As Dyslexia Awareness Month comes to a close we are re-sharing a past Tuesday Teaching Tips blog featuring some of our FAVORITE books to help you learn more about supporting students with dyslexia ..read more

While research and literature continues to emerge on literacy instruction for English learners, there are lots of misconceptions out there that can result in harmful practices. Take a moment to check-in on your own understanding by reading the following statements. Two are false misconceptions, while only one contains the truth. Can you locate the false statements? Our culture has an influence on how we teach. “Just good teaching” is good enough for all, including ELs. Many English learners have learning disabilities.  If you’ve identified #2 & #3 as misconceptions, you are corre ..read more

If you’ve taught an English learner in your class, you’re not alone. English learners (ELs) are a rapidly growing demographic in United States schools and teachers should expect to have ELs in their classrooms. In the last 20 years, 1.5 million English learners have been added to classrooms around the country, yet only 3% of teachers have the necessary qualification to teach these students (Rahman et al., 2017). Now more than ever, ALL teachers must possess the knowledge and skills to close the achievement gap and improve learning outcomes for all students in their classroom. AIM is prepari ..read more

You’ve heard the term before: Summer Learning Loss. In a recent study published in the American Education Research Journal, Atteberry and McEachin (2021) reported that over half of students in grades one through six of students lost an average of 39% of their total school year reading gains during the summer months. While summer is a time of significant variation for students and families, further research is needed to determine the direct effects on educational disparities. Nevertheless, these consecutive setbacks accumulate to a substantial decline in academic achievement, emphasizing the i ..read more

On June 6th, AIM hosted a webinar with two remarkable researchers, Dr. Linnea Ehri and Dr. Katie Pace Miles. In addition to the literacy development questions that were answered live, these two questions stood out to the AIM Institute team. How can teachers support upper elementary or middle school students who are in the early phases of reading development and still struggle with foundational reading skills? How can teachers develop culturally and linguistically diverse learners in each pillar of literacy? Read the answers in today's Tuesday Teaching Tips blog ..read more

What comes to mind when you think about your vocabulary instruction for adolescents? Perhaps you provide a “student-friendly definition” or 4-square semantic map, like a Frayer Model, to help your students acquire an important word or concept. While these components of explicit word learning experiences are helpful, building depth of word knowledge is much more complex. Deep word knowledge includes understanding a word’s nuanced use in a sentence follow these three tips to support adolescent word knowledge: morphological variations, semantic variations, and grammatical construction ..read more

Ring in the New Year with Literacy Best Practices! The beginning of a new year is always exciting and refreshing. It is truly the perfect time to self-reflect on best practices for a healthier you and making 2023 the best it can be! As an educator, self-reflecting on your classroom practices is worthy of your time, and re-establishing effective practices can be a powerful tool to revive your passion for teaching and maximize your students’ success. Learn three best practices to maximize students' literacy skills ..read more