GRR K-5 Padlet '25-'26 by Danielle Munro

I've been reflecting on the idea that we are not hard wired for reading and trying to give myself and my students a little grace and patience when skills are not coming as quickly as I would have hoped.

2025-09-18 22:41:24 UTC

arivas139 — 2025-09-18 22:41:26 UTC

All of my students have been assessed. I have printed out targeted activities for them based on their needs. Parents have been supportive and receptive to partnering with me by doing suggested activities at home too.

All students are screened using Aims and Heggerty for beginning of the year benchmark. We are still working on implementing Amira in October for the dyslexia screener.

2025-09-18 22:41:27 UTC

2025-09-18 22:41:40 UTC

I completed some of the phonics basic skills assessments and I was really pleased to see the growth my Resource students had despite the summer. This is from Heather Tambasco not sure what is up with my name

Mission Moment

damyers3 — 2025-09-18 22:41:44 UTC

I was bummed that one of my readers furthest from grade level standard "didn't qualify" for extra help through SPIRE (phonics), but the BPST III allowed me to see just what he is struggling with. Now I have a place to start with him. Now to find the time...

PL

2025-09-18 22:41:49 UTC

I was supporting new hired teachers earlier this week and we talked alot about Scarborough's rope and the SVR and how it connected to ELA instruction. Teachers made great connections to the curriculum and the science of reading!

DIBELS Assessment

2025-09-18 22:41:52 UTC

Results from the DIBELS RDS screener helped me to easily decide on my reading group levels! :)

2025-09-18 22:42:21 UTC

I learned the importance of phonological instruction even in third grade.

2025-09-18 22:42:45 UTC

I was able to administer Dibels to find who my struggling students are. Once I identified my struggling students, then I did a diagnostics test to dig deeper into where they are struggling.

2025-09-18 22:43:05 UTC

So I listened to the podcast Sold a Story and it was so eye opening. I feel inspired by all the things I was hearing.

Reflection

2025-09-18 22:43:45 UTC

I borrowed students for the Dibels assessment as I teach TK SDC and wanted to get a better data sample.

I also borrowed my niece for the PAST.

However, I did administer a Heggerty assessment to my students. I am surprised by where my students are this year compared to last year's group. I rearranged some time in class to have some extra 1:1 pull-outs.

I ordered books from Amazon.

Mission Moment - Hayley Oki

2025-09-18 22:48:14 UTC

Phonological instruction is so important. I still need to assess my students, but I already have plans on how to test my struggling students when I return.

2025-10-16 22:42:26 UTC

I have one low bunny student who is growing in confidence as she improves her reading. I have another low bunny student who wrote a sentence on his own today. (This is a big deal.) :)

2025-10-16 22:42:45 UTC

I started teaching in California after 23 years teaching in Texas. I am proud that I helped multiple 3rd graders on a DRA 6 get to a DRA 20 by the end of the year. They are thriving this year with the Spire program.

2025-10-16 22:43:18 UTC

I am amazed at the UFLI website. I used some of their materials during COVID, however, I used the materials through their FB page.

2025-10-16 22:43:43 UTC

Work in progress...we have a 7th grade student brand new in the last few weeks. We tested her phonological awareness in her home language and found that she struggled with just rhyming. Our focus for the last week has been rhyming and on Tuesday she was able to produce rhymes in 3 out of 5 attempts.

2025-10-16 22:44:09 UTC

Our curriculum uses a lot of the needed phonemic awareness daily, and so my students are learning syllables, rhyming, onset and rime, etc and that is encouraging. We are moving onto blending and elkonin boxes in small groups.

2025-10-16 22:44:27 UTC

I just received the 95 core phonemic awareness kit. I am going to try it out next week. I currently use one off of TPT, so I am excited to give this a try. I am also using Ufli in the classroom as well. I have been using Dibels to progress monitor my struggling students and they all made growth:)

2025-10-16 22:44:28 UTC

Our intervention teachers are receiving support with pronuncitation to support our students in SPIRE.

Using UFLI to Practice Spelling Patterns

damyers3 — 2025-10-16 22:44:59 UTC

I've been using UFLI passages to practice reading and spelling patterns. I love that kids are looking for the spelling pattern AND showing me they comprehend by drawing a picture to show what happened in the story.

Teresa Bodenmiller

2025-11-06 23:39:51 UTC

We had a very successful November 3 district wide PD! I had the pleasure of working with K-2 teachers. We discussed the reading rope and reading comprehension as it relates to processes, products, and mental maps.

damyers3 — 2025-11-06 23:40:45 UTC

In doing the BPST with my striving readers, I discovered that many of them have most of the basic phonics skills. This means I need to think start thinking about a new approach outside of phonics instruction.

Nicole Hasselbrook

2025-11-06 23:40:55 UTC

I am currently using Dibels for progress monitoring to target my students needs. I am progress monitoring every 4 weeks to see student progress to drive instruction and change groups based on student needs.

2025-11-06 23:41:35 UTC

I have a student who previously completed little to no work each day. I made a few changes, (seating, behavior chart, etc.) and this week his work completion has improved A LOT.

2025-11-06 23:41:42 UTC

I am excited that kinder students are spelling new words on their own. It shows that they are gaining new knowledge from their small reading groups and explicit systematic instruction.

I had a student this week who is really making amazing reading progress. It was one of those weeks where you could really see the reaing click and she was reading stories instead of words. I love it when we catch the moment like that.

2025-11-06 23:41:49 UTC

Technology

2025-11-06 23:42:45 UTC

I was able to utilize using Peardeck to create an interactive lesson to keep my kiddos engaged!

2025-11-06 23:43:01 UTC

We did DRA testing and I adjusted my small groups slightly. I am seeing lots of growth already in some of my students. However, some students are really struggling with phonemic awareness still and can't recognize beginning sounds yet or do onset and rime. We will keep working on this!

I have a student who has been struggling in math for a few years. I have been working with her and she is making leaps and bounds of progress. She is now demonstrating really strong number sense.

2025-11-06 23:44:48 UTC

Technology

2025-11-06 23:44:59 UTC

I was able to utilize AI to be able To give my kids feedback on their writing and math exit tickets. It’s helped so much already :)

2025-11-07 02:02:27 UTC

I work with three EL's who are newcomers. They had been tested using our intervention curriculum's placement test. Two of them placed at the same level to begin, but I noticed that one student was finding the lessons to be easier than expected. I retested her using the BPST and discovered she could move on to a more complex phonics skill than the other student. I used the BPST many years ago but stopped when my school switched curriculums. Bringing it back in for intervention planning has been so helpful to see each specific student needs.

epitney — 2025-12-11 23:43:03 UTC

We had a student that went from red to green on Dibels BOY and MOY

tbodenmiller — 2025-12-11 23:43:29 UTC

Erica and I have the opportunity to provide professional learning about phonological awareness to our district admin. More Science of Reading training for admin will continue next year!

damyers3 — 2025-12-11 23:43:37 UTC

I finally started pulling a small group for phonics skills. It's a major work in progress, but I'm shaking the dust off and going to try to keep improving.

Nicole Hasselbrook

2025-12-11 23:43:52 UTC

On the Dibels Middle of Year Benchmark

Assessment, I moved 4 students from Red to Yellow and one from Red to Green.

2025-12-11 23:44:02 UTC

I had a student who has produced 1’s in writing since the beginning of the year but with individual writing conferences, he was able to write a strong opinion and received a 2!

2025-12-11 23:44:23 UTC

A couple of my students were finally tested for SPIRE and I am looking for some creative ways to tailor instructional time so I can support students who need more assistance on needed lessons in Lexia.

2025-12-11 23:44:26 UTC

Small groups are going well and students are making progress with their blending and decoding.

2025-12-11 23:44:29 UTC

My daughter is a paraprofessional at North for Kindergarten and she came home to share that she does include a schwa at the end of sounds. That made my heart happy.

Crystal Thomas

2025-12-11 23:44:56 UTC

I have a student who can now recognize his name among others because he links the sound his first letter makes to the actual letter in print. He is so proud of himself and tells everyone, "/x/, x is for __"*I used x as a sample, that is not my student's first letter.*

I tutor a 3rd grader from a different district that also takes MAP. I've been working with her since September. Last week she was super excited to share with me that she had gotten a certificate at an assembly because she had grown in both her math and reading MAP score. She said "thank you for teaching me" I am so proud of her and getting to see her proud of herself:)

2025-12-11 23:45:00 UTC

Becoming a reader

2025-12-11 23:45:28 UTC

A student who has strong phonemic awareness skills was struggling to apply the skills when reading decodable books. He was able to blend the phonemes together when given the phonemes. However, he was not able to blend the phonemes when he did it on his own. I had him use a stingy and now he is decoding on his own! He is so excited!

Priscilla Mejia

2025-12-11 23:45:30 UTC

I am finding a new love of using word ladders with students. I only ever used them when provided in curriculum, but after module 4 I started implemented them in small groups. I have been looking up word lists online with different phonics patterns that can be used in lessons.

Heather Tambasco

2025-12-11 23:45:57 UTC

Recently, I had an IEP and while updating the students progress I was beating myself up in my brain that the student wasn't quite at proficient goal mastery. Then I had that moment when I looked back at her baseline data and thought, "Wow, this kiddo was on a DRA 6 and now she is instructionally reading a DRA 28 in a year." I had to just stop and say my kids are making progress! It's enough!

2026-01-15 23:41:58 UTC

I attended the Family Powered Literacy event on Tuesday! Got some great take-aways!

Great Encoding Growth

damyers3 — 2026-01-15 23:42:11 UTC

Using our opinion writing unit, my class has moved from 6 to 18 students proficient in content and structure. I also noticed that many students are using the tools in Google Docs to really attend to spelling. They are using bigger vocabulary words too!

Family Powered Literacy

tsims54 — 2026-01-15 23:43:15 UTC

We shared that talking is teaching and the importance of empowering parents as their child's first teacher.

Nicole Hasselbrook

2026-01-15 23:43:31 UTC

I started to use the UFLI visual drill decks during my phonics lessons and the students really enjoyed them.

2026-01-15 23:43:47 UTC

I remember the last session we had a speaker that focused on teaching the letter and having students say the sounds. There was a student that struggled with the letter "y". I have a couple students that struggle with "b" and "d" as 4th graders. They have a learning disability in basic reading. I decided to try some of the suggestions to really work on identifying the "b" and "d" correctly. We reviewed them for a few minutes at the beginning of each class and even did some pictorials and did some memory strategies.

2026-01-15 23:43:54 UTC

I saw that some of my students made significant growth on MAP testing for reading due to our team's hard work on reading/phonics support.

Daily Decoding Routine

2026-01-15 23:45:17 UTC

Since our last meeting, I have been making a conscious effort to air write the letter we are learning with two fingers versus just the pointer finger. When researching and looking into multi-modal, I found videos regarding the benefits of using two fingers (pointer and middle together) versus just the pointer finger.

2026-02-26 23:40:06 UTC

I started slowly incorporating a daily decoding routine.

2026-02-26 23:40:16 UTC

I used the cat and kite image to help my small group know when to use c or k. They loved it!

tbodenmiller — 2026-02-26 23:41:03 UTC

We had our second session of Science of Reading professional learning for teachers this past Monday. Our focus was phonological awareness and we taught them how to use Elkonin boxes. Teachers were excited!

Phonics Groups Going Well

damyers3 — 2026-02-26 23:41:13 UTC

My team is working on daily groups for decoding/phonics and language. My little group is really getting into the swing of things. I have a GEM that spits out a lesson for me, and my "15 minute plan" is finally getting done in about 25 minutes versus over the course of 2.5 25 minute sessions.

2026-02-26 23:42:34 UTC

I have been spending more time with my class on the spelling/ phonics for the week. We have been emphasizing the sound and the movement of the mouth.

2026-02-26 23:42:46 UTC

When I went back to plan using the Say It, Move It, Spell It, Write It I was confused at first about using it with decodable words or "sight words." I went back and re-watched parts of the session and a couple of the videos in last months module. Watching the videos again helped me to understand it can be used with both!

2026-02-26 23:42:56 UTC

I am having so much fun implementing different interactive activities with the students. The kinders love the Say It, Move It, Spell It, and Write It activity. They are also jumping and making words using the Block Words activity. These children are becoming more efficient decoding and encoding VC, CVC, CCVC words.

I loved using the Say It, Move It Activity. It really made the students map out the sounds. It was great for them to distinguish between the sounds and the letters in the words given.

htambasco — 2026-02-26 23:43:11 UTC

I started intentionally teaching heart words in my small group and hope to add a word wall with rule breakers or something along those lines next year!

htambasco — 2026-03-19 22:39:18 UTC

2026-03-19 22:39:53 UTC

I got the UFLI Manual and have been using it for my decoding lessons. My students are enjoying it.

HFW

2026-03-19 22:40:00 UTC

I have been explicitly teaching our high frequency words and incorporating the "heart" words idea (our curriculum now does 6 HFW words a week). Students like the heart image and seem to grasp them better, I think.

Encoding/Phonics

damyers3 — 2026-03-19 22:40:40 UTC

I tried the Say It, Tap It, Spell It, Write It routine with my whole class during out spelling pattern intro day. They loved the hands on, and I was able to see who needed more support. I'm going to try it again soon.

2026-03-19 22:41:48 UTC

I started using the Say it, Move It, Spell it, write it strategy with high frequency words. I found trying to do that one with others was confusing my students, so I stuck to just that one. However, I think with a little more practice, I can add in the Heart Words. I tried heart words the same week as I started Say it, move it, spell it, write it and the results were less than optimal. I'm loving the Say it, move it, spell it, write it strategy!

arivas139 — 2026-03-19 22:41:52 UTC

One of my below grade level readers has made a good amount of progress in the past 2 months. I have been sharing some science of reading resources with her family. They are very willing to work with her at home, but I want to make sure that it is valuable work.

2026-03-19 22:43:07 UTC

Ehri's phases were really eye opening. It really helped me see where my students fall and think about next steps for them. I've been teaching heart words to my class and to the students I tutor. I've also been using the Say It, Move it strategy with my intervention group daily.

damyers3 — 2026-04-23 22:39:49 UTC

I've been trying to move from, "Does anyone know what this word means?" to "Look at this word. It means..." I've also been incorporating some small sketches into vocabulary practice when we do vocabulary/encoding practice.

htambasco — 2026-04-23 22:40:33 UTC

I completed my phonics skills tests and was really pleased to see the growth from the beginning of the year. It also gave me the opportunity to give new Resource friends the skills assessment.

I also got observed by my principal and I incorporated the UFLI interactive activities into my lesson. It's always fun to "wow" that one!

arivas139 — 2026-04-23 22:40:34 UTC

This may be a little late in the game, but I finally jumped on board with non-sense words. My three struggling students now have timed daily non-sense word fluency practice.

Vocab

2026-04-23 22:40:53 UTC

I added visuals to our weekly vocabulary words. They were not apart of our slideshow originally. The kids really like them. I have also incorporated "turn and talk" where they use the word in a sentence to a partner. Why didn't I think of this before, lol?

2026-04-23 22:41:07 UTC

I have a set routine for teaching vocabulary but I decided to change it up based on last months learning. I'm slowly incorporating the Frayer model and some of the other strategies into my routine.

2026-04-23 22:41:50 UTC

I am trying to use the methods discussed in social studies to preteach some vocabulary words.

2026-04-23 22:42:45 UTC

I'm incorporating fiction and non-fiction books to build student's background knowledge on a central topic. The activities we have done as a collective has really helped them speak about the topic using clear vocabulary. Now that students have something to talk about, they are much more prepared to write about the topic. It is so fun hearing the shy EL student has to say about our unit.

One of my kinder students loves talking about farming and we have been learning about farm animals. He has not been motivated to read until now. He was the expert in the class! Peers were thrilled to ask him questions.

2026-04-23 22:43:24 UTC

2026-05-14 22:44:28 UTC

I have been having a grand old time coaching a first year teacher in structured literacy practices. She asks the best questions and is on fire!

htambasco — 2026-05-14 22:45:49 UTC

I have been planning how I hope to execute Spire and Spalding together next year for their different components.. Both are phonics programs. I am also planning how to incorporate vocabulary into my instruction.

I found out one of my students earned a proficient score on ELA CAASP. I'll take it!

2026-05-14 22:46:02 UTC

I tried the activity that requires students to take a group of words and order them to make a complete sentence. They worked in groups. It went very well.

Semantic Gradient

2026-05-14 22:46:53 UTC

I really enjoy implementing this strategy with third graders. They were very engaged and they were able to come up with words on their own. I started with index cards and I had them move around to rate where they would be on the grid. So much fun!

2026-05-14 22:46:58 UTC

I tried the strategy using sentence scrambles taken from a book I used in module 8 wide reading practices. The pair of students I had try it had so much fun putting the words in order to form a complete sentence. We identified naming parts and action parts of sentences and then rewrote the sentences on a white board. One student said "this game is so fun!"

Nicole Hasselbrook

nihasselbrook — 2026-05-14 22:48:35 UTC

I have been working on pulling out vocabulary in Read alouds to help student with reading comprehension.

Happy Heart

damyers3 — 2026-05-15 21:38:30 UTC

We've been in the midst of so much testing, but I am excited to try the Inferences activity: Tell me where you are going without telling me. I used Gemini to help me quickly write a sample.