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 MoreApproaches to Teaching Reading
“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 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 recognise these words automatically and skip all the stages that beginner readers need to go through…
Read MorePhonic Books decodable books in first Literacy Hub in Buffalo, New York
On February 10th, to celebrate Black History month, the first Buffalo Sabres Literacy Hub was opened at the Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Centre in Buffalo Public School #99. Phonic Books is proud to have participated in the opening of this hub alongside other publishers of decodable books. This wonderful initiative was set up by Teach…
Read MoreThe making and success of the Truth About Reading Documentary
In this final instalment of a series of guest blogs Nora Chahbazi, literacy consultant (pro bono) via the John Corcoran foundation to The Truth About Reading documentary team and Founder of EBLI, talks about the impact of the documentary and offers insight into the making of the film. I was honored to be at the first private screening of The…
Read MoreBarbara Steinberg’s top 10 reasons why Phonic Books are the best decodable books!
In this video Barbara Steinberg shares her top ten reasons that “Phonic Books are the best decodable books out there”. Barbara is the Founder and CEO of PDX Reading Specialist and was previously an elementary teacher for over ten years. Barbara discusses why Phonic Books are a vital tool in her work, from the systematic…
Read MoreLet’s make learning fun!
“Let’s make learning fun!” I always do a silent inner eye roll when I hear that phrase. The exclamation is loaded. Loaded with unspoken messages. The first message is that whatever we are currently doing with our pupils must be as dull as ditch water and need jazzing up. We are urged to bring ‘magic’…
Read MorePronunciation and the development of vocabulary
We all mispronounce words from time to time, especially when they are unfamiliar to us. Speech and Language Pathologist, Miriam Fein, explores the important link between pronunciation and the development of vocabulary. Every once in a while someone starts a thread on Twitter about words that they mispronounced for a long time because they only…
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