Have you never used a Reading Program?

A Case Study on How Reading Teacher Transformed One Elementary Classroom

Note: This case study was developed in partnership with an elementary school. To protect the privacy of individuals involved, some of the information has been changed.

Introduction:

Barbara is an elementary teacher with eight years of teaching experience. She has always been interested in finding ways to engage her students in reading but had never used an online reading program. In the past, she found it challenging to lesson plan for each of her 15 students, especially those who struggled in certain areas or got distracted easily. Barbara has previously relied on older teaching materials to lesson plan for her students.

One day, a fellow teacher recommended Reading Teacher to Barbara. At first, she was hesitant to try it out because she was not the best at technology and had never used an online reading program. However, she decided to try it and was blown away by how easy the program was. After trying Reading Teacher, she quickly realized how easy it was to integrate into her curriculum. The program provided a wide variety of resources that allowed her to cater to each student's individual needs and preferences, which made lesson planning much more efficient and effective.

Reading Teacher an Easy-to-Use Online Reading Program

She found the program user-friendly, and she could integrate it into her teaching curriculum easily. The program was engaging and interactive, which made it easy for her to keep her students focused and interested in reading. The program also provided hundreds of differentiated teaching resources that helped her educate her students and keep them focused.

As a result of using Reading Teacher, Barbara's students made significant progress in their reading skills.. Her students fell in love with the characters and the plethora of engaging resources, which made learning to read more fun and enjoyable.

Barbara was also impressed by the level of support from the Reading Teacher team. They provided her with all the tools she needed to get started, including a student placement assessment and progress monitoring tools. They were also available to answer any questions she had and provided regular updates and support to ensure she was getting the most out of the program.

The decodable reading program contained 100 interactive stories across 25 different levels. Each story introduced or reviewed a new phoneme, new words, and special (high-frequency) words. Each new word throughout the program was then repeated at least five times in the book in which it first appeared and then five more times in the next ten books.

Before starting each story, children are prompted to select the 'Listen' or 'Read' option, which allowed for multiple exposures, experiences, and additional reinforcements of growing skills. The program includes 337 decodable words that highlighted in the interactive stories. The highlighted words were clickable, allowing children to hear the word, which helped them on their reading journey.

Does it engage and keep students focued?

One of the things that stood out to Barbara was the engaging nature of the program. The animated characters and colorful graphics made it fun for her students to learn, and the different modes – Read and Listen – provided flexibility that allowed them to learn at their own pace. This was particularly beneficial for her students who struggled with reading, as it allowed them to hear the words pronounced correctly and practice reading them.

Another important aspect of the program was its comprehensive teaching resources. Along with the interactive stories and decodable words, Reading Teacher also included lesson plans, printable books, song sheets, and word cards. These resources were especially helpful for Barbara, who found it challenging to keep her students engaged and focused for extended periods.

The lesson plans were particularly useful as they provided Barbara with a structured framework for each lesson. This meant that she could spend less time planning and more time teaching, which was especially important given the limited time she had with each student. The printable books were also a big hit with her students, who enjoyed taking home their copies of the stories they had read in class.

Individual Student Tracking

One of the most helpful features of Reading Teacher was the individual student tracking system, which allowed Barbara to monitor each student's progress and adjust her lessons accordingly. She could focus on the areas where her students struggled most, providing targeted support to help them improve their reading skills. Barbara was impressed with the program's personalized learning experience, which allowed her to track each student's progress individually. The program includes a student placement assessment, progress monitoring for each student in her class, and additional teaching materials, including lesson plans, printable books, song sheets, word cards, scope, and sequences. The program even had unit assessments and completion certificates, which made it easy for Barbara to track her students' progress.

Conclusion

In conclusion, reading Teacher is a comprehensive digital platform designed to help educators teach children to learn to read using phonics-based decodable reading methods. With 100 interactive stories across 25 different levels, it is the perfect tool for use in the classroom, at home, or hybrid learning environments. The program provides a step-by-step tool to teach children to read, with each story introducing or reviewing a new phoneme, new words, and special (high frequency) words. The program is easy to use, with individual student tracking to allow for a personalized learning experience and tailors additional resources to those who need it most. Backed by the Reading Teacher Guarantee – students' reading skills will improve in 30 days or your money back – it is the perfect tool for educators looking to provide their students with the best possible start to their reading journey. Reading Teacher Guarantee gave her peace of mind,

In conclusion, reading Teacher is an excellent resource for elementary teachers looking for an effective and engaging way to teach reading. The program's personalized learning experience, ease of use, and hundreds of differentiated teaching resources make it an excellent tool for educators looking to teach their students to learn to read. Barbara's experience using the program shows that even teachers who are not the best with technology can easily integrate it into their teaching curriculum.

Saying “Goodbye” to Bin Learning: New Cross-Curricular Reading Program

As part of ongoing efforts to reshape elementary instruction based on the science of reading, more schools are adopting curricula that support a whole-child and equity-minded approach. In this week’s newsletter, we dive into the science of cross-curricular reading education, focusing on the latest curriculum changes at Nebraska public schools through an equity lens.

In a December op-ed, psychology researchers wrote on the value of a whole-child approach to reading, wherein teachers stop teaching in “bins” – for instance, reading from 10:15-10:45 a.m. – and instead create lessons that honor the overlap between math and reading skills. Based on recent psychology research, early language ability is the single best predictor of both reading and math scores, and reading and math abilities depend on the same broad network of cognitive skills: memory, attention (executive function), language, and general knowledge. Teachers can design integrated lessons that draw from a range of topics in reading, math, and social skills, and that cater to a child’s or classroom’s unique interests: whether it’s favorite recipes, dinosaurs, or big cats. According to the authors, the best integrative lessons encourage peer collaboration and allow students to build on ideas from previous classes; they are active, engaging, meaningful to students’ lives, and, above all, joyful.

New Cross-Curricular Reading Program Takes an Equity-Minded Approach

Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), the new elementary reading and English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum at Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska, models this integrative and cross-curricular approach to literacy. Amplify CKLA lessons, which will be officially implemented in the 2023-24 school year after piloting next year in select schools, are based on the vast, interdisciplinary body of research known as the science of reading. The K-2 portion of the curriculum is divided into two strands: foundational skills such as phonics and position words, and a knowledge component that pushes students to expand their knowledge and vocabulary in a specific, equity-conscious topic.

Under the new curriculum, elementary schoolers grades K-5 will draw connections between social studies, history and science, said Lisa Oltman, the district’s K-6 language arts curriculum specialist. Among many other topics, kindergartners will learn about indigenous cultures, nursery rhymes, and fables; second graders will read Greek myths and study slavery and the Civil War, and fifth grade students will read Don Quixote and learn about the Renaissance. High-quality reading material will help students dive into these topics, and culturally relevant topics such as climate change will be threaded throughout grade levels to help students draw connections as they progress through school.

Reading Program Takes an Equity-Minded Approach

Driven by the belief that word recognition and language comprehension ultimately lead to reading comprehension, Amplify CKLA combines reading and writing under one curriculum, with a special emphasis on narrative, opinion writing, research, and discussion. Says Oltman: "We have a variety of students, lots of students with lots of different backgrounds, and so one thing that was important to us was that students get to see themselves, but they also get to learn about others through this curriculum.”

To formally implement Amplify CKLA, 80 LPS staff members participated in an elementary reading committee to study the science of reading and learn the CKLA materials. It has been a lengthy and expensive process, but educators believe it is a necessary investment to support all students, regardless of reading ability or socioeconomic background. By investing in equitable education and faculty training on the science of reading, school districts ultimately service both students and teachers, whose understanding of reading science will empower them to build lessons that are cross-curricular, culturally relevant, and meaningful for students.

Take-Aways:

Psychology researchers and educational leaders continue to voice the value of teaching literacy through a cross-curricular and equity-minded lens, contrary to the traditional “binning” of reading, math, and other subjects.
This research adds to our growing understanding of the science of reading, which serves as the foundation for the Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum that will soon replace current literacy education in the Lincoln Public School District, Nebraska.
Amplify CKLA encourages students to make connections across subjects and exposes them to a wide array of topics, cultures, and narratives, while training teachers to integrate subjects and design lessons based on student’s developmental needs and unique interests.

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