Education resources for parents and teachers
Are you on the hunt for sight word worksheets? Check out our set for 240 sight words … in two levels of difficulty. Bonus - they align with the science of reading! Have you been following along with our sight word series? This post is the 7th in a ten-part series. So far, we've shared: Today we're going to look at how to choose the best sight word worksheets. How to choose sight word ... Read More
Have you been following along with our sight word series? We've talked about what sight words are, how to teach them, and why it's important to integrate sight word teaching with phonics. Today we'll tackle kindergarten sight words. Many schools require kindergarten teachers to teach a long list of sight words to their kindergartners. Unfortunately, lists of kindergarten sight words are often ... Read More
A small number of words make up a large percentage of the words that appear in print. These are called high frequency words. It's important that our students recognize a large number of high frequency words by sight so they can read fluently. We call these words - the words they recognize instantly without needing to sound out or guess - their sight word vocabulary. In essence, we want our students to turn ... Read More
How should I introduce sight words to preschoolers? What is a good sight word list for preschoolers? Where can I find preschool sight word worksheets? These are all questions I've heard from parents who are eager to get their children on the right path when it comes to learning to read. They are all good questions, but I think we need to back up and ask this question first: SHOULD we teach sight words ... Read More
In our first post of this series we explained the difference between sight words and high frequency words. Sight words are words we know by sight, without needing to sound them out or guess. High frequency words are words that appear frequently in the English language. But where do we get these high frequency words FROM? Enter Dolch and Fry. What is the Dolch word list? The Dolch word list was ... Read More
Sight words vs. high frequency words. What's the difference? This is the beginning of our blog series all about sight words. What are sight words? Traditionally, when teachers say “sight words,” they are referring to high frequency words that children should know by sight. We often define sight words as words that kids can’t sound out – words like the, for example. But this definition is not ... Read More
Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and their meanings. For many decades, researchers have noted that there is a strong correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. And yet ... Researchers tell us that, traditionally, vocabulary instruction has not been strong ... in far too many classrooms. Believe me, I get it. As I planned my daily classroom schedule each ... Read More
Are you teaching reading in K-2? Then you've probably heard this advice: "Focus on phonics. Get those foundational skills solid. Comprehension can wait." I understand the pressure to prioritize decoding skills - and I fully support an initial focus on phonemic awareness and phonics. After all, if students can't read the words, how can they understand them? But here's the thing ... comprehension isn't something ... Read More
Have you been following along with our series about the Big 5? So far we've tackled phonemic awareness and phonics. Now it's time to discuss the do's and dont's for teaching reading fluency. As I look back on my years as a balanced literacy teacher, I realize that I misunderstood fluency and its place in the big picture. I was opposed to decodable books because I thought that leveled books, with their ... Read More
In today's post, the second in our 5-part series, we'll dive into do's and don'ts for teaching phonics. Another name for this post could be "Mistakes I've Made When Teaching Phonics ..." because I've made a lot. (Psst... I'm sharing a free phonics scope and sequence at the end of the post!) Let's start with a little backstory. When I first started teaching first grade, I had to use a very rigid phonics ... Read More
