Personalize your student's reading material and ask them to say the sounds as they write them, too, with this free handwriting worksheet website.
More advanced readers may have fun reading lots of silly poems and rating each one on this site--Giggle Poetry. Many other poetry reads are available, including short readers' theater. Poetry can inspire many students to read, and re-read, and re-read again. Among other virtues, performing poetry is a wonderful way to inspire re-reading practice for fluency building.
The most recent national consensus document on literacy focuses on early literacy research. Particular attention is given to which children's characteristics predict later literacy outcomes. Download the free executive summary or the entire report here or order a free hard copy.
Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children is a seminal consensus document that you can purchase or read online that presents a comprehensive picture of how and why children learn to read, why they sometimes struggle, and what we can do about it.
The intital host of the TRI from 2004-2010. The National Research Center for Rural Education Support (NRCRES) is a research center funded by the Institute for Educational Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. The NRCRES focuses on research on significant problems in rural education. Founded in 2004 at The University of North Carolina.
After a brief, free online sign-up, you may download the Society for Quality Education's Stairway to Reading materials. The Reading Materials are organized by sound, and they may be particularly useful for working with children at the Green or Purple levels of Word Work. The games, bingo and crazy letters, may also be helpful TRI Extensions.
In 2000, the National Reading Panel issued a widely-influential report on early reading development and instruction that formed the basis of the Reading First legislation of the No Child Left Behind Act. Ask for a free copy of the report.
Consider these common word-learning myths and their rebuttals courtesy of Word Generation, an intervention to build middle-school students' academic vocabulary.
Online activities for kids as well as info for teachers about the PBS series, Between the Lions, that promotes early elementary reading skills. Many of these programs can align with particular Word Work skills, such as the sound /er/ or /ch/. Thus, the TV shows can provide excellent TRI Extensions at instructional match.
When beginning readers are taking their first tentative steps into the world of independent decoding, it can be difficult to find easily decodable books that are also attractive and make sense. A new small collection of readers by Miss Rhonda accomplishes all of these goals, fortunately. She has a Montessori background so these books present simple Pink and Blue level words, as the TRI Word Identifcation leveling system was inspired by the nearly hundred-year-old Montessori approach. Your children may enjoy the look and feel of these books as well as the success of reading them on their own. A sample book can be viewed online.