Thoughts From My Notebook

 In mid-March 2020, as I headed into spring break, I never considered we wouldn’t be going back. And just like that, the thing I loved most about my job was no longer my reality. I cherished my one on one...

I don't hear syllable accents, do you? Have you ever wondered how many of your students are unable to discern the stressed syllable from the unstressed syllable? Teaching syllable accents seems to be a prevalent activity in classrooms and many...

Until recently, I have intentionally isolated myself from the social media world of Orton Gillingham and the Science of Reading. I have limited myself to a listserve group, professional reading, including anything and everything about the history of the English...

Bossy r? I never let consonants boss me around, do you? So why would we call r bossy? R controlled vowels can be some of the trickiest concepts to teach, this is true, but is calling them bossy r to...

I was recently asked by a school administrator to define mastery and to present it in written form. I have to admit the question set me back a bit. No one has ever asked me to quantify this, much less...

decodable readers   I am a firm believer in controlled books for struggling readers. However, my description of a decodable, controlled reader varies from the many I’ve found on the market. Since I teach short vowels with CVC words to...