The Speech Banana The Speech Banana is a graph that describes frequency and intensity levels of letter sounds in typical human conversation. It is shaped like a banana. If you are teaching consonant sounds, and you have a student who seems to have difficulty learning particular sounds, you will do the child a huge favor in looking at the Speech Banana graph. 1 Aug 2026 Gini Musmanno Auditory Discrimination, Word Analysis No Comments Permalink Read Post
You Can Help Your Child Travel the World Summer reading provides HUGE benefits for children of all ages, especially for the practice and the self-selection that it provides. Research indicates these two factors are the best predictors of good reading and writing skills. 1 May 2026 Gini Musmanno Comprehension, Education, Fluency, Independent Reading, Parent, Summer Reading No Comments Permalink Read Post
Reading Incentives During my first week as a reading specialist at primary level, I encountered a first-grade teacher who used some very unusual incentives for his reading class. Bob, the only male in our primary school, had a sly grin when I asked him how he motivated his first graders. 1 Apr 2026 Gini Musmanno Education, Fluency, Independent Reading, Summer Reading, Uncategorized No Comments Permalink Read Post
How Old is Too Old... for Picture Books? As a lover of children’s literature, I believe that NO age is too old to enjoy and appreciate children’s books, even, or especially, picture books. Here’s why. I originally expected to teach primary students when I became a reading specialist, but I was placed in an intermediate level building, teaching fifth and sixth grade struggling readers. By that time, my love affair with children’s literature was in the bewitching period, so I began to enthusiastically share the picture books I was encountering as I visited my favorite children’s bookstore on Saturday mornings. (See my previous post: Falling in Love …with Children’s Literature) Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers) was the first book I shared with my students, and Hiawatha (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated, again, by Susan Jeffers) was the second. I suppose they were a fallback to my previous life as an English teacher, but I loved these picture books, and so did my struggling, high-poverty students. With children, loving books can be contagious, if you show enough love! When I heard that... 1 Mar 2026 Gini Musmanno Education, Independent Reading, Learning Lessons From Students, Summer Reading No Comments Permalink Read Post
