Author & Literacy Expert
A Pioneer Valley Books fan recently asked me about my decision to write decodable books. The fan recognized that in the past I had expressed the thinking that students learn best when their teacher...
Continue reading: Lesson Learned: Why We Wrote Phonics StorybooksWe recommend using a robust benchmarking assessment that looks at students’ progress three times a year: early in the school year, in the middle of the year, and at the end of the school year. We a...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: Benchmarking AssessmentsDecodable books have been used for reading instruction for years. They can be very useful for providing students with opportunities to practice new phonics skills. But many teachers resist using th...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: What makes a good decodable bookMaking Words is an engaging word building activity that helps link your students’ knowledge of letter-sound relationships with phonemic awareness. If you have used this activity in the past, you kn...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: Making Words: an UpdateWhen it comes to using decodable texts in the classroom, today’s educators are often divided. Many are advocating for using only decodable books to teach reading, while others say that they would n...
Continue reading: Using Decodable Books to Teach ReadingI am thrilled with the newest Digital Reader feature: Reading Goals. When we first built the Digital Reader (digitalreader.com), we were thinking about a simple platform that could help teachers ac...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: Reading Goals!There have been many recent articles of late regarding the push for using decodable texts for reading instruction. Many districts are requiring a shift away from leveled readers toward decodable bo...
Continue reading: When Are Leveled Books Also Decodable Books?literacy footprints teaching tips videos
Shared reading provides a wonderful opportunity to guide and support students as they read aloud together from a large version of text. Our kindergarten students enter school with a wide variety of...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: Shared Reading in Kindergartenliteracy footprints teaching tips
by Amy Bowlin When we talk about guided reading, we don’t often think about writing being an important part of the lesson—but it is! Embedded in every Literacy Footprints lesson is an opportunity f...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: Guided Writing: A Critical Part of Guided ReadingAs we get ready to launch a new batch of emergent readers–hopefully, this year in school and not remotely–I think it is a good time to consider the purpose of the early-level books we use for instr...
Continue reading: Teaching Tip: Understanding the Purpose of Level A and B Books
