NEISD Reading Academy News

Over the past two years, 663 educators successfully completed the Texas Reading Academy through NEISD. With over 688 NEISD educators enrolled for the 2022-23 school year, we are eager to kick off a year of literacy learning!

We know the Texas Reading Academy will provide the opportunity to establish a community of learners on your campus. We hope you leverage this training opportunity, grounded in the science of teaching reading, to build capacity on your campus to offer high-quality, effective literacy instruction, and to support student success. As a teacher your influence on students’ achievement is greater than all other factors including demographic, socioeconomic, and family dynamics.

According to research, unless students learn to read by the end of first grade, they are highly likely to remain poor readers and suffer academic difficulties across all subject areas. However, we now know how students learn to read, what goes wrong if they struggle, and what can be done to help students of all abilities improve their reading skills. Texas Reading Academy will provide you with the tools needed to ensure the literacy growth of all your students. Without a doubt, informed teachers are the best assurance against reading failure. To help support teacher development of literacy instruction, this section of the newsletter will provide resources for teachers to blend their Reading Academy learning with NEISD resources!

NEISD educators now have access to videos of lessons in the K-3 Elem ELAR classroom. Please reach out to your Reading Academy cohort leader if you would like to view any of the following.

-Elem ELAR Team

Kinder

Full Superkids Lesson (28 min)

Daily Routine (5 min)

Small Group Decodable (10 min)

First Grade

Daily Routine (14 min)

New Skill Instruction (14 min)

Heggerty (6 Min)

Second Grade

Daily Routine (8 min)

New Skill Instruction (14 min)

Small Group Decodable (10 min)

As we learned in Module 2: The Science of Teaching Reading, it can be helpful to consider the four subtypes of reading difficulty represented in the image below. Most students with a reading difficulty fall into the left quadrants, which signifies decoding difficulties. The best support for students with a decoding difficulty is explicit and systematic instruction on sounds that correspond to specific letter combinations. In order to provide targeted instruction, administer an informal diagnostic assessment to identify the exact areas of need. Of course, the best way to prevent reading difficulties is high-quality, tier-one instruction that supports all students in the acquisition of both decoding and language comprehension skills. Resources to support both aspects of literacy may be found on the IPG.

ELEM ELAR MTSS/RTI Flowchart with Assessments and Interventions

The Right to Read Project and Amplify joined together to create a 13 episode series of 5 minute videos called The Brain Builders, which teach children the science of reading! The topics covered in the video series are similar to the ones addressed in the Texas Reading Academy. These videos place knowledge about the science of reading directly into the hands of students and parents providing insight into the literacy instruction students receive in the NEISD K-3 classroom.

View the Brain Builders series here.

For administrators, it is important to note the positive relationship between effective school leadership and improved student achievement. It turns out that leadership not only matters; it is second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning. As participants journey through Reading Academies, we'll share tools to help you support their learning on the Science of Teaching Reading.

Tools for Administrators:

Effective Instruction Walkthrough: Explicit Systematic Instruction

Module 2: Science of Teaching Reading – Administrator Version

Ideas for Administrators:

• Principal's weekly read aloud
• Host book clubs with students

• Provide time for teachers to visit one another's classroom

Inspiration for Administrators:

Future Ready Literacy: How Leaders Can Implement Schoolwide Culture Change- Podcast

Module 2E: The Science of Teaching Reading Recap: The focus of this module was on reading research, state standards, and evidence-based instructional practices that are grounded in the science of teaching reading.

Chapter 1 focused on the “what” and the “why” of the Science of Teaching Reading:

• What do students need to become proficient readers
• Why is this approach recommended?

Chapter 2 explored the “how” in more detail:

• How is the STR implemented to teach children to read?

-TEA Reading Academy

View the following video from Module 2 for an excellent summary of the benefits of explicit instruction.

After watching Anita Archer's video, you may have noticed some strong similarities to the NASOT framework. Both Anita's statements and the NASOT framework are supported by a multitude of studies that illuminate effective practices. Research confirms that conducting direct instruction lessons on new and novel concepts is essential to student success. Breaking content into obtainable pieces (chunking), ensuring high levels of student engagement (processing), and progressing from modeling to guided practice to independent practice helps knowledge transfer to student ownership. As you learn more about effective instruction through both the Reading Academies and early release sessions on the NASOT framework, you'll notice the content often correlates.

Teachers of biliteracy should be informed, understand, and consider their student’s linguistic development and proficiency. Some of your students may be considered simultaneous learners, which occurs when children grow up learning two languages at the same time, while others may be considered sequential learners, this occurs when children develop proficiency in their native language before acquiring their second language.

Think about your students. Are they simultaneous learners or sequential learners?

Isabel Malone

Cohort 21 & 22 Leader

Admin Cohort Leader

As I was scrolling through Twitter, the words "Reading Recovery" stood out to me and I wanted to know more about what the author was saying regarding this program, which I so desperately wanted to be a part of when I first started my teaching career. I remember some of my first grade students were pulled out on a daily basis for this intensive, one-on-one intervention and I often wondered why they were still struggling after months of participation. I was surprised to learn that this program was not only ineffective, but that it had a negative impact on a child's literacy development. It was even more heartbreaking to realize that it wasn't my student's fault...it was the instruction itself. This is why we use explicit, systematic phonics programs like Superkids and From Phonics to Reading in NEISD to ensure that all students learn to read.

-Isabel Malone

Click the here to access the full article.

Recommended below is an effective approach to help students who struggle to read.

In his book, A Fresh Look at Phonics, Wiley Blevins shares:

• Tasks, blending routines, word lists, and lessons that develop solid foundations for reading along with differentiation techniques for ELLs and advanced learners
• Help on how to use decodable texts
• Interactive “Day Clinic” activities that facilitate educator self-reflection and school wide professional learning

Blevins also explains the ten common reasons instruction fails and shows educators how to correct these missteps.

You can find a copy of the book on your campus!

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