Last month, EdReports.org released reviews of five ELA Foundational Skills programs, evaluating them each based on the reading foundational skills called for, including whether or not the skills apply research-based practices and are presented systematically with explicit instruction.
Linda Diamond, president of CORE, was a reviewer and provided feedback on the development of the rubrics used to evaluate the various curriculum programs and also reviewed the detailed descriptions the reviewers used along with the rubrics. Five programs have been reviewed so far. We encourage you to read the reviews, especially if you’re currently using or considering implementing one of the programs.
Understanding how word-level reading develops and why some students struggle are valuable starting points for planning reading instruction and interventions. Knowing this puts educators in a good position to determine what aspect(s) of the reading process may be creating difficulties for children. This in turn, enables educators to provide intervention that is highly effective to minimize or eliminate the reading difficulty.
While the impacts of poverty on academic achievement are widely known, dialect also plays a significant and unrecognized role in the reading achievement of millions of children. Just like students whose native language is Spanish or Amharic, students who speak the dialect known as African-American English (AAE) face obstacles to becoming proficient readers.
Watch this on-demand webinar with Dr. Julie A. Washington to learn the:
- Characteristics of AAE
- Impact of poverty on language
- Relationship of dialect to growth of reading
- Variables that influence reading outcomes for poor children
- Implications for the classroom
Most educators have heard that phonemic awareness (PA) is important for reading. However, it is often not clear why. Most readers were never taught PA, yet they are good readers. Some advocates of phonics instruction as well as advocates of balanced literacy downplay the importance of PA for reading instruction. Still other educators are puzzled by the concept of “advanced PA.”
In this free on-demand webinar, Dr. David Kilpatrick, author of Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties, will discuss how and why highly developed PA skills (i.e., “phonemic proficiency”) are a characteristic of skilled readers, whether a student is taught it or not. By contrast, struggling readers do not develop these skills without direct intervention.
Watch this webinar to learn the key factors that link phonological skills and word-level reading.
With just 38% of ACT-tested grads meeting at least 3 of 4 core College Readiness Benchmarks and only 11% of business leaders agreeing that college grads have skills their businesses need, high schools face an increasing challenge to prepare students for college, careers and life.
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and many others across the country, have adopted Linked Learning as a way to create real-world learning experiences that interest, challenge and inspire students, as well as prepare them for a range of options after high school, including 2- and 4-year colleges, apprenticeships and military service.
Watch this hour-long webinar with LAUSD, Linked Learning Alliance and Pivot Learning on October 2, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM PT, to learn about an innovative approach to education that research has shown leads to higher graduation rates and improved college- and career-readiness.
Click here to access the webinar.
Sources: The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2018, ACT. Higher Education’s Word Preparation Paradox, GALLUP, February 2014.
Word ID: Assessment Across the Content Areas
Word ID: Assessment Across the Content AreasThis collection of 12 discipline-specific formative assessments can be used to easily identify secondary students who would benefit from instruction in multisyllabic word identification—a skill that’s critical for reading and understanding complex, academic texts. The book contains three uniquely constructed formative assessments for each content area: English Language Arts (ELA), Math, Science, and Social Studies.
Use Word ID with secondary students to:
- Quickly and easily identify students who struggle with or cannot read multisyllabic words in their content-area texts
- Support instruction in reading and comprehending complex texts
- Determine where additional assessment, instruction, or intervention is needed in word identification
- Identify students who need specific instruction in developing their college and career readiness skills
Determined by ground-breaking research analyzing approximately 4,500 content-area words, Word ID features targeted prefixes, suffixes, and Greek roots that were selected for their frequency of occurrence in each specific content area.
Learn more and view the table of contents at Academic Therapy Publications.
Hundreds of phonics-based, hi-lo, and Lexiled reading materials for at-risk, ESL, and struggling readers
High Noon Books offers struggling readers books that will be of interest to them, at their reading level. These highly-engaging books incorporate much more than short sentences and low Lexile scores. They contain controlled vocabulary, subtle repetition of vocabulary, predictable text, and illustrations that truly support the story so that readers are comfortable and confident with the text yet introduced to new words and terms so that fluency and comprehension improve with each High Noon Book a struggling reader chooses. Take a look at free samples on the High Noon Books website.
In October 2016 Michigan lawmakers passed Public Act 306 to ensure that all students are reading at benchmark by the end of 3rd grade. However, long before the Michigan reading law was passed, Lake Orion Community Schools was already working hard to improve instructional practices and increase reading achievement across the district. Not only have reading scores improved, but the district’s early literacy intervention program has received international recognition.
Listen to Lake Orion’s Tamura Oberle, Educational Leadership and Teacher Consultant, and Jillian Knapp, School Psychologist, Special Education Coach and District Data Specialist, during this hour-long webinar as they:
- Share a structure of an effective early literacy intervention model
- Review how to triangulate student data
- Discuss how to target the five areas of reading including assessment, research based strategies/intervention, and progress monitoring of the five areas
- Share how to ensure continued student growth and continued professional learning for staff
Linda Diamond, author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook and Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures, also joins the Lake Orion team to discuss how these professional books have helped shape the district’s reading instruction.
This is a wonderful opportunity to learn how another district is tackling the challenge of ensuring all students, including English learners and those with disabilities, have strong reading skills.
One in five students has a language-based learning disability, the most common of which is dyslexia. 37 states now have laws on dyslexia and more have legislation in the works. With so much focus on dyslexia, teachers must be knowledgeable about how to screen for, identify and support students with dyslexia.
This recorded webinar provides a foundation for addressing dyslexia in your district. Dr. Louisa Moats, President of Moats Associates Consulting, Inc., and Dr. Dale Webster, Chief Academic Officer for CORE, review:
- What dyslexia is and what it is not
- What causes difficulty learning to read and spell written words
- How to recognize the signs of dyslexia
- The principles of effective intervention and instruction for students with dyslexia using the multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework
