Reading Teachers Lounge

Mary discusses a student she is working with who flies under the radar in his general education classroom. In this discussion, she poses the question "Who are kids who fly under the radar? How can we better address their needs?" This episode will engage listeners to consider their own students and reflect on who and why kids "fly under the radar." Resource Links: NOTE: As an Am...

Mary responds to listener questions about time management and the components of a tutoring session. Resource Links: OG Drill information I <3 Emily Gibbon's materials at The Literacy Nest Our episode on Executive Functioning Our episode on Sight Words COME JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Our Website Facebook Instagram Shannon's TpT Store Support the show Get Literacy Support through our Patreo...

Mary discusses a brief that has been put out by the International Literacy Association that shares information about how phonics instruction must be systematic and explicit as part of an overall efficient, effective, and timely reading curriculum. Resource Links: Education Week July 18, 2019 Influential Reading Group Makes it Clear: Students Need Systematic, Explicit Phonics Brief from ILA Meeting...

This is the beginning of season 2! Shannon and Mary catch up about what they have been up to during the summer and how they're getting ready for the new school year. Resource Links: SMART Goals (lol) Fundations Phonics Program our Sight Words Episode our Short Vowels episode our Long Vowels episode our R-Controlled Vowels episode our Vowel Teams episode our Syllables episode our Phonemic Awar...

Are you ready for summer? We can't wait to play with our kids! Mary and Shannon have compiled some resources for hands-on summer play to practice important reading skills outside of the classroom. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* What Mom&ap...

We share some of the unexpected phonics lessons that students need that aren't always obvious in the curriculum guides. These  important and necessary phonics lessons are essential in phonics instruction. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* How...

Shannon and Mary share how to facilitate digital assignments in the reading classroom.   We go into detail about using Moby Max, Imagine Learning, and Boom Learning with students.  Resource Links: Digital Assignments Sheet  Cult of Pedagogy Podcast - Check Your Tech: 6 Strategies Boom Learning Imagine Learning Moby Max Lexia Amplify Nessy Language Live Epic Follow Us: Our Website Instagram Shannon...

Shannon and Mary review the terms phoneme and grapheme. They're important terms to understanding the connections between letters and sounds. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* Phonics they Use Words for Reading and Writing by Patricia Cunningh...

Shannon and Mary discuss a professional article, "Why Phonics Teaching Must Change" published in Educational Leadership, September, 2008 by Jeannine Herron. They talk about a different approach to teaching students to read.  What if we focus more on encoding rather than starting with decoding? Resource Links: Article: Why Phonics Instruction Must Change  Encoding, Decoding, and Understan...

Shannon and Mary talk about pre-reading skills and other school readiness skills that students need before going to Kindergarten. They interview Emily Howland, a pre-school educator about important early literacy skills and language development.  Resource Links: All About Learning - Motivation to Read 10 Tips for Preschoolers Conscious Discipline - Social/Emotional curriculum Play based curriculum...

Executive Functioning is a term being thrown around a lot in schools today. We break down what this term means and why it's important for educators to understand it. We discuss the importance of teaching these essential life-long skills. Resource Links: Executive Functioning in Plain English Executive Functioning Task Cards 5 Ways Executive Functioning  Issues Can Impact Reading The Reading B...

Reading and Writing go hand-in-hand. Hesitant readers tend to be hesitant writers. We ask students to do a lot of writing throughout the day. Shannon and Mary discuss the importance and elements of quality writing instruction. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support...

Shannon and Mary discuss the concept of metacognition - thinking about the way you think. We discuss tips about how to teach your students how to evaluate their performances, learning, and reading. Resource Links: NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.* How Metacogniti...

Consonants deserve their own episode! We can't let vowels steal all the glory. Learn about the building blocks of language: vowels/consonants, blends, digraphs. Learn more about how we teach our students about consonants as we share our tricks, tips, and resources. Resource Links: Precise Pronunciation Digraph brothers FCRR Digraph a Word FCRR Student Center Activities Ending Blends Clip Card...

Mary and Shannon sort out the complex terms that are related to phonological processing. What is the difference between phonological awareness and phoneme awareness? We discuss how we teach these skills and provide resource ideas for you to try! Resource Links: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Introduction Orton Gillingham Educators' Guide Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick P...

Shannon and Mary discuss how to determine "just right activities" for their students by working within the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) and how analyzing your students' scores can lead to developing rigorous activities within the student's instructional level. We believe that learning to read is rigorous and teachers must continue to teach students where they are while de...

Shannon and Mary have a conversation about reversals of letters and numbers. Many parents and teachers are concerned about reversals, but the truth is that all reversals do need to be explicitly taught. Some children will make developmentally appropriate errors, while others are struggling with working memory, visual, and phonological processing. Direct instruction with model (verbal and visual cu...

Shannon and Mary talk about coping behaviors that struggling readers use to hide the "big secret" that they can't read. They share details about students' actions that teachers can look for in the classroom to gather more insight about their learners. Some tactics that are labeled as troublesome are actually deflection tactics that struggling students use to mask their learning...

Mary and Shannon discuss Dyslexia. There are a lot of misconceptions that are due to lack of training. Many teachers are somewhat familiar with dyslexia and may even say that they have previously taught students with dyslexia. However, the reality is that almost 20% of the population struggles with dyslexia and may or may not be formally diagnosed. Find out more about dyslexia and join the convers...

Are you teaching sight words in your classroom? Parents, are you supporting your child's practice in learning sight words? It's important to have a large bag of tricks. Listen as Shannon and Mary discuss many different ideas for parents and teachers to reinforce multiple practice turns for students as they are gaining automaticity in reading and spelling sight words. Resource Links: Red...

Shannon and Mary discuss the final pattern of the six syllable types: 'consonant+le'.  Listen and join the conversation as they review CLOVER (closed, consonant + le, open, vowel teams, magic-e, and r-control syllable types). Find resources for how to teach syllables in your classroom and some clever tricks to reach your struggling readers. If you have students in your classroom who stil...

Vowel teams are combinations of vowels (two or more) that make one sound. When students begin learning about vowel teams they have to demonstrate an understanding of sound symbol relationship where multiple vowel teams represent a single sound. This developmental decoding milestone is quite complex and is a critical step that students must take on their journey to mastering syllable patterns. Shan...

Shannon and Mary discuss how they discovered the importance of teaching phonics instruction and syllable division to help their student begin to crack the code of reading. Throughout the episode they will talk about strategies and activities that include multi-sensory phonics instruction for teaching r-controlled vowel patterns. Resource Links: R-Controlled Spin game from FCRR GREAT Youtube video...

Mary and Shannon describe how they teach long vowels to their struggling readers. They share their favorite resources and routines for conducting phonics lessons. Are you challenged by your struggling readers? Do you need some casual professional development without sitting in the media center? Come join the conversation and start implementing new strategies tomorrow! Resource Links: FCRR Long &am...

Shannon and Mary discuss background and strategies for teaching short vowels. You will learn facts and tidbits about literacy and why short vowels make their short, unique sounds. Hint! It has to do with the consonant next door. Learn about multi-sensory phonics based games and strategies for teaching struggling readers in your classroom. In the show notes you will find links to the resources we e...