Blog Archives - The Secret Stories

Secret Stories® Phonics Boom Cards: Reinforcing Learning in the Brain

Blog, Brain Based Learning, Digital Resources for Online Learning, Phonics Flashcards, Phonics Games and Activities, Science of Reading

Hello, I am Janelle Schneider. Some of you may know me as Mrs. Schneider from Engage & Inspire with Mrs. Schneider. I wanted to share with you two of my favorite teaching resources, Boom Cards and Secret Stories! I am going to explain why Secret Stories phonics activities on Boom are the perfect addition to any phonics routine, and why Boom Cards provide such effective and efficient skill practice. Like Secret Stories, Boom Cards make your life easier and maximize student achievement.

As teachers, there are so many ideas and resources being thrown at us. It can be very overwhelming trying to figure out which ones work, and which ones aren’t worth our time. New curriculums, new programs, new teacher websites and apps, all promising to be the “magic tool” that’s missing. It’s frustrating to waste time and money on new websites and apps, only to find out that either kids don’t like them or that they’re ineffective.

During the 2020 COVID school closures, I was struggling to find a way to teach my students virtually. Through one of the second grade Facebook groups, I came across Boom Cards. Though I found the platform a bit confusing at first, I quickly grew to love it, and I eventually began making Boom Cards of my own. During this time, I also decided to obtain my graduate degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Through my coursework, I realized that Boom Cards were not only fun, but backed by Behavioral Learning Theory.

While reading and completing coursework on the different learning theories, I wrote this in one of my papers,

When it comes to teaching our diverse students, there is no one size fits all learning theory. Teachers find, trim, and arrange bits and pieces of many different learning theories to craft the beautiful mosaic of student learning. In any one lesson, it is typical for a teacher to have elements from cognitivism, behaviorism, constructivism, and humanism.”

One learning theory that supports the use and effectiveness of using Boom Cards is the Behavioral Learning Theory. When people think of behavioral learning or operant conditioning in the classroom, they typically envision the conditioning of student behavior in regard to discipline and classroom management; however, incorporating behaviorism in the classroom can greatly impact both teaching and learning.

Following is an excerpt from an article on Teaching and Education by Western Governors University.

The stimulus-response sequence is a key element of understanding behaviorism… Behavioral learning theory argues that even complex actions can be broken down into the stimulus-response” (Western Governors University, 2021). In the case of Boom Cards, students hear a ding and see a green circle when they have a correct answer and they hear a “whoops” and see a red circle when they have an incorrect answer. Additionally, students must find and correct their error before moving on to the next card.

What I love most about Boom Cards, aside from the immediate feedback students receive, is the repetition! Students need to practice a skill several times to obtain mastery, and Boom offers this repetition, as well as immediate feedback and positive reinforcement.

Repetition and positive reinforcement go hand-in-hand with the behavioral learning theory…Positive reinforcement is key in the behavioral learning theory. Without positive reinforcement, students will quickly abandon their responses because they don’t appear to be working. (Western Governors University, 2021)

Think about it! How many times have your students abandoned their worksheets or other class assignments because they were “too hard,” or because they didn’t know if they were doing it correctly? How often are students completing work that won’t be graded until days later? How often do they practice skills incorrectly, and then have to “unlearn” them later? With Boom Cards, students are actively engaged because they know if they are doing their work correctly or not. They want to hear that ding! They want to feel successful, and when they hear the “Whoops” sound repeatedly, they know they’re doing something wrong. They know they need to ask for help. And for our shy students who won’t ask, we can see on their live report that they are struggling and in need of assistance. This allows us the opportunity to target struggling students and reteach the concepts in small group or “one-on-one” before they fall further behind.

How I Use Boom Cards in My Classroom

I scaffold all of my lessons using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. During COVID, I had structured all of my lessons (on Google Slides, Youtube, etc.) as “I do, We do, You do.” Now that we are back in the classroom, I structure my lessons as “I do. We do. You do (together), You do (individually).”

I begin with whole group direct instruction, making sure to build on students’ prior knowledge, and working on a examples together. Next, students work on an activity in partners or small groups. Then they complete their assigned Boom Card deck individually. I will also use Boom Cards to differentiate assignments and fill in learning gaps. I love that Boom Cards “self-grade” so you can look at the live data as students complete each deck. I use this as a daily formative assessment, and will sometimes even use Boom Cards as a summative assessment. The fact that they are SELF-GRADING is the best part, as this has saved me so much time, and truth be told, even given me some of my weekends back!

Below are step-by-step directions for creating a Boom account, as well as purchasing decks and assigning the to students in your classroom. I would also encourage you to check out the video below (and if helpful, please remember to like and subscribe!)

Boom Plans

Membership Plans: Free and Paid

The Starter Plan (free): If you are a parent or if you homeschool 5 or less children, this is the plan for you. If you are a teacher that does not need to collect data on students’ progress, but want to give your students Boom Decks for extra practice of a particular skill, you can use the free account and assign “Fast Plays.”
*You will still need to purchase decks separately.

The Essential Plan ($25 year): I recommend this plan for regular classroom teachers on a tight budget, as it’s only $25 per year. The only thing I don’t like about this plan is that you don’t get the “live reports,” only student progress.

The Premium Plan ($40/ year): This is the plan I recommend all teachers get if they can afford it, as it does include the live reports which are so helpful in tracking student progress in “real-time” and targeting students in need of reteaching.

The Publisher Plan ($50/year): If you plan to make Boom Cards for your students (and possibly even sell them) this is the plan you would need. It’s the plan that I have.

Navigating the Boom Store

Below are step by step directions that walk you through how to find, purchase and access your Boom Decks.

When you first log in, this is what it looks like.
Click on “Store” to get started.

In the store, you can search for whatever material you need for your lesson. You can search: Secret Stories, phonics, cvc words, decoding, 3-digit addition, time, etc., and a list of available decks will come up. You can also click the “Find Free” green button to search all of the free decks.

Purchasing Boom Decks

You purchase decks with “points,” choosing from the following options:
100 points=$1.00
200 points is $2.00
375 points is $3.75
and so on….

As you can see in the screenshot of my own Boom Library below, I currently have 1281 points remaining to use. I always purchase the $50 option, as this makes it easier to quickly do the math and decide if a deck is “worth” the cost, as the decks range in price. You can preview the first 4 slides of any deck to see if you like it. Once you own the decks, you own them forever. Just like on Teachers Pay Teachers, you can continue to use them year after year.

Assigning Boom Cards to Students

After you purchase a deck, you can go to your library to find them, and them choose which deck you want to assign to students.

I recommend doing this right before you release students to work independently. The reason for this is that I’ve had a few “over-achievers” try to do Boom Cards before school in the morning before the concept has been taught. It only takes a minute to assign, so if you can wait until school begins or just before the lesson to assign each deck, that works the best.

You can also make folders and store the decks by topic or standard, or in any other way that you wish.

First, click on “Action”
Next, click on “Assign”

Choose which class you want to assign the deck to. (I have my regular second grade class in “class 1” and students that I tutor in “class 2”).
After checking the box to select the class, you can then “x” out of that screen.
Students can then refresh their screens and the assigned deck will appear at the top of their list.

Student View

Reading Boom Reports

In addition to the information shown above, you can also get reports for each card so that you can identify common errors being made, or see which cards students struggled with the most.

To do this, just click on “title” when viewing the report.

Then click on “Report by Cards”

Now you can see the cards that had the most incorrect responses.

I hope that this “crash-course” on Boom Learning is helpful, especially to those who may want to use the new Secret Stories® Boom Cards in their classrooms, but were unsure of how to get started.

Secret Stories® Boom Decks

Below are some of the Secret Stories® Boom Decks available with short videos showing how they can be used.

“Short & Lazy” Vowel Practice

The Short Vowel CVC Word Mapping Bundle and the Short Vowel CVC “Hear it, Tap it, Spell it” Bundle include decks for practicing and reinforcing all of the “short & lazy vowel” sounds. (Decks may also be purchased individually.)

Decoding Sight Words with Phonics Secrets

The Fry Sight Word Mapping Bundle and the Fry Phonics Flashcards Bundle include decks for practicing and reinforcing decoding and encoding with Secret Stories® phonics sounds/spelling patterns. (Note: A Dolch Word deck will be released soon so as to align Boom practice with the Decoding Sight Words with Phonics Secrets Pack on Teachers Pay Teachers.)

For more insight into these activities and everything else Secret Stories-related, join the Secret Group on Facebook, and be sure to download all of the free resources in the group file! You can also subscribe to the Secret email for personal notifications delivered directly to your inbox.

💗Special thanks to Janelle Schneider/Engage & Inspire with Mrs. Schneider for this wonderful post!

April 30, 2022

A Secret Sound Wall for Reading, Writing & Spelling

Blog, Brain Based Learning, ELL, Kindergarten, Phonics for Dyslexia, Phonics Posters, Reading Intervention, Sight Words, Social Emotional Learning Channels, Struggling Readers, Teaching Writing

Crystalizing “speech to print” connections for independent reading and writing in a way that even kindergartners can easily understand.

I love watching the kids use our Secret posters on the wall to read and write whatever they want. It’s amazing what our youngest learners can do and how easily they can do it when we just give them the tools they need and let them ‘play!’

Sound Walls, Word Walls and the Science of Reading

The purpose of a sound wall is to clearly represent the connections between speech and print in a way that students can easily understand and use as a source of reference to read and spell words. It is a way to organize and display the different sounds (phonemes) heard in speech and the spelling/phonics patterns (graphemes) that represent them in print.

With advancement of new research on the science of reading, there is a clearer understanding of the roles that phonetics and phonology (i.e. “symbol to sound” relationships) play in beginning reading and spelling. Because learning to speak happens long before learning to read, teaching the connections between the letters on the page and the sounds they represent in speech is critical.

Unlike a word wall, which organizes words in alphabetical order so that students can find and copy them, sound walls are organized by sounds alongside the letter patterns that represent them.

The biggest difference between the two is that word walls give learners access to only a limited number of words, whereas sounds walls empower them with ALL of the building blocks of the code, so as to read and spell ANY word. But this is only if the sound-symbol connections are obvious and easy to understand. (And I mean for a five-year old!)

And this is what the Secret Stories® do, with all 44 phonemes accounted for, though some of the phonemes are treated as sound “defaults” (i.e. next most likely sound options) in order to streamline and fast-track MORE of the phonics code, SOONER.

With one glance, learners can instantly connect the phonics patterns with their sounds. Rooted in brain science, Secret Stories® target “universal” social-emotional understanding by connecting letter behavior to kid behavior, making sounds easily predictable — even for kindergartners. The Secret posters are a ready-made sound wall that even that earliest grade learners can independently reference to read, write and spell.

How to Work Smarter, Not Harder

“The Secrets are so versatile and work great with our district-required sound wall. The kids reference the Secret Stories posters constantly to figure out words. The Secrets are the ‘backdoor’ in for sure!”

Secret Stories® Sound Wall Integration with Articulation Mouth Pics, as shared in the Secret Stories® Facebook Group.

Working Harder

The following excerpt is from leading literacy expert, Dr. Timothy Shanahan’s recent blog post on using articulation sound walls (which use mouth pictures showing the lips, tongue and teeth in varying positions) to depict the phonics sounds.

“The (mouth picture/articulation) sound walls are proposed as memory supports, reminders to kids about how to articulate the proper phonemes (language sounds) for the proper graphemes (letters and letter combinations). …… as a practical memory aid, they’re weak (more useful for the teacher as a guide to presentation than to the kids as a guide to reading words).

I guess the idea would be that when a student comes to a challenging word, he/she could go to the word wall, find the right combination of graphemes and examine the pictures of the articulatory apparatus in the hopes that replicating that shape would lead to proper sounding out of that word.”

“My take? That’s far too cumbersome as a memory aid — about as practically useful as the lists of 3-cueing clues that some teachers provide: If you come to a word you don’t know, look at the picture. If that doesn’t work, read to the end of the sentence….. The problem is that these steps are neither much like real reading nor practical as efficient scaffolds. Memory aids need to be easy to access or people just don’t use them.” —Dr. Tim Shanahan

Working Smarter

Alternatively, Dr. Shanahan confirms use of embedded mnemonics to remind students of the phonics sounds actually improves learning, based on the research.

“Across various studies (Ehri, 2014; Ehri, Deffner, & Wilce, 1984; McNamara, 2012; Schmidman & Ehri, 2010) it has been found that such embedded mnemonic pictures can reduce the amount of repetition needed for kids to learn the letters and sounds, with less confusion, better long-term memory, and greater ability to transfer or apply this knowledge in reading and spelling.

If one relies on data – rather than reasoning – the answer is kind of a no-brainer — it is a good idea to use embedded mnemonics. It looks like, at least with regard to this feature, your previous program was better than the new one.”

“When it comes to teaching letters and sounds, no question about it, use embedded mnemonics. They work.” —Dr. Tim Shanahan

Targeting “Backdoor” Routes for Accelerated Learning

Aligning Phonics Skills with “Universal” Frameworks of Experience and Understanding

While the Secret Stories® posters on their own are an ideal sound wall, they can also be used in-tandem with any existing sound wall or reading/phonics anchor charts, helping to simplify and streamline the sound-symbol connections. This is because the Secrets align with what kids already know, providing a faster and more efficient route for learners.

…..rather than relying on “underdeveloped” auditory and cognitive processing centers for skill mastery.

This is especially true for teaching vowel sounds. They can be easily prompted with emotion-based cues that literally “land” learners in the correct sound — as opposed to relying on inherently weak areas for early (and struggling) learners, which include: developmental/cognitive readiness, language processing, auditory discrimination and articulation capability. It’s so much easier and faster to just sneak these skills through the brain’s social-emotional “backdoor” and avoid these learning “landmines” entirely. (The same goes for accelerating mastery of the individual letter-sounds with the Better Alphabet® Song — which uses earlier-developing, muscle memory to fast-track mastery in 2 weeks to 2 months, while at the same time, telling Secrets!)

Likewise, incorporating the Secrets with sound wall displays that use picture cues for words (rather than sounds) is also extremely helpful. For example, the picture of a saw on the card below depicts the sound of the au/aw spelling pattern. The picture of a girl on the card further down below depicts the sound for the er/ir/ur spelling patterns. These “word-based” picture cues are commonly found on most phonics posters and sound wall displays, yet they add extra and unnecessary steps that can be difficult for some learners — especially very young learners and non-native English-speaking (ELL/ESL) learners.

This is because using them requires students to first recognize what the object in the picture is, and second, have the vocabulary to name it. Third, they must understand the alphabetic principle of letters coming together to represent sounds in words. Only then will they be able to properly segment the sounds that they hear (step 4) so as to successfully identify which sound actually corresponds with the letters/ phonics patterns on the card (step 5).

Similar to vowel sound acquisition (above), each of these additional steps rely on inherently weak areas for early (and struggling) readers: developmental readiness, cognitive processing, auditory discrimination, articulation capability, etc..

Additionally, there is the added spelling confusion that can arise for learners when seeing all three sounds — er, ir and ur — alongside the picture of a girl, as only one actually represents the correct spelling of the word girl. Likewise, the same visual confusion would arise with learners seeing both au and aw to represent the sound heard in the word saw.

And then there’s the problem of learners knowing which sound the picture actually represents — the initial, medial or ending sound. This can be especially difficult for beginning readers and ESL students who are often still learning individual letters and sounds and focusing more attention on initial and ending sounds. All of these reasons help to explain why, with traditional reading instruction, it takes 3-4 grade level years before learners acquire the “whole” phonics code needed to read and write.

For more ideas, join the NEW Secret Stories® Facebook Group for Teaching Phonics with the Brain in Mind!

Fast-Tracking Phonics Pieces of the Reading Puzzle

The pieces of the phonics code are like the pieces of a puzzle. Every piece is important. The more pieces you have, the easier it is to see how those pieces fit together and make sense. The fewer pieces you have, the harder it is to see how they are connected, and the less it makes sense. Not to mention that it’s no fun to play with a puzzle that’s missing half the pieces! Seriously, what would be the point?

Like the pieces of a puzzle, each piece of the phonics code is important. The more pieces kids have, the easier they can put them together and actually use them to read and write — and the more motivated they will be to do it! That’s why it’s actually harder to go slow when teaching phonics for real reading and writing! And with the Secrets, you don’t have to.

Kids need as much of the phonics code as possible, as soon as possible to “power-up” skill-transfer to daily reading and writing — the ideal place to hone them! Only then can learners begin to make sense of text that’s all around them across the instructional day. That’s why it’s critical to hang up ALL of the Secret Stories® posters on Day 1, as this ensures a comprehensive sound wall with access to ALL the code kids need to read and write!

The Secrets work with any existing reading curriculum or phonics program to fast-track more of the code kids NEED to read and write. Taking advantage of early developing, social-emotional centers in the brain, Secret Stories® crystalizes the connections between sound and print to empower beginning readers and writers. t’s a simple formula really….. the more phonics Secrets kids know, the more words they can read and write!

R-controlled vowels are traditionally taught at the end of first grade or beginning of second, but shared as a Secret, kids can have it in the first week of kindergarten!

I started teaching The Better Alphabet™ Song on Day 2 of school in August. I put all of the Secret Stories Posters up on Day 5.
On Day 6 my life changed.

I told a Secret, and from that moment on, my kindergartners wanted to know more and more and more. They were finding those Secrets everywhere! I had a student who entered into our class with no real gusto for learning letters or to read, according to his parents. This student became obsessed with looking for Secrets on the wall, finding those patterns in text, and writing them down. He would literally get a blank piece of paper and copy all of the Secrets he knew from the posters on the wall.

He would ask everyday if we could learn a new Secret, and if he saw any letter patterns in words that were on a Secret poster, watch out! He had to learn it. I would have been impressed had he been the only one, but it was every student in the class! They all wanted to know the Secrets!

Writing is where I began seeing the most notable change. Students were drawing speech bubbles for an animal writing project in late September. Inside the speech bubbles were the words “meow” for cats, “hoot” for owls and “nay” for horses. Those tricky phonics sounds that my students typically did not even hear in words were now being incorporated into their writing using the Secret posters on our wall. They referenced them constantly to read and spell. My students didn’t just “know” the secrets, they were owning them!

In reading, we assess students three times a year using FastBridge to determine which need reading interventions. My students were tested and I did not have one student qualify as needing intervention. The Reading Team was curious and wanted to know more about the Secrets. We’ve just completed the second round of testing, and again, none of my students were in need of intervention help. I have taught kindergarten for 14 years and this has never happened.

My students continue to excel in reading and writing, and I am happy to report that all of my students know 100% of upper and lowercase letters, as well as the sounds associated with each letter symbol, thanks to the Better Alphabet™ Song (even the child who came in knowing no letters and only yelled at me when I met him). And it’s only January!

During parent teacher conferences, the Secrets were a conversation that kept coming up. Parents wanted to let me know how impressed they were that their child already knew about blends and digraphs. They wanted to tell me how often their child comes home and shares the latest Secret. The parents were loving the progress that they were seeing just as much as I was.

Today they earned a celebration, and the idea that my students came up with (on their own) was to eat a popsicle, watch a Curious George Episode, and dress up as a Secret Story.

I am attaching a picture of me as “Mommy E” and a group photo that we took!

You can see a real joy for learning on the faces of these children, who are better because of your passion to make the reading and brain science accessible to teachers, and applying a creativity to make strategies that work!

Angela Wolfe, Kindergarten Teacher

Sound Wall = A Brain Based Phonics “Buffet”

Imagine going to a buffet, only to be told that items would be served one at a time, with the waiter deciding “what” you can have and “when” you can have it. This would effectively turn your buffet into a restaurant, defeating the whole purpose of why you go to a buffet in the first place, which is to take what you need with no waiting! At a restaurant, you’re at the mercy of the waiter or waitress who gets to decide “what” you can have and “when” you can have it.

Reading & Writing Across the Entire Instructional Day

Text is everywhere, which means so are Secrets! With a Secret Stories® Sound Wall, students have access to whatever they need to read and spell words across the instructional day. That means that kindergarten and first grade students don’t have to memorize all of the sight words with phonics patterns in them they haven’t been taught. Instead, they can learn the Secrets they need to easily decode them, regardless of which grade level scope and sequence they’re “supposed” to be on!

And with virtual learning, kids need access to the Secrets/ Sound Wall outside the physical classroom — wherever and whenever they are reading and writing. The Porta-Pics are an easy and inexpensive “portable” sound wall that kids can reference at home or anywhere outside of the regular classroom or resource classroom.

Prompting the “Need to Know” for Learner-Driven Instruction

Secrets make things important to kids, fostering a “need to know” for prioritized learning and marking information for memory in the brain. Secret Stories® transform the phonics skills kids have to learn into “secrets” they want to know! And the more they know, the more they want to know….and they’re all on the Secret Stories® Sound Wall, just waiting to be discovered!

Secrets are like the piece of cake on a buffet that you don’t know you want until you see it! That’s why they should ALL be up on Day 1!

Kindergartners “Stalking” the Secret Sound Wall

For more Secret Stories® Word Wall displays and ideas, check out this post, and for answers to all of your Secret Stories® questions, free teacher-made resources and REAL teacher-talk, join the new Secret Stories® Support Group for “Teaching Phonics with the Brain in Mind” on Facebook!

January 28, 2021

When Teaching Phonics Feels Perfectly Right

Blog, Brain Based Learning, First Grade, Free Phonics Resources, Home School Connection, Kindergarten, Sight Words, Sneaky Y®/ Sounds of Y, Social Emotional Learning Channels, Teaching Writing

A guest post by first grade teacher, Karrie Kehrig.

Teacher Overwhelm

It was the first week of October, and even though school hadn’t started until the end of August, I was already feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.

As a hybrid classroom for distance learning, I have 22 students in person and 7 online, and teaching both groups well is anything but easy. We were only a few weeks into this school year when I experienced one of those special “teacher-moments” when you know that you’re doing something that is perfectly right and you can’t help but to smile! I’ll come back to this in just a bit, but first, a little background…..

This year is my 21^st year teaching, though I took ten years off in the middle of my career to raise my three children. I began teaching in the late 1980s when whole language was all the rage, though I had grown up in Catholic schools where phonics was the focus. I have seen and lived through both sides of the teaching debate and the resulting “Reading Wars” over what works best when it comes to teaching reading.

Fast forward to the 2012 State Reading Conference….
If you’ve never been to a reading conference before, then you should know that you’re usually just hoping for a few nights away to clear your mind, and maybe one or two good ideas that you can bring back to use in your classroom. However that year, the Michigan Reading Conference changed my life forever.

If They Don’t Know the Phonics Secrets, How Can They Read the Words?

I will never forget that day. I was walking around trying to decide what speaker to go see, when I noticed a room jam-packed with people. I told my friend that we needed to go and see what all the excitement was about.

I walked in and Katie Garner was on the stage, talking about how au & aw were “in love,” and how they got so embarrassed when they had to stand together in words, they always put their heads down and said, “Awwwwww….” (as in: saw, paw, cause, August, etc…) Katie further explained that this was a “grown-up reading secret,” and then she said something that really struck me, which was “If kids don’t know the phonics secrets, how can they read the words?”

The more Katie talked, the more everything made sense to me. I just kept listening as she shared information about early brain development, and how the earlier-developing, emotional part of the brain could be easily accessed and “tricked” into remembering phonics skills through social-emotional (feeling-based) stories, especially “secret” stories! This was really intriguing to me, as was the idea of being able to make sense of letter sounds and phonics for my students.

Everyone in Katie’s session was given a free download pack with the anchor posters and activities used in the session. That was great, but I wanted all of it, so as soon as I got home, I immediately bought the Secret Stories Kit so that I could start using it in my classroom.

Looking at Words vs. Reading Them

When I first started using Secret Stories, I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t listen to Katie and only put up a few posters, as I just didn’t think that I would have time to teach them all. We have a reading series AND a phonics program, as well as writing, math, science and social studies curriculums that we have to follow, so my initial plan was to just use the Secret Stories as yet another curriculum. Oh boy, was I ever wrong!!

I quickly realized that the more Secrets I shared, the more words my kids could read and write on their own, and that the more they knew, the more they wanted to know! This was eye-opening for me, as I now understood why Katie was so adamant in the book about putting up ALL of the posters up on Day 1. We are working with words all day long across all areas of the curriculum, and the Secrets are IN those words! If kids don’t know the Secrets, how can they read the words?!

Typically in kindergarten and first grade, we just look at the words and say them, as we don’t actually expecting the kids to read them.

For example, we look at and say the words on our daily calendar every day, but kids aren’t actually reading them. How could they when in words like August, the letter /A/ is making the short /o/ sound, or in words like: January, May, July and Monday, the letter /y/ is making every sound other than the one that kids actually know? And so, we just point to the words and say them.

But where’s the instructional value in just looking at words day in and day out, or even worse, in all of the time we spend memorizing words because kids don’t know how to read them? When you can’t read the words, looking and memorizing are the only options, especially for beginning grade learners who don’t even know all of the letter sounds.

Phonics Instruction that Makes Sense

But with the Secrets, I can just tell a story about au/aw being in love in the word August, or about Sneaky Y® and the sounds he makes when he’s at the end of a word (as in: July, May & January) and thinks no one will see him!

Sneaky Y® – Better Alphabet™ Anchors

All I have to do is tell a Secret and my five and six year olds instantly understand WHY the letter /y/ makes the many different sounds that it does, and not just on our calendar, but in every other word that they see….all day long!

Why wouldn’t I tell them the Secrets?
Especially since our daily calendar provides a perfect “built-in” opportunity to practice using them in a familiar context, so it’s a win-win! And likewise in math, social studies, and even at lunch! Text is everywhere….and so are the Secrets!

Once you start seeing them, you can’t stop….and your students can’t either! They will start finding them everywhere in every subject area across the entire instructional day and even at home! My kids point them out all the time– in math problems, science and social studies lessons, and even religious studies (as I teach at a Catholic School). We find Secrets in everything we do ALL day long.

Check out some of the Sneaky Y® words that one student found in his story with Secret Stories® Phonics Task Cards (which can be with any text).

Secret Stories® “Universal” Phonics Task Cards

Don’t Wait for the Reading Series or Phonics Program to Teach It

By putting up ALL of the posters, I was able to explain the sounds of letters in words that we see everyday, long before our reading series formally introduced them. This was a huge timesaver, especially since words like play and they were on our Week #1 sight word list, but the ey/ay phonics skill needed to read them wasn’t supposed to be introduced (by our reading series) until mid-January. That meant countless hours, weeks, and months of instructional time that would have typically been spent memorizing these words was now spent reading them….plus many more!

This realization that I didn’t have to “wait” until mid-January to teach the ey/ay Secret that my kids needed now was huge! By not waiting on the reading series to teach the Secret, my students were actually able to make better use of it—as now they could actually read it! They were finding the Secrets in every story, and they were so excited!

I really enjoy using Secret Stories with our reading series, not only because kids could actually read the stories that were in it, but because it provided endless opportunities to introduce more Secrets while reinforcing the ones they already knew. It also allowed me to shift instructional focus to comprehension strategies, as students were no longer overwhelmed with memorizing and decoding.

More than anything, I began to realize what a huge disservice I’d done to my students that first year by holding back so many Secrets and waiting for my reading series to introduce them. But we live and learn, and when we know better, we do better….which brings me back to October.

This is Cecilia’s writing from October, which was only about one month into the school year. It not only made me smile, but it showed me that despite all of the overwhelming stress I was feeling, there was at least ONE thing I was doing perfectly right!

The Phonics Code Kids Need to Read and Write

We were working on the short /e/ sound, and Cecilia needed to write a sentence with a short /e/ word in it. She did that, and so much more!

Not only did she spell the word wet correctly (Thank you Better Alphabet™ Song!), she was able to use the ey/ay Secret (these letters are just too cool, like Fonzie, and always stick up their thumbs and say, “Ayyyyyyyeeeee!“) to build the word rayn, too!

Watch the ey/ay phonics video and subscribe on Youtube!

Even though the spelling isn’t technically correct (as she didn’t know the Secret for /ai/ yet), Cecilia “owned” enough of the phonics code to write the word that she wanted….and this was so much more exciting to me than the fact that she spelled the word wet correctly!

You see, my class learned about the ey/ay Secret in the first week of school when the word “play” came up in a story. Unlike my first year, I didn’t wait to tell it until mid-January when our reading series introduced it. Instead, I took advantage of the first opportunity I had, and I used that teachable moment to give my students a valuable piece of the code they would need to read and write every day. And use it they did.

Cecilia’s writing shows that she is starting to “play” with the critical sound-symbol (“speech to print”) connections that are the foundation for all reading and writing. She hears the long /a/ sound in the word rain, and she knows a Secret that she can use to convert that sound to print. With each new Secret she learns, her power as a reader and writer grows. She is able to make sense of the sounds letter make in words all around her, in books and on billboards. Text is everywhere, and she’s reading it!

This is such a tremendous accomplishment for a first grader at the beginning of October, and there is no doubt in my mind that as Cecilia learns more Secrets and gains more text experience, she will spell rain with /ai/ and not /ay/…… but for now though, I am smiling! When kids know the phonics Secrets, they CAN read the words!

Karrie singing along with the Better Alphabet™ Song Video in hybrid instruction

Karrie Kehrig is a first grade teacher at St. Lawrence Catholic School in Utica, Michigan. She has an MA in Early Childhood Education from Oakland University and a BS in Science from Siena Heights College. (Connect with Karrie in NEW Secret Stories® Support Group on Facebook here.)

I am so grateful to Karrie for taking the time to share this post and provide a glimpse into what hybrid learning looks like in her classroom this year!

And to “run” with Karrie’s point about just how powerful early ownership of the phonics code can be for beginning grade learners, I wanted to share some “end of year” kindergarten writing samples, along with some first grade writing samples further down, below. The Secrets are everywhere throughout their writing, as they are the tools they use to write about dolphins, kings and queens! For more on how to fast-track phonics for beginning writing, check out the video below, and subscribe on Youtube for more.

You can also download the FREE Secret Stories® Fairy Tale Writing Pack (used in some of the writing samples below) here or by clicking on the pic below.

Free Secret Stories® Fairy Tale Writing Ideas & Organizer Pack on TpT!

To see more kindergarten writing samples click here, and to see the compounded skill progression of the Secrets in first grade, click here.

If kids don’t know the Secrets, how can they write the words?

Join the NEW Secret Stories® Facebook Group!

December 29, 2020

Phonics Supplements to Support Reading with Secret Stories®

Blog, Digital Resources for Online Learning, Free Phonics Resources

Instagram Repost @ItsAllGoodWithMrsHood

Secret Stories® Phonics Supplements on Teachers Pay Teachers

I apologize for the looooong delay between blog posts, but like all of you, my time away wasn’t due to a wonderful summer vacation. Nope! On the contrary, I feel like there was NO summer this year, just a crazy-long Spring that somehow turned into Fall. And now, here we are.

However, I was fortunate enough to see many of you “virtually” in your school and district professional developments over the summer, which was awesome! I loved getting to spend a full day together, even if it isn’t in person.

I also got to see over 30,000+ of you at the Get Your Teach On Virtual K/1 Conference, which was a whole new level of virtual FUN! If you weren’t one of the 30,000+ that attended, you can watch my two hour session free on my YouTube Channel! (And if you like, it, please click “like” and subscribe, as apparently, this is important, Lol! And you’ll see how I know this a bit further down, below!)

And while all that virtual learning was going on, I was on an obsessive mission (literally!) to create the digital resources that teachers needed to fully implement the Secret Stories® remotely, as well as model their use to read and spell words across the virtual learning day and beyond.

As many of you who’ve been using Secret Stories® for a while now already know, teaching kids the Secrets (i.e. phonics “skills”) is one thing, but teaching them how to apply them as “strategies” to read and write is another. Both are equally important!

It’s the latter—modeling strategy application—that was virtually impossible (no pun intended!) for teachers last year in distance learning lessons. That’s not to say that there weren’t some incredible ideas and lessons created by teachers to make it happen (you can find them here), but just that it wasn’t ready-made, easy and concrete. Now it is.

It’s not enough for kids to just “know” the Secrets. They need to be using them like keys to unlock the words that are all around them ALL DAY LONG, and especially when they are reading and writing at home!

To this end, I’m happy to say, I’ve got you covered! And everything that’s been created for virtual learning will be equally valuable in the “physical” classroom, as well!

Note: The only item not created this summer (but the MOST USEFUL) is the Porta-Pics. They were a lifeline for those who had them last year, as they are the equivalent of your classroom Secret Stories® wall of posters. Porta-Pics were #1 on “take-home” student supplies this year, just in case everything goes fully virtual—again!

Secret Stories® Porta Pics / $2.60 per student (25 set)
*Non-Consumable for use over multiple years, when laminated

Here’s a quick run-down of all the NEW Secret Stories® digital resources….

The Secret Stories® Phonics iOS App in Apple Store 

Secret Stories® iOS Phonics App for Reading

This digital teaching tools puts all of the Secret Stories® sound graphics AND stories at your fingertips, as well as the Better Alphabet™ Song! Whether you’re a teacher, student or parent, this app is the #1 digital resource we’ve created. It is for use only on iPads or iPhones, and will not work on any other devices, or allow for screen-sharing or mirroring on other devices/platforms, due to the built-in technology.

If you’re a teacher, this app is not designed to “broadcast” the Secrets, but simply to put them all at your fingertips so that you have them all “on the ready” for instant access and use in your online reading lessons, and you don’t have to go rifling through a stack of posters on your desk, or re-adjust your camera to show the a particular poster on the wall. Plus, it will also tell the stories for you, just in case you’re not quite sure what they are, and can’t easily recall them by glancing at the poster (as you normally would in the physical classroom).

The app is equally valuable for parents and students to practice the Secrets, as well as the Better Alphabet® Song for individual letter sound mastery, if needed. Kids can select a Secret phonics image and listen to the story that explains its sound, or, they can test their Secret Story knowledge by listening to stories OR sounds and trying to identify the Secret phonics pattern before time runs out! They can sing along to the Better Alphabet® Song with individual letters highlighted as they are sung, helping to build the critical “sound-symbol” connections in the brain! Kids can also test themselves on the letter names and sounds with timed play. The static grid can also be used as a digital Porta-Pic for reference during independent reading and writing at home. (The app is especially helpful to remediate and reinforce phonics skills for struggling readers, as well as to allow advanced learners to learn more Secrets at a faster rate.)

Aside from the teacher video above, I also made an overview video below with more detailed information, explaining how it works, what it’s designed for, and how your parents and students can also use it at home.

All of this has also been added to the unlisted teacher page, as well as a short synopsis to the unlisted parent page. Both pages will continue to be added to over the course of this year, with more remote teaching ideas, distance learning lessons, and parent/student videos. (You can read more about these way down below.)

The Secret Stories Better Alphabet™ Song Videos

These are for easy use during online learning lessons, as well as for student use and practice of the individual letters and sounds at home. The song videos include both the “original” version of the Better Alphabet™ Song, which uses muscle memory for fast mastery of the individual letters and sounds in as little as two weeks, as well as a second version by Jack Hartmann for a fun twist! (Think of the original version as what “builds” the reading & writing muscles, and Jack’s version as a way to “exercise” them!)

I’ve also added a third “hybrid” video of the original Better Alphabet™ Song with a split screen showing mouth positions alongside the letters, so as to maintain focus on the symbols that make the sounds, but also provide some additional insight into what to do and how to do it. You will be able to use this version interchangeably with the other original one, as both are designed specifically to strengthen the critical “sound-symbol” connections in the brain for reading and writing. You can find the videos here on TpT. (All of the letter anchors displayed on the screen in the video match those on the Better Alphabet® Anchor posters and Digital Student Mini-Mats, shown down, below.)

The Better Alphabet™ Song Videos for Online Learning Lessons

I’m also excited to share this fun video that Jack and I did together, which is great for kids who know the original Better Alphabet™ Song to sing along with! This video is great fun, but should not be used for actually “teaching” the letters and sounds, as the focus is on Jack and I, more so than on the letters—which are what kids’ eyes should be GLUED to when singing the sounds in order to cement those “sound-symbol” connections in the brain! That said, as mentioned up above, it’s a great way to “exercise” those newly developing reading and writing muscles that the original Better Alphabet™ Song is building!

And just in case you’re wondering….
The Original Better Alphabet™ Song IS included in the Secret Stories® Kit music download (or CD in older versions), but it’s an audio file, rather than in video format. This is because, ideally (in the traditional classroom), kids should always “visit the letters where they live” on the on the classroom wall—whether it’s the alphabet anchors above your board, or the Secret Stories® posters hanging on your wall. This is critical, not just to solidify the skills, but to reinforce where to go to find them for independent reading and writing!

It’s also why, for years, I’ve recommended NOT using a PowerPoint to flash the letters (or the Secrets) on a screen when practicing them, as they disappear—and this effectively eliminates HALF the value of the time spent practicing them. Think of it this way, when you practice singing the letters and sounds, you’re teaching the “skills,” and when you reference them where they live on the wall, you’re teaching the “strategy” that kids need to know to USE them! :-)

That’s not to say that you can’t have fun singing along with the videos (the “original” version and Jack’s!) in the traditional classroom, but the core “twice a day” practice when learning the letters and sounds should be done with reference to the actual alphabet anchors in your classroom that kids will need to refer back to when reading and writing.

The Better Alphabet™ Song Video options were created for the sole purpose of helping teachers use the Better Alphabet™ Song most effectively in the current online learning envirnment, so as to focus learner-attention (i.e. “eye glue”) on each individual letter symbol as the sound is sung (“mouth muscles”). This visual-auditory connection is critical to cementing the “sound-symbol” relationship in the brain for reading and writing. Additionally, if kids have the Better Alphabet™ Digital Mini-Mats at home, they contain the same alphabet anchors seen in the video, so they kids can refer back to them for independent reading and writing at home.

And for everything you EVER wanted to know about the Better Alphabet™ Song, itself, check out the video below!

The Better Alphabet™ Digital Mini Mats for Student Reference 

Secret Stories® Digital Mini-Mats for Individual Student Reference

These “mini-size” versions of the Better Alphabet™ classroom anchors posters are for individual student use and online distance learning. Both the mini-mats and the classroom anchor posters were recently updated to include an additional a “made-to-match” pastel version to go with the Decorative Square Poster colors. If you previously purchased either, you will be able to re-download and get the additional new set for free!

Secret Stories Better Alphabet™ Anchors

Digital Better Alphabet™ Mini-Mats

Made to Match the Decorative Squares Posters

The Secret Stories® Interactive Phonics Instruction with “Copyright-Safe” Sound Graphics
This Interactive Grid is the perfect teaching tool for modeling how to use the Secrets to read and write words in remote learning lessons. Offered in PowerPoint format and easily transferred to Keynote and Google Slides, it provides an easily accessible and concrete way to show students how to “make and break” words with the Secrets. It also includes digital Secret Stories® stickers with embedded sound graphic “hints” to help students forge concrete connections to the phonics patterns and their sounds. While still copy written, these digital stickers are “copyright-safe,” which means you can use them to create your own lessons for your students.

Secret Stories® Interactive Phonics Grid

The Secret Stories® Digital Phonics Task Cards for Use with ANY Text
This was actually the first distance learning tools that was created last spring, and it’s recently been updated for easy use across all platforms, including PowerPoint. These digital task cards can be used with ANY text—from stories, to spelling and vocabulary lists. Like the Interactive Grid (above), these help students forge concrete connections between the Secrets they know and daily text—from simply spotting Secrets, to actually using them to read and spell words. These task cards are universal and evergreen for use over and over again. (video below)

Secret Stories® “Universal” Task Cards for Use with ANY Text

Sharing and Support Pages for Secret Stories® Teachers and Parents

The “Unlisted” Teacher Page
This page is not publicly available, but housed on the “back end” of the Secret Stories® website. It was created last year to provide teachers who are already using the Secret Stories® with “copyright-safe” ways to support instruction in distance learning lessons. It will continue being added to throughout this year as well.
The “Unlisted” Parent Page
This page is designed just for parents to help them understand what the Secret Stories® are, how they work, and how they can best support their child’s use of the Secrets at home for independent reading and writing. Teachers are welcome to share this link with their parents. (There is a special parent video at the top that really helped with student progression last year!) Here is the direct link that you can copy and paste, as needed- https://www.thesecretstories.com/learn-more/free-phonics-resources-for-parents/.

What’s Coming Up

In February I’ll be doing a full-day PD (1/2 day each) with the wonderful Jen Jones of Hello Literacy on Brain Based Phonics Instruction and Word Work in Guided Reading. There will be both recorded and live components, and if you follow either of us on Instagram or Facebook, you will be hearing a lot about this very soon. (If not, I promise to send an email all about it once the details are complete!
I’ve been running weekly contests on Instagram and Facebook to highlight “Class Pics/Vids of the Week” and would love to see yours! Any pics or vids sent carry over to the following week, and you can keep sending more thoughout the year! Whether sharing a pic of your Secret Stories® poster display, or a video snippet from your online lesson, I would love to see your “Secret Story-happenings” and share them, so send them my way! You can email them to me at Katie@KatieGarner.com, or post and share them on social media. Just be sure to tag me and use the hashtag #TheSecretStories. (If sharing on social media, you can message it to me as well, just to make sure I don’t miss it!)

Follow on Instagram and Facebook for daily “Secret” tips, tools & tricks!

Before closing, I just want to remind you that the best way to “never miss a Secret” is to subscribe to the Secret Email Blast! While I try to post content from previous blasts to this blog, I tend to run several weeks behind. (For example, the unlisted teacher and parent page links were created in April, and I’m just now sharing them here- Lol!)

Secret Stories® Facebook Group for Teaching Phonics with the Brain in Mind!

And stay “never miss a Secret” by joining the NEW Secret Stories® Support Group on Facebook!

September 20, 2020

How to Teach Persuasive Writing in First Grade

Blog, ELL, First Grade, Struggling Readers, Teaching Writing, Title I

How to Teach First Graders About Persuasive Writing

Teaching persuasive writing is not easy, and getting kids excited about doing it — especially first graders — is even harder! But not when there are leprechauns involved….

Now you might be thinking, “This lady is crazy! Look at that mess! Why would anyone purposely ransack their own classroom for the sake of a persuasive writing lesson?” And maybe you’re right. But in our little first grade classroom, reading and writing activities provide the perfect “playground” for adventures like these! Knowing the Secrets empowers my kiddos (many of whom are ELL) to read what they love and write the stories that they want to tell! And unlike average first graders midyear, they aren’t the least bit reliant on sight words to read and write, as they OWN the code!

My name is Renee McAnulty, and I am a first grade teacher at Cottonwood Elementary School in Hesperia California, and you may remember me from previous guest posts on Katie’s Blog.

Increasing Student Engagement with Persuasive Writing

I am that teacher who is constantly trying to come up with creative ways to get my kids completely engaged in our lessons. When it comes to teaching beginning readers and writers, the first (and most important) step is to ensure that they have the tools they need to read write with! And that’s not easy, given how little of the code (i.e. phonics skills) the average first grader has of the code at this point in first grade, as per the grade level scope and sequence in our reading series.

Add to that the constant pressure of trying to compete with video gaming, YouTube, high energy tv shows, etc., focusing students’ attention on reading and writing tasks can be challenging! My special recipe includes the “4C’s” — Creativity, Critical thinking, Collaboration, and Communication….along with a “sprinkling” of Secrets! Combining all of these ingredients has completely transformed what reading and writing looks like in our classroom. We have actually become so strong in our abilities, that we sometimes have to use writing to get ourselves out of sticky situations, like the one that happened last week.

Before I explain the chaos, keep in mind that we are first graders, and as such, we have very BIG imaginations!

—We believe in magic.
—We believe in fairies (and actually have one living in our classroom at the moment)
—We believe in elves (and host an Elf-exchange program with the North Pole each December)
—And we believe in leprechauns.

In fact, did you know that leprechauns are responsible for messing up classrooms all over the world? If you don’t believe me, Google it, as their mayhem is well-documented. This is why I had my munchkins create leprechaun traps. We even put on a “leprechaun exhibit” for the entire school to show off our creative traps, and to encourage others to do the same.

So, after making and setting our traps, we left them out overnight. When we returned to our classroom the next morning, it was pure chaos! The leprechauns had not only escaped from our traps, but they trashed our room, leaving us to clean up their mess…..and it was a BIG mess!

Still in shock, but with a full day of learning ahead of us and no time to waste, my little munchkins started cleaning the giant mess as fast as they could. Then, without any warnings, our principal entered the room (which I will admit, “may” have been pre-planned! ;-)

His face showed his shock….and his disappointment. How could these precious first graders, who love their school, treat their classroom like this? He was speechless. The kids immediately tried to explain what had happened, “We didn’t do it! It was the leprechauns!”

The look on his face said he was not buying it. (Our principal had some theatre training and is a very good actor!) The kids could tell that he was thinking, that WE really did this! They tried their best to explain, but to no avail.

Our principal is a very busy man, and he just doesn’t have time to listen to nonsense. However, despite his busy schedule, he is also very reasonable and very fair. So, he gives the kids their most important assignment to date, to explain to him, IN WRITING, why they are not responsible for the mess. If they can prove that the leprechauns were the real culprits by citing evidence and research, as well as the reasons that they believe that it was them who did this, then he might be convinced to believe us.

The kids wasted no time. They thanked him and then went to work cleaning the classroom. They un-flipped the tables, sharpened the pencils, and began writing.

Not Your Typical First Grade Writing

Now was not the time for, “How do you spell Leprechaun?”
Our reputation was on the line! It’s moments likes this when basic kid-writing simply with simple sight words just will not do. We were not going to be able to convince our principal that we were innocent with:
“I like leprechauns.”
“Leprechauns are cool!”
“I really really really like them.”
“Leprechauns are fun!”
Thankfully, we were armed with our Secret Stories and could write exactly what we wanted, no needed to say!

How incredible is that? We know how to write!
In fact, our writing is being requested by our principal!
Why? Because he can read it!

One of the many perks of kids knowing the letters’ “Secrets” is that they can not only read almost anything, they can write almost anything too! And so without any hesitation at all, the kids started to write….and write….and write.

Why did they write so much?
Because they could, and because it was fun!

This awesome (albeit messy) writing adventure was the perfect mixture of play, passion and skills! It wasn’t just fun, it was exciting! Who would think that words like these would ever be used to describe a first grade writing assignment?!!

Our First Grade Persuasive Writing

When the last of the writers finished up, I sent our class reps to the office to schedule a meeting with Mr. Mauger so that we could read our letters and plead our case. It was just after lunch that he called us in. The kids gave him their letters and showed him some of the research they had done online.

Then he read all of our letters.

After some persuasive conversation, our principal finally said that he believed us. The kids were so relieved, and so very proud that they had once again written their way out of another sticky situation! (You can read about our trauma over Rocky, the school mascot, here!)

When we got back to our classroom, we sat down and chatted about everything that had happened. I told them how proud I was of them. “Munchkins, because you are officially readers and writers! You wrote exactly what you wanted to say, and didn’t even have to ask me how to spell anything! You had the power and the confidence to write your own thoughts down on paper!” (A quick side note here— If you use Secret Stories, but don’t know about/use the “Zoo Keepers & M&M” strategy, you need to watch this and then download it NOW! It’s free, and really help kids understand that they must “capture” as many letters (and Secrets!) that they hear in the words they are trying to write. It’s a great tool for ensuring Secret Stories skill-transfer to writing. It also makes beginning writing much easier to read, and to enjoy! You can read more about writing with Secret Stories here.)

Download the FREE “Zoo Keeper/M&M Quizzes” Pack

You might be thinking that such a huge production for a silly little writing lesson is unnecessary. And sure, I could have just passed out a worksheet with a couple of leprechauns on it and a few lines for writing, while listening to the sighs and moans as I explained what the writing topic was and how many sentences they “had to write” in order to be “done.”

The whole lesson probably would have taken no more than twenty minutes and then we could have moved on to something else….all the while keeping our classroom neat and clean! But where is the fun in that?

The truth is that by next year, these kids won’t even remember learning to read and write, just like they don’t remember how they learned to walk and talk. These are tasks that they perform automatically with no effort at all.

Reading and Writing Fluency

And this is my goal for them as readers and writers—that every day, they will become more fluent! They may not recall the actual learning process, but they will never forget the day that a crazed group of leprechauns tore up their classroom, and how they had to rely on their writing abilities to persuade the principal that they were innocent of the crime!

The Importance of Play in Learning

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our first grade persuasive writing adventure, and I hope it inspires you to infuse more “play” into reading and writing activities in your own classroom!

Secret Stories is the missing piece to our “1,000 piece” puzzle!
Weaving “play” into literacy learning is so critical at the early grade levels, and Secret Stories transforms every reading and writing experience into a virtual playground! The Secrets are are play as far as kids are concerned! They can’t stop talking about them and actively “hunt” for them in words throughout the day. They role-play their sound behaviors to get the sounds/spellings they need to read/write.

This may sound odd to those who don’t use the Secrets, but it almost feels like my class and I are on an endless vacation of reading and writing adventures! I say “vacation” because we’ve long since surpassed all of our “required” first grade reading level objectives—with most of the kids reading (and writing) far above grade level, and those who would normally struggle, performing strongly on-grade level.

Our little first grade classroom has become a reading and writing playground where deep learning and critical thinking opportunities abound! (I actually saw a video clip of a kindergarten teacher trying to explain the same thing, and it’s exactly the way that I feel.)

When kids know the Secrets, they “own the code” and have everything they need to read and write what they want. And this is so important, as standard curriculum leaves so many holes. Before I started using Secret Stories, my first graders struggled to read and write anything, aside from the sight words they had memorized.

Teachers need tools, and so do kids! It drives me crazy when I hear teachers who are struggling to teach their kids their kids to read that they “don’t have time for one more thing!”

The Secrets aren’t one more thing. They are EVERYTHING that kids need to read and write, and everything that teachers need to teach them how to do it. They answer all of the questions about why letters make the sounds that they do when “jump off our alphabet chart and into the real words” that we see every day.

Kids can’t help but ask “Why?” anytime they spot Secrets in a word they cannot read. They literally “beg” to hear them, and this is when you realize that you are no longer driving the learning train. The kids are. They have taken over and are seated squarely in the driver’s seat and leading the way in their own learning!

We have time to relax and take literacy lessons to new heights that were never possible before in first grade. I know I sound like a broken record when I say that I cannot imagine teaching in a world without Secret Stories, and when I look back, I honestly have no idea how I ever did.

Renee McAnulty
(a.k.a.”Mrs. Mac’s Munchkins”)

PS I wanted to share a quick “techie-tool” that we use to tie in our technology component, called Flipgrid. The kids recorded themselves reading their letters to Mr. Mauger, and then he recorded his response. The kids love it, and we can even share the links with our parents!

And here is a rough screen recording of one of my littles reading her letter to Mr. Mauger along with his response. (The sound isn’t great, as the kids were all recording at the same time and so there is a lot of background noise.)

March 18, 2019

Join me LIVE on Youtube for “Secret Sundays” at 5pm EST for Brain Based Phonics for Accelerated Reading and Writing Instruction!

If you tuned in last Sunday for the very first Secret Sundays LIVE at 5 on YouTube, then you know it was a blast! (And if you didn’t, you can catch it by clicking on the video below.)

And if you tuned in for, what was supposed to be “Rewind Wednesday,” which was supposed to be a replay of Sunday’s episode on Facebook Live, but with me “chatting” live in the comments section throughout, then you know that was a complete debacle. Ugh!

Well, not a total debacle….at least, not once everyone from the THREE live groups (yes, I accidentally streamed three at the same time) all found their way into the one that I was actually in. But from that point on, it was smooth sailing! :-)

And finally, the UNPLANNED and totally IMPROVISED "Wednesday Rewind!”…..3rd time’s a charm! Lol 😊

Posted by Secret Stories Cracking the Reading Code on Wednesday, December 12, 2018

So, if you’re up for a challenge, try and join me this weekend for the second episode of Secret Sunday LIVE at 5pm on YouTube for “Cheating the Brain for Easy & Early Access to Hard Phonics Skills!” You will discover the “secret” ingredients to cooking-up a powerful, brain-based phonics “stew” in your classroom! In this short 30 minute timeframe, you will learn how to align core tenets of brain based learning with your existing phonics instruction to accelerate access to the WHOLE code that kids need to read AND to write!

I will also be doing another giveaway for a FREE Secret Stories Classroom Kit OR (if you already have it) any other item of your choice from the Secret Stories® website—from the Flashcards, to the new Decorative Squares, the Manipulative Placards or a class set of Porta-Pics….it’s your choice! To win, just share this link to the live broadcast on your Facebook or Instagram page anytime between now and the 5pm broadcast, and then be sure to follow and tag! I will also be sharing a free download link to one of the most popular items in my TpT store— one that’s never been offered for free—to ALL who tune in to learn on your precious Sunday! :-)

So I’ll see you all on Sunday….same time, same place!

Talk soon,
Katie
https://www.KatieGarner.com

PS And YAY! I actually did it!!! I gave you a “heads-up” more than an hour in advance! Lol ;-)

December 15, 2018

“Kid-Created” Phonics Secrets!

Blog

Secret Stories Phonics Mommy E®—Making Phonics Make SENSE!

I received an email from the mom of an adorable little boy who had been diagnosed with high functioning autism. Her frustration and despair were heartfelt, and her words really struck a chord, both as a mom and as a teacher. With her permission, I wanted to share it…..

Hi Katie,

My son is in grade two and is not reading. He has a diagnosis of high functioning autism. When I asked my son’s doctor last week what I could do to help my son with reading, the doctor said, “He has autism, he might never read.” It feels that I am getting the same message from his school.

I struggled in school with a severe learning disability. The learning disability was not discovered until I was in grade 8. I spent many years, sitting in classrooms and not knowing what was going on. When I was diagnosed in grade 8, my parents were told I was “mentally retarded” and that I would never be able to succeed in the local public school.

My son told me that he sits in class and just looks at his worksheets for the entire class. I have spent many nights googling different ways to teach my son to read. I am a single mother and it seems hard sometimes not to have another person to share my worries with.

I just stumbled upon your method yesterday and I printed out some of your stories and read them to my son and showed him the pictures. He remembered the sounds right away.

I have been watching your videos on YouTube and they have been unbelievable. This is the first time in a long time that I have felt extremely hopeful.

About one month later…

Hi Katie,

I can’t thank you enough for your book. My son has started reading!

He loves the Secret Stories. He thanked me last night for getting the Secret Stories for him.

Last night, I asked him to read the word “cookie” using what he learned from the Secret Stories. His first response was, “I can’t read such a big word.”

I told him to try.

He sounded out the word right away.

He then said, “Mommy, I read the word cookie! I can’t believe I read such a big word!”

Katie, your program is unbelievable.

It really should be used in all schools to teach kids reading.

PS My son loves drawing in his sketchbook. He brought the Secret Stories with him to swimming and was drawing and practicing the stories before his class. Here is a picture of him sketching the secrets in his sketchbook.

And here’s a wonderful picture of this adorable little guy with his Secret sketchbook at swim practice!

Secret Stories® Phonics Secrets — Making Phonics Make SENSE!

Secret Stories® Phonics Secrets — ER, IR, UR

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret ER, IR & UR

Every teacher knows it doesn’t get any better than this!

Although, these next notes from actual kiddos come close, beginning with this one from a SPED learner in South Carolina, sent to me by his wonderful literacy coach, Sheila Smith.

Secret Stories Phonics SPED Learner Writing

“I am thankful for (you) teaching me about words and Secret Stories
and words that don’t follow the rules…”

In addition to that wonderful note, her students are also working on a book about their all-time favorite Secret Stories®……

Secret Stories® Phonics Secrets— KIDS FAVES

Our favorite Secret Stories®!

Secret Stories Mommy E®

Secret Stories Sneaky Y®

Secret Stories Sneaky Y® Digital Supplement Pack

Secret Stories® AU & AW Phonics Secret

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret EU & EW

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Secret ER IR UR

Secret Stories® ER, IR & UR

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Student Secrets

And some creative Secret “Odds & Ends!”

And if you don’t already have the Secrets, but would like to try sharing them with your students, you can download this mini-sampler poster pack FREE!

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Pack

Until Next Time,

Katie :-)

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter!

Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

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!

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.

www.TheSecretStories.com

April 13, 2018

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

Blog, Brain Based Learning, First Grade, Guided Reading/ Word Work, Kindergarten, Phonics for Dyslexia, Phonics Videos, Reading Intervention, Sight Words, Social Emotional Learning Channels, Struggling Readers, Title I

Secret Stories Brain Based Reading Phonics

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?

Click for More on Stanford University’s Brain Study on Sight Words

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.

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.

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.

“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!

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.

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

Download Free Mini-Poster Sample 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.)

2018 Secret Stories® Phonics White Paper Research Support

Secret Stories® White Paper Research

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 :-)

www.KatieGarner.com

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.

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter!

Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

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!

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.

www.TheSecretStories.com

March 13, 2018

The Thinking Vowels™ “Head-Bop” Trick for Decoding Tricky Vowels with the Schwa Sound

Blog, Brain Based Learning, First Grade, Free Phonics Resources, Guided Reading/ Word Work, Phonics for Dyslexia, Phonics Videos, Reading Intervention, Sight Words, Social Emotional Learning Channels, Struggling Readers, Title I

Teaching Sight Words— Never Make Kids MEMORIZE Words They Can READ!

“The Secret Stories are the life-blood of our classroom. They are always in view, always in our whole and small group conversations. We couldn’t read words without them. They are our best friends. They are always there, always teaching. They are the tools that students will take with them to the next grade!” —Tara Settle/1st Grade Teacher

Secret Stories Phonics Superhero Vowels®

Kids who know the Secrets understand why letters behave the way they do when they get together. For example, they know that the Superhero Vowels® have a power that no other letter in the alphabet has—they can “SAY THEIR NAMES!” (like /i/ in hike or /a/ in hate). But like all superheroes who don’t want to be recognized, they don’t want to be recognized, and so they will use “short and lazy” sound disguises to keep from being noticed (like /i/ in hit or /a/ in hat). To learn more about the Superhero Vowel® Secrets, check out this vlog post on the Secret Stories® Youtube Channel.

The Superhero Vowels® and their “Short & Lazy” Sound Disguises

Once kids know the Secrets about the Superhero Vowels®, they’ll need to know what “triggers” them to be long or short. That means letting them in on a couple of other “Secrets” about Mommy E® and the Babysitter Vowel® which are so easy you can teach them to kindergartners! You can learn about both in the video below.

So what about words in which vowels don’t make the sounds that they should?

Like those pesky, high-frequency, one syllable sight words: of, was, come, love, what, some, want, etc… Well thanks to Tara Settle and her brilliant “Head-Bop/Thinking Vowels” trick, we can become even better Word Doctors, while at the same time, clear out some of the most frequent offenders that would otherwise have to be sentenced to Word Jail! (Note that in the “Word Jail” video was made before Tara had shared her trick with me, and so you will see many of the above word-offenders serving out their time!)

How to Teach Sight Words with Secret Stories Phonics Tricks

How to Decode “Undecodable” Words (So Kids Don’t Have to Memorize Them!)

Sometimes a vowel just can’t make up his mind which sound to make… “Should I be long?… Should I be short?…. I just can’t make up my mind— Uhhhhhhhhhhh?” (And here is where you give yourself a big BOP ON THE HEAD while making the “uhhhhh” sound, while prompting the kids to do the same!)

This handy “action-based” cue easily prompts kids to try the schwa, or “uhhh,” which is the MOST LIKELY sound-alternative for vowels that “stray” from their original sounds, allowing them to now easily decode: of, was, some, come, done, want, from, love, nothing, brother, again, around, among, another, something, etc… (For more tricks like this, as well as how to know when words really do have to be sentenced to jail time, you can check out this post.)

So here’s the trick for helping kids easily decode those seemingly “undecodable” words!

What I love about this trick is the power that it gives learners over text, minimizing the need to memorize words that can now be read! Plus, look at how many words can now be “paroled” from Word Jail!

How to Teach and READ Sight Words

Thanks to Tara and her student word doctors who who identified this tricky vowel-shifting pattern, kids all across the country now have a lot less sight words to memorize!

Thinking Outside the Box is Easy Once Kids Know What’s In It

It is also important to keep in mind when working with your own student word doctors, that thinking outside the box is much easier when you know what’s IN it! And that’s what a Secret is—everything that’s “in the box” when it comes to a letter/phonics pattern and the sounds it can make. For more on how to get kids to think outside the box when working their way through unfamiliar text, watch the video clip below.

For more on “teaching the READER, not teaching the reading,” as well as insight into the brain on memorizing sight words vs. decoding text, click here or on the pictures below!

How to Decode Text with Best Betting Odds in Las Vegas!

Stanford University Brain Study on Sight Words and Secret Stories Phonics Program

You can also check out Tara’s most recent post for more on how she doesn’t teach sight words, here!

You Don't Have to Teach Sight Words with Secret Stories!

Secret Stories Phonics for Teaching Sight Words

Join in the discussion in the new Facebook Group, and check out Tara’s original post, or her awesome blog with lots of oodles of ALL FREE resources for teachers! It’s called Settle On In and you can find it here.

Here’s Tara with not one, but TWO sets of the new flashcards!

Until Next Time,
Katie :-)

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter!

Katie Garner Education Keynote Speaker Website

Click here to view my upcoming speaking schedule!

Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class and see the difference they make!
Click to download the FREE Secret Stories® “Appetizer” Phonics Poster Anchor Pack!

Free Secret Stories Phonics Posters Anchor Posters

May 5, 2017

The Aha! Moment of Teaching

Blog

Another professional development day….

Oh joy! Another 8 hours of sitting while thinking of all the productive things that could be accomplished in my classroom!

That’s what many teachers think when we hear the dreaded professional development “training days” agenda.

That all changed in October 2016 when I heard Katie Garner speak about the Secret Stories® at my school. It was the best 8 hours of any training I had ever attended. I walked away with a renewed motivation. I could not wait to share this tool with my students!

Upon arriving at school the day after Katie’s workshop, the students immediately noticed and questioned the “secret” posters hanging in our room. I informed them that I had attended a top secret training and I was allowed to share the secrets with them as I felt they were ready. Instant engagement! And from that moment on, their curiosity has guided the introduction and instruction of the Secret Stories®.

Later that morning, I shared the first secret with my students. We just happened to be introducing the sight word “the” and one of my littles noticed that it had a /th/ in it just like the secret poster on the wall. So because they had noticed, I very dramatically told them the time had come. I shut the door, gathered them together, and told them their first secret. From then on, you could say the rest is history.

Each time I introduced a new secret, it was because of their interest and recognition of the letters in the secrets to words they found in their names… while we were reading, doing calendar activities, completing morning work, during math instruction, or even just walking down the hallway!

This is my ninth year of teaching, and my fourth year teaching Kindergarten, and I can honestly say this has been the most exciting year of my career. I have seen so much growth in my students since introducing the Secret Stories® into our room, and the best part about it is… the kids LOVE it! They are able to read, blend, manipulate word inflections, and write words with fluency, understanding, and confidence!

Here is some of our writing from October—

BEFORE Secret Stories®

Now check out our January “ocean-themed” writing—

just two months AFTER the Secret Stories®

Students finding “Secrets” in their names—

Er, ir ur love to go driving in cars……”ERRRRR!”

Mommy E® tells ‘o’ to SAY HIS NAME!

Au & aw have huge crushes on each other….”Ahhhhhh!”

Sneaky Y® will always be sneaky when he’s at the end and thinks no one can see him!

Superhero Vowels® in our alphabet train and their “short & lazy” disguises!

The Secret Stories® posters— our “most-used” classroom visuals!

Here are some of our Secrets!

Guest Post by—

Chastity Sharp/ Kindergarten Teacher

George Ward Elementary in Elkins, West Virginia

Thanks so much to Chastity for this awesome peek inside your classroom! I’m excited to see and hear more from your kiddos as they continue to progress throughout this year!

Until Next Time,

Katie

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter!

Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

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!

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.

www.TheSecretStories.com

February 9, 2017