The Joy of Teaching

Parents almost universally recognize the importance of learning to read, seeing it as a key link to success in school and a vital way for children to develop their full potential, both academically and personally. Schools understand this, too, spending extensive time and resources on helping kids learn to read. At the same time, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, it’s typical for only about one-third of U.S. 4th graders to score at or above “proficient” on reading assessments. This means that over 60% of children score below “proficient” in 4th grade, making it challenging for them to access the curriculum at the age where kids transition from “learning to read to reading to learn,” as educators often observe.

To understand how kids learn to read, and in order to advocate effectively for their own children and the needs of children in their communities, parents need to understand the science of reading, which refers to scientifically validated techniques shown to ensure that the majority of children will learn to read proficiently, regardless of other factors like socioeconomic status or parental education. Parents also need to know that, unlike a baby learning a language, learning to read is actually not a natural process. The brain evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to allow us to learn language from infancy, but reading is a much newer process in terms of human development, developing only about 5500 years ago. As a result, learning to read requires significant conscious effort for most people. This effort can be harnessed most effectively when applied in a step-by-step process that relies on techniques based in the science of reading.

What do educators and researchers mean by “the science of reading”?

“The science of reading” refers to two related concepts: the study of how the brain learns to read, and to methods for teaching reading that high-quality scientific studies have shown to be effective. When it comes to ensuring children develop the skills needed to enjoy literature and nonfiction texts, parents can benefit from understanding the science behind learning to read.

A key component of scientifically based literacy instruction is instruction in phonological awareness and systematic phonics.

• Phonological awareness includes skills like rhyming, alliteration, identifying syllables, and blending syllables together. It also includes phonemic awareness, which is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Individual sounds are called phonemes. Phonemic awareness skills are critical for learning to read. Children practice these skills through activities such as removing the /k/ sound from the word “cat” and substituting the /r/ sound to make “rat.” Through rhyming, substituting, and manipulating sounds in other ways, children get ready to learn to read.
• Systematic phonics refers to the process of teaching children to associate sounds (phonemes) with letters (also called graphemes). In English, there are often multiple ways to spell phonemes. For example, the sound /k/ – the symbol for the sound at the beginning of the words “cat” and “ketchup” – can be made with the letters c-, k-, and even sometimes ch-, as in “architect.” Systematic phonics involves learning these letter-sound correspondences in an organized, step-by-step way that reflects the findings of high-quality research studies.

The sound-letter connection is how children learn to read effectively. When all children are taught phonological awareness skills and systematic phonics directly, most can learn to read effectively and at or above grade level, and with moderate additional support, almost all children can learn to read proficiently.

Five areas educators can use to evaluate the effectiveness of reading programs

Programs that provide all five of these instructional approaches are more likely to support all students in learning how to read proficiently:

• Five components of evidence-based instruction. The National Reading Panel (2000) identified five components of evidence-based instruction, which include phonics, phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. An effective reading program must include these five components using a scope and sequence that is implemented with fidelity.
• Explicit instruction. The program should support direct instruction, first modeling skills for students, then allowing guided practice, then permitting independent application of skills. Students must receive adequate opportunities to practice.
• Systematic implementation. Skills must be broken into steps so that students encounter simple topics before complex ones, and have opportunities to practice using meaningful, decodable texts.
• Diagnostic teaching. The program should provide formal and informal assessments that allow teachers to diagnose skills students have not yet mastered. This allows teachers to tailor instruction.
• Multisensory instruction. Research shows that children form more brain connections to information when they encounter it in visual, auditory, and kinesthetic or tactile modes. For example, students should have opportunities to practice a letter form by writing it with a finger on sandpaper or a squishy surface, saying the letter name aloud, and writing it in the air or on their arm while saying the letter sound out loud.

Which at-home activities best support children’s developing literacy skills?

Reading aloud to children, as well as speaking with them as much as possible, helps create an environment that’s rich in language. Exposing toddlers and preschoolers to specific phonological awareness skills can be a part of daily life activities.

Here are some examples:

• Rhyming games. “I’m thinking about an animal that rhymes with frog…that’s right! Dog!” Then, have your child choose a word and ask you to think of a rhyme. 
• Rhyming groups. “Let’s think of all the words that rhyme with mat.”
• Nursery songs. Tongue twisters, brief poems, and silly songs let children play with language. Very young children may especially enjoy finger-plays like The Itsy-Bitsy Spider that have hand movements to accompany the words.
• Car time. Ask children to spot a house, then ask what rhymes with house. Mouse! Dog? Log! Tree? Knee!

• Syllables. Help kids learn to break down words into their parts. Rowboat = row boat. Firetruck = fire truck. Eggplant = egg plant. Once a child understands syllables, they can break down words like “ap-ple” where the syllables don’t necessarily have meanings on their own.   

Older preschoolers and kindergarteners can learn letter names. Starting with letters in a child’s name is a common way to help kids understand the context for learning letter names. This does not need to be a high-pressure task; letting these activities remain fun is important. Children do not need to learn all of their letter names perfectly before starting school. Parents should keep in mind that any literacy activities can be positive ways to develop kids’ ability to connect with reading, and that reading aloud remains one of best ways to grow children’s engagement with stories, language, and reading.

Once children enter the elementary grades, making time for reading can often mean limiting other activities. Establishing firm times of day when reading or playing with non-electronic toys are the only options is one way that many families make time for reading. Kids likely won’t choose reading over more stimulating activities, like screen time, so parents who want to keep their kids reading need to create opportunities for constructive boredom. Reading isn’t as attractive as video games for most kids, but it’s a great alternative to boredom.

Kids of any age benefit from spending at least thirty minutes per day reading. If a child loves graphic novels, consider having them read a more text-heavy option – a chapter book or series, for example – for part of their reading time. The reason for this is that text-heavy choices expose children to more vocabulary, and over time, this adds up to significantly more reading experience. The message isn’t that graphic novels are bad, but that everyone needs variety in their reading diet. Similarly, reading nonfiction texts, magazines, and even instruction manuals for games like Minecraft are good choices for kids.

What if my child doesn’t seem to be catching on to phonological awareness activities or is having trouble learning to read?

It’s vital for families to act on these concerns as soon as they can. Reading intervention is most effective the earlier it is provided. Children can be identified as being at risk for reading difficulties when they are in kindergarten. Rather than assuming that reading problems will resolve on their own, parents should advocate for assessment of any concerns. Research indicates that, far from improving over time, reading difficulties that are not addressed can become significant impediments to learning. In contrast, when children with such difficulties receive appropriate interventions as early as possible, they can thrive and overcome these challenges.

Children who learn to read using methods that focus on phonological awareness and systematic phonics will be set up to read successfully, and to continue reading for a lifetime. This makes a huge difference in supporting kids’ academic success and socioemotional growth and wellbeing.

Katharine Hill, MS, MAT, ET/P, is a learning specialist and educational therapist in private practice in Brooklyn, NY, who has twenty years of experience working in K–12 and higher education. upnext.nyc

Writing is one of the skills that we use every day, but that concept may be hard to grasp for young children. What better way to demonstrate the many uses of writing in the real world than to immerse kids in colorful and creative writing activities that they’ll love?

Real-World Writing for Today’s Kids is a unique kids’ activity book from Evan-Moor that teaches kids how to use their writing skills in the real world. This at-home workbook is great for fine-tuning skills, getting additional practice, or for that extra encouragement to develop a strong writing foundation.

Download these free sample pages from Real-World Writing for Today’s Kids here.

Why is teaching real-world writing important?

Although writing is one of the most useful skills in the real world, it’s often overlooked. Children sometimes find it difficult to motivate themselves to care about improving their writing abilities, especially if they don’t understand how it can benefit them in the long run. Teaching children how to apply their writing skills to real-life situations is a great way to motivate them to practice important writing strategies they will use later in life. 

What’s inside Real-World Writing for Today’s Kids?

Real-World Writing for Today’s Kids is a unique resource because it not only teaches writing and its applications; it also intertwines art, problem solving, critical thinking, and other skills into its writing practice. The fun writing activities in each unit will help kids improve writing skills, spark creativity and problem-solving, and encourage them to express their ideas.

Each unit includes:

• A fun and creative writing challenge
• Inspirational messages
• Possible career or job ideas that use the skill presented in that unit
• Hands-on projects to demonstrate how to apply writing skills
• Easy-to-follow instructions so kids can complete the units independently

Here are some examples of the creative prompts and activities from Real-World Writing for Today’s Kids:

My Journal, My Experience Activity 
This activity demonstrates how kids can use their skills to journal! This activity provides background on journaling, including:

Examples of journal entries

The purposes of journaling

Different methods of journaling, like drawing or rhyming words

How to use journaling to be mindful

Children will also get a chance to create their own journal entry with several fun, colorful activities. They’ll check potential journaling topics or drawings off a list, brainstorm some of their hopes and dreams, and practice writing from a different perspective, all before creating their own journal! At the end of the journal unit, children will be challenged to construct their own DIY journal.

Turn My Idea into a Video Game Activity 
Tap into children’s interests with a video game themed writing activity. Children will be challenged to build and create a 3D model of their very own video game. The activities include:

Examples of video-game ideas and diagrams

Ideas for where to start brainstorming your own video game

A checklist for what parts of the video game students will write about

Ideas for designing and drawing video game characters and scenery

After learning about the different aspects of video game creation, children will create and write their own video game.  Then, using household items, art supplies, and included reproducible pages, kids will create a 3D model of a scene from their very own video game!

This activity presents career ideas such as video game developer and illustrator, both of which use writing in their jobs—just like in the activity!

Pet-Care Directions Activity
Children practice writing out clear directions for someone else to follow with this fun and realistic activity! In this unit, kids will learn about:

Examples of pet-care directions

Scheduling, organization, and routine

Attention to detail

Components of pet-care directions

The different needs of different pets

Children will make a checklist of what some pets might need throughout the day, read about a fictional class pet, write steps to take care of a fictional pet, and then write a full pet-care directions list.

Using a writing planner and the skills they’ve learned, kids will write out pet-care directions for either their own or a family pet. This colorful activity will come in handy next time you go out of town and need to write directions for your pet sitter!

These full-color units, which combine creative writing with art, problem solving, and hands-on activities, will improve your child’s writing skills and confidence. It will also spark creativity and perhaps inspire a new career interest for them!

This creative writing workbook is a great resource to help inspire reluctant writers and demonstrate how writing is used in the world today. 

Check out Real-World Writing for Today’s Kids today!

Christine Wooler has experience working with children as a youth soccer coach and summer camp counselor. She is currently studying English Literature and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring educational topics that help students have fun while learning.

When most of us think about learning, our minds go to reading, writing, and math. Building these key academic areas relies heavily on two sets of underlying skills: children’s self-regulation and executive functioning abilities.

Self-regulation refers to ways children – and adults! – manage emotional responses. Children whose self-regulation skills are more developed for their age receive increased opportunities to practice academic and social skills. Picture a teacher asking a kindergartener, Finn, to help re-shelve classroom books. Instead of starting with one book and giving the task a try, Finn says, “I’m not finished playing!” and stomps away. When given a letter-sorting task, Finn says, “I can’t do it!” and waits for help. Although Finn will eventually get to experience putting books away or sorting letters, significant time is spent on dealing with these initial responses.

In contrast, imagine Riley, a kindergarten classmate who is more able to manage frustration or uncertainty. Riley will be able to organize lots of books during the time Finn spends feeling frustrated, and will get in a few more minutes of sorting letters while Finn puts off the task. Over time, these differences add up to significantly more learning opportunities for Riley, all because of more developed self-regulation skills.

How do emotions connect to learning?

The human brain processes emotions in the limbic system, which includes neural areas like the amygdala and hippocampus. Because it evolved to protect us through managing the body’s “fight or flight” response system, the limbic system develops early in children and works very rapidly, allowing us to respond to perceived threats almost immediately.

When the limbic system activates in response to a threat – or even just intense feelings like frustration or anger – it briefly reduces connections to another part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex develops between birth and a person’s early 20s, and manages cognitive functions like organization, planning and prioritizing, getting started with tasks, and sticking with challenging activities. When strong emotions briefly interrupt prefrontal cortex activities, children have a harder time engaging in behaviors like multi-step activities, following through with plans, and trying out new skills. Even though the limbic system’s emotional response only interrupts prefrontal cortex activity for a few seconds, that’s enough to interrupt kids’ long-term thinking and planning abilities and allow a less cooperative and organized response to challenging tasks.

Emotional responses like “I’m not finished playing!” are typical and even age-appropriate, and the goal isn’t for children to achieve “perfect” behavior. However, by understanding how emotions and learning opportunities connect, parents and teachers can more easily incorporate activities that develop self-regulation skills into classroom and home environments. Self-regulation skills allow children to manage their emotional responses productively, providing more opportunities for learning.

Self-regulation supports executive functioning

When children’s self-regulation skills are less developed, strong emotional reactions or feelings can interrupt prefrontal cortex activity, preventing kids from accessing executive functions. “Executive functions” get their name from the brain’s decision-making capacities, much like the executive branch of the United States government is headed by the President, who is responsible for many day-to-day decisions. Executive functioning is an umbrella term for a variety of skills that support cognition, or thinking, and especially cognitive processes like planning ahead, problem solving, and organization. The brain manages these skills using the prefrontal cortex, which develops more slowly than the limbic system. As a result, these skills develop slowly during infancy, a little more quickly in toddlers, and much faster as children move through preschool, elementary school, and into adolescence. Executive functioning skills mature fully when people are in their early to mid-twenties, and may continue to grow well into adulthood.

Executive functioning skills like time management, getting started with challenging tasks, organizing ideas and physical belongings, and persisting with long-term projects are each important for different types of learning tasks. Like self-regulation skills, executive functioning is heavily affected by factors such as getting sufficient sleep, living in a consistent environment, and having basic needs met. On average, children living in stressful environments need extra support to develop the same self-regulation and executive functioning skills that a same-age peer living in a more consistent situation might have.

Because children’s self-regulation and executive functioning skills are closely linked, we can think of them as complementary skill sets that reinforce one another positively. Picture a third-grader, Charlie, who manages emotions well and typically can follow classroom expectations effectively. This lets Charlie work more independently, building the ability to re-read directions, check in with a classmate when confused, and try again when the answer isn’t readily apparent. In contrast, imagine a classmate whose emotional upsets frequently make it hard to engage in classroom tasks. This student may often have to wait for the teacher’s help, meaning that they experience far fewer learning opportunities during any given school day, which may add up to days or even weeks of missed instruction or practice time during a school year.

Strategies for building self-regulation skills

Just like academic skills, self-regulation skills can be taught, practiced, and developed.

• Mirror emotions. When a child is upset or frustrated, hearing adults acknowledge their feelings reduces limbic system response and makes it easier for the child to return to the task at hand. To mirror emotions effectively, a parent or teacher can say, “It looks like you’re feeling mad about what happened,” or “Are you feeling pretty frustrated right now?” Learning these labels lets kids develop their internal awareness of how they feel.
• Teach emotions directly. At times when kids aren’t upset, families or classes can discuss emotions and what they feel like, along with strategies kids can use to cope. Building children’s knowledge of their options when they are calm makes it likelier that, over time, kids can respond more effectively to their feelings when they’re upset.
• Create space. Recognizing the role emotions play in learning can make it easier to take these feelings seriously – but also let kids develop their ability to move on. Creating space can involve teaching children to take a few deep breaths when upset, giving kids a cool-down spot where they can focus on processing a strong emotion, or by acknowledging that it’s healthy to cry or express big feelings. The more kids have room to process their feelings, the easier it gets for them to return quickly and independently to learning or playing.

Adults can use similar strategies to manage our own emotions, which can give parents and teachers more ability to handle tough classroom or parenting situations. Acknowledging our own feelings aloud to kids sets a great example, and helps with co-regulation, which refers to the way our emotional states and behaviors are affected by the feelings and actions of those around us. When a parent says, “Wow, I’m feeling really cranky right now. I need to take a few minutes to rest when we get home,” children learn how to respond to disruptive feelings proactively. They also potentially get a chance to use their own skills to help out by cooperating or being extra kind while their parent takes a moment to decompress.

Strategies for building executive functioning skills

• Visual cues. Home and classroom environments that feature age-appropriate checklists and organizers increase kids’ abilities to carry out tasks independently. For example, a first grader might have a five-item Getting Ready checklist to help them get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, pack their backpack, and put on shoes. Checklists can reduce parent-child conflict by allowing parents to say “What’s the next item on your checklist?” This more neutral reminder creates less of an emotional response than “You’re still not dressed?” and may help kids connect to their internal motivation more readily.
• Narration. Reviewing plans orally increases kids’ ability to think ahead. Parents or teachers can frequently lead an oral review of what’s coming next, and when possible, can ask kids to supply the details. A parent might say on the way home from school, “OK, tell me what’s coming next this afternoon,” or “Let’s go over what we’re going to do now. What are you going to do first when we get home?” Narration allows the child to think ahead and prioritize their time, which often makes it easier for them to tackle challenging tasks like homework.
• Timers. Estimating how long tasks will take to complete is a critical part of executive functioning, and timers facilitate this practice. Ask a child how long it will take to do a task like tying their shoes, taking a shower, or doing a sheet of math homework. As kids become more familiar with how long tasks take, they can more easily plan their time. As well, timers can make it easier to tackle challenging projects. If a child doesn’t want to get started, a parent can give the choice of working for ten minutes or fifteen minutes – options that can be adjusted for age or the type of project. Even if a child picks the lower number, knowing they’ll just be working for a set time can make it easier to start. Timed work periods offer additional benefits, like building a sense of accomplishment, as well as a better understanding of how long the entire project will take. They also give kids a sense of control, because they learn that it’s OK to work for a reasonable amount of time of their choosing and then take a short break to decompress.

Katharine Hill, MS, MAT, ET/P, is a learning specialist and educational therapist in private practice in Brooklyn, NY, who has twenty years of experience working in K–12 and higher education. upnext.nyc