Caregiver and community engagement #1

By Carissa Lellos

Teaching, like many other jobs, relies entirely on the relationships you build. Unlike other jobs, there is regular changeover, and it’s not just your success that depends on your ability to connect. One of the hardest lessons I learned during my years as a teacher was the importance of building mutually beneficial relationships with my students’ caregivers. I was trained during my graduate studies to embrace caregivers and community members and to include them in the goings on of my classroom, but was initially resistant. I worried that by inviting them in, all I was doing was providing fodder for criticism. It took work to put my pride aside and put my students’ needs ahead of my own insecurities; doing so made all the difference. It was not easy work, and amid the thousands of other plates teachers are expected to keep spinning, it may seem like a luxury instead of a must-have. In this article, we will dissect the importance of becoming the Dream Team, and in the coming weeks, we will provide concrete tips and resources for taking this important step.

Read More

Teacher Tip Tuesday All About Syllables #6

Last week we talked about the secret vowel sound: schwa. The schwa is the sneaky vowel sound in many words (i.e. bacon, sofa, etc.), including all words with consonant + le syllables. All words with consonant + le syllables are multisyllabic. This means students need tools to determine the vowel sounds in the preceding syllables. Read this week’s Teacher Tip Tuesday to learn how to help your students take this next step towards mastering syllables!

Read More

Teacher Tip Tuesday All About Syllables #5

What is the most common vowel sound? It’s not a long vowel sound. It’s not a short vowel sound, either. It’s not even its own letter! If your students are struggling with syllables, the secret vowel sound may be the root of their trouble.

Want to give your students a superpower? Teach them about the schwa, the secret vowel sound! Read on to learn more about the schwa, its role in Consonant + Le syllables, and ways to give your students this syllable splitting superpower!

Read More

Teacher Tip Tuesday All About Syllables #4

When students know how to split words into syllables, they can read and write longer and more difficult words.  Footsteps2Brilliance has outlined 10 rules to help with syllable division. Students will need to know and practice these rules to successfully split multisyllabic words. Read through this week’s Teacher Tip Tuesday for all 10 rules, plus Footsteps2Brilliance games and free printables to practice them!

Read More

Teacher Tip Tuesday All About Syllables #3

Last week, we showed students that the number of vowel sounds in a word determines the number of syllables. Before learning to split written words into syllables, students need practice hearing syllables. In this week’s Teacher Tip Tuesday, we discuss how you can create a multisensory experience to help your students with this step.

Read More

Teacher Tip Tuesday All About Syllables #2

Vowels are the building blocks of syllables. Students need to understand which letters are vowels before they can break words into syllables. In addition, students need to know the difference between long and short vowel sounds. In this week’s Teacher Tip Tuesday, we discuss ways to teach the vowels and their sounds to set students up for success in understanding syllables.

Read More

Teacher Tip Tuesday All About Syllables #1

What are syllables? In English, every word is comprised of at least one syllable, because every word has at least one vowel sound. The vowel sounds, and where they are located within the word, determine how many syllables the word has, and what type of syllables there are. There are six syllable types: closed, open, vowel consonant-e, vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le. 

Learning to successfully identify and use the six syllable types will lead to better decoding outcomes for our students. With that in mind, Footsteps2Brilliance has introduced more games and pre-designed lessons for teaching syllables to our collection! Our new “All About Syllables Teacher Tip Tuesday” series will help teachers make the most of these comprehensive resources. Let’s do it!

Read More