Language & Literacy

What Parents Need to Know about ‘Book Language’–What’s That Anyway?? Part 1

2 Comments / Background Knowledge & Literacy, Comprehension, Early Literacy, Education Equity, Executive Function & Literacy, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Librarians, Parenting, Pre and Early Literacy, Science of Reading, Social Emotional Learning, Social-Emotional Health, Vocabulary Development, Your Journey / By

Introduction: Authentic Text Is Full of ‘Book Language‘ In my October blog, entitled, PART 2…Authentic ‘text’ Books for the Main Course/Dessert—IT’S TASTIER!, I write extensively on the importance of having student exposure to ‘authentic text’ as opposed to ‘decodable text’. In short, foundational reading students first need to spend time practicing the decoding skills they […]

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Sharing GRATITUDE…a Timely Topic to Discuss with Families and Students

Leave a Comment / Executive Function & Literacy, Language & Literacy, Morphology - What's That?, Parenting, Science of Reading, Social-Emotional Health / By

What is GRATITUDE? Gratitude is far more than being simply ‘thankful’. According to Brian Tracy, a Canadian-American motivational speaker, these are the “4 A’s of Gratitude”: Professor Andrea Hussong of The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, believes in the NOTICE-THINK-FEEL-DO method of practicing gratitude: Any time of year is a good time to teach

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Get a Grip! What Parents (& Maybe Teachers Too) Need to Know About ‘Pencil Grip’—How It Develops (Part 1), Why It Is Important (Part 2), and What About the Influence of Screen Time on Writing By Hand (Part 3) – Part 1

2 Comments / Early Literacy, Executive Function & Literacy, Handwriting, Language & Literacy, Parenting, Pre and Early Literacy, Science of Reading, Written Language / By

(Parts 2 and 3 in the works!) How Does Your Child Hold a Writing Utensil? Ages and Stages…Pre-Writing Ages 0-4 Babies are born into a world in which they are totally dependent on their caretakers, most often their parents. Although their capacity for full sensory and muscle development is intact (in most cases), these skills

Get a Grip! What Parents (& Maybe Teachers Too) Need to Know About ‘Pencil Grip’—How It Develops (Part 1), Why It Is Important (Part 2), and What About the Influence of Screen Time on Writing By Hand (Part 3) – Part 1 Read More »

Kids and Adults: Time to Chill Out Because Winter Solstice is Upon Us

Leave a Comment / Adolescent/Young Adult Dyslexia, Background Knowledge & Literacy, Comprehension, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Parenting, Vocabulary Development / By

Each year on December 21, 22, or 23, darkness envelops Earth’s Northern Hemisphere for a bit longer than normal. While what we now know to be the winter solstice has a straightforward astronomical explanation, early myths of why the solstice takes place also share insights into early civilizations’ steps into science. Science ATL Image by

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Sharing GRATITUDE…a Timely Topic to Discuss with Families and Students

4 Comments / Executive Function & Literacy, Language & Literacy, Morphology - What's That?, Parenting, Science of Reading, Social-Emotional Health / By

What is GRATITUDE? Gratitude is far more than being simply ‘thankful’. According to Brian Tracy, a Canadian-American motivational speaker, these are the “4 A’s of Gratitude”: Professor Andrea Hussong of The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, believes in the NOTICE-THINK-FEEL-DO method of practicing gratitude: Any time of year is a good time to teach

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Does Your Child(ren) or Student(s) Struggle With Reading? I’m So Passionate About Helping Kids Learn To Read and Spell, I Wrote A Book!

6 Comments / Adolescent/Young Adult Dyslexia, Attention, Background Knowledge & Literacy, Comprehension, Decoding (Reading), Dyslexia, Early Literacy, Education Equity, Executive Function & Literacy, Handwriting, High Frequency Words, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Morphology - What's That?, Parenting, Phonological Awareness, Pre and Early Literacy, Reading Brain, Reading Fluency, Resiliency, Science of Reading, Social Emotional Learning, Speech to Print, Spelling, Vocabulary Development / By

WHY DO I SUGGEST STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE READING/SPELLING/WRITING BRAIN PROCESSES? Let’s talk about this phrase: “Knowledge is POWER.” Don’t you agree? The more students of any age know abour how a task is accomplished, it’s got to have a positive outcome. Children and parents alike are often confused and upset when things aren’t going well

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Why Wait? Literally (or is it Literacy?) from the Mouths of Babes!

1 Comment / Comprehension, Early Literacy, Executive Function & Literacy, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Memory, Parenting, Pre and Early Literacy, Science of Reading, Speech to Print / By

Start Early!! Why wait? Start with oral language, encourage interest in letters, then speech to print (sound to symbol correspondences) to teach blending and segmenting! A few things crossed my desktop this week, but NOTHING compares to the birth of a new granddaughter, which also occurred this week!! That’s number 3 for me. Molly will

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WHO is Ms. Rachel?

7 Comments / Early Literacy, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Parenting, Pre and Early Literacy, Speech to Print, Vocabulary Development / By

Have you heard about one newest and one of the biggest video crazes to hit the airwaves for the younger set? Well, it’s Songs for Littles featuring Ms. Rachel and her cast. You can find it here–just go to YouTube–everyone knows how to find things on YouTube these days! I didn’t know about Ms. Rachel’s

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Tom Hid the Cat in the Shed…What’s This All About?

Leave a Comment / Comprehension, Dyslexia, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Parenting / By

I listened to Dr. Tiffany Hogan speak… …at the annual AIM Institute Symposium last month. Her area of expertise is language comprehension, as she is currently the Director of Speech and Language (SAiL) Literacy Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professionals in Boston. Image by Lori Josephson She discussed catching students who experience

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Happy New Year 2023: Looking Back to Look Forward

Leave a Comment / Background Knowledge & Literacy, Early Literacy, Language & Literacy, Language Literacy Connection, Parenting, Pre and Early Literacy, Your Journey / By

Nursery Rhymes, sometimes called Mother Goose Rhymes, have been in existence as early as the 14th century. They were sung and repeated to young children, even before much of the population was literate. And many of the authors of these rhymes are unknown. So what gives? WHAT ABOUT NURSERY RHYMES? Human beings, in many if

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