Two years ago I was noticing a pattern when I was working with first grade students.  I had groups of first graders who were very accurate with their short vowel sounds on the nonsense word fluency assessment of the DIBELS.   At times, these kiddos would quickly make motions while reading the CVC words.  The motions served as a cue to the correct pronunciation of the vowel sound.   I then did “sort of” an informal field study.  I determined which teachers were using hand signals to teach vowels and which ones were not.  I then compared student data and confirmed what I thought to be true.  When teachers use hand signals when teaching short vowel sounds, students are much more accurate when reading words.   It all makes sense.  I am a