We have two goals for today. First of all, we will talk about a strategy for teaching decoding that is fast and fun. And we’ll talk about why it works, how it works, etc. Our second goal will be to cover just a few of the signs that are part of this strategy. We won’t try to cover all the signs. When I conduct an all-day workshop, I cover the 44 signs and we talk about the nuances of teaching reading as we cover the signs. But for today we will cover a few that will give us an idea as to what the strategy is all about.

I do want to begin by taking about two minutes to tell how the strategy came about. Almost 20 years ago, when I was teaching in the public schools, I took lessons in American Sign Language. And I taught the sign language to some of my students and discovered that they loved loved loved learning to talk in sign language. Then I moved to a university and worked with some student teachers…

Listen to the podcast for more.