Learning to Read Archives

Effective Spelling Instruction

Effective spelling instruction emphasizes the structure of the English language. I’ll be honest, I made a lot of mistakes with…
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How Do We Learn New Words? Orthographic Mapping

Have you ever wondered how students go from slowly sounding out words like s-a-t to instantly recognizing them? It’s not…
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Structured Literacy

This blog post goes into my interpretation of Structured Literacy and how I have applied it to my classroom and…
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Phonics Intervention

After teaching first grade, I transitioned into a new role doing reading intervention. I absolutely. love. this. job. One thing…
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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

1 week ago

Decodable practice doesn’t have to mean “read the list and move on.”Here’s how I make simple word lists more powerful:✨ Highlight the vowel soundHave students mark the letters that spell the vowel sound and say the sound as they highlight. Then go back and read the words. This keeps their attention on the grapheme–phoneme connection.🔦 Put a spotlight on a wordAfter one read-through, reinforce with a quick word hunt. This gets them rereading. You can simply say the word and have them find it or you can say a rhyming word or break it into sound parts. ⏳ Set a timer (but not for speed)Everyone reads the whole time. There’s no “I’m done.”Students work at their own pace. The goal is practice time, not how far they get.🧠 Connect to meaningGive a meaning clue.“Find something you can sit in and paddle.”Or try an oral fill-in-the-blank.We want decoding and comprehension working together.🧩 Incorporate morphology (orally)Say a word with a suffix (like peaches).Have students find the base word.Discuss what was added and why.Small shifts. Big payoff.Comment “decoding” for the link to these decoding pages.What did I forget? What do you like to do with your decoding practice? ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

2 weeks ago

During one of my school visits this week, I had a great conversation about this topic!A teacher asked, “If we’re not doing round robin reading… what should we be doing?”Here’s the shift:Round robin feels structured.It feels fair.But it gives very little actual reading practice.Only one student reads while everyone else waits.Fluency doesn’t grow from waiting.It grows from:• accurate word reading• repeated exposure• connected text reading• active engagementWhen every student reads at the same time (whether whisper reading or reading quietly in their heads) everyone gets real practice.The challenge or fear around trying this is often with management. (To that I say, they are much less likely to be bored when they are doing rather than sitting there)What if one person gets done way faster than the others? (Tell your students they are all reading for a certain amount of time. That might mean they read it twice. It might mean they don’t quite finish their practice read, but they’ll get it when we read together) How do I know they’re really reading? (I always bop around and listen to students as they read. I model what this time should look like. I engage with them if it seems like they aren’t really reading. But it’s like any other routine. You practice and they get it.)What about kids who can’t read i their heads and are super loud? (Practice whispering. Have them feel their throat to make sure they don’t feel any vibration. Whisper phones are often a hit as well.)If you’re looking for texts for beginning readers to practice, I’ve got you covered! Comment “read” if you’re interested. #ScienceOfReading #StructuredLiteracy ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

3 weeks ago

One word. So many layers.With a simple base like love, we can:❤️ Build word relatives (loves, loved, loving, lovable, lovely, loveliest, unloved…) ❤️ Explore how each one functions in a sentence  ❤️ Reinforce suffixing conventions (drop the e, change y to i) while building words ❤️ Review phonics principles like why English words don’t end in <v>❤️ And yes, we can briefly mention that sometimes when the /ŭ/ sound comes before <v>, we see <o> instead of <u>.We see “Scribal <O>” mentioned a lot online, and while it’s real, it doesn’t explain every short /ŭ/ spelled with <o>. English has layers. Multiple reasons. Multiple histories.We can teach students something far more powerful: Be flexible. If /o/ doesn’t make sense, try /ŭ/.Morphology. Phonics. Grammar. History. All from one small word.Resources like this are included in our monthly freebies for Logos members. And this month in our Logos Live session, we’ll be looking into this and more! Want to learn more about morphology, orthography, and the history of English? Comment “LOVE” and we’ll send you the link. #ScienceOfReading #StructuredLiteracy #logosliteracyacademy ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

3 weeks ago

No matter what you’re loving right now… this pack has it 💘This resource is full of meaningful literacy practice wrapped in a Valentine’s theme your students will love. From decoding and encoding to syllables, grammar, and sentence writing, each activity is designed to keep the focus on the skill, not just the holiday.✔️ Phonics-based practice✔️ Low prep, high engagement✔️ Easy to drop into centers, small groups, or intervention✔️ Festive without losing instructional purposeIf you’re looking for Valentine’s activities that still move reading forward, this one’s for you. 💕Comment “LOVE” and I’ll send you the link. #ScienceOfReading #StructuredLiteracy #PhonicsInstruction #ReadingIntervention ... See MoreSee Less

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Sarah's First Grade Snippets

1 month ago

Word chains are a flexible, powerful routine for building decoding, spelling, and word recognition it’s important to remember that as readers grow, word chains can grow with them.Early on, word chains help students attend to small sound changes. They’re practicing phonemic awareness and learning that changing one sound changes the word.As students develop, word chains shift. Now students must think about spelling patterns and orthographic rules, not just sounds. They’re holding multiple options in mind and choosing the spelling that fits the word and position.Word chains can extend into morphemes. Students aren’t just swapping letters here. They’re adding, removing, or shifting meaningful word parts. The work moves from “What sound changed?” to “What part of the word changed, and how did the meaning change?” The example I used in my slide is a more advanced example but this can as simple as change helps to helped to helper to helpful to unhelpful. Same routine.Different demands.Deeper thinking.When we let word chains evolve, we keep the structure students know while intentionally increasing the cognitive load and supporting growth from sounds, to spelling, to meaning.And when we add pictures or meaning clues?We anchor the work in vocabulary and oral language, guiding students toward the next word while keeping the focus on precise changes.Comment “chain” for links to a blog post about word chains and resource. #phonicssnippet #scienceofreading #structuredliteracy ... See MoreSee Less

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