Having trouble finding printable short vowel books? Here’s a common complaint I hear: “I cannot find books low enough for my child to read! I’ve checked out all the beginning readers at the …
5 Tips to Solve Reading Problems
Children with reading problems really want to know how to read. Before I could read, I remember wanting to know how. There was something strange and magical about silently staring at pages that …
Letter Sounds and Letter Shapes
Imagine being a beginning reader. Letters on the page are just scribbles, as if someone were doodling. Mom picks up a book and starts reading aloud, and you are amazed that these scribbles are a code. …
Has Whole Language Failed California?
California’s history in K-2 reading instruction is a great drama worthy of an independent film movie script. The players are young idealists, policymakers blindly passing legislation and a …
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Systematic Phonics & The Brain Science
Expert readers decode and make meaning so effortlessly they may be fooled to believe reading is natural. Research in both education and neuroscience show unequivocally that reading is not natural, …
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What is Fluency? How to Improve Fluency?
Fluency is reading speed, the number of words a child reads correctly per minute. A fluent reader can read quickly, automatically and with expression. WHY IS FLUENCY IMPORTANT? Fluency effects …
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Learning to Read & Dyslexic Students
The single most pervasive myth about learning how to read is that a struggling reader will eventually “catch on.” In fact, my most common client is a mid-second grade student who cannot read at all. …
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What is Phonemic Awareness?
When I get a new student, I immediately assess and start to develop his/her phonemic awareness. As I write about how the student is progressing in phonemic awareness, parents often ask perplexed …
How to Teach a Child to Read: Letter Sounds
Learn to Read English
English is a difficult language to learn how to read. Not because it’s more sophisticated than other languages. It’s not. All languages are complex. English is uniquely challenging because it is not …