Reading Ranch Blog
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1st Grade Reading Standards: What Your Child Should Know
First grade is a crucial time for developing reading skills in children. Children at this age typically learn how to read and comprehend simple texts. To ensure that first-grade students are on track with their reading skills…
Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are two critical skills that children need to develop to become successful readers. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.
Fostering a Love of Reading: Creative Ideas for Making Reading Fun
Reading is an essential skill that is crucial for academic success and personal growth. However, encouraging children to read can be challenging, especially in today’s digital age, where screens often dominate our attention.
What is Explicit/Direct Phonics Instruction
What is explicit phonics instruction? Explicit phonics instruction is used in teaching to describe how skills are fully and clearly expressed, not implied. These skills are directly taught to the student.
Tips for Better Comprehension
There are several characteristics we associate with good readers and good comprehension skills. Understanding the message the author is trying to share when you read is essential, and we call this comprehension. If young readers can’t understand what an author is saying…
The Critical Role of Phonological Awareness in Reading Education
Phonological awareness is one of the most critical aspects of reading education. It is the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds that make up spoken words. Phonological awareness skills are essential for learning to read…
Orthography: Why does it matter for reading?
You’re not alone if you’ve ever wondered about the connection between spelling and reading. The field of orthography—the study of letters and letter combinations in a language—can seem confusing at first glance. However, orthography is a critical component…
Decoding and Reading Instruction
Decoding is the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to pronounce written words correctly. Decoding involves translating print into speech by rapidly matching a letter or combination of letters to their letter sounds (phonemes)…
A Guide to Reading Aloud to Your Children
As a parent, you have the opportunity to instill a love of reading in your child from a young age. Reading aloud to your child has many benefits, including building bonds, increasing academic skills, addressing tough topics, and many more.
What To Expect From a Third Grader’s Writing
The writing skills of third graders, like all aspects of literacy, differ. In general, third graders must learn to extend their writing. In contrast to first and second grades, when they may have written 1-2 sentences and perhaps a short paragraph in 2nd Grade
Five Key Literacy Skills for PreK Children
Some parents may wonder what they can do to help their children prepare for kindergarten and develop strong literacy skills. Here are five critical skills that PreK children should be working on:…
Easy and Effective Strategies to Help Build Fluency
All About Prosody: What it is, Why it’s Important
Last week we discussed what reading fluency means in reading and how we measure fluency. This week’s post will take a deeper look into prosody. What is prosody? Why do we need to focus on it when teaching reading to students?
