3 Tips for selecting decodable texts
In my last blog post I shared three shifts I’ve had in my thinking when it comes to the use of decodable texts in the early reading classroom. (Click here …
Reading
Decodable Texts- Yay or Nay?
Should you use decodable texts in the reading classroom? Are all decodable texts useful? Will they automatically improve reading? Which ‘side’ are you on? Are ‘sides’ even helpful? I’ve been …
How to structure reading conferences
In my recent blog post on effective writing conferences, I discussed the idea of stripping these now complex meetings back to their original roots. The most effective conferences (be they …
What Is Phonological Awareness And Why Does It Matter?
There are a lot of ‘ph’ words involved in teaching reading, but unfortunately too many of us were never exposed to them in our university degrees. I’ve done a LOT …
What are book sells and how do you teach them?
I recently finished reading the final book in Jessica Townsend’s AMAZING Nevermoor series. This series, touted as a cross between Harry Potter and Alice and Wonderland, had me looking forward …
Strategies for Emergent Readers: An interview with Jennifer Serravallo
Those of you who have followed me for a while now will know that I’ve been a huge Jennifer Serravallo fan for quite a long time. I carry her books …
1 Confession and 2 learnings about guided reading
I have a confession to make. When I first started teaching, I was a guided reading fraud. I had NO IDEA what I was doing. Being shown the location of …
Why Guided Reading shouldn’t be mandated in schools
Imagine there was a hospital that only trained its surgeons to put plaster casts on its patients. They’d heard about the benefits of plaster casts and how great they were …
6 reasons every teacher should read aloud every day
When my year 3 teacher, Mrs Margaret Browne, told us she had to pull on a pair of gloves before she could start reading our new class novel, I don’t …
Why is literacy important? (A lesson from 2020)
As far as books go, 2020 has turned into Margaret Wild’s ‘The Sloth Who Came to Stay.’ You know the picture story book about the busy family forced to adjust …