Discover effective comprehension strategies! Learn how explicit instruction enhances understanding through direct explanation, modeling, guided practice, and application. Explore our grade-based strategies to empower students at every level. Download our free guide aligned with Common Core State Standards for targeted instruction.

We know that comprehending what we read is the sole purpose of learning HOW to read. But surprisingly schools have placed a heavy emphasis on how quickly children read instead of how effectively they are comprehending the material they are reading. While your child may awe you with their oral language abilities (their ability to tell you about complex things going on in the world) you might be surprised to find that your child's reading comprehension skills are breaking down. :

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.

Research is very clear that Phonological Awareness is a foundational strategy for students to obtain the necessary literacy skills to read and spell effectively and efficiently. However, teaching older students phonological awareness skills can be difficult because many of the resources out there are geared towards younger students and the images, worksheets, and resources can be insulting to older students.

We know the importance of phonemic awareness for our young students - but we absolutely cannot forget about this literacy skill when it comes to working with our older students!

As a parent, it can be incredibly frustrating to watch your child struggle through the weekly spelling word lists. Depending on what type of list is coming home this can be pure torture.

Hopefully your child is receiving a patterned list that follows one concrete pattern like "Magic E" in which you might get a list including words such as take, home, sale, date, note, etc. or words that follow more complex patterns like night, sight, sleigh, neighbor in which "igh" says I and "eigh" says A.

We wanted to dive into some of the core components of literacy (reading and writing) in order to help you, as parents, continue to support your children in developing solid literacy foundations at home. We know there is a lot of jargon surrounding the field of education so we want to try and break that down for you.

If you are fighting over homework every night - it's time to figure out what is going on. Often well meaning parents and teachers attribute a student's difficulty finishing or completing work to laziness, but the reality is that is just rarely ever the case. It's important that parents don't lose out on a more positive relationship with their child and get to the bottom of the homework struggle as quickly as possible. Often this struggle is caused by an unidentified learning disability - by identifying the core cause of the difficulties and outlining a plan you could change the future for your child.

A hallmark of dyslexia is an inconsistency between a child’s reading level and oral language level. Often, dyslexic students are highly verbal; talkative, inquisitive, articulate, and have amazing vocabularies!

One of my all-time favorite students who happened to be dyslexic had the most amazing vocabulary as a young student, he still does today! He would hear a new word used in the context of a book or adult conversation and immediately add it to his repertoire.

Identify struggling readers in your classroom with these 5 tips. Discover signs like slow reading, word substitution, and difficulty applying spelling rules. Download our mini-assessment to pinpoint students who may need a different learning approach. Act now to support your students effectively.

A common theme that we hear from many of the parents we work with is, “everything was fine until third grade.”

Parents often wonder, what happened!? My child wasn’t struggling in class, the teacher didn’t express any concerns, their reading was on grade-level or close to it, and then suddenly in third grade everything fell apart. What happened!?

Students with dyslexia need to be taught in the way that their brains learn best. As teachers, it is our responsibility to learn how to meet the needs of this unique and special learning style. Research tells us that people with dyslexia often have average to above-average IQ’s. 

The reason that they struggle in the school setting is not that they lack the intelligence it’s because people with dyslexia learn differently.

Master syllable division strategies for decoding multisyllabic words! Learn essential rules like Rabbit, Reptile, Tiger, Camel, and Hornet divisions. Decode with confidence and enhance reading skills.

Dyslexia affects 1 in 5 students, yet many teachers don’t receive enough training to recognize and support it. This post shares four essential facts every educator should know, from understanding that dyslexia is unrelated to intelligence, to recognizing it runs in families, to knowing what effective instruction looks like, and why not all reading struggles are dyslexia. Learn how to better identify, teach, and advocate for students with dyslexia in your classroom.

I want you to take a second and think about your life.  What big challenges have you faced?  How did you overcome them?  What goal were you trying to reach?  

We all have our own struggles and challenges in life that we have to work through in order to reach the goals that we have set for ourselves.  The ability to stick with something, even when challenges arise and it is tough, is called perseverance.

Flexibility, in terms of Executive Functioning, means to be able to deal with changes and accommodate for problems that come up.  This is crucial.  Out of all ten of the EF skills, one could argue that this is the one that is the most necessary to get through life.  Things change, and if we cannot adapt to those changes, we cannot be successful. Here are some tips on dealing with change.

“Oh, she’ll catch up,” is what Jane recalled her daughter Susan’s teachers saying throughout first and second grades. Susan, now 12, was in the lowest reading group in her classroom but teachers assured Jane that Susan was very bright and would catch up shortly.

In truth, Susan wasn’t catching up. As peers began moving past her in reading, Jane became more anxious and worried.

Unlock the mystery of Stable Final Syllables (C-L-E)! Discover how to teach the Turtle Rule, spot Consonant-le words, and reinforce learning with engaging resources. Explore more on the six syllable types and find effective teaching strategies.