As a certified structured literacy dyslexia specialist, I have been using an Orton-Gillingham approach to teach students of all ages for more than 20 years. I love sharing my knowledge and resources with other teachers and helping them learn more about structured literacy and the science of reading.
A 2-minute fluency check I use all the time π
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Dear Reader, Yesterday I shared one of my favorite routines for turning a missed word into decoding + spelling + fluency practice. I'm glad so many of you found it helpful! Today I wanted to share one more very simple way I build fluency practice into my lessons because it takes almost no extra planning. β Start with a quick fluency check.At the beginning of a session, I'll often pull out a short word-reading activity targeting a skill the student has already learned. I'm not teaching anything new. I'm simply watching:
It only takes a few minutes, but it gives me really useful information about what we need to review that day. And those missed words? I can pull them right into the routine I shared yesterday: Read it β Decode it β Map it β Spell it β Read it again! Quick fluency check, instant lesson-planning information. π π One of my favorite ways to do this in the fallI created my Fall Fluency Foldables specifically to make this kind of review easy. There are 20 different skill sets, starting with CVC words and progressing through blends, digraphs, Silent E, vowel teams, all six syllable types, affixes, Latin roots, and multisyllabic words. So I can simply grab the foldable that matches a skill a student has already learned and use it for a quick beginning-of-session check, review activity, or progress-monitoring tool. And because they're foldables, students can cut and color them, track their own progress, and use them again for repeated practice. My students actually beg to do these!
π Even better, they're on sale today!The TPT Bonus Back to School Sale is happening now, so this is a great time to grab the Fall Fluency setsβor anything else you've had sitting on your wishlist. Use code BTSBONUS26 to save up to 25% today and tomorrow, August 25β26.
And if you missed yesterday's email about my brand-new Short A Decodable Fluency resource, that's on sale too! π Happy teaching! P.S. Tomorrow is the final day of the sale. I'll send one last quick reminder before it ends, and then I'll stop talking about the sale. Promise. π LET'S CONNECT |
Step by Step Literacy
As a certified structured literacy dyslexia specialist, I have been using an Orton-Gillingham approach to teach students of all ages for more than 20 years. I love sharing my knowledge and resources with other teachers and helping them learn more about structured literacy and the science of reading.
Dear Reader, Last week, we talked about why handwriting still matters, even in a world of keyboards, tablets, and speech-to-text, and I promised I'd share more of what I'm learning in my dysgraphia workshop. Well, here's something that's been on my mind lately: How many times have you told a student to slow down and write more neatly? Or heard someone say: "He CAN write neatly when he wants to. He just needs to take his time!" Sound familiar? Well, here's the thing: Being able to form letters...
Dear Reader, A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about why spelling still matters in a world of spellcheck, speech-to-text, and AI. Well, apparently Iβm on a mission to defend all the old-fashioned thingsβ¦because today I want to talk about handwriting. π We have keyboards. We have tablets. We have speech-to-text. So does handwriting really matter anymore? Yes, of COURSE it does! π― And here's why: Handwriting is not about beautiful penmanship or perfect letter formation. Itβs about automaticity and...
Dear Reader, I've heard this more times than I can count: βDoes spelling really matter anymore? We have spellcheck!β Believe me, I get it. Our students have spellcheck, predictive text, speech-to-text, Grammarly, and (dare I say it??) AI. π€ So why spend precious instructional time teaching them how to spell? Because spelling is about MUCH more than getting words right on paper. As you probably already know, reading and spelling are actually two sides of the same coin. When students learn to...