Author | Lightnews

The Evidence for Building Thinking Classrooms is Weak

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Jun 1

Please consider using a program other than BTC. There isn't evidence that it improves students' mathematical achievement. All the author looks at is what he calls "student engagement."
pershmail.substack.com/p/the-eviden...

What does it mean to be research-based?

pershmail.substack.com

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · May 28

Great article!
"Effective math instruction is THE best intervention for math anxiety."

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Apr 18

The subtraction worksheet is available now too!
Create subtraction facts worksheets from 0 to 10 for students.

phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/m...

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Apr 18

Addition Worksheet Creator
Create addition facts worksheets from 0 to 10. Why does a phonics website have math worksheets? Because we do phonics AND stuff. The stuff includes math!

phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/m...

Eyes on Reading: Maximizing Phonics Instruction through Differentiation with Wiley Blevins — Planet Word Museum

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Apr 11

This was such a great talk! I'm excited that the recording is available now so I can share it with friends and colleagues who weren't able to go with me.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Apr 9

Anyone else going to be attending?

planetwordmuseum.org/events/eyes-...

Planet Word is excited to announce a special evening with Wiley Blevins, one of America’s leading experts on phonics instruction, the foundational skill all beginning readers should master. Author of ...

planetwordmuseum.org

Decodable Readers - Phonics & Stuff

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Mar 2

We finished re-formatting another Core Knowledge decodable. We love the high quality story and images, but think they work better when you put the stories and images on a single page. Enjoy!

phonicsandstuff.com/decodables#r...

Phonics & Stuff Decodable Readers are free to use! They are labeled with the phonics elements in each one, so you can pick the correct level for your reader.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 28

I just bought my ticket! Can't wait!

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 28

But this is just a simple analysis looking at letter location. When we account for 'ie' and 'ei' (and eigh) as digraphs (meaning that those letters together make a sound), the analysis changes a bit.

The 'ie' digraph only has twice as many words as 'ei' (325 vs 167).

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 27

A lower number means a word is more common. For example, you actually encounter the word 'their' much more frequently than the word 'believe'.

So, since the top words with 'e before i' are just more common, it probably seems like the 'i before e' rule fails more often.

Educators on Sold a Story

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 27

How often does the rule 'i before e' actually apply?

In our database of 30k+ words, 'i before e' occurs 902 times compared to 'e before i', which occurs 226 times.
However, if you look at weighted word frequencies (how often a word actually occurs in English), it's a more interesting story.

Word frequencies.
word freq word freq
believe 240 their 68
friend 262 being 158
friends 331 either 407
die 432 received 487
married 547 neither 653
cried 554 seeing 729
tried 567 receive 847
replied 593 eight 864
quiet 665 foreign 1333
chief 692 weight 1475
view 701 seized 1935
lie 752 height 1945
piece 756 receiving 2193
ladies 795 weird 2213

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 14

Can't wait for more of this!

Emily Hanford @ehanford.bsky.social · Feb 14

New episodes of Sold a Story are coming next week. Thursday Feb 20. youtube.com/shorts/aPe_4...

YouTube video by APM Reports

youtube.com

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 14

Correct! Not a software engineer at all. @ryan.phonicsandstuff.com and I just dabble in technology. I love making spreadsheets, while he turns them into databases and the website.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 11

We have a new worksheet! Create 'Fill In Vowels' worksheets with customized settings.

phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/p...

Options for creating a 'Fill In Vowels' worksheet.
Number of Words
Number of Sounds
Add Instructions
Add Word Box
Missing Vowels - a e i o u

Word Mapper - Phonics & Stuff

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 10

Thanks! We're glad you like our stuff!

Reposted by Julia Shayto

Birthday Girl ✨ @rinny.bsky.social · Feb 7

enter any word into this site to see its graphemes & phonemes—perfect for phonics, reading intervention, & ESL! 📝🔤

great for teachers, tutors & language lovers

#Literacy #Phonics #ReadingInstruction #TeachingTools

The word mapper lets you type in a word and see its individual letters and sounds. It's great for teaching phonics!

Handwriting Animations - Phonics & Stuff

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 3

Funny enough, we just made a tool to help with this!

phonicsandstuff.com/handwriting

The handwriting animation tool helps teach students correct letter formation. Select a letter and see an animation of showing the correct strokes. Use the controls to speed up or pause the animations....

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Feb 2

We just made a new fun tool! Teaching students how to write letters correctly is critical, so we made some simple animations for use in classrooms or at home.

Come try it out and let us know what you think!
phonicsandstuff.com/handwriting

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Reposted by Julia Shayto

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · Jan 26

'Niece' and 'nephew' aren't the original English words.

They were borrowed from French and supplanted native 'nift' and 'neve', direct cognates of German 'Nichte' and 'Neffe'.

The French words have the same Proto-Indo-European ancestors so they're cognates too, but very distant ones. Here's more:

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Jan 21

I started teaching letter sounds at 2 years old for my kids. It worked great. You'll have to work more slowly than if you started at 5 or 6, but there's no reason to wait.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Jan 18

On our site you can use Google to sign in now, so you don't have to remember another password. If you previously made an account, you can login with Google and it'll still have all your data.

We also added a reminder for which you used to login, because I forget all the time on other sites.

Login page for phonicsandstuff.com with a reminder showing if you logged in with Google or email.

Reposted by Julia Shayto

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · Jan 5

Cleopatra lived closer in time to 'yeet' being in the dictionary than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · Jan 4

Thanks for hosting this! I would also like to see more in-person events this year. I love hanging out with people at the annual conference, and it would be great to do that more throughout the year.