Let’s face it, folks, there are a lot of kids out there who are read-i-phobic because books are full of words – those squiggly markings on the page that don’t make sense when you’re just starting out to read, and for some kids, don’t make sense even after spending quite a bit of time trying...Read More
Activity centers have long been seen as an effective way to have children or teens engage with learning material in a hands-on and experiential way. However, for many teachers, the construction of such activity centers in the classroom may seem time consuming, require non-existent funds, and/or be just another burden to one’s teaching load. Here...Read More
Nothing has been more disconcerting to me in my forty-five years as an educator than to ask a parent or teacher: ”What is your child’s (or teen’s) strengths?” and have them answer: ”He hasn’t got any.” I’ve actually heard this several times in my career. It was such responses that motivated me to come up...Read More
Lately, there’s been a resurgence in the ”reading wars,” which is the term used to describe the dispute between supporters of a ”phonics” or ”phonemic awareness” method for teaching reading and those who instead promote a ”whole language” approach. This war has been going on ever since 1955 when Rudolf Flesch wrote the best-selling book...Read More
When I was in school, a long long time ago (sounds like the start of a fairy tale!), we had these Science Research Associates (SRA) reading programs that came in a box. The box contained scores of laminated pages (like the files in a filing cabinet), each of which had a story on it with...Read More
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