Science-based literacy resources and articles

for families, educators and schools

Search by Category:

Writing Mikayla Storey Writing Mikayla Storey

How to Support Your Students with Writing

Do you have students who struggle with writing?

Maybe they struggle to come up with ideas and just stare at their paper. Maybe they have a difficult time organizing their thoughts or using a clear introduction and conclusion. Or perhaps they forget to edit their work for things like capitalization and spelling.

Wherever in the writing process they struggle, one thing is for sure - writing can be tricky!

That’s why we’ve implemented this 3 step writing process. Keep reading to learn more.

Read More
Comprehension, Authentic Literature, How To Corey Pollard Comprehension, Authentic Literature, How To Corey Pollard

How to Create SOR-Aligned Lesson Plans for 3rd & 4th Grade Using Your Students Favorite Books

You may have heard that 3rd grade is the year where students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. But how exactly do we support that transition for students who are still working on the foundations?

Today, we’re sharing about how you can use your students’ favorite books to create evidence-based lesson plans that align with the Science of Reading so that your 3rd and 4th graders can begin to generalize those foundational skills to higher-level reading.

Read More
Lesson Planning Mikayla Storey Lesson Planning Mikayla Storey

How To Use Your Students’ Interests to Improve Their Literacy Skills

Raise your hand if you've ever been told that your literacy instruction is boring. 🙋‍♀️ If you're raising your hand - you're definitely not alone.

It can be difficult to teach these skills to students in a way that feels engaging and exciting because let's face it - the skills that we have to teach aren't very exciting. Luckily, there is a solution.

By putting lessons together in a way that focuses on students' interests, you can absolutely change the game in your literacy instruction. Keep reading to learn our step-by-step process for putting these lessons together.

Read More
Lesson Planning Mikayla Storey Lesson Planning Mikayla Storey

How Do I Fit It All In? Organizing Your Literacy Block to Align with the Science of Reading

Following the Science of Reading requires many lesson components we should be including in our literacy instruction.

Between explicitly teaching the 5 Core Components of Literacy, targeting student needs, tracking data, and pulling review activities - it can definitely feel like a lot!

But here’s the thing, research-based instruction that aligns with the Science of Reading does not have to be hard. All you need is a clear framework you can use to plan your lessons in alignment with research-based principles so that you know you are covering everything you need without it feeling super overwhelming!

Read More
Reading Fluency Mikayla Storey Reading Fluency Mikayla Storey

How to Build Fluency & Comprehension at the Passage Level

When working with students, our end goal is always that they can functionally read and write. A big part of this is the ability to read at the passage level and derive meaning from the text.

Luckily - building fluency and comprehension at the passage level doesn’t have to be hard. Keep reading to learn how you can incorporate this instruction into your reading lessons!

Read More
Reading Fluency Mikayla Storey Reading Fluency Mikayla Storey

How to Build Fluency & Comprehension with Sentence Reading

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to reading fluency and comprehension, including the fact that it is difficult to support, means that students need to be reading faster, and is reserved for when they can read at the passage level. Today - we are breaking down these misconceptions and discussing how you can use sentence-reading to help build your students’ fluency & comprehension skills!

Read More
Research Mikayla Storey Research Mikayla Storey

How to Get the Most Out of Your Literacy Lessons

Have you ever thought to yourself - “How in the world am I EVER going to fit everything into my lessons?!” or maybe, “How can I better support my students?”

We certainly have!

The great news - we can actually make our interventions lessons MORE effective WITHOUT adding a ton of additional time. Keep reading to learn how!

Read More
Phonics Mikayla Storey Phonics Mikayla Storey

How To Explicitly Teach Phonics Rules

It’s no secret that research tells us we need to teach rules explicitly - but what exactly does that mean?

Today, we are going to break down exactly what “teaching rules explicitly” means as well as walk you through how you can use this approach in your lessons!

Read More
Writing Mikayla Storey Writing Mikayla Storey

How to Teach Writing in Your Literacy Intervention Lessons

One of the most common questions we get is “how do I teach writing?”

In EVERY lesson that we teach students, we work through the 5-Core Components of Literacy for reading and then go back through each of them for writing. Keep reading to learn the actual strategies we use to seamlessly weave explicit, systematic writing instruction into our lessons.

Read More
Writing, Comprehension Ascend SMARTER Intervention Writing, Comprehension Ascend SMARTER Intervention

All About Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are visual displays and incredible tools to help your students with writing and comprehension. Graphic organizers can also be called mind maps, concept maps, or concept webs, but they all have the same wonderful purpose - to solidify comprehension. Graphic organizers explicitly teach students how to connect and organize information. They visually show what information to prioritize as well as help students with brainstorming and connecting any background information.

Read More
Writing Corey Pollard Writing Corey Pollard

How to Teach Writing Systematically

The problem for many of our students is that they don’t know how to format paragraphs or more complex written pieces effectively. So just like we do with all other aspects of literacy, we put together a framework for students to follow.

Read More
Parents, Writing, Evaluation and Assessment Corey Pollard Parents, Writing, Evaluation and Assessment Corey Pollard

What is Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is another term that is used synonymously with Disorder of Written Expression.

Basically, it can be used to describe a student or adult who struggles producing written content for a number of specific reasons.

When we consider dysgraphia, we have to think about all the requirements of writing. Writing is an incredibly complex task that requires multiple connections in the brain to come together quickly.

Read More
Writing Corey Pollard Writing Corey Pollard

How to Stop Letter Reversals

We all know that this can be such a sticking point for our dyslexic kiddos. It's important to note that many students display difficulty with b/d until the end of second grade or about the age of 8. By the time a child is 8 years old the dreaded b/d reversal should be pretty much gone.

Read More