Boost Your Existing Reading Program with Brain Based Phonics Instruction!

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When Kids Can’t READ the Reading Program

Fast-Tracking the “Too-Slow” Pace of  Traditional Phonics Skill Instruction

Journeys Reading Program

If you’re frustrated with your reading program and the intractably SLOW pace of phonics skill instruction, or, if you are feeling overwhelmed by all of the sight words that kids have to memorize because they can’t read them, then you are in for a real treat!

I want to introduce you to one of my favorite teacher friends, Tara Settle, who just happens to teach in my home state of West Virginia, and who I met while doing a phonics workshop for the Wood County School District in Parkersburg, WV. If you follow me on Facebook Page, Instagram, or Twitter, the name might sound familiar, as I often share peeks into Tara’s classroom.

Tara and her first grade students actually came up with a brilliant tool to help Secret Stories® Word Doctors all over the world whenever a vowel wasn’t making the sound that it should (as per being a Superhero or being “short & lazy”). This add-on, Secret “default” is called the “Head-Bop” Trick, or “Thinking Vowels” strategy, and it helps kids decode those otherwise “non-decodable” sight words in Journeys (and other) Reading Programs, like: of, was, what, want, love, come, done, some, around, among, about, nothing, etc…

I love sharing insight from Tara’s classroom because she really “paints a picture” of not only of WHAT she does, but HOW and WHY she does it….and teachers really need all three if they are to make strategies their own!

For who are teaching first grade and using the Journeys Reading Series, you are really in luck, as that’s the catalyst for Tara’s post, below. For everyone else, regardless of whether you teach kindergarten, first or second grade, and no matter the reading series (or phonics program) you use, you will see that Tara’s situation likely mirrors your own. The reading “programs” don’t give kids at the early grade levels access to the phonics skills they need to read most of the words that are in them! However, your reading series IS the perfect “playground” for your kids to enjoy flexing their reading and writing muscles with the Secrets!

And so, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Tara, who has not one, but TWO sets of Secret Stories® Flashcards!  (You will see why as you read on!)

Secret Stories Phonics Flashcards

(From this point on, Tara’s words are in black, and my commentary will appear in red.)

phonics workshop training

My name is Tara Settle, and as Katie said, I live in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and have taught for a total of 29 years. Having had the privilege of being a stay-at-home mother for my four children, I chose to educate them through homeschooling. It was a wonderful adventure for all of us! Both of my two sons had reading disabilities, and I searched high and low for ways to help them become more proficient in this overwhelming process. We persisted, they overcame, and today they are successful readers.

Fast forward to teaching first grade in a 90% low-socioeconomic status, Title 1 school. I encountered so many of the same struggling readers as my sons. And so I began my online search one summer, determined that there had to be something “out there” that could help my students.

Enter Secret Stories….

The Secrets have changed my teaching career and the reading lives of all my students, who often come from homes with no previous help or reading “lap” time. The first year I used Secret Stories, I realized that it wasn’t your typical “phonics program,” as it worked like nothing I’d ever seen before. When my students understood that Sneaky Y® made 3 sounds, they were able to read words at the beginning of the year that my previous year’s class struggled with until the end. I was convinced that this multi-sensory, neuroscience based way of “cracking the reading code” was exactly what I had been searching for my entire teaching career. Every year, Secret Stories proves to be an approach that truly works for all readers!

One more thing…if you use Journey’s Reading Program and have found the online interactive “Settle On In” Blog for your students, that’s me! I created this free resource for teachers to use with their classes, so be sure to search for your weekly story there for free and safe resources for your class.

Journeys Reading Series/ Phonics Program

Week 1-  Sight Words: play, the, with

I borrowed your ladies sunglasses idea that was posted on the Secret Stories Facebook Page yesterday when introducing “ey/ay” with our Journey’s Reading Series/Phonics Program, week 1 sight word, play. I sent the pig picture out to all my parents in a platform called Seesaw so they could have a (fingers crossed) dinner time conversation about our new Secret. I wouldn’t normally include a picture of the Secret, as per copyright, but I thought this might be a good way to introduce Secret Stories to my parents, as usually I will say, “Ask your child to tell you the Secret about ay/ey that we learned today, and see if they can tell you some words that it’s in.” (I thought that this one should be okay since it has a cute pig in front of the picture— Lol!)

I love the way Tara includes her parents by letting them know to ask to hear a Secret! This is a great way to keep parents in the learning-loop while at the same time, establishing kids’ “ownership” of the Secrets. And while you can’t copy or reproduce any of the Secret graphics or text to send home, you can use the Porta-Pics to give kids access to the Secrets at-home, as well as for individual use in the classroom. They are a little over $2 a piece, and when laminated, they should last 2-3 years, so they can be checked out to each new class. You can also get more ideas on how to share Secrets with parents here.

Secret Stories Phonics AY/EY Secret Pig

 

Secret Stories® Phonics Workshop— The EY/AY Reading Secret

I got out my apron so that I was ready to greet my class today. They have to tell me the Secrets and read the words to enter our classroom! Luckily, they all remember the Secrets!!

The small cards seen in Tara’s apron (which she had specially made) are the cut-apart cards from the back of the Secret Stories® Book, although she also uses flashcards in the top pocket, which you will see a bit further down.

Secret Stories Phonics Apron

Journeys Reading Series/ Phonics Program

Week 2- Sight Words: no, find, sing, funny, they, do

Below is a pic of my sight word review/follow up for today. These are words from our first grade Journeys reading series.

It’s ironic that Journeys scope and sequence for first grade (like most all other reading series/phonics programs) doesn’t introduce the phonics patterns that are needed to actually read these words until the end of first and/or second grade! And yet, when using brain science as a road map to tap into the backdoor learning channels, kids can have them in preK! Don’t believe it? Click here!

Here is a picture of today’s sight word review. These are words from the our Journeys series. Knowing the Secrets means that we don’t have to waste time memorizing sight words, as we can just read them. Note that the words find and do require kids to think like word doctors, which you can read more about here.

Secret Stories® Phonics Means NO MORE SIGHT WORDS

Journeys Reading Series/ Phonics Program

Week 3- Level B Reader, Curious George

Curious George is the Journeys Lesson 3, Level B Reader, and it contained 17 words that my students couldn’t read without Secret Stories. Without these Secrets, they wouldn’t have even been able to decode the title! When you stop and think about it, it truly is mind-boggling, and it makes me so mad on behalf of these struggling students! I seriously wonder how other Journeys first grade teachers in Title 1 schools or with ELL learners use this series without Secret Stories.

It is ironic that the reading series requires that learners be able to read words that contain phonics skills not yet taught. Nor will they be for what is often another one or two more grade level years.

Secret Stories Phonics Secrets in Curious George

The kids also had to sing this Secret to me to enter the room, since you can’t read “George” without it! I used the 6×6 flash cards on my apron (instead of the smaller cards from the back of the book that I usually use) so that they could see the letters better.

Secret Stories Phonics— The ce, ci, cy/ ge, gi, gy Secret

The picture I am sending is of the words from the two leveled B and C readers that I will be reviewing today so that the students continue to see the connection between Secrets and the words in our stories. As an aside, I love having the extra set of space-saver posters, as they are just the right size to put up on my magnetic board next to the words they are in!

Teaching Sight Words

Below is a picture that I posted on Facebook that combines the two pics above. I love how Tara is constantly modeling how to use the Secrets to unlock the words they are reading, not just in these stories, but in text experiences throughout the entire instructional day— from math to social studies. In the hallways, on bulletin boards, even on the lunch menu in the cafeteria, Secrets are always there….always teaching. (As one little first grader in Mrs. Mac’s Class said, “I can’t turn it off! The Secrets are EVERYWHERE…. and I just keep reading them!!!!!”)

Secret Stories Phonics Makes Teaching Sight Words Easy

Journeys Reading Series/ Phonics Program

Week 4- Level C Reader, Lucia’s Neighborhood

All of the following are from our Journeys level C reader, Lucia’s Neighborhood. They had to read the word fire on my apron when entering the room this morning. This will be my introduction to the word “firehouse” in my level C vocabulary reader for guided reading this morning. (Not to mention the word firefighter, which is also in this story, and yet without the Secrets, would be virtually impossible for most beginning first graders to read!)

A word like fire requires knowledge of the phonics rule about silent e….. or, in Secret Stories-terms, the Mommy E® Secret! (If you don’t know it, it’s super-easy, as is Babysitter Vowels® which explains what happens when “mommy just has to get out of the house!” to read/spell multi-syllabic words like making, motor, etc… You can them both here!)

Secret Stories Phonics and Journeys Reading Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to read the word Lucia where /a/ is making the schwa (“uhhh”) sound, I remind the kids about the “Thinking Vowels” who can’t make up their minds whether to be long or short, and so they bop themselves on the head as they say, “Uhhhhhh?” You will see that I code “thinking vowels” with a dot for where they smacked their head. (I usually ask the kids to look for the Secrets they see in the words and then underline them.) Once again, just look at how many Secrets are in the title! I truly have no idea how I used to teach reading before Secret Stories!

When teachers say that Secret Stories® “changed the way they teach,” or that they “couldn’t go back to teaching without them,” it’s because things that used to be “so hard” are now so easy! Like, for example, helping beginning readers figure out the words in the title of this book—especially when the reading series or phonics program hasn’t yet introduced the skills they need to do it! Many of these patterns aren’t “supposed” to be taught until second grade, which is way too long to wait, especially if you need them to read and write beginning in kinder! Just think how many reading and writing opportunities are lost on kids who don’t know the Secrets, from kindergarten to second grade. And yet, they’re so easy, you can share them with pre-schoolers!

Secret Stories Phonics and Journeys Reading Program

Below are the Secrets they need to read the sight words in this lesson. Notice that like in the word Lucia, we can use the same “Thinking Vowels” trick that we used to read Lucia to read the sight word does.

Secret Stories Phonics Flashcards and Journeys Reading Curriculum

Teaching Reading & Writing Connections with Secret Stories

My team teacher, Mrs. Buckley, did a word work writing activity with our first grade enrichment group. We split our classes so as to better meet the needs of  each or our groups. You will see more from Mrs. Buckley further down, below.

I love the way Tara and Lisa model use of the Secrets by “twisting and turning” them for both reading AND writing. This is so important in helping beginning grade learners understand the inherent reading and writing connection. Many early grade learners don’t realize that the same letter sounds that help them read words are equally powerful in writing them. Adding Secrets to the mix accelerates this otherwise slow learning curve, as the Secrets give them something beyond just individual letter sounds to read and write with! 

First Grade Word Word with Secret Stories Phonics

First Grade Word Word with Secret Stories Phonics

First Grade Word Word with Secret Stories Phonics

Journeys Reading Series/ Phonics Program

End of Week 4

So far, these are all of the Secrets that I have introduced by the end of today, beginning of Week 4, Journeys program. I teach the Secrets, as we need them, to read the words that we encounter, not only in our reading series, but throughout the instructional day.

I love this! Why make kids memorize words when they could just learn the Secrets they need to read them?  When you memorize a sight word, you get “one word” as your prize. When you learn a Secret, you get “thousands!”

Secret Stories Phonics Secrets that We Know

Journeys Reading Series/Phonics Program

Week 5- Level D Reader, Gus Takes the Train

Here is what I have on the board for Monday next week, which is from Journeys Lesson 5, Gus Takes The Train. I will also be introducing /ation/ for station. We pretend to pull the train whistle while saying the /a/ and then do the /tion/ motions on the card.

Here is the Secret mentioned above, as shown in the new “Decorative Squares” poster set.

Secret Stories Phonics Poster for tion, sion, ation Secret

This will occur when someone uses the vocabulary word “station” during the week. Singing the song “Down by the Station” also reinforces this Secret Story. I also teach them the song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” After singing it throughout the week, they will be given a copy of the text to highlight the Secret Stories they find in it. Then we read it together and sing it together from their highlighted page. They love it!

As in previous lessons, we first look for the Secrets we need to read the title, which you can see in the first picture below.

Secret Stories Phonics and Journeys Reading Curriculum

It happened!
We used the train sound today and /ation/ because we had to say “train station” in our read-aloud! Woo-hoo!!!! The class helped me make this track and we now enter and leave the room to the /ch/ sound, and then as we gain speed, it becomes the /tion/ sound. Of course, we have to pull the train whistle for /a-tion/ too!  (Notice the “partially pink” railroad track? That’s because we ran out of black tape— Lol!)

Secret Stories Phonics and Journeys Reading Program Lesson 5

Now we find the Secrets that help us read the sight words introduced in Journeys Reading Program, Lesson 5.

Secret Stories Phonics and Teaching Sight Words

 

It’s so much fun to go on Secret Stories “hunts,” which is where kids try and see who can find the most Secrets on a page or in a book! This is fun to do in whole or small group, and is also a great way to increase learners’ visual acuity for quicker pattern recognition in text. They kids love spotting Secrets! And every time we find one, I reinforce how knowing the Secret helps us to figure out the word.

Teaching Sight Words is Easy with Secret Stories Phonics Program

I really don’t “plan” which Secrets to teach beyond looking at the sight words and text in the main selection and leveled readers. There are so many opportunities to introduce almost all of the Secrets quickly. Since my first graders have been exposed to the Secret Stories in kindergarten, I have lost some of the element of surprising them with new ones. That is why, at this point, I feel comfortable putting up the cards to discuss with our new sight words, as it’s not the first time the kids have heard them…and it certainly won’t be the last!

Of course, we are always discovering new Secrets in words from our read-alouds, discussions, and writing blocks. One of the reasons that I put Secrets up with the text is to reinforce the connection between Secret Stories and reading. Students need to understand that the Secrets are the keys they need to unlock words. Secrets are power—the more they know, the more they can read and write! And they are everywhere, in all of the words that we come across each day.

I know this sounds like it should be an easy concept for my class to comprehend, but some can take longer to connect the dots than others. All of the kids know the Secrets, but it can take some longer than others to start applying them, which is why I take every opportunity to model using them whenever and wherever we are working with text.

I plan on introducing the /ch/ Secret this week with our story about trains.It seems appropriate, especially since its “default” sound is depicted as a “conductor” on the Secret Story poster! I’m not sure what word will trigger our “discovery” but am sure it will occur during this week.

And for those who don’t know the /ch/ Secret, check out the story as shown on the reverse side of the new Secret Stories® Flashcards, shown below. They have the Secret graphic on one side and the story text on the back.

The NEW “Decorative Squares” Phonics Posters

Secret Stories Phonics Poster with ch Secret Story

And for those who don’t know the /ch/ Secret, check out the story as shown on the reverse side of the new Secret Stories® Flashcards, shown below. They have the Secret graphic on one side and the story text on the back.

Secret Stories Phonics Flash Cards with Picture and Story

Secret Stories Phonics Flashcards 

Secret Stories Phonics Flash Cards with Picture and Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My teacher friends wanted you to see how excited they are to gets the flash cards! ❤️

Secret Stories Phonics Flash Cards with Picture and Story

Hands-On Learning with the Secrets

I also wanted to point out that this is the first year I have been able to have the Secrets right beside our sight words on the whiteboard. The new phonics flashcards put the Secrets right into our hands! They are no longer just on our walls in the big poster size, but have now “come down” to interact with us during our learning discussions.We have them in our hands at stations, during guided reading groups, intervention groups, on the board beside the text, in line playing games while waiting, and so much more. Between the new flashcards and the Dual-Use Placards (which I bought at the end of last year) the Secrets are now both on AND off the walls and interacting with our daily learning!

Tara Settle Guest Post— Journeys Reading Program and Secret Stories Phonics

I also wanted also share this quick parent video that made and send to parents using SeeSaw. It’s a great way to keep parents in the “Secret” learning loop!

And here is one that I sent home about our upcoming sight words.

Tara Settle, 1st Grade Teacher
“Settle on In” Blog

Reading Intervention Isn’t Just for Struggling Readers

Lisa Buckley- First Grade Teacher (at Tara’s school)

How can the “Secrets” help more capable readers? In our district, reading intervention can refer to higher-level students who need more challenging reading opportunities, as well as to those who struggle.

Even capable readers get curious at times about why the letters do what they do. In my enrichment group we’ve pondered questions such as, “Why does /eigh/ say “ā” and why isn’t it spelled /ay/?”

We also discuss words like sleigh vs. slay, and how the Secrets help us attack these words in both spelling and reading. These kids know most, if not all of the Secrets, however, they are still curious about the connection to sounds that can represent different spellings. So, we have been using the Secrets intensively to study multi-syllabic words, while looking for multiple Secrets in the words. This helps with both fluency and comprehension when reading more difficult text.

In addition to the Curious George “word work” pictures from my enrichment group shown higher up above, you can see in the pics below how many words the kids found that had the Secrets about /ous/ and /i tries e on for size/.

You Can't Read Curious George in Journeys Lesson 3 without Secret Stories Phonics Secrets!

Secret Stories Phonics Posters— The ous Secret Story

Secret Stories Phonics Posters— "i tried e on for size!"

 

 

Here are the /ous/ and /”i tries e on for size”/ Secrets (“Decorative Square Posters”).

 

 

 

 

My immense thanks to Tara, as well as her teammate, Lisa Buckley, for taking the time to share how Secret Stories® phonics instruction amplifies their reading/phonics program and gives kids “warp-speed” access to the tools they need to read and write! I can tell you that when I last left their school, these two were in the process of creating a “green room” in which to film a Secret Stories® Yoga video (I kid you not!) that kids could do during literacy center rotations. I can’t even imagine what this would look like, but I promise to let you know as soon as I find out!

In the meantime, I want to share this picture of Tara in her famous apron, as it’s one of my favorites because in it, I describe how she literally turns herself into a “walking, talking, AND singing Secret Story every morning!

Secret Stories Phonics Instruction with Journeys Reading Program

In closing, I want to let you know that I will be spotlighting different teachers for different reasons in upcoming posts, and hopefully, adding some good stuff to your “Secret” bag of teaching tools and tricks!

On that note, I would love to hear (and see!) what you’re doing with the Secrets in your classroom….I would love for you to connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, or by email! I’ve tried to make sharing what you’re doing in your classroom with the Secrets super easy by adding an upload link for sharing pics and vids to the Secret Stories® website here. (You will also find it at the bottom of the home page on the Secret Stories® website.)

And on that note, I also wanted to highlight Melissa Snyder for her “creative cutting” of the Secret Stories® Original Posters as she seems to have started a trend! (That is, for teachers who are artistic enough to trust themselves with the scissors—not me!)

Secret Stories Phonics for Warp-Speed Reading & Writing Skill Access!

Check out her clever-cutting of the Secret poster for eu/ew (mouse ears!) as well as /”i tries e on for size!”/ below. I also loved her Sneaky Y® and the Superhero Vowels®! If you don’t already know all of these Secrets—including Mommy E® and Babysitter Vowels®— you can learn them all here!

Secret Stories Phonics Posters— "i tries e on for size!"

Secret Stories Phonics Posters— The Sneaky Y® Secret Story

 

 

Secret Stories Phonics Posters— The Superhero Vowels®

Until Next Time,
Katie Garner :-)

Not More Reading Instruction, Just Better! (And Taught with the Brain in Mind!)

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Kids don’t need MORE reading instruction, they need better reading instruction… and taught with the brain in mind!

Happy Summer to All of My Dear Teacher (and Principal) Friends!

I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me, but like many of you, I haven’t stopped running, and feel like I am still waiting for my summer to start! That said, my mental “laundry list” of things I need to tell you has now grown SO BIG that my brain simply can’t hold any more! And on top of that, there is one that I have been bursting to tell you, but I wanted to make sure that we had all of the kinks worked out first. If you follow on FaceBook or Instagram, you have probably heard about it.

There is a new Secret Stories® website! And it is AWESOME!!! I am not just saying this because it’s my website, because it’s not…I actually made it for you! It spotlights real kids in real classrooms with real teachers, and it is my hope that it will help to shift the traditional mindsets about what kids can do and how easily they can do it when you follow the brain science!

I have heard from so many teachers and administrators (who consider themselves long-standing members of the Secret Stories “tribe”) who say how difficult it can be to explain to those who don’t know how Secret Stories takes half the time, but gets kids twice as far…. and how the Secrets “live” in between the reading and writing that you’re already doing each and every day. How its always there, always teaching.

This new website makes it easy by “showing,” rather than telling— juxtaposing traditional curriculum-based scope and sequences and sight words lists with video of actual kids, pics of their writing and real teacher commentary. This site was created by teachers, for teachers (and for their principals), and most importantly, for our kids… because they can’t wait.

To give you an idea, here is one of my favorite examples from the homepage, which is actually just a snippet from one of my favorite pages, that happens to have the same name as the title of this email— “Not More, Just Better“….

The above screen shot is actually from the homepage, so to watch the video clips, you need to access it directly, here. From there, you can dig into the scope and sequences for phonics skill introduction of the major reading series and phonics programs (incl. Wonders, Journeys, Fundations, Letterland, Zoo Phonics, etc..) through 3rd grade, and then watch preK, kinder and first graders not only using the so-called 2nd and 3rd grade skills (a.k.a. “Secrets”) to read and write, but actually teachingthem, begging the question….Why Wait?

Again, the videos above will only play from the page directly, here.

All around the site, you can explore brain science research, strategies and methods, student writing, videos, teacher and administrator perspectives, and even access free posters and other downloads, with lots more to come soon! You can also check out reasons #2 and #3 for this email, which are both new products that have been the most highly requested over the years…. flashcards with the stories printed on the back AND multi-colored posters!

So here’s a sneak peek at both, but you can see lots more on the site in the product section, which is now so well organized that it’s super easy to find exactly what you are looking for, and see lots more pics!

Secret Stories® Flashcards with Stories on the Back!

The 6×6 inch flash cards have the pictures on the front and the stories on the back, and are made from the heaviest card stock, but with a beautiful “magazine” coating finish that “little fingers” will love!

Secret Stories "Decorative Squares" Kit/ Posters

The 12×12 inch decorative square posters are printed in whimsical colors of blue, pink, green, lavender an yellow— which many of you actually helped to pick out on social media!

They have so many uses beyond just display, and are the perfect size for whole group Secret games and play (which you will soon be able to read more about on my blog, which is now on the new site as well, but in need of a little tweaking after the move from Blogger to WordPress.)

And for those who have older posters sets and are considering upgrading, all of the Secret Stories® poster sets can be ordered separately (as well as with the kit, which includes the book & CD). And so you know, your old posters make an awesome “big book” that kids will beg to take home and share with parents. When I was in the classroom, one of my best student incentives was my “Big Book of Secrets” (made from my old poster set) that my best “Secret-Spotter” got to take home as a reward each week. And my parents loved it too, as they got to learn all of our Secrets!

I also wanted to share my other favorite page, which I think is equally eye-opening, especially for those who don’t understand how Secret Stories® makes use of brain science to fast-track early (and struggling) learner access to the “whole” code that kids need to read and to write. It’s called “What About Sight Words?” and here’s just a bit…

The Brain on Sight Words

Stanford Brain Study on Sight Words

Dolch Words- Don't Memorize What You Can READ

 

Secret Stories® Phonics vs. Sight Words

I promise that there’s a whole lot more that I can’t even begin to share here, and so much more for you to explore! I hope that you will not only visit the site, but that you will kick your shoes off and stay a while, as there is so much inspiration there from so many amazing teachers and kids! And for those who’ve been a part of the Secret Stories Tribe for a while now and sent me pics or vids from their classrooms over the years, don’t be surprised if you find yourself there, as well! And if you don’t, I’m still posting, so you will soon- Lol!

And for those who are relatively new to Secret Stories, or just haven’t gotten around to sharing your Secret Stories “stories” (i.e. pics, vids, writing, etc…) now you can! I’ve made it super simple with automatic upload directly through the site, and you could win a prize! You can even use this feature to spotlight your very own Secret Stories Student STARS! I would love to share Secrets Stories moments from your classroom, so click here and join the tribe!

Finally, reason #4 for this email is to let everyone know (albeit totally last minute) that I will be speaking at the ILA (International Reading Conference) in Austin, Texas on Saturday ….as in the day after tomorrow! If anyone reading this is planning to attend (or is already there!) please shoot me an email and let me know, as I would love to meet up tomorrow night! You can check out my other speaking dates here, although many school PD and conference dates haven’t yet been posted. And if you can’t make a conference or school workshop, you can still access my interactive handout download, which you can find here. It’s the next best thing to being there! ,

Wow, that was a whole lot to share, but I feel much better now you’re all up to speed!

And hopefully, I got this out in time to actually catch some of you at ILA this weekend. If so, we will be sure to take pics and post them on Instagram, which you will be able to see (even if you’re not on Instagram) at the bottom of the homepage…. pretty cool, huh!

Secret Stories Instagram

With Warm Wishes for a Happy & Healthy Summer!Katie

PS For those who have emailed about using Secret Stories® with your existing reading curriculum, or even a supplemental phonics program, please know that this is the ideal, as Secret Stories® is not a program, but simply puts meaning where there otherwise wouldn’t be to speed up learner-access to the code and makes the learning go “warp-speed!”

And more specifically, for those who have asked about using Secret Stories® with the Orton-Gillingham Approach (as well as with Dyslexic Learners) there will be a three-part blog post/newsletter coming out soon (hopefully late next week) on these topics, as well as one on Secret Stories® classroom games, and even a Bingo download that I know you will love, so stay tuned! And to make sure that nothing gets lost in your spam/junk folder, be sure to add me to your contact list—  Katie@KatieGarner.com

Skip the Phonics Bus and Catch the Merry-Go-Round!

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Katie Garner Secret Stories Linkedin pageSecret Stories Facebook PageSecret Stories Youtube PageSecret Stories TwitterSecret Stories PinterestSecret Stories Instagram

Does it ever feel like every day is a new day in Johnny’s head?
What I mean is, have you ever spent an entire week teaching something, only to have some kids look at you like they have NEVER seen it before on the following Monday? With so many skills to cover in so little time, teachers have to ensure that what they teach actually sticks.
Imagine that you are a bus driver and that the skill you are teaching is a stop along your route. Some of your students make it to the stop in time to catch the bus; others do not and so they are left behind. So what happens to the kids who miss the bus? Will there be another bus coming up behind it that they can catch? And what happens if they’re still not ready? How many more chances will they have to get on board?

Now instead of a bus driver, imagine that you are a merry-go-round operator, and the skill you are teaching is one of those pretty horses on the merry-go-round that keeps on spinning round and round. Opportunities to jump on are constant and ongoing, as it’s literally impossible to “miss” the merry-go-round!

Secret Stories® Phonics "Merry-Go-Round" Memories for Phonics Skills that Stick
Consider this same merry-go-round analogy as a framework for what brain science tells us makes memories stick, which is to provide spaced repetition at designated intervals (see below) so that the newly learned information just “keeps coming back,” and can therefore be more easily transferred into learners’ long-term memory. Once there, the information is theirs forever—never to be forgotten or fall prey to the “summer-slide!”
Skills that are traditionally introduced in a linear fashion over multiple grade level years (like letter sounds and phonics patterns) can be the most challenging to “bake” using the above recipe. With so many skills to cover, so little time to teach them, and so many students who are not developmentally ready to learn them in kindergarten, teachers in first and second grade are often trying to reinforce skills that many learners don’t even have.

If teachers in preK or kindergarten introduce a letter of the week, what happens when a student misses “D” week because he’s out sick? Worse yet, what if he is out for two weeks and misses both “D” and “E” weeks?  What if a learner isn’t developmentally ready for kindergarten and hardly picks up any of letter sounds the letter sounds introduced that year?

Click on the video above for individual letter sound mastery 
in 2 weeks to 2 months via early learners’ muscle memory.
Will the first grade bus have time to circle back around through each of those individual letter sound “stops” that he missed in kindergarten? If it does, will it be at the expense of making all of the necessary first grade stops— th, sh, ch, ph, wh, gh, etc..? And as he gets further and further behind having missed so many stops, how will he compensate for the skills he doesn’t have? Will he have to memorize even more sight words in order to make up for all of the skills he didn’t get that are in all of the words he can’t read?

When it comes to reading and writing and the skills kids need to do it, this conversation becomes critical. Traditionally, the “code” that’s needed to read and write— from the individual letter sounds, blends and long and short vowels,  to the silent e/Mommy e®), Sneaky Y®, digraphs, vowel combinations and VCCV/VCV/Babysitter Vowels®— are all “chopped-up and divvied-out” for formal introduction across multiple grade level years (PreK-2nd), which means that kids simply cannot afford to miss even ONE bus along the way….not if they’re supposed to be done “learning to read” by the end of second grade and ready to “read to learn” by third.

Closing the distance on all of the “missed stops” (i.e. phonics skills) in such a short amount of time is extremely difficult and rarely happens with traditional methods of instruction. Instead, kids who missed buses along the way must learn to compensate for the “holes” in their skill ability by memorizing more sight words and becoming better guessers, as the instructional focus is no longer on teaching the reader, but on teaching the reading. Struggling readers will carry these gaping holes with them through subsequent grade levels, where they become stuck on the instructional hump between learning to read and reading to learn.

The critical skills that kids need to read and write must be banned from the bus. They belong on the merry-go-round! And if you are using Secret Stories® to underscore your existing reading curriculum and instruction, then the merry-go-round is already spinning around in your classroom, though you probably didn’t even notice it. 

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "AU/AW"

Every time you tell or retell a Secret, you are giving students another opportunity to jump on! 

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "ER, IR, UR"

Each time you ask if there is a Secret in a word they are trying to read, or if they hear a Secret sound in a word they can’t spell, the merry-go-round is spinning…. solidifying a “deep-in-the-gut” level of skill-ownership for those who have already jumped on, while continually circling back for those not quite ready.

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "EU/EW"

Using Secret Stories® to underscore existing core reading instruction makes it impossible for anyone to miss the bus because the Secrets just keep coming back— shared and re-shared, told and re-told, used and re-used— as students read and write across all content areas and throughout the entire instructional day.

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "TH"
“The Secrets are the ‘life-blood of our classroom, always within reach and ready for use, whenever and wherever they are needed”  (Thank you, Tara Settle, for that great description!)
Underscoring core reading curriculum and instruction with the Secrets naturally provides for the spaced repetition and staggered reinforcement that research shows “makes skills stick.”  It’s not intentional, but automatic, and it continues with each subsequent grade level at which the Secrets are needed. The code doesn’t change with each grade level year, nor do the phonics skills kids need to crack it! Kinders are expected to read and write words like the, she, now, girl, boy, play, etc… even though they contain phonics skills that sit on the scope and sequence for first and second grade. Three to four grade level years is just TOO LONG to make learners wait for access to the whole code!
Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "OUS"

By targeting phonics skills to the earlier developing, affective “feeling” domain, Secret Stories® empowers learners as young as kindergarten with high-leverage phonics skills, like  Mommy E® and the Babysitter Vowels®, providing the much-needed “trigger” for determining whether a vowel will be long or short. And the same Babysitter Vowel® Secret that beginning readers need in order to decode words like making or motor, upper-grade readers can use to crack words in higher level text hibernating or migration. 

Secret Stories® Phonics "SECRETS" — Making Phonics Make SENSE!

And that merry-go-round just keeps on spinning— providing ongoing and never-ending opportunities for all kids to hop on when they’re ready!  And hop on, they will because Secret Stories® transform the code from skills they have to learn into “secrets” they WANT to know!

 

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sampler Pack

Teaching phonics is not intuitive, but many things that great teachers naturally do are! Today’s educators can take advantage of the advancements in new technology and brain science to hone their teacher-instincts and streamline instructional practice.

An awareness and understanding of the brain science as it relates to best teaching and learning practices calls into question not only what we do, but also how, why, and even when we do it. It empowers us to go further— to be better, stronger and faster (think the Bionic Man!) and to hone our best teaching tools to perfection! “Neuroscience speaks loud and clear to educators, but it is up to us to heed its message!” (Dr. Kurt Fischer, Harvard University)

Secret Stories® Phonics— Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind!
If you would like to dive deeper into the research behind Secret Stories® and the process of targeting phonics skill instruction to the affective domain for accelerated mastery, you can download the white paper by Dr. Jill Buchan, here.  (Dr. Buchan is also the author of the 2 Sisters Daily CAFE / Daily5 white paper.)

Finally, I want to let everyone know that I have dragged myself out of my comfort zone to learn about and become more active on Instagram. If you’re already on Instagram, you can find me @TheSecretStories, and if you’re not, you can get started with me! I’ve learned (and posted!) there every day over this past week, and have really enjoyed the more personal level of engagement and interaction that Instagram offers. I will continue to post there daily (cuz it’s a lot easier than composing a semi-well worded blog post— Lol!) sharing the latest research, live videos, YOURS and other teachers classroom pics and vids, as well as some behind-the-scenes conference and PD fun!

My hope is to create a special space where we can communicate, collaborate, grow and share as a Secret Stories® tribe, as well as continue discussions started in emails like this one. I really hope that you will join me! (And if you do, be sure to use the hashtag #SecretStoriesReading and #BrainRead in your post so that I see it.

Until Next Time,
Katie :-)

PS I will be doing multiple featured sessions at the Michigan Reading Conference next weekend, and the North Carolina Reading Conference the weekend after that, followed by the Montana State Title I Conference, where I’ll be doing a morning keynote and multiple breakouts. And if you would like to check out my spring/summer speaking dates, or schedule a school or district PD/workshop, just click here.

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Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!
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Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

 

Katie Garner Education Keynote Speaker and Secret Stories® Phonics Author
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

 
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Teach the READER, not the Reading! The Sight Word Epidemic

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Sight Words…. Friend or Foe?

Stanford Brain Study on Sight Words

Stanford University Brain Study on Sight Words

And the Research Says…..

Research shows that teaching kids to decode, or “sound out” words sparks far more optimal brain circuitry than instructing them to memorize them. 

Stanford University’s study on brain waves shows how different teaching methods affect reading development…

“Beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, instead of trying to learn whole words, increase activity in the area of their brains best wired for reading. In other words, to develop reading skills, teaching students to sound out “C-A-T” sparks more optimal brain circuitry than instructing them to memorize the word ‘cat,’ and the study found these teaching induced differences show up even on future encounters with the word. This groundbreaking study provides some of the first evidence that a specific teaching strategy for reading has direct neural impact.”
—Dr. Bruce McCandlss (Click here to access the study.)

In other words, never MEMORIZE what you can READ!
So why do beginning grade learners have to memorize so many sight words?

That’s easy.
It’s because they can’t read them.

The Science of Reading: Decoding Sight Words vs. Memorizing Them

Most kindergartners spend the entire grade level year learning the individual letters and sounds, which means that they whole year they’re in kindergarten, they can effectively read almost nothing. Even once they do master the individual letters and sounds, most still can’t read almost anything.

That’s because when letters get together in words, they most often make entirely different sounds than the ones they make by themselves. These letter sound patterns are called phonics skills and traditionally take between three to four grade level years to acquire, from prek to 3rd grade. That’s a long time to make kids wait for the whole code needed to read and write—especially since they’re doing both every day, beginning in kindergarten!

But how do beginning grade learners read words like: the, they, my, she, or, are, how, saw, too, day, girl, boy, more, etc.. when the letters they know aren’t making the sounds they should?

The answer is they don’t. They just have to memorize them.

Why Sight Words Don't Work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early grade teachers often rely on sight word memorization to help beginning and struggling readers pass grade level text assessments. It’s meant to help compensate for all of the phonics skills not yet taught, and yet needed in order to read the words. The result, however, is that even “easy to read” words like those above are added on to an already overwhelming list of required sight words that kids have to memorize—not because they not decodable, but because they don’t yet have the code-based skills they need to read them.

Most districts across the U.S. currently require first grade students to “know” (not read) 300 words in order to pass on to second grade, which only serves to shift the instructional focus from teaching the reader to teaching the reading (i.e. the words). Not only is word memorization ineffective and potentially harmful as a reading strategy (as per the above research done by Stanford University and that related to the Science of Reading on Dyslexia)  but it’s also highly inefficient and developmentally inappropriate. With so much instructional time spent on memorizing words, there’s little left over to help learners develop the skills they actually need to read them. Not to mention that, for young children, the most meaningful learning occurs through movement, play, questioning and exploration.

Fast-Tracking Phonics through the Brain’s Backdoor

The Stanford study shows why it’s so important to underscore the traditionally slow pace of phonics instruction with Secret Stories®, particularly at the earliest grade levels where “daily reading and writing time” holds little value for students who haven’t yet learned the phonics skills needed to actually read or write.

The Secrets give very young, as well as struggling upper grade learners, to make sense of letter sound behavior, in the same way they make sense of their own behavior, and that of their classmates….who doesn’t get along, who has crushes on each other, who always gets hurt, who is sneaky (and where they are likely to get away with it!), doing what your mom or babysitter says tells you to (but only if they are close enough to make you!) etc.

sound wall au aw

Social Emotional “Superhighways” for Accelerated Learning

Brain science carves-out a perfect “backdoor” pathway for learning, one that’s rooted in the earlier developing, affective, or “feeling” domain.  Our brain develops from back to front, and the earlier-developing “feeling-based” networks offer a more easily accessible and reliable pathway for learning than the later-to-develop, “higher level” cognitive processing centers.

This is especially true for very young learners, who often experience issues with developmental readiness, language delays, etc., as well as for older, struggling readers with different language backgrounds/deficits, cognitive processing delays, including dyslexic learners.

 

phonics for dyslexia

 

Taking advantage of the brain’s “backdoor” systems for learning by aligning phonics skill concepts with already familiar, social-emotional experiences and understanding empowers even very young and inexperienced learners to easily predict the “most” and “next-most” likely sounds of letters in words—even those they have never seen before.

The Secrets put meaning where there would otherwise be none (i.e. letters/sounds), giving teachers a way to make phonics make sense to kids! The more Secrets they know, the more words they can read…..and the less words they have to memorize!

“A Secret’s Worth a Thousand Words”

Knowing the Secrets empowers kids to decode approximately 95% of the most commonly memorized sight words, which means they can be crossed off the list of 300 words to memorize, and instead, be add to the ever-growing number of  words that they can just read.

 

decoding sight words

 

The Secrets work with any existing reading curriculum or phonics program to fast-track learner access to the code they need to read and write, with no grade level “walls” and no designated waiting times.

 

 

And to decode those seemingly “undecodable” words, like: of, was, want, what, some, come, love, done, etc., check out the  “Thinking Vowels/ Head Bop” strategy in the video below.

 

Secret Stories® is not a program, but works with any existing reading series and/or phonics curriculum to give teachers an easy way to fast-track more of the phonics skills kids need to read and write—with no “grade level” walls and no designated waiting times.

 

 

These little brain based stories explain the sounds letter make when they get together, with posters to help kids remember for independent reading and writing. Together, they help to cement the critical sound-symbol (i.e. speech to print) connections in the brain, and to empower even the youngest learners with the tools they need to read and write, instead of just copying words and memorizing them. 

A Secret Stories® Sound Wall crystalizes “speech to print” connections for reading and writing in a way that all learners can easily understand, even kindergartners!

 

secret stories sound wall posters

 

For a deeper dive into how we can use brain science as a road map to fast-track phonics skills for reading, check out this video clip, and continue the conversation in the NEW Secret Stories® “Teaching Phonics with the Brain in Mind!” Support Group on Facebook!

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Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

 

Katie Garner Education Keynote Speaker and Literacy Consultant for Professional Development
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

 
Secret Stories® Phonics Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind #BrainREAD

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How to Avoid Having “Too Many Cooks in the Phonics Kitchen!”

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Too Many Phonics Rules, Too Little Time

oo phonics story

Dear Katie,
I have been a Reading Specialist for thirty years, as well as an adjunct university professor. I have enjoyed great success with the Secret Stories, and my kindergarten through fifth grade students have had such an easy time mastering them and their reading levels have soared! Have you ever thought about adding more Secrets? For example, what about for these patterns, below?
—ck (as in duck)
—dge (as in edge)
—tch (as in catch)
—que (as in question)
—old (as in hold)
—ost (as in most)
—ind (as in kind)
—ild (as in wild)
—ture (as in adventure)
—on (as in Monday)
—olt (as in bolt)
—stle (as in whistle)
—ive (as in give)
And finally, what are some good books and/or materials to use with, as well as to reinforce the Secret Stories? 
Best,
Laura B., Reading Specialist
Laura also sent a little note from Ella, who’d asked me to write more stories, and also to let me know that her favorite Secret Story was the one about /th/…..which is just too cute!
“We had fun learning the Secret Stories.
Can you write (more) stories? My favorite is TH!”
From Ella 
I LOVE questions like these, so thank you to Laura and Ella for reaching out to ask them! Questions like this provide the perfect opportunity for me to open up a big can of worms when it comes to the way we traditionally think about phonics and reading instruction, in general.

Secret Stories® is not like traditional phonics, nor is it like any phonics or reading program. There are no “grade level walls” that delay access to the code kids need to read and write The Secrets simply put meaning where there would otherwise be none, so as to shift instruction from brain-antagonistic to brain-compatible.

Secret Stories Phonics — Accelerated Access to the Phonics Code

The brain is a “pattern-making” machine, and Secret Stories® feeds its craving to make sense of letter sound behavior in a way that even the youngest or most struggling readers can easily understand. The rule of thumb when creating the Secrets was not to align them with traditional phonics “rules,” but with the brain science. The Secrets are tools, not rules, which means that they are designed for the sole purpose of helping kids crack words apart (i.e. decode for reading) and put them back together (i.e. encode for writing). 

Secret Stories® Phonics— The Brain is a Pattern-Making Machine!

How to Predict the Most Likely Sounds of Letters in Unknown Words

Take -le,  for example, as in words like little or middle. There is no Secret for the –le sound because it’s not necessary in to read the words— not if learners know that the /e/ at the end won’t talk anyway. (Mommy E® is supposed to tell any vowel that’s one letter away, “YOU SAY YOUR NAME!” However, I like to tell kids that “Sometimes mommy’s there, but she’s just too tired to care!” ex. have, because, riddle, etc…)

Likewise, if a phonics pattern is so rare that it would be of minimal use to elementary grade level readers, then it is not addressed with a Secret. In such cases, experience is the best teacher, so the key is to get enough real skills under learners’ belts so that they can get up and running with text, and allow text experience to fine-tune learners’ skills. An example of this would be the silent t in words containing the -st or -stle pattern, as in whistle or listen. This sound spelling applies to so few words that it doesn’t merit the time and space it would take up in beginning or struggling readers’ brains. Moreover, learners how know just enough Secrets to read the rest of such words would likely be able to make the adjustment to figure out the word.

The key to being able to successfully give beginning grade learners everything they need is not to burden them with anything they don’t need. (Sorry for the double negative, but hopefully you get the drift!) In simpler terms, don’t get caught up in the minutia! The ultimate goal is GET KIDS READING by not taking 3-4 grade level years to deliver the “whole” code they need to do it!

By using brain-based connections to make phonics make sense, we can accelerate learner-access to the “whole” code that’s needed to read and write—rather than divvying it out in grade-level “bits and pieces!” This allows beginning grade learners to start gaining valuable text experience years earlier than they otherwise could. And READING is a far better teacher than we will ever be!

In addition to providing logical explanations for letter sound behavior that the brain craves, Secret Stories®also accounts for their “next-most likely” default sounds — all of which are embedded into the sound posters. Because these defaults follow the same social emotional “feeling” based logic that drives learners’ own behavior, even inexperienced, beginning readers (and upper grade struggling readers) are easily able “think-through” the alternative sound behaviors of letters in unknown words instead of just having to memorize them (as exceptions).

Filtering-out the fringe and streamlining the most common letter sound behaviors offers kids a new way of thinking about phonics. Instead of the binary “rule/exception” approach to phonics, Secret Stories® aligns letter behavior with kid behavior, making sounds easily predictable. It is within this “hierarchy of likelihood” that young and inexperienced readers are easily able to logically deduce the most and next-most likely sounds of letters, even in words they have never seen before.

 

Secret Stories® Phonics— Thinking OUTSIDE the Box About Letter Behavior!
Finally, there is one more point I need to make before I specifically address why there are no Secrets for the words above. Just as apples won’t fall far from the tree, letters won’t stray far from their sounds! This handy saying can be used to help both students and teachers, alike to convey the flexible thinking that’s needed to effectively work-through the most and next-most likely sound options.

Working with text requires learners to “think outside the box,” which they cannot do if they don’t know first know what’s IN it. The Secrets equip learners everything that’s IN the box so they can more easily think outside it. Rather than having to memorize words that are exceptions in order to read them, students can use higher-level thinking and problem solving to figure them out, stretching their analytical thinking and problem solving capabilities far beyond just phonics skills for reading.

This critical analysis and diagnostic thinking exercise takes the form of “What else can it be? What else can we try?” much like the diagnostic thinking/ deductive reasoning process that doctors employ when attempting to diagnose symptoms that don’t always “present” in the way that they should.

Activating Social-Emotional Learning Channels for Higher Level Thinking

When learners are equipped with Secrets, they actually enjoy engaging with text in this way, as daily reading and writing is transformed into a virtual playground for critical thinking and deep literacy learning!

 

exceptions to phonics rules

By anchoring abstract letter sound and phonics skills into social and emotional frameworks that are already deeply entrenched within the learner, they become personally meaningful and relevant.

Secret Stories® Phonics— GH "Thinking OUT of the BOX!" (No more sight words!)

Now Let’s Play “Word Doctor” with the Words Above!

Let’s start with the simplest one, which is ck. Both letters are simply making their correct sounds, and because their sounds are identical,  this spelling pattern is easy to sound out. Thus, no Secret is needed!

Next up is -dge  (as in ridge, sludge, budget, etc…)

ce ci cy ge gi gy phonics story

If kids know the ce, ci, cy/ ge, gi, gy Secret then the addition of the letter d should pose no problem when sounding out the word. Even if they include the d sound, they would still be able to “get” (recognize) the word. Additionally, the e at the end would also cause no worry, as kids who know the Secrets know that Mommy E® can only tell the vowel to say its name if she’s one letter away, close enough to reach it!

Therefore, creating a new Secret for the –dge pattern is unnecessary and would only result in our having “one too many” cooks in our kitchen! That’s not to say that knowledge of -dge as a spelling pattern wouldn’t be useful to upper grade learners, abut the primary goal is to get kids reading.  All of the research shows that reading is by far the best teacher for fine-tuning spelling, and kids who know the Secrets will be able to that experience, tenfold!

Next up— 
-tch (as in: scratch, itch, crutch, etc…)
Same as above.  

If learners know the ch Secret, then initially attacking it with the t sound before the ch won’t interfere with a reader’s ability to ultimately decode the word, even for kindergartners.

-que (as in: question, delinquents, frequency, queen, etc…)
better alphabet song qu

Secret Stories Better Alphabet™ Anchors on TpT

Knowing the qu Secret is all that is needed here, along with recognizing that as with -dge, the e at the end makes no sound. And keep in mind that when working with words not of English origin, Secret Stories® will get you close, but not all the way, as the same rules don’t apply, as with words like: bouquet, applique, etc… 

-ive (as in: dive, give, active, lives, etc…)

The first word, dive poses no problem at all, as Mommy E® is doing just what she should, which is  in telling i (who’s one letter away) to say his name! However, in the other words— give, active and live — Mommy E® is just “too tired to care,” as sometimes mommies are! Which is why sometimes,  she’ll just sit back and let the vowels do whatever they want… because even moms aren’t perfect! It’s words like these that require kids to put on their “Dr. Hat” and think-through to the next most likely sound!

decoding exception words

-old (as in: bold, cold, mold, etc…)

This one’s easy, with the only possible glitch being that the letter o is making its long (Superhero) sound instead of the short and lazy one it’s supposed to when Mommy E® or the Babysitter Vowels®´aren’t around. Even still, simply encouraging learners to “think like doctors” and trying the next most likely sound for o will enable them to get the word.

Learn the “Secrets” about Mommy E® and Babysitter Vowels® in the video below.

-olt (as in: bolt, molten, revolt, etc..)

Same as above.  

-ank (as in: bank, sank, ankle, etc…)
Same as above.  

Secret Stories® Phonics— Superhero Vowels®
Superhero O and his “short and lazy” disguise!

-ost (as in: cost, post, lost, most, etc…)
Same as above, as o should short and lazy, since there is no Mommy E® or Babysitter Vowel® in sight, so again, learners need to “think like doctors” and try both sounds to be sure, just like any good word doctor would do.

 -ind (as in: kind, windy, find, Indian, etc…)
Same as above.  

 -ild (as in: mild, wild, child, build, mildew, etc…)
Same as above.  

-on (as in: Monday, money, done,  etc..)
In all these words, the short o sounds more like short u, or schwa sound. The letter o makes this sound in many words, like: come, of, love, some, done, etc. Other vowels will often “default” to the schwa sound as well in words like: what, was, was, want, above, about, pencil, etc. When vowels make this sound, it’s because they are thinking, which is why they’re called the Thinking Vowels™, and their sound is easily prompted with a simple “head-bop.” With this simple secret trick, even kindergartners can easily decode otherwise “undecodable” words! You can read  about the Thinking Vowels™ here.

Secret Stories® Phonics— "Head-Bop" Trick for Fickle Vowels/ Easy Sight Word Reading
Click here to learn the “Thinking Vowels/Head-Bop” Trick for Fickle Vowels

While we have a trick for the words above, every now and then,  kids will need to use a little more elbow grease to “bend” the letter sounds and “get” the word. Practicing is very helpful and can actually be a lot of fun, and a great way to do it is to read the books Hungry Thing and Hungry Thing Returns by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler “What else could it be? What else can I try?” 

How to Read Words that are Exceptions

-unk (as in: bunk, chunk, dunk, etc…)
No secrets needed, as the letters are doing exactly what they should!

 -ink (as in: sink, blink, drink, etc…)
One of my favorite Secrets is I tries E on for Size, and it’s all that’s needed to explain why i will sometimes make e’s sound instead of his own!

Secret Stories® Phonics— "I tries E on for size"
Secret Stories® “I tries E on for Size”
-ture (as in: future, mature, lecture, etc…)
This one’s easily taken care of with the ER, IR & UR- Secret, as the t just makes its regular sound, and like some of the other patterns above, Mommy E® is just hanging out at the end, doing nothing!
er ir ur phonics story
Not only can beginning kindergartners LEARN it, they can TEACH it!

 

-stle (as in: wrestle, castle, jostle, listless, etc…)

Reading Hard Words Can Be Easy, If You Know the “Secrets”

As mentioned earlier in this post, this pattern occurs too infrequently to mandate having another cook in our kitchen.  And even though Mommy E® is at the end, she isn’t interfering with how the word is sounded out, as she’s too far away to reach the vowel and make it say its name, anyway. And as for the silent t, even if learners did include it when sounding out the word, they should still be able to “get” (recognize) the word. It really doesn’t take much deductive reasoning (even for kinders!) to sound out a word like castle (with the t-sound) and be able to figure out that the word is actually castle (without the t sound)

Fostering this fluid and flexible thinking about letters and the sounds they make is what helps to  transform daily reading and writing into a playground of critical thinking and deep learning opportunities! And while the kids enjoy seeing the Secrets work, they have much MORE fun playing word doctor when they don’t— trying to figure out what else the letters might are doing and how best to tackle them! And as the more they engage, the more powerful they feel when working with text, and the more their confidence grows across the instructional day! they  over text grows by the day,

This is easy to see when watching these first graders at work, trying to account for why the i is long in words like light, right and fight, when there is no Mommy E® or Babysitter Vowel® there to make it say its name!  (This clip of Mrs. Mac’s class is one of my favorites!)

Former early grade teacher turned Harvard University Neuroscientist, Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang sums up what is evident in the short video clip above, which is that, “It is neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things you don’t care about.”  These kids really care! Not about long and short vowels, but about mommies, babysitters, vacations, the behavior of other kids, etc… all of which are woven into the Secret that they are passionately debating in the word light.  
Secret Stories® Phonics— Apathy to Engagement
Now for the final part of Laura’s question regarding what books are best to use with Secret Stories®. That one’s easy— anything and everything! Books, magazines, posters, road signs, cafeteria menus, logos, etc…. literally everything with text is fair game!
The daily course of your instruction will dictate much of what kids are reading and writing each day, as Secrets are introduced in context of daily instruction across the course of the entire instructional day— whenever and wherever they are needed! From hallway signs to cafeteria menus to math books, Secrets are everywhere, just waiting to be discovered!
Secrets are easily introduced and reinforced with any text, and are especially helpful during guided reading. I have created a limited set of Secret Stories® Guided Readers to help teachers when working with guided groups and helping learners use the Secrets to decode text. These are especially helpful as they include an additional version with the Secrets in the text to help build learners’ visual acuity for easier pattern recognition, as well as teacher notes for added insights (similar to those made in this post) to help guide teachers through the process of helping learners when decoding trickier words.  It’s as if I were sitting right beside you and your students at the guided reading table! :-)
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Readers
Access the Complete Set in the Guided Reader Description 
Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® “Appetizer” Anchor Phonics Posters!

Free Phonics Posters by Secret Stories

Until Next Time,
Katie :-)

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Breaking Down the Grade Level Walls of Traditional Phonics Instruction

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Dear Katie,
I love reading your blog! I’ve used your free Zoo Keeper Writing Strategies with my kinder class and the children really related, always showing me “how many animals (i.e. sounds) they caught” in their words!

I’ve taught both 1st and 2nd grades for years, and now am in my seventh year of teaching kindergarten. As many of your letter pattern stories are, of course, geared toward 1st and 2nd, I was wondering if you had some that were more geared more toward kinder?

Also, at what point would you begin introducing the Secret Stories in kinder… after the majority know most of their letters?

Gratefully,
Marian M.
Kindergarten Teacher

(Download the Free Zoo Keeper Strategy Pack and watch this video clip to see how it works!)
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Writing Strategy Pack— "Zoo Keepers and M&M Quizzes"
“Zoo Keeper and M&M Quizzes” for Early Grade Writing!

I love Marian’s question, as it goes right to the heart of why I created the Secret Stories® in the first place, which was to break down the grade level walls of phonics instruction that limit early learner-access to the code!

Before I answer it specifically, I want to prepare you for the paradigm shift we’re about to take when it comes to what kindergarten can do and when they can do it, and I think these links will help! So here are a couple of guest posts by kindergarten teacher, Kjersti Johnson (post 1 and post 2) along with a couple of eye-opening, kindergarten-related video clips here and here.

So let’s get started by opening up a can of worms about WHY we do WHAT we do WHEN we do it when it comes to the “code” that kids need for reading and writing! 

If you really think about it, what are kids supposed to do with just bits and pieces of the reading and writing code? How can you read OR write about your pet mouse with only a third, or even  two-thirds of the code? And that’s all most early grade level learners have to work with, given that it takes multiple grade level years to teach it all…. and that’s if they’re on grade level!

 The individual letter sounds (which kindergartners spend an entire year learning) provide very little bang for the buck when it comes to using them to reading and writing, as they are actually the least likely sounds that the letters will make when they get together in real words! This makes the brain’s job as a “pattern-making” machine extremely difficult, as it seems that letters are never actually doing what they’re supposed to!

And simply adding the blends and a few digraphs to the mix in first grade doesn’t help all that much,  which is why kindergartners and first graders can barely read or write anything! At least not anything that hasn’t been “memorized” (ENTER SIGHT WORDS, STAGE RIGHT!)

sight word don't work

And the sight word “parade” begins…

Sight words help compensate for the gross lack of phonics skills at the beginning grade levels, and are often taught in order to meet the required text-level assessments. For early grade teachers, rote memorization of high-frequency sight words can feel like a necessity when considering that the phonics skills kids need to read them aren’t even on their grade level scope and sequence. This is because traditionally, phonics skills are “divvied-out” in bits and pieces across multiple grade level years—from PreK to 2nd.

While teaching kids in kindergarten and first grade to memorize words instead of reading them might feel like a necessity for beginning grade teachers, this rote memorization is far from the ideal—from either a developmentally or from a brain-based perspective. (You can read more about this here or by clicking the link under the picture below.)
Secret Stories® Phonics— Stanford University Brain Study on Sight Words
Why Kids Shouldn’t Memorize What They Could READ!

Moreover, the less skills kids bring to the table, the less value they take away from daily reading and writing experiences in the classroom.

Imagine that you’re a Morse Code operator, just assigned to a naval ship. 

But there’s a problem.

You are only in the first year of a three year Morse Code training program, which means that you barely know even one-third of the code. Yet you are expected to send and receive messages on day one.

You think to yourself……
“How can I possibly be expected to accurately send and receive messages with not even one-third of the code? What about all of the sounds I haven’t learned yet? How will I be able to figure out what the incoming messages say? And worse still, how can I send messages if I don’t know the code for all of the words? Should I just leave those parts blank, or just fill up the page with the parts of the code that I do know? Or maybe I could just forgo what the captain wants me to send and just write what I can spell instead?”

     Dear Captain, 
     I like the sub.  It is big.  It is fun.  It is really fun.
     I like it so so much. I really really like the big fun sub a lot!

These are common strategies that beginning (and struggling) learners will also use in order to get around all of the parts of the code that they don’t know or haven’t yet been taught— of which there are many!

A scope and sequence cannot accurately predict which parts of the code learners will need to read their favorite book or to write the stories they want to tell. The /th/ digraph is considered a 1st grade skill by grade level scope and sequence standards, even though /th/ can be found on every line of every page in every book! In fact, kindergartners will encounter the /th/ pattern literally hundreds of times on their very first day! (And don’t even get me started on the letter /y/!) The bottom line is that just like with Morse Code, you need ALL of it to do ANYTHING with it!

Secret Stories® Phonics Brain Research
Click here to learn more

So the burning question is how to provide our earliest grade level learners with access to the “whole” code when it takes an entire for many kids to just learn the alphabet? The answer lies in the brain science. Brain science lights a path straight through the brain’s backdoor via the earlier developing, social and emotional “feeling” networks. By targeting phonics instruction to the affective learning domain, we can bypass areas of inherent early (and struggling) learner weakness (i.e. the higher level, executive processing centers) and tap into alternative areas of strength.

Secret Stories® does this in a variety of ways, beginning with channeling the individual letters and sounds through muscle memory (i.e. body intelligence) for accelerated mastery in just two weeks to two months— and that’s for kinder and PK! (And we’re not just talking the “basic” letter sounds, we’re talking every possible sound that a letter can make by itself, from hard and soft /c/ and /g/, to the long and short vowel sounds, to the positional sounds of /y/, and even /qu/…. and all while they eat their shoes and lick the carpet. (And if you actually teach preK or kinder, then you understand exactly what I mean— Lol!)

Individual Letter Sound Mastery in 2 weeks to 2 months!

During the two week-two month time frame while the individual letter sounds are seeping in via muscle memory, they are also learning about the letters’ “secrets”, (i.e. Secret Stories) which are what they do when they don’t do what they should! The Secrets explain all of the crazy sounds that letters make when they get together, and even some of the strange things they can do when they are by themselves!

Shared as short little stories that are easy to remember and understand, they are ready for immediate use in both reading and writing! And because Secret Stories® aligns letter behavior to learners’ own behavior (by way of already familiar “social and emotional” frameworks) they can easily predict their most and next most likely sound behaviors, just as they could predict the behavior of their own classmates.

Download the Free Secret Stories® Mini-Poster Sample Pack!

 

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sampler Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sampler Pack

 

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sampler Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sampler Pack
Our brains thrive on patterns and making things make sense, and the Secrets make letters make sense!And the earlier the grade level, the MORE they are needed, as they have virtually nothing else to read or write with! Kinder will naturally pick up and remember the Secrets BEFORE all of the individual letter sounds have taken hold, as the time frame for muscle memory to kick in is between two weeks to two months, whereas the Secrets are instant! Stories are easy for kids to remember because stories are HOW kids remember! And stories are developmentally harmless, so when they are ready to plug it in and use it, they can… but until that time, it’s simply a story!

Shifting early grade reading/ phonics instruction from brain-antagonistic to brain-compatible requires that we FEED the brain, not FIGHT it, and Secret Stories Stories® are its favorite treat! They can (and should!) be given all day long, throughout the entire instructional day—anytime and anywhere they are needed to help read or spell a word. Every Secret you give them is one more “tool” in their tool belt that they can bring to the reading and writing table, so as to bring more value away!

So to answer Marian’s questions…

The Secrets are not bound by the traditional “grade level walls” for phonics instruction that limits learner-access to the code. To share only certain Secrets at certain grade levels would presume that learners at lower grade levels don’t need them, and how could that be true if they are reading and writing across the instructional day beginning in kindergarten? Nor can we possibly say WHICH Secrets a learner will need to read the book he picks from the library or to write a word in a story he wants to tell.

Like the Morse Code operators, kids need ALL of the code, so NEVER wait to share a Secret!

Share them simultaneously with the individual letter sounds, whenever and wherever they are needed, whether it’s on the morning calendar or on the lunch menu! Remember that to a Morse Code operator (or to a beginning reader/writer) a /th/ is going to come in a LOT more handy than a /t/, so never hold back the tools that you know kids need to read and write every day!
Why Wait If We Don’t Have To?!!
Why hold back what kids so desperately need every hour of every day in our classrooms when they are working with text? If the brain science provides a “secret” backdoor passage through which we can so easily sneak phonics skills, why wouldn’t we use it?
Secret Stories® Phonics — Sneaking Skills through the Brain's Backdoor!
A “Backdoor Delivery System” for Accelerated Skill Access
Until Next Time,
Katie Garner :-) 
Katie Garner— Professional Development Literacy Consultant and Keynote Education Speaker
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Secret Stories® Makes PhonicsMake SENSE!
Secret Stories Phonics— Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind!
Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

 

Katie Garner Featured Education and Keynote Speaker/ Literacy Cosultant
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

 
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Secret Stories® Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind!

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Comments:

  1. I can’t wait to play The Better Alphabet song with my students tomorrow. Thanks for sharing!

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    Katie GarnerApril 1, 2014 at 2:34 PM

      At this point in the year, you might want to ‘go all the way’ and try the “Letter Runs” with them! Here’s the link to that- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHUwuuXsh-0 ……….and don’t forget to try it BACKWARDS!!

     

  2. (you can also switch from ‘long’ to ‘short’ vowel sounds throughout to keep the challenge high :) as well as change the tune to: Happy Birthday, The Star Spangled Banner, etc…
    Looking forward to hearing how they do!

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  4. So many great ideas and a great song!!!! Definitely going to try this with my kids! Thanks!!!
    Julie

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  5. The Morse Code Operator is a great analogy! Thank you for this post. :)
    lorepuckett at gmail dot com

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  6. I subscribed!! I will be trying this with my kiddos as well!

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  7. I attended the Illinois Reading Conference last month and couldn’t get into either of your sessions! I couldn’t even get close to the doorway :(
    Folks were setting chairs out on both ends of the corridor to hear you, but unfortunately my ears are too old to hear from that far away so I gave up! I’m hoping to have better luck seeing you at the Natl Elementary Principals Conference this summer.

    You should know that your ‘Secrets’ are an ongoing topic of conversation at our school and have had an incredible impact on our student achievement this year. As a school administrator, it’s been truly amazing to witness the progress made at each grade level, especially by our most at-risk. I’m just in awe, as are our parents (which is always a good thing!)

    My teachers were so disappointed that I couldn’t get into your session, as they promised the kids that I would take a picture with you to show them. Apparently the teachers that came to your sessions last year tried, but it was too crowded and you had too many people around you afterwards. I told them that this year was even worse, given that I couldn’t even get through the door!

    Hopefully I’ll have better luck seeing you in July!

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  8.  

    I know… it was CRAZY! The committee tried to avoid the overcrowding problem that happened last year by putting both sessions in the ballroom but I think their overall attendance this year was just too high, which ultimately is a good thing (but understandably frustrating when you can’t get into what you want to see).

    I will most definitely be at the Principal’s Conference in July and I’ll even save a seat for you, just in case ;)

    Thanks for your kind email, and please let your teachers (and students) know how happy I am to hear of their progress (and we’ll definitely take that picture, as well!)

    Looking forward to meeting you in July,
    Katie

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  10. This is incredible. I appreciate the work that has been put into programs like this and the accessibility of them to other educators and parents. Thank you and well done.

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  11. Thank YOU and I’m so glad you found the post here on Mrs. Jump’s Blog!!

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  13. This was an amazing find. Thank you Deanna Jump for sharing this! I am purchasing the alphabet vertically as I write this. I am so inspired by this motor memory approach. Thank you!

     

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    So glad you found the post, and be sure to use the vertical alphabet for the “Letter Runs” too… they’re so much fun!! I put the link in the answer to the first comment at the top :)

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  16. I am so glad I am subscribed to your blog so that I can find and appreciate programs like this. As a first year teacher, this information makes me see things in a new perspective. I would love the opportunity to use this program in my classroom for my students. I would love the opportunity to share this approach with others given the scientific research that has gone into this. Thanks so much to the developer(s) of this program and the difference it is going to make in teaching.

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  18. You’re so welcome, and as a new teacher, you would probably get a better perspective/ context if you watch the VLOGS, starting with #1 here….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziT4bautiGk ……

    I am gearing up to make the next set before I have to leave town again for conference, with the focus being on “What to do when a “Secret” doesn’t work?!!” as that’s actually where the fun begins for learners with regard to their daily interactions with text becoming a virtual “playground” for critical thinking!!

    In the meantime, don’t hesitate to ask, should you have any questions, and thanks again for your comment!

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  19. I’m excited to have a song to share with my kiddos. I would love to win your kit as I am always looking for ways to reach my struggling readers.

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  21. I just discovered Secret Stories and the Better Alphabet Song today and I’m in love! I love how engaging it is and how it can meet so many different learning styles! I really like how you put so much thought into the position of the mouth when you did the action for short a on the you tube video. I’m always looking for new ways to make learning meaningful and fun for my kids (why I was on this blog) and feel like I have hit the jackpot with this find! I wish I could go back in time and could have done this with my class since day one. We review letter sounds and phonograms daily- and I’m embarrassed to admit but it b-o-r-i-n-g the way I’m doing it now and definitely something I want to improve on. This is just what I needed and will totally transform how I teach phonics. So excited to make something that was not so fun into something I know my kids will not only love doing but truly benefit from.

     

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    LoL…. I remember feeling the same way when I’d stumble upon something that would completely change the way I teach! I’d always feel SOOO badly for my previous classes, who I sometimes felt, learned ‘in spite’ of me….especially my very first year – ugh :(

    I remember wanting to buy my whole class t-shirts with- “I survived Mrs. Garner’s 1st Year Teaching!!” written across the front!! ;)

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  24. I think this sounds fabulous and I will be trying this out with my title students. I notice that my title students DO NOT know their alphabet-ever, nor their sounds. This should be the answer!

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  25.  

    It’s funny you mention this, as often readiness issues are more pervasive with Title I learners, for a variety of reasons.

    These ‘work-around’ strategies (i.e. motor/ muscle memory for individual letters and sounds; social/ emotive connections/ cues for complex pattern sound retrieval) are crucial for learners struggling with cognitive readiness.

    For these learners, in particular, the ability to GIVE these core reading and writing skills, rather than having to wait on ‘developmental readiness’ in order to TEACH them, truly makes all the difference!!

    So many of the problems that Title I learners face stem from the fact that in the first few years of school, they are ‘slaves’ to their own developmental readiness, resulting in their having to continually play on an uneven playing field!

    By using brain research findings to circumvent these pitfalls, we can actually avoid these deficit areas in the brain entirely, targeting the stronger, more capable areas instead!

    (Hope this makes sense…. have had glass of wine!!! :)

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  27. I think this sounds fabulous and I will be trying this out with my title students. I notice that my title students DO NOT know their alphabet-ever, nor their sounds. This should be the answer!

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  28. I am a HUGE Secret Stories fan….I use your very first Secret Stories set! Every year, my students amaze me with their writing and reading and they looove their “stories”.
    I am so glad to view your videos and your updates here. I learn something new everytime. Thanks so much !
    Denise

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  29.  

    Oh my! You HAVE been using them for a while then!!

    I’m so glad you found the videos and updated info on the Secret Stories website, as I’ve really been working hard to ‘flesh-out’ the basic strategy-base.

    I’m curious if you’ve been in the same grade level since you started using them or if you’ve moved around a bit?

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  31. I have only taught Kindergarten…30 years total. I can’t remember exactly how long I have had my set of Secret Stories…maybe since 2000/2001?? .they are just part of my routine. Like I said….my kids constantly amaze me with their progress.
    My best teacher friend went to your workshop …she was so impressed, she came back and told me all about this great new program. I was so excited I purchased the set with my own money and have been using it ever since.

     

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  33. I will be sharing this with my new teammates of next year’s Kindergarten. Soooo excited!

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  34. Hello. I have a question. Why don’t you do all three A sounds– A as in apple, A as in gate, and A as in about? I have a chant that I made up years ago with the sounds, but it has all three common A sounds that beginning readers come across in their reading. Just wondered why three Y sounds, but not three As. Thanks for letting me know. Kathleen

  35.  

    Great question! And the answer actually lies in the ‘rule-of-thumb’ I used when creating the “Secrets” in the first place, which was to “avoid having too many cooks in the kitchen” when it came to identifying the most useful phonics rules!!
    (and by useful, I mean ‘only what’s necessary to be able to read and write,’ given that the goal is to give learners at the earliest grade level EVERYTHING they need to jump into working with text…. both reading and writing!!

    Because the brain will require an explanation for anything encountered on a fairly frequent basis in text- there could be ‘no stone left unturned’ when it comes to accounting for the various letter patter sound possibilities. This, however, is different from teaching “rules for rules’ sake” (i.e. the less useful and/ or less frequently occurring phonics rules/ sound patterns).

    My rule of thumb was to account for only those patterns/ sounds that occurred ‘5 times or more’ in text, given their likelihood to be encountered often enough by learners to require an explanation.

    Patterns/ sounds occurring LESS than five times would are either put in “Word Jail” OR ‘rehabilitated’ …. so as to avoid having an ‘overcrowded prison system’ / overcrowded word wall, both of which are equally ineffective ;)

    As for your specific question regarding the letter a and providing the ‘uh’ or ‘schwa sound’ being taught/ included in the “Better Alphabet Song” as an additional sound option…. this would be an example having ‘too many cooks in the kitchen,’ in that there is too little value/ purpose in teaching it.

    What I mean by this is, if a beginning learner knows the SECRETS, he will attack a word like ‘about’ or ‘around’ with a ‘short a’ sound, as he knows that Mommy e isn’t ‘one letter away’ and thus can’t make a ‘say its name.’ Attacking these words with the short a sound will STILL result in learners (even lower level Kindergartners!!) still being able to ‘get the word.’ In other words, they will still recognize that the word is ‘about’ or ‘around,’ regardless of the fact that they attacked it with the short a sound …… The presumption is that learners can and will apply at least a “grain of common sense” in recognizing the word, and my experience with the ‘lowest of the low’ kindergartners proves this out!!

    By taking into account the differences between how words can sound, depending upon how they are sounded out, I was able to determine which required SECRETS and which were, for lack of a better term….”figure-out-able!!” LoL!

    With the Sneaky Y, all THREE sounds had to be accounted for, as they are all vastly different (y as in yellow, y as in July, and y as in mommy) ….. Each are entirely different sounds and thus, each must be accounted for with logical explanations as to what / why causes each to occur.

    Again, with the ultimate goal being to GIVE learners EVERYTHING they need to read and write at the EARLIEST grade level, so as to allow EXPERIENCE to be the best teacher….. it was necessary to think in terms of training “ER Doctors” ….. preparing them for what’s ‘most likely’ to roll through the door, while spending less time preparing them to handle the “plague” ;)

    I hope this helps to clarify the basis for the SECRETS, and I promise to get into more detail about exactly this in upcoming posts…. you’re just one step ahead with your great question!!!!

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  37. Thanks for this. I get the frequency point. We could never teach beginning readers all the sounds that letters CAN make in this isolated way– look at the VERY many sounds that ‘o’ can make when paired with ‘h’ when ‘ho’ comes at the beginning of a word! :) The only reason I added the ‘a’ sound heard at the beginning of words like around and about as a third sound in my chant, was because my guys weren’t getting that kind of word by knowing just the first two possible ‘a’ sounds… but maybe it was not the isolated sound that ‘a’ makes in that case that was the issue, but the fact that they were saying “ar…” as the beginning ‘sound’, instead of the necessary two syllable “a-r…” When they kept saying ‘ar, ar, ar” instead of ‘a’ when starting words like around, they got stuck. They seemed to get it better when they had that third ‘a’ sound to try. Thanks for sharing why you do it this way– always more food for thought– I can teach 100 years and I’ll still be growing my own brain :)

     

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  39. This sounds awesome! I’ve been looking for a way to help my kinder. Can’t wait to try it!
    Jada
    jadawtolbert@gmail.com

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  40. What a great idea! LOVE this and can’t wait to use it with my kinders! Thanks for sharing!

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  41. This article really intrigued me! As I was reading the “why” of certain discrepancies, I was picturing specific students I’ve had along the way. thanks for sharing

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    Getting learners to ask “why” is actually our goal,
    as the “WHY” equals “CRITICAL-THINKING!”
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  44. I LOVE secret Stories! My students Love hearing the stories behind each letter or letter pair.

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Teaching the Reading & Writing Connection in Kindergarten

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Teaching Reading & Writing in Kindergarten

“I sneakily took this pic at the end of snack the other day…. These 6 kids were engrossed in telling the Secrets (and trying to figure out the ones we haven’t learned yet!) The little guy in the stripes has become our unofficial “Word Jail Warden!” He can spot an ‘Outlaw Word’ a mile away! We will start ‘paroling’ some of them soon!”

I received this adorable picture and description from kindergarten teacher, Kjersti Johnson, along with the following email…

I teach two sessions of half-day Kindergarten, with my morning class tied to our Intensive Support Class (4-8 fully inclusive kiddos) and my afternoon class with half ELL, plus a few in the am too!)

I knew the Secret Stories was a keeper last year when one of my Intensive Needs kids, who was really struggling with speech and connecting letters and sounds, pointed to his name and said, “Those letters are bad. They always stick out their tongues!” and then proceeded to make their sound! Or, when my little guy, who moved to my class mid-year knowing ZERO letters or sounds, was able to read through ALL the letter sounds mixed up, singing “____ says ______, ___-___-___!” after just a couple weeks of doing the “Secret Stories® Better Alphabet Song!”

With regard to the frustration over the controversy over what our youngest learners can and can’t do, I’ve always had high expectations for my kinders, and they have always risen to meet them, often soaring far beyond!

It has been a fight to pull Kindergarten into this century. I boxed up our basal six years ago when I started using Daily 5/Cafe in my literacy blocks. My students just took off! (It’s amazing what they can do when you put the right book in their hands.) But it was Secret Stories that really allowed me to take my kids to the next level!

I love when we sit down to read something and I ask what strategies we should use, as they always yell out, “Look for the Secrets!” They amaze me every day with the new words they can read and write! Oh, and I love how they are starting to revise their own writing! I put a binder clip on their writing notebooks so they can’t fill it all in in one sitting. When they want their clip moved, they have to look back and make revisions to show that they’re ready. They will tell me, “When I wrote this, I didn’t know the Secret about this word, but now I do!”

I loved reading Kjersti email about how she uses Secret Stories® in her kindergarten classroom so much that I asked her if she would be willing to share more in a guest post, and she agreed! (She has since written another guest post on how she uses the  Secrets for reading, which you can find here.) 
A Class of Kindergartners
A Guest Post by Kjersti Johnson

I have always believed that there is a strong tie between reading and writing. It is one of the reasons that we spend so much time doing both in my Kindergarten class. Usually, students are free to choose their writing topic, but once in a while I give them a prompt.

This past month, we began a Gingerbread unit. In it, we have a class Gingerbread Man that decides to travel the world. While he is on his trip, he sends us many different versions of Gingerbread stories to read. At the end of the unit, he returns to our class and asks the kids to write about their favorite story.

In past years, my kindergartners would have to rely on “kid-spelling” or I would have to take a lot of dictation, but not this year! Thanks to the Secret Stories, my kids were able to write like the big kids! The only help I gave was a word bank of words they might need, but I didn’t spell them….. they did!

They helped me spell words like: gingerbread, favorite, girl, cowboy, and because, and the rest of the words they spelled themselves! They were even able to write about why they liked the story! I was so proud of my kindergartners (not to mention blow away!) that I wanted to share a couple samples, as well as some Secrets used to spell some of the words they wrote!

Secret Stories® Phonics in Kindergarten Writing
Note the eu/ew Secret in the word crew! (plus the Sneaky Y®, Babysitter Vowels®, Mommy e®, or, oo, th, er/ir/ur, au/aw, & ou/ow Secrets!)

 

Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

Note the er/ir/ur Secret in the words “girl” and “her” (plus the Sneaky Y®, Babysitter Vowels®, Mommy e®, or, oo, th, ea, au/aw, sh, & ed Secrets!)

Transforming skills kids have to learn into Secrets they want to know!

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "ER/IR/UR"
A future kindergarten teacher….

Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

Note the au/aw Secret in the word because (plus the Mommy e®, th, er/ir/ur, ea, Babysitter Vowels®, ey/ay, & sh Secrets!)

We also wrote about How I Ate My Gingerbread Man (after eating them of course!) Once again, I was blown away by how they used the Secret Stories they knew to figure spellings for words they wanted to use in their writing… not just “word wall” and “word family” words, but ANY words! I loved watching them stop and look at (or even walk over to) our Secret Wall!

This next paper was written by one of my ELL students. When assessed in September, he knew seven letter names and zero sounds. Thanks to Secret Stories Better Alphabet Song, he was able to identify all of the upper and lower case letters, as well as their sounds by October!

He now also knows all of the Secrets and is using them to read and write! (On a side note, I had taken a leap of faith and done as Katie suggested, which was to begin telling the Secrets from Day 1, so as to acquire them simultaneously with the individual letters and sounds and though I’d never done that before with kinders, I am now a BELIEVER!!!

Teaching Phonics for Beginning Writing

To write the stories they want to tell, kids need access to the “whole” code, not just bits and pieces of it!

Here is what he wrote….. independently! (And yes, I was in tears when he showed me!)Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

If you look carefully, you can see where he had erased and added more sounds after re-reading it, and then realized that it didn’t make sense. He also went back and changed “hed” to “head” because he said it “didn’t look right.”

As Katie often says, “experience is the best teacher,” and because this little guy knew lots of Secrets, he was reading up a storm, which is how he knew that the word didn’t “look right.”

And I especially love how this next little guy added a “crunch, crunch, crunch” at the end!

Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am just so proud of my kindergartners, I could burst, which is why I wrote to Katie! And with only HALF of the school year under our belt so far, I can’t wait to see where we by the end of this year!

We are so thankful to Katie Garner for sharing the Secrets with us!
Kjersti Johnson/ Kindergarten Teacher

You can read Kjersti’s second guest post on Secret Stories® for  reading, here.

Secret Stories® Phonics for Teaching Beginning Writing

“Kindergarten Writing on STEROIDS!” 
If you would like to start sharing the Secrets with your class, you can download this free mini-poster sample set, along with the “Write Like They Read” Zoo Keeper Strategies, which is like a magic trick for helping beginning learners understand that they need to “capture” as many sounds as they can in words they want to write. (Watch two short clips about the ZooKeeper Strategies for beginning writers here and here.)
Free Secret Stories Phonics Posters Sampling Set
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
Download the FREE Mini-Poster Sample Pack and Start Sharing Secrets Tomorrow!
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Writing Strategy Pack—"Zoo Keeper and M&M Quizzes"
Click here to download the FREE ZooKeeper Beginning Writing Strategy Pack!
And to all subscribers, you should have received a free download link in your email for the Secret Stories® Guided Reader, My Class, so be sure to grab it fast before it expires!
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader “My Class”
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Until Next Time, 
Katie :-)
Katie Garner Literacy Consultant— Secret Stories® Author

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Katie Garner Education Keynote Speaker and Secret Stories® Phonics Author
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

 
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Secret Stories® Phonics — Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind!
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The “SECRETS” to Guided Reading 101

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The New SECRET STORIES® Guided Reader Series- In the Fall

SECRET STORIES® READER- In the Fall
I’m so excited about this that I couldn’t wait to share it!
I sometimes feel like a broken record when I say that the SECRET STORIES® is not a program, but easily accessible, reading and writing tools to be used throughout the instructional day, and across all content areas. In a nutshell, the Secrets™ simply provide learners with logical explanations where otherwise there would be none!
That said, it’s rare that I create something specifically for their use, since pretty much anything kids can read or write will work just fine!
However, there are times when shining a spotlight on specific skills, or groups of related skills can be extremely helpful- especially for targeted reinforcement and assessment-  and there’s no better time or place to do this than in small, guided groups!
With the help of some amazing teachers from Stonewall Elementary in Virginia,  I’m releasing a new series of SECRET STORIES® Guided Readers with highlighted SECRET STORIES® sound patterns!
The SECRET STORIES® are in RED and OUTLAW WORDS are in “prison-garb” font!
In addition to the targeted phonics Secrets™, the Outlaw Words words are also identified within the text and printed in “prison-garb” font!
The outlaw words are the “SECRET STORIES® equivalent” of traditional sight words, with the only difference being that they can’t be sounded-out! And so they must go to Jail! (Word Jail, that is!)
The Word Jail is similar to a typical Word Wall, except that it houses only the worst rule-breaking offenders!  We put these ‘worst-of-the-worst’ words in Word Jail so that we can “remember what they so that they don’t get by us again” when we’re reading or writing!
For more details on how to create a Word Jail for Outlaw Words captured in your classroom,  check out the series about them on my VLOG, or click below to watch the video below!
Each reader includes three different version of the story: a highlighted color version, a black and white ‘easy-print’ version, and a teacher copy- which has all Secrets™ highlighted (not just those targeted) for quick and easy visual reference when introducing new Secrets™and reinforcing older ones during guided group time.
 
Notice the “Mommy e” in PINK, as well as the vowel that she’s telling to “say its name!” 
This first reader, In the Fall, will be followed by additional readers to be posted by the end of this week, so stay tuned!
Okay, so back on track….
While it is critical that learners are equipped with the reading and writing tools they need to “crack the codes” in text, it’s equally important to realize that the Secrets™ are simply the “keys” that unlock the door to world of reading and writing.
Making meaning is the true goal of the game!
We read and write for a purpose… and that purpose is not to accurately decode words on a page! While learners do need to know the Secrets™ to gain easy and early access to text, what develops them into fluent readers and writers is what happens after that!
Teachers spend so much time trying to teach kids HOW to read, that often there’s not enough time left over for thinking about WHAT they’re reading… which pretty much defeats the purpose of WHY we read in the first place!
Below is an example of Deanna Jump’s Guided Reading 101 (from my guest post on her blog) with some key SECRET STORIES® posters to show how easy it is to help kids sound out words with those tricky letter and phonics sounds….even in Kinder! Download the free poster SECRET™ phonics poster sample set and see for yourself!

Until Next Time, Katie

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Decoding the So-Called “Exceptions” By Thinking Like a Word Doctor

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Did you know that if you had a fever and cough, it could be the plague,
or pneumonia…or maybe just the flu? Actually, it could be a lot of things.

Word Doctor Cognitive Flexibility for Exceptions

Word Doctor Training

Because doctors know that the plague is the least likely cause of your symptoms, and that the flu is the most likely, they will probably go with the flu first and then work their way through the “next most likely” options, as needed.

Medicine is not an exact science, and doctors must use what they know to determine what’s most likely to be effective. They work through these options based on a hierarchy of likelihood.

Like medicine, the English language and is not an exact science, and while phonics is the key to learning how to read, it often takes a binary form, with words either falling squarely under under the “rule” or the “exception” categories. However, when we align abstract phonics skills with human behaviors that mirror kids’ own behaviors, their “most” and “next-most” likely sounds become easily predictable, even for kinders….and even if they’re exceptions!

Good word doctors armed with the Secrets can “treat” these so-called exceptions by employing the same cognitive flexibility that doctors apply when diagnosing patients. The first thing a good word doctor must know is that there are only so many different sounds a letter or phonics pattern can make. Their sounds are not random, even though they may appear that way sometimes.

Just like the old saying “Apples don’t fall far from the tree,”  letters don’t fall far from their sounds. For example, you will never see the letter q say “mmm,” or the letter k say “duh,” or the tion phonics pattern say “ing”….

Secret Stories® Brain Based Phonics

 

…as contrary to popular belief, letters don’t just lose their little letter-minds and run amok! All they do (and it’s usually the vowels that do this) is make a sound that they’re perfectly capable of making, but it’s the NEXT most likely one! Watch the video clip below to see what I mean!

 

When working with patients, doctors must use what they know to figure out what they don’t. The must think analytically and diagnostically. “What’s the best course of attack? What should I try first, and if that doesn’t work, what should I try next?”  This process continues until all options are exhausted and there is nothing left to try. That’s when the patient is sent to a specialist who can “recognize” what’s too difficult to diagnose. (Much like exceptions that can’t be decoded must be memorized.)

Just like real doctors, word doctors need to use the Secrets they know to figure out the parts of the words that they don’t. They must practice the same cognitive flexibility that doctors use when sounding out unknown words- “What else can it be? What else could I try?” This type of analytical, problem-solving is akin to “thinking outside the box,” and for kids to do this effectively they must first know what’s IN the box. In other words, they must know the phonics Secrets!

 

phonics exceptions

This is why earlier and faster access to the code is so important for beginning and struggling readers, as only once kids know what’s IN the box are they able to think outside it!

The Secret Story of ou/ow…
Ou & ow play really rough and someone always gets hurt and says— “Oooowww!”
(like in the words: how, now, round, house, etc.)
But, flying overhead is Superhero O, who happens to their  all-time, favorite superhero, ever! Whenever he flies by, they will always stop dead in their tracks and yell—“O! O! O!” That’s why the default sound for ou/ow is the long o sound!
(like in the words: know, though, blow, dough, etc.)

Secret Stories ou ow diphthong

The Secret makes sounding out the words with this phonics pattern easy, even in kindergarten!  Words like how, now, about, around, know, grow, though, etc., that are commonly found on sight word lists don’t have to memorized, as kids can just READ them!  Plus, because it relates back to what kids already know and understand, they can learn (and start using) the ou/ow Secret even if they haven’t yet mastered all the individual letters and sounds.  yet because it makes sense to them.

Alternatively, memorizing a sight word can take multiple repetitions and seemingly take forever for some students to master, especially if there is little home support. More importantly, memorizing a sight word lets you read ONE word, whereas knowing a Secret lasts you read thousands!

Consider the word you…

The ou isn’t doing what it should according to the Secret. Even still, its sound hasn’t fallen too far away… at least not so far that a good word doctor can’t still figure it out.

And here’s how…

1.  First, try the most likely Secret Stories sound for ou (as in house)….. NOPE, it didn’t work!

2.  Next, try the individual sounds for the letters o and u ….. BINGO!!! We got the word!!

In this case, we got it on the second try.

Now, had we not struck gold on our first “out-of-the-box” attempt, we could have worked our way further down the list of possible sound options and turned this puzzle into a sort of problem-solving/critical thinking game….

3.  Try the sounds of other Secret Stories patterns with o or  u, like the Secrets for oo, oi/oy or ous. For example, in the word could, the ou is making the default-sound for oo (as in book) and kids who know the oo Secret might try that sound as one more possible option.

oo phonics story

Thinking Vowels® / Head-Bop

And of course, the Thinking Vowels® head-bop trick is another great word doctor-tool to help kids decode those otherwise “undecodable” words, like of, come, love, some, what, was, etc.. (Learn more about Thinking Vowels® here or click on the picture below for the video.)

Word Doctor: Thinking Vowels

4.  It’s the PLAGUE!  It requires a specialist! When we’ve exhausted all options and have no more tricks up our sleeve, we must surrender to the word, which means we have to memorize it!

Why Not Just Memorize These Tricky Words?

Here’s why— because it is within this “figuring-out” process that cognitive flexibility is strengthened and opportunities for deep learning lie! Not just learning how to read, but learning how to think! Our brain is a pattern-making machine, and this patterning process of thinking-through all available options is its natural way of doing things. “If not this, then that…” Our brain is continually “patterning-out” the best  available options in everything that we do…

We think… “I’ll park in the front, but if I can’t find a space, I’ll try the back, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll try the next lot over. If I can’t find anything there, then I’m giving up and going home, as I’m too tired to walk that far.”

We don’t think….“If I can’t park in the front WHAT WILL I DO?
This is similar to the way kids often deal with words that are exceptions, throwing their hands up in surrender whenever the letters aren’t making the sounds that they should.

However, this is not the brain’s system for learning. Our brain always has a back-up plan, a “next most likely” option to try if the first one doesn’t work. Much like the way doctors diagnose patients. They don’t just try one course of attack and then throw their hands in the air and give up. And good word doctors can’t either.

 

Secret Stories® Brain Based Phonics
 

“Human beings are pattern-making machines. That’s a key to our survival instinct— we seek out patterns and use them to predict the future. Which is great, except when the pattern isn’t there, then our pattern-making machinery is busy picking things out that truly don’t matter.”

—Seth Godwin, author of Looking for Patterns (Where they don’t Exist

The Brain is a “Pattern-Making” Machine

Our brains are hardwired to look for patterns, and the Secrets are patterns— not abstract letter patterns, but patterns of behavior that are designed to mimic learners’ own behavior.  The ability to classify incoming information quickly into categories (based on the patterns we know) means the brain can use easier rules to deal with the new input, which is less stressful than always having to deal with things that haven’t been seen before. Knowing the Secrets equips inexperienced beginning and struggling learners to identify the best course of action when sounding out new words, and not knowing the Secrets means having to say, “It just is… It just does… You just have to remember….” when they can’t read or spell a word.

Secret Stories® Brain Based Phonics

Another benefit to reading words rather than just memorizing them is that it sparks more optimal brain circuitry, as evidenced by numerous studies, including a recent one by Stanford University Professor, Bruce McCandliss, which you can read more about here.

 

Stanford Sight Words Study
Decoding Sight Words with Phonics Secrets
Just to be clear, there are a small handful of words that cannot be decoded and must be memorized, but they are few and far between for kids who know the Secrets. Consider the fact that for every word that kids memorize, that’s one less opportunity to practice the decoding skills you’re working so hard to teach. And even more importantly, it’s one less opportunity to flex their “critical thinking/problem solving” muscles and reinforce the cognitive flexibility that’s needed for more advanced decoding.

It just is. It just is. You just have to remember.

Before you read any further, watch this video.


It’s easy for teachers to empathize with Ricky’s struggle to read words like: boughs, through, rough, cough and enough. Like many students in our guided reading groups, Ricky diligently attempts to decode what seem to him to be ‘un-decodable’ words and becomes understandably frustrated in the process. Ultimately, Ricky just closes the book and gives up, convinced that the sounds letters make just don’t make sense. Many of our students feel the same way.

In the same way that a doctor works through various options to heal a patient, we can do the same to “heal” the words that are stumping Ricky…. or at least to help make them more “figureoutable!” ( I know it’s not a word, but I really like it!)

First, we need to learn a Secret…

Secret Stories® Brain Based Phonics
Click here to learn the gh Secret

The Secret Story of gh 

Gh will make different sounds, depending on where they are in line (i.e. in a word)

When they are at the FRONT, they’re glad!

There, they make the hard g sound, saying….

 “Gosh, this is great!  We get to go first and get in before anyone else goes!” 

(ghost, ghoul, ghastly, etc…)

When they are in the MIDDLE, and surrounded by lots of other letters,

they are silent and are too afraid to say anything and make NO SOUND at all

(sight, thought, straight, etc…)

When they are at the END, they’re not at all happy and they always complain.

Here, they make the fff sound, saying….

“This is no fun! We’re so far away it’ll take forever for us to get to the front!”

(rough, enough, cough, etc…) 

Playing Word Doctor

A Reading/ Phonics Word Doctor

bough

No problem with the ou as it is doing just what it should (see ou/ow poster up above)

But gh is a different story, as it is not making the sound that it should, which is “fff.”  So let’s try one of the only TWO other sounds that it can make, and voila! We got it! The gh is silent! The gh Secret is everything that’s IN the box when it comes to all of the possible sounds that gh can make, making it easy for learners to deduce the next most likely options when it doesn’t do exactly what it should!

 

rough
Luckily in this word, gh is doing exactly what it should. However, just like in the word you (at the top of the post) ou is not making the sound that it should, but all good word doctors know that the vowels are the “eyes, ears, nose and throat” of a word, so they know to always check the vowels first whenever something’s wrong. If they try the both the long and short sounds for o and then u, they would ultimately “get” the word, as only the short u is heard, and o is not saying a word. This is actually pretty common for one vowel in a pair to sometimes divert to its individual sound while other remains silent. You’ll see it happen again in the next two words as well, so it’s pretty handy for word doctors to know about! On a side note, gh is doing exactly what it should at the end of a word, so there’s no issue there.

cough
Just like the in the word above, ou is not making the sound that it should. Only the short o is heard and u is not saying a word. And again, the gh is doing exactly what it should.

enough
Once again, the ou is not making the sound that it should, as only the short u is heard and o is not saying a word. And once again, gh is doing exactly what it should.

though
In this word, it’s gh that’s acting up, as it’s not making the sound that it should at the end of a word, BUT…its sound is still easily predictable. There are only 3 possible sounds that gh can make, so any good word doctor knows to work through the most likely option first, and then try the others until they “get” the word.  And luckily, this time ou is well-behaved!

through
Now this one’s a little trickier— bordering between being “fun to figure out” and “just easier to memorize!” I would probably go with the latter for this one, but it is gratifying to know that with a whole lot of cognitive flexibility, we CAN crack this word if we really want to!

Granted, the ou is not making the sound that it should, nor is it making the o or u sound, but like the word you that was mentioned at the top of this post, it IS making the sound of its “cousin” oo. And by cousin, I mean a Secret that looks like it’s a “relative” as they share common letters, which in this case is an o. Using this “hierarchy of likelihood” to work through the most, next most and finally “if all else fails” options mirror the brain’s system for learning, and it’s great critical thinking practice for young word doctors.

Word Doctor Secret Stories

But we’re not done yet, as we still have that same little problem that we had above with gh, but it’s nothing that a good word doctor can’t fix! However, it does require an extra analytical step to crack the word, which may be one too many to make it worthwhile. Thus, this word may be worth the extra time, energy and space in the brain that’s required to memorize it.

Secret Stories® Brain Based Phonics

The video clip below shows a group of first graders playing “Word Doctor,” applying critical analysis and diagnostic thinking to make sense of the word light. While they already know how to read the word, they want to know WHY I isn’t saying his name when Mommy E® and the Babysitter Vowel® is in sight.

For a quick overview of the Superhero Vowels® and their “short & lazy” sound disguises, watch this video.

Secret Stories Phonics Posters

Secret Stories Mommy E and Babysitter Vowels - Syllable types

As mentioned above, the vowels are the most likely culprits when words just won’t “sound-out” correctly. Remember that they are the eyes, ears, nose and throat of words, which is why good word doctors always check them first, as they’re the best “window” into what’s going wrong. 

decoding exception words
Learn more word doctor strategies for tricky vowel sounds here, including the Hungry Thing and the Hungry Thing Returns.

How to Read Words that are Exceptions

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How I Doubled my DRA Scores by December with 24 Boys, 9 Girls… and 18 FAR Below First Grade Level!

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Katie Garner Secret Stories Reading Professional Development

So you know that moment when you get to meet that person who changed everything for you? Well, it happened to me! My name is Reneé McAnulty and I’m a proud first grade teacher at Cottonwood Elementary in Hesperia, California and this is my story…

It all started with me nearly pulling every single hair out of my head! First, let me start by saying that I am by no means a “new” teacher. Folks, I have taught in a classroom since I was 16 years old. I had my own classroom at the age of 18, teaching at a private school, and was hired as a kindergarten teacher at Cottonwood in 2001. I love my job! I love kids. I love teaching kids to read.

In all my years of teaching, I’ve never had a class like this year’s class. I was in shock. I have 24 boys and 9 girls. Of my 33 kids, 18 of them entered 1st grade far below grade level. From that group of 18 kids, 6 of them did not know any letter sounds or sight words. So, I had only 11 kids who could function as first graders… 11! 

I didn’t know where to start. What could I do to help these babies learn everything that they needed to know last year and keep the on-grade level kids moving in the right direction, too? The behavior was out of control in this class. It took two and a half months to train these kids in Daily 5 and Daily Cafe due to their behavior.

When we finally started to get things under control, I was able to start reading groups, but I was at a loss. I needed to do something different. My usual bag of tricks wasn’t working and we were all getting frustrated. I had parents telling me, “Well, in kindergarten my child made it to List 3 and knows how to read 75 sight words.” 

I would try to explain that regurgitating words from sight cards and seeing them in text were two different things. When they saw these exact same words in books, they couldn’t read them. I made it to mid-September and realized that I had to change it up… big time. I needed to find something that would challenge my high kids, make my grade level kids higher, and push my below-level kids.

One September day while at a district science meeting, I was on Pinterest searching for student-friendly science standards when I came across Katie’s free ‘Cutest-Ever’ Science Standard posters. As I scrolled down, I noticed her link to check out something called Secret Stories. She included writing samples and video clips from her classroom. I was blown away! I couldn’t believe her writing samples! I pinned the link, and as soon as I walked in my front door I sat down and started to explore.

I honestly could not believe that kindergarten kids could do that! I watched Katie’s YouTube vlogs and was speechless. With tears in my eyes, I ran to my hubby. I told him my prayers had been answered and that I had found the holy grail of reading/phonics!

Now, my hubby, being the supportive husband that he is, was used to me coming home in tears over this class. I had spent night after night crying myself to sleep, not knowing what I should do to help these kids.
I had spent hundreds of dollars on units, games, centers and activities, but they were of no use because my class simply wasn’t ready for them. Seeing my desperation, yet reluctant to spend $90 on yet another thing for my classroom, he finally agreed to let me get it. That was the best decision we ever made.
Let me put it this way, if my classroom were on fire, after safely removing all the children from the room, I would grab my “Secret Stories” book and posters! Of everything I have EVER bought for my classroom, this program has beyond proven its worth. It changed everything for me.
So after ordering it, I couldn’t wait for the package to arrive. In the meantime, I watched every one of her vlogs on YouTube, read the website from top to bottom, and stalked Katie on Pinterest.
Finally, my package arrived and I was one happy camper! I read it from cover to cover and told myself that I would try everything. Whether if it was new, different, or I something that I was unsure of, I was going to do it!
If my classroom were on fire, after safely removing all the children from the room, I would grab my Secret Stories book and posters!
I carried my book around with me everywhere ever I went. I was determined to learn these stories so I could teach them to my babies. And I quickly enlisted the help of my amazing hubby to put up my posters.
My kids are beyond engaged.... they are OBSESSED with the Secret Stories!
If my classroom were on fire, after safely removing all the children from the room, I would grab my Secret Stories book and posters!

 

My kids are beyond engaged.... they are OBSESSED with the Secret Stories!

My students instantly became excited about these posters. They were dying to know what these stories were all about and how they could teach them to read!

And I carried my little book around like it was the Bible. I would refer to it at least 5 times a day. I would explain to my kids and parents and anybody who entered our room, that we were trying something new…. that Mrs. Mac was learning right along with the kids.

If my classroom were on fire, after safely removing all the children from the room, I would grab my Secret Stories book and posters!
And to prove how “well-read” my Secret Stories® Book was,
here’s what it looked like after just TWO MONTHS!

Within two weeks, ALL my kids knew all their letter sounds, AND long and short vowels! My kids started to CRAVE Secret Storytime. You could hear a pin drop when I was sharing a secret with them. They were finding Secret Stories everywhere!!! We couldn’t walk into a room without them finding a Secret Story “hiding” in words that they saw.

By December, my kid’s DRA reading scores had doubled. I actually had kids reading above grade level and all of my 0 DRA reading scores disappeared!

One day during Secret Story hour, my AP was doing a walk-through and my students immediately ‘shushed’ me, begging me to stop telling the Secret Story of oi/oy. The AP was not allowed to to hear our ‘secret’ ….. that was privileged information. We finally came to an agreement that if she promised not to tell anyone, she could hear the “Secret Story.” And the rest is history. She was blown away by how engaged they ALL were during the lesson, and how every student knew the sound for oi /oy and could easily tell its ‘secret!’

She told my principal, who then came into my classroom wanting to hear more about this “Secret Story” program. He was equally blown away by what my kids were able to do! They were beyond engaged…. they were OBSESSED with these stories.

If we had a ‘rough’ day, and had to miss out on a Secret Story, they cried. If students had to leave the carpet area because of bad choices and missed out on Secret Storytime, they were devastated. They would beg the other kids (behind my back) to tell them the ‘secret’ they’d missed. I couldn’t believe it.

By this time, Secret Stories had spread like wildfire. My principal had asked me to do a mini-presentation for our staff and even offered to buy it for all the teachers who were interested. I’m proud to say that ALL of our teachers from 1st through 5th grade wanted it!

I asked my principal if I could go to one of Katie’s conferences, but instead, he brought her to us! He was able to schedule Katie to come and work with the entire staff for a FULL DAY in-service! So five weeks ago, I got to meet the person who changed my entire reading philosophy forever, and it was one of the greatest moments of my life!

My students were just as excited to meet her as I was. They couldn’t wait to meet the lady who taught their teacher how to teach them to read! They decided to create a handmade Secret Storybook for her. They each chose a Secret Story, wrote about it, and drew a picture to match their writing.

Secret Stories Sneaky Y® Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?
Secret Stories® Sneaky Y®
Secret Stories Sneaky Y® Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?
Secret Stories Sneaky Y® Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?
Secret Stories Mommy E® Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?
Secret Stories® Mommy E®
Secret Stories Mommy E® Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?
Secret Stories Mommy E® Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?
Secret Stories® "ous" Phonics Secret! Do YOUR Kindergartners Know It?

When she walked into our room, my kids literally jumped out of their seats and yelled, “KATIE GARNER!!!!”  which was immediately followed by ALL 33 of them talking simultaneously, trying to tell her their favorite secrets, as well as all of the other things they were learning about. She was essentially ‘mini-mobbed!’

I am proud to say that I now have a classroom full of readers…. REAL readers!  

Readers that can spend their time enjoying what they read, not struggling with how to read it. To put this in concrete form for my little ones, I had each of my students create their own personal growth charts, so that they could see for themselves how far they had come into the world of reading and writing! 

Just look at how MUCH progress they made!
 
How I DOUBLED My First Grade DRA Scores by December!
How I DOUBLED My First Grade DRA Scores by December!
How I DOUBLED My First Grade DRA Scores by December!
How I DOUBLED My First Grade DRA Scores by December!

I am just so proud of these students and can’t wait to share more about our amazing journey!  
                                                         

Sincerely, Reneé McAnulty
A special THANK YOU to Renee McAnulty for taking the time to write this post and share all of the wonderful things she is doing in her classroom! It was such a pleasure getting to visit it in person, and while I LOVE seeing her student gains on the graphs, nothing beats seeing what her kiddos can actually do in real life!
If you would like to read another post by Ms. Mac (which will honestly have you rolling on the floor laughing!) click here.
Until Next Time,
Katie Garner :-)

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