First up in my Getting Started with the Science of Reading series is the 5 Pillars of Reading and the National Reading Panel. In 1997, Congress asked NIH’s branch of Child Development & Behavior to work with the US Department of Education to establish a National Reading Panel. Its intention: to evaluate existing research and evidence to the find best ways to teach our nation’s children to read. They desired an end to the “reading

The Science of Reading (SoR) is the new buzzword in education- especially at the elementary level. Most of what you likely see as the focus revolves around word recognition. Phonics & phonemic awareness are getting a lot of the attention, and for good reason. We have too many students that struggle to decode. But, there’s more to it. In this series of blog posts, I’m sharing some of the key ideas in the Science of

I first heard about blending lines in A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins. He recommends them as a tool to practice blending with your current phonics skill during whole class instruction. He incorporates intentional, continued review, frontloading of words students will have within decodable texts, and challenging words for more advanced readers. Because I use blending lines solely within my small group instruction, rather than during whole group instruction, I use them a

By the time students reach 3rd grade, phonics is no longer a large part of typical classroom instruction. Third grade is the year that instruction shifts to more of a focus on morphology and understanding roots and affixes while incorporating some phonics review. It’s also the year that comprehension and written expression begins to take a larger focus.  But there’s still a place for phonics in 3rd grade. Every single year I’ve been a teacher