Developing Readers: Bridging Skills and Confidence

Day 2 of Lexia® Fall Science of Reading Week

“Thank You So Much. This Was Amazing.”  – Jennifer S.

On Day 2 of Lexia® Science of Reading Week—Developing Readers: Bridging Skills and Confidence—experts and literacy thought leaders shared hands-on strategies for infusing the science of reading into daily instruction and driving real change with elementary students’ needs front and center, including: 

• Focusing more on practice. Switching from “I do” to “You do” too quickly misses the point, according to literacy leader Lindsay Bohm, curriculum coordinator in Peoria Public Schools District 150, Illinois. After years of classroom observations, she explained that elementary students need to hear, read, and say aloud more texts to make the pivotal transitions from phonics and fluency to reading to learn. 

• Supporting Structured Literacy. “ALL students can read with the right instruction, the right amount of intensity, and the right amount of time,” said speaker Jeanne Schopf, M.Ed., NBCT, C-SLD, literacy consultant at Pathways Towards Literacy LLC. This idea underscores that teachers can’t do it alone. They need ongoing, evidence-based professional learning and coaching to be most effective.

• Making Tier I a lever for change. Gaps that begin in the elementary years often follow students throughout their schooling. Elementary educators have the unique opportunity to flip the script on literacy outcomes. “Where is the money maker? We need to ensure the Tier 1 foundation is strong and rooted in evidence,” said speaker Frank Lukasik, director of literacy and funded programs, East Meadow UFSD, New York. 

Participant Tricia D. wrote: “We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems!!!! That STUCK!!” 

Listen to one of the most compelling early literacy discussions held this year, access guides for implementing reading science, and then find out why every educator and leader must become a teacher of reading to kick-start progress.