A word chain is a series of words that the teacher directs students to spell. In a word chain, the phoneme differs by one sound in each word. It's important to remember that phonemes can be more than one letter. Today I am going to share with you how to conduct a word-chaining activity.

What is orthographic mapping? Why is it important? How can we use this process to train our students’ brains to read?

Dictation is an activity that offers students the opportunity to practice spelling the phonics pattern they are focusing on as well as review previously taught skills. When students dictate words or sentences, they are focusing on connecting the sound to the symbol. The research tells us that when instruction focuses on letter-sound relationships, students excel. What better way to practice than through dictation practice?

When teaching phonics, we always want to be sure we are focusing on three parts: a warm-up, explicit teaching, and application of skills. The focus of this blog post (Part #1) will be the warm-up portion of the phonics lesson which contains four parts: a visual drill, auditory drill, blending drill, and, if time allows, a vowel intensive. In Part #2, we’ll be chatting about the second two parts of a phonics lesson: explicit teaching and application of skills.

You’ve heard time and time again how important phonics instruction is.  We’ve seen the data, you’ve poured over Instagram reels, and you may have even done some research yourself.

But what makes good phonics instruction? What does the research say and can’t someone help make it easier to understand?

Yes!  Today, I’m here to go over what makes effective, quality phonics instruction (in a way that’s easy to understand), plus give you a little bit of background as to what goes on in our brains when we read.

Teaching letter sounds can be tricky, BUT there are ways to make them stick!