Fred Penner Taught Me Phonological Awareness
I have been reading Dr. Kilpatrick's book, Equipped for Reading Success (2016), which was very enthusiastically recommended to me by two colleagues. This book is about teaching reading through developing phonological awareness in students. Phonological awareness is...
A Letter to My Younger Self, as a First-Year-Teacher
Have you ever wished you could talk to your younger self, to share important words of wisdom that you gained through experiences, years later? Oh, how I wish I could send a letter back to myself, when I was a first year, Grade 1 teacher. If I could only sneak a copy...
12 Facts About the Orton-Gillingham Approach: Evidence Based Practices Series
I was first introduced to the Orton Gillingham approach by our divisional school psychologist years ago, when she recommended "skywriting", for a child who was struggling to remember letter names and sounds. In skywriting, the student writes the letter in the air,...
Coming Full Circle – The Oelwein Method & ABA – Evidence Based Practices Series
After reading about the Oelwein method, I have to say that I have come full circle in my views about teaching reading to students with Significant Cognitive Disability (SCD), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). What I mean by that, is after reading Literacy Skill...
Fluency Instruction for Students with Severe Autism and SCD – Evidence-Based Practices Series
Melekoglu (2019) in the article, Evidence-Based Fluency Interventions for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities, states that it is especially helpful to teach fluency in the early years: "Fluency instruction should start in the early grades because...
Reading Aloud to Children – Evidence-Based Practices Series
Quote of the Day: "It has been contended that one of the most important things a parent can do, beyond keeping children healthy and safe is to read to them" (Joyce, as cited in Ledger and Merga, 2018, p. 135). With today being the first official day, here in Manitoba,...