The host of the TRI. 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.
Download this free WordSort software by Henderson Educational Software and ask your students at the Green or Purple levels to sort words with the same sound by spelling. Some of the sorts mix more than one sound at the same time, which would only be appropriate for advanced TRI students. However, you can select sorts on the program that target one sound at a time, so students are sorting words with the same sound, but different spellings.
More advanced readers may have fun reading lots of silly poems and rating each one on this site. Many other poetry reads are available, including short readers' theater. Poetry can inspire many students to read, and re-read, and re-read again. 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.
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.
Personalize your student's reading material and ask them to say the sounds as they write them, too, with this free handwriting worksheet website.
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.
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.
You could spend a week examining all of the lists of the best children's literature at this huge round-up of links--from the classic Caldecott to the newer Geisel award for young readers--at the blog Chicken Spaghetti.
If you keep finding yourself doing too much instruction with the whole group of your students, you might enjoy this article.