We’re so glad you’re here. Now over the last month, we’ve been talking all about how to use the Science of Reading and effective reading instruction strategies to support students with varying needs. We’ve talked about supporting students who are reading on grade level, supporting students who struggle with decoding and word recognition, we’ve talked about supporting students who struggle with comprehension, and today we’re going to talk about our last group of students, students who struggle with word recognition and comprehension. Click through to learn more!

In order to be a successful reader, students have to be able to understand what they are reading - not just sound out the words. Keep reading to learn how to use SOR to support students that struggle with comprehension.

This week, we are taking a look at how we can best support students who struggle with word recognition (or sounding words out for reading & spelling).

Research tells us that between 70-80% of students who are struggling with reading specifically struggle with word recognition. In order for these students to read effectively, it is critical that we are able to teach them how to decode and encode. Keep reading to learn how we support this group of students and grab some of our favorite resources!

Today we are jumping in and discussing how SOR strategies can support students who read on (or above) grade level.

Now, if you are working as a reading interventionist or SPED teacher, you may not see these students often as they don’t appear to need a lot of additional support when it comes to reading. This doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t ways we can support these children to help them unlock their highest potential. Keep reading to learn how SOR strategies can support these students!

It can absolutely feel like all the time we spend evaluating could be better spent actually TEACHING our students the skills, right?

But the truth is - it is a critical component of our instruction.

While we are just as eager to jump into concepts with our students and get them the instruction we KNOW they will need, we have to recognize that assessments and data should be providing us incredibly valuable information that sets the trajectory for where we need to go.

We’ve been at this for a while now! We’ve worked with hundreds of struggling students in a variety of different settings and one of the most important things we’ve learned is that students DO NOT struggle with reading for the same reasons!

And this is SO important to recognize, because if we don’t recognize this, then we try to support struggling readers using all the same strategies, and the bottom line is that just doesn’t work. For many reasons, but most importantly because in order to support ALL struggling readers, we need to know WHY they’re struggling to read!

In a 2019 study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, it was determined that over 66% of 4th graders were not reading at a proficient level. Part of this is because of the gap that exists between research-based practices and what’s being implemented in the classroom. Unfortunately many large curriculum publishers adopted by schools were not staying current with the ever-expanding body of research on the cognitive development of students.

In order to close this gap, we need to implement practices in the classroom that align with the Science of Reading. Check out this blog for ideas that you can use to support your students!

When we think about reading instruction, there are a few different style texts that we can use to support fluency and comprehension. Often, we hear about things like decodable texts, predictable readers, controlled vocabulary readers, language experience stories, authentic literature, and noncontrolled texts.

With so many different styles, it can be challenging to know which to use when. There are champions for many different styles and you may have heard pros and cons for one style versus another. Today, we are going to take a look at two of the styles we hear about most often - decodable vs. non-controlled text.

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!

Have you ever thought to yourself - how in the world can I make this more engaging for my students?

If so, you are definitely not alone. Reading intervention is HARD for our students. We are asking them to complete tasks that have always felt difficult for them.

The good news - it’s easier than you might think to make lessons engaging for your students. Plus - when students are engaged, it’s more likely that they will learn the material. It’s a win-win!

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!

Vocabulary instruction is necessary in order for phonics to matter. Keep reading to learn how you can easily & effectively incorporate vocabulary instruction into your reading & writing 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!

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!

Have you ever looked through your students’ lesson data and thought - “gosh, they just aren’t getting this?”

We’ve all been there. Today - we are going to break down what you can do when students need more practice and the importance of systematically reviewing previously learned concepts.

It is no secret that phonological awareness skills are a key component to reading and spelling, but for a long time it felt like the way to effectively fit these drills into our lessons WAS a secret! After a while of looking at the data (and some trial/error!), we found a way that worked for us and want to share it with you!

The term “Science of Reading” has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. Today, we wanted to break down what the Science of Reading is and what its future holds.

First things first -

What is the Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading encompasses a comprehensive collection of research completed over many years by experts in the fields of education, psychology, neuroscience, language development, and more regarding how we learn to read.

Paragraph writing can feel like a BIG skill - both to teach & to learn! That’s why today, we are breaking down how we can use a research-based framework to make paragraph writing & paragraph writing instruction easier! There’s even a free resource further down for you to use in your paragraph writing instruction!