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 How To Provide Multiple Exposures to the Words You've Featured/ Intentionally Noticed Mini Episode #5
Dr. Christina Williams shares strategies for teachers to reinforce daily learning through songs and newsletters, ensuring students actively recall and share their new knowledge.
31 Oct 2025
OYW Morphology, Vocabulary Mini Episode #4
Dr. Christina Williams explains morphology, the study of word forms, and morphemes, the smallest units of meaning, using the example of how the letter 's' transforms 'dog' into 'dogs'.
28 Oct 2025
OYW-Comparing Words, Dynamic Dictionary- Mini Episode #3
Dr. Christina Williams examines the subtle differences in word meanings and explores ways to compare words, inspiring listeners to consider their word choices in speech and writing.
28 Oct 2025
OYW Encourage Students to Use Sophisticated Vocabulary - Mini Episode #2
Dr. Christina Williams discusses the use of a dynamic dictionary to encourage students to employ sophisticated vocabulary, improving their writing skills.
23 Oct 2025
OYW Dynamic Dictionary - Mini Episode #1
Dr. Christina Williams explains the Dynamic Dictionary podcast, reinforcing listener understanding of its core concepts.
18 Oct 2025
OYW Vocabulary Instruction
Dr. Christina Williams details the importance of explicit call and response vocabulary instruction in the classroom and provides step-by-step implementation guidance.
5 Sept 2025
OYW Reading Homework
Dr. Christina Williams explores effective conferencing note-taking strategies for educators.
9 May 2025
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 it the \"Guess and Go\" syndrome. I believe this kind of reading error is a result of children being taught sight words. They are taught to recall how words look. They are not taught to make the sounds they see, from left to right, across the word. If they had been taught to make the sounds they see, children would not say see when they come to the word look.Teachers often post the students\' sight words on the walls of their classrooms. They review each word frequently. The children are asked to practice using the words in various ways. Eventually, the word sticks in the memories of the students. If it doesn\'t stick quickly enough, parents are asked to make flashcards for the words to review them with their children.Here\'s the problem: When taught to rely on their memory of how words look, children are prone to make errors in their reading.
So what do I recommend?I believe that we must return to the Sound by Sound approach (left to right) and reserve the Sight Word approach (memorizing words) for the words that do not follow phonics guidelines. Even the words I call \"true sight words\" have the expected initial sounds.
29 Apr 2025
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 ~vocabulary
share/compare what you’re imagining in your minds ~comprehension
demonstrate reading with a pace that matches what the author’s saying (sometimes we speed up, sometimes we slow down) ~fluency/prosody
demonstrate interpretations of the voices of characters (anger, southern twang, squeaky, etc.) ~fluency/prosody
compare the events of this story to other stories you know or to your own lives ~comprehension
introduce a variety of genres to expand your children’s experiences with books and how they work ~comprehension
promote the character traits you’d like to see in yourself and others ~comprehension
In the classroom, I continually say things like, “Whoa. You are acting determined just like little Willy in Stone Fox, “ or “You can write in your journal the way Sam Beaver wrote in his in The Trumpet of the Swan.”Remember, your kids are capable of comprehending books far beyond their reading levels. When you’re reading to them, they are able to do the deep work of comprehension without having to slow down to decode unfamiliar words.One more thing . . . Once I read a book to students, they are often excited to read it themselves. That’s WONDERFUL! They know what’s going happen, so they’re better equipped to tackle what might otherwise be challenging words for them. If it’s a quality book, reading it twice will be a great investmentSo, have I convinced you?
17 Apr 2025
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 writing time. Should there be time set aside for explicit writing instruction? If so, what are “writing blocks” supposed to look like? Some folks, like Natalie Wexler (one of my heroes) say that teaching writing separate from knowledge-based content is not a worthy time spend. Others, like Tim Shanahan (also one of my heroes) feel that about 20% of literacy instruction time (25-45 minutes or so) should be set aside, daily, for explicit writing instruction. What’s a teacher to do when the experts can’t agree?
28 Mar 2025
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.
28 Mar 2025
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
27 Mar 2025
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 information and podcasts www.bookbums.com/podcast
26 Mar 2025
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 identify what doesn’t belong with the others. Also - and this is important - have them explain what’s wrong with the imposter word. Why doesn’t “shoe” fit in with A-B-C-D-E-F-shoe-H-I-J-K . . .? We really want kids to be able to justify their responses. It’s a fun and effective way to stretch kids and to encourage deeper thinking. It will also prepare them to demonstrate their understanding (comprehension) of texts they read. Do not feel you have to do all of these in one sitting. Sprinkle them throughout the day or over a couple of days. If you’re teaching at home, do this activity when your kids are in the bathtub or on the swing set, while they’re climbing a tree or riding in the car. Practice anywhere your children can focus for a short stretch of time. Say or sing the following phrases with a somewhat slower pace than normal speech. Don’t be boring but be deliberate and clear. Enunciate your speech just a bit more than usual. https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Wednesday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf For more information and more podcasts www.bookbums.com/podcast
25 Mar 2025
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 phonemic awareness. For more information and podcast notes : www.bookbums.com/podcast (https://www.bookbums.com/podcast)
24 Mar 2025
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 to play throughout the upcoming days to promote your students’ sense of rhyme. I suggest that you read at least one rhyming book a day. Also, Dr. Seuss and other authors use crazy, made-up words to make rhymes, and you can, too! We don’t want all the words to be nonsense words, but certainly some of them can be. It’s fun! Make it your diligent aim to engage in one of these Building Block Activities, each day: https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Monday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf For more information and podcasts www.bookbums.com/podcast
10 Mar 2025
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.
6 Mar 2025
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.
27 Feb 2025
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.
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