I remember sitting down to teach my youngest to read.
By that point, I knew that kids benefited from systematic phonics instruction. So I was ready to end our first lesson with a simple decodable text.
After he worked hard to read I Am Sam all the way through, I pulled out a predictable pattern book — because as a former balanced literacy teacher, I wasn't quite ready to let pattern books go. You know the type. "I wash the car. I wash the lights. I wash the windows. I wash the door."
My son tried to sound out the words on the first page, and I heard myself saying, "No, you can't sound out this word yet. Use the pic--"
I'll never forget that moment. It was like a light bulb finally went off over my head. Why was I telling my son to take his eyes off the words and use the picture when I had told him to sound out every word of I Am Sam?
I put the predictable book away, and from then on we stuck to decodable books for phonics practice.
It's one of several mistakes I cover in my latest video — mistakes that are easy to make, even when you think you know what you're doing.
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