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Research shows that children want assistance with finding a reading book. While your students search the stacks, here's some helpful tips for teachers. 
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Fluency Tutor is an application for Google Chrome which allows educators to assign reading passages to students via their Google Drive accounts.
Beth Dichter's insight:
If you have Chrome installed on computers at your school consider checking out this app called Fluency Tutor. The website states FluencyTutor "is an easy-to-use, time-saving leveled reading and assessment tool that helps busy teachers support struggling readers. Teachers pick reading passages based on content, lexile level or reading age and share with individual students or groups via Google Drive." Students may access material from home or school and can record passages. Text-to-speech, a dictionary, a picture dictionary and translation tools are also available. The teacher dashboard and the student area for interaction is free. If you want to be able to see analytics, track progress, and more there is a charge of $99 per year (for teachers). Tools such as this are great free resources for many students. You might also want to check out Read&Write for Google.
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Different students have different ways of learning, and this is absolutely true for literacy. Jules Daulby, whose wheelhouse includes SEN and English teaching, discusses how a certain amount of pupils are best learning with their ears...
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post begins: "In order to be an effective reader, two skills are required:
The post also provides access to an interview with Dr. Keith Stanovich who "argues that reading improves ‘crystallized intelligence’ and compares children who do not learn to read with those who do, by using ‘the Matthew Effect’ analogy." The question remains, how do we help students whom do not read well, who have difficulty decoding text? We need to seriously consider the options, which include aural text (as in text that is read to students). This issue is close to my heart. We want our students to be successful, yet we do not provide tools that are readily available to all who would benefit from them. This post looks at resources that are available in England for struggling readers. I will add a number of resources that are available in the US, and others may add resources for their countries in the comment section. The question that each of us must answer is should we advocate for our students who are struggling with their reading skills to be able to use TTS (text-to-speech) programs that provide them with the ability to listen to the text and understand the text, without necessarily relying on their decoding skills? Do we give them the opportunity to level the playing field? By providing students with access to text that meets their learning style, we have given them the opportunity to be successful. Today there are many free (or low cost) tools available that allow students to have text read to them. In the US two key players that help provide text to students (think books) with diagnosed reading disabilities are Bookshare, which provides free access to many books as well as TTS software and Learning Ally, which has many resources for students with dyslexia but may also require a membership fee. Additional sites to check out are Natural Voice Reader, which will read digitized text directly from a website and Rewordify, which will simplify the text. Do you know free (or low cost) tools that help struggling readers? Please share them in the comment section.
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Last week, Texthelp announced that a surprise was coming soon in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. Today that surprise was revealed - Read&Write for Google is now Free for Teachers!
Beth Dichter's insight:
ReadWrite Gold for Chrome is a great tool...and is once again free for educators! What does it do? It is a Chome "extension that provides comprehensive reading and writing supports for Google Docs and the Web as well as PDFs, ePubs, and KES files stored in Google Drive." Specific features include: * Read Aloud that has dual highlighting * Word prediction * Talking and picture dictionaries * Annotations and much more. If you already have ReadWrite Gold installed you can upgrade by going to this link: http://rw.texthelp.com/drive/home/RegisterTeacher If you do not have it yet download the 30 day trial. You may register for the free version afterwards.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
September 8th is International Literacy Day and a number of infographics are available (simply by searching). This infographic was published by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and it looks at the rate of literacy across the globe by gender and age (adult being defined as >15), where they live, who will be illiterate in the future, what the future holds for them and raises the question "How can we change their destiny?" Why share this infographic? Would it help our students to know that there are many people in the world who do not have access to school, to the ability to become literate, and to know that due to that their lives will have limitations simply due to this fact? Part of being a citizen today is raising awareness in our students of what happens beyond their school, their home town, the US and what is happening across the world. We celebrate literacy with our children. Perhaps we can also make them aware that others do not share this opportunity and consider what we might do to help them.
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"Found this fantastic infographic touting the success of infographics. Reading it (or more correctly, viewing it) immediately focused my thoughts on the use of visual texts in classrooms today...Unlike other infographics I link to on Mr G Online, I’m not going to discuss the specific points presented – that would be contradictory to the message of the infographic. I’ll let you get your own meaning from it. However, I am going to reflect on how it made me consider the use of visual texts in education."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Mark Gleason provides reflection on this interactive infographic (click through to the infographic in the link provided in his post) and his insight will help people in the field of education reflect on their use of visual texts and why we should consider using them more often. Gleason states "Literacy Education has been dominated by the written word, and to a lesser extent, spoken word in the form schooling has taken over the 100-200 years of formal education as we know it." Based on information in this infographic he states "If 70% of our sensory receptors are in our eyes, then why do we persist in TALKING so much as teachers?"... an excellent question for us to ponder. He continues to explore this area in a variety of areas that are found in education. I posted a link to this infographic in mid-June and this post made me go back to the infographic and look at it again. Consider sharing the infographic and this post with faculty in your school. Reflect on how much you use visuals in your classroom. Ask yourself "Am I meeting the needs of my students? Do I provide visuals as well as written and oral instruction? Would a visual make this easier for my students to understand?
Nancy Jones's curator insight,
July 15, 2013 1:50 PM
As a visual learner myself, I love onto graphics, beginning with the dAiley ones posted NBC USA Today since its inception. 
Caleb Yap's curator insight,
July 17, 2013 11:30 PM
really? more of these non-classical pedagogical methods? 
Audrey's curator insight,
August 29, 2013 2:53 PM
You can absorb the visual faster and make sense of it in a holistic way; particularly if you spend time engaging with the information from different physical points of view. The information is embedded in the memory because the individual is encouraged to project their own meaning. Having been directed to view educational materials, the learner can them be asked questions to test their understanding.
Visual learning is necessary from a young age and is what home school sources learning is all about.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out tools that will help you teach academic vocabulary and also find a link to a LiveBinder that provides resources on the Common Core and Literacy Standards.
Dirk Mast's curator insight,
November 16, 2013 9:52 AM
Just like the acronym conundrum. We need to know what the terms mean.
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"Literacy-rich environments, as endorsed by the International Reading Association, have a significant impact on what goes on in the classroom and set the stage for interactions with a wide variety of genres... Perhaps we should begin by focusing attention on the classroom environment and making certain that it is a place that supports and encourages literacy learning. A literacy-rich environment not only supports the standards set by the Common Core, but also provides a setting that encourages and supports speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a variety of authentic ways – through print & digital media."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post includes an infographic that looks at the top ten characteristics of a literacy-rich classroom as well as a range of suggestions and links to additional resources. Many great ideas!
PGI- VBCPS's curator insight,
January 9, 2013 8:28 AM
This post includes an infographic that looks at the top ten characteristics of a literacy-rich classroom as well as a range of suggestions and links to additional resources. Many great ideas!
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Is traditional reading and writing enough to be considered literate in the 21st century? Check out this slideshow from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano which asks us to "rethink our notion of critical literacy." She also suggests that we "develop authentic learning and assessment opportunities {as we} upgrade and amplify our curriculum."
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The hard truth is people have to be able to read and write, or they’re going to be at a severe disadvantage in life. Did you know that "93 million American adults have limited reading and quantitative skills," that "literacy is tied to better health, employment and correlates to children's literacy." This infographic provides a picture on illiteracy in the America.
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How can we best use educational media and technology to promote early reading? The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the New American Foundation have reviewed the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading ("a collaborative effort by dozens of partners from philantropy, government, business, and the non-profit and voluntary sectors to mobilize measureable community action to help close the dismal gaps in reading by third grade"), specifically one area - "the possibility that well-deployed technology could be a 'game changer' in moving the literacy needle." This short post provides an overview of their initial findings as well as links to a variety of resources, including a SlideShare "Early literacy and technology - scanning the landscape." To go directly to the SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/cooneycenter/early-literacy-and-technology-a-scan-of-the-landscape.
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It's National Share a Story month! Read, share and enjoy lots of wonderful stories with these great resources. A wide range of stories, ranging from videos, to signed stories, audio stories and many more!
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"Professor Daniel Willingham describes why content knowledge is essential to reading with comprehension, and why teaching reading strategies alone is not sufficient..." This video is referenced in an article published on The Core Knowledge Blog titled 'Meet the Children Where The Are...and Keep Them There.' This articles discusses the "three big ideas embedded within the English Language Arts standards that deserve to be at the very heart of literacy instruction in U.S. classrooms, with or with or without standards themselves." Take the time to read the article and watch the video. The article is located at: http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2012/02/27/meet-the-children-where-they-are-and-keep-them-there/
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Researchers in the fairly new field of music neuroscience are finding that kids who learn to play a musical instrument also develop important skills related to literacy, math and mental focus.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Does learning to play an instrument impact other abilities of students? Based on recent research the answer would be yes. What abilities? "Speech perception, the ability to understand emotions in the voice and the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously." We might speak of these as executive functioning skills. One quote from the post: “There are a lot of different brain systems involved in successfully playing even a small musical piece: your auditory system, your motor system, your emotional system, your executive function system; this playing together of these brain regions, almost like in a musical ensemble.” Learn more about how playing an instrument may impact the brain as well how music may change brain plasticity (using the acronym OPERA to describe it) and how literacy might be tested through music. If your school has a music program this post will provide evidence to support the continued funding of the program, and if your school is considering adding music instruction it would also provide support.
Justin Harrison's curator insight,
November 11, 2018 10:48 PM
This article is a very insightful one. it furthers the proof of music helping the brain in not only adult brains but children as well. It explains that music helps children learn literacy skills as well as boosting their brain development. The resource is reliable because of it being an organization. Although it is not a website for music and audio professionals it supports the use of music to help in the development of children brains.
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How to use open-ended, close-ended, and a double question technique to inspire deeper thinking in your students.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Teaching students to ask questions is not an easy task. This is the first in a series of two posts that will explore ways that teachers may ask questions to help their students "learn more from text and from the world around them." He is using the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears to model a number of strategies to use in the classroom * Tell - Read the story or have them read the story. Ask questions that refer back to the text * Suggest - Provide "children with choices about what might happen next or possible opinions they might have." * Ask a closed question - "These questions generally elicit yes or no answers. They can bring students to different temporal areas or elaborations of details, but the extent of this is structured by the question." * Ask an open ended question - questions that provide lots of options. * The two-question rule - follow the first question with a second question allowing students to probe more deeply (and sometimes a third question). Find examples of questions for each area listed above as well as the reasoning behind why the two-question rule is a good one to use.
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"As the cities that have hosted Code for America teams will tell you, the greatest contribution the young programmers bring isn't the software they write. It's the way they think. It's a principle called "computational thinking," and knowing all of the Java syntax in the world won't help if you can't think of good ways to apply it."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Should we be teaching coding to our students? What does computer literacy mean? And what is computational thinking? These are some of the questions addressed in this article from Mother Jones. Let's start with the question 'What is computational thinking?' Below is a quote from the article. "If you've ever improvised dinner, pat yourself on the back: You've engaged in some light CT...If seeing the culinary potential in raw ingredients is like computational thinking, you might think of a software algorithm as a kind of recipe: a step-by-step guide on how to take a bunch of random ingredients and start layering them together in certain quantities, for certain amounts of time, until they produce the outcome you had in mind." There are so many quotes I could pull from this article to share. Below are two more and I would urge you to take the time to click through and read the entire article (and it is quite long). Along with a information on the history of literacy (as in reading and writing as well as computer) you will find a video of individuals (some of whom you will recognize) talking about how they became involved in computational literacy as well as many graphs and images. On to the quotes... "Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior," she writes in a publication of the Association for Computing Machinery. Those are handy skills for everybody, not just computer scientists. And while many kids have mad skills in movie editing or Photoshopping, such talents can lull parents into thinking they're learning real computing. "We teach our kids how to be consumers of technology, not creators of technology," notes the NSF's Cuny.
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"When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, we all hear about the typical weight/health/finance related promises we make to ourselves – but why not use this yearly changeover to make some classroom promises instead? We can all use some new goals, and our students will be the ones benefiting from the changes with us. Win-win, I’d say!"
Beth Dichter's insight:
Five ideas that you may want to try in 2014 in your classroom...and if you are already doing one of them consider the others or how you might improve on what you are doing. * I will experiment with technology that scares me. * I will consistently try new approaches to learning. * I will teach through moments. * I will create a system that honors students. * I will think literacy backwards. For more detailed information click through to the post.
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"Literacy is changing. It really is. Even in my grade one classroom as the students begin to learn their letters and sounds, as they start to put those letters and sounds together into words, and as they take their first hesitant steps to read and write —literacy is changing. The change in our classroom was subtle at first. When my students began writing the word we with two i’s, I smiled and talked about the more traditional spelling of the word. When students came to school with a clear understanding of what it meant to get to the next level or to have several lives, I took notice of the new vocabulary they had."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Putting young students together with technology creates a win-win situation in this classroom. Learn how one teacher has her students writing in blogs to share their work, using twitter, learning vocabulary (such as pingback) and much more. This post is complete with a video where students provide definitions of words and share how they use technology in their classroom.
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I'm an evangelist.
Beth Dichter's insight:
What would happen if you asked your students' to reflect on their reading history...and then have them create an infographic that helps them dig a bit deeper and share what they have learned? According to this teacher the finished product is pretty amazing! She began with an article from the NYTimes "What's Your Reading History? Reflecting on the Self as Reader". Then she had students explore infographics and critique them as a group. The students then explored a number of websites that allow you to create infographics (and links are provided to them) and students chose one to work with. The post provides links to a number of infographics made by the students. And the link to the article at the NYTimes is http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/whats-your-reading-history-reflecting-on-the-self-as-reader/?_r=0.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
The digital tools listed in this post are focused on vocabulary instruction, a key concern given the Common Core State Standards. Vocabulary comes into play when we look at reading, writing, speaking and listening. Students need to have a broad vocabulary, and we can support this through both direct and indirect instruction. This post provides links to online tools in the areas of: * Reference Tools * Word Clouds * Games and Reviews The post states: Digital tools allows students to: * hear pronunciations; * read words in a variety of authentic examples; * view photos and images related to words; * reinforce word learning through interactive games; * play with and manipulate language; * discover rhyming words; and * collaborate with classmates to create virtual words walls. Consider checking out this post and providing time for students to explore some of these tools in and outside the classroom.
Ness Crouch's curator insight,
March 2, 2013 10:00 PM
Literacy is a keystone of education. Teachers must constantly stay ahead of digital tools to all them to teach students. This list of resources is an excellent way to help stay in front!
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How does reading proficiency impact a child's life? Check out this infographic to find out. Research is showing that the a child's reading level in 3rd grade is an indicator of future success.
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An elementary school teacher shares how she downloads "books that are currently free at Amazon" and loads them on iPads for her students to read. She provides the details to know how she makes it work. The website she uses to find the free books is One Hundred Free Books. The link is http://onehundredfreebooks.com/. This site publishes names of free books across many genres including Free Fiction, Non-Fiction, Romance, Mystery, Thrillers, Young Adult, and Cooking Books.
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A suggested but not exhaustive list of possible applications that may help foster 21st Century Skills in today's language learners. Although geared to language learners the applications suggested work well in any course. The skills listed (with applications to go with them) are: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility and adaptability, iniative and self-direction, social and corss-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility.
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An English and Media Studies teachers looks at iPads and how they may prove to be a "pivotal tool for effective and engaging group teaching and learning, it has the potential to promote literacy and reading in an innovative and exciting fashion." The post provides 10 practical teaching and learning strategies to enhance reading using the iPad.
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High school students today are reading books intended for children with reading levels far below those appropriate for teens, according to a recent report. Renaissance Learning, Inc. has released "What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools." The data in the report comes from "the Accelerated Reader Real Time database (which) includes book-reading records for more than 7.6 million studentsfrom 24,265 schools nationwide who read more than 241 million books during the 2010–2011 school year. Based on the ATOS readability formula (which looks at vocabulary and sentence complexity) the reading level of many books used in high school are often at 4th to 5th grade level. This article lists the top 20 books read among US high schoolers in 2010 -2011 and additional information. The complete report is available as a pdf file at
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Here are five great tips for helping students find books - a great find for librarians and for teachers in elementary school. The short hand version of the tips is below and additional information is located in the post..
1. Get to know the student
2. Experiment
3. Exposure
4. Permission to abandon the book
5. Time to look.
The visual above is not found on the site, but is found on Edutopia's Facebook page and also on Flickr.