image surfer summer poems

Teach Phonics with Summer Poems

Like everyone, I’ve been spending more time than usual inside this summer due to Covid-19, but I live in a wonderful little coastal town in North County San Diego and it’s still nice to be able to get some fresh air at the beach when it’s a bit less crowded on a week day. One …

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Image of cat eating mouse from phonics poem, "Mice in Line," by Lorrie L. Birchall

Teach Phonics with Short Poems

First of all, what are phonics poems? They’re simply poems that can be used as good examples (exemplars) to teach specific phonics skills. Why use phonics poems for teaching reading? 1. Phonics poems provide an efficient use of short instructional time: As a reading intervention teacher, I typically had between 15-20 minutes to work with …

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Image of grumpy bear from phonics poem, "Grumpy Glum," by Lorrie L. Birchall

Teach Short & Long Vowels With Poems

Phonics poems help teach short and long vowel sounds Phonics poems differ from other types of poetry because they are written specifically to be a targeted teaching text. They are strategically embedded with words of a certain spelling or sound pattern (such as the long o vowel/silent e) to help teach that specific phonics skill. …

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