Following a career as a teacher, administrator, and professional with Rowland Reading Foundation, Highlights Education Group, and The Reading League, Laura Stewart joined 95 Percent Group as Chief Academic Officer. She’s on a mission, and it’s an important one. Stewart says that children today are at risk of falling behind in school and life if they don’t learn to read proficiently by the end of third grade. Her goal is to help all children “flourish as literate citizens of the 21st century.”

Are you looking for ways to make your phonics instruction more fun for students? There are many benefits in using manipulatives, especially with struggling readers.

The most effective phonics intervention instruction is explicit, systematic and sequential. Students acquire skills more quickly when teachers explain phonics patterning using...

Many students struggle with reading the longer words in text – those multisyllable words. Although that’s where they struggle, let’s check for precursor skills...

Congratulations, you’ve successfully assessed your students and perfectly grouped them by skill levels. You know exactly who needs to master which skills to become strong readers. Now, the lingering question is..

Educators often ask where lesson plans help. We believe that they do help because teachers benefit from reminders of the logical sequence of steps in an effective lesson. When providing targeted phonics intervention instruction, there is a logical instructional sequence of helping students focus on the sounds first and spelling later.

Research supports the use systematic phonics intervention instruction as early as possible in the elementary grades to improve decoding, spelling and comprehensions skills. The reality is that students who fall behind in reading are more likely never to catch up.

Let's face it - our schools are facing unprecedented learning loss challenges as they head back to the classroom this spring to complete the 2020-2021 school year. This is not business as usual in our classrooms. Teachers need to act quickly using a diagnostic screener to assess student phonics gaps and provide intervention to meet these needs now and address the need for a rigorous Summer School phonics program.