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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Kansas Provides Statewide Access of LETRS Professional Learning in Literacy for Educators Responsible for Prekindergarten through Grade Three

BOSTON (Dec. 1, 2021) –– The Kansas State Board of Education is providing  statewide access to LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) professional learning for educators in prekindergarten through third grade to individuals entering the early education field. Offered by Lexia® Learning, a Cambium Learning® Group company, the LETRS professional learning experience provides the research, depth of knowledge, and abilities for teaching literacy skills to a wide range of students in grades PreK-5.

The Kansas State Board of Education will support the literacy-focused professional learning program over the next three years. “The state’s goal is to address literacy learning gaps that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lexia Learning President, Nick Gaehde. “We will be helping Kansas educators accelerate early literacy learning so students who suffered from the disruption to their learning can quickly recover.”

LETRS is a comprehensive professional learning solution that deepens educator knowledge and expertise in the Science of Reading. The program provides practical support with tools that are available 24/7—online and print. LETRS also offers in-person consulting services and ongoing support throughout the school year with strategies specific to instruction. Educators can choose from the following foundational literacy professional learning programs:…Read More

5 strategies to help students build literacy skills

Strong literacy skills help students build a foundation for success in school and beyond. But students’ reading skills are stumbling, and in some cases, the declines have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and limited access to learning resources during virtual and hybrid education.

Reading comes naturally to some children, but to others, it’s a chore, or they shy away from it because they lack confidence.

There are a number of strategies, tools, and resources to help students build strong literacy skills. Here are five to get you started:…Read More

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Catapult Learning Introduces New High-Dosage Tutoring Program To Reinforce Foundational Math And Literacy Skills For K-12 Students

August 23, 2021, PHILADELPHIA – Catapult Learning, a provider of intervention programs for students and professional development solutions for teachers in both public and nonpublic K-12 schools, today announced the availability of its new high-dosage tutoring offering, an intensive program designed to reinforce students’ foundational skills and quickly recover their unfinished learning. Debuting as students return to school, the program supports academic and social emotional growth during this critical time in their educational journey. It is uniquely designed for grades K-12 and features an acceleration approach that targets key prerequisite and grade-level standards and skills, providing a personalized plan to guide instruction and support differentiation.

With more than 5,000 educators, Catapult’s proprietary high-dosage tutoring program is designed to scale individualized learning. Led by expertly trained tutors, the program begins with an academic diagnostic assessment to pinpoint areas in which support is needed. From there, an individualized plan is created to set learning goals, followed by flexible instruction up to five times a week, with 45+ minute sessions in small group settings. Students are re-assessed throughout the program to monitor progress and growth, allowing for ongoing plan recalibration and goal resetting.

“Our high-dosage tutoring solution is an evolution in Catapult’s mission to help our partners positively impact every child with whom they engage,” said Devon Wible, vice president of academics, Catapult Learning. “This comprehensive and integrated approach for families and schools focuses on the whole student, optimizing academic and social-emotional outcomes to accelerate learning and enable significant achievement over a single school year.”…Read More

5 websites to help students build media literacy skills

Over the past couple years, students have been inundated with a near-steady stream of information and headlines about politics, racial and social unrest, the pandemic, and more. Helping students form discerning media literacy skills is even more essential.

Students must understand how to recognize reputable information and how to identify credible, high-quality journalism. Bias is everywhere, and it’s necessary for young people today to identify it and call it out.

Identifying bias and forming strong media literacy and evaluation skills starts in the classroom. Teachers need resources to illustrate the importance of these skills, and it’s never too early to expose students to news outlets and point out the difference between high-quality and suspect news.…Read More

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McGraw Hill Announces a Next Gen Update to Its Beloved Reading Mastery K–5 Instructional Solution

Learning science company McGraw Hill today announced the release of Reading Mastery Transformations, a long-awaited update to the beloved and effective English language arts solution for grades K–5, used in tens of thousands of classrooms across the country and trusted by educators for 65 years.

Reading Mastery, an evidence-based Direct Instruction program, is a comprehensive K–5 ELA curriculum that has been shown to improve reading performance for a wide range of students, including special education populations. Educators use Reading Mastery to systematically teach key foundational literacy skills and how to read, comprehend, and write narrative and informational text of increasing complexity—while building oral language fluency skills. Reading Mastery motivates learning, transforms teaching with greater efficiency, and achieves substantial results for children.

The Transformations Edition includes over 40% updated, meticulously curated, author-crafted content, combined with responsive data monitoring for identifying mastered skills, measuring achievement, targeting remediations, and facilitating mastery for all students. Leveraging the strong foundational skills pedagogy, the program now features multimedia and video content, critical classroom management updates, just-in-time remediations, and a focus on teaching students how to write and discuss, beginning as early as kindergarten.…Read More

Zaner-Bloser Partners with Listenwise to Sell Its Listening Skills Platform

Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of early literacy resources, has entered into an agreement with ed-tech company Listenwise, an award-winning platform that brings podcasts to the classroom, to promote and sell its listening skills platform of the same name to the K-5 market.

Launched in 2014 for secondary grade students and in 2020 for elementary school students, Listenwise harnesses the power of listening to advance literacy and learning in all students by using podcasts as classroom texts, amplifying content and providing students practice in required listening skills. It uses a curated collection of compelling, nonfiction podcasts and stories from National Public Radio and other trusted sources, paired with learning tools and comprehension assessments, to engage students while advancing their literacy skills. Aligned with all states’ English Language Arts standards, it’s a unique listening skills platform for the K-12 school market.

“We’re excited to promote and offer this program in alignment with our mission of providing joyful learning opportunities for all students,” said Amanda Stedke, Vice President of Product for Zaner-Bloser. “Listening to podcasts is an engaging way for all students to build their literacy skills.”…Read More

Super Duper Digital Library is selected as a Winner by Two Prestigious Family Awards Programs

The Super Duper Digital Library, a collection of hundreds of online cards, games, and worksheets to support reading and literacy skills for children in Pre-K – Grade 5, recently won two prestigious awards programs – the Family Choice Awards and the Mom’s Choice Awards.

The Family Choice Awards selected the Digital Library as a winner in four categories: Technology & Apps, Children (Early Elementary), Special Needs, and Music & Audio Books.

The Mom’s Choice Awards named the Digital Library a Gold winner, making it the 11th Super Duper product to earn the coveted Mom’s Choice Awards winner’s seal.…Read More

HEARBUILDER Online Foundational Literacy Program Builds Basic Skills in Young Students

With the onset of the COVID virus, millions of PreK to Grade 5 students across the U.S. may have fallen critically behind in the basic skills they need to become good readers and be successful in school. Now more than ever, parents, educators and specialists are focused on helping their young students make up for lost learning time. The HearBuilder online, research-based, foundational literacy program provides an excellent way for students to build their early education and literacy skills.

HearBuilder is the only online researched-based foundational literacy program in the country that addresses the four essential pre-literacy skills:

  • Following Directions with Basic Concepts
  • Sequencing
  • Auditory/Listening Memory and Comprehension
  • Phonological/Sound Awareness

It is ideal for helping young learners trying to stay current and get ahead in these basic skills because it:…Read More

How we turned around our reading program

Demographics:

Rockford Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in Illinois. More than 28,800 students attend the 44 schools in the district.

Biggest challenge:

There were many gaps in foundational reading across classrooms before we piloted our new reading program. It didn’t seem that we had a common methodology to teach foundational literacy. We were looking for a resource to fill this gap. We also were lacking in the area of personalized learning that supported foundational literacy skills. We were having trouble supporting students who needed extra help while providing enrichment for students who were already thriving.

Solution:

Every single student needs whole-group instruction that’s explicit, modeled, and demonstrated by teachers. Our literacy program supports best practice by encouraging teachers to implement the “I do, we do, you do,” approach to learning. After whole-group instruction, our teachers designate time for small-group learning. The expectation district-wide is for K–5 small-group lessons to happen every day. Teachers meet students where they are in their learning, using data to drive instruction. In Rockford, small group instruction includes skill-based groups, guided reading, or literature circles.…Read More

How we turned around our reading program

Demographics:

Rockford Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in Illinois, with more than 28,800 students and 44 schools.

Biggest challenge:

There were many gaps in foundational reading across classrooms before we piloted our new reading program. It didn’t seem that we had a common methodology to teach foundational literacy. We were looking for a resource to fill this gap. We also were lacking in the area of personalized learning that supported foundational literacy skills. We were having trouble supporting students who needed extra help while providing enrichment for students who were already thriving.

Solution:

Every single student needs whole-group instruction that’s explicit, modeled, and demonstrated by teachers. Our literacy program supports best practice by encouraging teachers to implement the “I do, we do, you do,” approach to learning. After whole-group instruction, our teachers designate time for small-group learning. The expectation district-wide is for K–5 small-group lessons to happen every day. Teachers meet students where they are in their learning, using data to drive instruction. In Rockford, small-group instruction includes skill-based groups, guided reading, or literature circles.…Read More