How to Use Games to Encourage Learning Phonic Decoding Skills

As a reading interventionist, I have the ability to do things differently than classroom teachers. I spend my days rotating small groups in and out of my room or within the learners' classrooms. Throughout the week, we focus on various skills, especially phonics skills. 

My Reading Crew friends and I have teamed up again to bring you freebies and advice for the upcoming school year! 

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Word Ladders: Building Words Step by Step

Did you ever want to climb a ladder as a kid and someone told you not to? We all have, and kids love to climb ladders of any size. Listening to sounds in words and then working with them to change the sounds is an important skill for all students. Using Word Ladders for sound chaining makes a perfect multi-sensory way to help children hear sounds in words.

When many of us think of word ladders, we may think of the old books students could work through. I found these to be a great challenge for some of the students I work with. For my word ladders, I simply call out some words, changing one sound as I go. This is sometimes called sound chaining since each word builds on the others.

Here are some examples of how I use word ladders for building words in my reading interventions.

With these word ladders, the students use magnetic letters to complete the sound chaining.

Dry erase markers are perfect for word building on these word ladders. Sometimes I even use nonsense words to get from one word to another.

My kindergarten and first grade students look forward to using word ladders for word building throughout the week. I like to use them as we review words and spellings from previous days. 

This word ladder freebie will help you and your students practice sound chaining. I have included a few sample lists of CVC words to get you started. Click here or on the picture below to get your copy!

Here is the digital version you can use in Google Slides.

I hope your students enjoy using word ladders as much as mine do! Have fun!

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups: Distance Learning

Our entire world has turned upside down in a matter of weeks, and we are all trying to figure out the next steps. As a reading specialist, I spent my entire day using Orton-Gillingham with my small groups of students. We had an amazing routine, but that all ended. Now I am navigating distance learning with my students in a new and different way.

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups: Engaging in SOS

No, the ship isn't sinking, but we also don't want our students to sink when it comes to effective tools for reading and writing. Simultaneous Oral Spelling, SOS for short, helps students learn to read and write in a super effective way. But, how do you make it work in small groups?

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Dyslexia: It's Not Your Fault!

This post has been sitting as a draft for a long time. Now, it's time to tell my story.

I did everything right. I read to my kids BEFORE they were born. I read to them every night. I showed them words in a literacy rich environment. I'm a reading specialist. My kids should be reading by the time they are 4, before kindergarten, but neither of them did. I tried. I tried hard, but they couldn't grasp the concept.

So, I chalked it up to the fact that they were developmentally not ready. But were they?

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Trimming the Tree with Digraphs and Fun

It's that time of year ~ time to put our trees up and celebrate! And what better way to celebrate than with good friends. My friends from The Reading Crew and I have an amazing blog hop link up just for you, full of freebies and teaching ideas!

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups: Designing Your Space

One of the hardest things I have had to do with using Orton-Gillingham has been keeping the reminders where my students can see them. It took some careful consideration, but I have worked it out for all of us.

Affiliate links are present throughout this post to help fund future book purchases. When you click on the link, I get a small, and I mean small, amount back. It costs you nothing to do this.

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups: Engaging Students All the Time

I love using Orton-Gillingham in my small groups, but it can get boring every day, doing the same thing over and over. How can it become fun and engaging for all students?

I found that making the lessons more engaging sometimes helped take the mundane out of the lessons. Things like games and other hands-on activities help students get excited about learning and stay engaged. Here are some of my favorite multi-sensory methods to help my students as they learn to read and write.

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups:The All Important Notebook

My journey with Orton-Gillingham in small groups continues as I reflect on how I used the notebooks with my students. This was a challenge for me, but a great hurdle to jump as I learned more about getting the notebooks just right for my groups.

**If you want to know more about using this notebook for distance learning, go to this post all about OG and Distance Learning.

Dyslexia seems to be a new buzz word lately, and I don't like that it is just that. There is so much more to dyslexia, and we, as teachers, need to recognize it and find ways to help those students who struggle in the areas of reading, spelling, and writing. Using multi-sensory methods, we can help students with those literacy areas. The notebook pages are an integral part of the lessons, used for learning the patterns and reviewing them as needed.

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups: Planning for Success

The first time I heard about Orton-Gillingham, I was intrigued by it all. When I realized my son struggled some with reading, I wondered how it worked and if it could help him. When I finally had a chance to learn how I could use this with small groups, I took full advantage of it. Little did I know that the planning would be crucial for making it work as it should.

As I said before, once the training was over, I thought I was ready to take on the world! But the planning and organization ~ oh my!

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Orton-Gillingham in Small Groups: Working Magic Daily!

Last summer I was accepted into Virginia's pilot program for using Orton-Gillingham in the school setting. After spending 4 days in what felt like a crash course for OG, I was ready to take all I learned into my interventions. At least I thought I was ready! All year I worked to make multi-sensory methods happen seamlessly in my interventions every single day.

The state gave me all the materials I would need to help me get started. I spent days laminating and cutting to prepare for the two third grade groups I would start out with. But that was the beginning of a lot of work and learning!

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