Better Reading Instruction
with Dr. Jan Richardson
LITERACY TIPS
Literacy Tip for December
Building Comprehension With Primary Students Using Read-Alouds
by Courtney Richardson, M.Ed.
Some teachers view reading aloud as an insignificant or even dispensable part of their school day. On the contrary, it is an invaluable and underutilized activity. When executed efficiently, it can be an excellent tool for building comprehension.
Some teachers may believe that primary students are too young to learn comprehension strategies, but read-aloud sessions provide the perfect opportunity for students to actively engage with the text and practice deep thinking and discussion. In his blog “The Spirit is Willingham, but the Flesch is Weak,” Tim Shanahan writes, “Strategy instruction can be effective at improving reading comprehension scores at a variety of grade levels, including the primary grades. This surprised me, too. I was pretty sure that comprehension strategies made sense with older students, but not so much with younger ones. That’s not what the research has found, however.” (2016)
Since reading aloud is most common in the primary grades, and since most students in that range are processing texts at a literal rather than inferential level, I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite retelling strategies to try with these students.
These strategies are meant to be modeled in a whole-group setting during a read aloud and then explicitly taught in small groups, using texts children can read. They also pair beautifully with writing sessions to extend comprehension. All of these strategies can be found in chapter seven of Jan’s yellow book (The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading, 2019).
STP
Module 2, p. 259
Stop-Think-Paraphrase is probably my favorite strategy due to its simplicity and effectiveness. With this technique, the teacher models reading a page of text, then pausing to cover the text with their hand and paraphrase what was just read. STP can be used with both fiction and nonfiction texts. Teaching students to reflect while rewording forces them to recall and consider what they just read. After modeling the strategy, the teacher should have students practice retelling the next page with a partner.
After learning the STP strategy in a whole-group setting, students should be given opportunities to practice it in their small-group guided reading sessions. According to Shanahan, “Strategy instruction is effective when the instruction is concentrated. In all of the studies, students were given daily ongoing instruction of and practice with strategies.” With time, the strategy becomes ingrained so that students naturally pause and paraphrase when reading independently.
For younger students, in-text illustrations may be used to support recall. For older students, teachers may ask them to jot down key words or short paraphrases on a sticky note. Their ideas can later be incorporated into their writing. During a whole-group session, the teacher may use an interactive writing lesson to model who to incorporate keywords and phrases into a written retelling.
B-M-E
Module 3, p.260
Another easy and effective strategy is to have students retell what happened at the Beginning-Middle-End of a story. B-M-E works best with fiction texts since they are often written with a sequential structure. This technique, like the STP strategy, provides opportunities for students to pause and reflect while they listen to a story, rather than attempting to process it in its entirety.
Before reading, the teacher should pre-mark pausing points for the beginning and middle of the text. During the read-aloud, the teacher pauses and asks students to recall and summarize what happened at the beginning then middle of the story, jotting students’ thoughts on a B-M-E anchor chart. Students can discuss the story’s ending with a partner before sharing with the group and contributing to the anchor chart. The teacher may also have students use the chart to practice retelling the entire story with a partner.
During guided reading, the teacher may insert sticky notes at predetermined beginning, middle, and end stopping points for students to jot their reflections as they read. Lower students may draw pictures as their reflections. For example, if the teacher asks the students to consider how a character’s feelings changed throughout the story, they could draw simple faces to indicate the feelings at the B-M-E points.
The B-M-E strategy lends itself well to a teacher-led interactive writing session, or to independent writing by students. Students can use the whole-group anchor chart or their personal sticky notes for reference during writing.
5 Finger Retell
Module 4, p. 261
The Five-Finger Retell strategy is a great visual way to teach retelling. The five fingers represent: characters, setting, problem, events, ending. I love that “events” is included as a story element, so that students are given the opportunity to build a bridge between the problem and solution, thereby deepening comprehension. This strategy should be used with a fiction text, preferably a familiar one when first introducing the concept.
As the teachers read a story to the group, they model using the five fingers to discuss the story elements. As students recall and share the parts of the story, the teacher adds key words or simple pictures to an anchor chart. (The five story elements may be displayed as a hand illustration or written in a chart format.) Students can then practice retelling the whole story with a partner, using their own fingers and the anchor chart for reference.
After modeling the Five-Finger-Retell whole-group, students can practice in their guided reading groups as well. Students can also write about the five story elements during interactive, guided, or independent writing times as well.
Final Thoughts
Teachers should avoid anchoring themselves to one comprehension strategy as this can become boring and ineffective for students. Rather, it is best to train them to use a variety of strategies. Shanahan states, “The research reviews show that the teaching of multiple strategies, either singly in sequence or altogether, is beneficial—with stronger results than from single strategies. Multiple strategy teaching may be better because of the possibility that different strategies provide students with different supports (one strategy might help readers to think about one aspect of the text, another might foster some additional insights or analysis). Teach multiple strategies.”
Two of my favorite resources for interactive read-alouds are Maria Walther’s book “The Ramped Up Read-Aloud,” and the Literacy Footprints interactive reading and writing collections.
Not only are read-alouds fun for students and a great way to build fluency, they are also a perfect yet underutilized way to build comprehension. Children, especially in the primary grades, should be read to every day, ideally multiple times a day. Don’t be tempted to skip reading aloud to your students. Instead, use the time to engage them and to build comprehension bridges!
Literacy Tip for November
Right Way to Write
by Courtney Richardson, M.Ed.
Just as emphatically as educators would attest to the importance of writing, are they likely to agree on the challenges that can come with trying to teach it. In his Education Weekly article “How Does Writing Fit Into the ‘Science of Reading?” Stephen Sawchuk states, “Research suggests that teaching students to write in an integrated fashion with reading is not only efficient, it’s effective” (2023). He stresses the importance of incorporating writing throughout students’ days and across content areas. This concept may seem daunting, but there are many ways to work writing into your class instruction.
Six Approaches to Writing
Sometimes teachers aren’t sure where to begin with writing, or they think they can only provide quality writing instruction in lengthy, concentrated blocks of time. They may believe there is only one “right” way to write, but there are actually many methods for teaching writing. I’d like to highlight six of the most effective and efficient strategies to use in the primary grades. Note the decrease in teacher scaffolding as we move through the various approaches.
Modeled Writing
The teacher demonstrates writing (on chart paper or a smart board) as students observe. Instruction is done whole-group and takes about 10-15 minutes. The teacher creates the message and controls the pen. A morning message is a good example of a modeled writing opportunity.
Shared Writing
The teacher controls the pen and guides the conversation, while students contribute ideas for the message. Students may also provide input on spelling and print concepts. Instruction is done whole-group for about 10-15 minutes. I sometimes like to incorporate directed drawings during shared writing. I often model the writing and drawing under the doc camera as students contribute to the message.
Interactive Writing
The teacher and students share the pen. The message can be dictated or negotiated with students. The teacher writes challenging or known text, while students take turns writing letters and words. The teacher explicitly teaches print concepts, phonics, spelling patterns, and high-frequency words. Instruction can be done whole or small-group for about 10-15 minutes.
Handwriting
The teacher gives explicit instruction as students practice independently. This may be explicitly taught with a curriculum, but should also be incorporated into all writing instruction. The teacher should use consistent letter formation cues (verbal pathways) and provide an alphabet chart for reference. Instruction is done whole and small-group for about 10 minutes.
Guided Writing
The students control the pen as the teacher provides guidance. The teacher provides the purpose for writing and guides the construction of the message. The teacher may dictate some sentences or provide a sentence frame until students are able to construct sentences independently. This instruction is incorporated as part of a guided reading lesson, on day two or three, and writing is done in response to reading. Instruction is done small-group for about 10 minutes (or up to 20 for older students).
Independent Writing
The students do the writing as the teacher circulates and conferences one-on-one with them. Students write with minimal support from the teacher, but the teacher provides check-ins for feedback. This method is typically used in a Writer’s Workshop block. If needed, the teacher or aid could pull a few struggling students to work in a group if needed and if time allows. Instruction is done whole-group for about 10-20 minutes (or longer with older students).
Writer’s Workshop Schedule
Here is a sample Writer’s Workshop schedule for a 30-45 minute block:
10-15 minutes Whole-Group Mini-Lesson / Interactive or Modeled Writing
5-10 minutes Directed Drawing / Shared Writing
10-20 minutes Independent Writing / Conferencing
5 minutes Sharing (Turn & Talk or Share with Class)
Final Thoughts
Writing instruction doesn’t have to be done all in one block. Some instruction may be part of a morning meeting, with another chunk of time devoted during a designated guided writing or writer’s workshop block. Instruction can and should be incorporated throughout the day and can be embedded within other content areas. For example, students can write in response to a social studies unit or keep a science journal. The best approaches to writing offer a good balance of scaffolding while promoting independence, creating a gradual release of responsibility. There isn’t just one “right” way to teach writing. There are many options and opportunities to fit it into your day.
Literacy Tip for October
The Importance of Vocabulary
by Courtney Richardson, M.Ed.
Overview of Vocabulary Instruction
I recently observed my middle school son as he completed a vocabulary assignment in “Reading Plus,” a digital literacy program utilized by his English Language Arts teacher. Per the website, “Reading Plus is an adaptive literacy program that develops the fluency, comprehension, and motivation students need to be successful readers.” (https://www.readingplus.com)
From what I witnessed, “motivation” was superseded by frustration. I was disappointed to see that, in the vocabulary segment of the program, a word is quickly flashed on the screen, then students are essentially expected to guess its definition without any sort of introduction or context. This is certainly not an ideal method for assessing nor teaching vocabulary.
We know that the National Reading Panel included vocabulary as one of the five pillars of early literacy, and I think we can all agree that it is essential for students to develop a rich, extensive vocabulary. Understanding vocabulary within a text contributes to a student’s overall comprehension of the content. With the cultural shift to heavy decoding, it is important to note that without explicit vocabulary instruction, comprehension is at risk. “Even if we spend lots of instructional time teaching decoding and strategic reading, [students] will continue to struggle to comprehend text unless we also support their vocabulary development.” (Wright 2021)
Per Moats & Tolman, teachers should “Aim to teach about 300-400 words per year, or 3-5 words per reading selection…and [provide] at least 10 exposures to each word in listening, speaking, and reading.” (LETRS Volume 2, 2019) And yet, research shows that teachers rarely provide vocabulary instruction that is planned or cognitively challenging for their students. (Wright and Newman 2014)
In order to capture the complete meaning of a text, students must understand the vocabulary presented within that text. We must teach them to stop when they get to unknown words and explore their meanings. When instructing students in a small group literacy environment, we must explicitly introduce new words prior to reading. This practice is a hallmark of Jan’s Guided Reading lessons. (Richardson, 2019) Moats & Tolman agree that “Explicit instruction of Tier 2 vocabulary should occur before students are guided through text reading, as knowledge of individual word meanings significantly increase overall comprehension of language in a text.” (LETRS Volume 2, 2019)
So what does this explicit vocabulary instruction look like in a small group setting?
Vocabulary Introduction during Small Groups
Prior to reading, the teacher should take a few minutes to provide a synopsis of the text, as well as an introduction to vocabulary words they believe students may struggle with. Per Jan’s The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading, “Two kinds of words need to be discussed before the reading: words too difficult for [students] to decode and words not in their listening vocabulary.” (Richardson, 2019) Particularly for English Language Learners who may lack the background knowledge of their peers, it is important to discuss new words and concepts.
For readers at the emergent and early stages, vocabulary introduction involves drawing attention to the words by either writing them on a dry erase board or having students find them in the text. I like to tell students the page number to turn to, then have them “find and frame” the word with their two index fingers. Pronounce the word for them, then have them repeat it. Discuss the meaning of the word and draw attention to illustrations to support the concept when available. (Always try to select books with strong complimentary illustrations for this reason.)
Providing examples from the text, using the word in a sentence, and making connections to the book are helpful ways to explain the word. For complex or abstract concepts, the idiom “A picture is worth a thousand words” comes to mind. You might consider offering an additional picture or even modeling such concepts with nonverbal actions. For example, when trying to explain the word “shivering” or the concept of being “impatient,” acting out the word can be very effective.
For readers at the transitional and fluent levels, the goal is to introduce words that students will struggle to decode or would not know the definition of and will not be explained within the text. There are four steps incorporated into the vocabulary introduction portion of the lesson plans at these stages.
Step 1- Define the word using a short, kid-friendly definition. I like the Wordsmyth Children’s Dictionary. Do not ask the students to define the word. This wastes time and may confuse other students.
Step 2 - Make a connection between the new word and the student’s schema. For example, if the word is “shrieking,” explain that this is something students may have done if they’ve been in a haunted house amusement exhibit.
Step 3 - Relate the word to the text by telling students where and how it will be used in the book. Point out the accompanying illustration if applicable.
Step 4 - Turn and talk: Have students use the word in a sentence with a partner. This application helps to activate their understanding of the word.
You should only spend about three or four minutes on the text and vocabulary introduction segment of your lesson, so keep definitions short and sweet. The discussion portion of the lesson comes later. You should only need to introduce about three or four vocabulary words. If you have to introduce more than that, the text may be too difficult, and you should consider selecting a less challenging book.
*Adapted from Jan Richardson’s The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading, 2019.
Final Thoughts
Consider having students record new vocabulary words in a notebook that they can access and apply during writer’s workshop or for assignments in other subjects. New vocabulary should also be introduced during read-aloud sessions and across content areas. Make an effort to incorporate rich vocabulary throughout the day in conversation with your students. Don’t shy away from using complex vocabulary when speaking. Talking down to students does a disservice to them. Get creative and get talking!
Let us leave this place / where the smoke blows black / and the dark street winds / and bends. // Past the pits / where the asphalt flowers grow. // We shall walk / with a walk / that is measured / and slow, / and watch / where the chalk-white arrows go / To the place / where the sidewalk ends. //
** Excerpt from "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein
Literacy Tip for September
Tips for Helping Struggling Readers
by Courtney Richardson, M.Ed.
What do you do with a student who isn’t progressing? Not much frustrates a teacher
more than a lack of progress. If you’ve been consistently teaching a student in a differentiated
small group reading environment, but they’re just not making progress, it’s time to think about
next steps. Here are some ideas to try.
*Adapted from Jan Richardson’s The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading.
Troubleshoot
Use the problem solving charts provided in each chapter to identify possible reasons
why the student isn’t progressing. These are a great tool to give you a snapshot of your
students’ strengths and weaknesses. Charts are available on the following pages: Pre-A- p. 47,
Emergent- p. 96, Early- p. 149, Transitional- p. 209.
Intervene
After identifying potential learning gaps using the problem-solving chart, use Jan’s
“Suggestions for Intervention” to provide intervention that targets those skills. Charts are
available on the following pages: Pre-A- pp. 48-50, Emergent- pp. 99-101, Early- pp. 151-152,
Transitional- pp. 211-214. Select an intervention strategy to try for one or two weeks, then
reassess.
Reflect
Reflect on your grouping and prompting. Is the student in the most appropriate group for their
needs, or would a lower level be more fitting? Remember that reading groups are meant to be
flexible, not firm. Are the prompts you’re giving specific to that student’s needs, and are they
effective in engaging and supporting (while challenging) the student?
Consult
Use your resources! Consult with your colleagues or specialists such as a Reading Interventionist,
EL or Special Education teachers. Consider designating a monthly grade level meeting to discuss struggling students, so that you can problem-solve as a group. Team think is a powerful tool to share ideas and resources.
Plan
Plan activities such as independent and buddy reading and other opportunities for students to
practice skills. This will also increase engagement and build confidence and fluency.
Consider
Consider decreasing the student’s text level. This may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes
students get “stuck,” and dropping down a level, even just temporarily, may give them the boost
they need. Allowing them to read at a level below their actual instructional level can increase
motivation and self-assurance, which may be just the jolt they need to accelerate.
Modify
Be prepared to modify your lesson for English Language Learners and Special Education
students. We know that accommodations and modifications are often needed throughout the
day and across content areas for learners with unique needs, and this is no different in guided
reading groups. For example, students may benefit from visual aids when explaining new
vocabulary concepts. For instance, if you are reading a book that describes the ocean as
“turquoise,” you might show a picture to provide a visual of what that color looks like. If you’re
introducing the word “shivering,” be sure to demonstrate the action for students to see. Another
simple accommodation may involve preferential seating- allow a student who is easily distracted
to sit at the end of the kidney table, closest to you, with a gap between themself and another
student. Or perhaps you allow a student with sensory issues to wear noise-canceling
headphones during individual reading time, so that they aren’t overwhelmed by other students’ reading aloud… The goal is to make all lessons accessible to all students.
*See Jan’s ideas for “Adaptations for DLLs and Students with IEPs” on the following pages:
Emergent- p. 102, Early- p. 153, Transitional- p. 114.
Individualize
Sometimes, you may end up with a student who doesn’t naturally fit into one of your reading
groups or who needs extra, intensive instruction. You may need to provide individualized
intervention for such students, until they are able to join a regular group. Jan’s 10-minute lesson
plans are perfect for this situation, and they can be found on the following pages: Emergent- p.
102; Early- p. 154. Providing individualized instruction may require you to get creative. You may
need to pull these students aside while the rest of the class is doing independent work, or
perhaps you have an Educational Assistant or other support staff (SpEd, RTI, EL, etc.) that you
can train to work with the student. You could even consider training parent volunteers or
students in upper grades to read with students or work on targeted skills.
Contemplate
If you’ve taught your lessons with fidelity, and you’ve tried the intervention suggestions outlined
above, the next step is to contemplate other contributing factors that may be interfering with
student growth. For example, are there oral language deficiencies; has the student experienced
trauma; is the student’s attendance inconsistent; is it time to consider a referral for diagnostic
testing to identify possible neurodivergent conditions, etc.? At this point, you may consider
having other specialists (guidance counselor, SpEd, EL, OT, PT, RTI) assist in evaluating the
students in question, so they can provide input and expertise on next steps. Of course,
communication with parents is also essential in understanding students’ needs and considering
a way forward to best support them.
Every student is unique, and we know that they don’t all learn the same way, nor do they
advance at the same speed. Fortunately, educators are skilled in creativity, organization,
problem-solving, and most importantly, care for students and a desire to help them grow. These
attributes will help you as you endeavor to meet the individualized needs of your striving students.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for June 2024
How To Increase Fluency
by Courtney Richardson, M.Ed.
After monitoring and decoding are firm, students should begin to demonstrate more phrasing and expression in their reading. Let’s face it- listening to a student labor to read, word-by-word, in a heavily segmented fashion can be agonizing for both student and teacher. This is why it’s so rewarding to witness students’ progression from the word solving phase, into the world of fluency. But how can we help them advance from that point? Here are some tips for increasing fluency.
What texts should you use to work on fluency?
Natural language texts promote fluency, where decodable texts can inhibit it. Decodable texts tend to encourage segmented, word-by-word reading, e.g. “A d-o-g c-a-n r-u-n f-a-s-t.” Multicriterion texts however, promote a conversational style of reading, in which plot and dialogue occur naturally.
Additionally, when fluency is your focus, it can be beneficial to use a text at an easier (1-2 levels below instructional) reading level. This removes the decoding obstacle, so that students can concentrate their efforts on phrasing, intonation, and expression.
Selecting texts with some repetitive patterns can also contribute to fluency, as students will have built in practice with reoccurring phrases. Fiction texts containing dialogue are best for working on expression so that students have opportunities to talk like the characters.
When should you build fluency into your lessons?
Fluency instruction begins during circle time. One of the simplest and most effective ways to teach fluency is by modeling it. Teachers should read aloud to students every day, modeling expression and intonation. A variety of books can be used for read-alouds, but fiction books with multiple characters, rich vocabulary and interesting dialogue are best for this. (Hint: interactive read-alouds are also a prime opportunity to incorporate comprehension instructionsee comprehension strategies in chapter seven of The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading.)
You can also work in opportunities to model fluency during small group instruction. This can be incorporated during a book preview, during individual conferences with students, or during your teaching point. You may also choose to have students practice what you’ve modeled by having them read chorally, echo read or participate in shared reading with you. During independent reading time, students build fluency by reading familiar texts, or texts that are slightly less challenging but highly engaging.
What are some specific activities that help build fluency?
There are many practical strategies you can employ to help students build fluency. Here are some of them:
● Prompting. Encourage students to “Read it smoothly. Pretend you’re the character. Read it like the character. How would the character say that?”
● No pointing. We direct beginning readers to point to each word as they read, to encourage one-to-one matching and accuracy, but we discourage pointing starting at level C, as it slows them down.
● Teach sight words. “Early readers need to build rapid recognition of common sight words so they can increase their fluency and free up cognitive space for solving new words” (Richardson, 2019, p. 130).
● Avoid timers. When students know they are being timed, they tend to rush through their reading. This can cause errors, mumbling, and slurred reading, rather than reading with proper expression and prosody, not to mention gaps in comprehension. “Some assessments recommend that you time the reader, but the more important aspects of fluency are phrasing, expression, intonation, and attention to punctuation” (Richardson, 2019, pp. 162-163).
● Phrase Framing. Encourage phrasing by framing a few words at a time with your fingers and having the students read those portions of text.
● Finger sliding. To encourage smoother, faster reading, the teacher can slide their finger from left to right, covering the words as the student reads. This pushes the student’s eye forward at a faster pace.
● Slow vs. segmented reading. Encourage students to “stretch” words, reading them slowly, rather than segmenting them sound-by-sound. I call this “turtle crawl” versus “rabbit hop” reading.
● Sound boxes. Elkonin boxes are a great word study activity if students are struggling with
blending. Before writing, encourage students to slide their finger under the boxes while slowly
saying the word, rather than segmenting each sound.
● Making words. “In the making words activity, [students] use magnetic letters to make a series of words that differ by one letter. For example, they could make the following: cap-chap-clap-clop-slop-slot. This helps them monitor for a visual (letter) and auditory (sound) match. This match, also called synchrony, is critical for the development of reading fluency” (Sousa, 2014, as cited in Richardson, 2019).
● Text marking. To increase prosody, provide students with a copy of the text (can be inserted in a sheet protector), and demonstrate how to add slash marks at natural pauses in sentences to indicate breaks in phrasing. This activity forces students to pay attention to punctuation and teaches them to read with appropriate speed and expression. Check out this Fluent Phrasing document for details.
● Readers Theater. This is a great way to get students to read and reread, and it encourages them to “read like the character.” “Include Readers Theater as an independent learning activity. Students practice the script for several days to increase fluency before they perform for their class or another classroom” (Richardson, 2019, p. 212).
● Buddy reading. Students are often more engaged and encouraged to read fluently with a partner. Older students make great mentors to model fluent reading, and younger students love spending time with them. “Have students read familiar books with a partner. Train upper-grade students to coach lower-grade students who need support with fluency. Students read and reread poems, chants, or familiar books”
*Lesson demo videos are available for many of the activities mentioned above, such as prompting, teaching sight words, making words, sound boxes, finger sliding, and more in the online resource bank for The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading.
a apron
ay day, stray
ai rain, strain
ei rein
ey obey, they
a_e snake
eigh eight, weigh
eig reign, feign
aigh straight
et Buffet, duvet
au gauge
ea break, steak
e very, cafe
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for May 2024
Common Questions about Guided Reading
by Dr. Jan Richardson
In this month’s tip, I will share some common questions teachers ask:
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Should I do book clubs or guided reading?
Although I love doing book clubs with intermediate readers, book clubs shouldn’t be a substitute for guided reading. Guided reading and book clubs differ in their purpose, the type of text that is used, and the way the text is read. During book clubs, students independently read a novel and then meet with other students to discuss it. The book has to be fairly easy since students read it on their own. The primary purpose of book clubs is small-group discussions with their peers.
During guided reading, students read a short, challenging text that is introduced and guided by the teacher. The goal of guided reading is to learn and apply reading strategies that strengthen a reader’s executive function skills. Other students can be reading their book club books and preparing for their discussion while you do guided reading with small groups. This document describes the usefulness of both approaches to reading instruction.
The following bookmarks can support students during book clubs: Early Bookmarks and Advanced Bookmarks. After you model each bookmark, students can use them to prepare for their book club discussions.
2. What should I do if my students are reading on grade level but are not solid with vowel patterns?
Vowel patterns are tricky for many children because the same sound can be spelled in different ways. For example, there are eight ways to spell the long a sound.
As with any reading lesson, I recommend that you apply the Assess, Decide, Guide process when doing small group reading lessons.
Assess – Use the word study inventory on page 324 of The Next Step in Guided Reading to identify the vowel patterns students already know and the ones you need to teach.
Decide – Select the easiest patterns to teach first. They are often the patterns that are contained in common words.
Guide – Use about 5-7 minutes of your guided reading lesson to review and teach vowel patterns. First, review the most recently taught patterns by writing them on a dry erase board (or use flashcards) and have students say the sounds. Then use short, engaging activities such as Making Words, Elkonin Boxes, and Analogy Charts to teach a new pattern. There are Vowel Cards on my website that list the pattern on one side and words that use the pattern on the other side. You can print the pages, fold the paper in half, laminate, and cut the cards apart.
3. My students have terrible handwriting. Is it ever too late to work on handwriting? It is never too late to teach handwriting. Research shows that students who write neater, write more and write better than students who have poor handwriting skills. It does not take long to see a change if you start to use lined handwriting paper and show students how to use the lines. Not only will students immediately show greater legibility, but they will also be more eager to write. You can find handwriting templates here, here, and here.
4. I have a few reluctant writers who only write one or two sentences during our 20-minute guided writing lesson. What can I do to get them to write more? First, help students plan with keywords. After you unpack the writing prompt, invite students to contribute a few important words they should use in their response. Students should write these words at the top of their paper. After they use one of the words in their writing, they can cross it off. This will keep students organized and motivated because they have an idea of what to write next. Another idea is to tell reluctant writers to draw a line down the left side of the paper to show how much they think they can write in 20 minutes. Many students are motivated to reach the goals they set.
5. At the end of each guided reading lesson, I have my students write two new words and their definitions in their reading notebooks. What are some activities students can do on their own or in small groups to practice the new words they are learning?
Preparation: Write each vocabulary word on an index card. After you teach students these four practice activities, they can do them with their guided reading group while you are teaching a different group of students:
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Guess the Word – Place the cards face-up on the table. One student gives a clue about one of the words by saying, I’m thinking of a word.... Clues might include the definition, the number of syllables, the part of speech, an antonym or synonym, the meaning of the affix, etc. Then other students in the group try to guess the word.
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Put Two Words Together – Deal the cards so that each student receives 2-5 words. Each student composes a sentence using two (or more) of the vocabulary words they were dealt and shares their sentence with the group.
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Picture This – Place the cards face up on the table. Students have their own whiteboard and dry-erase marker. Each student selects a word to sketch on their whiteboard. Then students share their illustrations with the group and invite their peers to guess the word they illustrated.
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High Five – Place the cards on the table. A student secretly chooses a word on the table. Then the other students in the group try to guess it by asking questions about the word that require a yes/no answer. For example, Does the word have three syllables? Is it an adjective? Does it have a prefix? If they don’t guess the word after five questions, the student reveals the secret word.
To hold students accountable, assess them on their vocabulary words once every two weeks.
If you have a question you’d like me to answer, you can contact me through my website.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for April 2024
Rethinking How We Teach Readers
by Dr. Jan Richardson
As a reading consultant and author, I hear from a lot of teachers who have been told by their school districts that they must follow a scripted reading program with a narrow focus on phonics. The teachers’ primary concern is that the phonics skills are not transferring to reading authentic, non-decodable texts. In fact, teachers tell me they have more struggling readers now than in previous years -- to the point that school districts are being forced to hire additional special education and reading intervention teachers.
Here are some specific concerns with suggestions for instruction: (notice the BOLD)
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Children are not writing well. Teachers are concerned that today’s scripted reading programs have little, if any, focus on the composing act of writing. Writing is often reduced to spelling a few high-frequency words, writing a short, dictated sentence, or filling out a worksheet. I suggest that teachers replace the simplistic writing tasks with guided writing, shared writing, and written responses to literature and learning. Teach students how to creatively think about their writing, organize their ideas, compose their own sentences, and spell words they have not been taught.
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Children are not learning to use a variety of strategies to decode unknown words. When they come to a new word, they stop and sound out each letter. That strategy works fine with CVC words, but it becomes laborious and ineffective when used on longer, more complex words. Instead, teach children how to use flexible decoding strategies such as taking words apart by onset and rime, syllable, or inflectional ending.
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Children are not using meaning during the decoding process. Children are mispronouncing words like want, who, warm, worm, and break because they don’t follow the specific phonics rules they have been taught. Mispronouncing a word is not uncommon. Even well-educated adults make mistakes when they read out loud. The problem is, children are not self-correcting their errors because they aren’t being prompted to use meaning. Teach your students to think about meaning on a sentence and story level while they are in the act of decoding unfamiliar words.
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Children have weak comprehension. Because decodable stories are tightly controlled for phonics skills, they lack a natural flow of language to support the feedforward process of anticipation and the construction of meaning. Additionally, the stories are usually far too short and too simple. Decodable texts often lack dynamic characters, opportunities to make inferences, or themes. An evidence-based way to boost comprehension is by supplementing the program with read aloud and shared reading experiences using diverse and engaging picture books. Additionally, research shows teachers should limit decodable texts to emergent readers and have children read authentic, complex stories as soon as they can blend CCVC words (Messmer, 2020).
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Children are struggling with reading fluency. A reading specialist I know is required to use only DIBELs passages for assessment and instruction. Children are timed on grade-level passages. If they score below the recommended words-per-minute, the children are placed in intervention. The intervention includes orally reading the same grade-level DIBELs passage again and again and again. The focus is totally on improving how quickly a child reads. Comprehension is ignored or merely an after-thought. We know that oral reading fluency is improved by building a large bank of sight words, developing automaticity with decoding, and attending to meaning. Other practices that improve fluency are rereading familiar stories, rehearsing for performance reading such as readers’ theater, and incorporating shared reading practices such as echo and cloze reading. We can’t let research-proven practices take a back seat to unverified, untested instructional procedures – no matter how popular those procedures have become.
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There is little if any small-group differentiated instruction. Scripted programs are delivered to the whole class regardless of the students’ abilities or needs. Many of the new programs take 60 to 120 minutes to deliver, which leaves little time to differentiate instruction for students who are reading above or below grade level. I recommend that you streamline whole group lessons, redirect some of the activities to independent or paired experiences, and free up time for small group lessons. Using an integrated lesson framework that includes reading, writing, and phonics will help struggling readers advance. The lessons will also challenge those reading above grade level.
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Independent reading is minimized or even banned. Gone are the days when I would walk into a classroom and see children so focused on reading their self-selected chapter books that they didn’t even notice I was there! Gone are the days when children would run up to me, clutching their book to their chests, anxious to tell me about what they were reading. Now I see the entire class with the same book (despite the fact that the book is often too difficult for some of them). And, although they might have the book open, several children are not even trying to read it! It’s extremely important to foster reading motivation. Helping students find books they can and want to read will increase reading motivation, support fluency, and extend vocabulary. It will also create life-long readers who can’t wait to read another book.
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Teachers are being taught to assess reading with a stopwatch! Teachers want to know more than just their students’ reading speed. They need to know their readers’ strengths and needs. They need to know why a child isn’t fluent and why some children have weak comprehension even though they have adequate decoding skills, good oral language, strong background knowledge, and a rich vocabulary. Teachers need to take running records or use an assessment kit to evaluate a student’s use of sources of information. The Science of Reading Defining Guide stresses that thereading brain uses “multiple sources of information” (p.13). A comprehensive reading assessment such as the Next Step Guided Reading Assessment can provide important information that will help you make sound instructional decisions related to why struggling readers aren’t progressing.
It saddens me to see the direction reading education is going. Parents tell me their children don’t want to read anymore. Teachers say reading is no longer fun to teach. Too many children have lost the joy of reading. It makes me want to cry –but way deep down, I still believe we can do something about it!
1Science of Reading Defining Guide, p. 13.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for March 2024
by Dr. Jan Richardson
For this month’s Lit Tip, I’m posting an excellent webinar by Dr. Maren Aukerman, associate professor of literacy at the University of Calgary. Her message titled, “Toward Comprehensive, Research-Informed Literacy Instruction: Thinking With, Against, and Beyond the Science of Reading,” brings clarity and kindness to the often inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric circulating around reading science.
Dr. Aukerman organizes her talk around these important points:
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Phonics as a Panacea
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Structured Literacy
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Comprehension Research-Informed Literacy Instruction.
This “must-watch” video should be viewed by every educator.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for February 2024
An Intervention Framework that Works!
by Dr. Jan Richardson
The RISE intervention program is spreading rapidly across the US and Canada. This month I want to briefly explain what RISE is and how it works.
RISE (Reading Intervention for Students to Excel) is a short-term, Tier 2 intervention based on the integrated, literacy framework contained in my Next Step Forward in Guided Reading. Students rotate every day through four stations that target the elements of skilled reading. At Station 1, students read an engaging book, carefully chosen to match the phonics skills they are learning. Station 2 follows a scope and sequence for explicitly teaching phonics. Students use multimodal activities such as picture sorts, word chains, and Elkonin boxes. At Station 3, they reread the book they read at Station 1 on the previous day, but this time the focus is on increasing oral reading fluency and comprehension. At Station 4, the students write about the book and are given opportunities to practice their newly acquired sight words and phonics skills.
Does RISE work? An action research study collected data from 1,273 striving readers in schools from Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, and South Carolina. Results showed that students who received RISE instruction for an average of 33 days achieved a 6.4-month gain in reading. A dissertation study confirmed these results, and a recent research and validation study showed that RISE students in grades 1-4 made substantial growth in reading as measured by the Measure of Academic Progress (MAPÒ).
How can I implement RISE? The RISE framework can be implemented with up to 16 striving readers and one to four instructors, using any curriculum and reading text. One of the instructors should be a reading teacher, but the others can be teaching assistants, special education teachers, hourly teachers, student teachers, librarians, etc. You will achieve the most acceleration when children have 60 minutes of RISE for 6-8 weeks utilizing four instructors. Scholastic has published two RISE intervention kits: the basicRISE kit is for children reading at grade levels K-3, and the RISE Up kit is for students in the intermediate grades who need to improve vocabulary and comprehension.
This brochure explains what is included in the Scholastic RISE and RISE Up kits written with Ellen Lewis.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for January 2024
Text Matters
by Dr. Jan Richardson
This month I am reposting a blog written by my friend, Dr. Michele Dufresne. Michele discusses the importance of using connected text to support the development of phonics. She also mentions the value of exposing beginning readers to a variety of texts—decodable as well as more natural language stories.
I’ve had numerous conversations with teachers who are struggling with using only decodable texts. The stilted language and overused phonics skills can be tricky for young readers. Decodable texts use language structures that don’t sound like spoken language. They steer kids from using context to decode unknown words, limit the development of decoding flexibility, and are far less engaging.
Decodable books have gained popularity because they give students an opportunity to practice the phonics skills they have learned. However, research has shown that a steady diet of decodable books can hinder a child’s reading fluency and comprehension. What is best for children—decodable or non-controlled texts?
A recent study by Pugh, Kearns, and Heibert (2023) addresses this question. The researchers studied the effects of using decodable, nondecodable, and a combination of both with beginning readers. They learned that children are best served by reading both types of texts. "There was convincing evidence across the comparisons suggesting that interventions that included both decodable text reading and nondecodable text reading had larger effects than students without both types of text reading" (p. 14).
So, don’t throw out those complex texts. Consider using both -- because text matters!
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for December 2023
Adapting the Lesson Plan
This month I had the privilege of coaching a first-year teacher as she taught a guided reading lesson. I was impressed with her thoughtful planning and skillful execution of a lesson with fluent readers.
The teacher, Christina Catalano, had created an attractive lesson plan that caught my eye. Let me introduce you to Christina…
I love being creative, so I decided to revamp the “Next Step” guided reading plan using Canva. I created a fun, simple template that includes all the necessary components of the plan but provides more space to write. The text boxes are designed so you can add text and color and also bold or underline important parts of the lesson. This keeps me organized and helps me move through my lesson seamlessly. Here is an example of a lesson I did with my fluent readers:
This Canva template can save you planning time since you can download and save the lesson to use with another group later in the year. You can easily adjust the lesson by revising the text or adding/removing boxes as necessary. The form is completely editable, shareable, and printable. I hope you find this adapted lesson plan useful as you navigate through your guided reading groups.
I am absolutely amazed at the progress my students are making so far this year! My fourth graders are growing in their fluency, and it is remarkable to see them delve into deeper meaning and thinking.
Click here to find PDFs of the adapted lessons for emergent, early, transitional, and fluent readers.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for November 2023
Teaching Interactive Writing in the Primary Grades
by Courtney Richardson
Let’s talk about the dreaded writing block. Educators often dislike and thereby avoid teaching writing, at least to the extent that it should be taught. But the value of writing instruction is commonly and grossly downplayed.
Often, teachers in the primary grades believe their students should master reading before writing instruction begins, but this is not true. In fact, “The notion of reading preceding writing, or vice versa, is a misconception. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities develop concurrently and interrelatedly, rather than sequentially” (Sulzby and Teale, 1986).
Writing instruction actually enhances students’ reading ability as it extends comprehension and word knowledge. Science of Reading advocates Dr. Lisa Moats and Dr. Carol Toman agree stating, “Researchers have found that the act of spelling out words in writing reinforces sound-spelling correspondences and helps students strengthen their memory of words” (2019).
So why do teachers avoid writing instruction, and how can we make it more approachable, less frustrating, and even- dare I say- fun? I believe the answer is in the approach. One such approach that is simple and engaging is interactive writing.
The beauty of interactive writing is that it can be incorporated throughout the school day, in a variety of methods, and across any content area. In other words, writing doesn’t have to be limited to literacy blocks alone. It can be incorporated into math, science and social studies, and state standards can be interwoven into this instruction as well. For example, teachers could incorporate a lesson on procedural writing during science, or have students construct subtraction sentences during math. Seasonal writing units are easy to fit into a social studies block, and of course students can write about the books you read aloud to them as well.
Interactive writing is conducted in a whole-group setting. The teacher instructs from a central chart paper while the class sits on the floor and participates using individual lapboards to promote engagement.
Here are the materials you need for interactive writing:
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Chart paper
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Marker
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Pointer
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Lapboards (or similar)
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Index Cards
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Pocket chart
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Individual ABC charts or class poster/frieze cards (for reference)
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Post-it cover-up tape (for mistakes)
Next, let’s deconstruct interactive writing into manageable steps.
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Choose a Topic. This may be part of a morning message or related to a content area. Examples: shapes (math), weather (science), 5 senses (social studies)
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Formulate the Message. This may be dictated by the teacher or negotiated through discussion with students, depending on time and skill level. Pre-select skills to target, such as a specific spelling pattern. Plan to include sight words you’ve recently taught.
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Draw a line for each word in the sentence as you have students repeat the sentence with you.
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Share the pen. Call students up one at a time to help write the sentence. While one student is writing on the chart paper, the rest of the class can practice writing specific letters or words on individual lapboards or an alphabet chart with writing space at the bottom. Students can also use a pointer to guide the class in rereading the sentence.
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Guide the Process. The teacher guides students to use known letters and sounds. Words should be spelled correctly, and the teacher should draw attention to correct capitalization and spacing. The teacher may write letters or words that students either already know or that they don’t yet have the skills to navigate (e.g. advanced phonics skills).
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Finish the sentence by adding punctuation. Once the sentence is complete, reread it together.
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Reconstruct the sentence in puzzle form. The teacher either cuts the sentence (word by word) or pre-writes the words on index cards, then distributes them to students to reassemble in a pocket chart and reread one final time.
The chart paper with the constructed sentence can be kept as an anchor chart in the room for reference if desired. Students can copy the sentence into writing journals and continue adding to the message during independent writing time.
Interactive writing provides a good balance of scaffolding while promoting independence and a gradual release of responsibility. It is a powerful instructional tool that will increase both the writing and reading skills of students. Jan tells us, “Reading and writing are interwoven… because they are reciprocal processes” (Richardson, 2016). Don’t skip writing!
*To see a live lesson of Jan conducting an interactive writing lesson with a first grade class, view this video.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for October 2023
The Guided Reading Debate:
Problematic Pitfall or Promising Practice
by Dr. Mary Howard
Dr. Howard granted permission for me to repost this blog she wrote about guided reading. Although the term has been attacked and villainized, the truth is Structured Literacy and the Science of Reading acknowledge the value of differentiated, small group instruction. Dr. Howard clearly lays out the tenants that make guided reading (another name for small group instruction) effective and research-based.
Please read this and share it with your staff and colleagues:
https://therobbreviewblog.com/uncategorized/guided-reading/
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for September 2023
Dr. Linnea Ehri’s Phases of Word Learning
and the Next Step Reading Stages
We have a wonderful literacy tip this month by my dear friend, Dr. Julie Taylor. She will tell us how Dr. Linnea Ehri’s word-learning phases align with the reading stages described in my book, The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading.
Dr. Linnea Ehri is a cognitive psychologist and professor at the University of New York. She has published over 160 scientific papers and served on the National Reading Panel. In the 1990’s, her research led her to develop a theory on the phases of reading development (Ehri, 1995). She identifies five phases to describe how children learn to read and remember words. She coined these phases the pre-alphabetic, partial-alphabetic, full-alphabetic, consolidated-alphabetic, and automatic. They range from non-readers to automatic word readers.
Dr. Ehri’s phase theory is a science of reading research tenet that aligns with the Next Step guided reading stages and lesson routines (Richardson, 2016). Dr. Ehri divided her reading phases according to children’s decoding ability, something guided reading teachers take into account when we choose texts and plan small group literacy lessons. The Next Step guided reading framework offers instructional routines for teaching reading, writing and phonics skills that are developmentally appropriate for specific phases of reading.
In this article I will correlate each of Ehri’s phases to a Next Step reading stage and include a link to a video example of the Next Step lesson activities. You will see how the Next Step framework translates the reading science into practical classroom instruction.
Ehri’s Pre-Alphabetic Phase: (This phase aligns to the Next Step Pre-A lesson routine, Richardson, 2016, Chapter 2). Children at this phase lack letter-sound knowledge and typically identify words by salient letters, visual features, or environmental context. They tend to memorize familiar stories and rarely attend to individual letter sounds when they attempt to read a text.
During a Next Step Pre-A lesson, children are taught phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, and sound-letter associations. They also develop concepts of print such as left-to-right directionality, voice-print match, and the concept of a letter and a word. Children learn these skills through lively, multisensory phonics activities, shared reading, and interactive writing - activities that reinforce the relationship between reading and writing. Click here to watch some kindergarten students who identify fewer than 40 letters learn foundational skills.
Ehri’s Partial-Alphabetic Phase: (This phase aligns to the Next Step Emergent lesson routine, Richardson, 2016, Chapter 3). At this stage, children continue to develop phonemic awareness, learn most letter names, and start to blend sounds in CVC words, although the decoding will be slow and laborious. Because they haven’t learned all the letter-sound associations, Partial-Alphabetic students have a meager knowledge of words they recognize by sight. Readers at this stage tend to confuse similarly spelled words due to weak letter-sound proficiency.
During a Next Step Emergent lesson, children learn letter/sound associations, sight words, and phonemic awareness through reading easy books with the teacher’s support, explicit instruction in segmenting and blending CVC words and sentence dictation. These activities promote and develop orthographic mapping, which Ehri describes as “the formation of letter-sound connections to bond the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of specific words in memory (Ehri, 2014.)
Click here to watch the new routine for
teaching sight words via orthographic mapping.
Ehri’s Full-Alphabetic Phase: (This phase aligns to the Next Step Early stage, Richardson, 2016, Chapter 4). At this phase, children have full letter-sound connections and can segment, blend, and substitute phonemes with ease. Now they are ready to decode words using word parts such as onset and rime, syllables, and inflectional endings. Children’s orthographic mapping skills are strengthened as they continue to map sounds to letters to build a growing sight word vocabulary. Decoding becomes a self-teaching mechanism (Share, 1995) in that children implicitly learn new phonics rules and spelling patterns as they independently attack the pronunciation of new words. As their accuracy and automaticity improve, more cognitive attention is shifted towards comprehension.
During a Next Step Early lesson, children are explicitly taught the silent e feature and complex vowels. They learn to break words at the onset and rime (ch-ip) and at the inflectional ending (stand-ing). Children continue to apply orthographic mapping skills to build a large bank of sight words that do not need to be decoded. Fluency and comprehension grow in importance as children’s accuracy and automaticity improves. Writing is a crucial component of every Next Step lesson, but at the Early stage, children move beyond writing dictated sentences to create their own responses to the text they read. Go to this link and watch second graders write about the nonfiction book they read in the video titled “Guided Writing 2.”
Ehri’s Consolidated-Alphabetic Phase: (This phase aligns to the Next Step Transitional reading routine, Richardson, 2016, Chapter 5). Children begin to use multi-letter units to solve unknown words. They also use analogies, which is the strategy of using known words and word parts to teach themselves unknown words. For example, if a student doesn’t automatically recognize the word square, they might use the sound of are in care to decode square. At this point, their orthographic mapping skills are firm, and the process of reading transitions from an activity of learning to read to reading to learn. During this phase, children use their advanced orthographic mapping skills to learn new vocabulary, which further develops their comprehension of complex text.
Next Step Transitional lessons focus on explicit teaching of spelling patterns, complex vowels, and morphemes to assist students in reading and writing unfamiliar words. During reading, students are prompted to read in chunks rather than sounding out words letter by letter. Research shows that proficient second grade readers never sound out words letter by letter; instead, they usually work with large, sub-word level units. In Kaye’s (2006) study of second grade proficient readers, she found that the second graders demonstrated more than 60 different ways to overtly solve new words. Transitional word study and phonics activities include building and taking apart words by onset-rime, syllable, and inflectional endings. Click here and watch some third graders use magnetic letters to make and break apart a multisyllabic word (Word Study: Making Big Words).
Ehri’s Automatic Phase: (This final phase of word reading (Ehri & McCormick, 1998) aligns with the Fluent stage in The Next Steps lessons, Richardson, 2016, Chapter 6). Most words children encounter have become sight words. The few unknown words they encounter are quickly decoded and stored into the reader’s lexicon. Automatic word recognition frees the reader’s attention to focus on comprehension. Proficient readers in 5thgrade and higher are most often at this phase.
During Fluent Next Step guided reading lessons, the instructional focus is on extending vocabulary and prompting students to engage in deeper comprehension. Hundreds of studies have proven the effectiveness of explicitly teaching comprehension strategies (Shanahan, 2023). Comprehension strategies slow down the reader and force them to think more deeply about the text. In chapter 7 of The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading, Richardson includes 29 instructional modules for teaching the 12 major comprehension strategies: comprehension monitoring, retelling, developing vocabulary, asking and answering questions, identifying main idea and details, analyzing characters, inferring, summarizing, using text feature, and understanding text structure. Click here to watch lessons with fluent readers that focus on comprehension and vocabulary.
I have shown how Dr. Ehri’s phase theory of word reading aligns with the Next Step guided reading stages and lesson routines. It’s a wonderful example of how the Next Step framework can translate theory into practice.
References
Ehri, L.C. (2014) Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading,
Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning, Scientific Studies of Reading, 18:1, 5-21,
DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2013.819356.
Ehri, L. C. (2013). Orthographic mapping and the acquisition of sight word reading,
spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5-21.
Ehri, L. C. (1995). Phases of development in learning to read words by sight. Journal of
Research in Reading, 18(2), 116-125.
Ehri, L. C., & McCormick, S. (1998). Phases of word learning: Implications for instruction with
delayed and disabled readers. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 14(2), 135–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057356980140202
Kaye, E. (2006). Second Grader’s Reading Behaviors: A study of variety, complexity, and change.
Literacy Teaching and Learning. 10(2), 51-75.
Richardson, J. (2016). The next step forward in guided reading: An assess-decide-guide
framework for supporting every reader. NY: Scholastic.
Richardson, J. (2023). Guided reading and reading science.
https://www.janrichardsonreading.com/_files/ugd/7e0b43_1768c230701747fc8bb4c17bea44450e.pdf
Shanahan, T. (2023). Knowledge or comprehension strategies – What should we teach?
Shanahan on Literacy https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/knowledge-
or- comprehension-strategies-what-should-we-teach
Share, D. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: sine qua non of reading acquisition.
Cognition, 55(2), 151-218.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. MA:
Harvard University Press.
Click here to view the complete summary
of Ehri’s phases and Richardson’s stages.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for August 2023
A Really Good Story
by Sandra Weaver, Next Steps Consultant
I met Jameson in February. He was in a first-grade traditional classroom receiving only whole group instruction that emphasized phonics. Since Jameson was a year below grade level, his classroom teacher recommended tutoring to his mother. His mother contacted me. After meeting with the mom and Jameson, I immediately assessed him using a variety of assessment tools. Here is a list of his strengths:
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Oral language
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Background knowledge
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Listening comprehension
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Read and write about 30 high frequency words
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Consonants and the short e
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Able to orally segment and blend phonemes in short words
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When reading connected text, he would attempt to sound out unknown words
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Reading comprehension
Although Jameson had some phonics knowledge, he wasn’t able to transfer that knowledge to reading. He successfully read text at level B. Grade level for this time of year would be level G.
Based on his assessments, I developed the following instructional goals:
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Increase phonemic awareness, especially short vowels
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Hear and record phonemes in CVC words
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Teach sound-letter connections for medial vowels, digraphs, and blends
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Build a stronger bank of high-frequency words
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Teach decoding skills and strategies
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Teach letter formation for lowercase letters
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Write a short retelling that includes key details
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Increase text level reading to reach grade level expectations
We started 30-minute tutoring sessions, two times a week. I followed
Jan’s new integrated lesson framework.
On Day 1 I taught 15 minutes of phonological awareness and phonics instruction and 15 minutes of reading a challenging book. On Day 2 we reread the book for fluency, had a comprehension conversation and did guided writing.
Jameson started to make progress immediately. In fact, after our very first lesson, his mother sent me this message: “I wanted to touch base and let you know that Jameson was very positive after his session yesterday. He came home and knew exactly what he needed to do for homework. I haven’t seen him that empowered in a while and so I’m excited to see his progress moving forward.”
After 18 tutoring sessions (a total of 9 hours of instruction), Jameson progressed from reading at a level B to reading on grade level (text level I) with accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. That’s a really great story.
I credit Jameson’s success to Jan’s lesson framework that integrates phonics, reading and writing. In each session I explicitly taught all the reading pillars identified by the National Reading Panel (2000) and more: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and oral language. I also monitored his progress and used authentic assessments to establish weekly goals based on his strengths and needs.
This is one of thousands of success stories from using The Next Step framework.
You can watch some videos of Jameson do Making Words and reading grade level text below.
For more information on remote tutoring or professional development, please contact
Sandra Weaver
Or visit
Daisy ran to the door
and looked outside.
"Come on!" she called to Jack.
"Let's go outside and play."
Jack ran out the door, past Daisy,
and down the steps.
He was wearing his Super Dog cape.
"I'm faster than a speeding bullet,"
he said. "Try to catch me!"
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for May 2023
Updated Making Word Procedures
by Jan Richardson
The Making Words activity is an excellent instructional procedure for explicitly teaching phonics skills. Children manipulate magnetic letters to make a series of words that contain the same phonics skill but differ by one or two phonemes. For example, if children are learning about digraphs, you could dictate hat-chat-chap-chip-ship-shop-chop. Using a series of words that differ by one or two letters, helps students attend to letter sequence and synchrony (the connection between sounds and letters). Making Words has been part of my “Next Steps” lesson framework for decades, but I have recently updated the procedures to teach both encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading). Here are the steps for the updated version of Making Words:
Step 1: Identify a target skill (short vowels, digraphs, blends, silent e, or vowel patterns).
Step 2: Create a chain of words that contain the target skill and differ by one letter or letter cluster. The following are examples of a Making Words activity that targets specific phonics skills. You can find more examples in The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics (Scholastic, 2019).
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Short vowels: had-hid-rid-rig-rag-rug
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Digraphs: dish-dash-mash-mush-much-such
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Initial blends: crab-slab-grab-grub-snub-shrub
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Final blends: lift-lint-list-last-cast-past-pant-pint
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Silent e: pal-pale-pane-pan-man-mane-mine-pine-pile
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Vowel patterns: see-seed-weed-week-cheek-creek-creep
Step 3: Give each student a tray of magnetic letters and tell them the letters they will need to remove to make the list of words.
Step 4: Dictate the first word for students to make. As students make the word, tell them to say the individual sounds. This helps strengthen their orthographic mapping skills (Ehri, 2014).
Step 5: Teach them how to break the word at the onset and rime. The onset is the letter(s) before the vowel,and the rime is the part that begins with the vowel. For example, in the word stamp, the onset is st and the rime is amp. Teaching children how to break words between an onset and rime helps them recognize common patterns within words. It also helps children efficiently decode and spell new words https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/onset_rime. After they break the word, have them point to each part as they say it. Then they should remake the word and read it, blending the parts quickly.
Step 6: Now tell them to change a letter or letter cluster in the word. Don’t tell them the new word they are going to make. For example, if the children are working on initial blends, you might say change the letters S-T in stamp to the letters C-R. After they make the new word, they should break the word at the onset and rime (cr-amp), say the parts, and read the word. This activity helps them develop good decoding skills.
Step 7: Now tell them to make a new word. Dictate the next word in the chain but don’t tell them which letter(s) they should change. Say, “Change the word crest to crept. Slide your finger under the word crest while you slowly say the word crept. Which letter do you need to change? Break it, say it, and read it.” This activity helps them develop good encoding skills.
Step 8: Children continue to make the words in the chain you created. Alternate having children change a letter or letter cluster (step 6) with dictating a new word for them to make (step 7).
This video demonstrates these updated procedures. You can download and print this handout to help you remember the new steps.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for April 2023
A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Jeremiah Short, a reading intervention teacher from Houston, Texas. He has a podcast called The Phenomenal Student. Jeremiah calls himself a structured literacy teacher, but he actually uses a variety of approaches based on his students’ needs (something I really like!). It was great having a pleasant and respectful conversation with him about current trends and challenges. After I clarified some common misperceptions about guided reading, he and I realized we have a great deal in common. Click here to watch a recording of the interview.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for March 2023
Guided Reading and Reading Science
This month's lit tip is special.
Please click here to check out what Jan has to say.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for February 2023
The New 15-minute Lesson Plan
I’ve spent countless days and hours in classrooms this school year, working with students and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers. When students returned to school this fall, teachers immediately recognized that many children, especially those most dependent on in-person instruction, had fallen behind and desperately needed intense, differentiated instruction. Teachers repeatedly ask me, “With the limited time I have, how can I teach additional small groups? How can I provide more differentiated phonics instruction?”
That’s why I developed my new 15-minute guided reading lesson plans. By teaching a 15-minute lesson instead of the traditional 20-minute, a teacher can add an extra small group each day! One of my new lessons specifically targets phonics, the others target reading and writing. Each of the three easy-to-follow lessons weaves phonics skills into the reading, writing, and word study.
The phonics lesson, for example, directs increased attention to the specific needs of students by including a quick review of previously taught skills, explicit modeling of a new skill, short blending and segmenting drills, and a series of hands-on word study activities that target the same phonics skill. During the reading component, students are quickly introduced to a challenging text and then guided to read the text with accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The writing component extends student comprehension and cements the phonics skills by having students write about the book they just read. Click here for the new lesson plans. They’re free!
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for December 2022
Teaching Sight Words
I’ve had several conversations recently with a friend of mine, Dr. Jan Hasbrouck, a researcher, author, and highly respected Science of Reading expert. Jan and I have had several discussions about the Science of Reading and guided reading. She shared this definition: “The Science of Reading is a vast, unfinished, continuously growing and evolving interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.” The words in blue are Jan’s; those in black are taken from the Reading League’s "Defining Guide”
(https://www.thereadingleague.org/what-is-the-science-of-reading/) The truth is, no one knows everything there is to know about the reading process. As we acquire more knowledge, we need to incorporate the gained knowledge into our teaching. As Mark Seidenberg (2020) once said, “We know more about the science of reading than about the science of teaching reading based on the science of reading.” With that in mind, I’ve decided to offer some more tips on how to use my Four Steps for teaching a sight word.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for January 2023
On Christmas day, 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—a 57-year-old widowed father of six, wrote a poem called, “Christmas Bells.” It reflected the conflict he was personally experiencing at that time in our nation’s history. The Civil War was raging, Longfellow’s wife had been killed in a tragic fire, and his oldest son had been paralyzed in battle. One of the final stanzas to the poem reads,
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
A decade later, the words to Longfellow’s poem were set to music, and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” became one of America’s favorite Christmas songs.
Now, 160 years later, the world (even the education world) is still searching for peace. A “Reading War,” fueled by biased social media reports, is dividing our schools, promoting unkindness and widespread disrespect. It breaks my heart to see teachers name-calling and school districts mandating some reading programs while banning others – all based on questionable, unverified “research.”
As readers progress, they need to develop a large reservoir of sight words —words that are automatically recognized and do not require the reader to decode them. Research shows that beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships when they learn words are better able to bond the words in their memory (McCandliss & Noble, 2016; Ehri, 2020).
The Four Steps I created have always emphasized the phoneme-grapheme connections. However, I realize we may need to make those connections more obvious to children, especially children who have difficulty learning words. In the following paragraphs, I review the Four Steps and explain how to explicitly teach orthographic mapping, the bonding of sounds to letters, to help children remember words.
What’s Missing? – Tell students the word they will learn and have them segment the sounds in the word. As they say each sound, write the letter or letters that represent that sound on a dry-erase board. Point out the graphemes that match each sound and draw attention to any unusual spellings. Then remove a letter and ask students what’s missing. They can repeat the word slowly if necessary to recall the missing grapheme. Repeat the procedure removing one or more letters on each turn.
Mix and Fix – Give students the magnetic letters to make the word. As they make it, they should segment the sounds and place the letters in sequence. Then tell them to segment the word again as they push up the letter or letters that represent each sound. Next, have them mix up the letters and remake the word. Tell them to check the word by pointing to each letter as they say the word slowly.
Table writing – Have children use their finger to write the word on the table, saying each sound as they write the letter(s) that represent the sounds. Using the fingertip to write the word helps build a memory trace (Fernald, 1943).
Write and retrieve – Give each student a white board to write the word. Make sure students say the word slowly as they write it, matching the sound they say to the letter(s) they write. Then dictate a familiar word for students to write, prompting them to say the word as they write it. Finally, repeat the new word for them to write. By this time, the students should be able to quickly recall the word and write it fluently.
If we consistently draw children’s attention to the letter-sound connections as they learn a new word, they will bond the spelling of individual words to their pronunciation and build a process for remembering words.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for November 2022
Leveled books can be decodable books
For this month’s tip, I’m sharing a blog written by Michele Dufresne. Michele has written over 800 books for children. Each of her books has been leveled to help teachers match their students to books they can read. The truth is, every book can be leveled in some way, either by a readability formula, a grade level, or a Lexile. A well-written leveled book has words children can decode as well as high-frequency words beginning readers need to learn. Check out Michele’s blog to find examples of how leveled books can also be decodable books.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for October 2022
"Next Steps" and the Science of Reading
There are common confusions about the “Science of Reading;” there are also confusions about guided reading and whether it aligns with reading research. I’ve written a white paper that clarifies some of those confusions. One reason I authored my first book, The Next Step in Guided Reading, is that I had witnessed too many guided reading lessons that were not aligned with reading research. My framework has always aligned with reading science. It includes these essential research-based components:
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Small flexible groups
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Differentiated instruction
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Explicit focus based on on-going assessments
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Teacher scaffolding
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A balance of direct instruction and application
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A gradual release model
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Integrated framework that includes decoding skills, reading fluency, systematic phonics instruction, vocabulary support and reading comprehension strategies.
Each of the above elements is supported by more than 40 years of research. Click here for a complete description of what “Next Steps” guided reading is, and how it aligns with current reading science.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for September 2022
Teaching for Fluency
Research shows there is a strong correlation between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. Students who read with appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression are more likely to comprehend connected texts (Fuchs, et al. 2001). The important question is how do I help students improve their oral reading fluency? The answer to that question will reveal the best intervention for accelerating our students.
The first step is to analyze the running record to determine why a student isn’t reading with appropriate speed and accuracy.
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Is the text too difficult? Obviously, if the text has too many unfamiliar words, the student will read slowly. This is one challenge of taking a one-minute fluency probe on grade-level text. If the children are reading below grade level, they will not do well on this type of assessment. When analyzing fluency, be sure to use a text that is at the student’s instructional or independent range (at least 90% accuracy).
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Does the student struggle to read one-syllable words? Analyze the one-syllable words the child misses. Do they have short vowels, digraphs or blends? Do you notice that the child misreads words with vowel teams (ai, oa, ou, etc.)?
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Does the student have trouble reading big words? Many intermediate readers are challenged by multisyllabic words, especially those with prefixes and suffixes.
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Does the student struggle to read high frequency words? High frequency words are words that appear frequently in English texts (e.g. to, the, up, where, come, etc.) If children misread or pause on these words, it is because the words have not become sight words. Sight words are words the child reads automatically because they have been mapped into the brain’s long-term memory. The more sight words students master, the fewer errors they will make.
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Does the student read accurately, but mostly word by word? There could be several reasons why a child reads accurately but slowly. Perhaps he is being overly cautious not to make any mistakes. Some children read word-by-word because they are not phrasing within sentences. For example, all the words in a prepositional phrase should be said together. As the child reads orally, note the words the child reads as a phrase. This might help you determine your next step in instruction.
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Does the student read accurately but without appropriate expression? If a child is reading in a flat monotone, his reading lacks prosody. When a child is reading prosodically, oral reading sounds like speech with appropriate phrasing, pausing, stress, and general expressiveness. The student is “reading the punctuation” so that someone who is listening will understand the character’s feelings. Prosodic reading, or reading with expression, is widely considered to be a strong indicator of solid comprehension.
Once you’ve analyzed the child’s oral reading to determine why the child isn’t fluent, it’s time to teach for fluency. The following chart provides suggestions for teaching students which each type of fluency challenge:
Fluency and Dyslexia
There is no agreed-upon definition of dyslexia (Johnston 2020, Hasbrouck 2022). A common characteristic of dyslexia, however, is difficulty with accurate and fluent reading. Although many struggling readers can become fluent with phonics and decoding instruction (and lots of accurate reading practice), some profoundly dyslexic readers may never become fast readers (Reid 2018). With dyslexia, there may be neurological factors that interfere with the process of quickly recognizing words. Nevertheless, with explicit instruction that integrates reading, writing, and phonics, these students can still learn to read with reasonable accuracy and sufficient comprehension. We must never forget that, although fluency is highly desirable, comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading.
Monthly Message from Jan
Literacy Tip for June 2022
The school year is over or ending soon for most of you, but I wanted to share a brand-new resource I wrote this year with Pioneer Valley Books. It is a Shared Reading curriculum for whole class instruction that integrates reading, writing, phonics, and phonemic awareness. I tested the materials for several months with first graders and saw amazing growth. Click here to learn more about the Shared Reading curriculum and watch me teach a phonics lesson.
Pioneer Valley now has kits for Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade. This link will take you directly to their website where you can find out what is included in the kits and how to order them.
I have samples of the lesson plans on my website. Click here and scroll down to Shared Reading to download them for free.
Enjoy your summer, stay well, read some good books, and have fun with your friends and family. See you in September.
Warmly and affectionately,
Jan