Literacy Leadership Blog

News and reflections from experts and practitioners on the latest literacy research, events and daily practice

K-12 | Read to Achieve

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Welcome to Learning Ally's blog. You've come to the right place if you are an innovative teacher who wants to transform more struggling readers into grade-level achievers.


First Grade Teacher Shares Personal Gratitude for Human-Read Audiobooks to Grow Children’s Learning Confidence
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August 8, 2022 by User

At Brooklyn Arbor Elementary School in New York City, first grade teacher Maria Arcodia noticed that children in her early education classes who struggled to read could hold broader conversations and comprehend spoken words, but could not grasp the full concepts of stories with printed text. 

As the mother of a child with a visual impairment and dyslexia, she fully understood the emotional toll that children who struggle to read experience without the necessary instruction and support. Her son struggled throughout elementary and middle school, until he was given a reading accommodation in high school where he could listen to curriculum and stories through human-read audiobooks.  

“The combination of seeing the text, hearing it spoken correctly aloud, and the ability to manipulate the page format and rate of speed made it easier for him to understand what he read,” said Ms. Arcodia. When she saw
the difference that human-read audiobooks made in her son's life, she knew it would help many more younger children in her own classroom. 

Multisensory Reading Approach 

In her classes, Ms. Arcodia assists each child to log in to Learning Ally and choose their first book. Sometimes it is a book that they always wanted to read, but felt it was too tricky until they were given accessible text. 

After downloading the book to the digital bookshelf, her students choose their preferred background color, font color, size and spacing of print and speed of audio playback. They learn to use advanced features like how to bookmark a page, find definitions and synchronize their bookshelves. "At this point, they get really excited about the tool and the freedom to read independently at their leisure," says Ms. Arcodia. She also helped parents and caregivers become familiarized with the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution and why it is beneficial in helping to improve children's reading skills. Parents appreciated having the reading resource at their school, and to see their child’s reading enthusiasm and progress. 

Brooklyn Arbor Elementary School saw early education success too. 

  • Teachers could more easily collaborate across grade levels to develop, track, and adjust a student’s IEP plans. 

  • More students bridged the gap between their ability to decode words and their intellectual capability to understand what they heard, deepening their vocabulary and content knowledge. 

  • English language learners could learn content along with reading and speaking skills. 

  • More students could access the same content as their peers, and gained confidence to learn grade-level content. 

  • Children who spoke Spanish, but may not have known how to read in their native language, could access grade-level content, while seeing and hearing the words spoken aloud with correct intonation and prosody. 

Ms. Arcodia summed up her experience saying, "Giving children an opportunity as early as possible to listen to human-read audiobook stories was a winning strategy for our school, our students and their families, and our teachers." 

New Excite Reading™

For children to truly understand what they read, research shows that skilled reading requires not only word recognition and decoding, but also language comprehension, including background knowledge and vocabulary. Learning Ally’s new Excite Reading™ for children in Pre-K to Grade 2 focuses on building comprehension by encouraging the joy in reading with authentic children’s literature read by human narrators, and by helping children explore ideas and build skills with lessons that prompt rich discussion and model best reading practices. 

Download a free e-book and accompanying teacher guide now. 


 

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Social Emotional Learning...What It Means For Children
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August 1, 2022 by User

By Valerie Chernek

What is Social-Emotional Development?

Social emotional development refers to our ability to “experience, manage and express” our feelings; to build positive relationships, and actively explore our environment. It is an understanding of how our minds and hearts think and feel about situations as they relate to the world around us. Considerations of social-emotional development aren't just about discrete skills that a child needs to learn, but all aspects of scenarios that impact their learning and development, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma.

Early childhood is the time to be aware of ACEs and how this can affect a child's long-term emotional stability and learning success. When a child feels safe and calm, we can help them recognize different emotions and how each emotion makes them feel. We can help children learn to self-regulate emotions when they occur. When a child does not feel safe, they will not feel calm, nor be able to grow in the learning process.

In elementary school, social-emotional development often focuses on executive functioning skills, such as memory and self-control. When students engage in play-based skills, they learn to advocate for themselves and practice empathy for others. In middle school, teens are figuring out their own identity and how they fit into the world. They become aware of their bodies and minds. This is a time to understand how we all experience emotions differently and how our reactions affect our social communication. In high school, as our relationships with peer groups grow to be important, we begin to see ourselves in a multitude of roles that add to the formulation of who we will become as an adult.

Embracing Social Emotional Learning in Whole Child Literacy

Embracing the theory of the "whole child" is a critical part of educating youth today. Whole child literacy builds on “whole child” pedagogy. It encompasses factors that impact a child’s ability to learn to read proficiently through evidence-based reading instruction with an understanding of the cognitive variables and socio-emotional influences of a child's home and cultural environment. Parents, caregivers, teachers are all primary sources to help children grow in their social emotional development, but it takes all of us - you - me, neighbors, peers, our communities, our leaders, our nation, to support every child's well-being.

For all children to be safe, calm, literate, and ready to learn, they require a "whole child" literacy approach, including the necessary evidence-based academic reading instruction, grounded in the science of reading, along with social and emotional skills to manage their world. In turn, they will become thriving human beings who grow up capable in their own life journey to lend a hand for others to be socially and emotionally capable of succeeding too.     

This article, written by Valerie Chernek, was originally published by SEL Today at the American Consortium for Equity in Education.

Learning Ally is a leading education nonprofit dedicated to empowering educators with proven solutions that help new and struggling learners reach their potential. Our range of literacy-focused offerings for students in Pre-K to 12th grade and catalog of professional learning allows us to support more than 1.6 million students and 260,000 educators across the United States.  Our programs incorporate a whole child literacy approach driven by brain-based research that is grounded in the science of reading, and an understanding of the cognitive variables and socio-emotional influences of a student’s home and environment that impact learning.

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Practitioner Shares Situations Why Students Fail to Read Well
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July 25, 2022 by User

Virginia Teacher Katherine York standing at her classroom door with pictures of author Kwame Alexander.Rebuilding a struggling learner's confidence isn’t easy, but it is possible. 

In this blog, we learn from Katherine York, a reading specialist at Walt Whitman Middle School, in Fairfax, VA.  "There is no better feeling than the joy of seeing a struggling reader succeed," said Ms. York, "but students are failing by the time they come to my class. It makes me sad to think about all the students who would rather do anything else but read." 

Giving students hope to improve their reading ability is what this educator does best. A common theme among struggling readers is the lack of honest conversations about their reading barriers with a friend, teacher or family member. "It’s a terrible cycle of failure," says Ms. York. "They can't read. They don't talk about it. They read poorly. Their test scores show it. They don’t want to read.”

Why are so many students struggling to read well? In Ms. York’s classes, she cites these situations. 

  • Teachers need to be fully resourced and knowledgeable about evidence-based reading instruction grounded in leading brain science.

  • Students don’t think it’s cool to carry books and are often bullied for doing so.

  • Students have a learning difference that impedes their ability to process information in print, such as dyslexia.

  • English isn’t their first language.

  • Students don’t understand how to navigate the maze of books in school libraries.

  • Students aren’t given many opportunities to select culturally-relevant books that interest them.

  • Academic conversations about books aren’t part of the curriculum.

  • Students come from lower socioeconomic status families and typically have less access to books and reading role models.

  • Students don’t know what kind of books they like to read.

  • Students don’t have class time to delve into a book for independent reading practice.

Making Time for Independent Reading

Class time for independent reading is a frequent challenge for many schools, but Ms. York's Virginia school district allots 90 minutes of reading time three times a week. Ms. York believes in-class reading is beneficial and notes that if students know they have time to read, their commitment is stronger. She wants her students to feel relaxed and comfortable, so they can focus on the task of reading. She gives students choices of reading in comfy bean bag chairs, swivel chairs and rockers. She even has an exercise bike. One student listening to an audiobook was so caught up in a story, he rode three miles!"

For the first half hour of class, students don their headsets and dive into an audiobook from Learning Ally's library. They pair with a classmate to discuss the story and decide how to demonstrate their comprehension in the form of a book report, an oral report, acting out a scene, designing a poster, a fun guessing game of “who am I,” or Q&A with Ms. York. "Multiple ways of learning resonate with struggling readers," she emphasizes. This strategy is called UDL or universal design for learning. 

Part of keeping students on goal is to make sure they understand their Lexile level at the beginning of class. They take quarterly assessments to measure reading progress. They read independently – a critical part of becoming a good reader. They commit to read for 30 minutes a day in school and at home. Through probing discussions, students explore topics that interest them. They learn about various genres and authors. They read diverse literature and books about celebrities like LeBron James and Henry Winkler who struggled to read. Small rewards keep them motivated—from a simple hug or a sympathetic ear, to reading certificates and class recognition. 

One student didn’t like to read anything. Ms. York assigned him Kwame Alexander’s book Swing from the Learning Ally library. "He couldn’t put the book down," said Ms. York. "He hugged me and told me how much he enjoyed it. He related to the story and the characters. He felt enormous pride that he read the book cover to cover. I saw a change in his demeanor – a tangible result of giving him the right book at the right time."

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Prevent Summer Learning Loss... Join Our Summer Reading Together Program
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July 18, 2022 by User

Learning isn't just for the classroom. 

For many kids, after the summer bell rings, learning doesn’t happen at all. 

Summer reading loss is steep -- especially for marginalized children and adolescents. Studies show that children lose significant knowledge in reading and math during summer break — approximately two months of reading skills and 2.6 months of math computational skills — which tends to have a snowball effect as they experience subsequent skill loss each year, leading to decreased reading and math proficiency. 

Teachers also lose precious instruction time reteaching information students have already learned. Research shows that teachers may take an average of six weeks each year in the fall to reteach material that was forgotten over the summer.

Turn summer skills slide into summer reading pride

 As a member of Learning Ally, students can participate in our Summer Reading Together program. We are in alignment with the Collaborative Summer Library Program and libraries across the country. We’ve pulled together some of our favorite stories to align with the 2022 Oceans of Possibilities summer reading theme. Check out these titles for Elementary School, Middle School, and High School.

 It's easy to participate!

Teachers can assign audiobooks for students and students can select their own. There are downloadables and printables to make participation easy and to motivate students to read. You can use a template letter to describe the program to parents. There are certificates for reading, sample lesson plans, progress tracking calendars, and prizes! 

This year, participants have fun art projects and you-tube videos inspired by the books and Ocean of Possibilities. 

 

Recognition and Prizes

Each month, four winners are selected to win prizes. At the end of the summer, four overall winners will win big ($100 gift cards) for reading the most audiobooks across all three summer months, and for the most days they spent reading. 

We get so excited to learn about the clever ways teachers and parents are motivating children to read, while building skills, and having fun! 

Want to learn what other schools and districts are doing? Check out this awesome summer reading program of the East Orange School District in New Jersey. 

Learn more about Learning Ally’s Summer Reading Together program!

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Neuro-Myth Busting with Dr. Molly Ness: Interrogating Misinformation and Redirecting on Dyslexia
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July 11, 2022 by User

It was late October when Dr. Molly Ness, a reading researcher and Vice President of Academic Content at Learning Ally, received a greeting card that inspired a new path for her research. The card depicted two dyslexic ghosts who exclaimed “OOB” instead of “BOO”. 

As an expert on dyslexia and reading education, Dr. Ness immediately noticed the common misconception being portrayed in the card. While many people believe that Dyslexia is a primarily visual disability, it’s much more nuanced than just seeing letters backward. “It’s actually phonological” explains Dr. Ness. “It has to do with the sound structure.”

While awareness of Molly Nessthe dyslexic experiences has increased dramatically in recent years, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Stereotypes, like backward letters in the greeting card, perpetuate confusion about dyslexia and make it more challenging for young readers to get the resources they need.

In an effort to stop this spread of misinformation, Dr. Ness teamed up with Professor of Education, Dr. Susan Chambre, to find out where these myths were coming from, and how they can be corrected. The two presentedSusan J. Chambre some of their findings to an eager audience of educators at Learning Ally’s Spotlight on Dyslexia 2022 (SPOD22). 

In order to interrogate these Neuro-Myths, Ness and Chambre needed to find out what educators actually knew about dyslexia. In a 2010 study of pre-service teachers (PST), they found that 75% of participants labeled Dyslexia as “seeing letters backward,” while only 2% could identify it as a phonological disability. Then, in 2013, a majority of PST in the US and UK erroneously responded that dyslexia is caused by visual perception deficits. Later, a similar study in 2017 confirmed that novice teachers were failing to understand the neurobiological components of the condition. 

“All around me, I started seeing these misconceptions” explains Dr. Ness. “Unfortunately these misconceptions have often led to people making money off of parents and educators who are eager to do the right thing… but too many of these products are snake oil”. 

Thankfully, Ness and Chambre are sharing their findings with education communities. “[The research] shows the work we still have to do to better prepare teachers to recognize, to provide instruction, and to be knowledgeable about what dyslexia is and what it isn’t”. With a special focus on the content being taught in education masters programs, Dr. Ness and Dr. Chambre are working to improve teacher knowledge. “Are we creating experiences for early career teachers to shadow psychologists?” asks Chambre. 

Meanwhile, programming like Learning Ally’s SPOD22 plays a major role in bringing this information to experienced teachers and school leaders who are already active members of the industry. “As dismal as those numbers were… we’re at an exciting time,” Ness admits. “We’re choosing to embrace the changing culture… where teachers are saying ‘we want more’... The landscape is shifting”. As evidence, Ness references the Science of Reading-What I Should Have Learned in College Facebook group which has over 160 thousand members. “There’s no shame,” Ness explains. Members of the group discuss what they wish they knew. Then, they comfort each other noting, “When you know better, you do better”.

To watch Dr. Ness and Dr. Chambre’s full presentation register for Learning Ally’s Spotlight on Dyslexia on Demand (SPOD22).

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