PALS Testing: This is the last in the series of interventions with the PALS test. Of course, Letter Identification is only tested in kindergarten. It is crucial! We need to make sure students know as many letters as possible, as…
Turn and Talk. I’m a talker! Always have been, always will be. My mother used to start parent conferenceswith, “I know Cathy talks too much, what else can you tell me?” My very favorite high school English teacher used me…
CVC Blending holds the key to early readers. When students can blend the letters and sounds to make a word so many doors are opened in reading. However, blending sounds takes practice. CVC Blending: Choppy Seas Students start blending with…
Froggy Builds a Tree House and I'm so excited to join this fun Mentor Text blog link-up. You'll find a link for the participating bloggers at the bottom of my post for other fun lessons using mentor texts. I love…
PALS Interventions. I already talked about the PALS Spelling Intervention. In Virginia, we use the PALS (Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening) test as our universal screener in K-2. PALS 1-2 contains sub-tests for spelling, words in isolation, and reading. …
Ninjas to the Rescue! Mentor Texts are an important part of comprehension. Who doesn't love a book store? Who doesn't love when the book store comes to your school? You guessed it...I got these at the Book Fair! I found…
ILA is where it's at. This past week I was in St. Louis for the Annual International Literacy Association Conference. The ILA was formally known as IRA, but we have rebranded our organization to champion literacy around the world. Next…
I love a sound chart I have used a sound chart for years as an integral part of my kindergarten classroom. Originally, I used the sound chart provided by Fountas and Pinnell, but eventually I made my own. It is…
Books! We need lots and lots of books! Teachers know books are the key. They are quick to incorporate Read Alouds, both fiction and non-fiction, into lessons for reading skills, math, science and social studies. The provide students with books…
Miscues in reading are the best way to know where instruction should start. Whether they are reading leveled texts or decodable texts, analyzing errors is key. AUTHOR'S NOTE: I originally posted this in 2015. Since that time, I have tried…
Onset and Rime is the cornerstone to word building for early students. Exploring word patterns is important centers. I love onset and rime...even if we used to call them word families. They’re so much fun to teach and so valuable…
In the fall of 2005 I transferred to a school that was one year into Word Study training, so that year was a trial by fire. I learned the basics of the assessing, grouping, instructing, sorting, and assessing. The routines…