've taught

The sentences only include:

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

Have students repeat the sentence twice.

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

Keep the sentences shorter for younger students.

Incorporate high frequency words from previous weeks for review.

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

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

Here are some tips for success with the sentence dictation:

Putting It All Together

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

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

As I mentioned, dictations can be done on whiteboards.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy teaching!

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

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

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Low Frequency Vowel and Consonant Spellings

UFLI Lessons will vary based on errors

Long i (igh): Lesson 87

Silent Letters: Lesson 98

Low Frequency Spellings Unit: Lessons 111-118

UFLI Lessons will vary based on errors

Reading Longer Words Unit: Lessons 63-68

-le: Lesson 75

R-Controlled Vowels Review: Lesson 83*

Vowel Teams Review 1: Lesson 88*

Vowel Teams Review 2: Lesson 92*

Vowels Teams & Diphthongs Review: Lesson 97*

Affixes Review 1: Lesson 106

*target multisyllabic words in these review lessons

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Low Frequency Vowel and Consonant Spellings UFLI Lessons will vary based on errors Long i (igh): Lesson 87 Silent Letters: Lesson 98 Low Frequency Spellings Unit: Lessons 111-118 UFLI Lessons will vary based on errors Reading Longer Words Unit: Lessons 63-68 -le: Lesson 75 R-Controlled Vowels Review: Lesson 83* Vowel Teams Review 1: Lesson 88* Vowel Teams Review 2: Lesson 92* Vowels Teams & Diphthongs Review: Lesson 97* Affixes Review 1: Lesson 106 *target multisyllabic words in these review lessons

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

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

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

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UFLI Lesson Routines/Parts Teacher Talk cards

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UFLI Lesson Routines/Parts Teacher Talk cards

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Phonics/Word Study Small Group Planning Template

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Phonics/Word Study Small Group Planning Template

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Phonics Word Study Focused Reading Group

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Copy of Grade 1 UFLI Progress Monitoring Spelling Assessment Master

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Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls

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Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls

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

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(see above for student diagnostic)

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It Matters - Sample Read Aloud for Language Comprehension

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It Matters - Sample Read Aloud for Language Comprehension

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Text Project

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The Reading GPS gives teachers information about whether students are moving toward the goal of proficient reading.

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PA & Phonics Application Word Study Planner - Blank

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PA & Phonics focused Small Group Planners

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PA & Phonics focused Small Group Planners

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1. PA & Phonics with Reading/Writing Examples
2. PA, Phonics & Reading BLANK PLANNER
3. PA, Phonics, Shared Reading Planner

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UFLI Foundations: How to Implement Day 1 Lessons

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jordan@erinkentconsulting.com

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From Reading Rockets

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

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

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DIBELS was developed based on Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM), which were created by Deno and colleagues through the Institute for Research and Learning Disabilities at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s-80s (e.g., Deno and Mirkin, 1977; Deno, 1985; Deno and Fuchs, 1987; Shinn, 1989). Like CBM, DIBELS were developed to be economical and efficient indicators of a student's progress toward achieving a general outcome. Mark Shinn (Professor in the College of Education at the University of Oregon for 19 years) actually originated the name "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Skills" (Shinn, 1989, 1999).

Although DIBELS materials were initially developed to be linked to the local curriculum (Kaminski & Good, 1996), current DIBELS measures are generic and do not draw content from any specific curriculum. The use of generic CBM methodology is typically referred to as General Outcome Measurement (GOM) (Fuchs & Deno, 1994).

Research on DIBELS is conducted at the University of Oregon (UO) and began in the late 1980s. Since then, an ongoing series of studies on DIBELS has documented the reliability and validity of the various DIBELS subtests, as well as their sensitivity to student change. Research on DIBELS continues to this day at the UO's Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL) and has been conducted by dozens of UO faculty and students (e.g., Cummings, Park, & Bauer Schaper, 2013; Cummings, Stoolmiller, Baker, Fien, & Kame'enui, 2015; Smolkowski & Cummings, 2016; Stoolmiller, Biancarosa, & Fien, 2013).

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DIBELS was developed based on Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM), which were created by Deno and colleagues through the Institute for Research and Learning Disabilities at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s-80s (e.g., Deno and Mirkin, 1977; Deno, 1985; Deno and Fuchs, 1987; Shinn, 1989).

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

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

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

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KG-G2 Read Aloud Planner (using Reading Rope)

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KG-G2 Read Aloud Planner (using Reading Rope)