Blog
Notes on teaching reading
Practical pieces on the part of reading instruction nobody trains you for: keeping track. Written for the people doing the teaching, from what Literacy Trail users run into.
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A five-minute weekly reading check-in for parents
One short routine for the end of each homeschool week: what to look at, the three questions to ask, and how it changes the next week's lessons.
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A simple end-of-year reading portfolio for homeschool
What a homeschool reading portfolio needs to contain, how to build it from the daily log instead of from memory, and what to leave out.
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Documenting reading intervention for a meeting
What to bring to an RTI, MTSS or parent meeting about a student in reading intervention: the log, the skill summary and the one-page story, in minutes.
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Free ways to track reading lessons, and their limits
The free tools people use to track reading lessons: a notebook, the manual, a spreadsheet, a shared doc. What each does well and where each one stops working.
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How long should a phonics lesson be?
Most structured phonics lessons run 20 to 30 minutes. What the minutes are for, when shorter is better, and why the record should track them.
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Running a phonics small group at different lessons
A practical shape for a small reading group whose students are not on the same lesson: shared routines, split new material, and a record that stays individual.
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Session notes that parents actually read
How reading tutors write session notes that get read: one line, in plain words, with what the child did and what comes next. And what to keep private.
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Should you skip lessons in a scripted phonics program?
When a lesson in a structured phonics sequence is safe to skip, when to compress instead, and how to record it so the roadmap stays truthful.
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Starting UFLI Foundations mid-year: where to begin
Placing a student who joins UFLI Foundations partway through: a quick way to find the lesson, what to mark as already taught, and how to keep the record honest.
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Teaching two siblings the same phonics program
Running the same structured phonics sequence with children at different points: when to teach together, when to split, and how to keep two honest records.
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When a child forgets sounds between phonics lessons
Why a sound that was solid on Tuesday is gone by Thursday, what it does and does not mean, and a short review habit that fixes most of it.
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Why Developing is the most useful rating
Three-level ratings work because of the middle one. What Developing means, why it drives review, and how to keep it from becoming a place skills go to hide.
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