In partnership with The Buffalo Sabres Foundation and WNY Literacy Initiative, Teach My Kid to Read creates in-school literacy hubs providing everyone with access to critical literacy resources. Download the press release The post Teach My Kid to Read Announces the Launch of the Second Literacy Hub in the Buffalo Public School System appeared first on Teach My Kid To Read ..read more

Teach My Kid to Read is excited to announce a partnership with AmeniaFree Library, NorthEast Millerton Library, and Whole Phonics to provide Summer Reading Program decodable books in support of the ongoing efforts to teach children to read using science-aligned instruction. Press-ReleaseDownload The post New Partnership with Amenia and Millerton appeared first on Teach My Kid To Read ..read more

“Spike, right! I got it!” I yelled to my friend Joan. Joan slammed the ball over the net. I don’t remember whether we got the point. It doesn’t matter. I remember that I was the digger, and she was the spiker. That meant I had Joan’s back if she missed, and I was responsible for digging up the spikes from the opposing team and setting them up for a spiker like Joan. Joan and I met when we were five years old. She somehow found her way into our backyard on Harristown Road. Joan lived on Rock Road, two streets down, so she must have cut through a few backyards to find me. At first, I thought she ..read more

On May 24, 2022, The New York Senate passed The Dyslexia Task Force Act A.2185-B/S.441-C. Senator Brad Hoylman sponsored the Senate bill. The bill had already passed on the Assembly side, where Assemblymember Robert Carroll sponsored it. The bill’s next stop is with Governor Kathy Hochul. After that, the Governor signs the bill into law. That will be a day of celebration! A few years ago, I wrote about New York’s Guidance Memo on Students with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia when it passed. Any legislation or activity that improves literacy or education for children with dyslexia is favo ..read more

Diverse books, decodable books and libraries. They are all part of innovative community literacy solutions! We’re So Much More than Phonics The science of reading, structured literacy, direct instruction, systematic, explicit instruction. It all sounds severe and not that much fun. The fact is, nothing is more thrilling than reading with automaticity. Automaticity happens when a child learns to decode. Some kids will need less instruction on decoding, while others, especially those who struggle with reading issues like dyslexia, will need a ton of practice. There is no love of reading when a c ..read more

As a parent of a child with a reading issue like dyslexia, I came to this world of reading wars, phonics, balanced literacy, leveled readers, and other instructional methods that we argue about, as an innocent. I merely wanted to know why our daughter was struggling so much, and why nobody could help her learn to read. When she didn’t progress at school, I thought that I could teach her to read. As an English major, a publishing professional, and a past writing tutor, I was a natural candidate, but my methods and attempts didn’t work. I couldn’t teach her, and the school couldn’t seem to teach ..read more

“The greatest enemy of progress is the illusion of knowledge.” John Young, Astronaut Several years ago, I was working as a contractor in the educational publishing industry. The scope of one of our contracts was to build curricula for a few disciplines so the publisher could assess whether to pursue publishing in those particular academic areas and, if so, determine their strategy. We listed the required and elective courses for the discipline, specific areas of study, course objectives, and major textbooks and course materials used for each class. We commented accordingly on enrollments, tre ..read more

I can’t tell you why a “c” sounds like an “s” in the word certain. Without Googling, I can’t tell you why certain patterns of letters make a specific sound. Ask our daughter. She has an understanding of alphabetics, phonemic awareness and she understands the particular rules that make letters and letter combinations make certain sounds. She can tell you why. The Phoenicians Can Tell You Why & I Can Tell You a Little The alphabet and connecting sounds to letters have been around a long, long time. The Phoenicians were the first to start breaking down sound into letters. The earliest evidenc ..read more

The Overstory is a best-selling novel by Richard Powers. It tells the stories of a few enormous formidable trees and how their existence affects the trees’ people. I never heard of an overstory before reading the novel, and I have since learned that they are giant trees that live above the other trees in their own climate—they even breathe their own air. If nature is a metaphor for life, then we are the understory. We are connected to the overstory by our circumstances or knowledge. We advocate for science, data, and the logic that has alluded widespread adoption of evidence-based literacy ins ..read more

Learn more about Ed and Mel’s Decodable Book Adventures as we talk with Heather Doolittle, the author and creator of this engaging trilogy. The post Author Chats: Decodable Books & Literacy Resources appeared first on Teach My Kid To Read ..read more