Let's get down to the basics and what the research reveals about how to approach teaching a beginning reader to read. It's pretty simple, yet it is a daunting task. Phonics is the foundation that should not be skipped because research reveals that systematic phonics instruction is effective for beginning readers but also to prevent and fix issues readers can and do face. If you want to check out all the places where I've gathered this information be sure to look through each

Last week was rough. My youngest was sick twice and it was all I could do to stay on top of life much less blog posts. As a result, the scheduled "What the Research Reveals" post will have to wait. My goal is to publish it this week, but life with little people is interesting. Sometimes schedules are just thrown out the window for any number of reasons. For example, we were on the verge of being late for church yesterday because of a meltdown my four year-old-daughter had ove

Every language consists of symbols with each symbol representing a sound. In English these are known as letters or letter combinations. In short, that is phonics - "a method of teaching word recognition or decoding that emphasizes the sound-symbol (letter) relationships that exist in a language." (Rasinski & Padak, p.14) Phonics is seeing the symbol (i.e. B) and recognizing it as a letter that makes the sound /b/. Phonemic Awareness is the hearing of this sound. Students hear

You want an environment filled with reading material readers cannot wait to read. The goal is that you reader hears the sound that they're learning in literature. In the beginning of their phonics journey my goal is not mastery. It is simply introduction to the fact that letters represent a sound. At four my little reader is starting to recognize letters and numbers in her little world. ABC books are a big part of that journey! She makes her own ABC book (which I shared in la

My little girl is in Pre-K and does not want to do school most days. If I can get ten solid minutes on letters and numbers I'm absolutely thrilled. But here is the weird thing about her lack of desire to "work" on letters and numbers: if I ask her, "do you enjoy school?" she always says, "Yes!" I don't quite understand it, but since her older sister does school everyday (and most days are not a battle with her) she typically does one of the activities I set out for her withou