If you have middle or high school students who are struggling with comprehension, you are absolutely not alone. Comprehension is such a complex skill, and many students don’t have a clear strategy to help them dig deeper into text. The good news is that comprehension is a skill that can be developed.

The important thing to keep in mind is that we are looking to build routines so that students know when to use each of the different strategies. It’s great to teach how to find the main idea and key details, and to teach how to make inferences and predictions, but it’s even more important that they know how everything fits together so they can actually use these strategies independently.

Struggling to help students move beyond a quick “looks good” when editing their writing? Discover a simple, step-by-step editing process that teaches students how to spot subjects, predicates, and conjunctions, fix run-ons, and take ownership of their spelling. Perfect for building stronger sentences and confident writers.

The letter Y can be one of the trickiest parts of phonics instruction because it plays double duty as both a consonant and a vowel. Sometimes Y says /y/ as in yo-yo, and other times it makes vowel sounds like /ī/ in cry, /ē/ in baby, or /ĭ/ in gym. Without clear, explicit instruction, students may feel frustrated and start guessing.

Helping students master literacy skills is only part of the equation—the real goal is getting those skills to stick and show up across subjects, settings, and tasks. In this post, we explore how to help students generalize their reading and writing skills beyond isolated lessons. You'll learn how to bridge the gap between instruction and application using strategies that promote transfer, increase engagement, and build confidence. Whether you're working in Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3, these tools will help students take what they’ve learned and apply it meaningfully in other areas of their academic and everyday lives.

An effective lesson planning process has the potential to transform your year.

For us educators, lesson planning can reduce stress because we have everything outlined. It also saves us a ton of time in the long run.

But did you know that lesson planning also benefits our students? When we have clear plans, students begin understanding routines, and the increased cohesion between our lesson components helps them get better results!

Keep reading to learn the 5 step process to creating effective literacy lesson plans AND to grab our FREE lesson planning guides!

An effective lesson planning process has the potential to transform your year.

For us educators, lesson planning can reduce stress because we have everything outlined. It also saves us a ton of time in the long run.

But did you know that lesson planning also benefits our students? When we have clear plans, students begin understanding routines, and the increased cohesion between our lesson components helps them get better results!

Keep reading to learn the 5 step process to creating effective literacy lesson plans AND to grab our FREE lesson planning guides!

Prepare for back-to-school with our top 5 MUST-HAVE literacy intervention materials! From whiteboards & dry erase markers to phonogram cards and more, equip yourself with essentials for effective teaching. Discover these must-haves now!

Do you have students who struggle with writing?

Maybe they struggle to come up with ideas and just stare at their paper. Maybe they have a difficult time organizing their thoughts or using a clear introduction and conclusion. Or perhaps they forget to edit their work for things like capitalization and spelling.

Wherever in the writing process they struggle, one thing is for sure - writing can be tricky!

That’s why we’ve implemented this 3 step writing process. Keep reading to learn more.

We are so excited to share this resource with you today! Scoop Spelling changed my life! This strategy brought such relief to my students who struggled to spell multi-syllable words correctly and instantly boosted their confidence! This strategy is so simple to use!

First, make sure that your students are solid on syllabication; what syllables are and how to count them. This knowledge is the key to Scoop Spelling. If a student knows or can hear how a word breaks apart into syllables, then they can Scoop Spell!

Assessment that drives instruction should be based on evidence-based practices.. To read and write effectively, we need to make connections between phonological processing, orthographic processing, and semantic processing. Our assessments should be designed to measure a student’s ability in each of these areas. However, measuring some of these areas is easier than others.

Measuring reading fluency is an important step in understanding whether students are on track with their overall rate (speed) and accuracy in their reading. In this blog, we will share the exact process you can use to determine where your students’ reading fluency skills are at using norm-referenced measures and rubrics.

You may have heard that 3rd grade is the year where students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. But how exactly do we support that transition for students who are still working on the foundations?

Today, we’re sharing about how you can use your students’ favorite books to create evidence-based lesson plans that align with the Science of Reading so that your 3rd and 4th graders can begin to generalize those foundational skills to higher-level reading.

Do your students ever struggle to make appropriate inferences or predictions from a story or passage they've just heard or read?

If so, not to worry, this is a high-level concept! And, we’re here to share our explicit teaching strategy to help students begin to “take leaps” with information by making inferences and predictions. Keep reading to learn more!

Do your students ever struggle to figure out the main idea of a story or passage they've just heard or read?

This is really common because it’s a tricky concept! And, we’re here to share our explicit teaching strategy to help students identify and produce a main idea. Check out the blog to learn more!

Do your students ever struggle to recall important information directly from a story or passage they've just heard or read?

If so, don’t worry, it's very common! And, we’re here to share our explicit teaching strategy to help students recall important information. Check out this blog to learn more!

Have your students ever struggled to apply explicitly taught strategies to reading chapter books?

Have you ever struggled to keep your students motivated and engaged in your literacy instruction?

If so you are not alone!

One of the best strategies to help your students apply strategies while keeping them motivated and engaged is to build a structured and systematic SOR-aligned lesson and pair it with a chapter book.

Rate and accuracy are definitely both components of fluency. However, fluency is so much more than that and there are few fluency skills that get way less attention (but are just as important!) Keep reading to find out what they are.