The Blog

Early learning lays the foundation for everything that follows. Children who develop strong literacy, math, and social-emotional skills in Pre-K are far more likely to succeed in school and beyond. To maximize Pre-K success, schools must provide teachers with professional development (PD) that integrates literacy, social-emotional learning (SEL), and family engagement. When these three elements work together, young learners thrive both academically and socially.

My first experience learning Spanish was in high school. Like many students, I spent four years memorizing vocabulary lists, practicing choral repetition, and doing endless writing drills to master basic grammar rules. I thought I was prepared. But when I stepped off the plane in Madrid, confident in my ability to navigate the Spanish-speaking world, I quickly realized how unprepared I truly was.What I hadn’t yet learned was this: language is not just something you study—it’s

For multilingual families, language loss is a real and pressing concern. How do we create a bridge between languages instead of a barrier? 

Background knowledge is critical to understanding new information. It helps us make connections, improves comprehension, and improves memory

By April Connelley Small groups play a role in the majority of classrooms. Small group instruction occurs when an educator works with a...

Are you adopting new High Quality Curricular Materials? Are you struggling to determine how to revamp your curriculum maps to align to these

A school culture that focuses on helping everyone understand and take ownership of student learning is facilitated by the principal and IC.

If you want readers to better understand the text they are reading, vocabulary should be part of your plan. 

Teachers everywhere know that the only way to increase the reading volume among students is to hook students into reading on a regular and routine basis. It has to become an unbreakable habit, almost ingrained into your daily existence. Harper Lee said this best, “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” 

Language is a complex system of intricate connections between words and meanings. It is complex code used to communicate. Morphology is the foundation and framework of English spelling (Hegland, 2021) and contributes to the overall sense of a word. Morphology is the study of morphemes. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful unit of language (Hegland, 2021). Morphemes can be standalone words, like “book”, called free morphemes, or they can be parts of words like prefixes, suffi

A proficient reader has thousands of words in their sight vocabulary. Words that we automatically recognize at a speed so fast we don’t even realize it is happening. Words that we can’t stop ourselves from reading. Words that are permanently stuck in our brains. How does this happen? How do words move from needing to be decoded, to permanent and instant recognition? It’s all about orthographic mapping.

As educators begin to shift practice, it is important to build a common understanding among each other. Then when we partner with others we are speaking the same language and have the same understanding.    This month’s post is going to help you get started by answering three important questions: What is decodable text? Why is decodable text important? And Where can I find decodable readers?

Fluency is essential for skilled reading. It is often referred to as the bridge between decoding and comprehension. I’d add that it’s also a huge factor when it comes to joyful reading. No one wants to do things that are laborious or feel like a chore. So how can we engage students in fluency building activities that are fun?

August means only one thing, back to school. Teachers gear up by organizing, decorating, and creating a physical space that supports learning. This is the time when teachers decide which materials to pull out and what to have at the ready for instruction. If you are a new teacher or new to the primary grades you might be asking, what should I make sure I have.  

Picture books aren’t just for preschoolers and younger children, readers of all ages enjoy and learn from picture books. I LOVE picture books! They are full of rich language, beautiful illustrations and photographs, and bonus, you can typically read them in one sitting.   

The routines and rituals that put books in our hands are important. They aren’t just crucial for personal growth, they are critical lessons that we need to teach students of all ages. Students need us to be transparent about when, why, and how we keep reading a priority.   Leading a reading life means purposefully thinking about reading and how to fit it into our daily comings and goings. Our lives are busy and there is a lot of competition for each moment. Readers navigate

The ability to read for understanding, information, comprehension, and context are the important aspects of the Reading Test in the Evidenced-Based Reading and Writing section of the SAT Assessment. The SAT Assessment’s Evidenced-Based Reading and Writing section is divided into two tests. The Reading Test and the Writing and Language Test.

  They say, “It takes a village to raise a child.” I agree with that and would extend that saying for schools to say; “It takes all the subjects working together to fully educate a student.” Believing this and implementing this is the key. Administrators, teachers, and counselors must step outside their small, very busy spheres of educational influence. They must connect with other teachers in other subjects and collaborate to benefit BOTH their subjects and the students.

Differentiation is a term that all teachers know. We read about it in books, hear about it in training, and see it on our evaluation rubrics. Teachers know they have to differentiate to meet the needs of their students. They try to do so with the knowledge and tools that they have. Many teachers do this with high levels of success.

If you are an educator or parent, then you have likely spent some time thinking about the best ways to teach children to read. If you are a parent or educator with a struggling reader, you have probably agonized over how to help that child. Reading Simplified has determined how to teach struggling readers of any age.