Here we are with our last syllable type! If you’ve been with us since the beginning of this series you’re all caught up on the crazy reading and spelling rules you may have never heard of - we certainly hadn’t. If you missed learning about all the spelling rules with the other syllable types - go back and check them out!

Thanks for sticking with us and our series of The Reading & Spelling Rules Nobody Ever Taught You. The fifth syllable type teach our students is Vowel Teams.  This is when two vowels stick together to make one sound.  Think of the vowel sounds in words like rain, play, green, key, goat, boil, etc. Vowel teams can be kind of tricky so click through to read more and grab our Anchor Chart Worksheets!

Welcome to week 4 in our series of The Reading & Spelling Rules That Nobody Taught You. In this post, we are going to talk about the fourth syllable type we teach to our students, Open Syllables.

The Open Syllable is the opposite of a Closed Syllable. In an open syllable, you have a vowel left alone at the end of the syllable. Our students like to remember that when nothing is behind the vowel, it can go for a looooong run and say its loooooong sound.

So we’ve been talking all about the reading and spelling rules that were brand new to us when we began to learn about Structured Literacy and the “science” behind the English language. Today, we are going to talk a little about the “Bossy-R” or the R-controlled syllable type. This one is a challenge!!!

The second syllable type we teach students is our VCE (Vowel Consonant E) Syllable Type. Perhaps, if I told you it was also called the Magic E Syllable, it would sound familiar? Click through to read about VCE syllables and all of the rules we teach within this syllable type!

Closed Syllables are the first of the syllable types that we teach to our students. Within this syllable type we cover the -ck, FLOSS, -tch, and -dge phonograms as well as the 1-1-1 doubling rule. Do you know all of these rules? Click through to find out!

One of the most challenging things about walking into an IEP meeting for both parents and educators is that there are so many things you need to be considering.

This Week:

We are so excited to share with you this printable that we have that helps us to organize IEP Services.

As a parent, one of the most important things you need to do if your child is receiving support services from the school is to make sure you are organizing all of that paperwork! Whenever you have formal documentation it can be incredibly valuable long-term for your child.

For example, it can help you qualify your child for ACT/SAT accommodations or college supports if that is the direction they want to go. Alternatively, it can help your child qualify for supports in their job or career later on.

Organizing our intervention materials is the key to our success, right?

When I’m not prepped and ready – my instruction and delivery suffer. This week I'm going to share with you how I keep my intervention materials organized.

The Suggested Schedule Freebie that you downloaded last week is your road map. I keep this at the front of my lesson plan binder – always.

Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get done all that you need to accomplish with your students?

Creating a schedule that maximizes time and has sacred periods for instruction, free of interruptions, can be such a challenge. This was one of my biggest stressors in the classroom.

Discover the power of Structured Literacy! Unveil a systematic, multi-sensory, and cumulative approach to literacy instruction. Learn how to build a structured literacy program, addressing the core components of phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Elevate your teaching with intentional, thought-out progressions for lasting impact!

Writing effective literacy goals and tracking your students progress towards them can feel overwhelming. We are here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be hard! Writing effective goals and tracking data can actually be really easy with the right tools in place. Jump in and grab your FREE data tracking system and literacy goal bank inside!

One of the best ways we can skyrocket student success in literacy is by setting the intention to do so. So obviously, if we want students to improve their literacy ability we need to recognize that they need to improve their literacy ability...

After that, the #1 thing you can do to improve a student's literacy ability is to set specific and measurable goals.

It's that time of year again! Time to go back to school! For some of your kids, this might be an exciting time. They are excited about new teachers and school supplies, and can't wait to see their friends again. 

For other kids, this may seem like the worst time of year. They might be anxious about the amount of work they will have this year, or having a new teacher. 

If you have been keeping up with our blogs, you will know that all this month we are talking about ways we can help cement strategies for our students who just aren't getting it.  If you are new to our blog, welcome! You can catch up on our last two posts here: 3 Ways to Generalize Skills Learned in Isolation and Is it Just My Kids, Or...

Does this sound familiar to you…..

Parent: How was your day?

Kid: Good.

Parent: That’s great! What did you do?

Kid: Nothing.

This month we are going to be talking about ways to cement stragies used during intervention. The tough part about this is that typically our students are at all different levels, and so many of these strategies need to be differentiated or scaffolded based on student ability.

A lot of our families ask how we can generalize the skills their children learn in an intervention setting into the home, and even the classroom, instead of just practicing them in isolation.

First, I want to start by saying this is NOT your fault. So often parents come to us feeling frustrated or upset that they just don't understand all the testing and data that has been provided. This isn't because of you - it's not your wheelhouse, and that is ABSOLUTELY, 100% okay.

There are so many tests that tell us so many different things and it can be so hard to interpret all of it.