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Build mastery and automaticity in phonics and decoding with Word Warm-ups! These quick, easy-to-implement phonics exercises won’t beat the cold winter temperatures, but they will prepare your students for reading success.

Many students have difficulty decoding common phonics and syllable patterns. For these students, you won’t find a better solution than Word Warm-ups. When students receive support in mastering these patterns, reading achievement can grow by leaps and bounds. Read more

Welcome back from winter break! After a week of record-low temperatures here in Minnesota, we’re ready to think about spring. Specifically, we’re thinking about the Setting Spring Targets article we posted on the blog last winter. This article and its companion, Make the Most of Winter Benchmark Assessment Data, contain important information for you to consider as you gear up to conduct winter assessments. These articles instruct you on how to interpret your students’ growth, how to set appropriate goals for fluency improvement, and how to keep your students on track to meet these goals. Click on the links to check out the articles, and let us know how we can assist you in making the second half of this school year as successful as possible. Read more

How do we teach students to comprehend what they read? Educators have explored this question for decades. They've implemented strategies, developed lessons, and gained insights into what seems to work and what doesn't. Until recently, however, the question of comprehension was not explored in terms of what happens in our brains when we understand what we read. Today, thanks to advancements in neuroscience, we’re able to add this piece to the puzzle. Read more

To engage struggling readers, we need to provide interesting content written at their level. Unfortunately, most articles in the mainstream news don’t meet these criteria. Does this mean struggling readers won’t be able to read about current events? Not anymore. Read more

I am lucky to participate in Minnesota’s Early Childhood Family Education program with my two children. At the beginning of our weekly class, each parent shares a joy. The purpose of this ritual is to build a culture of gratitude, even on days when our job feels thankless. After recovering from the stomach bug, we’re thankful for health. When it’s brutally cold outside, we’re thankful for a warm place to gather. Our kids keep us up all night, but we’re thankful for their smiles. Read more

What are the most effective ways to teach words and word learning? This edutopia article offers 11 strategies for teaching vocabulary effectively and in accordance with the Common Core State Standards. We were pleased to see that many of the suggestions in the article are incorporated into our popular Take Aim at Vocabulary program. Years of extensive research, carefully developed content, and thorough field-testing went into making Take Aim the highly successful tool it is. We believe Take Aim is the best product on the market for developing vocabulary in the critical middle grades, and Take Aim users agree. Here’s why: Read more

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” Ask your students what this famous Shakespeare line means, and many will tell you Juliet is wondering where Romeo is. As you probably know, she’s not. She’s wondering why he is. The confusion about this quote is not surprising. Wherefore in the world does wherefore mean why? It’s just one of the many puzzling nuances of the English language. Read more

​When you make a small mistake, do you point it out? Or do you move on and pretend it never happened? Often, we have a tendency to do the latter. So it’s not surprising that your students may be hesitant to call attention to their own errors while reading. In Read Naturally strategy programs, however, we ask them to do just that. Here’s why: Read more

Male and female brains are different. It’s a scientific fact, yet you probably don’t need science to believe it. You observe it every day in how your students interact, how they play, maybe even how they learn. Have you ever wondered what these differences mean for struggling readers?

A recent study conducted by neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center considered this question through a study of dyslexia. The study compared the brain anatomy of people with dyslexia to the brain anatomy of people without it. Unlike similar studies, the Georgetown study separated males from females and looked for differences between the two groups. Read more

You've worked hard all year to accelerate your students’ progress. Thanks to your dedication, many of your students are now reading better than ever. How can you ensure this crucial progress is not lost over the summer?

While you can’t personally be there to ensure your students don’t experience the “summer slide,” you can help them avoid it. It’s as simple as sending home a letter. Read more