This week, we are taking a look at how we can best support students who struggle with word recognition (or sounding words out for reading & spelling).

Research tells us that between 70-80% of students who are struggling with reading specifically struggle with word recognition. In order for these students to read effectively, it is critical that we are able to teach them how to decode and encode. Keep reading to learn how we support this group of students and grab some of our favorite resources!

We thought we were solving an escape room. Turns out, we were getting a reminder about progress monitoring.

There we were, surrounded by clues, convinced we were so close to unlocking the door. Every time we thought we had the answer, another lock appeared. And when the timer buzzed, we just stood there laughing, realizing we’d missed something simple but important.

That moment felt familiar.

Because if you’ve ever looked at a stack of reading data and thought, “Okay, they’re below benchmark. But what do I do with that?” you know exactly what that feels like.

It’s not that you don’t have enough data. It’s that all the pieces don’t quite fit together yet.

That’s the secret most of us miss: progress monitoring isn’t about collecting more data. It’s about collecting the right clues—the ones that actually tell you why a student is struggling, not just that they are.

When you start looking through the lens of the five core components of literacy, everything shifts. Suddenly, the numbers stop feeling like pressure and start feeling like possibilities.

See how we connect the clues and unlock student growth →

While programs can and often will give suggested guidelines on where to start a student, how quickly to move through the program, and how to instruct the material, it is still your space to use clinical/professional judgement and to fill in concepts and review as needed. Trust your intuition - you know your students best!

How’s it going? Hopefully you’re hanging in there with all the craziness going on in the world recently. Today, we wanted to share a quick tip with you on how you can take your reading intervention to the next level for students who need an extra push.

One of the most important things we’ve learned in our intervention time is that you can use ONE activity in a bunch of different ways to target individual student needs and to uplevel your intervention.

Phonological awareness is one of those tasks that many feel is a skill that only primary teachers need to address.

However, for many students who struggle to read or spell with accuracy - a phonological processing issue is at the heart of it.

This means that we need to be explicitly teaching phonological awareness skills until they’re mastered. Now that being said - we need to be thoughtful and strategic in HOW we are doing this.

Check out this week’s intervention tip of the week to learn about how we differentiate for

This week we are talking all about how to effectively measure a student’s phonological awareness ability to track growth over time. It is important that we are monitoring a student’s phonological awareness because it is the foundation of the 5 Core Components of Literacy and must be in place before a student can read and spell with ease!

Phonological awareness is a key foundation for building early reading skills.

It's an umbrella term that essentially refers to the ability to break words into individual sounds, blend sounds to create words (sounding it out), and the ability to manipulate sounds in our language through tasks like rhyming, changing the ending sounds of words or the order of words (like in Pig Latin).

Enhance comprehension beyond simple questions! Learn how to foster deeper understanding through implicit and explicit questioning, vocabulary development, and strategic instruction. Explore methods like Webb’s Depth of Knowledge model and assessment tools to drive meaningful comprehension goals.

Discover the 4 common reasons for breakdowns in reading comprehension! Learn how weak decoding skills, limited background knowledge, inadequate vocabulary, and poorly developed strategies hinder understanding. Explore our blog for effective comprehension strategies and free resources.