On Your Way with Dr. Christina Williams
Dr. Christy is an educator turned entrepreneur who equips teachers to move their students from struggling to soaring -- FAST -- and to even make it FUN.
OYW Dynamic Dictionary - Mini Episode #1
This episode takes Dynamic Dictionary one step further. Listen to this to solidify your understanding of the Dynamic Dictionary Podcast.
OYW Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary Explicit Call and Response Instruction
In this episode, Dr. Christy explains why it is so important to have Vocabulary Explicit Call and Response instruction in your classroom. She gives you step by step instructions on how to implement Vocubulary Instruction.
OYW Reading Homework
Conferencing Notes Blank Most teachers, without even thinking much about it, require early elementary students to read anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes a day for “homework." But is that good practice? Dr. Christina Williams shares why teachers should not require families to read at home for homework. When families read because a teacher assigns it, it makes the reading a drudgery—a task we do because we have to—not because we want to. And we never want parents set timers on reading. That’s not something readers do, is it?More importantly, when kids are not yet equipped to decode most every wor...
OYW How to Teach "Sight Words"
Every parent in my school community knows about sight words. They may be called star words, snap words, or something else, but we know what they are. Early childhood classrooms feature from 25 to more than 100 words students must know on sight by the end of the school year. That\'s not a problem-the fluent reading of words. The problem can be in how those words are taught.Does your child say the when the word is and? How about and for the word said? In my first grade classroom, at the beginning of the year, this happens quite frequently. I call i...
OYW Read Aloud
Reading to your kids is so very important. Even with high stakes tests hanging over my shoulders, as a classroom teacher I invest the time to read aloud to my students every single day because I believe that it is the best way to promote a love for books*. But reading aloud offers so much more!It’s a perfect time to:discuss unfamiliar words ~vocabularyshare/compare what you’re imagining in your minds ~comprehensiondemonstrate reading with a pace that matches what the author’s saying (sometimes we speed up, sometimes we slow down) ~fluency/prosodydemonstrate interpretations of the voices of cha...
OYW Dynamic Dictionary
Today, in the Science of Reading community, lots of teachers are questioning how to most effectively equip children to become skilled writers. We’ve been learning a lot about the essentials when teaching kids to read, and now teachers are wondering about what scientific research says when it comes to early childhood writing instruction. Many schools had adopted “the writers’ workshop approach” a while back, but since the Lucy Calkins curriculum for reading has been eschewed (UH-SHOOED) and explicit systematic phonics instruction has (finally!) taken its rightful place in beginning readers’ classrooms, teachers are wondering about what to do with...
OYW Handwriting
www.bookbums.com This podcast introduces the philosophy behind tidy handwriting and how to help your students achieve handwriting skills. Coming soon, Handwriting video workshop.
OYW Phonemic Awareness Day 5 Friday
#5/Friday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast: Stretching Out Words to Hear Each Sound  Now, we are going to say words without stretching them out at all. We will simply clearly say a word. The children will then be challenged to slowly stretch the words out, enunciating each individual sound or phoneme.  Note: This practice will help kids to determine which sounds they hear in words. This is an important skill when learning to spell. https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Friday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf For more information visit www.bookbums.com/podcast
OYW Phonemic Awareness Day 4 Thursday
#4/Thursday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast: Sound Switching  BUILDING BLOCK #5- Elision of Sounds in Words  When children can manipulate sounds in words, they are better equipped to read and spell well. In the next couple of lessons, we’ll take off the first sound and determine what word remains, and then we’ll take off the final sound and determine what word remains. Again, children will practice holding sounds in their working memories. These exercises help to prepare your children to become strong readers. https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Thursday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf For more inform...
OYW Phonemic Awareness Day 3 Wednesday
3/Wednesday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast - Listen Well & Catch My Mistake  Following, you’ll find some common songs, refrains, or items in categories. Your students will try to figure out what doesn’t belong. In my classes, when I tried to fit all these phonemic awareness lessons into one hour (Oh my . . .), I saved this one for the end when the kids were getting a bit worn out. It always got their waning attention right back on track. Today, you’ll be beginning with the fun! See if your children can listen closely and ide...
OYW Phonemic Awareness Day 2 Tuesday
The English language is a code-based language. For us, that simply means that we have symbols, or letters, that represent sounds, or phonemes. For now, we’re just going to focus on and play with beginning and ending sounds in words (not, necessarily, including the vowel). As you work to heighten your children’s awareness of beginning and ending sounds through playful, foundation-building interactions, your soon-to-be-readers will become better equipped to connect those sounds with letters. That’s phonics. Today, we’re focusing on sounds without addressing letter names. In other words, we’re continuing our work on building p...
OYW Phonemic Awareness Day 1 Monday
#1/Monday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast: Rhyming Words  One fun way to build your students’ phonemic awareness is to read books with strong rhyming patterns. Words that rhyme are words that have the same sounds from the final vowel (a, e, i, o, or u) on. Actually, those are considered perfect rhymes. If you listen to music in most any genre, you recognize that many lyricists also use imperfect rhymes, where the words are “close” to rhyming, but the sounds aren’t exactly the same.  In this lesson, we’re going to think about perfect rhymes.  There are lots of games for you...
The Five Pillars of Literacy Instruction
We all want to be the most effective teachers and parents we can be. We want to provide our students and our kids with everything they need to be successful in the classroom and beyond, but sometimes we get so involved with all those to-do’s of daily life that we get bogged down and take our eyes off of the essentials--the things that really make a difference for good. Sometimes we all need redirection along our paths to remind us where we’re heading and how to get there.
The Nurtured Heart Approach
In the On Your Way with Dr. Christina Williams posdcast this week, you will learn a bit about Howard Glasser's book Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured Heart Approach. The approach helps children come to respect themselves because their caregivers speak aloud what their kids are doing and name what those actions reveal about the child's greatness. When kids respect themselves, they come to respect others as well.
The Apple Does Fall Far from the Tree, High Student Expectations
On Your Way Hosted by Dr. Christina Williams is now available. This episode is sponsored by the Foundations for Literacy instructional tools for teachers. It’s everything you need to launch your private tutoring businesses— just as big or small as you wish. You can significantly add to your income while you’re refining your craft as an educator who’s using the science of reading to help struggling readers and spellers to make significant academic gains and fast.
