3 Benefits of Using Picture Books to Teach Vocabulary
Do you still use worksheets as part of your vocabulary instruction? Ditch them! Ok, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. But really are they bringing you joy? If they are, and your students are…
The #1 Way to Improve Reading Comprehension
What’s the #1 way to improve reading comprehension? Well, it’s super complicated and I almost don’t want to tell you for fear of scaring you off. Just kidding. It’s not complicated at all! The best…
Do you need an authentic way to teach tier 2 words?
Your student reads a book, filled with tier 2 words, accurately and with great fluency. But when you ask them to tell you what happened in the story they can't. How is that possible? It…
How to Use Classroom Vocabulary Activities Like Word of the Day
You have a lot of lessons that need to fit into the school day but you also need to fit in classroom vocabulary activities. You look at your schedule but not sure where you could…
The Best Practical and Authentic Ways to Teach Vocabulary
As a kid you might have been taught to flip through a dictionary and look up words and write down their meanings. Although dictionary skills are still important, there are better ways to teach vocabulary…
How to Teach Types of Context Clues: The Most Effective and Simple Strategy
Understanding the different types of context clues helps kids when figuring out the meanings of unknown words. The best way I have found to teach the different types of context clues is to use an…
Hands-On Multi-Syllable Words Activities for Small Groups
You have a small group of kids that are having trouble with multi-syllable words. You need to help them but need activities are at a loss for what to do. Does this sound familiar? How…
The Most Efficient Lesson Routine for Teaching Prefixes and Suffixes
A few years ago I gave an assessment and was surprised at one of the questions about prefixes and suffixes. It asked the students what a word meant when the suffix -ly was added to…
Teaching Context Clues With A Review Game That Kids Love
Teaching kids context clues is an important part of vocabulary instruction. Kids need to be taught how to figure out unknown words in their independent reading books. It increases their word knowledge which then increases…
This Is The Most Effective Strategy for Decoding Multisyllabic Words
Do you need a strategy to help kids with decoding multisyllabic words? Spot and Dot is a strategy for helping kids break apart multisyllabic words. In order for kids to be successful, they need to…