The Reading Wars
You’ve probably heard of the age-old “reading wars.” This refers to the debate around how kids best learn to read. On one side are proponents of the whole-language approach. They believe kids learn how to read best through frequent exposure to various aspects of books and language. In this approach, kids learn words as separate […]
Learning Math Through Literacy
Many people think of math and reading as separate subjects. While the skills involved in each are quite different, there are so many ways and reasons to connect them. Aside from having students read and solve word problems, there are lots of other creative ways to integrate math and literacy. Here are some of our […]
Building Phonemic Awareness: Blending and Segmenting
Blending and segmenting are two crucial skills that are part of phonemic awareness, one of the building blocks of reading. Let’s review what exactly phonemic awareness is. Phonemic awareness occurs when a student understands that words are made up of individual sounds, and can manipulate those sounds. The term comes from the root word ‘phoneme,’ […]
How to Become a Reading Specialist
By Eleanor Charlie, education blogger Leisure reading serves dual purposes. It can develop kids’ language skills and provide entertainment. But current data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that the number of children who read for pleasure is currently at an all-time low. We know we can’t force kids to love reading. However, there are […]
What is Structured Literacy?
Structured literacy is an approach to teaching reading that focuses on the explicit instruction of language mechanics. Research shows that this approach significantly helps students with Dyslexia, but is also an effective approach for all students. Some other popular reading programs use ‘Balanced Literacy’ or ‘Guided Reading,’ to anchor students’ development in reading. Programs like […]
Strategies for Improving Reading Fluency
Reading fluency refers to a student’s ability to read in a way that sounds natural. It includes students’ reading rate, the expression with which they read, and the accuracy of what they are reading. Fluency is separate from the skills of decoding and comprehension. Students can have strong decoding and comprehension skills and weak fluency […]
The Link Between Reading and Writing
As students develop and hone their writing skills, they become more competent readers. Their ability to think critically about text and interact with it in rich and meaningful ways improves. The opposite is also true. The more we read, the better our writing becomes. That’s because the processes of reading and writing are undeniably connected. […]
The Road to Reading Fluency
The road to reading fluency is a long one, and every step is crucial. That’s because each skill builds upon the one before it. That’s why it is so important to build strong foundational reading skills. Each step forward lays the groundwork for the success that is sure to follow! As the saying goes, “first […]
A Better Method for Vocabulary Development
For those of us who have been out of the K-12 school system for quite some time, we all remember the classic strategy for learning new vocab. First, we would look up a list of words in the dictionary. Then, we would write those words and their definitions a number of times. Eventually, we would […]
Components of the Reading Rope: Literacy Knowledge
Literacy knowledge is another strand in Hollis Scarborough’s Reading Rope. It encompasses all of the ideas we know are true about language, books and the text within them. When children have knowledge of literacy concepts, it means that they have a foundation in all of the elements that make up conventional ways of reading, writing, […]
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