Tag: structured literacy instruction

Advanced Multisensory Activities for REVLOC

Posted on by Jennifer Hasser

Adapting Activities for REVLOC

This blog post highlights how the multisensory Kendore activities teachers know and love can be altered to help students work on advanced concepts, including the six syllable types of REVLOC. If you’ve attended our webinars or trainings, you may be familiar with these activities! If you would like to know more about our accredited curricula and trainings, check out our website or contact us.

Hot Lava

Early in the curriculum, teachers learn how to use the Code Quest Consonant and Vowel card decks to play Hot Lava to test their students’ automaticity. The UNLOCK REVLOC card deck is perfect for Hot Lava! Lay down two or three syllable type cards next to each other to form a multisyllabic word. Ask students to read the word and then hop on it to stay “safe.” Create a path of these words and let the fun begin!

Note: The words you form with the REVLOC cards do not have to be real. Students need practice decoding both real and nonsense words in order to know how to apply the rules you are teaching.

You can also create a path using a variety of single syllable cards. Ask the students to cross the “hot lava” by jumping only on a certain syllable type, or by naming the syllable type before they jump on the card. For a Hot Lava reminder, watch our demonstration video.

Beach Ball Toss

This Kendore activity is an excellent way to get students up and moving while they practice identifying the six syllable types! Place cards from the UNLOCK REVLOC deck inside the pockets of the Toss and Teach Beach Ball. Toss the ball back and forth and ask your student to read the card their thumb lands on and identify what syllable type is represented.

Advance to having the student read two cards next to each other on the beach ball so that they can practice decoding and smoothly reading multisyllabic words. Remember that having them practice reading real and nonsense words will help them build automaticity.

For a reminder about how to use the Toss and Teach Beach Ball, watch our demonstration video.

Syllable Tracking

If you’re trained in our curriculum, you’ve been working with your students on Sound Track since their very first Kendore lesson. Now that they’ve been introduced to some of the syllable types, they can work on Syllable Tracking!

This activity follows the same structure as Sound Track, but now each rainbow token will represent one syllable. Therefore, your student will work on strengthening their memory skills by recalling a multisyllabic nonsense word, identifying which syllable is changing, and showing the change.

If you have any questions about these activities, please contact us. We would be more than happy to help!

A Conversation about Education, Dyslexia, and Equity

Posted on by Emma Lalor

Our Executive Director Jennifer Hasser, M.Ed., was recently interviewed on the fantastic Dyslexia Duo podcast. Her conversation with Aimee and Melissa spanned two episodes!

In Episode 32, Jennifer talks about how her passion for education began in the high school behavior disorder classroom and transformed as she occupied different roles, including but not limited to being a parent of a dyslexic child and founder/director of a reading remediation center. They also dive into discussions about reading instruction.

During Episode 33, Jennifer discusses the importance of providing teachers with the knowledge, training, and tools needed to identify and support struggling students. In addition, they discuss Kendore Learning’s structured literacy training and multisensory materials, and how Syllables Learning Center provides assessments and one-on-one teletherapy to students nationwide. They’ve conducted 100,000 hours of student sessions in the past 20 years!

“A highly-trained teacher is a very valuable resource.” – Jennifer Hasser, M.Ed.

You can listen to the episodes NOW!

Dyslexia Duo Podcast Part 1

Dyslexia Duo Podcast Part 2

The Importance of Oral Language

Posted on by Jennifer Hasser

If a child has heard a word and understands its meaning, they are more likely to be able to read that word when they encounter it in text. That’s why it’s important to develop oral language by reading and talking to your students!

Oral language skills play a crucial role in literacy development, as they lay the foundation for reading and writing. By reading and talking to your students, you support oral language development by introducing them to vocabulary they will encounter later and the meanings behind those words.

Watch this short video for more information about the importance of oral language.

Chunking Information: A Teaching Strategy

Posted on by Jennifer Hasser

When delivering new content to students (particularly struggling learners), it is important to chunk information into small, digestible parts. Why?

By breaking content into smaller bits, and presenting it gradually over a period of time, we maximize retention rates in the classroom because chunking makes more efficient use of working memory. A child is more likely to remember twenty vocabulary words if they are presented with two or three new words each day rather than all at once.

Watch this short video to hear our Executive Director explain why this strategy helps students succeed!

Our Language Makes Sense!

Posted on by Jennifer Hasser

All too often, we hear people say that the English language doesn’t make sense and that spelling and word meaning “just have to be memorized.” This couldn’t be further from the truth! Our language does make sense…if you know the rules. For example, the word “have” follows the rule that English words should not end in <v>; therefore an <e> is added.

Let’s stop telling our students that our language is illogical, and let’s teach them the tools they need to easily break the code to read and spell thousands of words. Watch Executive Director Jennifer Hasser, M.Ed., explain more in our helpful video.

If you’d like to learn strategies that make structured literacy instruction more effective and memorable, attend our workshops. Our curricula and training program are accredited by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and the International Multisensory Language Education Council (IMSLEC).