Mark Seidenberg said, “Parents who deliver their children to school on that momentous first day of kindergarten, proudly starting them on the venerable path to education, make a big mistake: they assume that their child’s teacher has been taught how to teach reading.” That sounds like an offensive statement made by one who’s criticizing some […]
1-1-21 I have a lot of friends and loved ones who are passionately chasing their dreams. Some sell cookies. (You go, girls!) One is making his mark on the fashion industry, while another is building his business in the world of golf. One is honing his computer skills to better serve within his place of […]
“My Kids Don’t Listen To Me!” When I speak of my desire to teach parents to teach their young kids to read, even before they enter a classroom, that’s the response that I often hear from parents. So why would kids respond to their teachers or tutors more readily than they would their moms […]
Every parent in my school community knows about sight words. They may be called star words, snap words, or something else, but we know what they are. Early childhood classrooms feature from 25 to more than 100 words students must know on sight by the end of the school year. That\’s not a problem-the fluent […]
My husband and I had a flat tire, and both of our phones were dead. (Note to self: Next overnight camping excursion- Bring phone chargers!) And, we had no spare tire. When a police officer stopped to ask if we needed help, we could not recall a single phone number of someone who could lend […]
It’s important that beginning readers recognize the sounds in their speech. We have a code-based language. Before we draw kids’ awareness to the letters that represent sounds, it makes sense to ensure that kids can hear, identify, and even manipulate the sounds in words the words they will soon read and spell.
Since it’s usually crazy returning from a break and getting back into those classroom routines, this is the perfect time to try something new—something that can absolutely transform your students’ reading and spelling skills. Day 1, Back in the Classroom On the very day you arrive back in your classroom, please set aside 15 minutes […]
e time they reach third grade, sight words are not enough. Word Family associations are not sufficient to support the sophisticated demands of “at grade level” reading in third grade. There are no pictures. Word structures have become more complex. All of the tools provided by the typical greater Cincinnati early childhood classrooms have left many children ill-equipped.
My husband and I had a flat tire, and both of our phones were dead. (Note to self: Next overnight camping excursion- Bring phone chargers!) And, we had no spare tire. When a police officer stopped to ask if we needed help, we were shocked and embarrassed because neither one of us could recall a […]
You can strengthen your children’s reading and writing by reading aloud with them. Okay. So that’s not ground-breaking news. You’ve heard it a thousand times, right? Let me say, here, that I bet you could do it so much better than you’ve been doing it. I have some teaching tips that I’d love for you […]
Reading to your kids is so very important. Even with high stakes tests hanging over my shoulders, as a classroom teacher I invest the time to read aloud to my students every single day because I believe that it is the best way to promote a love for books*. But reading aloud offers so much […]