Phonics Lesson Video

As promised, here is our phonics video! Need resources? Check out our earlier blog posts here. 

Christmas Comprehension Lessons

Enjoy our Christmas Comprehension Lessons!

Home for Christmas by Jan Brett
Lesson: TPT Link
Book: Amazon.com

Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett
Lesson: TPT Link
Book: Amazon.com









The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
SPECIAL LESSON EDITION that includes TWO WEEKS of Instruction! Comprehension and Writing lessons included.

Lesson: TPT Link
Book: Amazon.com
Read Aloud: YouTube

Thanksgiving Comprehension Lessons

Enjoy our Thanksgiving Comprehension Lessons!

Let's Celebrate Thanksgiving Day by Barbara deRubertis
Lesson: TPT Link
Book:
GetEpic.com
Educators get FREE access to their website! You can create student profiles and students read books under their profile.
Amazon.com

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano
Lesson: TPT Link
Book:
Amazon.com
Walmart
Barnes and Noble

Turk and Runt by Lisa Wheeler
Lesson: TPT Link
Book:
Amazon

"Halloweenish" Read Aloud Comprehension Lessons

Enjoy our "Halloweenish" Comprehension Lessons!

I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll
Lesson: TPT Link
Amazon Book
StorylineOnline
Flashlight Press

Hey, That's My Monster! by Amanda Noll
Lesson: TPT Link
Amazon Book
Flashlight Press

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans
Lesson: TPT Link
Amazon Book

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
Lesson: TPT Link
Amazon Book

The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg
Lesson: TPT Link
Amazon Book

Bats by Gail Gibbons
Lesson: TPT Link
Amazon Book

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Lesson: TPT Link (Two seperate reads with seperate lessons!)
Amazon Book
StorylineOnline

Comprehension Lessons - I Need My Monster and Hey, That's My Monster!

If you haven't read these books, we highly suggest them! We have written comprehension lessons plans for both books using the strategies summarize and comment. We also threw in keeping track of the monster details. 

TPT Links for lessons:

I Need My Monster Lesson Plan

Hey, That's My Monster! Lesson Plan

I Need My Monster:

I Need My Monster Lesson Plan
https://www.getepic.com/
http://www.storylineonline.net/i-need-my-monster/
http://www.flashlightpress.com/I_Need_My_Monster.html
https://www.amazon.com/Need-My-Monster-Amanda-Noll/dp/0979974623

Hey, That's My Monster!:

Hey, That's My Monster! Lesson Plan

http://www.flashlightpress.com/Hey_Thats_My_Monster.html

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936261375/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BTY25PWF31CPYYJJDR0G

Writing Connection: 

Whitney's class got done with a narrative writing unit and they wrote "Monster Stories". Keeping track of monster details from these books was a natural tool to help the students during revising. The class was able to use the "monster details" on their graphic organizers, choose words that would help describe their monster, and add it to their writings.   

More Phonics Lessons and Passages - Blends and Digraphs

Blends and Digraphs Explicit Phonics Lessons and Passages are now available on Teachers Pay Teachers! (Click on the words for links.)

See our earlier blog post on effective phonics instruction by clicking here.

Sight Words Assessment and Practice using the 107 Zeno High Frequency Words - "Biggest Bang for your Buck!"

This short list of 107 words make up more than 50% of the words we encounter in text. That is a worthy list to teach!

Reading is comprised of both knowing words at sight and decoding. It is about 50/50 reading words at sight versus decoding in the early stages of reading. Thus, decoding skills are very important, but being able to read words at sight is also necessary. One thing that teachers spend a lot of time on is teaching sight words.

The Zeno 107 word list will give you, the teacher, the “biggest bang for your buck”. I recommend this list as the main (perhaps the only) list of sight words that you teach until you come to other sight words in your text reading, then you teach those in preparation for reading text.

Zeno, S. M., Ivens, S. H., Millard, R.T., & Duvvuri, R. (1995). The educator’s word guide. New York: Touchstone Applied Science Associates, Inc.

Our Sight Words pack is now available on TPT! CLICK HERE

What we have provided in our SIGHT WORDS Download…
•Student word card lists
•Assessment Tools
•Student’s Spelling Dictionary
•Spelling Practice
•Word Wall Words
•Flashcards
•Games

Effective Phonics Instruction

CVC Explicit Phonics Lessons and Passages 

Now available on TPT! Click here!

As teachers we know that in the early grades we must provide practice for our students to read text in order for new words to be learned. One of the hardest things to find is decodable text that contains the spelling patterns being taught that are easy enough for them to read, yet hard and long enough for them to have text reading practice. 

We have provided an explicit phonics lesson to accompany each passage. 

10 lessons with passages are included in this download:
-short a
-short e
-short i
-short o
-short u
-five mixed short vowel




Using our phonics lesson plans will help your students as they learn to read and will prevent many future reading difficulties. Our lessons follow research on the brain and dyslexia conducted by Shaywitz & Shaywitz (2003) and is made practical in the Teaching Reading Sourcebook by Honig, Diamond, and Gutlohn (2008).

Effective Phonics Instruction 

Here are a few quick reminders for you as you plan your phonics instruction.  These reminders will help you use your time in the most effective way for the most growth in your students.

What phonics IS...

• Explicit and Systematic
• Quick Paced
• Includes Decoding Strategies
• Teaches Sound-Spelling Correspondences 
• Needs to be Applied to TEXT Reading
• Links to Phonemic Awareness
• Effective in Preventing Future Reading Difficulties
• Can be Taught Whole-group, Small-group and One-on-one
• A Means to an End (one piece of a reading program)

What phonics IS NOT...

• Spelling Practice (this adds to the knowledge of how words work, does not teach decoding)
• Word List Reading
• A Whole Reading Program (just one piece)
• The Goal of Reading (Comprehension is the GOAL)
• Making Diacritical Marks 
• Memorizing Syllabication Rules

Steps to Effective Phonics Instruction

1. Phonemic Awareness Warm-up
2. Sound-Spelling Review
3. Word Blending
4. Sight Words
5. Text Reading (This should be given at least 50% of the total lesson time)
6. Optional Word Work 

Assessing Phonics

Poor accuracy is usually an indicator that a child needs explicit phonics instruction. We recommend using the Core Phonics Survey to assess the sound-spelling patterns that you'll need to teach either whole group or in a small group intervention.

Comprehension Lessons

Dear Teacher Friends,

I am so excited to tell you that Whitney and I have completed the first of many to come Comprehension Strategy Lessons.  They have been written by us with you in mind.  We hope to continue helping you work smarter and not harder and help give you more time as you include effective instruction in your classroom.

We have included with each lesson: explicit instruction about the reading strategy, a filled in graphic organizer with the stopping spots and teacher think-alouds needed, blank graphic organizers for the students to use during reading that match the text, vocabulary cards and notes pages for discussion and writing extensions and more.  The texts we have selected for the lessons could be taught in more than one grade so you can decide if the text is right for your class. Click here to see the lessons we have completed and posted so far.

We hope you will try out the free lesson for the text, One Grain of Rice and tell us what you think.  We want to be able to provide you with helpful and research based effective instruction to get reading improvement in your classroom. Click here for the free lesson. 

Whitney started training her class the procedures of  a comprehension lesson this week using the story, The Invisible Boy. The strategy we chose was evaluate and comment. Here is a sample of one student's comment...

The student's comment says, " I  think its mean to laf at someone because hes difrint." (We aren't done with the lesson - week one takes extra training and procedures!  But that's what's awesome, tomorrow we will pick up right where we left off!)

Tip! Place mini sticky notes on the stopping points we suggest in the teacher copy of the lessons. It will help with lesson pacing and smoothness while allowing you to naturally flow through gradual release instruction.

Welcome Teachers!

Whitney and I are so excited to connect with you through this social format.  We are trying new things and branching out in new directions together and we hope you benefit from our adventure.

We hope to be able to bring simple time effective reminders to this blog.  We are both dedicated to teaching and to teachers.  We want to help you have more time!  We want you to love your job!  We want you to have the excitement you need to make it through the days, weeks and years that make up our lives as teachers.  You give your all everyday and we want to help you do that and have a little left over!

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