Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

 Those that know me well know that I enjoy reading about the Science of Reading (SoR) and the structured approaches to teaching reading. It is my firm belief that students need explicit, systematic and multi-sensory instruction in grades Pre-K- 2 in order to establish a foundation of reading. This helps them to "crack the code" and therefore learn to read independently. It is also my hope that because students feel confident in their skills from learning strategies to decode words and understand their meanings, they establish a love for reading. One of the texts I am enjoying right now is Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates. This book has been a great support so far to me, since we use the Workshop model in our school. I've used this "deep dive" opportunity to learn strategies to integrate into the model we have to deliver effective instructional practices.  Having a foc...

If you've read some of my other blog posts before, you probably know by now I have a co-teacher. He and I have worked together for the past three years, and we hope to continue to work together in the future.  We've done presentations on co-teaching during virtual learning, co-teaching in both in-person and virtual environments, and shared our experiences how we work together to establish a relationship as well as plan for instruction. Our mythical twist, Ferny the Dragon has inspired us to continue to be creative, and I must say I am excited for some things we are going to try and work on in the summer.  As both teachers and reading specialists/ literacy coaches, teaching reading to our students is high up on the priority list.  One thing that we often talk about is our literacy blocks during the school day. We work together to organize small groups for phonics, vocabulary, fluency, guided reading, strategy groups and independent conferring. It's...