Decoding Strategies for PARENTS & more!

 I am pretty excited to share with you something I have been working on all summer!

As a first grade teacher, I have had parents tell me that they WANT to help their child learn to read but they just don't know HOW.  Most parents rely on saying, "Sound it out," or simply correcting the word for the student. One parent said to me last year, "I didn't go to school for this like you did. I don't even know what you mean by decoding."

So, I made a Decoding Strategy Quick-Reference Guide for the parents to keep at home. The parent of one of the boys I tutor tried it out for me this summer and she said it was SO helpful!  She comes in every day telling me which strategies she was able to suggest he try when he got stuck. Yea!!!

I will go over it at Back-to-School-Night and show them the hand gestures I use. For example, flipping my hand from palm up to palm down for "flip the sound." I also included a parent letter to send home.

I am also excited to have copies laminated to refer to when I am teaching or coaching students during Guided Reading. Copies will also be available for partner reading since I already teach the students to suggest a strategy rather than tell their partner the word.

I made matching icons to put on my CAFE board when I teach the strategy. If you don't use CAFE you could use these on anchor charts.

 I also made Flip the Sounds Posters for my phonics bulletin board. In the beginning of the year we review letter sounds and I make a BIG deal about the letters that can make 2 sounds and teach the "flip the sounds" strategy. I will refer to this poster and go over these OFTEN!! I am always shocked when I tutor 3rd graders who cannot accurately identify vowel sounds!!

I made a separate poster of the more complex sounds to introduce as we get to them.

I went with a simpler frame to save on ink and I backed it with scrapbook paper. I am a little obsessive about "framing" things like this. I can't stand laminating a plain white page and will often add a "frame" on a math game, etc for my own pleasure even though it totally isn't necessary. I know...it is a sickness.

So what do you think? I am feeling like this may really make a huge difference for my families.
You can start printing and laminating by grabbing your copies in my TpT store. As usual, I'd also like to give a copy to a loyal follower so enter my new giveaway below!
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Congrats to Dana for winning one of my Common Core Assessment Packs in my giveaway that ended yesterday!
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