Why Students Forget – 3 Research-Based Strategies That Make Learning Last We’ve all had that moment—students ace the quiz on Friday, but by Monday, it’s like they’ve never seen the material before. You’re not alone! Learning that lasts doesn’t just depend on how well we teach—it depends on how well students’ brains encode and retrieve […]
Beyond Neutral: Embedding Diversity in Curriculum and Instruction Beyond Neutral: Embedding Diversity in Curriculum and Instruction In today’s classrooms—whether physical or digital—diversity is the norm. Students bring with them different cultural backgrounds, perspectives, and ways of learning. To meet their needs, educators and curriculum designers must go beyond “one-size-fits-all” approaches and instead embed culturally inclusive […]
Unlocking Word Meaning: Morphology and Irregular Spellings in K–3 Why Morphology Matters for Young Readers When we think about reading instruction in K–3, phonics often takes center stage—and for good reason. Understanding the connection between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes) is essential. But equally important is morphology: the study of morphemes, the smallest units of […]
Helping K–3 Students Decode Words: Phonemes, Graphemes, and Orthography Most of us cannot remember the day-to-day experiences of learning to read, but we likely have vague memories of early readers our teachers used—like the Dick and Jane books first published in 1930 or later, leveled texts with repetitive phrases, simple stories, and plenty of pictures. […]
Teaching students foundational reading skills is akin to building the foundation of a house. Just as a house relies on strong footers and framing, reading instruction begins with teaching students how to break the “code” of language—decoding written symbols into sounds. This early code-breaking must be solidified through instruction that is both systematic and “sticky”—the […]