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The Academic Gym Literacy Skills


Simple syllables for spelling and reading
Our scaffolded analytical spelling system begins with larger units, such as simple syllables. It's easier for kids to hear and pronounce vowel and consonant sounds by saying, spelling, and segmenting them within syllabic units such as "ab, eb, ib ,ob, and ub." These simple syllables help students develop phonemic and alphabetic awareness, making it much easier to segment whole words and match their speech sounds to corresponding graphemes (letters and letter combinations that
Brian Vieira
1 day ago1 min read


Simple syllables
Our scaffolded analytical spelling system begins with larger units, such as simple syllables. It's easier for kids to hear and pronounce vowel and consonant sounds by saying, spelling, and segmenting them within syllabic units such as "ab, eb, ib ,ob, and ub." These simple syllables help students develop phonemic and alphabetic awareness, making it much easier to segment whole words and match their speech sounds to corresponding graphemes (letters and letter combinations that
Brian Vieira
1 day ago1 min read


Your Child's Amazing Brain
Have you ever felt discouraged and frustrated about your child’s behavior or academic performance? Don’t give up: there’s hope. Your child can change because their brain is built to keep growing and learning how to overcome social, emotional, and academic challenges.
Brian Vieira
Mar 202 min read


The writing-reading-spelling connection
Students who need help spelling will also have difficulty reading and writing fluently
Brian Vieira
Mar 131 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. In other words, they need to learn vocabulary from roots and prefixes. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 251 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. In other words, they need to learn vocabulary from roots and prefixes. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 251 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. In other words, they need to learn vocabulary from roots and prefixes. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 251 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. In other words, they need to learn vocabulary from roots and prefixes. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 251 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. In other words, they need to learn vocabulary from roots and prefixes. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 251 min read


How Word Parts make kids Word Smart
Morphemes are word parts that make kids word smart. meaning. Often classified as roots, prefixes, and suffixes, these word parts have one thing in common: they are the keys to decoding a word's meaning.
Brian Vieira
Feb 241 min read


How to teach long vowel sounds
Words with long vowel sounds are challenging to spell and pronounce because of the myriad ways we can represent or spell each sound. There are eight ways to spell /A/,
Brian Vieira
Feb 172 min read


Can you find the errors in this famous Valentine's Day love letter?
Mispronunciations always create misspellings. But sometimes even when kids pronounce a word correctly, they still misspell it. That's because English has several different spellings for the same sounds.
Brian Vieira
Feb 131 min read


Do your kids misspell and misread simple words?
Kids who mispronounce vowels will misread and misspell simple words. Misspelling and misreading can become a stubborn, negative habit. So, intervene now and teach your kids how to say and spell vowel sounds correctly.
Brian Vieira
Feb 32 min read


The Academic Gym helps kids with ADHD learn to read
T.A.G. (The Academic Gym) blends athletic routines with spelling practice to help kids with ADHD learn to read
Brian Vieira
Feb 31 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. In other words, they need to learn vocabulary from roots and prefixes. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 21 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 21 min read


Vocabulary from roots and prefixes
Middle schoolers need morphology. Each post contains a video that provides comprehensive information about a word that will help students understand its origin, structure, and usage.
Brian Vieira
Feb 21 min read


How to get kids focused
Here's how to get kids focused: get them moving while they're thinking. The Academic Gym uses T.A.G. techniques to get kids moving and learning at the same time.
Brian Vieira
Jan 302 min read


How analytical spelling helps kids learn to read
What is analytical spelling? Analytical spelling is spelling from dictation--not from memorization. Students listen and respond to spoken words by converting sounds and structures into letters and letter combinations. Analytical spelling requires students to take words apart and put them back together by focusing on sounds, meanings, and grammatical structures. It requires students to ask the most critical questions: Why is the word pronounced this way? And how do the word's
Brian Vieira
Jan 261 min read


The most important prefixes
Prefixes are word parts placed at the beginning of words to change their meanings. This list shows the most important prefixes and the words you can use to introduce them to your students. Prefixes help students decode the meanings of complex words. They help students build vocabulary rapidly and effectively. Learn more about prefixes here.
Brian Vieira
Jan 211 min read
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