EVERYONE'S A WINNER WEEK! {Day 1}

Over 2 months in the making and it's finally here!
All 20 blog authors want to invite you 
to follow our literacy journey on 
This week, Jan. 6th - 10th EVERY follower is a WINNER!
EVERY follower who leaves their email in the rafflecopter below, 
will be emailed our Blog Launch Exclusive Freebie Prize Pack at the end of the week!

Each day this week there is a different literacy focus.  Five talented bloggers will share their tips for...

Welcome!  Welcome!  It is absolutely thrilling to me to be a part of this wonderful literacy community!  I am Em from Curious Firsties.  My teaching started in Knoxville, TN where I taught second grade.  When I moved back to Cincinnati, OH I taught first and second grade (including a looping year).  About five years ago, I requested to be a Title I teacher (my dream job).  Currently, I work with only first grade students.  My school is departmentalized and leveled; therefore, I push into the classroom and provide small group instruction with my co-teachers.  I absolutely love my job and the challenges that it can pose.  
 
My FREEBIE product is a vowel-consonant-e word ladder packet.  Word ladders are a great way to engage our students in word study.  They have to analyze the clues to uncover the next word.  My ladders differ from traditional ones because I focus them on one specific pattern.  They provide support to students that have decoding difficulties and would benefit from practice with specific patterns.  I’m happy to share it with you!  The blogging world is such a great place to learn and grow.  I am excited to be a part of it!

   

Welcome Friends!  We are the blogging team of Colleen and Stacy from The Rungs of Reading.  We are so excited to be a part of this new collaborative blog to bring you best practices in the field of literacy.  Today we would like to talk a little about the importance of phonics/decoding strategies.  Teaching children proven decoding strategies provides them with a strong foundation to ensure reading success.  Decoding is the process of translating print into speech by rapidly matching letters (graphemes) to their sounds (phonemes) and recognizing the patterns and rules that make syllables and words.  Although there is a part of our brain that deals with language processing, about 30 percent of children do not access this part of their brain automatically and therefore must be taught decoding principles using explicit, systematic, and multisensory approaches and strategies. 

One decoding principle that can be tricky for children to master is learning the r-controlled vowel sounds ar, er, ir, or, and ur.  When a vowel is followed by an "r", the "r" changes the sound that the vowel makes.  Sometimes teachers refer to the "r" as "Bossy-r" as the "r" bosses the vowel to make a different sound. We hope you enjoy our Roll the Die game from our Wonderful Wizard of Oz bundle that reinforces this important decoding rule.  This game can be used as an ELA center, small group RTI intervention, or informal assessment. 

Hello there!  My name is Jessica and I am coming to you from Hanging Out in First!  I am so excited to be a part of this blog and to share with you so many wonderful reading resources.  The freebie that I am sharing with you is part of my phoneme segmentation pack.  Phonemic awareness is crucial for beginning readers.  It is the ability to manipulate phonemes, or sounds.  As a student learns to manipulate phonemes, they are then able to begin blending and encoding sounds as they read and write.  It helps students to see patterns within words and recognize chunks of sound. 

My phoneme segmentation pack is just one aspect of phonemic awareness.  In this pack, students will learn to segment sounds.  This means that they will begin taking the sounds apart, thus laying the groundwork for future writers!  This pack is just a sample of my larger phoneme segmentation packs in my TPT store. It includes Elkonin boxes for a push, say, sort activity, a graphing for sounds activity, some coloring for sounds pages, and a fluency page to help progress monitor phoneme segmentation fluency.  I hope that you can use this freebie and keep in touch with us as we share so many more valuable resources with you!!


Hi everyone! I am so delighted to be part of this wonderful collaborative group!

My freebie for you today is related to initial phonemes, or sounds. Research has shown that children learning to read must be able to manipulate phonemes in order to advance in their reading skills. Yes, first they must be able to identify those sound units, but manipulating them is important because readers need to remember them and compare those phonemes and the letter(s) that represent them. A reader needs to be able to pull out a single phoneme from a word they read and to compare and contrast  it with different letter sequences. For example, a child learning to read needs to be able to figure out that the initial phoneme in fall and phone is the same but they are represented by different letters.

With that being said, my freebie will have your students working on adding initial phonemes (sometimes we call these onsets) to word families (rimes). For example, a student will take the phoneme c and match it with ake to make cake. However, matching it to ack will not make a word. I am excited for your students to give it a try and I hope that the practice is fun for them and doesn't feel much like work! Thanks for stopping by our blog today!

We hope these ideas are useful in your classroom.
To get our Exclusive Follower Prize Pack Freebie, 
follow our blog and leave your e-mail in the rafflecopter below!
Make sure you visit every day this week to get more literacy tips and 
enter daily to win one of the 4 Grand Prizes.

266 comments

  1. Hardest reading strategy that I teach is comprehension. I know that first graders get so focused on the words they forget to think about what they're reading. It's something we work on constantly.

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  2. Comprehension is also my hardest reading strategy. I work with special education students and I feel I struggle with making this strategy more manageable.
    I am really excited about this blog! I think it is going to be amazing!!

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  3. Vocabulary is the hardest thing for me to teach!!
    Most of my kids are ESOL, which makes literacy hard in any case!
    Erin
    Learning to be awesome

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  4. I teach Reading Recovery to first graders for half my day. This year, I have first grade and kindergarten groups the rest of my day. It is my ideal day. ;) All of it is hard, but oh, so rewarding when they get it! I can't wait to see what this blog has to offer!
    tfrteach@aol.com

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  5. The hardest reading strategy for me to teach my first graders is comprehension.

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  6. The hardest standard is vocabulary.

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  7. Vocabulary is the hardest this year.
    Sajohannes@hotmail.com

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  8. I agree that vocabulary is the hardest standard to teach! I discovered Second Story Windows "Jargon Journals" on TPT in November though, and they are wonderful sets of words/activities designed for specific books, and am using $ provided my school parent ouThis blog is the BEST! Building strong literacy skills is my passion! You all need "tiaras" to wear! I crown you blogging "queens" for launching this site! THANK YOU! I am your newest and most loyal royal subject!
    Gratefully,
    ~Jennifer

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  9. I think comprehension is very hard to teach. With the new core, knowing what fits in each standard is also difficult.

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  10. For me, its fluency that supports comprehension. Its one thing to help students understand what they read, its another to help them do that while picking up the pace and moving through the text! #1 reading tutoring request!

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  11. I teach Kindergarten. The hardest area for me to teach is fluency at my level. Thanks!!

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    1. Nessa,
      Letter Naming Fluency, Sight Word Fluency or Fluency when reading ? Check in tomorrow for sight words and fluency ! Thanks

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  12. I teach 3rd grade. Teaching the comprehension strategies is always difficult. Many come to me still undoable to decode, so much time is spent catching them up.

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    1. Sara, I was a 3rd Grade Reading Teacher, too. Now I'm a GT Specialist. I think small grouping is definitely your best friend when you have 3rd Graders still working on 1st and 2nd Grade skills.

      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  13. Teaching students to self monitor. So many of my first graders just keep on reading, even when it doesn't make sense.

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    1. Oops...got excited and forgot my email!
      22.myoung@nhaschools.com

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  14. I think comprehension is hard to teach.

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  15. I teach first grade and I think comprehension and fluency are the hardest to teach.

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  16. I teach third. I think comprehension is the most difficult to teach.

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  17. Oops! Forgot my email: teachnkick@gmail.com

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  18. I agree with a lot of the others that comprehension is very hard for me to teach.
    Megan
    mhorman@north-cedarstu.org

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  19. I agree with everyone else that comprehension is difficult to teach. It deals with so much to teach our young students. It is one of the most important skills they will learn.
    CL14Mentor@oh.rr.com

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  20. I teach kindergarten. Surprisingly, I find rhyming to be very hard to teach to many of the children in my class. I teach in a Title 1 school and a lot of the children have had little experience with language and books before coming to kindergarten.
    susan.g.jennings@gmail.com

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    1. Susan-I completely agree with you!! Rhyming is so tricky for some students. I did a guest post on Reading Towards the Stars! I didn't know if it would be helpful to you at all. http://readerstars.blogspot.com/2013/12/trading-spaces-tuesday-with-em-from.html

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    2. Try using Nursery Rhymes..............it's very 'old school', but so unknown to today's kids and provides lots of opportunities to teach rhyming as well as some vocab and life lessons. Kids get 'a charge' out of it because it is so 'new' to them.

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    3. Try using Nursery Rhymes..............it's very 'old school', but so unknown to today's kids and provides lots of opportunities to teach rhyming as well as some vocab and life lessons. Kids get 'a charge' out of it because it is so 'new' to them.

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  21. I am a K-5 Intervention Specialist and Reading Recovery (1st) Teacher. I am excited about your new blog! I love resources and find that comprehension is hard to teach with this current group. My email is jgray@dutchmen.us THANKS!!

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  22. I am a third grade reading/language arts teacher in Ohio. Teaching cause and effect can be a challenge to teach. I also have found students struggle with main idea and supporting details. I am really looking forward to gaining a lot of information and knowledge from this blog!

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  23. Comprehension is the biggest challenge to teach, especially with my lower readers. I love the website and all the ideas that you are sharing. Thank you for giving up your time to help out other teachers. My email is hlochhaas@gmail.com

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  24. OOPS! I just commented on the wrong post! I think that the trickiest thing for me to teach my readers who are struggling is helping them with thinking about and beyond the text, comprehension-wise. It requires them to go beyond what is actually on the page which can be very tricky! carrieshoe@gmail.com

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    1. The rafflecopter didn't ask for me email...Is putting it in the comment above enough to receive the freebie?

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    2. Yes, Carrie - we'll be changing up the rafflecopter.:)

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  25. I teach 1-3rd special education students and INFERENCING is the hardest for them to grasp! So excited for this blog! melissareed725@gmail.com

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  26. Vocabulary has been the hardest thing for me to teach! I am working on it, but I always love new ideas!

    Erica
    butler . erica @ gmail . com
    Blooming In First

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Erica, come back on Thursday! We have a few vocabulary strategies to share.

      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  27. I started teaching a 1st and 2nd grade combo class this year. I find that a lot of kids really need extra practice with fluency- either picking up the pace or slowing down for some of them. Vocabulary has also been hard for me this year. ctlawson@ortn.edu

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  28. Comprehension is the hardest thing for me to teach as well. My lowest readers are still struggling with the decoding so it is almost impossible for them to get the comprehension part. The rafflecopter also did not ask for my e-mail.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Mrs Meyer - we share the same surname :) Kylie

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  29. I teach first grade and I agree that comprehension is difficult to teach. My kids this year are pretty good with actual details from the text but going beyond those is really difficult. Ica625@aol.com

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  30. I love teaching reading! But, one of the hardest things for me to help my first graders with is identifying the main idea and picking out key details from a story.

    kim.menning@k12.sd.us

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  31. I teach 3rd grade and I agree that comprehension is the struggle......with the help of close read strategies it is improving a bit because they are reading the passage multiple times...trying to get them to use that strategy when taking assessments is a whole different issue! Also, inferencing is always tough!

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    1. Hi, I am a follower of this blog and noticed that you teach 3rd grade (as do I). I am actually teaching inferencing and have a few ideas if you need any. What state do you teach in? Feel free to email me and maybe we can share ideas. smith.s@norwoodschools.org

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  32. I teach Second Grade and use the Journey's Reading Program. It doesn't teach comprehension well at all so need more help!

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    1. Susan, Wednesday we'll examine Comprehension. Stop back by!

      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  33. I teach 1st grade and I think comprehension is the most difficult concept. If they are struggling with that one, it is a long and slow process to see improvements.
    ~Melissa
    luv2harp at gmail dot com

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  34. I agree with Chase7kids. "I think comprehension is very hard to teach. With the new core, knowing what fits in each standard is also difficult."
    I teach third grade in a brand new building. After rezoning, I feel that I spent most of first semester getting students the help they need through special education services and getting the rest of them to work independently and become somewhat self-sufficient. Therefore comprehension strategies have been a real struggle this year.

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  35. My little 2nd's are having so much trouble with main idea identification! It is such a new concept for them!

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  36. With my first graders, definitely comprehension. brooklynkate09@hotmail.com

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  37. Sometimes, I feel like decoding unknown words using syllable breaks can be difficult to teach.

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    1. Hi ! Will be addressing syllable types soon. I work with Wilson and another author works with Orton Gillinghan so perhaps we will partner up for a series.

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  38. Comprehension and main idea & detail are hard for my firsties.
    ahenry4443ah@gmail.com

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  39. I teach middle school special education and find that comprehension is the biggest struggle for my kiddos. The more abstract concepts such as inferencing, drawing conclusions, and understanding theme are especially difficult for them.

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    1. Kimberly, theme seems like such a hard concept for our students. Yet, when they see a movie, they can normally pick up on the theme right away!

      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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    2. Denice, that is so true! Maybe it's the visual aspect of the movie... So many of my kids are such visual learners... Or maybe they're just paying more attention ;)

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  40. I teach fourth grade. Comprehension is a big deal for me. We've started seeing a trend with our kids that last couple years of them not being about to pull information from the text so are trying to do more with close reading.
    I am excited to follow your new blog.
    ♬Kay
    On the Trail of Learning

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  41. I teach kindergarten and the first thing that came to me is fluency. The children need to re-read a lot! Comprehension comes in to play later in the year!
    gloriawittenberg2@gmail.com

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  42. I think comprehension is the hardest thing to teach - mainly the inferring or predicting based off the text. Most of my students are good "word callers", but the higher order comprehension is lacking.

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  43. Ladies - The blog is *beautiful!* Every detail and all your expertise! I'm kinda kicking myself for not getting involved with this when you first began discussions. Anyways, I am your newest follower and I feel so proud to collaborate with a group as knoledgeable and passionate as you all! Congrats on the new blog!
    Michelle
    BigTime Literacy

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  44. I just finished student teaching and am getting my teacher toolbox ready for my own classroom. I am excited about this new blog and look forward to gaining allot of knowledge from other teachers.
    Thank you, Angie

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  45. Comprehension is tough to teach. One of the hardest concepts for my kiddos to grasp is cause and effect!

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  46. Is anyone else having a difficult time getting the freebies? When I click on them I am brought up to a slide show, but am unable to download anything. Am I doing something wrong??

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    1. All freebies will be emailed in a pack at the end of the week in one large zipped file for each day. We won't email them out until the end of the week.

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  47. I teach preschoolers with developmental delays and vocabulary is the toughest of the ELA standards. IL Early Learning Standards are aligned with Common Core, so specifically it is 1.C Use language to convey information and ideas.
    1.C.ECa describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with teacher assistance,
    provide additional detail.

    Beautifully designed blog, ladies! Best of luck on your new venture! ~Denise www.playlearnteach.org

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  48. craft and structure. Understanding the why and how an author creates a selection (fiction, non-fiction, informational text). There are so many details that create the magic "recipe" for comprehension. Comprehension for each student is different.

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  49. I am so excited about this new blog! Can't wait for all of you wonderful bloggers to share your expertise, especially in literacy. I teach kindergarten, and comprehension seems to be the hardest. Even when we read a story several times, some of the children look at me like they've never heard the story. It just takes time for them to catch on!

    Congratulations on your new blog!

    Sharon sab99@sbcglobal.net

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  50. I am a K-6 reading specialist and I think automaticity and fluency can be so hard for many struggling readers. This of course impede their comprehension as well as vocabulary development. I am so glad that you are beginning this blog so we can learn from each other and help our students. Best of luck and thanks for sharing. Liz in South Dakota

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    1. Hi Liz! I am one of the blog authors, Carla, a reading specialist in Virginia. Your comments are very much appreciated, and that was the vision we all had when we met each other and talked about doing a collaborative blog. I am so excited to be a part of this great group. We come from different parts of the country and have had different training which makes for great discussion. I really hope you'll come back, ask questions, share your thoughts, and let your friends know about our blog too. I think great things will come from researching and exchanging ideas.
      Carla @ Comprehension Connection

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  51. I teach 3rd grade. For me,reading with expression is very difficult. Stopping at ending marks and just fluently is a struggle.

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    1. Luann...
      Join us tomorrow for fluency and I know we will be writing more on this topic !
      Wendy D
      Ms Ds Literacy Lab
      (One of the blog authors)

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  52. Comprehension is a difficult skill for first graders.

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  53. Thanks for a great site! I think Comprehension is the most difficult to teach. Even when we practice various aspects (inferring, visualizing, etc) students have trouble carrying it over into daily work.

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  54. I think comprehension is the most difficult to teach my second graders. I struggle with it every year.
    sherrymc62@bellsouth.net

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  55. Looks like it is going to be a wonderful blog! I would love to see something similar for math!

    Tara
    The Math Maniac

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  56. Congrats on your new adventure, ladies! I teach kindergarten and I'd say the hardest thing for us right now is fluency. We are struggling to put it all together.

    Amanda
    A Very Curious Class

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  57. Hi everyone! I'm so glad to see and read so many of your responses! It really provides us with food for thought for future topics. Many comments are about reading comprehension. Be sure to check back on Wednesday for comprehension topics. Thank you so much for visiting Literacy Land!
    Emily, The Reading Tutor/OG :))

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  58. I teach Kindergarten, so for me the hardest thing is fluency leading to comprehension. Most of my students are getting to the point where they can read the words, but are not fluent enough for it to have comprehension attached to it!
    Laura
    enchantingelementary@gmail.com
    Enchanting Elementary

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    1. Although comprehension is important throughout the reading process, at the kindergarten level, the focus is on building a concept of word leading to fluency. You might focus your small group time with fluency building activities...phonics, concept of word, repeated reading, and address comprehension through modeling with read alouds that are slightly above your students' level in a whole group setting and with discussion. We will have lots of discussion about this, so I hope you'll return often.

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  59. I am so excited about this blog. I am always striving to become a better reading teacher.

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  60. I work with students with moderate cognitive disabilities so all are difficult. I really am looking for ways to work on functional reading for my students and building sight word recognition and blending of letter sounds for cvc words. I really want to help them develop as many skills as possible.

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    1. For your students, the language experience approach works well (writing stories with your students about their daily living experiences) and then using them as their reading material for repeated reading later. I think these would be more meaningful to them and would help them in multiple ways beyond reading. My nephew has autism, so this is near/dear to me.

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  61. Fluency an main idea are the hardest things for me to teach.

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  62. toss up between fluency and specific comprehension skills
    Karen

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  63. I teach first grade. I think teaching main idea is very difficult. wiardmolly@yahoo.com

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  64. I'd have to say fluency, which for me goes back to the kids don't know the phonics and phonemes. Also with comprehension because they aren't fluent they don't know what they are reading or forget by the end of the story or passage.

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    1. One great way to address this is with word study. Pay attention to the problematic phonemes, and then, in small group, spend 5-10 minute putting together onset/rime patterns addressing those that seem to be problems to make real and pseudo words. I've found that really helps improve automatic word recognition. With word study, it's important to match your sorts to the developmental stage your students are at. Sometimes that makes it difficult to manage, but perhaps you can work it into small group reading time if you have multiple students struggling with say...long vowels with final e, or vowel digraphs. Check back...this will be a topic of further discussion.

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  65. Cause and Effect. I even get them mixed up sometimes!!! :)

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    1. Carol,
      I remember teaching Cause & Effect in 2nd grade and it seemed like every time I listed a cause a kid in the class could find something that caused it. Ugh....It was actually frustrating because we were looking for effects. I had to start over and turn to real life examples.
      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  66. The hardest thing for me to teach is inference.

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  67. For me the hardest thing to teach my students is decoding. They struggle very much with sounding out different parts of the words and even identifying different letter sounds. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated for my 1st graders!

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  68. I think that teaching main idea is the hardest for me.

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  69. For me the hardest thing to teach is comprehension and knowing how to go back to the text to support what they know. And being able to support what isn't directly in the text. First graders have such a hard time with this!

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  70. The hardest reading strategy that I teach is comprehension and understanding the difference between main idea and the details.

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  71. I thinking teaching comprehension is the hardest thing!

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  72. I am so excited to see all of your comments! It really gives all of us something to think about as we prepare future posts! Stay tuned the rest of the week as post about other areas of reading instruction! Thanks for being here and learning with us!

    Andrea
    Reading Toward the Stars

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  73. The standard my 1st graders have the most difficulty with is: RL.1.6. Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.

    Thanks!

    Dee:)
    www.OvertheMoonBow.com

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  74. I teach first grade and I agree comprehension is the hardest to teach. My students do great with the questions about the text but when it requires them to dig deeper they really struggle. Also requiring students to self monitor when they are reading.

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  75. I feel that teaching comprehension is the toughest reading strategy to teach!

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  76. I teach first grade and I think comprehension is very difficult for them. They "think" they know what what the story is about...till you start asking questions. One of the hardest standards for "ME" is CCRA.R.7 and CCRA.R.8 - not sure how to teach it to first graders.

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  77. I think cause and effort are the hardest. They are hard to keep straight!

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  78. I teach at a school that has primarily ESL students. Vocabulary and idioms are very difficult to get across and teach. That being said, comprehension comes in right behind vocabulary. I feel if I only focus on vocabulary they struggle with comprehension, and if I focus on comprehension, they struggle with vocab. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

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    1. Meghan, I am ESL Certified in Texas and I will develop a post (probably for March) about ESL/ELL students and their strategies. I have a training in Feb:)
      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  79. For most of my students (middle school, SPED) inferring is one of the hardest skills to master. Almost every single one has it as an IEP goal.

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  80. I'm a 2nd year First Grade teacher in a new school and Reading Instruction is a struggle for me. I never feel confident in what I'm doing! I would say trying to teach the different strategies of attacking a word are difficult for me. I can't wait to see what this blog can teach me! Thank you!!

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    1. Cynthia-
      I love this topic because it is so much of what I have to teach my struggling first graders! So I completely agree with you. It is challenging but so important!
      Em
      Curious Firsties

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  81. Inferencing is the hardest skill to teach for me.

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  82. I teach second grade. Comprehension skills are really tricky to teach, especially main idea and details.
    Thanks for starting this blog - I'm excited to follow along!
    Courtney

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  83. Rhyming is hadr for some of my kinders.

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  84. I'm a 1st Grade teacher and my students struggle the most comprehension. They put forth so much effort working through the words that they forget to think about what they are reading.

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  85. The hardest thing I teach is sounding out words mainly because I teach children with hearing impairments. It becomes a real trick sometimes to teach a sound that a child cannot hear. Thanks for this blog.

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    1. Deb, what an interesting job. How do you teach sound to students who cannot hear? That seems like you would need specialized training. What type of training does your district or school offer?

      Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  86. It's hard to reach all students when doing a whole group read aloud to see if they are understanding our story.

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  87. Comprehension is the toughest.. Hands down!

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  88. As a 3rd grade teacher I find that my students struggle with comprehending the text and also identifying main idea and supporting details. I'm excited about this new blog and look forward to reading your posts!

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  89. Love the new blog!!! Filled to the brim with great info and neat ideas!!!

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  90. For me with my 2nd Grade group this year, making inferences. Sometimes I think vocabulary too. It's tricky sometimes with them and lots of guidance with a variety of strategies is needed:)

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  91. Opps! Fluency for my EIP 1st graders! They need so much practice but needs to be interesting to keep them going! Thanks! = )

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  92. I am a K teacher and the hardest is Comprehension. Finding material that is relevant, suitable and age-appropriate can prove to be quite a task!!
    foxysexyroxy10@gmail.com

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  93. The new blog is awesome! Students always struggle with theme and central idea of text. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  94. So excited to see so many of my friends involved with this great new blog! I teach first grade and for sure going back into the text to find evidence to support their answers is the hardest thing for my kiddos. Looking forward to coming here often!

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  95. Oh geeee I think the hardest one I teach is probably generalizing! My kiddos struggle with this idea… I need a creative way to teach it and I have yet to find it. Maybe y'all can help with your ideas & blog posts!? Cannot wait to see more!

    Sara
    Miss V's Busy Bees
    ventrellasara@gmail.com

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  96. I teach 3rd. The hardest for me is vocaband comprehension.

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  97. There are so many as I am a Title I teacher for kindergartners. These students come to school with little or no exposure to letters and books. We are still working on recognizing letters and their sounds. Rhyming is difficult for the kiddos as well as segmenting and blending and manipulating sounds. They get syllables and sounding out words mixed up. Comprehension is also tricky.

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  98. I teach 2nd grade. I find comprehension the hardest to teach as well! Love the new blog! I know it will be a great resource! :)

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  99. I teach 3rd. My students read well, but find "thinking" comprehension questions the hardest. So if it isn't stated in the passage, it makes it hard for me to teach them the "thinking process" to arrive at the answer.
    susanlulu@yahoo.com

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  100. I'm a learning tutor for k-4 kiddos. My older kiddos come to me for fluency work, and my little guys are mainly for nwf or basic letter/sound id skills

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    1. This is also a lot of what I work on in guided reading groups!

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  101. Inferences are hard for me to teach.

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    1. Elyse--I was just having that conversation today with my sister. She teaches third. We were reading "Comprehension Connections" and the author mentioned Scooby Doo episodes as a great way to work on this. I haven't tried this. But it sounded intriguing!

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  102. I also find that comprehension and inferences are hard to teach, especially for younger readers who are reading at an advanced level, but don't get the hidden meaning in a text.

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  103. The hardest standard to teach to First graders is comprehension. They are still focusing on the words, they have a hard time remembering what they read. We are also going to full Common Core and learning those standards can be difficult but our report cards are still state standard. It's a fine balance!!

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  104. What a fabulous blog this is going to be. A wealth of experience at our fingertips. I have saved this to my favourites.

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  106. Wow, I love the blog already! This is going to be a wonderful resource especially since I teach all levels as a special education teacher. By far, the hardest reading component to teach my kiddos is inferencing since many struggle with basic reading comprehension!

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  107. I think theme is the hardest thing to teach in reading.

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  108. As a kindergarten teacher with students in such a wide range of abilities I find that students first need to build fluency before they can begin to fully understand the text. Oral language plays a big factor in answering the five W questions. We need to build up their oral language first before we can expect them to comprehend books.

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  109. Working with students in grades K-5, with varying disabilities, this is a tough question. For most of my learning disabled students they struggle daily with fluency (sight words and phonics), while my language kids struggle with comprehension. Overall, it is hardest to meet the needs of students who lack vocabulary and comprehension skills/strategies.
    Sebrina
    Burke's Special Kids

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    1. Sebrina,
      Be sure to come back on Wed./Thurs. to get ideas for comprehension and vocabulary.
      There are a lot of strategies in the freebie pack. But, I think we're going to discuss our February posts and make sure we cover comprehension K-6!
      Deniece

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  110. What a fabulous new blog!! Loving it already!! I think the hardest thing to teach is the level of depth required for the higher level texts. Students are great at retelling, but it is often hard to get them to delve deeper.

    Ali

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  111. What an great blog -- I can't wait for future posts. Already hooked

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  112. Wow, what a neat idea. Thank you! The hardest thing to teach is higher order thinking skills.

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  114. Love,love the new blog and the super ideas! My students always struggle with cause and effect strategies.

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  115. Figurative language in 3rd grade, as well as theme, especially for Fables!

    Lindsey
    The Journey of a Beginning Teacher

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  116. I would have to say inferences.

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  117. I teach 1st this year. I don't know that comprehension is the hardest, but in first I feel it gets lost in trying to teach the kids to read and all the phonics involved.
    Jennifer

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  118. As a special education teacher, my kids struggle with all aspects of reading. Comprehension, retelling is difficult when reading or when listening to text read. Thank you for starting this blog. I will be sure to check it daily!

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  119. I think long vowels and inflected endings are difficult...although contractions are tricky too!

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  120. My hardest reading aspect to teach is comprehension. I teach second grade and they are learning to become readers and read for meaning and it is hard to get some of them comprehending what they are reading.

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  121. My special education students - especially those with autism - struggle most with comprehension. Thanks for all the great information!

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  122. I am so excited about your new blog! It looks great! I teach first grade and I have trouble getting my students to self monitor while reading fluently.

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  123. I teach kindergarten and some of my students struggle with phoneme segmentation and blending.

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  124. Comprehension is always challenging for 2nd graders as it is the concept expected to be mastered by the end of the year. This year's CC emphasis on Vocabulary has been challenging as well. eweems@mcs.k12.ny.us

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  125. I can't wait to see where this new Adventure goes. I have been teaching for 35 years and I am still excited, and interested, to learn anything new or anything that will increase my chances of creating a successful learning-to-read experience for my students. I would have to agree with most of those who have stated that comprehension is the most difficult to teach....particularly inferencing. But then again, it ALL ties together................if they don't have the background knowledge, they don't have the vocabulary, if they don't have the vocabulary they can't fluently read the text, if they can't fluenty read the text, comprehension is limited, etc. etc. etc. Seems like all areas need to be continually explicitly taught, and dovetailed with each other. JMO. BTW, I teach, and have taught for decades, in a Title I school.

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  126. I think main idea has to be one of the hardest skills to teach. secondgradeperks@gmail.com

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  127. I no longer teach in the classroom, but am a retired special education teacher. However, I run a tutoring service, and we do follow some of the standards as we are working with many special needs students in the area of reading. I struggle with teaching them how to take tests over the material we have studied. When the question requests "What is the BEST answer" or "What is NOT the correct answer?" my students have difficulty answering those questions .I am really excited about this new site you have developed. Thanks for sharing.

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  128. Main idea and identifying key details in non-fiction text.

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  129. Writing is my favorite thing to teach, but these are the hardest standards to teach, I think, in first grade. Writing is somewhat abstract and firsties don't have the skill to see the abstract and come out of no where to write about their thoughts. I do get my students to write well by the end of the year, but the haul is long.

    faithfulinfirst.blogspot.com

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  130. The hardest standard this year with Common core, our first graders had trouble with Text features and how they help them understand the text better and main idea.

    Suzzanne5571@gmail.com

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  131. I am finding it hard to have students in first grade give strong written responses to reading.

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  132. I teach second grade. Comprehension is hard for students when they don't pay attention to what the question is really asking and when a question has multiple parts.

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  133. Definitely comprehension! I teach first graders and they often see things in a different light.

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  134. Comprehension.... They so often just don't pay attention!! I have several students that based on their DRA should have no trouble but fail often then when I pull them aside to work one on one or a small group they have no trouble.

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  135. My writing standards are the hardest to teach! My fourth graders hate to write and it's hard to come up with fun and new ways to teach them how to write!

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  136. I think the most difficult reading standard is the comprehension standard where students need to cite what the evidence was in the text to support their answer. It's SO hard for my kids!

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  137. I teach 2nd grade and I think that comprehension strategies are the most difficult to teach.
    tonilafear@gmail.com

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  138. It has always been comprehension! They rush and want to get done "first" - don't take the time for real understanding. Love the new blog!!
    Julene Hoffman
    jhoffman143@yahoo.com

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  139. I LOVE teaching any language arts area, so although I don't think of any as hard to TEACH, the vocabulary focus with CCSS is definitely something that is hard to LEARN! I'm constantly looking for new ways to introduce, reinforce and apply vocabulary across settings. ~ Lisa

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  140. Awesome!!! Can't wait to explore more. First day back to school and I am about ready to crash.

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  141. I think Comprehension is very difficult to teach. I also think fluency is difficult.
    Lkgirl24@aol.com
    Thanks!! Lisa

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  142. I teach 3rd grade Resource. Many of my students can answer recall comprehension questions, but have difficulty retelling/summarizing a story in their own words and identifying the main idea of a story. I need a new approach to teaching them these skills! Thank you for sharing your ideas on this blog!
    katie.passanante@gmail.com

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  143. I would have to see inferring is hardest for my Grade 1's to get, especially when they are asked to give evidence from the text.

    hermerc@bell.net

    I am looking forward to reading the blog!
    Christina

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  144. I teach 2nd grade and find that comprehension and main and supporting details are the most difficult to teach. I am excited to hear all of your ideas to make me a better teacher!
    emilyamoore@hotmail.com

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  145. I teach 1st grade. I would have to say inference and comprehension are the hardest. I had to write both because both of these are hard for my firsties. Thank you for starting this blog. I look forward to reading and finding out new ways of teaching the skills that need to be taught. vmiller@glynn.k12.ga.us

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  146. As an ESL teacher, my students struggle the most with vocabulary, which ultimately affects comprehension. It's difficult to attend to the meaning of a passage and what has happened when the words are unfamiliar. We spend a LOT of time building this. Also, making connections to text is another standard my students struggle with frequently.

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  147. I struggle teaching phonics! So many rules!
    sears1130@gmail.com

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  148. All aspects of comprehension are hard for my first graders. They are barely learning how to read fluently and then we ask them to infer and provide evidence etc. I am looking forward to any suggestions for reading instruction.
    Michelle
    mjc6255@lausd.net

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  149. I teach 2nd and the hardest for me is comprehension. Main idea and details are so hard for them.

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  150. I teach second and find that while recall of main events or what the passage, text, or information is about they get but they struggle with digging deeper,,, into everything - meaning, vocabulary comprehension, and inferencing. I also think that when they write about or discuss their ideas or how they get their answers they don't reason through what they think is correct. They answer or respond with something that couldn't possibly fit! We can read in small groups or during conferring time and I think they understand, then when they start doing putting it down on paper they fall apart or miss it completely! I have been a primary teacher for 24 years 5 of which were reading recovery (until our district did away with it ;( ) and this occurs in second grade frequently. I am very much looking forward to this blog! :)

    rene'

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  151. Welcome to all my Aussie colleagues who are now following our new collaborative literacy blog. I think we can learn a lot through networking with our international colleagues :) Thank you for coming on the journey with me! Kylie

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    1. Hi this networking is great. I'm an Aussie teacher and I find that inferring is a struggle with my grade 2 kids.

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  152. I think that certain aspects of comprehension are difficult for my little ones to grasp. Main idea, plot, and sequencing seem to be the most difficult.

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  153. I'm the homeschooling Mum of a daughter with Nonverbal Learning Disorder - so although she is a brilliant reader, she struggles with comprehension, inferencing, main idea, the lot! So am very excited about your new blog!! And I also just wanted to say that I have learnt heaps from all the fabulous teacher bloggers out there. You guys so rock!! thursdaytook@hotmail.com

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  154. I can't wait for this blog! Good luck ladies :)

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  155. I am an Aussie teacher and I have found inferring is one of the hardest reading strategies to teach to students in year 3.

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    1. Welcome aboard my fellow Aussie educator :) Inferring is a challenging one to teach, indeed...we will be touching on that down the track in our blog posts :) Kylie

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