The Sunday Scoop
Your weekly scoop on all things literacy
So you teach reading? Then you know it’s a lot to keep up with. There’s the research, the resources, and the kids who each need something a little different.
This newsletter makes it simple.
Every Sunday evening, I’ll send you one idea about teaching literacy that you can use with your class that week, plus a free printable from the Reach All Readers Plus membership. You’ll also get a few good things I’ve found and a peek at what’s happening behind the scenes.
What’s in every issue
One big idea
One idea about teaching literacy, explained simply, so you can use it with your class that week.
A free printable
A free sample from the Reach All Readers Plus membership, ready to print.
Good finds
A few good things I’ve found: books, research, podcast episodes and more.
Behind the scenes
A peek at what’s happening at Reach All Readers and at home.
Peek inside Issue No. 1
Here’s the very first Sunday Scoop, going out November 1.
One idea for teaching complete sentences, two free sentence writing printables, a book I recommend, and a little Brewers excitement from my house.
Send me the next one!
Plus two freebies to help you do it!
Happy Sunday, friend!
This is the very first Reach All Readers Sunday Scoop, and you can watch for it each week. I’ll be sharing one idea about teaching literacy, a free printable, a few good things I’ve found, and a peek at what’s happening behind the scenes.
On to the weekly scoop!
Do your students struggle to write complete sentences? Beyond the obvious issues (remembering that capital letter and end punctuation!), students may struggle with the concept of the who and the do.
On the podcast, I talked with Dr. Shawn Datchuk, a special education professor at the University of Iowa who has done about 15 studies on teaching complete sentences.
His advice: with young or struggling writers, hold off on parts of speech labels at first. Instead, teach that a sentence has a part that names and a part that tells more. “The dog” names something. “Chewed a bone” tells more.
In the episode, Shawn shares a quick practice with picture prompts: 10 to 15 minutes, three times a week.
Listen to the episode
Something to print
We have dozens of sentence writing activities in the membership, for students who are just starting out and children who are ready for advanced activities like sentence expansion.
Here are two membership samples for you.
Free Sample #1: Write a Simple Sentence. Kids use the words in the box to write a sentence with a WHO or WHAT, what it DID, and an OBJECT. The words have blends and digraphs.
Free Sample #2: Writing Sentences with Subordinating Conjunctions. Kids finish sentences about fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs, using words like because, when, and even though.
Good things this week
- Last week I had the chance to speak to a few hundred teachers at a teachers’ conference. I spoke about the science of learning and the importance of helping students build executive function skills. I recommend this book: Executive Functions for Every K-3 Classroom by Mitch Weathers and Sarah Oberle. (In fact, Sarah will be a guest speaker in the membership next month!)
- I recorded a great conversation with two Australian researchers about the heart word method. That episode is coming up on the podcast in just a few weeks … I think you’ll love it!
Behind the scenes
Even though I’m not particularly interested in sports, I have to admit that the excitement was contagious when our local baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers, had their first ever World Series win.
Sitting through a baseball game is too much for me, but I enjoyed hearing my four boys cheering from the basement last week.
Did you catch any of the games?
See you next Sunday,
Anna
P.S. If your students write one long run-on sentence or a string of short, choppy ones, this episode is for you. Shawn walks through the simple steps he uses to teach complete sentences, plus a quick practice you can start right away. Listen to the episode here.
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One idea and one free printable, every week.