We know that not all schools use effective literacy practices to teach students how to read. In this article, we look at three common mistakes schools make when providing reading instruction. We hope you’ll learn to spot questionable or ineffective practices at your school, gain knowledge about what to do instead, and discover some tools and resources you can use with your students. 

Decoding is the ability to figure out unknown words correctly. Does your school use strategies that encourage a student to look away from letters to read words (looking at the pictures, using context clues, saying the first sound, and guessing)? Instead, ask for ways to help students use knowledge of letter-sound relationships to read words. Kids who can’t decode often don’t become strong readers. Reading words correctly requires knowing how letters and groups of letters link to sounds to form letter-sound relationships.

Use these Reading Rockets decoding activities with your kindergartners.

Here is a sight word teaching routine you can apply to your classroom instruction.

Looking for something to help with high-frequency words with irregular spelling? Check out the free resource Heart Word Magic from Really Great Reading.

Check out this fun word-building activity from our partner, The Florida Center for Reading Research.