Decoding strategy: Look for pieces relies on students to understand that they know a lot...and teach them how to use it. Most people know this as "Look for Chunks" and they have a piece of cheese. It never made sense…
Decoding strategy for stretch and blend is rarely used independently, BUT you need to teach it independently. We need to be very careful we don't overlook this valuable step. We also need to be very careful we don't encourage…
Decoding Strategy: Get your mouth ready is seen as controversial. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This strategy should be used in connected with stretch and blend. It should never to used to guess a word or distract from the letters in the word.…
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…
This intervention has a special place in my heart. Years ago, we were sitting with our School Intervention Team and seeing many second grade struggling readers. We realized the students weren't just struggling with reading in second grade, they had…
Another area we have historically needed to improve was the spelling portion on the PALS test. PALS provides spelling tests for their quick checks, but doesn't have a procedure to follow. To complicate this intervention, our school uses word study…
I won't drone on about the importance of sight words. I believe even the earliest learners can be taught to recognize sight words...even before they know the letters. I, personally, don't want them to think of the words as parts…
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…
Quick Checks are a part of my day. You know I am lucky enough to be in a primary school. I have a little more than 500 students from kindergarten to second grade. I also have a "campus-style" school.…
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. …
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…