Reading Elephant
Helping children reach their reading potential.
Letter Reversals are common. Every child, at some point, reverses letters. Beginning readers reverse letters often in both reading and spelling, saying “d” for “b” or writing a backwards “p.” Letter …
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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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What are the best practices in teaching reading? Now we can peer inside the reading brain and see that all of us mortals must process a word phonologically before accessing meaning. Furthermore, …
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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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EDWARD THE EMU BY SHEENA KNOWLES If you’re having a bad day, it might lift your spirits to think,” At least I’m not an emu.” These strange-looking creatures are flightless birds that reside in …
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Jackie never predicted she'd be a mom of a struggling reader. She remembers the day she waved goodbye to her sociable, friendly five-year old son, Ashton. It was his first day of Kindergarten. He was …
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“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we believe we left without having lived them, those we spent with a favorite book.” –Marcel Proust Children’s books transport …
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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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(When we read aloud to children, we expose them to sophisticated language. Every (other) week, I highlight a brilliantly written children’s book that develops children’s vocabulary, a book in which …
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Developing early literacy skills does not mean teaching an under five year old to read. Early literacy skills involve reading and talking to your child and (possibly) teaching letter sounds. SPEAKING …
