Simply For Teachers

Summer is the best time for family fun and relaxation!  Lots of time out of school means more down time.....and everyone needs some form of a break.  That being said, we know as educators that students benefit from some skill practice over long breaks.  I said SOME skill practice.  Let me be clear, students do not need hours every day over the summer to prevent learning loss.  However, they do need some kind of activities that will flex their "learning muscles".  So let's talk about how we can strike that balance! Supporting Reading Over the Summer Part 1: Pre-Readers Pre-Readers benefit from a number of ways to practice skills.  When you are planning activities for pre-reader ask yourself three simple questions... Is it meaningful? Is it memorable? Is it fun? Any activities should keep these three questions in mind, but especially when we are talking about summer.  Let's be honest, do you want to do anything during your free time that isn't meani...

Here are some quick and simple instructional tips that with help you better support your students as they start to apply their phonics skills.   Do: model saying and blending sounds....thinking out loud to show students what it should sound like in their head (this is not natural for many students, they need a model) provide structured opportunities on a daily basis to apply grapheme knowledge and blending...this could be on a blending board, a slides presentation projected, or pocket chart....just one word at a time....focus on the process and only include sounds that have already been taught give students frequent opportunities to practice blending with sounds they have already learned on a more independent level....use decodable readers or decodable sentences to promote the feel of blending words while reading in a safe and successful setting reassure students to say the sounds out loud and then blend them together (stretch the sounds so they touch each other)....some stude...

  Decodable readers are an effective tool for supporting early or struggling readers.  They enable a student to apply letter/sound relationships in controlled way, but with the feel of an authentic text.  So why and how can decodable sentences fit into the mix? Why use decodable sentences? direct application of phonics skills opportunity for immediate feedback quick practice, time saver opportunity for fluency/phrasing practice opportunity for improved reading after feedback and repeated readings...building confidence in finding success simple practice for partner reading or family engagement How can you use decodable sentences effectively? first, directly instruct letter/sound relationships and any needed high frequency words model using decoding reading strategies and what to do when faced with an unknown word next, "I do, we do, you do" with one sentence then, support each student as they apply the modeled decoding strategies to read sentences provide feedback and use ...

  If we are strategically teaching letter/sound relationships (graphemes) then we are assessing strategically as well.  Using the word "strategic" means that our lessons and our language is intentional.  We are selecting what we teach and how we teach it consciously.  The ONLY way that happens is through assessment, be it formal or informal....we are assessing constantly so we know how to respond and what to teach.  Our students are giving us feedback all of the time and we need to watch, listen, and analyze.  When we are teaching letter/sound relationships on of the best ways to get a clear picture of student understanding is through nonsense words. Let's talk about why nonsense words matter and how to use them so you can better support your students.... I'll expand a little on each of these reasons.   1. Assesses letter/sound relationship knowledge (grapheme understanding)- Nonsense word decoding means that students are directly applying their g...