Learning to read is an exciting time for children and their families. For many parents, helping their
child learning to read established a pattern for their involvement in their child's education.

Parents can help their children with the reading process by providing high-quality educational materials, establishing a pattern of daily reading, instructing through guided reading activity, creating a rich language environment, discussing a child’s progress with teachers, and following up on their recommendations.

Learning to read is the culmination of a great many learned skills and developmental processes. Learning to read is a long-term program.

Just as children start with tee ball before playing baseball, there are specific steps in learning to read. Trying to teach the steps out of sequence can inadvertently frustrate your child (and you). For instance, prior to successfully learning phonics, the child should master a set of pre-reading skills including understanding basic print concepts, discerning the sounds, understanding that words are made up of sounds which they need to think about as interchangeable parts, and memorizing the alphabet. To help parents understand the steps in learning to read, Hannah Braun has created that with her new book "Learn to Read: Activity Book"

Her 101 lessons are created for you to involve all the children’s learning styles and modalities.
"Learn to Read" can serve as a supplementary curriculum for children learning to read.

Hannah Braun's "Learn to Read" Activity Book, does just that. It's perfect for teaching students to read starting with fun and interactive lessons. The short: over the 101 short lessons you move through explicit lessons that clear instructions that review previously taught material.


Start at

What I LOVE

• Lessons are broken into 3 sections--I do (things you model), We do (things to do together), You do (things the student does on their own).
• Built-in Review every 5 lessons
• Students learn not only the vowels and consonants but also word families and blends
• Directions for each lesson are clear and to the point--anyone can do it!!
• Ideas for where to go next when you are done
• Whole word practice

What I Wish

• The pages were perforated for easier gameplay and instruction

You can enter to win your copy of Hannah's new book "Learn to Read" and a $25 Gift card from Teachers pay Teachers below. A winner will be chosen by April 10th and notified by email. (Disclosure: I was compensated for my review with a free copy to review and use with my students.)

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Until Next Time,

We all have a love-hate relationship with reading fluency. Though all students benefit from fluency work, focused activities like repeated reading (for the millionth time) especially help struggling, word-by-word readers, word callers, and readers who sound fluent but lack comprehension. (Does your need some freshening up like mine?--KEEP READING)

As a whole--struggling readers have spent more instructional time learning decoding skills at the word level than reading connected text. Meaning??? Because of all hard word put into accurate word-by-word reading readers are using all their mental energies during a first reading, struggling readers benefit from activities that require them to do a second, third and even fourth or fifth reading. Hence why repeated reading are so important but get soooo boring for students as they focus on the sound of the language and the meaning. In this way, their reading becomes smoother and they continue to build comprehension skills.

Repeated readings also help word callers--readers who are skilled at decoding but do not focus on reading words in an expressive way to show what the text means. Having them practice the same text, their mindset changes from just getting through the reading to actually making sense of it through presenting it aloud in a meaning way.

What does this have to do technology?

Every parent and teacher wants their children to be avid readers. Because we know the benefits of reading we want our children to embrace it as we have. While a good many students do become excited and engaged in reading, some are reluctant and disinterested. While a student may not show a natural interest in reading, this does not mean they cannot become a skilled and even enthusiastic reader. There are a number of things you can do to help engage reluctant readers.

For many students, reading just doesn't come easily. Some have difficulty connecting letters and their corresponding sounds. Others have yet to discover a special story that sparks their imagination and shows just how fun reading can be.

For all readers, though, being at ease with letters, their sounds, and words is an important foundation for learning throughout life.

What is a reluctant reader?

A reluctant reader is anyone who does not show interest in reading. There is a wide range within the category of reluctant readers. A reluctant reader may simply be a student who needs to be coaxed into reading texts. It may also be the student who vehemently refuses to read. Reluctant readers sometimes hide their ambivalence towards reading using other behaviors. A teacher may notice that a certain student always becomes the class clown when it is time to begin independent reading. When students mask their negative attitudes towards reading by using other behaviors parents and teachers need to do a little “detective work” to identify the root cause of the problem.

While any student, young or old, male or female can be a reluctant reader the largest number of unenthusiastic readers are adolescent boys. Research shows that a good number of boys who were avid readers in the elementary grades become disinterested in reading during their middle school years.

Try these other simple ways to help them become eager readers:

Start with a student pick. Comics or joke books may not be your first choice to boost literacy, but the reality is they can be very motivating. You will be amazed at a students ability to read something that they really want to read.

Don't worry that these texts may not be substantial enough. They can help students understand some fundamentals. They also help build vocabulary.

Sometimes electronic books (e-books) can help get reluctant readers reading. When a student's become interested in a book, regardless of the format, help make connections between the story and your child's own life.

Read and Reread. Many student's reach for the same books over and over again. That's not only OK, it's a good thing! Through repetition, students learn the text and eventually read it with ease and confidence. Each new reading of the book also may help them notice something new and understand the story a little better.

Read Aloud. Reading aloud to your kids helps them build their vocabularies and introduces new concepts, facts, and ideas. You also show that you enjoy reading for fun, and help them connect sounds with letters on the page. Reading aloud provides together time that you'll all enjoy.

Create opportunities to read and write beyond the pages. Provide kids with many chances to read every day. Write notes and leave them in a lunchbox or in a pocket.

On road trips or errands, play word games that strengthen language skills. You might try "I Spy" or games where you pick a category (like "food") and everyone has to name foods that begin with a certain letter.

Until Next Time,

One of the podcasts I listen to regular is John Spencer from The Creative Classroom. His podcast from last month "We need to Trust Teachers to Innovate" had me thinking about other ways to bring in Design Thinking.

As with previous years, I only see students for 30 to 40 minutes. This means I don't have time to do a full Launch sequence with students. (John Spencer co-created "Launch" with AJ Juliani) We tend to do Design Sprints hitting pieces of the process (check out my Instagram for more). This last one creating a Jack O'Lantern. This lesson was more about feedback and using that feedback to create multiple prototypes before the final version was due.

Getting back to John Spencer's podcast, it got me thinking about how I could innovate reading fluency. It got me thinking about how I could take our choice board and think outside the box like many of my 3rd graders were wanting me to do. As I was thinking about this idea could it really live within my fluency group?

The thing a really like about John is that he is a teacher. He understands everything that goes on within our walls but is ideas push traditional thinking. My takeaway--Innovation of the little things, give voice & choice and take learning outside of the box and off road! My Fluency Choice boards give students a chance to be author, filmmakers, artists, and engineers I'm giving them voice & choice in how they want to build their reading fluency.

Its a blind leap based half in data and half in something needs to change with what they are doing to improve their reading fluency. I'm also stepping into the unknown as I experiment with this idea.

This image John helps me visualize and rationalize my idea in the hopes that I'm not in the weeds. "But here’s the thing: innovation requires you to step into the unknown. If we focus all of our attention on best practices and codify these ideas into tightly packaged curriculum, we will inevitably fail to experiment."

So, I ditched what most would consider a fabulous Tier 3 Reading Fluency technology based Reading Fluency trial based on the fact the data didn't support going and asking for the money to buy the licenses to continue using the program. Talk about being stuck between the data and the need to change my intervention--I went with innovation.




The Choice Board I created uses technology because it will force my students to think outside the box and will make them become artists and filmmakers. And I don't have a problem with this as it fits my students' strengths while they work on their weaknesses. (A bonus in my book!!)

Most of these apps they have used to support reading comprehension, others are new but with a tweak all with tackle fluency. All I added was a dice. Students will roll the dice at least twice over the 30 minutes I have them. All their work will be turned in to Seesaw each day.

One thing John points out is "Have your students publish their work to a real audience. For all the fear surrounding social media, we make a mistake when we say, “avoid this” without saying, “try out this.” Too often, the goal is to avoid a digital footprint at all cost rather than finding ways to create a positive digital footprint."

I have been toying with the idea of having them podcast--going back to Launch. I'm wanting them to see the purpose so they need to launch it to an audience other than me and mom. But I'm not sure.

As I move to paperless with groups, I'm finding ways to bring a touch of innovation to each group. It's the baby steps and knowing its ok to fail. My students and I embrace our mistakes. We use them an evidence that we are learning and work to learn from them. We are all learning to grow from feedback--just like they did with the Jack o'Lanterns.

In both cases, I wanted and found real audiences for my students. This needs to happen for reading fluency. I just have to keep looking. What can you give students voice & choice with to help you innovate in your classroom? Try something... and play!!

Until Next Time,

We have been working monitoring comprehension and knowing when you have fallin' off the road. When reading this lesson in the Primary Comprehension Toolkit, I was thinking no big deal, they've got it. Well for students how have never been asked to really think about what they are reading this was a huge shock. I found that sentence stems and tons modeling and shared reading was needed to move them on. 

Working comprehension this afternoon and rockin' it 😆#smallgroupreading #iteachsped #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #comprehensiontoolkit

A photo posted by Alison (@toadallyexceptional) on Nov 16, 2016 at 1:07pm PST

and this one show two examples of the sentence stems.

Working on learning comprehension strategies from #the primarycomprehensiontoolkit. ❤️stickies and sentence stems to help out. Plus had Fix-It bear nearby to help is a bonus!#teachersofinstagram #iteachsped #smallgroupreading

A photo posted by Alison (@toadallyexceptional) on Nov 10, 2016 at 11:55am PST

My hope in using the Primary Comprehension Toolkit is to have student's think more critically about what they have read to in turn create new works that show how they created meaning strategically in reading and writing. This set of strategies being tied to their Personalized Learning Plans. I hoping to see great products but I'll have to wait until next week to see what students do.

One of the hardest thing to help students understand is choosing a "Good Fit" book. Here are some ideas how I work with students and parents to have students in a "Good Fit" book more times than not.

Students choose books for independent reading for many different reasons: “I just saw the movie,” “I like the pictures,” “My friend just finished it.” Students usually choose books that appeal to them visually. The front covers are designed to capture their interest and emotions. However, many students do not choose a book that they can actually read independently and with success.
A teacher or parent can provide feedback by matching the book to the reader. This can be done by having the student read aloud while the teacher listens and records the miscues. Typically, I count the errors on a page. If it’s more than five-the book is too hard.

If the book is too difficult, it will lead to frustration; too little of a challenge will lead to boredom. So the book needs to be “just right.” A just right book is one that provides a little bit of a challenge for the student. It should be a book that the student finds interesting and can be read with a small amount of assistance with the text. Spending time reading just right books during independent reading time will help students become stronger.

It would be acceptable, occasionally, for a student to choose a slightly difficult book they are interested in a specific subject and finds a difficult book that centers on this subject. However, providing a steady diet of books that are too difficult for the student will cause more harm. The student needs to understand and enjoy the book for reading success. Many students who choose hard books give up on the book out of frustration.

Reading lots of easy books will build confidence and fluency. Pattern books, predictable stories, and familiar books will provide the student with the opportunity to work on building a level of comfort and self-reliance. Reading fluency and comprehension are linked. Students who spend a great deal of energy on decoding lose all meaning of the story. A student who has difficulty with fluency may have been reading at a frustration level for quite some time. Finding the right level of books for this student is essential. Matching the book to the reader will provide an opportunity for the student to read with comprehension and relative ease. Reading is about gaining meaning, so students should be reading manageable texts and understanding what they read.

Easy books allow students to focus on the meaning and think deeper about characters and plot. However, too much easy reading will not promote growth in reading. This is when teacher input is vital. Observing the students closely and monitoring their progress will give the teacher the information to move the student gently to more difficult books. As the student moves to just right books, he or she will continue to develop reading skills. The text should be challenging enough to allow the student to work out problems or learn a new strategy.

What to do:

Children need to learn how to choose a book. Giving them the opportunity to choose from a small group of books is a beginning. Modeling how to look through a book--looking at the cover, flipping through the pages, and scanning the illustrations--will provide students with an excellent example. Many teachers explain the five-finger rule to their students. This rule reminds students to count on their fingers every time they miss a word in a particular book. If they miss five words, the book may be too hard. If they miss three words or fewer, it might be “just right”.

A just right book is a book the student finds interesting and can confidently read and understand with
a small amount of support. These books also make the student stretch a little bit so that they have opportunities to apply the strategies they have been learning and to experience new vocabulary and different genres.

Another way to help students choose an appropriate book is to teach them about the “Goldilocks” strategy. This strategy has three categories: Too Hard, Just Right, and Too Easy. The students answer several questions for each category. If the answers are “yes,” the book probably fits into that category. Modeling this strategy for students will help them understand before they have to apply it independently. This strategy has been modified from its original to meet the needs of primary students.

Too Easy

• Have you read it lots of times before?
• Do you understand the story very well?
• Do you know almost every word?
• Can you read it smoothly?

Just Right

• Is the book new to you?
• Do you understand a lot of the book?
• Are there just a few words on a page you don’t know?
• When you read, are some places smooth and some choppy?

Too Hard

• Are there more than five words on a page you don’t know?
• Are you confused about what is happening in most of this book?
• When you read, does it sound choppy?
• Is everyone else busy and unable to help you?

Developing criteria with your students for choosing a just right book is an additional effective activity. Students develop the guidelines along with the teacher. This can be accomplished during a shared writing activity. Students naturally include enjoyment and understanding as items on their list. The criteria can be listed on a chart and kept in a prominent spot as a reminder.

Choosing books that are just right for students and teaching them how to choose for themselves is an essential piece of a successful reading program. Struggling readers as well as successful readers need to have the opportunity to practice what they have learned. Teachers have the opportunity to make this happen in their classrooms. Choosing books that are appropriate for students involves many various considerations. Student interest, reading purpose, and reading level are just a few of those considerations. Independent reading combined with read-alouds, shared reading, and guided reading can provide students with a variety of experiences. Students benefit from daily opportunities to read books they choose for themselves for their own purposes and pleasures.

My top 10 must dos for each back-to-school tips I do to emphasize communication, organization, and a focus on student success.

1. Organize all that paperwork
Special educators handle lots of paperwork and documentation throughout the year. Try to set up two separate folders or binders for each child on your case load: one for keeping track of student work and assessment data and the other for keeping track of all other special education documentation.

2. Start a communication log
Keeping track of all phone calls, e-mails, notes home, meetings, and conferences is important. Create a "communication log" for yourself in a notebook that is easily accessible. Be sure to note the dates, times, and nature of the communications you have.

3. Review your students' IEPs
The IEP is the cornerstone of every child's educational program, so it's important that you have a clear understanding of each IEP you're responsible for. Make sure all IEPs are in compliance (e.g., all signatures are there and dates are aligned). Note any upcoming IEP meetings, reevaluations, or other key dates, and mark your calendar now. Most importantly, get a feel for where your students are and what they need by carefully reviewing the present levels of performance, services, and modifications in the IEP.

4. Establish a daily schedule for you and your students
Whether you're a resource teacher or self-contained teacher, it's important to establish your daily schedule. Be sure to consider the service hours required for each of your students, any related services, and co-teaching. Check your schedule against the IEPs to make sure that all services are met. And keep in mind that this schedule will most likely change during the year!

5. Call your students' families
Take the time to introduce yourself with a brief phone call before school starts. You'll be working with these students and their families for at least the next school year, and a simple "hello" from their future teacher can ease some of the back-to-school jitters!

6. Touch base with related service providers
It's important to contact the related service providers — occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech/language therapists, or counselors — in your school as soon as possible to establish a schedule of times for your students who need these services. The earlier you touch base, the more likely you'll be able to find times that work for everyone.

7. Meet with your general education co-teachers
Communicating with your general education co-teachers will be important throughout the year, so get a head start on establishing this important relationship now! Share all of the information you can about schedules, students, and IEP services so that you're ready to start the year.

8. Keep everyone informed
All additional school staff such as assistants and specialists who will be working with your students need to be aware of their needs and their IEPs before school starts. Organize a way to keep track of who has read through the IEPs, and be sure to update your colleagues if the IEPs change during the school year.

9. Plan your B.O.Y. assessments
As soon as school starts, teachers start conducting their beginning of the year (B.O.Y.) assessments. Assessment data is used to update IEPs — and to shape your instruction — so it's important to keep track of which students need which assessments. Get started by making a checklist of student names, required assessments, and a space for scores. This will help you stay organized and keep track of data once testing begins.

10. Start and stay positive
As a special educator, you'll have lots of responsibilities this year, and it may seem overwhelming at times. If your focus is on the needs of your students and their success, you'll stay motivated and find ways to make everything happen. Being positive, flexible, and organized from the start will help you and your students have a successful year.


Click the apple to visit Reflection & Resources with TarheelState Teacher.  Below is a freebie perfect for putting reading progress monitoring in one place. Have a great beginning of the year.





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• Realize that sentences are made up of words.
• Realize that words can rhyme. Make your own rhymes.
• Realize that words can be broken down into syllables. Start breaking down words into syllables.
• Realize that words can begin with the same sound. Practice these first sounds.
• Realize that words can end with the same sound. Practice these ending sounds.
• Realize that words can have the same medial sounds. Practice these medial sounds.
• Realize that words can be broken down into individual sounds. Practice these sounds.
• Realize that sounds can be deleted from words to make new words. Practice these.
• Start blending sounds to make words.
• Start segmenting words into component sounds.

• They list the following behaviors that indicate children's growing mastery of phonics.
• Know consonant sounds
• Know that a, e, i, o, and u are vowels.
• Know sounds of digraphs. Example: /sh/ in shell.
• Know sounds of consonant blends. Example: /bl/ in block and /str/ in string.
• Know short vowel word families. Example: at, an, op, on, it, in.
• Break words into syllables.
• Find familiar words within unknown words. Example: mat in matter.
• Substitute or add letters to make new words. Example: When asked to take away the letter t in the word tan, can the child say the word is an? Can the child put the letter t on an to make the word ant?

Things to do at Home

Characteristics of Oral Expression

• Difficulty with the grammatical processes of inflection, marking categories like person, tense, and case (e.g., the –s in jumps marks the third‐person singular in the present tense), and derivation, the formation of new words from existing words (e.g. acceptable from accept)
• Learning vocabulary
• Difficulty formulating complete, semantically and grammatically correct sentences either spoken or written
• Difficulty explaining word associations, antonyms/synonyms
• Difficulty with retelling, making inferences, and predictions

Definition and Implications of Listening Comprehension

• Children experiencing listening comprehension difficulties may exhibit the following:
• Difficulty with following directions for seatwork and projects
• Difficulty remembering homework assignments
• Difficulty with understanding oral narratives and text
• Difficulty answering questions about the content of the information given
• Difficulty with critical thinking to arrive at logical answers
• Difficulty with word associations, antonyms/synonyms, categorizing, and classifying
• Difficulty with note‐taking or dictation  

The speech‐language pathologist can provide both direct and consultative services in collaboration with the classroom teachers, resource teachers and interventionists in developing intervention strategies that will include explicit skills‐training in the areas of oral expression and/or listening comprehension as key to some students’ access to the curriculum.

Many of the projects they are working on are ideas for next fall. More district is wanting students to have more control over their learning while still making gains to meet IEP goals. (yes, I do know this idea is nuts-but...) The thing about personalized learning is working smarter not harder.
This was a fluency idea where students read a the photo app on an iPad. When they are done they send it to me by AirDrop, I upload it, and then they get to create the QR code on to add to their fluency data sheet. Each time they assess their learning. I have some that added a SMART goal to their reading fluency on top of their IEP goals--others do this to meet the goal of reading accuracy.

Back to that idea of personalized learning and a very difficult rubric to work with a  special education teacher,students are integrating technology, goal setting, and assessing their own learning.









Robert Marzano is someone that I get classroom help from when I'm looking for a way to move my students. The Checking for Understanding posters can be found at my Teacher pays Teacher store (Ocean Theme and K-2 Theme).  I use these to get students to tune into their own learning and help them to internalize the understanding of the learning target.



My summer reading list or should I say pile. Perhaps it's closer to wishful thinking I'll get through all of them.

-How to Plan Rigorous Instruction
-Visible Learning for Literacy
-Intentional Targeted Teaching: A Framework for Teacher Growth and Leadership
-Learning to Choose; Choosing to Learn
-The Art and Science of Teaching
-Conferring with Readers: Supporting Each Students' Growth and Independence
-DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence

Have a great week! Be sure to check everyone's May Show and Tell Blog Hop for more peeks into classrooms.

Why should I worry about it?