Literacy Tip Archives

Since a syllable is a word or word part that contains a “talking” vowel or vowel sound, it helps to chunk out multisyllabic words by its syllable when you’re stuck reading. Come explore syllable patterns and syllable types in more detail in this slide deck here. The resource includes examples using the multisensory approach.

What is a Student COACHING Conference?

It is a quick session to have with a student when you have a specific skill or strategy you want to coach a student through the process of using.

1. Teach. Offer a new or previously learned strategy.

2. Coach. Provide feedback and support as the student practices.

3. Link. Repeat the strategy and leave the student with a reminder to continue practicing independently.

Click HERE to watch a coaching conference in action (5:26).

Click HERE for a table tent to have on hand during Coaching Conferences.

Excerpted from: A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences: Grades K-8 by Jennifer Serravallo (2019)

What’s the difference between a sight word and a high frequency word?

QUIZ: Which of these words are sight words?

| the | cat | said | me | did |

If you said that all of these could be a sight word, you are correct! The term “sight word” need not only apply to irregularly spelled words such as said, but is any word that has been orthographically mapped and can be recalled quickly and efficiently. High frequency words are those that occur most often in English and are ranked as such. The terms are not interchangeable. We can, however, use explicit phonics instruction, along with phonemic awareness and orthographic mapping routines, to ensure that high frequency words are consistently added to a student’s sight word bank.

Morphology

Help students develop and support reading comprehension as they learn about the meaningful relationships between words (morphology), their sound-spelling correspondence, and how morphological structures contributes to reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

Long-term success in reading comprehension depends on:

• knowledge of individual words (morphology)

• the increase in length and complexity of texts and words

• familiarity (root words/structure) of words.

Transform your instruction by clicking this link to dig deeper and learn some strategies around word complexity and comprehension.

Ever wondered what the difference is between an interactive read aloud and shared reading? The difference between shared reading and an interactive read aloud has to do with access to the text. In an interactive read aloud the teacher is seeing the text and posing questions about the text, while also modeling fluent reading, with expression and thinking aloud. The purpose of this is to model what good readers do when they reach a point of difficulty. Read alouds should also be carefully selected text that is at or above the students’ grade level. Shared reading is the “we do” phase of the gradual release of responsibility model. During shared reading the teacher and the students are all able to see the same text and read the text together at the same time. Shared reading allows students to access text that might be too difficult for them to read on their own. Check out the videos linked below to see these instructional practices in action.

Interactive Read Aloud Shared Reading

What Could Orthographic Mapping Look Like in My Classroom?

Transitional Kindergarten, and even PreKindergarten teachers can lay the foundation for later success with orthographic mapping. Check out these slides to get a glimpse into what orthographic mapping might look like in your classroom.

Why Orthographic Mapping Matters

Once upon a time, we thought that readers visually memorize words, but with advancements in technology and reading research, we now know that readers actually process every letter in a word very rapidly. We also know that students must have the ability to engage in “rapid, automatic mental manipulation of phonemes,” (Moats, 2021), in order to move printed words into stored memory. Orthographic mapping is the bridge between speech and print, because as we now know, it all starts with speech.

What is Orthographic

Mapping?

Put simply, orthographic mapping is, “the mental process we use to store words for immediate, effortless, retrieval,” (Kilpatrick, 2021). The process includes the understanding that a word is made up of sounds (analyzing the phonemes) and letters (orthographic analysis) and then attaching those sounds to the symbols (letters) that represent the sounds (orthographic mapping). Click here for a visual of this process.

Shared Reading

Are your students struggling at the guided reading table? Increasing the impact of your shared reading might be just what you need. Here are some ideas to try:

- Intentionally connect shared reading work to the work being done during guided reading.

- Think about when you might swap a guided reading lesson for a shared read with grade level text at the table.

- Maximize student engagement with discussion around open ended questions.

I teach 2nd grade and I have a group of students who are struggling with blending. What can I do to support these students?

Blending is a critical pre-reading skill. If students are struggling with blending individual phonemes (sounds), you can start with blending syllables or onset and rime first.

Syllable Blending Examples:

sis-ter sister win-dow window blis-ter blister

Onset-Rime Blending Examples:

t-ag tag l-ime lime h-eap heap

Once students are comfortable with this task, you can move on to phoneme blending.

Phoneme Blending Examples:

g-r-a-b grab sh-r-i-n-e shrine c-r-a-k-er cracker

Support blending and the transition to the "speech to print" connection with manipulatives, such as counters or cubes, before introducing letters.

You can also check out the Components of Phonics Lesson document to find examples of blending that can be used to support teacher modeling.