Identifying the main idea is one of the most important comprehension skills for readers. But readers also sometimes find it difficult to master. We have some engaging ideas today to help you introduce this skill to your students that will make main idea and supporting details a lot easier and fun to do! First, prepare some Main Idea Detective bags… View Post
We are back to our series on building fluency! This week’s tips are about building fluency with phonics. Specifically with decoding activities. Building accuracy and automaticity with phonics skills is key for increased fluency. And as I always say… the whole point of all these pieces of reading is to lead to better comprehension. If you missed part one in… View Post
Our state now mandates that we screen students for dyslexia. I posted about dyslexia screeners on Instagram last week (Are you following me? If not, find me @conversationsinliteracy) and had some questions about screeners and what to use. Use free dyslexia screeners when possible! There are good, reputable free dyslexia tests out there. I had to figure out what our… View Post
Building fluency during guided reading is our current series. To build fluency, we sometimes must back up to the word level and look at phonics and decoding. Students need automaticity with sounds, word parts, and whole words to increase their fluency. And as always we work to improve fluency so comprehension is more meaningful. You can find the first post… View Post
Guided reading and small groups are an exciting part of my day! I want to share with you some ideas for my Must Have Materials that will help your guided reading time to be more engaging, fun and more organized. I have split these ideas into grade levels, kindergarten through fifth grade. But most of these ideas go across grade… View Post
Today begins our new series on building reading fluency and we are starting with sight word activities! We believe it is important to practice with a purpose and with an urgency to learn! We have some simple, fun but effective sight word activities for guided reading small group time to share with you today. This quote from Timothy Rasinski is… View Post
I’m often asked about the best books for teachers, especially for reading or guided reading. So it is time for my annual Teacher Book Stack where I show you what I’m currently reading for the classroom. You can check out my other Best Books for Teachers here and here. There’s also a freebie towards the end of our post for… View Post
