Literacy Is Equity ▬ Fordham Institute

Literacy Is Equity

A Nation of Readers

Fordham Institute: 2.11.2020 by Robert Pondiscio

Any discussion about “equity” in education that is not first and foremost a discussion about literacy is unserious. Wide and persistent gaps between White and Black students, stretching back decades, make it abundantly clear—or ought to—that state education officials have no more urgent business to attend to than ensuring that every child can read in every school under their control or influence. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress has turned grim with two-thirds of states showing no progress on reading at all, and seventeen declining in the most recent round of testing in 2019. With profound and persistent disruptions to schooling in the past year, there is no basis to be optimistic for a reversal of these trends any time soon.

To its credit, the Council of Chief State School Officers understands this rock-bottom priority. CCSSO has emerged in recent years as a consistent, informed, and energetic proponent of the “science of reading,” and has put considerable effort into championing state initiatives to encourage the adoption and implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) in literacy. Its new report, A Nation of Readers, describes “concrete actions” that state leaders can take to improve the caliber of reading instruction and materials in classrooms within their borders. It’s required reading for any state or district official in a position to influence curriculum adoptions, professional development, or teacher training and certification.  READ MORE ➤➤

 

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 16

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: College graduate

 

Literacy Reports & Statistics

Children

Kids and Family Reading Report, Scholastic
Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation
National/State Report Cards – Reading, NCES
State of Preschool, NIEER
2021: A Nation of Readers, CCSSO
2018: Education Leader’s Guide to Reading Growth, Renaissance
2018
READ•FOR•SUCCESS: Combating the Summer Learning Slide in America, RIF
2009: Developing Early Literacy, National Early Literacy Panel - NIFL
2003: The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3, American Educator

 

What Science Can’t Explain About Reading ▬ Medium.com

What Science Can’t Explain About Reading
It exercises the brain and brings a lot of joy to people, but how are we wired to respond?

Science of Reading

Medium.com: 11.29.2020 by EveryLibrary

It may come as a surprise to many who are naturally used to reading books, labels, road signs, etc. on a daily basis that reading is not a natural occurrence our brains are wired to know. In fact, our brains are designed for talking and not reading, which is why it takes extra effort to learn how. Those who are not exposed to reading techniques at a young age can struggle as they get older which is why schools are so focused on closing the gap and teaching students how to read proficiently early on.

Everyone has the potential to learn how to read regardless of background, especially if their instruction is based on science and prevention of reading failure rather than the experiences of the teacher. This way, students are less likely to fall behind in their reading and learning and will develop the literacy skills that become important for their futures.

What Is the Science of Reading?

The science behind reading has been debated and researched by experts for over two decades. It is based on the knowledge of reading experts and cognitive scientists who have studied how humans learn to read and how this is developed over time. This evidence-based research on reading strategies has made its way into the curriculum and, in some states, are even required to be implemented by law to ensure that schools are doing what they need to ensure students are learning effective reading skills. For example, elementary education license holders may need to show proficiency in scientific reading instruction and school districts may need to provide continuous training in evidence-based reading and curriculum evaluations to prove that the content is effective.

How We Learn to Read

There are multiple aspects that contribute to how we learn to read and multiple approaches that researchers have used to explain the learning process. Reading skills develop from a very young age and building blocks needed to grow these skills affect how children read later on. This is why it is so important that educators have solid foundations in teaching reading abilities.

Factors that play into how we learn to read include developing awareness of phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary skills, and reading comprehension. A major approach that has been used to explain the science behind reading includes the phonics approach.

➤ Reading Through Phonics
➤ Beyond Phonics
➤ Reading Failure
➤ Benefits of Reading
➤ Using Your Public Library to Read

READ MORE ➤➤

 

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 12

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 17-18 yrs. old

(Twelfth graders)

Apps for Older Struggling Readers and Writers ▬ Literacy Nest

Apps for Older Struggling Readers and Writers

Reading & Writing
APPS

Literacy Nest: Mar 2020

Do you have an older, struggling reader or writer? Here are some useful APPS for older struggling readers and writers.

As your students become older and the demands on them in the classroom increase.  The role of technology moves from a tool for practice and skill reinforcement, to that of assistive technology. Assistive technology is a tool to assist your students in completing grade-level expectations and allowing them to share their knowledge without being hindered by their reading and writing challenges. Assistive technology can take many forms, but the primary goal is to create a level playing field for those with language-based reading disabilities. Fortunately, today’s digital natives are fast learners when it comes to technology.

While assistive technology can help your students show their knowledge, it is not a substitute for explicit instruction by a highly trained professional. Students still need to be explicitly taught about spelling, morphology and phonics.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old

(Tenth to Eleventh graders)

The A-Z Of EdTech Literacy ▬ The Edavocate

The A-Z Of EdTech Literacy: Letters A-B

EdTech Literacy

The Edavocate: April 2017 by Matthew Lynch

As a teacher, it’s your job to make sure your students are technology-literate. Limiting students’ exposure to today’s digital devices in favor of sticking with more traditional media will only hurt them in the end. Students need to be able to learn and compete effectively in a world where technology is only becoming more and more important to higher education, work, and everyday life. To introduce your students to the latest technology, you need to be technology-literate. To help, I decided to create a guide that explains the A-Z of what it means to be literate in all things edtech. In this article, we will tackle A-B.

The A-Z of EdTech Literacy: Letters C-F

The A-Z of EdTech Literacy: Letters G-M

The A-Z of EdTech Literacy: Letters N-P

The A-Z of EdTech Literacy: Letters S-W

READ MORE ➤➤

11 Learning Apps For 19-year Olds ▬ Pedagogue

11 Learning Apps For 19-year Olds

Learning Apps

Pedagogue: 1.03.2021 by Matthew Lynch

Are you looking for learning apps, tools, and resources that you can use with 19-year olds? If so, we have you covered. Check out our list below. Let us know if there are any that we missed. [ 4 of the 11 ]

3D Molecules Edit & Test Interactive Simulations
Helps high school or college chemistry students learn by building 3-D models of organic and inorganic compounds for simple practice or for 3-D printing.

Code Avengers
This platform teaches advanced levels of students to program using real code.

Albert
Albert is an online tool to help students prepare for AP (Advanced Placement) and standardized tests.

PrepMe
Use PrepMe to provide a unique approach to ACT^®, SAT^®, and PSAT^®test preparation.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 9

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 13-15 yrs. old

(Eighth and Ninth graders)

Alphabet City @ Summer Learning Tips to Go !

Summer Learning Tips to Go !

Start With A Book: August 2020

Sample tips

Here are examples of the kinds of tips and activity ideas you'll receive though our text messaging service.

Alphabet city

On a walk together, look for the shapes of letters in the buildings all around you. More ideas: Builders and Buildings

Ciudad del alfabeto

Den un paseo juntos y busquen figuras de letras en los edificios a su alrededor. Más ideas: Builders and Buildings

Mapmaker

After reading a favorite book, have your child draw a map of the book's setting. More ideas: Map Making

Cartógrafo

Después de leer un libro favorito, ponga a su niño a dibujar un mapa de la configuración del libro. Más ideas: Map Making

Nature scavenger hunt

Make a list of things to find outside (such as an acorn, stone, or feather). Give your child the list and let the hunt begin! More ideas: Outdoor Explorations

Casería de la naturaleza

Dele al niño una lista de cosas para buscar afuera (bellota, piedra, pluma) y ¡qué comience la cacería! Más ideas: Outdoor Explorations

Be sure to come back in May to sign up for another summer season of learning tips in English or Spanish, delivered by text message!  READ MORE ➤➤

Alphabet City - Stephen Johnson

Best Children's Books

Alphabet City is a wordless tour of NYC, with each photo-realistic illustration depicting a different letter of the alphabet. Kids will delight in finding letters depicted in ordinary street objects like a Z in a fire escape or a P in a subway handrail.

Johnson's stunning illustrations are so photo-realistic you'll have to continually remind yourself that they are paintings, not photographs! While most letters are immediately apparent in the illustration, other letters are less obvious. However, since the book is in abc order, the reader knows what to look for an the shape pops out fairly quickly.  READ MORE ➤➤

Alphabet City

Grafik: 7.21.2014

The Big Letter Hunt is the first book by a new indie publishing house in London, Tower Block Books. Living up to it's name, the book is a visual tour of east London architecture, picking out letter-shapes in the fabric, facades and structural features of buildings.

Graphic designer Amandine Alessandra and architect Rute Nieto Ferreira conceived the project in response to their children's burgeoning interest in the alphabet, which led to a game spotting letter shapes in the buildings on a favourite walk on the Regent's Canal.  READ MORE ➤➤

Kickstart Your Creativity With An A - Z Photo Project Today

ePHOTOzine: 8.12.2020

Bring the alphabet to life in an interesting and challenging photoshoot than can last a few hours, a whole day or how about an entire year?

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A Twist On The Theme

The other thing that you could try with this theme is an A - Z of photography styles. B for Black and White, S for sepia, etc. This is probably suited to more experienced photographers who know more terminology, though.

Another more fun thing you can try is getting a group of friends to pose as all the letters of the alphabet or as mentioned above, capture objects that begin with each letter of the alphabet. If you've already tried an alphabet project why not take on a number challenge instead?  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 8

Reading Level: fairly easy to read.

Reader's Age: 12-14 yrs. old

(Seventh and Eighth graders)

Information and Critical Literacy in the Web World @ Linking Learning

Information and Critical Literacy in the Web World

Linking Learning:  10.13.2014 by Kay Oddone

This is the first of three posts which focus on information and critical literacy. This first post outlines the importance of developing information and critical literacy. The second post will give specific strategies and tools to use when evaluating information found online, while the third post focuses on verification of social media. Slides to support these blog posts are available on Slideshare.

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We need to develop skills in what Howard Rheingold calls ‘Crap Detection – knowledge of how to find and verify accurate, useful information – or basic information literacy for the internet age. This type of literacy is something which must be taught to students, and which must be brought to the attention of anyone who uses the internet as an information source – which, it seems, in Australia at least, is most people.

Getting ‘REAL’ with web evaluation

Linking Learning: 10.13.2014 by Kay Oddone

This is the second post in the series on developing critical and information literacy. The first post explored the need for critical literacy when learning from the web. This post explores strategies, tools and techniques for evaluating and verifying the credibility of information discovered online. The third and final post explores social media and how to verify its validity.

The ability to publish to a global audience is within the reach of anyone with a device and an internet connection. Identifying the signal in the noise is a challenge for anyone, and is a skill that must be taught. Fortunately there are many tools and tricks that make this easier.

Alan November, is an international consultant who is known around the world for his work in educational technology. He presents a great strategy for students (and anyone!) to apply whenever they are researching and need to confirm the reliability of the source of their information. He calls it the ‘REAL’ test. REAL stands for:

1. READ the URL:

When browsing the web or doing research, it is easy to follow one link after another, ending up somewhere completely different to where you started. Reading the URL in the location bar is the best way to answer the question where am I?.

2. Examine the site’s content and history:

The currency of a webpage can often be seen by the date at the base of the page. However this only really tells you when the page text was copyrighted or last published. How can you see if the information is regularly updated, or if the website has changed over time?

3. Ask about the publisher or the author:

Using a domain lookup service like easywhois, you can see who owns the site or who has published the material.

4. Look at the links:

Students usually only search using one search engine. They also believe that the top hits are the most important.

Tricks to find the truth: Information literacy and social media

Linking Learning:  10.13.2014 by Kay Oddone

This is the third and final in the blog series on developing information and critical literacy skills for identifying quality information online. After exploring why these skills are important, in the first post, and then investigating the grammar of websites in the second post, this final post provides some tools to consider when verifying information which has been published via social media such as Twitter and YouTube.

A Pew Research paper on how teens research in the digital world  found that 52% of students access YouTube or other social media sites when searching for information for their assignments. Although not perhaps considered a traditional source of information, sites such as Twitter and YouTube are increasingly being accessed as a ‘way in’ to complex topics. These sources too require specific skills to identify reliable, accurate and quality information, perhaps even more so that websites. This is because the nature of social media is that it is designed often for quickly uploading and sharing information; there is very little skill level required to post to social media, vs the skills needed for web publishing; therefore an even larger group is publishing content which may or may not be correct. The personal nature of many posts also means that it is very open to bias, and the social nature means that scams, jokes and misleading posts are much more likely.

A fantastic and interesting way to learn more about how to verify information discovered via social media is to explore the work of the modern journalist. Often, information about breaking events is caught or reported by citizens ‘on the ground’, and is shared via social media much more quickly than traditional news services can. Therefore, for journalists reporting on news as it happens, often extensive investigation must take place to ensure the photo, video or blog post is verifiable, and not simply for notoriety or hoax value.

The Verification Handbook is a really interesting read (and free to download) which shares a range of tools and strategies for how journalists verify information, using real case studies.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 12

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 17-18 yrs. old

(Twelfth graders)

What Marketers Should Know About the Psychology of Visual Content via Venngage

What Marketers Should Know About the Psychology of Visual Content

Venngage: 8.02.2016 by Mike Hanski

After spreading its magic in 2015, visual content is among top marketing trends today. It’s everywhere, stimulating online growth and audience engagement for brands. So, it comes as no surprise that most content marketers consider visuals required content for their strategies to succeed.

But do marketers have a clear picture of how to use visuals to impact their reach, engagement, and sales?

First things first:

Why should you care about applying visual content to your marketing strategy?

➧ Colored visuals increase people’s desire to read content by 80%.

➧ Content with images increases a view rate by 94%.

➧ Visuals generate more backlinks than any other form of content.

➧ Posts with images produce 180% more engagement.

➧ People are 85% more likely to buy your product after watching a video about it.

And now, for the most interesting part:

What makes people love visual content, and how can you use this love to take your marketing campaign to the next level?

People are visually-oriented: 90% of information transmitted to our brain is visual, presentations with visuals are 43% more persuasive, and 65% of us are visual learners.

In fact, 93% of all communication is nonverbal. Visuals attract our attention, enhance our emotions, and affect our attitude.

➧ Our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

➧ 40% of people respond better to images than text.

➧ 50% of our brain is active in visual processing.

Visual content drives engagement like crazy, and this is nothing but simple psychology.

1) Learn some math

The human eye finds certain mathematical patterns particularly appealing because of their symmetry and beauty in proportion

2) Apply the psychology of color

Basic color theory and psychology are significant for marketers to understand: colors influence our emotions and affect our actions, so they can help marketers stand out as well as negatively change the impact of their message.

3) Reveal the power of text

Visual content boosts your marketing strategy but doesn’t replace the written one entirely. So, you task is to find the right balance between words and images, and take care of typography because it determines the first visual impression of your texts.

4) Use different types of visual content

To take your marketing campaign to the next level, make sure you use all must-try types of visual content.

➧ Images

➧ Infographics

➧ Memes

➧ Videos

➧ Presentations

READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old (Tenth to Eleventh graders)

Using The Power & Promise of Edtech to Empower Adult Learners via The Tech Edvocate

@Lynch39083

Using The Power & Promise of Edtech to Empower Adult Learners

The Tech Edvocate: 8.15 2019 by Matthew Lynch

An estimated 36 million adults in the U.S. lack the basic math, language, and digital literacy skills necessary to find well-paying jobs and navigate public and social systems. Technology can increase access to education and provide access to personalized learning so everyone can have success in their work life.

Adult learners have specific needs that education technology may find challenging to meet. Adult learners are not a homogeneous group. Some study to complete their high school education, some want to prepare for college, others want to get a promotion or just get a job. And their levels of reading, writing and math differ widely. Also, their time for study is limited.

A recent report funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education lays out how technology could make an impact on adult learners. The report covers five areas of opportunity.

1. Tech can be applied to support instructors by providing adaptive learning features that can lead individual students through content at their own pace. Tech can also be leveraged to provide instructors with continual assessment of how students are progressing and to pinpoint areas where it might be wise to adjust the curriculum.

2. Technological innovations could make course attendance easier through the use of mobile tools that use text reminders and video conferencing software to replace face-to-face interaction.

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Is the future of adult learning in mobile learning?  READ MORE >>