Videos: Webinars

What would be the best approach to teach letter sounds for my 2nd grader with a speech delay and apraxia?

Teachers often turn to nonsense words for phonics practice, believing they build decoding skills. But is this practice worth our instructional time? We look into the role that nonsense words play in assessment and instruction.

Quick, practical ideas to help build readers' accuracy and confidence. Learn how simple changes to practice can make a big impact on accuracy and fluency.

I have a question about one of my students’ letter-naming knowledge. For the most part, he was able to point to and bring the plastic letter to me when I asked him to “Show me the <g>.” But he wasn’t able to tell me the letter name if I showed him a letter and asked. What is the reason for this? Any advice?

Subskill automaticity targets practicing a foundational reading subskill (e.g., letter names, letter-sound correspondences, word reading) with isolated, structured repetition. A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to use this practice to cement the skill to the point of effortless retrieval.

Encoding is the process of taking a spoken word, segmenting it into smaller parts, and representing those parts in written form. It is the reverse process of decoding and a component of spelling. Spelling is often used synonymously with encoding, but spelling refers to a broader linguistic process. While some words can be spelled using encoding alone, others require writers to apply spelling conventions unique to each written language system.

This routine for spelling multisyllabic words supports students in applying a simple and consistent strategy to encode words with more than one syllable. A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to use this routine to break the encoding process into manageable chunks.

Discover how small shifts in word work or spelling instruction can strengthen reading and writing skills.

Word sorts are categorization activities that reinforce previously taught phoneme-grapheme (sound-letter) correspondences. A comprehensive, step-by-step guide on how to use word sorts to support students' attention to orthographic details and the precision needed for accurate spelling and fluent reading.

Decoding is the process of using learned letter-sound correspondences to sound out words and typically precedes more automatic, effortless word recognition. When a student demonstrates automatic word recognition, they access the word as if by sight. Decoding is the reverse process of encoding.