November 19, 2019

How to Spell Well: Tips and tricks for spelling success

November 19, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Would you agree that teaching spelling should be an all-day/every-day job?! We all know that opportunities to teach quick spelling lessons arise frequently throughout the day. But, all too often, we miss these teachable moments!

Research on spelling shows that for decades, the common approach to teach spelling centered on rote memorization with a heavy emphasis on visual learning. But, the research shows that spelling can be improved by

October 08, 2019

More Than the ABCs: Vowel A

October 08, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Last time, I showed you how to help students own the alphabet as more than just the ABCs. Each symbol or letter is a picture of sound. Our job is to teach kids how to attach the sound or sounds that each symbol represents.

We’ll start at the very beginning with the letter A a . As you can see, I printed both the capitalized version and the lower case versions. I do that because children need to see and use both forms. I start with A a, not because it is the first letter of our alphabet, but because it represents the first three vowel sounds I teach. I repeat…it has THREE sounds that should be taught right out of the starting gate: a, a, a. Click the play button below to hear the correct

September 17, 2019

More Than the ABCs: Owning the Alphabet

September 17, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Lately, I have been pondering my linguistic journey. Over the years, it has been a journey of self-discovery. A journey that led me to use a fascinating method to teach systematic phonics and phonemic awareness.

If you could have visited my first and second grade combined classroom about 20 years ago, you would have noticed that I displayed traditional alphabet cards above my chalkboard. I didn’t really use it as a reference tool. It was more of a standard classroom decoration than a tool for learning. That is, until I gained some knowledge about teaching letters NOT as letters of the alphabet, but as pictures of sound. I didn’t realize the power the alphabet has when it is considered as a code made of symbols that allows learners to attach sounds to them.

The fact remains, we have an alphabetic language. In other words, letters provide us a way to encode sounds of speech into symbols…the letters of the alphabet. But for years, that information was lost on many a teacher. When I realized how the code system works, it rocked my linguistic world!

June 04, 2019

Micro-comprehension: Gap-filling Inference

June 04, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Last time, I introduced the concept of building micro-comprehension skills in young readers, starting with words. Often, students need direct instruction in the various areas of micro-comprehension to become efficient readers. I started with words because they are the foundation upon which to build the other skills.

With a strong word base, students can begin the arduous task of comprehending the meaning of strings of words and phrases. In order for that to happen,

May 28, 2019

Micro-comprehension: A Foundation of Words

May 28, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

In an earlier blog post, I pointed out that early reading might best focus on micro-comprehension strategies before exploring the macro-comprehension kinds of questions that are found in most reading programs. But why? To start with, a reader won’t have clear macro-comprehension without clear micro-comprehension. A deep and wide vocabulary makes the micro-comprehension much more accurate!

February 28, 2019

Sound and Spelling Rules: How to handle the "ei" vowel pair

February 28, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

I am sure you have seen posts like this before. I know I have, and I get a charge out of them. Whether or not you like to teach systematic phonics and spelling, you probably have a hard time getting kids to lock in certain sounds and spelling rules…and this one can be a doozy!

Let’s look at this dastardly duo up close. You have probably heard the old rule

January 03, 2019

Early Reading: What is microcomprehension?

January 03, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

I read some information today about what’s missing in reading comprehension instruction, and the research that was provided jumped off of the page for me! I had to get used to some new terminology, but it all made perfect sense!

The article stated that the latest research in early literacy found that there is an extra step between decoding and comprehension that most of us don’t know about. They even had a name for the missing skill: microcomprehension.

December 13, 2018

Teaching Silent Final E: The Catch-all Rule

December 13, 2018/ David Lutz

If you have been tracking with my series of silent final e posts, you don’t want to miss Part 4: The Catch-all Rule. My students always enjoy this one because of its name and how it works!

So far, you know the first 3 rules for why an e appears at the ends of some words. It is important that I remind you of those rules before discussing Rule 4. As students become more and more familiar with Silent Final E words, they will be able to

November 29, 2018

Silent Final E: The –le Ending Rule

November 29, 2018/ David Lutz

Back again with Part 3, which I call The –le Ending Rule for Rule 3. If you have been checking in with my blog posts, I have been delving into the hows and whys of Silent Final E. (So far, we have discussed Rule 1 and Rule 2.)

Students easily understand this Rule 3 because it only has two major guidelines:

October 23, 2018

Teaching Silent Final E: The V-C-G-U Rule

October 23, 2018/ David Lutz

In Part 1 for Silent Final E, I discussed how Rule 1, The Split Vowel Spelling Rule, can ease students into the concept of a silent final e that makes a middle vowel sound long. This installment will further explain why many English words end with the silent final e—but for a different reason that is easy for kids to recognize.