It’s critical for secondary educators to have an understanding of how students learn to read and how to scaffold instruction to support adolescents with word reading difficulties so they can be successful in content areas.
In part three of a conversation with Pivot Learning, Linda Diamond — author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook — shares how professional learning for core curriculum teachers as well as interventionists can help improve outcomes for adolescents with word reading difficulties. Included with the video is a list of professional learning courses offered by CORE, a subsidiary of Pivot Learning, that build secondary educators’ knowledge of teaching reading and writing.
The number one motivator for adolescents with word reading difficulties to engage in reading is success. Once a student begins to see that they can learn to read they’ll want to make more and more gains. So, how do you help students find success quickly?
In part two of a conversation with Pivot Learning, Linda Diamond — author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook — shares strategies she has found to be effective in engaging and motivating adolescents with word reading difficulties.
Announcing a Common Definition and an Initiative to Preserve the Integrity of Reading Science
The term “Science of Reading” has been used more and more over the past several years but with varying meanings and misconceptions. On February 3, 2021 “The Science of Reading: A Defining Movement” – a coalition of educators, policymakers, education advocates, and academics – launched a common definition of the Science of Reading. (more…)
Adolescents need strong reading skills in order to fully access content-area curricula and prepare for success after high school. Yet 30% of students in upper grades read below basic.
In part one of a conversation with Pivot Learning, Linda Diamond — author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook — shares some of the reasons why reading scores for adolescents have decreased since 2015 and provides recommendations to educators for effective intervention.
Along with the video is a free tip sheet that includes 10 recommendations for intensive intervention that works for older students, four types of intervention that don’t work for older students, and a list of reading intervention curricula that Linda recommends. (more…)
As a young child, Keyon Anderson knew that his brain didn’t work like other people’s. His peers were learning to read and he wasn’t. His teachers told him to try harder. His mother was told he would grow out of his reading difficulties. Keyon was diagnosed with a processing disorder and held back in the second grade, but he continued to struggle. When he reached high school he was reading at a second grade level. He wanted to be successful but didn’t have the skills. It wasn’t until 9th grade that he finally received effective intervention for dyslexia. A dedicated teacher worked with Keyon to teach him the fundamentals of reading and ways to learn that worked for him. By the end of his freshman year, Keyon was transformed from a failing student to one with a 4.0 GPA and a fierce desire to learn. (more…)
Evidence-based practices that work easily in the classroom can be a challenge when teaching remotely. Pivot Learning’s Dr. Monica Ng and CORE’s Dr. Carrie Thomas Beck had a conversation over Zoom with Dr. Anita Archer — author and beloved teacher of teachers — about how to adapt explicit instruction for distance learning.
In this four-part video series, Dr. Archer:
Shares tips for using hold ups to encourage active participation when students are online
Demonstrates how choral response can still be used even when students aren’t in a classroom together
Discusses how to use partner responses online
Shares simple ways to strengthen bonds with students while engaging in explicit instruction virtually
Explicit instruction is an important component of effective reading instruction, especially when teaching students with word reading difficulties. But many explicit instruction techniques are more difficult to implement when teaching remotely.
Pivot Learning’s Dr. Monica Ng and CORE’s Dr. Carrie Thomas Beck had a conversation over Zoom with Dr. Anita Archer — author and beloved teacher of teachers — about how to adapt explicit instruction for distance learning.
In this first video excerpt from the conversation, Dr. Archer shares tips for using hold ups to encourage active participation when students are online.
This is the third video in a series of free on-demand professional learning videos from CORE and Pivot Learning* that feature expert advice about supporting students with word reading difficulties.
Racial, ethnic and socio-economic inequality in education unfortunately has a long and persistent history in the United States. These inequities are especially profound when it comes to how schools identify students with reading difficulties and provide reading instruction. But in this moment, many are working harder than ever to reduce barriers so that all students can receive the support they need to become successful readers. (more…)
This is the second video in a series of free on-demand professional learning videos from CORE and Pivot Learning* that feature expert advice about supporting students with word reading difficulties.
Many educators are building their skills to be effective in remote learning environments and want to know how to meet the needs of all their students. Students with word reading difficulties, including dyslexia, require explicit, systematic, evidence-based instruction and intervention. This hour-long video provides educators with tips and tricks for how to continue presenting high-quality reading interventions virtually. To ensure intervention focuses on a formula for word reading success, participants will learn methods for how to present phonological awareness, phonic decoding and text reading activities in a virtual learning format. (more…)
Jasmine Lane is a first generation college graduate and an early-career High School English teacher in Minnesota. In her short time in the classroom, and through her own personal history, Ms. Lane knows all too well the negative and life-long impact that poor literacy skills have on students. In her blog, “Literacy: The Forgotten Social Justice Issue,” Ms. Lane shares that her grandfather, Willie Lane, did not learn to read until he was in his 30s because he would have been “attacked, threatened, or possibly murdered for daring to be a Black Man reading in the Jim Crow south.”
Linda Diamond, president of CORE and author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook, sat down with Ms. Lane, just a few short weeks after her beloved grandfather passed away, to talk further about how today’s failure to apply the science of reading to instruction continues to put young people, particularly those who have been marginalized and traditionally underserved, at a disadvantage and ill equipped to reach their full potential. (more…)
As a young child, Keyon Anderson knew that his brain didn’t work like other people’s. His peers were learning to read and he wasn’t. His teachers told him to try harder. His mother was told he would grow out of his reading difficulties. Keyon was diagnosed with a processing disorder and held back in the second grade, but he continued to struggle. When he reached high school he was reading at a second grade level. He wanted to be successful but didn’t have the skills. It wasn’t until 9th grade that he finally received effective intervention for dyslexia. A dedicated teacher worked with Keyon to teach him the fundamentals of reading and ways to learn that worked for him. By the end of his freshman year, Keyon was transformed from a failing student to one with a 4.0 GPA and a fierce desire to learn. 
This is the third video in a series of free on-demand professional learning videos from CORE and Pivot Learning* that feature expert advice about supporting students with word reading difficulties.
Many educators are building their skills to be effective in remote learning environments and want to know how to meet the needs of all their students. Students with word reading difficulties, including dyslexia, require explicit, systematic, evidence-based instruction and intervention. This hour-long video provides educators with tips and tricks for how to continue presenting high-quality reading interventions virtually. To ensure intervention focuses on a formula for word reading success, participants will learn methods for how to present phonological awareness, phonic decoding and text reading activities in a virtual learning format. 
Jasmine Lane is a first generation college graduate and an early-career High School English teacher in Minnesota. In her short time in the classroom, and through her own personal history, Ms. Lane knows all too well the negative and life-long impact that poor literacy skills have on students. In her blog, 