Literacy (Reading & Writing)
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Description: Based on the work of the CEEDAR Center and Council for Exceptional Children, the GMU TTAC Team has created High Leverage Practice Crosswalks in the areas of Math, Literacy and Transition to support stakeholders in developing personalized professional learning and targeted support, with the goal of bridging research into “practical” classroom practice to improve performance outcomes. The HLP Crosswalks are dynamic documents that will be periodically updated with the most current...
Description: With the passage of the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA) in the 2022 General Assembly, Virginia is taking the lead nationwide to improve early literacy outcomes for Virginia’s young learners. Through the VLA, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) will support school divisions through a multi-year effort with tools, resources, technical assistance and funding.
Description: This guide designed to support professionals and families in understanding assistive technology (AT) and identifying possible AT tools for students from preschool through high school. (Updated 9/2023) “I have severe dyslexia and it's hard for me to read and write. In the eighth grade, I could not write down a single word. The first time I used a program with voice recognition, I wrote a whole short story. Using AT means I can do things myself and I don't have to depend on someone else to...
Description: AIM-VA (Accessible Instructional Materials of Virginia), Bookshare, CommonLit - The Library (a free digital collection of fiction and nonfiction for classrooms), Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) - The Education Guide, Learning Ally - Unlocking Student Potential through Literacy Solutions, Library and Resource Center (Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired, DBVI), National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS): The Library of Congress, ReadWorks, Student...
Description: Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.
Description: 10 Podcasts for Dyslexia Awareness - Podcasts are a great way to incorporate media consumption into your daily life. Unlike video or reading from books, podcasts are made to be listened to “on the go”. The listening format is particularly accessible for people with dyslexia and those who find themselves super busy. I enjoy listening to podcasts in the car and while exercising. While you can find podcasts about virtually ANY topic, it is worthwhile for teachers to listen to dyslexia...
Description: The IDA Dyslexia Handbook What Every Family Should Know provides necessary information regarding: definition of dyslexia characteristics of dyslexia appropriate assessment tools evidence-based interventions, suggestions for managing a dyslexic’s educational process In addition, helpful resources and a glossary of terms are provided to better understand dyslexia and its relateddisorders.
Description: If we don’t implement critical components of an intervention with consistency, we cannot link student outcomes to the instruction provided. Fidelity can help us to determine the effectiveness of an intervention, and identify if a student requires more intensive supports. This resource outlines five elements of fidelity and provides guiding questions for each.
Description: This Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) and Reading presentationwas given at the Science of Teaching Reading Conference at the College of William and Mary on September 30, 2022.
Description: This Science of Reading inforgraphic shows the What, Why and How of Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Fluency and Vocabulary which all lead to Comprehension. This infographic is from R.I.S.E. Arkansas.
Description: Why is it important for students and families to be involved in AT decision-making? “Using AT means I can do things myself and I don't have to depend on someone else to help me." ~Olivia Hampton, I'm Determined Youth Summit, 2019 Check out these Professional Learning Possibilities on TTAC Online: Resource: AT Tools in Schools - 2nd Edition Resource: Information Gathering for AT Consideration Resource: 5 self-advocacy sentence starters for grade-schoolers with dyslexia Resource:...
Description: Assistive Technology That's Built Into Mobile Devices - Most smartphones and digital tablets have built-in assistive technology (AT) that can help with learning and thinking differences. The range of AT features varies depending on the device’s operating system. But iOS devices like iPhones, as well as Android devices like Samsung Galaxy phones, all have built-in AT tools. You don’t need to buy special apps to use these built-in AT features.
Description: This 2023 Children’s Mental Health Report takes a close look at the following topics to see what can ve done to remedy this urgent problem: What we know about how reading difficulties can affect kids’ mental health The latest brain-based research on how children learn to read, and how the brains of children with dyslexia are different What the evidence tells us about the most effective ways to teach children to read How we can work together to help the next generation of American...
Description: The Commonwealth of Virginia is making a significant investment in public education with $418 million dedicated to high dosage academic tutoring, accelerating the expansion of the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), and combatting chronic absenteeism.
Description: Unite for Literacy pictures a world where all children have access to an abundance of books that celebrate their languages and cultures and cultivate a lifelong love of reading. Unite for Literacy has developed the platform, publishing tools, and systems-based strategies that support our public and private sector partners to change the literacy landscape of their communities and optimize the future for all their young children. Our projects build home libraries and support families to develop a...
Description: How can data-based individualization (DBI) help educators to address the growing expectations for literacy outcomes for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities? In this webinar, Dr. Chris Lemons an NCII Advisor, Associate Professor of Special Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, and Co-Director of the Stanford Down Syndrome Research Center, provides an overview of activities conducted through an Office of Special Education Programs model...
Description: Course Enhancement Module (CEM): Reading - Through this CEM, participants will learn about intervention practices and assessments that can be integrated within a comprehensive, evidence-based reading intervention program. These tools and practices involve multiple levels of interventions, including classwide, small group, and individual reading practices. Candidates, who gain knowledge about how to use these tools and practices effectively, will become proficient in using reading data to...
Description: Recorded Webinar: Leveraging Data-Based Individualization (DBI) to Design and Deliver Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) - In this webinar, experts from the PROGRESS Center and National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) model how practitioners can use data-based individualization (DBI) to develop and implement SDI for students with disabilities and a panel of special educators share how using DBI improved the efficiency and effectiveness of their service delivery, communication with...
Description: RTI (Part 3): Reading Instruction - This module illustrates different research-based reading strategies that may be used with the response-to-intervention model to improve reading skills (est. completion time: 1.5 hours). This module was developed in collaboration with the Tennessee State Improvement Grant and the Tennessee Department of Education.
Description: Family News: What is Science-Based Reading Research? Science-based reading instruction is based on research from many different fields: Education, Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Linguistics. Research identies important content and teaching methods. Science-based reading research leads to science-based reading instruction. Video: Science-Based Reading Research and the Virginia Literacy Act - What Families Need to Know Family Resources How Can My Child Listen to Books at Home? How Can My...
Description: A resource dedicated to helping parents and families help to support your children's reading development. CBM stands for Curriculum-Based Measure. CBMs are short timed tests that measure important early reading skills and are designed to help parents and educators understand their children's risk for developing reading difficulties in the future.
Description: Phonemic Awareness- Phoneme Manipulating: Phoneme Swap (FCRR) - Teacher ready instructional activities for phoneme substitutions. PHONEME DELETION is a strategy that helps develop students’ phonemic awareness, which is part of phonological awareness. Phoneme deletion involves having students manipulate spoken words by deleting specific phonemes. If this task is too difficult initially, you can begin by having students delete syllables in compound words. Phoneme deletion tasks...
Description: This site includes Professional Learning Module Series, Instructional Resources & Materials as well as a Professional Learning Library.
Description: Dyslexia affects up to 1 in 5 people, but the experience of dyslexia isn't always the same. This difficulty in processing language exists along a spectrum -- one that doesn't necessarily fit with labels like "normal" and "defective." Kelli Sandman-Hurley urges us to think again about dyslexic brain function and to celebrate the neurodiversity of the human brain. Lesson by Kelli Sandman-Hurley, animation by Marc Christoforidis.
Description: This webinar is an Overview of the New State Literacy Screener Virginia Literacy and Language Screening System (VALLSS). (Length 43:46)
Description: This is the recording of the Virginia Literacy Act: Statewide Training for Reading Specialists that took place on March 29, 2023. (Length: 1:06:27)
Description: The is the recording of the webinar, Overview of the Virginia Literacy Act, from September 8, 2022.
Description: The Approved Core Instructional Program Guide (PDF) provides an overview of the approved core instructional programs. To compile this guide, VDOE partnered with Virginia Literacy Partnerships (VLP) at the University of Virginia School of Education to facilitate reviews of core instructional programs. The Core Instructional Review Process is unique to Virginia and consists of two phases, each with discrete rubrics for each grade band. Rubrics were produced by VLP and reviewed by...
Description: Morpheme slide decks for use on your interactive white boards are contained in The Reading League’s Knowledge Base - Frequently Requested Resources. This link will take you to virtual morpheme boards, when you scroll down. Clicking on the 3 links will prompt you to create your own copy for editing and use as virtual manipulatives in the classroom. -TRL Morpheme Board – Base Words with Prefixes and Suffixes -TRL Morpheme Board – Greek Roots -TRL...
Description: Literacy expert Timothy Shanahan shares best practices for teaching reading and writing. Dr. Shanahan is an internationally recognized professor of urban education and reading researcher who has extensive experience with children in inner-city schools and children with special needs. All posts are reprinted with permission from Shanahan on Literacy.
Description: This is a compilation of resources from NCII. Progress Monitoring Progress Monitoring Overview, Academic Progress and Behavior Progress Monitoring Tools Chart & Student Monitoring Tool for Data Collection and Graphing (Excel) (NCII) Self-Paced Modules: What is Progress Monitoring?, How Do I Select an Academic Progress Monitoring Measure? & Graphing and Analyzing Academic Progress Monitoring Data (NCII) Intensive Instruction Intensifying Literacy Instruction: Essential Practices &...
Description: This page includes a listing of all of the Practice Guides covering various content areas (Literacy, Math, and Postsecondary Transition) and tiers.
Description: This resource allows the student to blend syllables in words.
Description: The Virginia Department of Education’s website houses vital information to support students in the Commonwealth. The dyslexia page shares the VA regulations definition, mandatory training and implementation of the Dyslexia Advisor.
Description: The Reading League Virginia hosted members from the Virginia Literacy Partnership (VLP) office of UVA to share updates to the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALLSS, formerly PALS) in preparation for statewide implementation in school year 2024-2025.
Description: This resource contains frequently asked questions about English Orthography.
Description: English language learners (ELLs) represent one of the fastest-growing population segments in the United States. Yet many of the challenges these kids have while learning English – reading struggles, difficulty associating letters to sounds, and lags in rapid naming of objects – are also signs of dyslexia. This makes diagnosing dyslexia in non-native speakers especially difficult. Hear from Fumiko Hoeft M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at...
Description: As you teach content areas to ELLs of diverse backgrounds, you may find that they struggle to grasp the content, and that they approach the content from very different perspectives. Drawing on your students' background knowledge and experiences, can be an effective way to bridge those gaps and to make the content more accessible. This article offers a number of suggestions to classroom teachers as they find ways to tap into the background knowledge that students bring with them.
Description: To be effective, a program of vocabulary instruction should provide students with opportunities for word learning by: encouraging wide reading; exposing students to high-quality oral language; promoting word consciousness; providing explicit instruction of specific words; and providing modeling and instruction in independent word-learning strategies. Each of these components contributes to helping students overcome the major obstacles to vocabulary growth.
Description: Connecting grammar and writing in meaningful ways can be done. Steps to show that grammar is a tool to benefit writing include: Acknolwedge Previous Lessons Use the Correct Terminology Grammar is a Postive Tool Conference Explain the "Why"
Description: Teaching young students how to write by hand before moving on to keyboarding can help improve their reading fluency as well.
Description: The Science of Reading Professional Learning Series - These Science of Reading slide decks are intended to be a resource for school leaders who provide professional development for staff in the area of literacy. We know that each educator is in a different place in their understanding of what is meant by the phrase The Science of Reading and how that science informs what we teach and how we teach it. These slide decks provide a brief overview of each of the topics. These serve as a starting...
Description: 2022 Virtual Reading Symposium Recordings Keynote by Emily Handord: Discovering The Science of Reading: A Reporter's Story Concurrent Sessions: Resha Conroy- Literacy Achievement: Historical & Systemic Barriers to Equity Holly Lane- Practical Strateies for Decoding an Encoding Margie Gillis - The Syntax Attuned Educator: Supporting Students' Ability to Comprehend and Write Sentences Claude Goldenberg - Literacy for English Learners: What's "Reading Science" Got to Do With It? Kim St. Martin:...
Description: GMU TTAC compiled a list of free phonological awareness resources, including: Professional Learning & Resource Websites, Professional Learning Webinars, Videos on Phonology, Articles, IES Practice Guides, Teaching Resources, EL Resources: Phonological Awareness for Spanish Speakers, Professional Learning Library, and Podcasts.
Description: This is a step by step instructional routine for addressing irregular or high frequency words.
Description: The goal of the scaffolds is to move the students to independent fluent reading, as fast as possible, and only as slow as necessary for mastery. The scaffolds are taught to the students, modeled by the teacher, and prompted during guided practice and independent practice (I do, we do, you do).
Description: These are instructional routines to be used for daily comulative review: phonemic awareness, phonetic word decoding and phonemic word encoding.
Description: Use this tool along with reading passages to expand in the oral expression of reading comprehension. The purpose of this tool is to expand student’s expressive language skills. Language is one half of the simple view of reading. Use this to scaffold student’s use of language during and after text reading, through modeling and guided practice. Developing oral language supports the development of reading comprehension.
Description: This profile includes: Student Information Baseline Skills Assessment Data Students with Disabilities - Norm Referenced Assessment Data IEP Goals Mathematics iReady Dat PALS Reading Data Behavior & Social-Emotional Skills Academic, Behavior, Social/Emotional Strengths & Areas of Growth Learning Environment Relevant Family Information
Description: Literacy & HLP 12: Systematicaly design instruction toward a specific learning goal. GMU TTAC: A Quick Reference Guide To English Orthography GMU TTAC: List of Recommended Phonological Awareness Resources GMU TTAC: Resource List for Guided and Independent Practice Literacy & HLP 14: Teach cognitive and metacognitive strategies to support learning and independence. Zaner Bloser: Beyond Word Recognition Webinar Series GMU TTAC: Informal Metacognition Inventory GMU TTAC: Language...