Read Takoma

This is lovely.

This teacher was worried children weren’t getting bedtime stories. So she began reading them — on Facebook. Keisha Yearby began “Ms. Yearby’s Reading Adventures” in March, and it’s developing a national following.

Looking forward to another great event sponsored by DC branch of the International Dyslexia Association.

3D Bridge from Phonemic Awareness to Reading & DCIDA Annual Membership Meeting If dyslexics think in 3D, then let’s teach them in 3D! Add a new level to any O-G/Multisensory Structured Language approach by teaching in three dimensions. Phonemic objects aren’t just for teaching initial consonants anymore. Learn how to teach blending, segmenting, and even spelling and readin...

Another wonderful article by Emily Hanford with some takeaways:

"In 2016, the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, reviewed the syllabi of teacher preparation programs across the country and found that only 39 percent of them appeared to be teaching the components of effective reading instruction."

"One of the most consistent findings in all of education research is that children become better readers when they get explicit and systematic phonics instruction."

"The students who suffer most when schools don't give their students insight into the code are kids with dyslexia. They have an especially hard time understanding the relationship between sounds and letters. If you're a child with dyslexia from an upper-income family, someone is probably going to notice that you're struggling and pay for you to get the help you need. But kids from poor families often get left behind, and there's evidence that a disproportionate number of them eventually end up in the criminal justice system. American prisons are full of people who grew up in poor families, and according to a study of the Texas prison population, nearly half of all inmates have dyslexia. They struggled to read as kids and probably never got the help they needed."

Why aren't kids being taught to read? Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don't know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

Great article from APM

How American schools fail kids with dyslexia There are proven ways to help people with dyslexia learn to read, and a federal law that's supposed to ensure schools provide kids with help. But across the country, public schools are denying children proper treatment and often failing to identify them with dyslexia in the first place.

Exciting day at the Gaithersburg Book Festival last weekend listening to presentations like the one from Winifred Conkling on her latest young adult novel, Votes for Women.

I highly recommend her work!

Imagine how much money school systems spend on the salaries of target teachers providing "read to" accommodations to a dyslexic child for twelve years. Why not spend the money in first grade to teach all kids to read? Even if it required tier 3 intervention it would save money in the long haul.

To say nothing of the emotional cost.

Perspective | Veteran policymaker says 80 percent of special-ed kids don’t need that label They are instead struggling readers who deserve extra help, not old categories, he argues.

This looks likes it will be a wonderful program!

Next Steps: A Dyslexia Family Networking Forum For a child with a Specific Learning Disability such as dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia, a knowledgeable parent working behind the scenes is often key to success in school. At this forum, we will share the knowledge you need to be your child’s best advocate and cheerleader. This program features...

This is a great fact sheet from the International Dyslexia Association on the importance of the study of morphemes, the smallest units of meaning in a language, when teaching reading and spelling.

Morphological Awareness: One Piece of the Literacy Pie – International Dyslexia Association Morphological Awareness: One Piece of the Literacy Pie Share This: ` For a downloadable PDF, click here. Morphological awareness is a skill that helps students read and spell. When researchers have studied different skills that contribute to student performance on reading and spelling tasks, morphol...

I just learned a great new strategy as I watched as a graduate English student with dyslexia print an extended reading assignment. She copied the document, pasted it into a new Word document, then reformatted it with columns so her eye would not get lost as it traveled across the page. She made four very narrow columns which works best for her. Three cheers for inventiveness!

Listen to the child.

What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong? Negative consequences, timeouts, and punishment just make bad behavior worse. But a new approach really works.

Another success story for Decoding Dyslexia.

"His advocacy group, Decoding Dyslexia Iowa, has worked to have dyslexia added into Iowa’s educational laws and rules. "

Ruling could expand special education services to more Iowa students Judge rules Iowa Department of Education must reimburse Urbandale family for private tutoring incurred after special education services were denied.