News and reflections from experts and practitioners on the latest literacy research, events and daily practice
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.
March 28, 2022 by User
Dr. Terrie Noland, Learning Ally's V.P. of Educator Initiatives, and author of the podcast series on Spotify, "Literacy Leadership," is a Certified Academic Language Practitioner. In this blog, Dr. Noland emphasizes placing the student’s needs at the center of learning by building environments that address their individual needs, learning strengths, and intellectual capacity.
Making the Mind-shift to Whole Child Literacy
The Whole Child Literacy approach is an innovative mind-shift that embraces a philosophy of understanding the components of literacy and language, while providing the time, social and emotional support, and assets to word decoding development. This combination of instructional strategies and support during explicit teaching and implicit learning during a child’s formative years is critical. Simultaneously, students will perform better when we boost self-efficacy, belief building, executive functioning and reasoning, and social-emotional capacities.
Educating the “Whole Child”
When we refer to ‘educating the whole child,’ we are asking education systems to ensure that each child is an active maker and shaper of the world they inherit. Moving too swiftly from wordplay, poems, rhymes, and picture books from birth to five to decodables in kindergarten, can leave too many critical literacy components behind. Using literature in a whole-child approach wraps the student in words that develop their 'funds of knowledge' and increases their capacity to bend words to their will which opens pathways of curiosity, creativity, and neural pathways. This approach assumes cognitive and environmental variables that have historically been left out of the conversation when addressing how to equip children with the word knowledge they need to achieve levels of proficiency in reading.
Connect Students to “Their” World
The right book can help a child recognize that they are part of, and inextricably connected to, the rest of the world. Dr. Noland emphasizes using literature to serve as "windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors.” (Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, 1990) This ensures children see themselves and others in literature.
A colleague of Dr. Noland’s experienced significant trauma with the loss of her mother at a young age. She recalls that her peers, teachers and friends couldn’t relate to her because they had never lost a parent. She found comfort in the pages of a book when no one else could grasp her experience. Dr. Evan Ortlieb states that there is a book for every child. As Literacy Leaders, we must work hard to discover that book that will build students up with schema and the funds of knowledge necessary to understand their world and the world around them.
Be a Literacy Leader
Learning Ally is a national nonprofit shining a spotlight on literacy. Our approach to literacy skills development is through a holistic lens focused on the learner as well as the educator, and the system of support surrounding the learning process. To explore more strategies using “Whole Child Literacy,” sign up for our Spotlight on Dyslexia on June 9-10, 2022 and read our blog with literacy thought leaders.
Categories: Authors for Access, Curriculum & Access, dyslexia, Early Literacy, Education & Teaching, Reading Strategies for K-12, Student Centric Learning, Teacher Best Practices
March 21, 2022 by User
Educators are facing unprecedented challenges in this pandemic. Teaching routines, instructional delivery, parental concerns all-turned upside down. More children are feeling hypersensitive about the uncertainty, especially those who have been impacted by adverse childhood experiences and trauma. Research tells us young children are extremely vulnerable to trauma due to their limited coping skills, dependence on caregivers, and rapid early development. How can we adapt our teaching in this post-2020 trauma-sensitive era? It requires new knowledge.
In our January Spotlight, Michelle Gonzalez Gerth, a classroom teacher and PESI Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and Crisis Management Specialist with the American Association of School Counselors, addressed five areas educators can use to develop a trauma-informed and equitable learning environment.
This blog covers just the highlights of this discussion. To learn the explicit strategies in detail, view the full presentation on-demand and receive CE certificates.
Five areas to create trauma-informed and equitable learning spaces
Gerth says, "Creating a learning space that is trauma-informed and equitable for one child with trauma is good for all children. She challenges the common use of the phrase, "Kids are resilient, they bounce back," and points to research by the U.S. Department of Education and Rehabilitation Services, showing an uptick in mental health and behavioral issues. In her presentation, she goes into detail laying out proven steps to create a trauma-informed learning environment and frames each approach using an adult's perspective.
1. Predictability - Adults know what their day will typically be like. Gerth advises us to help children make sense of their learning day and be consistent and familiar with routines and processes.
2. Connection - Adults want people to be accepted for who we are and see our best selves. Gerth advises fostering authentic relationships with children. Help them identify feelings towards themselves and others.
3. Flexibility - Adults want flexibility and fluidity in our lives, not rigidity. Gerth wants us to teach children about change and changing environments and give them options.
4. Empowerment - Adults want to be heard and develop a sense of cooperation in lieu of power struggles. Gerth says to teach children good decision-making skills and acknowledge their unique talents, strengths, and weaknesses.
5. Equity - Adults want others to respect their points of view. Gerth promotes autonomy, equity and openness to different perspectives.
"Safety and equity must be at the heart and soul of everything teachers create," says Gerth. "When we know better, we do better." She nudges educators to engage in self-care. To think about their own belief systems, and question their assumptions about marginalized children. "Make sure every child has a voice,” she adds. “Understand why children are behaving differently in today's learning environment. Know that many children are dealing with challenges and trauma-related experiences that affect their ability to learn and feel safe.”
To learn this framework in explicit detail, view Michelle Gerth’s full presentation on-demand. She concludes with a traditional African tribal greeting and response focusing everyone on a child's well-being as a measurement of how the community is doing,
The greeting: "How are the children? The response: "The children are well."
Literacy and Leadership
Take steps now to reframe your teaching knowledge to be trauma-informed and to broaden your knowledge on literacy and leadership. Join Learning Ally for our next Spotlight series event on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion on March 30, 2022. Dr. Sherril English will discuss the foundational importance of literacy in achieving equity in disadvantaged populations.
Categories: Curriculum & Access, Early Literacy, Education & Teaching, Educators, Reading Strategies for K-12, Student Centric Learning, Teacher Best Practices
March 14, 2022 by User
Piqué Students' Interests with Audiobooks
Motivating students to read is an uphill climb, especially for struggling readers. How can you give these learners the power to read grade-level curriculum and motivate them to read with frequency? Alyssa Gray, a middle school teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools, VA uses Learning Ally’s “human-read audiobooks” with students who cannot easily read and comprehend books in print.
One of her best practices in literacy is to engage students with age-appropriate, culturally-relevant audiobooks based on their backgrounds and interests. Ms. Gray prints a list of popular book titles and asks students to watch the book trailers on YouTube, and rate the books by their interest. This multi-media activity piques their interests and puts more learning power in their hands to self-select books. As students listen to audiobooks, they follow highlighted words without distraction. This frees their minds from painstakingly decoding words to enable them to read more fluently. Here is an example of a book trailer from James Patterson’s book, “Miserable: Middle School Get Me Out of Here”
Audiobooks with Skilled Narration
Ms. Gray's ESOL and special education students benefit from human-read audiobooks because they can hear English spoken properly through skilled narration strengthening word recognition, vocabulary, and prosody. Her rule is to read for 20 minutes a day as she rotates reading stations so that students enjoy silent reading time. “The audiobook solution gives a definite advantage for students who have a difficult time completing reading assignments," says Ms. Gray. "Learning Ally’s app makes it easy for students to take notes for research and make book report citations. The classroom tools they need are built into the app so that students can do their work all in one place, create vocabulary lists, and set their reading preferences."
Power in Student Self-Selection of Books
When you give students a choice to self-select books of interests, it can help to build critical reading skills. Daily reading practice fosters reading enjoyment, encourages independent reading, and helps more struggling readers build a foundation for learning. The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution is a multi-sensory reading resource that levels the playing field for students who struggle to read providing them with more opportunities to achieve in school and in life.
Literacy Leadership
We thank Ms. Gray for sharing her best practice in literacy and invite more practitioners to share their best practices, and to broaden their knowledge on literacy and leadership from many top literacy leaders. Join us for our next Spotlight Learning series, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion on March 30, 2022. Dr. Sherril English will discuss the foundational importance of literacy in achieving equity in disadvantaged populations.
Categories: Activities, Audiobook Library, Books, Authors, & Movies, Curriculum & Access, Education & Teaching, Educators, Learning Ally “How-To Use”, Reading Strategies for K-12, Teacher Best Practices
March 10, 2022 by User
For Immediate Release
March 10, 2022 - Princeton, NJ – Learning Ally, a leading non profit education solutions provider dedicated to improving reading achievement for America’s students, has launched a new early literacy solution designed to help Pre K-2 teachers and caregivers guide emerging readers to achieve literacy, and consequently, their full academic potential.
Excite Reading™ bridges the gap between phonics and reading comprehension, building vocabulary and background knowledge through a library of rich, engaging e-books with human narration that explore themes, including the worlds of gardens, insects, music and more. Carefully designed lessons and corresponding book guides take a holistic approach to teaching words, creating context, deepening comprehension and supporting children in a higher level of discourse using vocabulary to express questions, answers, and ideas.
Heather Wiederstein, Vice President of Solutions Design for Learning Ally, said, "Learning to read is an iterative and complex process that should begin as early as possible. Excite Reading™ fills a void that early childhood teachers have needed not only to introduce children to the joy of reading, but to begin to build pre-reading skills and their own reservoir of knowledge to get a head start."
Excite Reading™ subscribes to Learning Ally’s unique approach to solutions design, Whole Child Literacy™. Driven by the science of reading and an understanding of the cognitive variables and external influences of home and environment that may impact learning, the methodology ensures educators can effectively customize instruction to change achievement trajectories according to the needs of their students.
“The launch of Excite Reading™ is an important addition to the Learning Ally Whole Child Literacy™ portfolio,'' said Lee Peters, Learning Ally’s Chief Operating Officer. “In our efforts to help educators drive transformational change in literacy instructional practice and skills development at scale, we knew we needed a solution that reaches students before reading issues emerge and bridges the gaps for educators and students in terms of foundational reading skills, setting students up for academic success, and engendering a lifelong love of reading. Excite Reading™ is that program.”
Learn more about Excite Reading™ and call 800-221-4792 to request information.
About Learning Ally
Learning Ally is a leading education nonprofit dedicated to equipping 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.
The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution, a six-time award-winning supplemental reading resource, ensures students in grades 3-12 receive equitable access to curriculum, literature and popular titles they want and need to read for school. It is proven to double the rate of reading growth and designed to turn struggling readers into engaged learners.
Categories: Audiobook Library, Curriculum & Access, Early Literacy, Education & Teaching, Educators, In the news, Press Releases, Reading Strategies for K-12, Student Centric Learning, Teacher Best Practices, The Digital Age
March 7, 2022 by User
Systemic trauma refers to the contextual features of environments and institutions that give rise to trauma, maintain it, and impact posttraumatic responses." Goldsmith et al., 2014
Systemic trauma and oppression are more common than often realized and can be found in any environment and institution in America including our classrooms, schools, and districts. Trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a lasting and profound effect on a child’s learning development, learning engagement, and learning outcomes.
In our January Spotlight on Early Literacy and the Whole Child conference, three thought leaders presented various ways that systems in early education can inflict trauma. They drew upon their combined research and teaching experiences to provide techniques to identify and negate systemic trauma. This blog provides a brief overview of this important topic for education leaders.
You can register to view the full presentation on-demand to earn CE certificates and learn about:
multiple ways students can experience trauma,
the impact trauma has on the 'whole child' in neurology, cognition, affect, and behavior, and
strategies to engage traumatized learners in literacy learning.
Our Panelists
Dr. Karyn Allee-Herndon, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at Mercer University, Dr. Annemarie Kaczmarczyk, Assistant Professor of Childhood Education at Suny Cortland, and Dr. Wynnetta Scott-Simmons, Professor in the Departments of Graduate Teacher Education and Curriculum and Instruction in the Tift College of Education at Mercer University.
Various Ways Systems Inflict Trauma
In our education system, there are multitudes of stressors likely to cause trauma in students, especially for those who are marginalized and living in poverty; including those facing food insecurities, dealing with bullying, racial tension, neighborhood violence, and students with cross-cultural differences and language constraints. To identify behavioral markers of children with trauma and to reduce tension, our thought leaders recommend several techniques to bridge the communication gap and deepen relationships with children.
View the full presentation on-demand to learn about the fight, flight, freeze and fawn trauma response model; how children who experience trauma have exaggerated responses to stimuli in the brain; how responses to trauma disrupt a child’s neurodevelopment, social, emotional, and cognitive behaviors. Learn techniques to promote fairness, talk about discrimination, and ways to counteract stress responses to promote higher self-esteem and positive approaches to learning. Learn how to construct a welcoming literacy environment – one that addresses systemic trauma, ACEs’ and sensitive issues with early and emergent readers – with the use of proven strategies and resources in class instruction.
Our thought leaders also share important resources for teachers such as Zaretta Hammond's book, "Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain," to better understand how our brains are hard-wired to react to trauma.
To broaden your knowledge on literacy and leadership from many top literacy leaders, view this presentation and any previous Spotlight session on-demand to earn CE certificates. Learning Ally’s next Spotlight series on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is March 30, 2022. Dr. Sherril English will discuss the foundational importance of literacy in achieving equity in disadvantaged populations. Please join us!
Categories: Curriculum & Access, Early Literacy, Education & Teaching, Educators, General, Student Centric Learning, Teacher Best Practices
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