Hello Mrs Sykes

Today is the fourth day in my (slightly occasional) series to empower teachers, Supporting Struggling Readers in Grades 3-5.  If you are new to the series, or want to see what the hype is about, click on the button below to visit the  other posts in this series . So far, you've created an Assessment Binder, made  your list of struggling readers , assessed  Fluency , and assessed Comprehension .   Our focus today is Decoding!! Decoding sounds scary, so you can call it Phonics if you want.  Basically, you want to see what they already know about letters and sounds so you can target their instruction accordingly.  Here's an example:  I was a Literacy Coach with a 5th grade teacher (who is an amazingly awesome teacher), and she said she didn't understand what else to do for her struggling reader.  She had already assessed fluency and comprehension, and was targeting those areas with little results.  We worked out a plan of attack ...

Today is the third day in my series to empower teachers, Supporting Struggling Readers in Grades 3-5.  If you are new to the series, or want to see what the hype is about, click on the button below to visit the other posts in this series . So far, you've created an Assessment Binder, made your list of struggling readers , and assessed Fluency . Our focus today is Comprehension!! Whoo-hoo!  Y'all know how much I enjoy Literacy, particularly helping teachers help their students...  Let's get started!!   Just a reminder from the other day:  We are going to engage in a bit of "Digging Deeper" with each student on your list.  We want to use this time to be a detective and find out why they are struggling readers. There are 3 main reasons the majority of struggling readers in upper elementary have difficulty reading: 1. Fluency - they take a long time to read and don't have the stamina to read for very long. 2. Comprehension -  they don't u...

Today is the second day in my series to empower teachers, Supporting Struggling Readers in Grades 3-5.  If you are new to the series, or want to see what the hype is about, click to visit the other posts in this series . You've got your Assessment Binder, right?  That was your homework from Part 1.  If not, no biggie - you can get it together as we go.  The main part now is that you have your list of struggling readers .  This is truly important, because you are going to go through that list in a quick, methodical process to pinpoint an area of need. Our focus today is Fluency!! Can you tell I'm a Literacy geek?  Can you feel the excitement?  That's because it's time to get started!! Without giving you information overload, we are going to engage in a bit of "Digging Deeper" with each student on your list.  We want to use this time to be a detective and find out why they are struggling readers. There are 3 main reasons the majority of s...

One of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had professionally was to work as a Literacy Coach in the upper elementary grades.  The main reason for this is that I was able to work side by side with teachers using an "I do.., We do..., You do..." approach.  First, a bit of background as to why this is important for professional educators: While literacy interventions are sometimes available for teachers in grades 3-5, they are often underfunded or eliminated due to budgets.  This leaves the classroom teacher in a difficult position.  Mainly, upper elementary teachers are given a "band-aid" approach (do these lessons with your struggling readers from the reading basal, send them to a specialist for 20 minutes a day, or haphazardly pull from different resources, all while progress monitoring them), but without giving the teachers the knowledge and tools to effectively help their struggling readers.  The assumption is made that t...