ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
LITERACY IS A SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE:
Families of means are spending thousands of dollars on trained literacy tutors, pretty much exclusively Orton Gillingham, or private school. Lower income families often do not have access or resources to support their children’s needs. Teaching children to read is a social justice issue.
Dyslexia & The Right to Read - Teacher Jasmine Lane being interviewed by Toussaint Morrison:
“100 years ago, it was illegal to teach Black children to read, today we don’t teach them how to read.”
https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/08/06/what-the-words-say
“The downward spiral that can start with early reading problems is a source of profound inequality in our society. This could be prevented if more educators and policymakers understood what cognitive scientists have figured out over the past several decades about what’s going on when kids struggle with reading.”
https://projectforeverfree.org/literacy-the-most-forgotten-social-justice-issue/
“But in the context of schools, as educators, as people who claim that their life’s work is for Black, brown, and disenfranchised children, we cannot fully proclaim that Black Lives Matter until Black literacy does.”
Right to Read inquiry report | Ontario Human Rights Commission (ohrc.on.ca)
NEW MINNESOTA LAW: LITERACY INSTRUCTION AND SCREENING STUDENTS:
Implementing State Standards for Students with Dyslexia
Decoding Dyslexia: MN Legislation
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/120B.12
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/122A.06
MDE Screening and Identification Presentations: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3
TEACHER VOICES ON THE SCIENCE OF READING
Shifting the Balance: One School's Journey of Adopting the Science of Reading
Teaching Reading | Summarizing "At a Loss For Words" | What research says about learning to read
A Former Teacher’s Story on How Balanced Literacy Failed My Son (thedyslexiainitiative.org)
I’m a kindergarten teacher and the way I've been teaching reading is wrong
The Snow Report: Reading instruction in the early years: A school leader’s sliding doors moment
What is the difference between balanced and structured literacy?
The Science of Reading: First Steps
Teachers talk about their training in the science of reading - EducationNC
HIGH QUALITY, CULTURALLY RELEVANT CURRICULUM
How We Make Teaching Too Hard for Mere Mortals
How Elementary Schools Keep Men out of College
Recenter Your Beliefs about Literacy: The Daviess County Curriculum Journey
Inside one California school’s approach to reading as a ‘civil right’
Getting districts and teacher prep on the same page on reading pays off
Baltimore’s Schools Chief Says Curriculum Is Key To Education Equity
DATA AND STUDIES
MPS Screening Report for “Characteristics of Dyslexia”-2021
Identified ESSER $ Dedicated to Literacy
NAEP 2018 Oral Reading Fluency Study
External Evaluations for Dyslexia: Do the Data Support Parent Concerns?
Reading Brain Development: It's Never Too Late
How to Make Reading Instruction Much, Much More Efficient
Literacy skills seem to fuel literacy enjoyment, rather than vice versa
Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert
2018 Benchmark Advance Rubric Colorado Dept of Ed (MPS has this version)
2021 Benchmark Advance Rubric Colorado Dept of Ed
Montgomery County Review of Benchmark Advance 2018v
MPS K-5 LITERACY EVALUATION REPORT | 2019-2020
World's Best Workforce MPS Advisory Committe Reports to District: 2018 2020
LITERACY ADVOCACY GROUPS:
PARENT RESOURCES
TEACHER'S RESOURCES/CONVERSATIONS ON EARLY LITERACY
The Right to Read Project on nurturing automatic readers: Margaret Goldberg and Alanna Mednick
7 Deadly Errors of Teaching Reading
Leveled Reading Groups Don’t Work. Why Aren’t We Talking About It?
LETRS Overview
COLLEGES OF EDUCATION:
Teachers are often not taught in their teacher prep program how to identify dyslexia or have not received explicit instruction on how to teach children how to read.
The Dyslexia Dilemma: A History of Ignorance, Complacency and Resistance in Colleges of Education (Journal of Childhood and Developmental Disorders, August 2016)
The Science of Reading and Its Educational Implications
Pg 17: “Few teacher education programs provide any serious training related to developmental disorders such as dyslexia, how children at risk can be identified, and how such children can be helped. Whereas researchers are closing in on the neural and genetic bases of dyslexia (Gabrieli, 2009), educational theorists are still debating whether dyslexia exists, and if it does, whether knowing that a child has the disorder should have any impact on classroom practices (Elliott & Gibbs, 2008). Many of those children and adults who score poorly on national assessments are undoubtedly dyslexics whose condition has not been identified or addressed.
First-Year Teacher Knowledge of Phonemic Awareness and Its Instruction
BALANCED LITERACY:
Balanced Literacy trains students to use the clues such as pictures or guessing instead of learning to decode words. Researchers argue these strategies do more harm than good:
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers:
https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading
Predictable Books use in Balanced Literacy:
Is My Kid Learning How to Read? Take the Purple Challenge. A parent illustrates how their daughter’s guessing strategy which is taught as part of balanced literacy and gives the appearance of success at reading. Video 1 Video 2
MPS school’s literacy practices don’t align with the science of how children learn how to read.
Teacher Concerns about LLI our Tier 3 Intervention
The Three-Cueing System and the Most Disordered Form of Reading - Breaking The Code
Reading Recovery: first impressions of bad teaching - Lifelong Literacy
American schools teach reading all wrong
Cueing systems vs. context analysis-Tim Shanahan
State’s are Responding to the Science of Reading:
A growing number of states are starting to ban literacy curriculums that do not align with the science of how children learn how to read, some publishers are starting to respond.
States to Schools: Teach Reading
Influential Literacy Expert Lucy Calkins is Changing her Views
More States are Making the 'Science of Reading' a Policy Priority
SEQUENTIAL EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN THE GENERAL ED CLASSROOM:
Reactive vs Preventative Approach by offering science-based instruction to all students:
There are hurdles to diagnosing dyslexia in young readers. Taking a preventative approach by providing all students with proper instruction in decoding words helps all students.
Dyslexia: An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of diagnosis and treatment
Four Dyslexia screening myths that cause more harm than good
Families and teachers have called our remediation programs for struggling readers ineffective. Special education services do not guarantee a child with reading problems will get the kind of reading instruction he or she needs, in part because special education teachers have not necessarily received the preparation they need to teach reading.
Matthew’s Effect: Delaying proper decoding instruction increases the Matthew’s Effect, where the rich get richer. Students that have mastered decoding now have the required skill to quickly build knowledge and vocabulary which supports Reading Comprehension.
PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT:
Teacher’s professional organizations such as the AFT have a long history of supporting proper reading instruction. Their Summer 2020 issue was devoted to reading instruction.
Summer AFT American Educator Magazine
Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able to Do
STANDARDIZED TESTING'S IMPACT ON LITERACY INSTRUCTION
Current reading standardized testing is having negative impacts on literacy instruction.
Data-Driven Instruction: Simple, Compelling, and Wrong – Jon Gustafson
States are beginning to utilize flexibility of ESSA law to explore new testing strategies that align curriculum with testing.
Louisiana's Remarkable Reading Test | Core Knowledge Foundation
LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION:
Children are not acquiring the needed vocabulary and background knowledge needed to read higher level books. Spending time on content knowledge, science, social studies, art is often dismissed in favor of reading leveled fiction books or short passages where students try and find the main idea.
Rethinking How to Promote Reading Comprehension | American Federation of Teachers (aft.org)
How to Show Kids the Joy of Reading
Reading comprehension is not a “skill”
Scaling Literacy Through Reading Science
Why We're Teaching Reading Comprehension In A Way That Doesn't Work
The Reading for Understanding Initiative: Key Findings and Implications for States and Districts
Scores For Low-Performing Students Get Steadily Worse, And The Explanations Are Muddled
LITERACY PROBLEMS BECOME SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS:
Reading problems translate into social, emotional, and behavioral problems that impact the well-being of the student, their family, classmates, and teachers.
A longitudinal analysis of the alignment between children’s early word-level reading trajectories, teachers’ reported concerns and supports provided
Reading Problems, Psychiatric Disorders, and Functional Impairment from Mid- to Late Adolescence
Suicidality, School Dropout, and Reading Problems Among Adolescents
STRONG CORRELATION BETWEEN ILLITERACY AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM:
Reading problems correlate with behavior, school completion and involvement with the criminal justice system. 85% of individuals in the juvenile justice system are illiterate. One study showed 50% of incarcerated adults are dyslexic.
First Step Act was bi-partisan act to screen Federal inmates for Dyslexia. Our correction system is beginning to take steps to support inmates that our school systems, who have ignored decades of research, have failed.
Oklahoma Prison system utilizing Orton Gillingham to teach inmates how to read.
Behavioral Engagement and Reading Achievement in Elementary-School-Age Children
Are reading difficulties associated with bullying involvement?
Are Reading and Behavior Problems Risk Factors for Each Other?
Highlights from the U.S. PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults
Reading Difficulty in Young Children Linked to Later Trouble With the Law
SCHOOL DISTRICT LITERACY CHECKLISTS:
Dr. Louisa Moats discusses steps districts need to take to improve literacy
The Three-Question Literacy Health Check
What will it take to improve evidence informed decision making in schools
Saving the science of reading from becoming the next edu-fad
Science Says Reading Education Must Change
Writing:
Developing writing skills helps students develop higher level thinking skills. Colleges of education are not preparing future teachers how to teach students to write.
Spelling: Few MPS schools teach spelling. Spelling teaches children encoding skills which work together to help children decode text and be better readers.
Classroom Discussion:
To improve Democracy and Reading Comprehension We Need More Classroom Discussions
Phonics Instruction:
SPECIAL EDUCATION RESOURES:
MPS lacks capacity to provide basics to special-ed students, external audit finds
MULTILINGUAL (ELL) / MULTIDIALECTAL
Persuasion Across Time and Space | Understanding Language (stanford.edu)
Teaching Reading to African American Children | American Federation of Teachers (aft.org)
LEGAL CASES
C.B. v. Special School District No. 1
Special School District No. 1, Minneapolis Public Schools Plaintiff - Appellant v. R.M.M.
Minnetonka vs MLK Dyslexia Lawsuit
Berkeley United Class Action Lawsuit
Berkeley Unified will settle suit claiming it failed students with reading disorders
How widespread was the wait-to-fail approach within the district?
PODCASTS/VIDEO ON READING:
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-fvjgw-ed2981
https://www.apmreports.org/collection/reading
March to Literacy: Black Literacy Summit
"It was hell"...life before learning to read at age 62
The Legacy of Anti-Literacy Laws - Lacey Robinson
Securing Their Futures: A Conversation with Alfred Tatum
Understanding Statistics and Research: Even if You Really, Really Hate Math