In our ‘how to…’ series we are going to delve into all things phonics instruction and give you our expert advice on developing confident readers. *** First, what is segmenting? Segmenting is the ability to separate sounds in words. The smallest sounds are called phonemes. We use segmenting when we sound out a new word,…
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Catch-Up Readers Leaflet
Find out all you need to know about the Phonic Books Catch-Up Readers Check out our leaflet to find out more about our decodable books for older readers and to answer any questions you may have, including: Why Phonic Books decodable books? What is the scope and sequence? Who is it aimed at? What titles…
Read MoreDandelion Series Leaflet
Find out all you need to know about the Phonic Books Dandelion Series Check out our leaflet to find out more about our Dandelion series and to answer any questions you may have, including: What is decoding? What are decodable books? Why Phonic Books decodable books? What is the scope and sequence? What titles are…
Read More“Make Phonics Instruction Fun!”
This is a guest blog by Rayna Dineen, Reading Quest Founder and Executive Director. Reading Quest is an outgrowth of the student – led literacy campaign, Hooked on Books, and the NM Alliance for Literacy created by Santa Fe middle school students and their teaching principal, Rayna, at Santa Fe School for the Arts &…
Read MorePrecise pronunciation of the sounds of the alphabet
When children begin their reading instruction, it is really important that they learn good habits so that they don’t need to unlearn them at a later stage. The first thing children will learn is how sounds of speech are represented by letters. In other words, they learn the relationship between written letters and spoken sounds.…
Read More“Magic Reading Rocks” inspired by the Magic Belt Series
“The magic for these kids was finding a series that they could decode, that could keep their interest, that motivated hard work, and that made them sound and feel like successful readers.” ~Brin Tucker Last year I was serving as an instructional coach, intern mentor, and also ran some intervention groups. Our intern, Amelia Fontein…
Read MoreMore than just books!
“So, the books are more than just books!” – Miriam Fein I’d like to share my experience of using Phonic Books resources and my wholehearted recommendation! Just the other day I was telling another tutor (who will be working with a former student of mine) about Phonic Books. She was not familiar and I’m so…
Read More“Are we going to read today!?”
“These decodables are the perfect addition to our ever evolving collection.” My name is Jessica Berg and this is my 3rd year serving as the instructional coach at Ellis Elementary. Ellis Elementary is one of 25 elementary schools in Rockford School District 205. We are an urban school with over 400 students K-5. We have…
Read MoreThe b/d reversal struggle
How to help students who struggle with b/d reversal Do you have students who really struggle with reversing the letters b and d? Reading specialist, Savannah Campbell, has some practical tips to help with this common issue. If you’re an elementary school teacher, it is likely you share the same problem as millions of other…
Read More“Sound it out”
What do we mean by “sound it out” and what does it entail? When a child gets stuck on a word we often remind them to “sound it out”. As fluent readers, we assume this is very straightforward. We recognize these words automatically and skip all the stages that beginner readers need to go through…
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