[Bigfoot]

Has anyone heard of these or used them and how helpful are they for students We have a new literacy coach pushing these?

Thanks

[cdeteacher]

I have SS but have not used it yet. If you join the secret Stories FB group page there is a Zoom posted until midnight with a lot of great information. The FB group also has a lot of great ideas & people willing to share ideas.

[Sbkangas5]

I used Secret Stories last year and was amazed! I taught kinder and we would learn a story when it came up in our morning message or a shared reading. For the kids that were ready they really caught on to a lot of it. They would be writing and I'd see them run over to the board where I had posted the pictures so they could remember what blend to use or what letters said /ing/. Not all of the kids were ready, but it was a great introduction to some of the more advanced phonics concepts that I don't usually teach in kinder. For me, anything that's easy to implement and effective is worth it.

[Haley23]

I wanted to do a sound wall last year, but couldn't figure out how to make it work with multiple grade levels in my position. If I were a classroom teacher with just the one class, I would definitely do it! I know our K team is doing sound walls this year.

I've heard good things about secret stories, but don't know anyone who has implemented them IRL.

[eagles23]

The ZOOM has already been mentioned, but the Secret Stories FB group itself is a great source of information. I have not used SS yet, but I have learned a lot just from the posts and comments. You could join and ask your questions or just search the files.

[Lilbitkm]

The first grade team at my school has had huge success with the Secret Stories.

[MissESL]

Sound walls are a big thing right now, you will find a lot of great info and even inexpensive or free PD on the Science of Reading. Sound walls come from that and the science of reading is how the brain develops reading skills, how the reading rope is a pretty complex idea that entwines all of the foundational skills necessary to become a fluent reader, and how being able to understand how words sound, are formed in manner and placement, and connect to print helps build fluent readers.

Rereading that makes me sound like a salesperson, but I am currently getting trained in LETRs, which is heavily rooted in the Science of Reading and it has completely transformed my teaching.

Here is a good Sound Wall class at Tools4Reading.

And a Sortegories on Word Knowledge and how it leads to fluency.

Another on Science of Reading.

Plus some great opportunities from Really Great Reading.

[Aderynbach]

I just got secret stories for this year! I’m excited about trying it!

[luvtulearn]

I am retired but am back as a part time reading intervention/specialist . I am fully certified in OG and science of reading but like Haley23 I could not figure out how to display the sound wall. I just used the hologram sounds with the mouth on my pocket chart as needed. I have never heard of secret stories but am definitely going to investigate .

I agree those resources and links you all mentioned are awesome!!!

[eliza4one]

Where besides FB can I find out more about Secret Stories? TIA!

[Lilbitkm]

https://www.thesecretstories.com/home/

[Lottalove]

Note to self-- Remember that not all things are like the rest when googling...

The search term "Secret Stories" both on FB and Google without other context like 'reading program' or 'for teachers,' lead to some VERRRY interesting places.

[KBTeacher]

Thank you for posting the link above because searching on FB was risky as mentioned above! 😳

Fortunately I didn’t click on anything by accident! 😅

[eliza4one]

The search term "Secret Stories" both on FB and Google without other context like 'reading program' or 'for teachers,' lead to some VERRRY interesting places.

Yep! I thought of that, too.

[Lillybabe]

A colleague of mine did sound wall binders. Each child added to the sound wall in a binder as they learned new sounds. She took pictures of the child making the sound and put them in the binder. It's a bit more work but she passed it along to their new teacher the following year. This flexible approach I think would work well for anyone with students at a wide range of levels.