Reading Instruction

This article was originally published in eSchool News on September 14, 2020. As the sole literacy director and reading specialist for our entire district, I work with students—including those with low-level reader challenges–in elementary, middle, and high school, and I also help out at other district schools—one of which is...

Families, we know the remote learning situation can be a struggle. For students, one of the many challenges associated with at-home learning involves focusing on and managing reading assignments while away from friends, teachers, and familiar routines. Although adolescents may be used to completing daily homework in middle school and...

Since its inception in the 1930s, the Orton-Gillingham Approach has pioneered instructional practices designed for students who struggle with reading, writing, and spelling. Informed by “time-tested knowledge and practice” along with the science of language learning, Orton-Gillingham provides a direct, straightforward way to assist those who have difficulty reading. By...

How do students learn to read? Although this deceptively simple question has inspired decades of research and yielded an array of science-backed instructional methods, many students are still not making the progress educators would like to see, with the most recent Nation’s Report Card indicating that fourth- and eighth-graders' average...

Although college readiness continues to be a central goal of K-12 education policy, alarm bells are ringing about a growing “college completion crisis” among American students. In a 2019 opinion piece for The New York Times, David Leonhardt and Sahil Chinoy noted that “about 1 in 3 students who enroll...

Dr. Patricia Hilliard of North Carolina State University made a noteworthy point in a 2016 piece she penned for the online education resource site Edutopia: “Increasing adolescent literacy rates is a complex challenge that needs to be addressed from multiple perspectives.” Indeed, her Edutopia piece focused on one such perspective:...

Do kids with dyslexia have lower IQs? Although the answer is no, a contrary belief lingers amid the multitude of misinformation that tends to swirl around students with learning disorders such as dyslexia. Yet while students who struggle to grasp essential literacy skills are not by extension less intelligent than...

In her radio documentary for American Public Media, reporter Emily Hanford made an ominous declaration: “Elementary schools across the country are teaching children to be poor readers—and educators may not even know it.” This striking statement undergirded a two-part examination of reading instruction (or the lack thereof) in America’s public...

In September 2019, a new publicly funded charter school opened on New York City's Staten Island with a unique mission—catering to “students with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia,” according to an article from local news outlet The City.

Can students who struggle with reading learn to love it? The short answer is yes, of course—but accomplishing such a feat is easier said than done. How can students for whom reading is a difficult task find joy in it? Often, nurturing a love of reading in students who have struggled...