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There’s so much to reading, from fluency to comprehension, and vocabulary. Motivating readers isn’t always an easy task. Check out these tips and tricks, like using decodable text, to get your learners excited about reading!
One of the most common patterns I see with students with dyslexia is difficulty with little words. They may get some of the more challenging content words, but then skip, substitute, or misread little words. Very often these are function words like the, or, and in. So do these types of errors matter? As teachers,…
Parenting is full of challenges. Some of these challenges, such as homework, or supporting challenged readers, frequently turn into battles. For kids with reading difficulties, battles over homework and reading logs can be a particular problem. Parents often seek out my tutoring services because of the very unpleasant dynamic that has emerged when they try…
You may have seen the recommendation to use decodable readers or decodable text with your students, especially early on in their learning. Let’s take a closer look at what that means, why it might be beneficial, and how to go about it. Many newly trained Orton-Gillingham educators or classroom teachers ask how to use decodable…
Decodable text is written in such a way that it contains very few if any unknown concepts. It uses known syllable patterns, phonemes, and learned words. The complexity of decodable text changes as your students learn new concepts. A decodable sentence for a student working on CVC words with short a is going to look…
As teachers and tutors, you know that we must go beyond helping our students learn to decode and read fluently. Comprehension is the end goal for all of the instruction and practice that we provide. BUT how do you know WHAT and HOW to teach in order to help our students improve in this…
One thing that I find myself frequently explaining to parents, students, and other teachers is the rationale for using decodable texts. Students are accustomed to using leveled texts in their classrooms and in many school-based interventions that follow the balanced literacy model of instruction. While engaging, there are important reasons why decodable text can be…
When someone says poetry, my immediate image is classical poetry forms such as sonnets. But I also have fond memories of reading Shel Silverstein poems or writing structured poetry forms like haiku when I was a child. Often, poetry is not one of the things people think of when they think of challenged readers. However,…
If there is one thing Orton-Gillingham teachers can never have enough of, it is decodable text. Finding books that are highly decodable, engaging for our students and suitable for a wide variety of ages is challenging. Differences in scopes and sequences further complicate matters. However, there are some resources that I turn to again and…
There are a variety of reasons why students struggle to develop reading and writing skills, and many of these students need explicit instruction in foundational skills such as phonics for decoding and spelling, automatic fluent reading skills, and basic text structures. However, the ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend, which is why teachers can’t…