Meredith Murray is a passionate educator with nearly two decades of experience in transforming literacy instruction. As a Product Development Manager at Booksource, she focuses on aligning engaging literature with research-based strategies to support readers of all levels. With two advanced educational degrees and certification in Orton-Gillingham, Meredith is committed to making literacy accessible and…
Read MoreApproaches to Teaching Reading
We went from reading being this frustrating, painful experience to reading Magic Belt
Nicky was first introduced to Phonic Books when trying to help her children who are dyslexic. She knew the books coming home from school weren’t right but wasn’t sure what would work until she discovered the Magic Belt series. “This was a game changing moment for us in our family. We went from reading being…
Read MoreImpact of using DK Phonic Books catch-up readers with struggling readers in Year 7
Langley Park School for Boys is a large 11–18 academy in Beckenham, England. The school is one of four secondary schools in Impact Academy Trust which recently took part in a Year 7 reading intervention trial using DK Phonic Books catch-up readers and resources. The DfE’s Reading Framework, published in July 2023, highlights the importance…
Read MoreBoost reading confidence with Phonic Books
Stephanie is a reading specialist in New York and we met with her to discuss how she uses Phonic Books in her classroom. Stephanie works with children who need reading intervention from Kindergarten through to second grade. *** Stephanie has been using Phonic Books for over five years and Magic Belt was the first series…
Read MoreGroup work—routine for reading a decodable book in class
Download the guide to group work now! Learning to read is hard work. It is helpful to prepare students for reading a decodable book so that they experience success and enjoy their achievement. Here is a routine for group work that prepares students for reading success. Step 1: Word-building with target sounds/letters Skill: phonemic awareness…
Read MoreWhere does the Science of Reading go from here?
By Tami Reis-Frankfort Tami Reis-Frankfort began teaching in a public school in London, UK and later worked as a support teacher of English Language Learners. She trained in Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia) and for the first time discovered Structured Literacy. This was followed by training in Phono-Graphix and Sounds-Write, both Linguistic Phonics Programs. Tami began…
Read MoreHow to…teach the schwa sound
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. *** Did you know that the schwa is the most common sound in the English language? This is because there is a schwa sound in most multisyllabic words. Additionally, did…
Read MoreHow to…teach alternative spellings for vowel and consonant sounds
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. *** One of the difficult aspects of the English Alphabetic Code is that sounds (phonemes) can be spelled in different ways. For example, the sound /ae/ can be spelled ‘ai’…
Read MoreHow to…teach heart words
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. *** Heart words is another term for common words with tricky spellings, or high-frequency words with “irregular” spellings. The term “irregular” is a bit misleading because while beginner readers might…
Read MoreHow to…write a word chain
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 a word chain? A word chain is a list of words used to develop phonemic awareness skills: blending, segmenting, and phoneme manipulation. These are the underlying…
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