Phonics and advanced word study (sometimes referred to as advanced phonics) are both essential components of reading instruction, focusing on enhancing students' understanding of word structures, improving decoding skills, and strengthening spelling abilities. Both types of instruction focus on how words can be broken down into parts, which can then be combined to read and spell. However, they differ in terms of focus, complexity, and the stage of development at which they are typically taugh...| Keys to Literacy
In addition to intervention instruction to improve literacy skills, students with dyslexia benefit from supports that help them learn independently. While they typically have the ability to grasp grade-level content, their literacy difficulties often hinder their progress, as much subject matter knowledge is accessed through reading and writing. The terms "accommodations" and "modifications" both refer to ways educators support students with dyslexia, but they serve distinct purposes and hav...| Keys to Literacy
Discussion supports learning in all subjects because it helps students think deeply and process information instead of just receiving it. Discussion-based learning is an alternative to having students memorize and recite information presented by the teacher or found in text. The guidance report Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools (Evidence for Learning, 2020, p. 24) explains, “Talk is a powerful tool for learning and literacy. It can improve reading and writing outcomes, enhance commun...| Keys to Literacy
A sentence is a collection of words that come together to express a complete thought. Some sentences are short, and some are quite long, depending on how many ideas are included in the sentence. To comprehend a sentence, a reader must process, store in working memory, and integrate a variety of syntactic and word meaning information. A writer must be able to manipulate and add words to write a high-quality, elaborated sentence. Many students who have difficulty with reading and writing benefi...| Keys to Literacy
May is one of the busiest times of the year in schools. There are field days, field trips, awards ceremonies, musical concerts, spring festivals and still somehow, we manage to squeeze in, end-of-year testing. Too often end-of-year testing is seen as another mandate or item for compliance yet, using it wisely can bear the fruits of invaluable professional development insights for your teaching staff. We have the opportunity to harness the information found within those assessments to guid...| Keys to Literacy
How does the availability of AI influence writing instruction? How can students use AI to support their writing development? Will using AI diminish the cognitive and academic benefits students gain from writing as a tool for learning? My response to these questions is clear: just because AI can write for students doesn’t mean they no longer need instruction to become proficient writers. The challenge—and opportunity—is to determine how AI can supplement, not replace, best practice for t...| Keys to Literacy
We, building leaders/principals, often breathe a heavy sigh of relief as we end the school year. Being a school principal is no easy task, and its workload burden is never lost on me. I walked in those shoes for over 12 years and clearly remember the days winding down to the close of another school […] The post How End of the Year Data Prepares You for Beginning of the Year Success, Part One appeared first on Keys to Literacy.| Keys to Literacy
There are several key teaching principles that help educators address a wide range of learning styles and student needs across all grade levels when teaching reading and writing. These core instructional practices are emphasized in every Keys to Literacy professional development course. This post explains the following principles: Explicit and Systematic Instruction, Gradual Release of Responsibility, Models and Think Aloud, Differentiated Instruction and Scaffolds, Automaticity Through Pract...| Keys to Literacy
This is the third of a three-part series of posts focused on using discussion to support learning. Simply getting students to talk out loud or talk to one another does not necessarily lead to learning. Effective, academic talk and classroom discussions should be productive, meaning students share their own thinking and reasoning and listen with a purpose to other people’s thinking. Productive discussion is sometimes called dialogic teaching, dialogic pedagogy, argumentation, accountable t...| Keys to Literacy
With the recent release of yet another round of worse than stagnant results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress outcomes one cannot help but wonder, is moving the national needle in reading truly doable? In short, the answer to that question is a resounding, yes. The post Why Aren’t We Moving the Needle on NAEP Outcomes? appeared first on Keys to Literacy.| Keys to Literacy
This is the second of a three-part series of posts focused on using discussion to support learning. Planning Discussions: Besides identifying the content and text that will be the focus of a discussion, the teacher should develop goals for the discussion and explain them to students. This includes considering what the students should be able to do during the discussion, such as explain what they learned from the text, critique the text, make a connection to another text, or agree/disagree wit...| Keys to Literacy
