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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Learning Ally Celebrates 75 Years of Innovation and Service To Improve Literacy and Equity in Education
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October 19, 2023 by User

Learning Ally, a national nonprofit working with schools and families to improve literacy across the country, is celebrating its 75th year in service to educators and emerging and struggling readers.

The organization began in 1948 as Recording for the Blind when Anne T. Macdonald led the New York Public Library’s Women’s Auxiliary to record textbooks on vinyl phonograph discs as a service for soldiers who had lost their sight in WWII.

Today, Learning Ally supports over 615,000 U.S. educators with award-winning solutions from PreK-12th grade, to enable millions of students to become independent, engaged readers, regardless of background or learning difference.

Learning Ally’s legacy and recent innovations encompass:

  • An 80,000+ human-read audiobook solution providing K-12th grade schools and students with equitable access to grade-level curriculum, literature and popular titles.
  • Excite Reading™, a supplemental curriculum for PreK-2 educators to fortify emergent readers’ foundational skills in vocabulary, background knowledge and early comprehension.
  • Professional learning programming to strengthen educators’ knowledge in the science of reading, dyslexia awareness and to support educators in effective instruction in the classroom.
  • Annual Spotlight on Dyslexia conference, monthly webinars, literacy leadership podcasts, and Educator Community to share collective intelligence and form a supportive learning environment.

“We are grateful to our community of educators, donors, volunteers, corporations and foundations who support our work,” said Andrew Friedman, CEO of Learning Ally. “Our mission continues as we seek to drive sustainable and transformational impact, so that all children have equal opportunity to read, learn and achieve to their highest potential.”

On Thursday, October 19, 2023 from 6 to 8:30 PM, the organization will host a 75-year celebration at their central office, 20 Roszel Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, to thank the dedicated employees, donors, volunteers, and supporters of its ‘literacy for all’ mission.

About Learning Ally                                                  

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 2.3 million students and 615,000 educators across the United States.

 

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Emily Hanford…Teaching Children to Read…A Watershed Movement
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October 11, 2023 by User

Journalist Emily Hanford, Senior Correspondent and Producer for American Public Media, keynoted Learning Ally’s 2023 Spotlight on Dyslexia, sharing her research on how kids learn to read and the nation’s response to it. 

Since 2017, Emily Hanford has investigated why so many children’s literacy needs are not being met when it comes to reading instruction. This is especially true for children with learning disabilities like dyslexia and other reading challenges. Her research on early reading instruction has sparked a national conversation among parents, educators and policymakers about reading proficiency, and the lack of it in America’s schools and homes. Emily Hanford

Hanford’s research and reporting have galvanized educators and created momentum around gaining a clearer understanding of how our brains learn to read through the science of reading. 

One Big Idea

In Hanford’s six-episode podcast, Sold a Story, How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong,” one big idea became her quest: Do beginning readers have to sound out written words to be a successful reader or are there other, just as effective, strategies that work – such as looking at the first letter of a word and guessing, and viewing an image and guessing? 

The method we are describing is referred to as three-cueing. It is found in a Balanced Literacy instructional approach, which a majority of early educators currently use in America. In Balanced Literacy, “sounding out letters and words,” is not explicitly taught, according to Hanford. She says the omission of explicitly teaching word recognition and language development skills has caused the inability of tens of thousands of children to read proficiently.  

“Cognitive scientists and decades of research prove that a child has to be able to first read the words in order for their brain to comprehend what they read,” says Hanford. She points to Covid and remote learning as having brought this instructional approach into full view for parents and caregivers of our earliest learners. 

By observing the Balanced Literacy teaching method first-hand, parents heard a five-alarm bell moment. They could clearly see that explicit instruction in sounding out letters and words was missing from their child’s early learning experience. Hanford says, “When you haven’t been taught those skill sets, reading becomes a guessing game. This is exactly what struggling readers do to compensate for their reading barriers – they guess and skip words. Their reading becomes slow and laborious. They spend too much time trying to decode words and never getting to comprehension and meaning.”

Moving the Dial on Reading

To move the dial on reading instruction, Hanford cites that the research on the science of reading has matured and is now in abundance with more clarity and facts. She also credits the translation of reading science into actual proven educational instructional teaching practices as having led more administrators and educators to recognize the flaws of Balanced Literacy approaches. “Without a strong focus on phonics, word and language development, children will lack important reading skills,” she says, and suggests reading Mark Seidenberg’s book, “Language At The Speed of Sight, How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It.” 

What Now? 

It is vitally important for students to be taught explicit skills in reading comprehension before 4th grade, or face the consequences of falling behind and never catching up. Many teachers have communicated with Emily Hanford about her research and given her their gut reactions to the science of reading movement. Many said they were missing the mark in their instruction, but confirmed they had little training in their colleges of education on the science of reading. 

Science tells us that if we want more students to become fully literate, we must change the way foundational skills instruction and the dominant approaches used for teaching reading comprehension and writing are taught. As of this writing, a wave of legislators have put a spotlight on early reading curriculum and teaching practices with 18 states considering new laws, and 10 passing bans on the three-cueing method. 

You can find all of Emily Hanford’s research reports at apmreports.org/reading.

About Emily Hanford

Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer for American Public Media. Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Washington Monthly, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Her work has won numerous honors including a DuPont-Columbia University Award and the Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award from the American Educational Research Association. Emily is a member of the Education Writers Association’s Journalist Advisory Board and was a longtime mentor for EWA’s “new to the beat” program. Her 2018 podcast episode “Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?” won the inaugural public service award from EWA. Emily is based in the Washington, D.C. area.

 

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Understanding the Science of Reading Begins with a Clear Picture of How the Brain Learns to Read
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October 2, 2023 by User

Stanislas Dehaene, Psychologist and Cognitive Neuroscientist, Ph.D., keynoted at Learning Ally’s 2023 Spotlight on Dyslexia to discuss his brain-based research at NeuroSpin, a world-renowned center in advanced brain imaging. Professor Dehaene is the Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology at the Collége de France in Paris. His research investigates the neural bases of human cognitive functions such as reading and language, with particular interest on the impact brain-based learning has in education. Stanislas Dehaene, Psychologist and Cognitive Neuroscientist, Ph.D.

The title of his presentation, “How Learning to Read Changes the Brain: Implications for Education,” began with an end goal in mind – to have a clear understanding of how a child’s brain truly learns to read. Based on his research, he examines how to best teach reading by focusing on letters, their order and their correspondences to phonemes, and how to diagnose different forms of dyslexia.

The Mind’s Ears and Eyes of Learning 

New brain imaging and modeling studies paint a detailed picture of how the ventral visual cortex and associated language areas become attuned to reading. Analyzing advanced brain-based images of children learners, Dehaene’s research reveals that our brains are wired for spoken language at birth, and it has a strong biological basis early in a child’s brain -- long before they learn to read. 

He says, “Reading acquisition recycles several pre-existing visual and auditory areas of the brain in order to reorient them to the processing of letters and phonemes.” Comparisons of literate and illiterate brains have revealed three major sites of enhancement due to schooling: 

  1. the early visual cortex, 

  2. the « visual word form area » (also known as “the brain’s letter box”, a region specializing for the visual recognition of letter strings), and 

  3. the planum temporale (a region involved in phonological processing). 

“Reading starts in our brains like any other visual stimulation in the visual areas, but quickly moves into an area that is concerned with the recognition of written words,” he says. “Learning to read consists of recognizing letters and how they combine into written words, and then connecting them to the brain systems for coding of speech sounds and for meaning.” He refers to this area of the brain as the "letter box" because it stores our knowledge of letter recognition. 

From that point, he says there is an explosion of learning activity happening in two important brain networks; one that concerns the meaning of words, and one that concerns the pronunciation and articulation of words. He describes this brain processing act as, “emerging readers ‘listen’ in their mind’s ear, and begin to connect what they hear to a spelling pattern or brain word in their mind’s eye in a specialized cortical area in the left hemisphere called the visual word form area. The beginning reader’s brain acts as a super-computer that must be fed with structured inputs, a well-designed curriculum, and explicit teaching of phonics and spelling. It is also essential for parents and teachers to converse with young children to build a solid base for language development.”

Improve Your Professional Knowledge on Brain-Based Learning 

Reading develops the phonological areas of the brain and gives access to writing in all spoken language areas of the brain. Learning about the science of reading and how the brain learns to read can help you put many more early readers and struggling readers on a new path to become comprehensive readers. 

To encourage more school and district administrators to update their professional knowledge on the science of reading and brain-based learning, Learning Ally is providing free access to 14 sessions from this year’s Spotlight on Dyslexia conference. These tutorials are available on-demand through December 31, 2023. 

Listen to Dr. Dehaene’s full presentation on demand now. 

Valerie Chernek writes about educational best practices through the use of technology and the science of reading in support of teachers, children, and adolescents who struggle with learning differences. 

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Dr. Molly Ness Releases New Book, “Read Alouds for All Learners: A Comprehensive Plan for Every Subject, Every Day, Grades PreK–8”
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September 25, 2023 by User

 

Learning Ally is celebrating the release of Dr. Molly Ness’s new book, “Read Alouds for All Learners: A Comprehensive Plan for Every Subject, Every Day, Grades PreK–8,” with publisher, Solution Tree, a professional development company of educational material for K–12 educators. 

Dr. Ness is Learning Ally’s V.P of Academic Content, and a former classroom teacher, reading researcher, and teacher educator. Her experience includes 16 years as an associate professor of childhood education at Fordham University, and a rich compilation of research focused on reading comprehension, teachers’ instructional decisions, and dyslexia. She is also the founder of End Book Deserts and co-founder of the Coalition for Literacy EquityDr. Molly Ness

Read Alouds for All Learners makes a compelling case for the reintegration of the read aloud in schools. It is a step-by-step resource for PreK–8 educators who want to improve reading achievement by integrating the use of read alouds in class instruction. It is supported by current research and Dr. Ness’s own personal experiences in the classroom, and ideally written for teachers, curriculum designers, and literacy coaches to gain practical guidance in these areas:

  • Understanding the role of read alouds in the science of reading.

  • Developing understanding of the three-step planning process for a read aloud.

  • Learning current read-aloud research and trends among elementary, middle, and high school teachers.

  • Gaining tips targeted for each age group’s social-emotional learning and cognition.

  • Capturing the importance of read alouds in all content areas.

  • Creating a read-aloud plan for social studies, the sciences, mathematics, physical education, the arts, and electives with hands-on tools.
     

Crystal Barreto, Academic Intervention Services Coordinator with the community superintendent’s office in the New York City Department of Education writes that Dr. Ness’s book is, “One of the best books I have read on how to develop a well-constructed read aloud. As a district instructional coach who only uses practical, research-based methods, I am eager to use this invaluable resource and thrilled to add it to my professional reading collection.”

Whether a longtime educator professional or new to teaching, Read Alouds for All Learners is designed to support young learners emotionally, intellectually, linguistically, and developmentally, and includes practical tools and lessons that have proven successful in creating an effective read aloud routine. 

Dr. Ness says, “Read alouds have slowly been falling out of practice in homes and schools. This has had sobering consequences on children’s vocabulary acquisition and retention, verbal reasoning and syntactical understanding, and socio-emotional capacity. Read alouds benefits all readers, including multilingual learners, striving readers, and neurodiverse students. I aim to provide an easy-to-follow approach to planning effective read alouds that build language comprehension, enhance vocabulary, and build background knowledge across all content areas. At a time when there are so many national conversations about literacy instruction, we must understand the important role of read alouds in the science of reading.”  

Dr. Molly Ness’s new book is now available to order at SolutionTree.com/ReadAlouds

To view other books by Dr. Molly Ness visit: https://www.drmollyness.com.

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Democratizing Early Literacy Through Technology and Innovation
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September 5, 2023 by User

This blog recaps a webinar by Learning Ally’s Heather Wiederstein and Dr. Molly Ness, former educators and literacy leaders in education technology. Wiederstein, a software developer, and Ness, V.P. of Academic Content, engaged an insightful audience eager to learn the latest research of “how” students learn to read, and some beneficial ways emerging technologies can add value to early literacy development. Listen now to earn CE certificates by gaining new insight into how technologies create more learning opportunities for educators, students, and families, and by using guiding principles to choose technology wisely. This will ensure ALL children learn to read in an equitable learning environment.

Webinar announcement with pictures of Heather and Molly

Why Technology?

Innovative educators understand that the selective use of devices, apps, video, digital textbooks, ebooks, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, text-to-speech, and so much more can add value to their instruction. When we democratize early literacy, we consider a larger ecosystem of democratic principles and intention to make early literacy accessible and beneficial for all students. This system makes literacy a priority in ALL classrooms. ALL educators are knowledgeable in evidence-based instruction grounded in the science of reading. ALL emerging readers are taught using a Whole Child Literacy approach, taking into account their social, emotional and academic circumstances. 

Early Literacy is the Right Time 

Weiderstein and Ness agree that children must be taught to read as early as PreK using both phonics instruction and language development, and that technology enhances instructional opportunities for literacy. 

An example of using technology to teach phonics is to integrate supportive videos that display images, or use multisensory auditory apps that render correct pronunciation of phonemes (a visual representation to see the mouth form words), or introducing an educational game that reinforces specific skill sets. 

To enhance reading comprehension, early educators might consider Excite Reading™, a supplemental PreK-2 program that takes emergent readers on visually stimulating early learning journeys with engaging, culturally-relevant collections of stories in the form of e-books narrated by humans to strengthen children’s agency of knowledge. 

Guiding Principles to Choose Education Technology Wisely

Wiederstein says, “Technology never replaces the educator, but by adding the right technology, teachers can become innovators and literacy leaders. These champions move the needle on equity and access because they balance their high quality reading instruction based on the research, with technology that can individualize, customize, and democratize the learning environment. 

As you evaluate and purchase education technology, ask if the technology will:

  • Strengthen a ‘child-focused’ learning environment, such as using culturally-rich content? 

  • Increase interactions and conversations to build better relationships?

  • Encourage reading practice, word study, vocabulary building, and background knowledge? 

  • Provide access to content that is available outside the school walls?  

Scaling Impact for Improved Reading Outcomes

In the wake of the pandemic, nearly a third of all children in early grades, especially those disproportionately from under-resourced communities, are missing early reading benchmarks.

“Recent NAEP scores remind us we’ve got a way to go,” says Dr. Ness, “especially with respect to reading, equity, and access. Student achievement is what matters most. The reality is teachers are tapped thin, and there are more diverse populations with reading challenges. If a child doesn’t have books at home and does not live near a library or have Internet, we’re failing them.” Read Dr. Ness’s blog, “10 Ways to End Book Deserts.”  

What We Know About Literacy Today 

Education is lagging behind almost all industries that benefit from technology. Adding quality technology can help educators level the learning field by amplifying opportunities to engage and interact with one or many children at once. Dr. Ness recommends doubling down on the evidence-based research that is now readily available and verifiable in study after study. 

“The NAEP report is a motivator that we all need to look for innovative ways to get more kids reading,” says Ness. “Today, there’s a real urgency to grow our professional knowledge based on reading research, and technology can help us do that.”  

Wiederstein says, "Choosing technology wisely can help educators balance instruction, broaden capacity, provide individualized instruction and equitable access, and strengthen relationships. 

Dr. Ness says, “It takes about a decade for research to have an impact on actual daily instructional practice." She also cautions us that there are still  educators and parents who believe using technology is somehow cheating, but we know that is not true.

Everyone must swing in the same direction regarding effective reading instruction. If we miss the mark, children will continue to struggle. 

Literacy leaders must address politicization, and polarization of how to teach reading successfully, and commit to ongoing professional learning on the science of reading and brain-based learning. 

Learning Ally’s reading Solutions, spotlight learning series and professional courseware can help you make an impact on reading outcomes for all learners.  

Whether you use technology in your classroom, or have students use it on the go, in the library, or at home, the right technology can be a pivotal tool to accomplish varying education learning goals. 

About the Presenters: 

Heather Weiderstein began her career in education as a certified classroom teacher in Pennsylvania. She taught reading, English Language Arts, and Literature and Composition. She has dedicated the last 15 years to writing, designing, and managing the delivery of learner-focused educational software. Today, she is a Senior Advisor for Learning Ally, and in this role, Heather strives to bring our partners the highest quality, easy-to-use technology solutions. 

Dr. Molly Ness is the Vice President, Academic Content for Learning Ally. She is a former classroom teacher, reading researcher, and teacher educator. She holds a doctorate in reading education from the University of Virginia and spent 16 years as an associate professor at Fordham University. With four books and numerous peer-reviewed articles, Molly’s research focuses on reading comprehension, teachers’ instructional decisions, and dyslexia. In 2019, she began the End Book Deserts podcast to bring attention to the issue of book access and equity. Molly serves on the Board of Directors for the International Literacy Association and on the elementary advisory panel for Penguin Random House.

 

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