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Making Friends With Phonemes

Making Friends With Phonemes

Phoneme awareness is the ability to identify phonemes, the vocal gestures from which words are constructed, when they are found in their natural context as spoken words. Children need phoneme awareness to learn to read because letters represent phonemes in words.

Young elementary girl wearing purple glasses and a backpack

Fighting the Good Fight: How to Advocate for Your Students Without Losing Your Job

Teachers: How do you convince your principal, fellow teachers, and other school staff to help the student in your class who has a learning disability? Rick Lavoie, world-renowned expert, speaker, and author on teaching children with LD, tells you how to get your voice heard. Learn how to handle common road blocks and become a proactive and successful advocate in the hallways, the teacher’s lounge, and the administrative suite.

young red-headed boy outside writing in a notebook

Computer-Assisted Instruction and Writing

This brief provides an overview of computer-assisted instruction and looks at how writing software can help students with developing ideas, organizing, outlining, brainstorming, and minimizing the physical effort spent on writing so that students can pay attention to organization and content.
Parent with elementary child talking to teacher at school

Connecting with Your Child’s School

Strong home-to-school connections are one of the best ways to support your child’s academic, social, and emotional growth. Get some tips on how to build and maintain meaningful communication and involvement with your child’s school.

Three elementary students looking at nonfiction books with their teacher

Teaching Text Features

Learn about the most common text features, the purpose of each, and how explicit instruction in identifying and using text features can support comprehension and strengthen student writing.

Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka (which rhymes with Fresca) is the playful and cheeky author behind The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. In these exclusive audio and video interviews with Reading Rockets, Jon Scieszka talks about his “weird” style and his concern about boys and reading. Read Scieszka’s tribute his dad in this essay Playing with Dad written for Reading Rockets in celebration of Father’s Day 2009.

elementary teacher talking with students during lesson

What About the Textbook Reviews?

Are third-party evaluations of commercial reading programs aligned with research? Shanahan identifies six problems with these reviews and suggests solutions to each.

The 21st Century Speech Language Pathologist and Integrated Services in Classrooms

The 21st Century Speech Language Pathologist and Integrated Services in Classrooms

Today’s speech language pathologists (SLPs) play many roles in supporting the development of speech, language, communication, and literacy skills. Their roles often include screening, assessing, advocating, and programming/designing augmentative communication equipment in addition to providing direct intervention with students and indirect roles of consulting, coaching, collaborating, and training educators and families.

Elementary boy in yellow plaid shirt taking a test

Assessment of English Language Learners

Dr. Lorraine Valdez Pierce offers an in-depth introduction to assessment for teachers of English language learners — including performance-based standardized assessments, assessment as a tool for informing instruction, use of assessment to reinforce reading comprehension, and student self-assessment and self-monitoring.

How Spelling Supports Reading

How Spelling Supports Reading

Many young readers are puzzled by the rules and exceptions of spelling. Research shows that learning to spell and learning to read rely on much of the same underlying knowledge. Learn more about the relationships between letters and sounds and how a proper understanding of spelling mechanics can lead to improved reading.

illustration of tree growing out of book

Top 10 Things You Should Know About Reading

Get the basic facts about what it takes for a young child to learn to read, best practices in teaching reading, the importance of oral language in literacy development, why so many children struggle, and more in this overview.

mother reading book about polar bears to her two young children in bed

Nonfiction for Kids

Many kids are drawn to nonfiction — and learning about science, history, and geography through illustrated informational books and picture book biographies. Browse our nonfiction picture books and discover tips on how to get the most out of reading nonfiction. 

Reba McEntire

Toddling Toward Reading

Starting early to grow strong readers. We once thought a child’s education started in kindergarten — but that could be years too late. Hosted by Reba McEntire, this episode examines what it takes to give our preschoolers the early literacy skills they need to become successful readers. 

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