S9 E1 Teaching and Learning
Reading teachers share their favorite tutoring resources and teaching methods. The conversation highlights building automaticity in letter naming/keywords, handwriting difficulties and student sensitivity to correction, and using “spell it out” to support decoding, reduce reversals, and improve rereading fluency, with progress noted through UFLI lessons. They also discuss a Sara Ward course on executive functioning; sentence-composing supports like color-coded bubble maps; starting UFLI Word Origins morphology; favorite learning games; and balancing health, priorities, and professional learning through CERI and Reading Universe.
S9 E1 Teaching & Learning
Shannon and Mary meet up to start Season 9 of the podcast. They catch up on their summer activities and share their busy back-to-school schedules. They discuss their favorite games and instructional methods from their tutoring practices and review professional learning opportunities they're currently taking.
00:00 Season Catch Up
00:54 Escaping Overscheduling
02:17 Middle School Rhythm
03:40 Home Study Systems
04:22 Resetting With New Students
05:52 Structured Literacy Routines
06:54 Automaticity And Handwriting
11:44 Spell It Out Strategy
15:35 Executive Functioning Course
18:08 Summer Recap And Trips
19:04 Sentence Composing Tools
21:45 Color Coding Grammar
22:24 Weaning Off Supports
22:55 Word Origins Arrives
23:34 First Morphology Lesson
25:02 Scripted Yet Flexible
25:55 Morphology With Younger Kids
26:26 Program Pacing Tips
27:45 Building Teacher Confidence
29:07 Levels And Rollout Plan
29:46 Gamifying With SquishyLAND
31:07 New Game Tweezer
32:51 Executive Function Skills
35:13 Balance Health And Finch
36:44 CERI Class Progress
37:27 Favorite Free Resources
39:07 Season Wrap And Teasers
Transcript:
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9.1
Shannon Betts: [00:00:00] Hey, Mary. We're finally catching up after the long break, so welcome back to a new season.
Mary Saghafi: Yay, summer's over. We're in the throes of the busy beginning of the school year, and I'm glad... I can't wait to catch up.
Shannon Betts: . Yeah. , Like most of y'all know, we're neighbors, but we hardly ever see each other. Or we'll see each other in the street and just kind of wave from the car.
Mary Saghafi: Well, you know, I think about that, too, about some of my friends who don't even have the proximity. Like, proximity, at least we have that and we- we're able, even if it's just, like, to wave at each other and stuff. Yeah. But when you don't have that proximity and you have kids whose schedules just dominate your existence- Yes
it's been so busy. I bet our listeners are probably, like, driving from one activity to the next with their own, with their own busy
Shannon Betts: schedule. So that's a new development in our life. So both my kids, , took a pause in soccer.
Mary Saghafi: [00:01:00] Oh, okay.
Shannon Betts: And so that is huge. Like- Huh ... we, my husband and I, are like, "Oh my goodness, we have the gift of time again," because we're not, you know, hurrying to get dinner done, and then eaten, and then, you know, driving back and forth to two different soccer practices each night of the week.
And then our weekends have had so much time. I'm like, "This feels like when we were in our 20s before we had kids." Like-
Mary Saghafi: Whoa ...
Shannon Betts: we can go do things on the weekends.
Mary Saghafi: Amazing.
Shannon Betts: We can make plans.
Mary Saghafi: Whoa. Yeah, I,
Shannon Betts: - I don't miss it. Like, I really don't, and my kids don't seem to miss it either. I think they've, they were just sort of- You know, like they were scheduled within an inch of their lives too, you know?
Yes.
Mary Saghafi: I know, we do live in this time, and I'm trying to find that balance as well. And a good example is even just tonight, one of our friends was like, "Do you guys wanna do a movie?" And it happens to be a Friday, the day that we're recording. . And I said, "You know what? Fridays I just can't make plans around yet.
I have to see what happens [00:02:00] when I'm done with work, when the kids are back from school, and we're gonna just see how the Friday kind of unfolds." And the kids love that. Sometimes, you know- Okay ... we'll, we'll make a plan, and sometimes we won't, and it will just be like a movie night or a chill night. Because I do feel like the rest of the week, it's not that it's overscheduled, but it's just that we're on a new timeline because I have a middle schooler now, so she gets- Mm
out at a different time, and I also have an elementary school student, and so our schedule is not quite... We haven't found our rhythm yet. And so I'm-
Shannon Betts: It's gonna take a while, I'll tell you, to find that middle school schedule because, like, they really don't get home and settled until, like, 5:00 PM.
Mary Saghafi: Right.
Shannon Betts: It's so late.
Right. And then they need some downtime after school, and then y- they need a snack, then they need dinner, and then you still have homework, which- Right ... there's a good bit of homework in middle school. Right. And, , yeah, we're still... I mean, we're, my son's in seventh grade, and we're still not quite [00:03:00] used to the middle school schedule.
So high school's got the best time start because it's in- Yeah ... the middle of the elementary and middle school time slots. I
Mary Saghafi: think this gap is a little bit hard. We're trying to figure that out. But, you know, I think that on the one hand, I love the blessings of the new school year because that is a time to kind of reset and set some new goals and, and-
kind of come to, you know, a new, form of existence. I'm not sure
Shannon Betts: Yeah ...
Mary Saghafi: if, if that sounds positive enough, but it is, it is sort of just a new year reset. So.
Shannon Betts: Yeah. Us as teachers, we always say we have, like, a double New Year's resolution, you know? We have, like, the calendar year- Right ... and then we also have the school year resolutions, so.
, I think- And it's, I mean- ... we talked last year, you know, about the, we had that episode about the home, you know, and supporting learning at home. Yeah. And, we started this school year for both of my kids, like a, a much stricter, , and more structured I should say
...
study hall at home, and it's really helped.
, In fact, My husband went to curriculum night, or yeah, curriculum night at, , the high school. [00:04:00] And my son has a teacher that he had last year too. . And the teacher said, "I've just noticed a huge difference this year in that he's more prepared for class and that he's getting his assignments done and things like that."
So that was very good feedback for us. That's
Mary Saghafi: so... Yeah, I think that part of it is, like, creating that system that actually works- ... and that everyone buys into. And I think that's sort of what I mean about finding our rhythm too. And it's interesting 'cause, when I was jotting down a few things that I wanted to talk about, that is, like, one of my big primary goals this year, is to,, get settled in with some new kiddos that I'm starting with, 'cause I kind of feel like, you know how you have your, your new, the new school year starts with your new students-
and you have to do a bit of a reset. I've been a little comfortable with, with some kids over the last, you know, two, three, even four years with some of them. And so now I'm starting fresh with a kind of a new crop of kids.
Shannon Betts: Yeah, and you gotta build that relationship with them, establish that trust. Yeah.
Get them engaged. Yep. [00:05:00]
Mary Saghafi: Yep. All of the things. And so yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing some new growing systems with them as well. Especially for me because I think when you do have your... You know, with my tutoring practice, I'm comfortable with the kids that I've been working with for a while. They know the expectations that I have for them.
We're, we're constantly moving forward. But my expectations for new kids, I also have to reset for them too and realize that, oh, we've got some growing to do together. They need to learn, you know, what my expectations are. And yeah, it's always a, a, an interesting reset at the beginning of the year.
Shannon Betts: Do you relax, like, your leeway or give them a grace?
Or, like, how do you sort of reset for those new students? I know you do a lot of encouragement when you're first testing them, and you kind of- Yeah ... give them a taste of success and positive reinforcement that way.
Mary Saghafi: Yep, that's right. So, I try to keep things very structured and not rigid. Flexible, but structured.
[00:06:00] So I have a lot of visual supports. This is the first thing that we do. And especially with OG methodology, it's a very systematic approach, and so we always start off with a drill. We always, you know, kind of move on to some blending and segmenting. Then we... So it's a very, like, kind of- predictable pattern.
.
Mary Saghafi: But my newer kids don't know that predictable pattern yet, so I have to slow down my lessons a little bit more so that when we're working on drill flashcards and, and doing letter sounds I want to make sure that they're actually doing it accurately. And so for me, I wanna flip through. So my, my ultimate goal is to get through a deck of maybe 25, 30 cards in about two minutes, because it should be A, apple, ah.
B. B. We're going through it fast. And one of the notes that I jotted down is that my new crop of kids, I'm seeing a lot of lack of [00:07:00] automaticity. Mm. They have automaticity with sounds, but they cannot retrieve that keyword. They cannot retrieve the letter name. And-
Shannon Betts: Oh, we've talked a- y- automatic letter naming fluency is an important skill too.
Mary Saghafi: It's a really important skill to, as well. And then those same students and I have three of them this year, are struggling with math as well because- Mm ... it's this kind of retrieval. And so while the sound is you know, obviously very important for them to recognize and be able to manipulate, they have to have that automatic naming as well.
And so I'm slowing way down with my routines. So I would say that, one, that's the approach, but when you slow it down and you happen to have a student who has a really busy brain and a really busy body, they get really frustrated with-
Shannon Betts: And I- I can see why that's important. They mentioned this a little bit I think in the CERI class.
You know, I'm taking that certification class for structured literacy. Yeah. And I'm probably not gonna explain it exactly correctly in terms of, like, the research [00:08:00] and everything, but, like, if you only know like, the letter O and you think ah, then you're, you're honestly attaching, like, too much emphasis to that-
Mary Saghafi: Correct
Shannon Betts: to that short vowel sound. But if you y- keep sort of the core concept of, like, this is the letter O and then that's, like, the, the core thing that's, like, in your brain, then they can attach other letter sounds and have more flexibility with it.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah. That's a great- Right? So also, so a good example would be, like, letter S.
So I have a first grader who in kindergarten, you know, they really focus on S snake sss, but S also makes three sounds.
Shannon Betts: But it, it, it represents s- almost more than
Mary Saghafi: 50% of the time. Is, is, has. Yeah. And so I'm also introducing that. And as we, as we notice that, I'll say, "Oh, l- listen to it. H-A-Z. See? S can make that sound too."
And then we move on. So that's a really good example of slowing down- Mm ... my instruction [00:09:00] because I want the kids to utilize the language skills. I want them to recognize vowel and consonant. I'm using that language often.
. "
Oh, it's a vowel. What vowel are we going to choose? What are the vowels again?"
And I want them to rapidly name them. So that's, that's kind of, an example of how- That is, but also the automaticity of writing the letter.
Shannon Betts: Mm, yeah.
Mary Saghafi: I found that handwriting with the la- within the last three years has been so problematic. I haven't seen a consistent program of handwriting, and so kids' directionality is not consistent.
They're not making the letters with consistent formation and-
Shannon Betts: I see a lot of uppercase in the middle of the sentence.
Mary Saghafi: Yes. And correcting that I also find that kids are less resis- or less able to accept the corrections, too. So- Yeah,
Shannon Betts: they really... They're like, "What's the point?"
.
Like, when I'm working on handwriting with students.
Or horrified and so annoyed,
Mary Saghafi: and [00:10:00] then they're- Yeah ... erasing really hard.
Shannon Betts: There's a lot of resistance.
Mary Saghafi: So I am working on seeing and acknowledging a lot of those things, saying, "Right, but, like, a mistake doesn't have to be bad. I'm just saying that I'm really picky. We're gonna do it the right way, otherwise we have to practice it the wrong way and then we have to try it all over again from the beginning."
Mm. So a lot of it is working like that. Yesterday I was giving a correction and I could see that the student's face was kind of falling. She was really upset. And sh- I could tell that she interpreted my correction as a really negative thing. And I, I said, "Look at my face. I'm calm. I don't mind if you make a mistake.
It's okay, but we have to be able to move on. So let's take a breath together, move on. When you make a mistake with me, it's not going... It, it's going to happen because I'm asking you to do hard things, but that's why we're gonna work through it together." And then I [00:11:00] move on, right? But I'm acknowledging that really hard piece.
Mm. And I'm also kind of insisting that that behavior is not allowed. It ha- you have to keep moving on. And I think that, We have to kind of slow some of that down and make it really clear for some kids. A whole classroom does not need to hear all of this. A kid who is resistant, who's frustrated, who's going to just kind of stand up and walk away because their body needs to get movement, they're trying to regulate themselves in a different way, that's the type of students that I've really been working with.
So I'm talking about specifically students who require a lot of assistance to regulate. Yeah.
Shannon Betts: That's an important distinction. Yeah. I wanna circle back to the rapid, you know, letter naming.
...
One of the things I've done in the last, I guess, w- when did we start working with Dr. Bowers? Like, almost, like, two years ago, learning-
Maybe 24 ... about structured word inquiry. But since then I've been doing spelling out orthography. And so instead of saying, "Sound it [00:12:00] out," I say, I do spell it out. Almost it's become, like, automatic for me now, where if a student you know, d- d- decodes incorrectly, I'll either I'll spell it for the student or I'll ask them to spell it, and it has worked so well.
. And so they do need to know the letter names for that, right? But it helps with so much with B and D reversals. It helps so much- Yeah ... with vowel miscues. I don't know. E- the sight words, like or the high-frequency words I guess I should say, I don't, it's just incredible. Like, I don't know what it does in the switch in the brain of like- Well, you know-
spell it out loud. It's like a w- different, maybe it activates the letter box or something. I don't know.
Mary Saghafi: I don't know. I don't know the exact way that it works either. But I also think it's a dis- different kind of correction-
...
where it's less words. It's giving them a different way to solve it. .
And so I sort of wonder if maybe it's like, ooh, let me she's gonna make me correct it this way, but she's not gonna say, no, that's incorrect. [00:13:00] That's wrong. It's- Spell it out
Shannon Betts: Well, it's low-hanging fruit, right? I mean, it's just like, okay, I can say the letter names even if I'm really tired. I can say the letter names.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah. Yeah. So I, I don't know what the science is behind it, but I do think that so much of how we, how sensitive kids can be and how, and are recently, I'm not sure- Mm ... I just really sense that kids are a lot more sensitive than even five years ago.
Shannon Betts: So I mean, I definitely do it like I, you know, I get a lot of students who say get and got or run and ran or things like that-
or, you know, they add an S or don't add the S or things like that. And you know, as a suffix, and it just, it just seems to work in like all of those instances. So, in the show notes- Love that ... I'll link to the instructions on that method of spell out or thought group. But basically- That's a really good reminder
basically you just say, you know, "Will you spell that word that you just read?" You know? And, "What are the letters in it? How does it sp- how is it spelled?" And then it just immediately... And then I always remind them to restart the sentence after that. . [00:14:00] And they will, you know, say it correctly with that next reread.
Mary Saghafi: And you know, my prompting for that too is also read it smoothly. . So even if they read it, I'll say, "Read that smoothly."
.
And then they can usually do that as well. And I, I think helping them to redirect and not just plow through- Yeah ... the sentences choppy or, you know, inconsistently reading the words, that really helps to redirect.
Shannon Betts: And also that consistency works over time because I have a student who I've been working with for a year and a half now and, At first, you know, he had to reread kind of every sentence, you know? Mm ... he was very good at decoding words in isolation, but struggled in sentences and passages. And so then he added a practice of like, "Well, can I practice each paragraph at a time for the decodable story so that I can read it more smoothly the first time?"
And then now we're hitting like lesson 50 in UFLI, and there's just something magic that happens in like lesson 40 or 50 where it just starts coming together, the decoding. It's really, really cool, [00:15:00] 'cause now I've gone through I think like 10 kids- Yeah ... with UFLI from the beginning to that lesson, and I see that magic happen every time, to where I can like tell the parent, "Pay attention.
It's gonna start, you know, avalanching in a good way." Snowballing I guess is the word I should say. And it- So-
Mary Saghafi: And, and that momentum-
Shannon Betts: Yeah ... gives them s- mo- And so, and he's not having to do that little like practice anymore. Like he'll look at the passage and go, and I'll say, "Do you need to rehearse it?"
And he's like, "No, no, no. I think I got it this time," you know? And- Love it ... that's because I consistently did reinforce that, you know, you need to read it smoothly or I'm not accepting that sentence, you know?
Mary Saghafi: Yeah. No, I think that's great.
Shannon Betts: Yeah.
Mary Saghafi: I wanted to tell you about this professional development that I've been kind of working on.
Yeah,
Shannon Betts: I wanna hear about it ...
Mary Saghafi: and I haven't even like given you any spoilers about it previous to recording. So,
Shannon Betts: No, I thought we were just taking the CERI course together and that's it.
Mary Saghafi: I know. So this one, I am taking a course through Theramuves, and it's kind of, a course that's not spec- it's for special education teachers.
It's for people who are educators. It's also for OTs [00:16:00] and SLPs. And the person who runs it, it's called The- it is called Executive Functioning Through Line, ... when teaching reading, math, and writing. And so there's a lot of verbiage that they are teaching about how the final product is going to work and helping kids to re- realize and recognize what is done.
So for example there's a really great example of how to do a book report or whatever a big project is. And you need to provide models for your students, and then she will do some same but different boxes. And so you say, okay, what... The, the assignment requires that we have a title for this.
The assignment requires that there's going to be a model that you create that's, let's do Native Americans. A, a model of a house that we create. Okay, so here is one picture of a finished product. Here's another picture of a finished product. Do they look the same? [00:17:00] Well, let's see. They both have the same house, but it's not exactly the same.
They used different materials. So it's a lot of comparing same and different. And she relates this to how we can give students the ability to work backwards and actually see the done because a lot of people who are struggling with executive functioning skills either see their done as this perfect, amazing, exactly the way that they want it, that usually requires many steps that are hard to actually s- visualize or, and, and actualize in real time.
Some people have no visualization ability at all. And so they have a lot of verbiage about how to really get through this. I am really enjoying the course. It's by Sara Ward. She's an SLP. And a friend of mine is an OT, and she has been telling me for years, she's like, "You need to look into Sara Ward."
So I will link to this program It has been so fantastic, especially now 'cause I am adding some math [00:18:00] into my tutoring practice as well. And so, it's been just really great. It's totally up my alley.
Shannon Betts: Awesome.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah.
Shannon Betts: Well, what else have you been doing this summer?
Mary Saghafi: Let's see. So this summer we actually had kind of a, a nice chill, classic summer, which was great.
My husband and I were able to take a trip. We went with a whole group of friends and we did like an adult all-inclusive for our friend's 20th anniversary. Oh, fun. And we had 20 couples that went. It was-
Shannon Betts: Wow ...
Mary Saghafi: we planned it way, like a year in advance. It was a kind of a magical time. It was really lovely.
And then we had the kids were in their classic camp. They got to go to sleepaway camp, and we got to go visit family, and so it was a really nice summer.
Shannon Betts: Nice.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah. How about you?
Shannon Betts: We were home and I tutored a lot. Like, it was kind of a- Yeah ... just a normal... I mean, it didn't feel too much different than the school year, but that's okay.
Yeah. That's okay. [00:19:00] We're taking a big trip for fall break, so I'm looking forward to that. . But, That's
Mary Saghafi: exciting ...
Shannon Betts: yeah, but I did do, and we're gonna have these people on as a guest. You know, we talked at the end of last season about sentence composing, and that both of us are using that method- Yeah
and those resources with our elementary students and our middle school students. And it's been really interesting to see it develop over time because there's, the students struggle with it at the beginning. . But I'm starting to see months in that the structure of sentences and the syntax and the parts of speech are starting to make more sense for my students.
Just in a very like organic, almost like in like, It's like, you know, like unintentional way. Like a background kind of-
Mary Saghafi: Love it ...
Shannon Betts: like, but I did add a support because my students were struggling with it. And so at first, I talked in the, the season finale about how I was using those English learn- language blocks for parts of speech.
But- Oh, great ... they were... That was just like word by word, you know? . [00:20:00] And it was kind of cumbersome to kind of do each sentence, these long sentences that way. . And so when I was getting ready, you know, for the guests that we're having for Science of the Sentence, I saw that they have a support called Bubble Map, and I was like...
And they use it k- kind of a different way, which they'll explain in their, I, I, I don't even know really how they use it, so I'm excited to really talk to them. Yeah. But I just saw it, and it's a way of sort of diagramming the sentence, but you do it in colors and you do it, it by phrases as opposed to- Oh
Word by word.
Mary Saghafi: So not word by word.
Shannon Betts: Yeah. Cool. So, like, if it's the subject and it's, like, you know, the orange cat, you can put the orange cat in one circle for the subject. And then, I mean, if you want, you can put like the orange, you know, is like, you know, different adjectives or whatever, but it's okay to put it, you know.
Or at least I'm saying it's okay to put it in a circle. And it's been helpful for my students to be able to then mimic the sentence composing sentences-
Mary Saghafi: Oh ...
Shannon Betts: at that phrase level [00:21:00] because they see those three words and like, okay. They just kind of then instinctively know I need an article and an adjective and then a noun.
It's putting- Does that make sense? ...
Mary Saghafi: visual. Yes. I'm imagining just it's, it's its own type of graphic organizer- It is ... or it's a visual organizer. Yeah. And having that structure kind of spelled out for them literally, even though they've put it into that structure- ... I can see how that would be really helpful.
Oh, good. I'm excited for that episode.
Shannon Betts: It's, it's also helpful, like, looking at the bubble map, like the the adjectives are blue and they, in the little, you know, model that you show the students it'll kind of say, like, how many, what kind. You know those like prompting questions to, like, know if a word- Yeah
is an adjective or an adverb? Yeah. So it has those in there, and then the adverbs are green, and it'll say like when, where, how, why, and so that's helpful, too. Like, I've had students since adding that, they've just [00:22:00] become much more accurate at looking at words, and even looking at the phrases- ... and understanding if that phrase is acting as an adjective or acting as an adverb, 'cause I always, always looking at the sentences.
I'm like, "Okay, what is this word describing? What is it modifying?"
Mary Saghafi: I think that that color-coding is, it really does make such a big difference breaking down those skills, so I love that.
Shannon Betts: Yeah, and then I, just this week, and I'd been using it all summer, I had a s- elementary student and a middle school student, they imitated the sentences and I was like, "Do you need the co- do you need the circles?"
And they're like, "Actually, I'm gonna try it without it." Nice. So they are sort of self-gauging whether they need that support or not and weaning themselves off of it, and I'm like, "It's always here if you need it," you know? And- Good ... they were able to imitate the sentence, so, it's been a very useful support.
Mary Saghafi: Cool. Oh, good. Well, that will be an exciting thing.
Shannon Betts: And one more exciting thing happened. I got-
Mary Saghafi: Ooh, do tell ...
Shannon Betts: a package this week. [00:23:00] It was Word Origins. It finally came in. Oh, yay. I've been waiting all summer
Mary Saghafi: Oh. ...
Shannon Betts: for Word Origins to come in, and it finally came in, so yay. Cool. Word Origins is the morphology program that UFLI, Found from Australia and then took the last year to translate it from Australian English to American English and implemented as sort of, you know, what do you do with students after they finish decoding, learning decoding with UFLI.
And so I did lesson one in level one with it this week. Cool. And used the little morphology cards. It was pretty fa- it was a, it was a fast lesson, very fast-paced. I'm not quite comfortable with, you know, all of the different... It has, like, little pieces and little routines- Yes ... that are, like, two to five minutes long just like a UFLI lesson does.
And so I don't know if I did it perfectly or not you know, 'cause I'm looking at the manual and looking at the content and everything all at the same time. But I also [00:24:00] kind of like just jumping in the deep end even though I don't know it perfectly because I can, like, then gauge how the student is, you know, receiving the material and things like that.
And it's also interesting because you just sort of jump in, like, with, like, the, the words for the lesson one are hopeful and hopeless, and so you're jumping in with, like, two suffixes- Yeah ... and a base word immediately, and you're immediately doing a matrix word sums Under talking about bases, talking about suffixes, talking about spelling changes.
I love that there's etymology piece in the l- in the lessons. My student that I did it with was- is just kind of interested in history, so like I actually showed in the manual there's like a timeline of like how English evolved like with all the- Ooh ... different conquerors. Like
Mary Saghafi: That's
Shannon Betts: cool.
Anglo-Saxons
came in, and then William the Conqueror came in and the French and all these things. And so I actually showed that whole timeline and then used that as the framework to show like the reason certain words are spelled certain ways is because they came from the language from this conquering group.
Mary Saghafi: I am eager [00:25:00] to hear some more feedback about it. And oh also is it... So the manual that comes with it is it pretty scripted, or is it a little more
Shannon Betts: flexible? Yeah, I mean, it's scripted, but I mean, like, it's not like, you know, follow this script. No,
Mary Saghafi: no, I love scripted in a lot of cases.
Shannon Betts: Yeah.
It's just like, it's like here's sentences to read out loud, you know? But I mean, I ch- I change some of the sentences 'cause I like to, you know-
Mary Saghafi: Sure ...
Shannon Betts: use the kid's personality and like their preferences with them. But you know- Cool ... for like hopeful, hopeless they'll say like, there's examples and non-examples.
So in this situation, would you feel hopeful or would you feel hopeless? And, and- Right ... so you can always just add your own sentences and things like that. But it gives you a kid friendly definition for each of the suffixes.
Mary Saghafi: Awesome.
Shannon Betts: I do like- I think that's the thing that I'm- ... the little word card.
The, the, the s- the little cards are really helpful. Right ... and it even, they're color coded by like what language or origin they're from, if they're from Anglo-Saxon or from Latin or from Greek, which is kind of cool.
Mary Saghafi: Okay. So you are selling me on this completely. Yeah. And I, because one of my personal goals for this year is really [00:26:00] to I mean, I've been doing morphology, I've been doing Morpheme Magic.
But I tend to focus on it with my older students, and we know that we need to bring it in at a younger age and work with our younger students. And so, I would really like to build that in for these two students in particular that I'm working with who are definitely strong with language and are ready for that particularly like one-on-one morphology.
So I'm excited. And
Shannon Betts: it won't take like, like one lesson.
.
I mean, it's designed for like a whole week in the school day, in, you know, in the school week. So it'll be interesting. You know, my pacing is obviously as a tutor, seeing the students once a week is gonna be a lot slower than like how you would get through the whole program, You know, as a homeroom teacher.
But there was a benefit to it being, like, a shorter lesson. Like, I did it in, like, 15, 20 minutes. Mm. And then I could still do other activities. Like, I did sentence composing- Yeah, I
Mary Saghafi: mean- ... and
Shannon Betts: some other things with that student ...
Mary Saghafi: we know it's essential to build it in. It ha- ... we have to build that time [00:27:00] in.
And I think that touching on it in tutoring is also essential because then when it shows up in the classroom, they have a sense of, "Oh, I, I have had experience with this before," or "Oh, I learned this from my tutor." And I think it really builds confidence as well. But also you can ensure that they're really taking in the c- the content.
.
So in a fun way.
Shannon Betts: Yeah. I'll, I'll kind of talk through it through the season 'cause I wanna see, like, how well the students learn it. I wanna see the spiral review that's kind of built into the program- Cool ... and things like that. Like, I'm just, I just wanted to... Like, I got it, I got it out of the box, and I was like, "I'm starting it today."
Like, let me just- Yeah ... I wanna get a feel for it.
Mary Saghafi: That's so great. I'm, I am, Yeah. So morphology is definitely on my list to get more comfortable with. I don't know, I, I know many teachers feel this way. . But I think because it does require this really strong understanding of how English works and [00:28:00] explaining it to students, I think- And
Shannon Betts: that's what's in the manual, which is nice.
Mary Saghafi: That's what I mean. Like, that scripted thing, that's what I've been missing. . And it's really a confidence issue for me, to be honest, and I'm sure that other teachers feel that way too. But I feel like if I have an overview, I can look at it, I can use those lessons. And then like you, too, good teachers, you know, shift the, the qu- the dictation sentences or, or the, the sentence examples.
Maybe just change it to a, a preferred topic or, or however your students will best respond to it.
Shannon Betts: Well, and I... Like, for example, like for hopeful, when I was explaining the suffix, I brought in other things that we had talked about. I'm like, "You remember the floss rule?" And I was like, "Why do you think the suffix ful, you know, doesn't have the double L?"
And, like, the... I did... Then the student needed some prompting, but then we realized, oh, it's gonna be a suffix added to a base word, so it's not gonna be a one-syllable word. So you don't- Right ... the, the floss rule is, you know, not needed on a multi-syllable
Mary Saghafi: word. See? Perfect. And, and I think that that's how you get comfortable with it [00:29:00] and, and bring it in.
But I, I think that that's great.
.
And I do feel like I do that with my older kids, but I'm gonna really try to do it with my younger kids. Well,
Shannon Betts: they suggested third grade as the starting point for it.
Mary Saghafi: Okay, great. Cool.
Shannon Betts: And they're, they released level one only. Okay. There's three levels total, and so then next school year level two will be rolled out, and then the third year level three will
Mary Saghafi: come out.
Does it kind of flow like third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, is that-
Shannon Betts: I think so. It's supposed to go from like third through sixth grade. And so they have a suggested timeline, I'll link to that website, of just like because it's a new program they're basically saying no matter what grade it is, start with a level one.
You know, and then next year, you know, what, once level two's released what grades should use level two and so forth.
Mary Saghafi: Oh, that's good.
Shannon Betts: Yeah.
Mary Saghafi: Of course I'm trying to gamify as many things as possible this year.
Shannon Betts: Nice. I played a lot- Yeah ... of SquishyLAND this summer. The SquishyLAND is so popular with every kid.
Mary Saghafi: Oh, the Fidget Games are such a hit in my [00:30:00] tutoring experience, but also for my, my own kids too. . They it's, they're really good quality products. I have- The
Shannon Betts: vocabulary one too is very flexible 'cause you can even add morphology in with it and-
Mary Saghafi: Yes ... yeah. And it has all of those like content grade words that the kids-
need to be practicing. Almost all are multi-sy- No, not all of them, but there's a lot of multi-syllable words in there. I agree.
Shannon Betts: There are. And I was playing that one, you know, the student who moved away?
Mary Saghafi: Yes.
Shannon Betts: The girl. She was like, on our last appointment she's like, "Can I try the sixth grade box of cards?"
I
Mary Saghafi: love that.
Shannon Betts: And she ended up doing really, really well with it. She was really proud and like she didn't even get really, you know, upset when she didn't know the words and I had to help her, you know? And I've added like a s- I've added a support where like, okay, if I have to use the word in this sentence or if I have to tell you the definition, then, but then you can use it later, you know, then I'll give you half of the move of the dice or whatever and they- Ooh, cool
they like that. And so we did that for those [00:31:00] harder words that she was missing.
Mary Saghafi: Oh, that's a great adaptation ...
Shannon Betts: and so it's, it's nice that they can kind of level themselves up.
Mary Saghafi: Cool. I have a new game. More
Shannon Betts: games that you use, yeah.
Mary Saghafi: Okay. So, I was at a a festival, like a summer festival here in Atlanta, and they often have vendors and artists and things like that.
So it's a local person, and he has created a game called Tweezer, and I'll link to it. But it is really cool. So it's a wooden board, and it has six wooden dowels, and the wooden dowels are on one side, and then on the opposite side there are also six wooden dowels. And then you have these little kind of like two-inch round colored hoops.
They're just little hoops. So you can stack them, right? So there is no reading in this game. There is no no math, noth- nothing that you would have to do. So it's very easy to get buy-in from kids who are resistant to that, but it requires a lot of executive functioning skills. . So what you do is [00:32:00] each of those dowels has different colored...
You, you mix up all of the colors. So each one has six different colors. So I think there's a yellow, red, blue, green, and orange. And then your goal is to put one hand behind your back and stack them on the dowels to make sure that they are all now the same color, but you can only move one color at a time.
It's similar to if you've seen the online games where there's like the water sorting where you have to pour the water into kind of a vessel.
Shannon Betts: That is my favorite game of all time. I discovered it this summer.
Mary Saghafi: It's so satisfying, right?
Shannon Betts: Yes. I- I don't
even want to tell you what high level I'm on on that game, 'cause I play it a lot.
Oh my gosh. When we are not recording, I will tell you mine. We can compare 'cause it's kind of, kind of- I
figured out, my little sister and I were playing it. We both like, we're comparing our phones this summer and we were like, "We're both obsessed with this game."
Mary Saghafi: Yes. So this is a hands-on, screen-free version of that.
Shannon Betts: Okay. But it's like more- You have to plan in advance. You have to plan like, like eight moves in advance.
Mary Saghafi: Well, [00:33:00] and, and that's exactly what I'm hoping that my students- Yeah ... are doing. And so I tell them too, I've been practicing this a lot, so I will probably go fast, but the more you practice it, you will probably be able to go faster too.
So my daughter can beat me now, which is great. Cool. I really love starting a lesson with this because it's very easy to go in. It has a definite end to it, and so I can easily transition to the next part, and their brain is now primed for learning. 'Cause-
Shannon Betts: Yeah, because it's working on working memory, and then much better focus up there.
Mary Saghafi: I love this. The man who created this was such a lovely gentleman, actually. So he has a daughter who has special needs, and he created this game for her to play. He's been, like, hand-creating all of these. But he also said that if schools in the local area would wanna start, like, an after-school program, they could...
He would provide the materials for them. And then he was gonna organize kind of like a competition in a, [00:34:00] in the local Atlanta regional area.
Shannon Betts: That's cute.
Mary Saghafi: Try to get kids... But I love that there's, you know, some forward thought with it, too. So I'm happy to promote that. He, I, I love that, you know, they're handmade as well, so I think that's really cool.
Shannon Betts: . Yeah, not digital. Yeah. Just-
Mary Saghafi: Not digital ...
Shannon Betts: touching, moving. But, but what they're having to do, right, is, like, plan out, "Okay, I'm gonna move this here, I'm gonna move this here, I'm gonna move this here." And then, like, they might get to a point where, like, they can't move it again- Yes ... 'cause it'll, they'll get to a stopping point.
That's how the little water-shorting game is.
Mary Saghafi: And then
Shannon Betts: you have to shift attention. Yeah. Yeah. And so then you're like, nope, that little four move strategy's not gonna work. I'm gonna have to try some other thing in a different way. Yep.
Mary Saghafi: So guess what we're doing? Working memory.
Shannon Betts: Yeah.
Mary Saghafi: Right? We're planning-
Shannon Betts: Planning and pacing
Mary Saghafi: and pl- we are planning, pacing time, right? . We are using inhibition. We're resisting making some moves, like, ooh, that wor- that won't work in just a minute. And then we're also, like, persevering through, even if it gets hard, and then shifting attention. So I [00:35:00] love starting with this game. So I thought it was a really smart, easy, quick start to the ga- the day.
Shannon Betts: Cool. I might have to- Yeah ... look into getting one, too. That might be really fun to play with my son.
Mary Saghafi: I'd be happy to share. Yeah, we'll definitely link to it. But yeah, so I think that this year name of my game is still balance and organization. . Just, just me finding that balance personally, within my tutoring practice.
You know, helping my kids sort of find that balance of all the things that they're doing, too.
Shannon Betts: I'm doing prioritization, like, I've had some health problems here, like, right as- Mm ... the school year started, and so that's my body saying "Slow down," you know? Like, you can't do anything if you don't feel healthy.
... And so I'm troubleshooting and figuring out what's going on with my body. And then from there learning, like- just being okay with, like, not perfect work, you know? But just like, okay, what little things can I accomplish? And just this week I started the Finch app. Have you seen that one? Oh,
Mary Saghafi: I have seen this.
Yeah. It's like a cute little owl or something. Is [00:36:00] that right?
Shannon Betts: Yes. And it's for, like... It g- gamifies self-care and- ... anything really, executive functioning if you want.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah.
Shannon Betts: And I really like it so far. Like,
Mary Saghafi: So I've heard it's a little like Tamagotchi. It
Shannon Betts: is, Tamagotchi. . Yeah, it's a... I did never had one of those.
That was, like, I was a little bit too old when those came out. Right. But yeah, it's very much like that, and you get rewarded- Like, you have to take care of your- ... for just, like, brushing your
Mary Saghafi: teeth
Shannon Betts: in the day. Okay. You know? You, so you get a little hits of dopamine each day and- Cool ... it's very gentle encouragement.
I like their values, you know, that they're kind of built into the program and everything. It's it's been good so far. Reminding me of what's important.
Mary Saghafi: Well, I love that. Well, I would say, on that note, cheers to a great new school year and to a new season on the podcast.
Shannon Betts: Yes, and hopefully by the end of this season, my goal is to be done with the CERI class.
Mary Saghafi: Ah. I'm
Shannon Betts: about halfway done.
Mary Saghafi: You and me
Shannon Betts: both. Yeah.
Mary Saghafi: I
Shannon Betts: know. Well, I started it, like, two years ago, so it's, it's time to finish.
Mary Saghafi: Talk about prior- priorities. I-
Shannon Betts: Well, it's, it's, it's a lot of [00:37:00] work. I mean, it's, it's, it's many, many, many dozens of hours. And so what I've done is I try to do an hour on Friday afternoons and an hour on the weekends.
And kind of two hours at a time, I've been able, all summer, I've been able to, like, really, like, see some progress.
Mary Saghafi: Well, that's
Shannon Betts: great. Rather than doing, like, four-hour sessions or something, which is just too overwhelming.
Mary Saghafi: I like... I, okay, I like your timing on that. Let's keep talking about that throughout the season because-
Shannon Betts: And I'm learning a lot.
Like, there's some really good stuff. We'll link to the... We're taking a free version of it from Cox Campus. Mm. And, Yeah ... it's really interesting 'cause they're, all the videos are, like, filmed in Atlanta, and I'm starting to... I see, like, kids I know when they were, like- Oh, great ... in, like, first grade or kindergarten.
Oh. From, like, certain schools. Love that. And, like, I've even recognized some of the adult volunteers and some of the teachers that are in the things, and I'm like- That's
Mary Saghafi: amazing ...
Shannon Betts: it's kind of, like, all these Easter eggs that are in there as a local person. But it's, it's really good. It's real- I love that there's, it's just so many videos because you actually see the read-alouds [00:38:00] happening.
You actually see the vocabulary lessons happening. And it's all rooted in the research. They even, like, have upd- you know, they're very open about that they updated some things recently, you know, as nor- new research findings came out. And so they even are, you know, not just pushing their old thoughts, but as as new understandings are coming out in the field, they're updating their resources.
Mary Saghafi: As you said that, I also want to give a shout-out to Reading Universe because Reading Universe- Yes ... has fantastic quick modeled lessons as well. And it's funny because I also happen to know and see some of those
Shannon Betts: great- There's some in Atlanta from there too, right? '
Mary Saghafi: Cause they also have filmed... I, I, I heard from, through the grapevine that there was a person who's on their board who used to work in Atlanta, and so she has reached out to several of the people that she used to previously teach with, which I think is great.
It's a whole variety.
Shannon Betts: And they keep adding, right, like pretty much you just kind of every time I go to the website, there's new resources there.
Mary Saghafi: It... That is a fantastic [00:39:00] growing resource that is high quality, super top-notch. Love that.
.
Love.
Shannon Betts: I will link to it too in the show notes.
Mary Saghafi: And, All righty ...
Shannon Betts: we got some exciting guests coming, so stay tuned.
Mary Saghafi: That's what I was just gonna say. We do have some exciting... Like we always do. We always get such great people to come on and share such unique things, so season nine, here we come.
Shannon Betts: . All right. Good catching up with you.
Mary Saghafi: You too.