The Science of Reading Simplified
Quick Quiz: What’s Your Reading Teacher Personality? Find Out!
I’ll never forget the moment everything clicked for me about how reading actually works in the brain. I was sitting in a professional development session, watching a presenter explain brain scans of children learning to read, when she showed us the Four-Part Processing Model. For the first time in my career, I could see exactly […]
It’s one of those questions that comes up in teacher lounges, professional development sessions, and literacy team meetings: “Is there a place for sustained silent reading in the school day?” If you’ve been teaching for any length of time, you know exactly what I’m talking about—those 15-20 minutes where everyone (teacher included) reads silently. Maybe […]
You know what question keeps popping up in my coaching sessions lately? Teachers are asking whether they should move away from leveled books. And I totally get it! I remember when my own classroom library was organized with those familiar A-Z labels, and every student had their “just right” reading level. It felt so organized, […]
You know that magical moment when a struggling reader suddenly recognizes a word they’ve been sounding out for weeks? I live for those moments! Last week, I watched one of my students, who had been carefully decoding “because” for months, suddenly read it effortlessly in a story. That’s orthographic mapping in action, and trust me […]
Grab your favorite beverage and settle in, because we need to talk about something that’s been weighing heavily on my heart lately – the “Sold a Story” podcast. Like many of you, I’ve spent years in the classroom trying my best to help every child learn to read. And like many of you, I thought […]
“What exactly is the National Reading Panel Report, and why does everyone keep talking about it?” This is a question I wish someone had asked me earlier in my teaching career. Instead, I spent years nodding along whenever the National Reading Panel was mentioned in curriculum meetings or professional development sessions, pretending I knew exactly […]
“We’re implementing the Science of Reading next year!” If you’ve heard this announcement in a staff meeting and thought, “What is the Science of Reading and what exactly does that mean for my classroom?” – I want you to know you’re not alone. As a literacy coach who’s worked with hundreds of teachers navigating this […]
When I look back at my teaching journey, there’s always been one question at the heart of it all: How do we help every child discover the power of reading? After two decades in classrooms, I’m still passionate about finding the answer.
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