Creating a passion for reading in your students is tough. Some children enter the classroom and you can see in their face that they love to read. However, there are other students that reading seems to be almost a burden to them. Well, you are not alone in wanting all of your students to love reading! In this post, I explore five ways that teachers can ... Read More about Five Ways to Foster a Love of Reading in the Classroom
Reading Fluency Strategy: Repeated Readings
Reading Fluency is one of the five areas of reading. When I first started learning about reading fluency, the initial materials I found were assessments. My assessments gave me lots of useful information but on Monday when I started a new book with my reading group, my instruction looked very much the same as it had before. I quickly realized that assessing fluency was not ... Read More about Reading Fluency Strategy: Repeated Readings
How to Use Picture Sorts to Teach Phonemic Awareness
Picture Sorts have been a game-changer for my students. Phonemic Awareness needs to be directly taught in Kindergarten and 1st Grades. Learn more about phonemic awareness in this blog post. At my school, we try to teach the skills both universally to the whole class and then in small groups during Guided Reading groups. Obviously, this small group instruction is very important because it ... Read More about How to Use Picture Sorts to Teach Phonemic Awareness
What is Phonemic Awareness?
What is phonemic awareness? I am embarrassed to say that when I started teaching, I had never heard the term. Sure, I knew what a phoneme was and we studied phonics instruction in my reading methods class. By golly, I even remember a phonics workbook in 1st Grade. But phonemic awareness was a new term, and I learned that it is powerful for teaching young students to read. Phonological ... Read More about What is Phonemic Awareness?
Helping Every Reader Succeed
As I studied to become an elementary teacher in the late 1980's, it was the era of Whole Language. There was a de-emphasis of phonics instruction and more emphasis on sight vocabulary and reading authentic literature. I graduated and felt like I was ready to help children learn to read, but I must admit the first few years were tough. In practice, I wasn't nearly ... Read More about Helping Every Reader Succeed
Welcome to A Spot of Curriculum
I am excited to begin this journey with my new blog. This is my 26th year as an elementary teacher and specifically my 14th year as a Curriculum Facilitator. My focus the last fourteen years has been to help teachers so they can better help their students. I have learned so much along the way and I want to share this knowledge and connect with all of you through this blog. ... Read More about Welcome to A Spot of Curriculum
