Controlling the Controllable: Organization

With so much uncertainty in school these days, it’s all the more important to take control of what we can—and this means mastering simple organizational strategies to manage students’ physical space and materials, first of all.

One of the most common challenges associated with executive function issues is organization. Students who struggle with executive functioning (and even many who don't) have a hard time organizing information and materials. Depending on the severity of these organizational challenges, students’ academic performance can be moderately impacted at best, and stopped in its tracks at worst. But even for the least organized student, there is always the potential to grow. With the right tools and strategies, students can go from having zero organizational skills to independently creating systems to help them succeed with academics and beyond.

Organizing Materials and Physical Space

You've already asked your kids to clean their rooms three times. Each time, they've said they will in a minute. Every time you return to find that they haven't started yet, your blood pressure rises. Your tone changes, and so does theirs. Sometimes, they make a show of "cleaning," without real effort, and you just don't have the energy to push them. Other times, they flat-out refuse, and this escalates into a full-blown fight.

Does this scenario sound familiar? This dance is all too familiar to many parents and can happen with kids of any age. What many parents don't know is that the child's resistance to cleaning their room may be a sign that they just don't know how. When a child resorts to shoving their pile of toys under the bed, it's not always out of laziness. It may be that they genuinely didn't know what else to do with their things. This is especially true for any student who struggles with executive functioning. Instead of repeating the cycle, here's how you can help your child develop these skills: 

• Make sure everything has a specific place. Once your child is old enough, involve them in the process of organizing their room. A kindergartener might not be able to perfectly fold all of their shirts and pants. However, they can decide which drawer will be designated for which items, or which bins are for blocks and which for art supplies.

• Use labels. The extent of your labeling is up to you, but keep in mind that the more difficulty your child has with organization, the more labeling can help. You can use pictures, words, or colors. They key is creating a simple system that your child will understand and be able to follow.

• Use the “KonMari” method. Marie Kondo has famously been helping people of all ages stay clutter-free through her method of organization. She suggests going through items one category at a time, deciding if each individual item "sparks" joy or not. If it doesn’t, throw it out or recycle it. For students who have an especially hard time getting rid of things, start with three categories: "keep," "toss," and "undecided." Once they’ve gone through items once, they can revisit their undecided pile and ask themselves once more if these items bring joy.

• Clean up with them, but don’t do it for them! Think of yourself as your child's cheerleader while they tackle the mess. You can offer encouragement and guidance if they run into obstacles (like where should I put this giant stuffed bear? Or what should I do with the dirty clothes that won’t fit in my overfilled hamper? Maybe you’ll tackle a lesson on doing laundry next time...)

Remember, taking these steps to ensure your child is learning organizational skills may feel tedious and time-consuming, but it's worth it. But not only are you setting them up to take better care of their belongings and the space in which they live, you are making your own life easier in the long-run by helping them build this independence!

Reading Levels, Explained

Teachers give assessments in order to get a picture of students’ progress and mastery toward skills. Similarly, teachers in lower grades assess students’ reading to find their “just right” level. This is crucial information to have in identifying any gaps in decoding, fluency, or comprehension. You may want to know your child’s reading level so that you can be in the loop about their reading progress, and know what steps, if any, to take at home to help your child grow in reading.

How do teachers find students’ reading level?

Reading levels are determined through running records. When administering a running record, the teacher sits with one student at a time. The teacher has a book chosen, and will usually give the student a sentence or two of background, show them the cover, and read the title to them. Then they ask the student to read the book (or only the first few pages) out loud as the teacher marks accuracy, misread words, fluency, expression, etc. Some teachers time students on their reading, some don’t. 

When the student has finished reading the book, the teacher will ask the student comprehension questions to determine the level of meaning the child was able to take from the book. These questions often belong to one of three categories: within the text, beyond the text, and about the text. Within the text questions deal with information that the student only needs to recall. If they were paying attention to what they read, they should be able to answer these questions. Beyond the text assesses how well students can think more critically about the text by making inferences about characters, drawing connections to their own lives, etc. About the text questions deal with text structure, text features, and author’s purpose. If the student scores within a certain range, then that is their “just right” level. If they score below the range, the teacher retests on a lower level, and if they score above the range, they retest on a higher level.

How important is my child’s reading level?

As far as your teacher is concerned, knowing your child’s reading level is very important so they can properly instruct and guide your child toward the right reading level to promote progress. It is important for you to be informed about whether your child is reading on, above, or below grade level, and that information may be best relayed by telling you your child’s exact level. However, it is not always necessary for the student to know their level themselves. There may be cases where it is helpful to tell the child their level. For example, if the student is frequently drawn to books that are far too easy, knowing their level and giving them access to books that are labeled accordingly, will ensure that they are choosing books appropriately. In other cases, telling students their levels can often be counterproductive. Some students get so caught up in levels that knowing actually causes more anxiety than it’s worth.

The Bottom Line

Teachers need to know students’ reading levels in order to instruct appropriately. Parents may want to know levels, but shouldn’t be too concerned unless the child is reading well below grade level, in which case the teacher will probably discuss options. Even then, it’s never a good idea to make a big deal out of reading levels, especially in front of a child. Becoming a reader is about finding joy in reading, not reaching a higher level. Students should be choosing books based on what interests them. As long as the books they choose are appropriately challenging (not too easy and not too many words they don’t know), then they are on the right track.

When “Just Do It” Doesn’t Work

Along with skills like time management, prioritizing, impulse control, and organization,  initiation—the simple act of getting going—is an important piece of the Executive Function puzzle. We’ve all fallen prey to procrastination at some point, when a task is unappealing, overwhelming, or opaque. Often the dragging of feet diminishes once we take a first step, and with the right push momentum takes over. These tips are designed to help students overcome the initial friction of initiation and get to work.  

Avoid the blank page blues

The cliché of writer’s block, in which a frustrated artist hunches over before an empty page, is rooted in reality. In French, this frustration is called l’angoisse de la page blanche, or anxiety of the blank page. There are many reasons why that white space is intimidating—because it represents a heap of work still left to do, because it doesn’t offer any structure for making forward progress, because anything that appears on it is immediately subject to perfectionistic self-critique. To say goodbye to the blank page blues, never write from nothing. Start with notes, a graphic organizer, an outline. Dive into one quote or idea halfway through the paper that you feel particularly comfortable about. As soon as you can, and with as little reflection as possible, get words down on the page—it’s important to demystify the process of writing so that we can avoid falling into the temptation of French angst and instead go about our writing one step at a time. 

Work in chunks

On that note, always set yourself interim goals and shorter tasks, breaking down large assignments into their component pieces. Work step by step, sentence by sentence, and you’ll find yourself making quicker progress with less anxiety about the larger assignment. 

Break bad habits

We all develop patterns of procrastination that emerge when we’re feeling anxious, unmotivated, or unsure how to proceed. This could mean checking social media, reading the news, falling into a cycle of youtube videos—even ‘productive’ procrastination like cleaning our space or checking email. Recognize these habits and do what you need to in order to short circuit them, as outrageous as it may seem. Put your phone in another room, download a site-blocker to restrict your internet access to the sites you need for a limited time, and find a space with minimal distractions. 

Build healthy habits
As you resist old patterns, create new ones. Start every work period with a certain song, or in a specific environment when you can—develop a habit that your body will recognize and snap into work mode. As part of these habits, use a timer, whichcan be invaluable for tracking smaller goals, keeping yourself on task, and delineating work and break times.

Teaching Kids How to Self-Monitor

Self-monitoring refers to our ability to track what we are doing and how or why we are doing it. We self-monitor (or at least we should) in every setting and activity. From how we read and write, to how we engage with friends and family, self-monitoring greatly improves our academic performance, social interactions, and daily life. The more aware we are of what we are doing and why we are doing it, the better we are able to perform any given task. And while self-monitoring is important for all of us, it is especially essential for students. The earlier they can learn to self-monitor, the better.

Strategies for Teaching Students How to Self-Monitor

Build metacognition.

The first step in improving a student’s self-monitoring skills is to improve their awareness of their own strengths and challenges, which is to say their metacognition. Otherwise, kids won't be able to plan for challenges, identify successes, and learn from mistakes. One way to help students get to know themselves is by giving them a metacognitive survey. Surveys like this one can help them become aware of their strengths, values, learning styles, and study habits. As a result, they'll be able to self-evaluate more effectively.

Create checklists.

A simple but impactful strategy to help students learn to self-monitor is to create checklists with their most common mistakes. This will not only help students learn to identify the errors they make most frequently, it will also help them actively check their work to avoid those same mistakes. This strategy can be applied to a series of math problems, a piece of writing, a recording of them reading a text – you name it! The key is to reinforce that mistakes are just information for learning, but students must learn from them so they don't make the same ones again.

Question often.

As students are working, they should periodically stop and ask themselves what they are doing and how or why they are doing it. Questions like “does that sentence look right?” or “did I show my work in a way that makes sense?” can help students self-evaluate and learn from experience. The best way to get students comfortable with asking themselves these questions is for them to see it modeled often and in different contexts.

Identify their purpose.

As students are going through their day, they should stop and reflect on their purpose. Why am I reading this book? What is this emotional reaction helping me accomplish? Am I communicating what I want to get across in this paragraph? Once they have identified their purpose in any given task, they can evaluate whether they are on the right course.

Stop, Review, Reflect.

A big part of self-monitoring is self-evaluation. As important as it is, many students are resistant to checking their work. But self-evaluation is about much more than double-checking answers. It’s about reflecting on not just the end-result, but the process, and how the student felt in that process. It’s about identifying gaps in skills, strategies, or knowledge that may have caused any errors or frustrations, and coming up with a plan for how to do better next time. Once again, there is nothing wrong with making mistakes; they are a part of the learning process. Identifying those mistakes through self-monitoring and learning from those experiences is the key to growth and improvement!

Learning to Communicate (with Adults)

School is much more than a place to learn your times tables. In addition to straightforward content like algebra, Egyptian history, and the products of photosynthesis, students must learn a set of soft skills associated with self-advocacy and communication. This extra curriculum is often not directly taught—and some parental guidance early on will help establish a dynamic in which parents can step back and let their students develop independently. 

Students should be reminded, gently but persistently, of the importance of good relationships with their teachers and how to earn them. If students can demonstrate a willingness to work diligently, ask interesting questions, and support their classmates’ learning, they’ll earn a relationship that can pay off when they need a bit of extra help or flexibility with a deadline. For high school students—or middle schoolers applying for selective high schools—these relationships are also key for applications as recommendation letter season rolls around. 

As part of building a positive relationship with their teachers, students should establish a channel of communication that is respectful and direct, without intruding unnecessarily on the teacher’s time. It can be very useful for students to be in touch with teachers over email when they need to ask a clarifying question about a major assignment or upcoming test, but given the informality of most digital communications, students will often need some coaching to understand the requirements of a more ‘professional’ email, with correct grammar and punctuation. As a young classroom teacher, I regularly received emails with no capitalization or punctuation from students—and while I was more forgiving than many of my older colleagues, in the worst case these emails risk being perceived as rude or lazy. Parents can help guide these emails with younger students, while supporting a movement toward self-advocacy that will serve them in high school and college.

It’s worth discussing these communication skills with your child early on, so that they can develop the right habits to advocate for themselves throughout their school careers! And really, they’re likely to learn better if they feel connected to their teachers—so this is a skill well worth strengthening. 

Elevate Learning with Mnemonic Devices

Remembering is hard! That is especially true of remembering the types of complex (and sometimes uninteresting) information kids have to learn in school. Memorization through repetition is rarely effective. That's why it is so important to teach kids the power of mnemonics. Then they can learn to be more strategic and creative when it comes to remembering. That's because mnemonics make information more sticky. By connecting unmemorable information to something more memorable, kids can create lasting knowledge. 

Examples of Popular Mnemonics

Young students sometimes use the phrase “big elephants can’t always use small elevators” to remember the spelling of "because." When they get older, they remember the order of operations through PEMDAS. There is also ROY G BIV for the colors of the rainbow. The list goes on and on. That's because they are popular for a reason: mnemonics actually work! Once students buy into that fact, they can create their own mnemonics for the information they need to learn. All it takes is a little practice and creativity.

Types of Mnemonics

IMAGES AND VISUALS

The brain often remembers visual information more easily than written or verbal details. Students can take advantage of their visual memory when it comes to trying to remember anything from the meaning of a vocabulary word to how to spell it, or the journey of a blood cell through the circulatory system to chemical equations. The visual reference can highlight spelling features, diagrams, relationships – you name it! The key is that it is memorable to the student.

Another variation on visualization strategies includes creating imaginary relationships between images and objects. For some, placing images or objects in a familiar location helps to create memorable associations with existing memories. According to the internet, this is a good strategy for memorizing a deck of cards (we haven't tried!). Similarly, you can picture how a series of objects or figures relate to one another. If, for example, you had to remember the words "banana," "beach," and "skunk," you could imagine a skunk in the sand eating a banana. The goal of these strategies is to create relationships between seemingly random things in order to "chunk" them together. This helps to use limited working memory space more effectively!

ACRONYMS AND ACROSTICS

An acronym is made by taking the first letter (or initial letters) of a list of words to create a more memorable word. We can all learned PEMDAS to remember the order of operations, or HOMES for the five Great Lakes. Acrostics are similar to acronyms, and more commonly called silly sentences. Instead of PEMDAS, students could remember "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally;" and instead of HOMES, they could think of Hairy Orangutans Make Excellent Saviors. Once again, the key is creating an acronym or acrostic that is memorable!

MUSICAL AND RHYMING MNEMONICS

Perhaps the most famous musical mnemonic is the classic alphabet song. Without this simple, catchy tune, the alphabet would be much harder to memorize. These devices use melody or rhyme to help students remember rules or procedures. A popular example of this is “30 days have September, April, June, and November." All of the incredible School House Rock songs also take advantage of music and rhyming to make content more memorable. Plus, research has shown that musical elements like rhyme and melody not only make information more memorable, but actually improve the general performance of our memory.

In Conclusion

Next time you find your child cramming for a quiz or test, encourage them to create some mnemonic devices for the information that just won't stick. Maybe they need a silly sentence to remember difficult formulas, or a memorable picture to recall the steps of a process? And not only will mnemonics make information more memorable, they'll also make learning more fun!

College on the Brain

As the first round of early application deadlines for colleges looms on the horizon, we’ve been reflecting on the best way to approach a student’s entire academic career with this transition in mind—and that doesn’t mean stressing out about building an ‘impressive’ resumé that will feel inauthentic or contrived. It’s important to live in the present moment and enjoy growing up without having college as a permanent fixture on your mental horizon—and if you live in that present according to these precepts, you’ll be ready when the time comes. 

Follow your natural curiosity 

Instead of thinking of extracurricular activities, volunteer opportunities, and course choices as a laundry list of requirements to be checked off and added to your resumé, focus on making the most of the time you have to explore what interests you, trying new things or going further with a particular passion. The cookie cutter student follows a model she believes will cause her to appear successful in the eyes of an admissions committee; the authentic student follows her natural curiosity and winds up building a much more compelling profile. Absolutely do get off the couch and get involved! Life is short. But get involved with what interests you, not what you imagine will be interesting to an admissions officer. 

Seek out challenges

Once you’ve found a niche or two, an activity or subject you can tinker with for hours without getting bored, look for ways to challenge yourself in that realm. Take initiative to learn a new skill or complete a significant project in your niche, collaborate and/or compete with others who share your passion, and emulate your heroes, be they favorite musicians or favorite athletes. And in general, seek out challenges: colleges are more impressed by a 3.75 in a challenging course load than a perfect 4.0 in classes that you can coast through. We learn by being challenged, struggling, and then adapting by mastering a new skill or new content—so if you take Spanish but aren’t comfortable in conversations, find a way to immerse yourself with extra classes, volunteer opportunities, or travel. Take a step out of your comfort zone, and take some level of initiative that your peers might not be to see how far you can go. 

Build independence 

One thing hardly anybody is prepared for when they first arrive at college is the massive leap forward in independence. For your own well-being, and to show colleges that you’re ready for this next life-stage, make sure that as you move through high school you become comfortable with tracking and being responsible for all of your own assignments, communicating with teachers, and maintaining a positive work-life balance. Bonus points if you can learn to cook a few things before leaving for dorm life!

What is Cognitive Flexibility?

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to think flexibly. Cognitive flexibility makes it possible for students to quickly shift their mental gears; they're able to look at a problem from multiple perspectives and adapt to new situations. There are two main types of cognitive flexibility. With “flexible thinking,” kids are able to think about or see something in a new way or from a new perspective. We use "set shifting” or “task switching" to seamlessly shift our attention from one thing to another or discover a new way of accomplishing something. Improving cognitive flexibility is key to supporting executive function skills!

How “flexible thinking” helps kids learn

Thinking flexibly is a crucial part of any learning process. As a student develops number sense, it isn’t enough to just be able to count a set of objects or add two quantities together. Instead, students should learn to think about numbers in different ways. In early grades, this includes finding all of the ways to “make 10.” While 5+5 might come to mind first, there are nearly endless possibilities! The more ways children come up with, the more flexibly they are thinking. In higher grades, flexible thinking in math might look like using multiple strategies to solve the same problem. Or better yet, kids can evaluate all of the possible strategies and select the best one.

Kids need to learn how to think flexibly when reading and writing as well. For example, they must learn to analyze text purposefully. This might mean a first read to understand the author's purpose, and a second pass to identify main ideas and supporting details. They must find evidence of the author’s purpose when reading a text. Students should also learn to write a paper with their audience in mind. Plus, they must think flexibly and consider multiple view points in order to create a compelling argument. With flexible thinking, we can do the same task over and over again but gain new meaning from it each time.

How “set shifting” helps kids be successful

Shifting gears without getting derailed is an important skill, but one that is often challenging for kids. In the classroom, a student works through set shifting with each transition from one task to another. This could be as simple as transitioning from eating lunch to cleaning up, or as complex as moving from the planning phase to the drafting phase of a writing task. Students also use this form of cognitive flexibility when they learn to solve a problem in a new way. When they are younger, they might add by counting on their fingers; as their math skills develop, they’ll use more sophisticated strategies to achieve the same goal. Similarly, most sentences written by younger kids are short and choppy, without much detail or expressive language. With improved writing skills, their sentences evolve. With these forms of cognitive flexibility, students learn to be more active, engaged, and thoughtful learners.

How to help your child who struggles with cognitive flexibility

Kids who lack cognitive flexibility are often resistant to change, rigid in their thinking, and have trouble with transitions. Here are some strategies to try at home:

• Word play - Here is a list of great word play games that develop students’ cognitive flexibility in written and oral language.

• Pros and cons lists - Anytime we need to think about the pros and cons of a situation, we are practicing cognitive flexibility. Have them do this next time they are deciding which video game to buy, or what they should order from a restaurant!

• Have your child make up new rules to the games they already play.

• Use different color highlighters to locate different items in a text. This can become a reading scavenger hunt of sorts. First, children can use one color to highlight main ideas. Then, they can use another color to identify important characters, events, or terms.

Testing Tips

Compared to the stresses of life under quarantine, test day jitters might feel trivial - but for many students, quizzes and exams are a perennial source of anxiety. Students, parents, and even teachers can become frustrated when performance on test day doesn’t seem to match up with a student’s potential. Test scores aren’t always the most reliable measure of mastery/growth in a subject, it’s true, but if testing is a persistent trouble spot, it’s important to incorporate that pattern as feedback on how students are preparing, and adjust appropriately. Below are a few of our tried and true tips for studying for an exam. 

1. Treat every assignment and reading as a part of your preparation.

The most important element of test preparation comes in the weeks (and sometimes months) before a test, as a student remains actively engaged with lectures and homework assignments, moving from knowing to understanding as they learn so that, when it comes time to study, they are already beginning from a place of confidence, rather than starting from scratch. The test is not a separate, stress-charged event in this model, but the natural culmination of weeks of learning. In concrete terms, this means that students should be taking clear notes and creating study materials as they learn the content, keeping up with readings and assignments, and independently reviewing at the end of every shorter unit.

2. Distribute practice by spreading out your studying.

Studies have shown that if you believe a test will require four hours of studying in the week of the exam, it is much more effective to split up this time into smaller chunks, spread out over multiple days, than to cram all four hours on the night before the exam. So…

3. Make a clear study plan.

It isn’t always easy for students to manage the many tasks that are thrust upon them—to use time wisely, set up a study plan well in advance of the test, with an explicit schedule for studying that splits up the content over multiple days and a specific plan for which study strategies to employ. 

4. Mix it up by using a variety of strategies.

Different types of content (and different types of tests) will require different strategies—and students should also consider what strategies work best for their specific learning strengths. The more that you can approach a subject from different angles—with flashcards written in your own words, illustrated histories, timelines, online video resources, practice problems, poetic adaptations, mnemonics and memory aides, etc—the more you’ll move from knowing to understanding. Your goal should be to absorb new information with context, thinking about it as a story, rather than memorizing in isolation or by rote. Use a timer to focus for specific periods, and switch between strategies. 

5. Find a buddy (or a student).

Study groups are a great way to stay motivated and trade notes with a peer, whose insight into the specifics of your test might go beyond what a generalized online resource can offer. Even better, studies have shown that teaching content is one of the most effective ways to retain it—with a classmate, take turns teaching one another concepts from your exam, or ask your parents if they need a refresher on selective permeability of the cell membrane (my guess is, they will).

6. Get a good night’s sleep, and stay healthy.

It is tempting to believe that staying up late to cram will help you conquer the test—but the truth is, giving your brain the rest it needs is more important. This is another reason why it’s important to distribute your studying across multiple days! Take care of yourself and your body as if you’re an athlete preparing for an event. That means you should take active breaks, drink water, and eat healthy snacks!

7. After the test, reflect!

Your job isn’t over when the test is done —take a well-deserved break, of course, but then take time to reflect on the study process and the test itself. Think about what worked, so that you can use it again next time. What areas can you identify for improvement next time? Taking a moment to register the feedback your test experience provides is how you’ll become a better student.

The Road to Reading Fluency

Last week, we posted about the importance of active reading. To widen the lens on the reading process in general, we are taking this week to lay out the steps students need to take to become active, fluent readers. Every one of these steps is crucial, as each skill builds upon the one before it. In this way, a strong foundation will lay the groundwork for the success that is sure to follow. With that in mind, however, it is also important to note that if any one step is not mastered, a student is likely to need some sort of learning intervention in order to catch up. As they say, first students learn to read, and then they read to learn, which is why achieving reading fluency is so central to academic success!

Early Literacy Skills

From birth, children are developing literacy skills. It’s hard to believe, but it is true! The first sounds of their parents’ voices introduce them to the concept of spoken language. Shortly after, they begin to develop awareness of their ability to communicate and get a response. Over the first twelve months of a baby’s life, they are exposed to stories, both in book form and orally, and these experiences build the foundation for understanding the concept of print and the structure of a story. Kids learn to hold a book right side up, to open it and turn the pages, and to make up their own stories as they look at the pictures. While it may come as a surprise, these early reading skills are crucial to the eventual development of a fluent reader.

At home: Give your pre-reader plenty of exposure to books with pictures, and make sure you read to them often! They are absorbing all of your reading skills, and you are planting the seed for a love of books as your kids grow.

Phonological Awareness 

Around when a student enters Pre-K, they begin to develop phonological awareness. This refers to the broad concept that words are made up of sounds, that there are relationships between certain sounds, and that these sounds aren’t random. While students who are phonologically aware have not necessarily learned letter-sound correspondence yet, they can begin to identify and play with the sounds in words by playing games with rhyming and beginning sounds.

At home: Songs offer a fantastic way to introduce or reinforce phonological awareness. The rhythmic patterns of most song lyrics, combined with the rhyming words most songs contain, will help pave the way for strong phonological awareness.

Phonemic Awareness

Considered a sub-category of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness refers to a student’s ability to identify, manipulate, and produce individual sounds in words. This is where students begin to connect the printed letter ‘m,’ for example, with its name and sound. Ultimately, students who have low or limited phonological and/or phonemic awareness will inevitably also have trouble with both decoding (reading words) and encoding (spelling words), which is why these early pre-reading skills are so important to work on!

At home: Multi-sensory letter practice is a super engaging way for little ones to practice forming letters. Use any small object like buttons or beads, or more motivating edibles like cheerios, to have students "write" out their letters. Don't forget to have them "read" their creation too by naming their letter, making the sound they formed, and they can get bonus points for thinking of some words that begin with that sound!

Phonics

Phonics is the pattern of sound-symbol relationships that are at the core of reading and writing skills. When students become fluent in phonics, they are able to correctly identify, manipulate and use all standard letter combinations. A student will know the sound that the letter ‘s’ makes, and will also know that this sound changes when combined with ‘h’ to make ‘sh.’ They will be able to recognize these sounds in and out of the context of words, and even in ‘nonsense’ words (words that follow conventional phonics rules but have no meaning in the English language).

At home: Give your child plenty of practice with reading short CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant) like "mat" or "web". Incorporate practice into your day by having him/her read you these short words in newspapers, magazines, recipes, or in the books you read to them. Also encourage your child to write as developing confidence with invented spelling, pencil grip, and letter formation is sure to lead to more success with writing down the road.

Decoding

Here is where students take all of the phonics rules they’ve learned and apply them to read words in order to make meaning from text. Kids will begin by reading simple sentences, and then they can tackle books with two sentences on a page, and then build up to pages with paragraphs, until eventually they are tackling paragraphs and chapter books. It’s a magical process to watch!

Of note with the earliest of books for budding readers is the difference between decodable texts and books that rely largely on predictable patterns. The former, like Bob books, place an emphasis on using phonics skills in order to read. These books will largely include words with a limited number of spelling patterns in order to ensure that students can independently decode the text with confidence; the latter, like this set, places more of an emphasis on using picture cues and sentence patterns to support early reading. These books do not necessarily provide a lot of opportunities for kids to practice decoding, but they are good for reinforcing sight words and learning to use pictures to make predictions while reading.

At home: If your family has a bedtime book routine (which you should if you don't!), start to give your child some reading responsibility! Let them practice their decoding skills by giving them a word, a sentence, or a paragraph at a time, depending on how much text they can handle.

Encoding

At the same time that students are practicing their decoding skills, they are also practicing encoding--using the correct (or reasonably approximate) phonics/spelling patterns to write words in order to express their ideas. Some students with certain learning disabilities, like dyslexia, might have no issues with encoding but have trouble decoding or vice versa. Both are important skills in becoming a fluent reader (and writer)!

At home: Journaling is an amazing activity for any age. The beauty of journaling for emerging readers and writers is that it gives them a place to practice their skills where no one will be looking over their shoulder to correct them. They can practice their writing in absolute peace and comfort, which will increase their confidence and make them more likely to enjoy doing it!

In Conclusion

Reading fluency is central to academic success. Once students learn to read with confidence, they will be able to read to learn. For that reason, it is especially important to make sure that students build phonemic and phonological awareness, that they master phonics, and that they use those spelling rules in order to decode and encode with fluency!