We have a deep desire to change the lives of struggling readers. You feel stuck because you’re not sure what to do next. That's where we come in.
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You see their brightness, their creativity, but you worry that their love of learning will begin to dim.
03/01/2026
I used to feel really overwhelmed when it came to supporting vocabulary in my literacy intervention lessons.
What words were I supposed to pick? Besides looking up definitions (which never seemed to stick for our students), how was I supposed to teach these skills?
These two simple literacy routines changed my entire outlook on vocabulary.
Instead of memorizing the definitions from the dictionary, I had students rate their knowledge of words from the passage we were working on.
Then, they'd define the words using a 4-part framework that targets:
➡️ Category
➡️ Function, purpose, and defining features
➡️ Synonym
➡️ Antonym or shade of meaning
If you've ever struggled with how to incorporate vocabulary into your literacy lessons, you're in good company! I encourage you to try these routines this week and see if they help.
Tag a friend/colleague below that you think would like these routines too! 🫶
02/27/2026
Vocabulary is a skill that used to feel really tricky to incorporate into our lessons.
What words were we supposed to pick? Besides looking up definitions (which never seemed to stick for our students), how were we supposed to teach these skills?
Then, we found a routine that really seemed to work for our students.
We’d pull a few words from our comprehension passages for them to define.
Then, instead of memorizing the definitions from the dictionary, we’d focus on identifying the words’...
➡️ Category
➡️ Function, purpose, and defining features
➡️ Synonym
➡️ Antonym or shade of meaning
This not only made it feel more cohesive in our lesson but also allowed our instruction to be more effective.
Check out the video to see this routine in action.
02/23/2026
Whenever we talk about phonological awareness, we often get the question...
“Do we actually need to do this with our older students?”
And we get it. With so little time (and often so much ground to cover with our students), we want to maximize every second of our instruction and get right into the reading and the writing.
But what if we thought about literacy like we think about sports?
When we think about athletics, we wouldn’t just jump right into a soccer match or hop onto the softball field. Instead, you’d do some jumping jacks. You’d stretch. You’d get your body ready for what’s to come.
We like to think of PA skills like that.
These PA drills are a way for students to “warm up” their ears. They are an important part of the lesson (though we don’t want to take up too much time here, just like we wouldn’t do jumping jacks for too much of soccer practice).
Check out the video for a glimpse at how we explain these “warm-up” PA routines to our older students.
02/23/2026
We've been talking a lot about the "messy middle" recently and how we can support students who are close, but not fully proficient, in their literacy skills.
It can feel tricky to support these students because it feels like overkill to start a full intensive intervention support, but their skills aren't sticking, and it feels irresponsible to do nothing.
We've felt the toll that's taken on us in the past, which is why we wanted to share a few literacy routines that have been helpful as we've tried to support these students (in case they're helpful for you, too ❤️).
Swipe through for a glimpse at how we use a passage to create PA activities while also previewing content from the passage.
➡️Why this is important:
Students in the "messy middle" often struggle to apply literacy skills (like how to rhyme, blend, segment, and manipulate sounds) to "real reading" and classroom-based work.
That's why we'll often pull a passage (whether it's from the classroom, from an authentic text, or about a high-interest topic) and provide students opportunities to apply their literacy skills.
We like using a 10-part PA drill where we will ask things like...
👉 "Do these words rhyme?"
👉"What is a word that rhymes with ______?"
👉"What word do these syllables make?"
👉"What word do these sounds make?"
👉"Change the first sound in ____________ to ___. What's the new word?"
👉"How many words do you hear in this sentence?"
👉"Are these words the same or different?"
👉"What is the first/middle/last/etc. sound you hear in _________?"
👉"How many syllables do you hear in ________?"
👉"How many sounds do you hear in ________?"
If you have students in the "messy middle" too, we encourage you to try this strategy this week! Comment below and let us know how it goes!
02/22/2026
A few summers ago, I had a family come to me at a loss.
Their son was struggling at school, but they couldn't figure out how to help him.
He had already gone through intensive intervention. He learned the skills.
..but he wasn't applying them in the classroom.
This is common for a lot of students. Whether they have already received intensive intervention or are almost proficient and don't need that level of support, we've often found that students get stuck in this "messy middle."
When we have students who need help applying their literacy skills, we'll create a "bridge" lesson. This takes the skills they've learned in isolation and helps them apply them to what they are doing in the classroom.
Swipe through for more information about how we do this. ➡️
Do you have students in the messy middle, too? What have you found helpful for them?
02/22/2026
I recently talked with a teacher who said...
"Teaching reading feels harder than ever right now."
And it's true. Teaching reading does feel harder.
It's not just that expectations are higher, or that we have to hit more standards than possible in the limited time that we have with students.
It's also that we've lost the time for the things we loved most in our instruction. We've been led to believe that teaching to a specific script is more important than our professional judgement.
Teaching literacy needs to encompass both science (the structure, the skills, the research) AND art (the joy, the responding to student needs, the professional judgement).
If we're missing the science, then we have no blueprint or structure to follow.
But if we get too caught up in the specific skills and treat our instruction like a checklist, we lose the artistry that is so critical in our profession.
This week on our podcast, we're breaking down why literacy instruction needs both science and art and sharing more about how we can embrace both.
We'd love to invite you into the conversation.
If you’d like to listen, you can find the episode linked below:
Hot take 🔥 Teaching literacy isn't actually about teaching individual skills...
..It's about teaching routines that students can begin to internalize so that the process of reading and writing is efficient and automatic.
It's like learning to swim - yes, we need to learn skills like appropriate breathing, stroke technique, kicking form, but we don't treat each of those skills like a checklist to cover once and be done with.
We teach those skills so we can be efficient and automatic swimmers and we keep coming back to our breathing, stroke technique, and kicking form.
So it's not actually about the skills (although don't get us wrong...we need to teach the foundational skills), but it's really about how we use those skills over and over in repeatable routines until they become second nature.
We're talking more about this on the podcast this week!
If you’d like to listen, you can find the episode linked below:
➡️ Perform well in isolation, but not in connected text
➡️ Fall between classroom expectations and intensive intervention
These students fall into what we call the "messy middle."
They're not quite on grade level for literacy instruction, but they're not struggling enough for intensive intervention.
Or maybe they've received intensive intervention and need a bridge out of that type of support and back into the classroom.
If you have students in this messy middle space, this free training is for you.
🧠 Bridging the Gap: Supporting Students in the Messy Middle
📅 Feb 19 @ 5 PM PST | 8 PM EST
How do we help students who are close but aren't fully proficient in literacy?
We call this the "messy middle."
Students in the messy middle often...
➡️ Have skills, but lack consistent application
➡️ Perform well in isolation, not in connected text
➡️ Fall between classroom expectations and intensive intervention
It can feel really difficult to support students here because...
👉 it feels like overkill to start full intensive intervention support
👉 it feels irresponsible to do nothing
👉 we end up “hovering”
👉 skills don’t seem to “stick”
So what can we do?
Join us for our free training, "Bridging the Gap: Supporting Students in the Messy Middle" where we'll share a practical walk-through of how to support students whose needs fall between classroom expectations and intensive intervention, without over-supporting or pulling support too soon.
Click here to sign up! https://programs.smarterintervention.com/training-registration-bridging-the-gap?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=freeresources
02/15/2026
I had a conversation with an educator today that I can’t stop thinking about. We were talking about her literacy instruction, what’s working, what’s not...
She said, “I feel like I’m spinning in circles.”
She teaches the skill. Her students seem to get it.
Then the next day… it’s gone.
Or they can do it when she’s right there with them, but not on their own.
Or they’re doing great in intervention, but the transfer just isn’t showing up in the classroom.
These students are the students who...
👉 are close to benchmark
👉 can apply literacy skills when you’re sitting next to them
👉 seem to teeter between grade level and then dip (and then climb)
👉 make you think, “I’m not sure what do to next...”
This is what we call the “messy middle.”
This group needs more than grade-level/classroom instruction, but don’t need intensive intervention support.
Instead, they need a bridge between the two.
Join us for our free training, “Bridging the Gap: Supporting Students in the Messy Middle” where we’ll share a practical walk-through of how to support these students.
Comment “messy middle” and we’ll send you the link, or you can sign up using the link in our bio!
02/14/2026
Do you know these students? They...
➡️ Have skills, but lack consistent application
➡️ Perform well in isolation, but not in connected text
➡️ Fall between classroom expectations and intensive intervention
These students fall into what we call the "messy middle."
They're not quite on grade level for literacy instruction, but they're not struggling enough for intensive intervention.
Or maybe they've received intensive intervention and need a bridge out of that type of support and back into the classroom.
If you have students in this messy middle space, this free training is for you.
🧠 Bridging the Gap: Supporting Students in the Messy Middle
📅 Feb 19 @ 5 PM PST | 8 PM EST
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We believe that effective reading instruction should be accessible to everyone.
We work directly with students and families providing educational diagnoses such as dyslexia and dysgraphia in addition to research-based instruction to help get struggling students to grade level and beyond.
It’s awful watching a child struggle. You see the brightness, the creativity, but you worry that their love of learning will begin to dim or burn out altogether if something doesn’t change. You feel stuck because you’re not sure what to do next.
We get it. With all the information available out there, it’s hard to sort through what’s reputable from what’s not. And that’s where we come in.
Our tools and resources for SLPs, teachers, special educators and reading interventionists are only a click away. Let us help you stop wasting time and start changing lives.
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