Reading Teachers Lounge

Shannon and Mary review the terms phoneme and grapheme. They're important terms to understanding the connections between letters and sounds.


Resource Links:
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1. Phonics they Use Words for Reading and Writing by Patricia Cunningham
2. Phonics A-Z by Wiley Blevins
3. Phonemes, Graphemes, and Letters: The Word Burger
4. 44 Phonemes in English

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Shannon and Mary discuss a professional article, "Why Phonics Teaching Must Change" published in Educational Leadership, September, 2008 by Jeannine Herron. They talk about a different approach to teaching students to read.  What if we focus more on encoding rather than starting with decoding?


Resource Links:

1. Article: Why Phonics Instruction Must Change 
2. Encoding, Decoding, and Understanding the Print Language
3. Teaching Encoding and Decoding
4. Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick
5. Review of Left and Right Brain - Healthline
6. FREE sound wall bulletin board 

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Shannon and Mary talk about pre-reading skills and other school readiness skills that students need before going to Kindergarten. They interview Emily Howland, a pre-school educator about important early literacy skills and language development. 


Resource Links:

1. All About Learning - Motivation to Read 10 Tips for Preschoolers
2. Conscious Discipline - Social/Emotional curriculum
3. Play based curriculum 
4. Types of preschool programming

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Executive Functioning is a term being thrown around a lot in schools today. We break down what this term means and why it's important for educators to understand it. We discuss the importance of teaching these essential life-long skills.


Resource Links:

1. Executive Functioning in Plain English
2. Executive Functioning Task Cards
3. 5 Ways Executive Functioning  Issues Can Impact Reading
4. The Reading Brain: Executive Function Hard at Work
5. Executive Function Skills:  the Building Blocks for Reading to Learn 

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Reading and Writing go hand-in-hand. Hesitant readers tend to be hesitant writers. We ask students to do a lot of writing throughout the day. Shannon and Mary discuss the importance and elements of quality writing instruction.


Resource Links:
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.*

1. Thinking Maps 
2. The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subject Areas by Judith C. Hochman and Amanda Wexler*
3. Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Community
4. LOTS of writing instruction videos from The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (Lucy Calkins)
5. What is Writing Workshop
6. Writers Workshop Procedures
7. 7 Ways to Support Student Writing in any Content Area
8. Seth Perler student video describing how audience and purpose are essential to "getting your words on paper."
9. Seth Perler video blog The Writing Process (in plain English)
10. Empowering Writers

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Shannon and Mary discuss the concept of metacognition - thinking about the way you think. We discuss tips about how to teach your students how to evaluate their performances, learning, and reading.


Resource Links:
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.*

1. How Metacognition Can Help Kids
2. Executive Functioning Task Cards
3. Strategies that Work book link*
4. Strategies that Work Study Guide
5. 5 Ways to Boost Metacognition in the Classroom
6. Metacognition Overview
7. 3 Ideas for Teaching Students Struggling with Reading to Use Metacognition

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Consonants deserve their own episode! We can't let vowels steal all the glory. Learn about the building blocks of language: vowels/consonants, blends, digraphs. Learn more about how we teach our students about consonants as we share our tricks, tips, and resources.

Resource Links:

1. Precise Pronunciation
2. Digraph brothers
3. FCRR Digraph a Word
4. FCRR Student Center Activities
5. Ending Blends Clip Cards
6. PBS Videos and Resources for Consonant Blends
7. Curated Video Playlist about Blends and Digraphs

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Mary and Shannon sort out the complex terms that are related to phonological processing. What is the difference between phonological awareness and phoneme awareness? We discuss how we teach these skills and provide resource ideas for you to try!


Resource Links:

1. Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Introduction
2. Orton Gillingham Educators' Guide
3. Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick
4. Phonological Awareness and Dyslexia
5. Phonemic Awareness Overview (from U. of Oregon)
6. Getting Ready to Read Phonemic Awareness Centers (with the Frog book cover)
7. FCRR Student Activities-look at the Phonological Awareness resources
8. The Literacy Nest:Building Phonemic Awareness for Struggling Readers
9. Long and Short Vowel Phonemic Awareness sort
10. Shannon's Phonemic Awareness resources

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Shannon and Mary discuss how to determine "just right activities" for their students by working within the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) and how analyzing your students' scores can lead to developing rigorous activities within the student's instructional level. We believe that learning to read is rigorous and teachers must continue to teach students where they are while developing their lofty learning goals.

Resource Links:

1. ZPD Overview (Wikipedia)
2. ZPD and Scaffolding
3. Reading Levels and ZPDs
4. Zone of Proximal Development
5. ZPD and Accelerated Reader/Renaissance Learning
6. How do you find the instructional reading level? Analyzing Accuracy
7. Free Data Folder resource
8. Episode 4: Decoding the MAP Test

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Shannon and Mary have a conversation about reversals of letters and numbers. Many parents and teachers are concerned about reversals, but the truth is that all reversals do need to be explicitly taught. Some children will make developmentally appropriate errors, while others are struggling with working memory, visual, and phonological processing. Direct instruction with model (verbal and visual cues) and demonstration is the only research-based strategy to help children correct their reversals.


Resource Links:

1. Bat and Ball; Drum and Stick
2. B is a bad, bad boy; D's like to talk
3. Letter reversal poster
4. Guest Blogger from Bay Tree Blog Ultimate Teacher's Guide to Letter and Number Reversals
5. Handwriting Without Tears Professional Development
6. Ann Marie Morey - Free handwriting resources

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