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This Padlet has all articles, videos, and resources from the Dyslexia Modules, along with some additional items. There is no password.

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Many teachers have already reorganized our leveled libraries because we learned that, according to Fountas and Pinnell, "levels have no place in classroom libraries." Sorting books into bins labeled by theme or topic is time-consuming, but it's not a difficult task. We immediately see that offering students more choice in their reading materials and teaching them to monitor their own reading for accuracy and comprehension is rewarding. However, books at the lower levels, "predictable books," pose a challenge that is not so easily solved.

Problems with Predictable Books

Predictable books are designed to teach children not to depend on decoding to tackle unfamiliar words-they are purpose-written to teach children to predict, or guess words-so what children do with low-level books is not actually reading. Some students climb up the levels by transitioning away from picture-cues and predictable sentences, but others hold tightly to the guessing strategies that are reinforced by predictable books, and time with these books slows their decoding progress. For beginning readers, decodable books provide a more reliable path to authentic texts, and using them for phonics instruction and fluency practice offers a "helps all, harms none" approach to teaching reading. But what, then, should we do with all our predictable books?!

Rethinking the Instructional Purpose

To repurpose predictable books for activities other than reading, we need to look at them with fresh eyes and new criteria. More important than the level stamped on the back cover is the contents inside.

We can ask ourselves, What are the features of this individual book that make it a useful teaching tool? A single book may have more than one useful feature and it might be repurposed for any number of language development, writing, or art activities.

We've listed out some of the features you might look for in predictable books and have drafted example activities to help with lesson planning. (You'll find descriptions and links to the example activities below this table.)

Predictable Book Types

Types

Activities

Examples

Single sentence per page with a single story word
1. (RE)WRITE THE BOOK
Composing Simple Sentences

Cumulative illustrations
8. TALK AND TURN THE PAGE
Language Development for Beginning English-learners

We've drafted ten lesson examples-one for each of the ten book types-to show how predictable books can be repurposed for instruction designed to build students' oral language, writing skills, and creative abilities. The exemplar texts all come from the Green Kit of Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI), but any predictable texts with the similar features would work well. Repeating these lessons with multiple books can deepen students' learning and, if you pull away the scaffolds, many of these activities can become literacy centers.
Click on the activity title to see the lesson example.
Composing Simple Sentences

This activity gives students a purpose for composing grammatical sentences that apply the phonics and high-frequency words they have been taught. Books that have a single sentence per page and that include a "story word" to go with the picture (typical in books Levels A and B) work best for this activity.

Narrative Writing

In some predictable books, the pictures are the most interesting part. A book like, Oh No! (Level A) tells nearly the whole story through the illustrations. Discussing the pictures and creating a story requires students to draw inferences, share observations, and tell/write a story in sequential order.

Writing Speech or Thought Bubbles

The illustrations in predictable texts often communicate the personalities, feelings, and interactions of characters and, to the extent the text tells a story, mirror the story's narrative structure. The pictures provide a built-in scaffold for students as they think about and discuss what characters might be saying (or thinking).

Grammar Instruction

The repetitive sentence structure in predictable books can be used to teach students the parts of speech and how to use those parts to compose increasingly complex sentences (orally and/or in writing). Strategies from Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) benefit language learners of all levels.

Sentence Combining

For this activity, students use paired sentences from a predictable text to generate more complex sentences. Depending on students' language and writing ability, you might choose to do more or less sophisticated sentence combining. The difficulty of the activity can also be varied by determining how much of the writing is completed by the teacher or the students

Writing Conventions

At Level C and above, predictable books tend to have punctuation, like quotation marks and commas, as well as text features, such as bolded words and dialog tags. A big book can provide multiple opportunities to show students the written conventions you would like to see in their writing.

Spelling High-frequency Words

This activity is best suited to irregularly spelled high-frequency words, such as do and one. Students get repeated practice identifying, saying, writing, and correctly spelling high-frequency words in the context of complete, grammatical sentences. Focus this activity on words recently taught during reading instruction so students receive extra practice and learn to spell the words correctly for their own writing.

Language Development for Beginning English-learners

In this activity, students have multiple opportunities to point to images and say what they are. Using sentence frames provides students with repeated practice producing complete, grammatical sentences with the vocabulary they are learning.

Vocabulary Picture Cards

This activity previews or reviews vocabulary related to a topic. As you select words for vocabulary cards, target words that are grade-level appropriate and that will be high-utility in and outside of the classroom.

Labeled Collage

Because so many predictable books are on the same topics (gardens, farms, playing, etc.) it's easy to make book sets. A few books on the same topic, preferably each with a different type of illustration, make great raw material for a collage.

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Onward and Upward!

Predictable books are not the best tool for teaching students how to read, but they can be put to good use in class discussions, ELD or writing lessons, literacy centers, and art. The activities we've shared are just a starting place and we'd love to hear what other ideas you have for using predictable books.

Balanced Literacy instructional change leveled books

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What Do I Do with All These Predictable Books?

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Many teachers have already reorganized our leveled libraries because we learned that, according to Fountas and Pinnell, "levels have no place in classroom libraries." Sorting books into bins labele...

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Page 10: Effective Instruction at Tier 1

As part of the RTI approach, Mrs. Hernandez knows that she will need to implement a high-quality core reading program that includes 90 minutes of instruction for all of her students. This 90-minute instructional period, hereafter referred to as Tier 1, is made up of two main features:

High-quality instruction

Frequent monitoring

This page will make frequent reference to two types of RTI assessment: universal screening and progress monitoring. For more information on these assessments, view the following IRIS Module:

High-Quality Instruction

Mrs. Hernandez knows that Tier 1 consists of high-quality instruction for all students in her classroom. Implementing high-quality instruction ensures that inadequate instruction is not a factor contributing to students' poor learning outcomes. Moreover, the needs of the majority of her students can be met with Tier 1 instruction.

Mrs. Hernandez is aware of the five comprehensive reading components (seen in the table below) that should be implemented as part of high-quality instruction with her first-grade students. As she continues her planning, she will include these components in the 90-minute core reading block, the standard amount of time recommended by No Child Left Behind to promote reading success.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics and Word Study

Fluency

Vocabulary

Reading Comprehension

National Reading Panel, 2000; Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)

Mrs. Hernandez has learned that when students, including those who experience reading difficulties, are taught in small groups or with paired instruction, they increase their reading skills more than those who are taught using only whole-group instruction. Additionally, she can more effectively provide differentiated instruction, ample practice opportunities, and immediate corrective feedback to her students during small-group instruction.

Mrs. Hernandez has 22 students in her class. For small-group instruction, she divides her students into three groups based on ability level. For paired instruction, her pairs consist of mixed ability levels. She develops her plan for 90 minutes of reading instruction, as seen below.

A planned schedule like the one above might vary from day to day. For instance, some teachers might use more whole-group instruction on days when new concepts and skills are introduced, but they may prefer to use mostly small groups on days when students need to practice skills. In contrast to Mrs. Hernandez's schedule above, some teachers may promote mixed groups in learning centers. For example, while Mrs. Hernandez is working with Group 1, students from Groups 2 and 3 could work together in the learning centers while other students from Groups 2 and 3 do so independently.

One of the benefits of a planned schedule is that Mrs. Hernandez can easily organize and manage her 90 minutes of recommended reading instruction. However, she will need to be able to efficiently implement quick transitions in order to stick with her schedule. Though teachers might at first feel overwhelmed with the prospect of teaching reading for 90 minutes, doing so becomes more manageable when:

Flexible grouping practices occur

Students understand and follow the routine

Features of high-quality instruction are employed

Below is an explanation of the different instructional formats Mrs. Hernandez implements during her 90 minutes of reading instruction.

Whole Group

Mrs. Hernandez's whole-group lessons provide activities that engage and motivate all of her students. She begins and ends her 90 minutes of reading instruction using a whole-group format. Mrs. Hernandez consistently begins each day's lesson with a morning message, in which the objectives are directly connected to one of the five components of reading. In the example below, Mrs. Hernandez relates the morning message to fluency instruction. After her students add their capitals and punctuation, she asks them to read the sentences aloud as a whole group or in sub-groups (e.g., boys/ girls, first row/ second row/ third row). She reminds them to stop at the punctuation and to read the questions and the statements with different inflections.

For the last 10 minutes of reading instruction, Mrs. Hernandez reads a story to her students. The morning message and other portions of the daily reading lessons are often tied to this story.

Small Group

Mrs. Hernandez provides the core reading instruction in small groups, allowing her to better accommodate students' individual learning needs. Her instruction continues to be explicit as she models the skills. The small-group format allows Mrs. Hernandez to scaffold the lessons and activities into manageable steps that progress from simple to more complex skills. It also allows her to recognize problem areas and to adjust the instructional approaches to fit her students' skill levels.

Keep in Mind

The composition of student groups can be determined by universal screening or core reading placement-test results. The number of students in small groups is not always equal. Generally, the average-ability group will have the greatest number of students, while the groups of higher- and lower-performing students may have fewer members. For example, Mrs. Hernandez's group of average readers has nine members, her higher-performing group has eight members, and her group of struggling readers has only five members.

Here are the notes from Mrs. Hernandez's lesson-plan book. Note that all three groups are working at different levels within the same reading series (e.g., Group 1 is working at the kindergarten level, Group 2 is working at the lower-first-grade level, and Group 3 is working at the upper-first-grade level.).
Group 1 Lesson Plan
Lesson example of what teachers might find in a teacher's edition.
(Close this panel) Group 2 Lesson Plan
Lesson example of what teachers might find in a teacher's edition.

present tense
past tense
(Close this panel) Group 3 Lesson Plan
Lesson example of what teachers might find in a teacher's edition.

mound
pouch
(Close this panel)
Learning Centers

A learning center is an instructional format in which an individual or small group of students practices a skill or set of skills separate from the rest of the class. For example, Mrs. Hernandez's learning centers include a listening center, computer center, writing center, skills center, and vocabulary center. Mrs. Hernandez plans these centers to offer students extended practice and review to reinforce the skills the reading curriculum has covered.

Students must complete activities in all five areas in the course of a week. In order for Mrs. Hernandez to be able to focus her attention on small-group instruction, she must be sure that the remaining students understand her expectations. Because of the variety of activities that students are expected to complete independently, Mrs. Hernandez spends considerable time during the first few weeks of school teaching the students how to:

Work together cooperatively

Follow classroom rules and procedures

Access and put away materials

Transition from one activity to another

Mrs. Hernandez is careful to require her students to account for their work during every learning-center activity so that she and the students can see their progress. Click on the links below to view some of the activities that Mrs. Hernandez uses for her learning centers.
Example of a Vocabulary Learning Center Activity
Mrs. Hernandez's classroom has a "Silly Stories" learning-center activity to help students practice using new vocabulary words. Mrs. Hernandez creates a theme for a silly story that includes one or several of the vocabulary words she has already taught to her students during whole-class instruction. Students work together to write a brief story about the theme she has given them. Vocabulary cards at the learning center allow students to review definitions (e.g., bold = very brave, timid = scared). The completed stories serve as the necessary documentation for student accountability.

Here is what Mrs. Hernandez includes on the vocabulary activity cards for each of her groups of students.

Silly Stories Group 1 Theme: A bold mouse and a timid elephant go for a walk. Circle the pictures that mean "timid." Put an X on the pictures that mean "bold."

Theme: A bold mouse and a timid elephant go for a walk. Circle the words that mean "bold."

brave run

courage coward

stop dress

drip late

Circle the words that mean "timid."

shy big

cold cry

mad quiet

shoe cut

Group 3

Theme: A bold mouse and a timid elephant go for a walk. They have some trouble along the way.

Write a story that tells where they are going and what kind of trouble they have on their walk. Use the words bold and timid two times each in the story.

(Close this panel) Example of a Comprehension Learning-Center Activity
Mrs. Hernandez's classroom has a "Get the Gist" learning-center activity that allows students to practice their comprehension skills. Mrs. Hernandez provides three levels of activities so that all members of her class can participate in the learning center. This activity uses the "Stone Soup" story that Mrs. Hernandez read during whole-group instruction.

Group 1. Think about the story "Stone Soup." Draw a picture of all of the food the old woman put in the pot.

Group 2. In the story "Stone Soup," what foods did the woman put into the pot? Write down the names of these foods.

Group 3. In the story "Stone Soup," the old woman put lots of foods into the pot to make soup. Write a paragraph that describes the story.

(Close this panel)
Independent Practice

Independent practice is often used to reinforce, enhance, or enrich the skills taught during small-group instruction. Mrs. Hernandez has developed her schedule so that both Group 1 (the lower-performing group) and Group 2 (the average-performing group) receive their independent practice immediately after small-group instruction. Meanwhile, the students in Group 3 (the highest-performing group) work independently prior to their small-group instruction with Mrs. Hernandez. Teachers should be cautious that independent practice activities are not simply busy work but, rather, that they support and strengthen the skills taught during whole- and small-group instruction.

Paired Instruction

During the paired-instruction portion of the lesson, each student works with a partner and practices reading words, sentences, and paragraphs from his or her reading lesson. Partners model good reading practices and give corrective feedback to one another.

Listen to Lynn Fuchs talk about Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), one method teachers can use to implement paired instruction (time: 0:38).

Lynn Fuchs, PhD
Nicholas Hobbs Chair of Special Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

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View Transcript
Transcript: Lynn Fuchs, PhD

Young children are working with each other, they're conducting activities with each other, providing feedback to each other when errors are made, so that children can become better at the activities.

These kinds of activities can promote better learning if young children do them. But the challenge has been for teachers to figure out how to incorporate those activities into a normal classroom so that everybody in the class gets lots of structured practice with corrective feedback. PALS is one way for teachers to take those research-based activities and implement them in a normal classroom.

Mrs. Hernandez has formed her pairs of students based on methods described by research-validated studies that have measured the effectiveness of paired instruction or peer tutoring. The students are grouped by mixed ability levels. Follow the steps below to see how easily Mrs. Hernandez pairs her students.

Step 1: Rank the students

Student name

Number of words read correctly in one minute

Hannah

20

Emma

17

Joshua

16

Mai

16

Chuck

15

Aidan

14

Miguel

14

Deangelo

13

Mario

13

Sophia

12

Ethan

12

Gabriella

12

Yeojin

12

Caleb

11

Shante

11

Katharine

10

Abigail

9

DeJuan

7

Megan

4

Ryan

4

LaToya

3

Jack

2

Step 2: Divide the list

Divide the list of students in half. Draw a line to create two groups of students.

Step 3: Move the halves next to each other

Teachers must recognize that some adjustments to the pairings may be required. For example, there may be a discrepancy between students' abilities too large to accommodate learning. If the stronger reader does not work well with the struggling student, the teacher may have to shift the partners. In other cases, pairs of students who have difficulty following instructions may not work well together as partners. Therefore, some changes may be required by rates of progress, behavior issues, or students' needs.

If you wish to learn more about Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies, please see the following IRIS Modules:

Frequent Monitoring

In addition to high-quality instruction, frequent monitoring should be incorporated into Tier 1. When it comes to progress monitoring, teachers have two options: 1) conduct progress monitoring for all students at the Tier 1 level, or 2) conduct progress monitoring for only those students who are identified as struggling readers based on universal screening results.
progress monitoring
A form of assessment in which student learning is evaluated on a regular basis to provide useful feedback about performance to both learners and instructors.

Mrs. Hernandez decides to monitor her students' progress every week while they are engaged in paired instruction. By implementing progress monitoring with her entire class, Mrs. Hernandez can determine whether she is implementing high-quality instruction, and she can use the data to inform her instruction. Additionally, informal assessments such as class-wide observations, in-class assignments, and homework can provide useful information. By using these various types of assessments, Mrs. Hernandez can determine whether there are reading skills with which a number of students are having trouble. For example, if the majority of students in a class struggle with the silent- e rule then Mrs. Hernandez will know that her instruction has not been adequate. She will have to determine a different and more effective way to instruct the students about the rule.

Finally, progress monitoring data can be used to guide the RTI decision-making process for struggling students. For example, because of her low score on the universal screening, Megan was initially identified as a struggling reader. However, the progress monitoring data that Mrs. Hernandez has collected during the ensuing 10 weeks indicate that Megan's skills have improved and that high-quality Tier 1 instruction has been adequate to meet Megan's instructional needs.

The table below offers a brief overview of Tier 1 instruction.

Who receives instruction

All students

Amount of daily instruction

Instruction should occur for at least 90 minutes

When instruction is provided

During core reading time

Duration of instruction

Entire school year

How instruction is implemented

Flexible grouping, which includes:

Whole-class instruction

Small-group instruction

Paired instruction

One-on-one instruction (when possible)

Frequency of progress monitoring

At least one time every 1-2 weeks

Who provides instruction

General education teacher

Where students are served

General education classroom

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IRIS | Page 10: Effective Instruction at Tier 1

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As part of the RTI approach, Mrs. Hernandez knows that she will need to implement a high-quality core reading program that includes 90 minutes of instruction for all of her students. This 90-minute instructional period, hereafter referred to as Tier 1, is made up of two main features: High-quality instruction Frequent monitoring This page will make frequent reference to two types of RTI assessment: universal screening and progress monitoring.

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Episode 3: When not to differentiate: A guide to small-group instruction, with Jamey Peavler

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Science of Reading:The Podcast guest, Jamey Peavler, shares findings for small-group instruction and balancing small- and whole-group work.

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Maximizing the Benefits of Small Group Instruction with Jamey Peavler

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The ALL Ohio Literacy Library is a repository of high-quality, open-access learning modules for educators, families, and community members to enhance the literacy learning of all children and youth. The ALL Ohio learning modules explore various literacy topics in-depth through narrative text, linked resources, realistic scenarios, reflections, learning activities, and embedded audio and videos.

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RIMP Video Series and additional resources

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RIMP Video Series and additional resources

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Teacher-friendly videos that show instructional activities to use with your students. There is a video for each of the critical areas of reading development. These can be directly applied in your classroom with your students.

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ALL Ohio (Advancing Literacy Learning in Ohio) is a compilation of high-quality professional learning resources for Ohio's P20 education system. ALL Ohio serves as a tool to strengthen educators' knowledge and skills in evidence-based language and literacy practices grounded in the science of reading.

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The most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Because reading affects all other academic achievement and is associated with social, emotional, economic, and physical health, it has been the most researched aspect of human cognition. By the year 2000, after decades of multidisciplinary research, the scientific community had achieved broad consensus regarding these questions: How do children learn to read? What causes reading difficulties? What are the essential components of effective reading instruction and why is each important? How can we prevent or reduce reading difficulties? Two decades later, hundreds of additional studies have refined and consolidated what we know about bolstering reading achievement, especially for students at risk.

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Using Decodable Texts: Practical Things Teachers Need to Know

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Fabulous webinar with great insight regarding whole class vs. small group instruction.

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Unpacking Geodes®: Engaging Early Readers and Building Lasting Knowledge

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Humanities Product Marketing Manager Mitul Daiyan shares what educators can find inside a box of Geodes.

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The first thing teachers notice and love about Geodes® is the quality of the materials. "The texture of the books. The illustrations. These feel good and are so visually pleasing," says Julie Hastings, an elementary literacy specialist for the Park City School District in Utah.

Their appreciation for the early literacy materials goes well beyond the book covers, however. The educators also recognize how closely aligned Geodes are with the research about how young children learn to read and write.

"We look at the research based on the science of reading, and we go point by point. 'Yep, yep, yep.' Geodes meet the intention of the researchers' design," Hastings says.

FOCUS ON EARLY LITERACY

The district's journey to Geodes began in the 2016-2017 school year when it adopted Fundations ® from Wilson Language Training as part of a broader early literacy initiative. The goals were to provide effective reading instruction for all students, increase teachers' awareness of why some students struggle to read, and identify striving readers early and provide appropriate interventions.

DISTRICT PROFILE

Four elementary schools

4,780 students

Adopted Fundations ® in 2016-2017 school year

Adopted Geodes Level 1 in 2018-2019 school year

Adopted Geodes Level 2 in 2019-2020 school year

"That heightened awareness of how students learn to read helped us realize what we had been missing. It was clear that our previous curriculum did not include adequate systematic and explicit phonics and phonemic awareness instruction," Hastings recalls.

Fundations ® is a structured literacy program for Grades K-3 that supplements students' core instruction and provides a systematic approach to comprehensively build foundational skills as well as spelling and handwriting.

When Barbara Wilson, cofounder and president of Wilson Language Training, announced that her company was collaborating with Great Minds® to develop a content-rich early literacy library of engaging controlled texts, Hastings jumped at the chance to begin using Geodes for Park City's Level 1 students in the 2018-2019 school year. (Great Minds is the organization that publishes Geodes, along with Wit & Wisdom®, Eureka Math®, and PhD Science™.) "Once teachers became aware of Geodes and how they aligned with Fundations ®, they wanted to be at the front of the line for adoption," Hastings recalls. Park City went on to adopt the Level 2 materials in 2019-2020.

Geodes align with the scope and sequence of Fundations® in providing substantial decoding practice. In addition, they build essential knowledge and help students acquire important vocabulary words. That's key because research shows that strong content knowledge and robust vocabulary are necessary for mastering complex text.

CONFIDENT AND ENGAGED STUDENTS

The impact has been immediate. "Students are a lot more confident and much more apt to read and reread," Hastings says. Each text supports students in applying the phonics knowledge they have learned in class. Students also find the Geodes materials so relatable and relevant that they want teachers to read the More page at the back of the books-a paragraph or two of fascinating information that enriches the book's story.

Initially, some teachers weren't sure whether to use the Geodes materials as part of whole group instruction (along with Fundations®) or to fill skills deficits for students with learning gaps. "They quickly found out that Geodes are good for both," Hastings says. Teachers appreciate how closely aligned the Geodes materials are with Fundations®. "Teachers have expressed how much easier it is to be thoughtful when choosing the most appropriate text for each student," she says.

"Students are a lot more confident and much more apt to read and reread."

- Julie Hastings, elementary literacy specialist

Many Grade 3 teachers are using Geodes to help striving students catch up. "They love that the kids no longer miss out on comprehension instruction while they're also focusing on accuracy and fluency," Hastings says.

Hastings is now counting on teachers who have used the materials for the past two years to take the lead in helping their colleagues make the transition to this content-rich instruction.

"Implementation matters and buy-in from teachers is key. When they understand why we need to shift our instruction in this way, that's all it takes," Hastings says-that and the joy of seeing their students become confident, competent, and curious readers and learners.

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Early Adopter Finds Geodes Align Perfectly with Research

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Park City educator finds Geodes align with research on how children learn to read. Geodes help provide all students effective reading instruction.

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We recently sat down with Laura Lojko-an educator in Washington, DC-to learn more about her experience implementing Geodes alongside and Fundations®. Laura has been teaching for six years, with experience teaching kindergarten through grade 4 humanities. She started her career as a capital teaching resident before joining Center City Public Charter School in 2018. Laura has experience teaching Wit & Wisdom in grades 2 through 4 and has been using Geodes for two years in grade 2. Laura also became a Great Minds® Professional Development Fellow in 2022.

School Profile

Center City Public Charter School

1,387 students

71% Black, 23% Hispanic, 4% Two or more races

Began Wit & Wisdom® implementation in school year 2018-2019 and Geodes® implementation in school year 2021-2022

What literacy programs and materials are you currently using in your classroom?

Laura Lojko: We start our ELA block with about 10 minutes of Heggerty, and then we'll do about 25-30 minutes of Fundations®. We go through letter sounds and decoding, we do some fluency passages, students practice with dictation, and we go through very explicit spelling rules. Then we do Wit & Wisdom for about 75 minutes. During that time, we dive into Wit & Wisdom texts, and students are writing to either build their knowledge or practice writing skills. Then we move into small groups, and my co-teacher and I both lead instruction using separate Geodes with the goal that every student is exposed to two Geodes per week. If students are not with me or my co-teacher doing Geodes, they are with the ELL instructor-because we have primarily multilingual students-or they are doing intervention for phonics or accessing Lexia.

Laura Lojko: We start with explicit phonics because we're giving children the skills that they need to decode the text that they're going to read when they're in Geodes. Then, when we're in Wit & Wisdom, we're building background information that's going to be essential to Geodes as well. So ideally, by the time they get in front of the Geodes text they have the foundational skills to decode the text as well as the background knowledge to decipher the text-specific vocabulary, and their interest is already engaged in the topic from Wit & Wisdom as well.

What literacy programs or materials were you previously using?

Laura Lojko: Before our district adopted Geodes, we were primarily printing leveled texts from online. That was a lot of work for me because we were looking at student data, and I was trying to handpick books that would meet a group's needs based on what we were focusing on in class. With Geodes, I no longer have to do that, which is amazing. I would also have a lot of guilt over my students not putting their hands on beautiful books. In grade 3 and beyond, students are expected to read colorful books that have text features and very rich language, not just books with CVC words that rhyme. Now that we have Geodes, it's great to be able to give students books that are not only readable but are also rich in knowledge and content. I can give them books that they want to read and that enable them to look at other books and know the text features with confidence so they can read to learn new information.

Did you experience any apprehension as you transitioned from those materials to Geodes, Wit & Wisdom, and Fundations®?

Laura Lojko: I think my apprehension was what a lot of educators experience with Geodes, which is that question of, "How can there be one magic text that all students can access." I was thinking about my lowest students, and I was anticipating that they would look at the text and feel defeated. But I've actually had the opposite experience. I find that if I give a child a Geodes text, they really practice it because we're explicitly working on these skills in class. They feel empowered to keep trying because they're reading the same text that other students are reading, and they recognize content vocabulary because we go over it in Wit & Wisdom every day. I also try to include words that students will see in Geodes during our Fundations® instruction, so they find that they're able to access the texts because they've been taught how. We've been finding a lot of success, even just with student fluency. The more they practice, the more confident and the stronger they are the next time they read a new Geodes book.

Laura Lojko: Yes, for instance, last week we started doing vowel-consonant-e words in Fundations®. So next week, we will be doing two Geodes that are based in the skill of vowel-consonant-e words. We just started Module 2 about the American West, so we will be reading The Lakota and the Buffalo. In this case, I'd thumb through the book or use the Inside Geodes® resource and look for words that are vowel-consonant-e. I might see the word drape, which is also a word that I know would be confusing to multilingual learners, and I would include that word in my Fundations® practice to preview. I'll say to students, "What is a drape? Do we know what it means to drape?" I would look up pictures online of what drape means in different contexts. Then, when students get to my table for Geodes, if the text says, "Big pelts made from animal skin draped over their backs," I'll show them the picture and ask, "What does it mean if it's draping over their backs?"

I try to scaffold every moment leading up to Geodes because I know that is their big performative task of the day: Can they read a brand-new book and comprehend it? I ask myself, "Do they have the skills to decipher CVC words? Am I helping them with unfamiliar vocabulary that wouldn't have been explicitly taught in Wit & Wisdom?" And based on students' Fundations® level, we might also review more words just decoding-I might have them say the sound and blend for several CVC words or words with suffixes-before we dive into the text.

How does your literacy block look different now with Wit & Wisdom, Geodes, and Fundations®?

Laura Lojko: It feels a lot more intentional, and it feels like everything fits together in a way that has purpose. In the past, it felt like we were trying to make things stick or find connections wherever we could, and we really struggled with writing. Now, with Fundations® and Wit & Wisdom, students understand why authors write and why they themselves might need to write. Then they have all this knowledge that's been built about a topic that they end up having strong opinions about, and it makes all the difference in their writing.

We still spend the same amount of time on phonics, but it's more effective. The difference is in the giant leaps we're seeing in student success, this year especially. Last year was our first year doing Fundations®, Geodes, and Wit & Wisdom, and it did feel like a lot of effort at first to teach kids the habits of mind from Wit & Wisdom and all the language that comes with Fundations®. But this year receiving grade 2 students who did this last year, too, has been incredible. Their ability to read a new text and be invested in it, how far their writing has come versus last year's grade 2 students-it's really encouraging. I'm excited to see the students who are in grade 2 next year, who have received Geodes since kindergarten, and what their writing and literacy abilities look like.

Laura Lojko: Something I love about this age group in general is their enthusiasm. It's heartwarming when you see them cheer because they know they're about to read a new book. I think it has to do with the fact that there are so many Geodes and they're so beautiful and diverse looking. If you told a teacher that they are going to get a set of books that are related to this one curriculum, a teacher might expect all the illustrations and words and text features to be very uniform. But every single Geodes text is extremely unique, even if they relate to the same topic. They cover different points in history and different perspectives and different scientific facts. Sometimes the texts are illustrated, and sometimes there's a lot of rich photographs. I think that variety is something that the kids really look forward to.

Do you have any stories about students having aha moments while they're reading Geodes or a connection they've made between what they're learning in Wit & Wisdom and Geodes?

Laura Lojko: A couple of weeks ago, we were reading a Geodes text about how crickets can be used as thermometers, and we got to connect it to math, which was really fun. It worked perfectly with the standard we were working on. There was a part where the book told students, "If you ever want to know what temperature it is, here are the three steps you do to tell the temperature based on cricket chirps." So I had them go back to the page, I handed them my phone timer, and I had them tell each other what they should do to figure out the temperature. They went through the instructions on the page and then counted my chirps and calculated what the temperature would be if I was a real cricket.

It was like the scientific method. We were following the steps and applying the math standard of adding a number with tens to another number, and they got to go back to the text and read the directions and give each other feedback. So that was a cool interdisciplinary thing that we got to do, and students really enjoyed that story. They couldn't believe that you could tell the temperature based on cricket chirps, and I didn't know that, either.

Laura Lojko: We give them the grayscale My Geodes book whenever we start a module, so those are freely available to them. And when they have their computer time, I give them a choice board, and one of the choices on there is to reread a Geodes text and do a look-for. For example, in Fundations® a couple of weeks ago we were learning about plural nouns and irregular plural nouns. So the activity was for them to go through an old Geodes text and circle all the plural nouns, especially if they saw a plural noun like children or men or buffalo where it wasn't just adding an - s or an - es to the end.

Laura Lojko: I get fewer questions about what "on grade-level" means, and when I do get that question, it's a lot easier to answer. Especially when I taught kindergarten I'd get asked, "What does reading look like for this age group?" So it's nice to just point to a book and to a page and say, "This is a word they should be able to say the sounds of and blend. This is a word that has the skills we're working on." It's a good way to explicitly tell parents what the expectation is for our students.

We send home the grayscale My Geodes copies once they've read through the four books in a module, so they should get one sent home about every two weeks. When we had our last parent-teacher conference, I explained to parents, "These are Geodes. Students have read all these books by the time they go home. If you're wondering how to get minutes of reading in with your child, this is exactly on grade level. If they can practice reading these books fluently, that will make all the difference."

With my parents who speak Spanish at home, I point to the Más section of the book and encourage them to let that guide their dinner discussions. I tell them to see if their child can talk about the content in Spanish, even. There are words in the Geodes that students probably haven't even learned about in Spanish because they aren't words that you would normally use at home. So we tell families to have these academic discussions and see what students can recall from what we're learning in class. It's great to be able to tell parents that this is a tool not just in the classroom, but for them to use at home too.

Laura Lojko: If I could travel back to last year, I think I would have told myself to just dive in to it. When we first started Geodes, I was a little intimidated by the pure volume of them and the idea of another thing to plan for and get through before the end of the year. But, honestly, it's probably the easiest thing during the day to plan for. You pick the book that aligns to Fundations®, and then you look at the student need and your lesson plan is basically done for you. Plus, I think out of everything that we use, it is the most effective tool we have for students' decoding and comprehension. It has really helped students' foundational skills a lot.

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Geodes Help Bring Intention and Cohesion to Literacy Instruction

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Educator discusses her experience implementing Geodes, Wit & Wisdom, Fundations. Materials alignment benefits literacy instruction, student engagement.

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This month, we dive into Geodes ®. These readable books help students practice foundational skills and build knowledge. Because the product design allows for flexible classroom use, many K-2 educators may wonder how to best integrate Geodes into their classrooms. Danielle Gaither, a Great Minds® implementation leader, shares practical steps to help teachers get started with Geodes.

Even if the calendar says otherwise, New Year's Day comes in August or September for many educators. This time of year invites reflection on past years in the classroom, enthusiasm for what comes next, and commitment to trying something new.

Educators may have noticed literacy discourse shifting toward the science of reading, a field of promising research. Literacy journalists including Emily Hanford and Natalie Wexler cover topics such as the importance of systematic phonics instruction and the role that knowledge building plays in reading comprehension. With more knowledge about the science of reading and with additional skills to implement this kind of instruction, educators can expect a transformational year in the classroom. This year, more teachers than ever resolved to incorporate Geodes into their classrooms.

Geodes do not constitute a program. Rather, they function as a resource to bridge foundational skills instruction and Wit & Wisdom® modules, connecting best practices in phonics instruction and knowledge building. That is, Wit & Wisdom, foundational skills instruction, and Geodes work together in an effective literacy block. Geodes let students practice decoding skills through authentic texts that bolster background knowledge and vocabulary in science, history, and the arts. Teachers use Geodes flexibly to best meet the needs of their students.

Getting Started with Geodes

Those who make New Year's resolutions in January often need support to keep their commitments. Educators committed to using Geodes starting this fall are encouraged to take the following steps: organize their Geodes library, prepare for instruction, and consider how they will share Geodes with students' families. The following five tips offer help for each of these steps.

Organize the Library

Tip 1: Open the boxes to explore Geodes. Geodes include books for the classroom, take-home books, the Inside Geodes® teacher resource, and a real geode. Select a book that sparks your interest. Examine Inside Geodes to find the Book Notes for your selected Geodes book. Book Notes describe each book's features and provide instruction options to help educators use Geodes with their students. You will quickly notice how Geodes simultaneously build knowledge and support students' foundational skills.

Tip 2: Give students access to Geodes. Consider where you will keep Geodes materials in your classroom; make these resources available when students have extra time, start the day right by providing Geodes as students enter the classroom, or create routines for students to access Geodes at home to continue their learning. Display Geodes in an exciting and accessible way so students will want to explore these beautiful books! Keeping Geodes accessible allows students to grab a Geodes book when they have time to read throughout the day. Geodes come with print take-home books, and many schools have started using the My Geodes digital platform to encourage students to read outside of the literacy block.

Prepare for Instruction

Tip 3: Prepare to use Geodes to support students' accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. Students might face hurdles in one or more of these areas while engaging with complex texts. As you start instruction and get to know your students, collect data to consider students' accuracy, fluency, and comprehension needs. With Geodes, all students have the opportunity to read the same books. Your Geodes instruction can help students approach each text based on their needs.

Tip 4: Plan for multiple reads with different levels of support. Aim to share one or two new Geodes a week with students. Plan supports while also considering how to remove them as students improve their accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. For example, some teachers start the week reading a Geodes book aloud before working with students in small groups. At the end of the week, teachers transfer the reading responsibility to students.

Share with Families

Tip 5: Introduce Geodes to students' families. Sending home My Geodes printed materials or providing access to the My Geodes digital platform includes students' families in the classroom. Family Tip Sheets communicate the knowledge and skills students build as they read Geodes. The books give families tangible examples of grade-level text, including word patterns and knowledge students should have and continue to build. At the end of each book, the More section-available in English and Spanish-can deepen students' and families' knowledge of Geodes topics together.

Summary

Much can be celebrated at this time of year, even if the actual New Year feels a long way off. Great Minds relishes supporting educators who are unwrapping Geodes and preparing to use them with their students. Find more information about the Getting Started with Geodes professional learning session.

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5 Tips to Help You Get Started with Geodes

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Implementation Leader Danielle Gaither shares five practical steps to help teachers get started with Geodes.

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As you prepare to teach these beautifully illustrated, information-rich books for emerging and developing readers, you may have some questions about how to best use Geodes to support knowledge building in your classroom. This blog post will address common questions many educators have about how to use Geodes to help students have a deeper and more meaningful reading experience as they practice and improve their phonics and decoding skills.
Where do I begin?
Just start! At times it can be overwhelming to have several big boxes sitting in your classroom, even if they are filled with the most beautiful books you have ever seen. When I think back to my first experiences with I remember thinking to myself, "I'm not sure what this is supposed to look like." So I chose a few titles and sat down to read them with a group of students.

The students really led the way . T hey asked questions about the illustrations, noticed some clear connections to the module topic, and enjoyed the soft, inviting texture of the books. But it was when they began reading the text on their own - recognizing spelling patterns, words, and vocabulary - that they realized they could access these texts on their own. There was no turning back from there, and I was absolutely sold!
What will the rest of my class do while I read Geodes with a small group ?
As students build confidence by mastering specific phonics skills, they will want to regularly enjoy being successful readers. Providing access to Geodes that students have already read might be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable ways for students to work independently while you work with small groups.

Consider making previously read Geodes available in bins for students to access them easily. The color copies will have great appeal, and they might stay out for the duration of the module to increase longevity. But black and white My Geodes® would remain popular all year! Creating differentiated practice opportunities is fun and becomes easier over time.

You may also consider using Inside Geode s® to create independent station options for students through the following methods.

Students practice decoding specific Fundations Focus Concept words that appear in a Do extended Word Work. Geodes They also build (encode) and read additional words using the Focus Concept.

Use the Image Discussion Guide to provide a set of questions for a Reinforce the power of Content Stages that are an integral part of the design of Wit & Wisdom Geodes Examples include the following: "What do you notice about the image on page 6? What do you wonder? What can you learn from the images on pages 7, 12, and 13? How do the images build your knowledge?"

Capitalize on ways to integrate writing into the Geodes reading process . Use the Response Journal section to provide opportunities for students to respond in writing. This is a great way to reinforce important concepts and literary elements such as details, setting, main characters, and problem.

There are so many ways to engage students in purposeful rereadings of Revisit each Geodes book and focus on Teachable Moments. Geodes. An unsung hero of the Book Notes in Inside Geodes is the Teachable Moments section for every title. In either small groups or as a whole group, revisiting these books are golden opportunities to engage students in close reading that reinforces the structure and purpose of both Reveal lessons and Deep Dives. For example, in Grade 1 Module 2, the title Young Hare is introduced. The Teachable Moments in this text include having students examine text structure by asking them to pause and think about how they would answer the questions the author poses to the reader, as well as asking them to focus on a facet of style and conventions by identifying adjectives that describe the different lines Albrecht Dürer painted.

Will students make connections to module topics and content?
I have found that I am rarely the one who makes explicit connections between Geodes and the Wit & Wisdom module topic because students always beat me to it. One of the unique and beautiful features of Geodes is that they are not only aligned to the module, but they also support the knowledge that students are building in said module so students can continue to grow the depth and breadth of their knowledge as they read Geode s.

I saw a whole new layer of possibilities when I looked at the Wit & Wisdom Module Learning Goals and Suggested Student Understandings for each module to see where explicit connections between both the topic and the skills could be made as students read each Geodes book.

Students can make connections in other ways. For example, in the beginning of the year, rising first graders will bring their excitement and knowledge about the world from their work in Kindergarten Module 4: The Continents. Displaying a map at the beginning of the school year will bridge that connection and fuel students' excitement as they engage in Module 1: A World of Books. For first graders, consider capitalizing on the World Connection that is called out in Inside Geodes for each Geodes title. Students could post notes or comments, connected by yarn and push pins, to unfamiliar and familiar places around the globe. Students can also make global connections in a variety of ways. They may want to illustrate a fact from the More section or try their hand at using Dürer's techniques to draw an animal.
How can I involve caregivers?
Nothing feels better to a child than knowing how to read. For visiting caregivers, have students make reading presentations that include reading a Geodes book aloud or asking "Did you know?" questions they have generated themselves from the Geodes' More section. Students will enjoy sharing the knowledge that they have built from a single Geodes title and explaining the connection with the module topic to their families and caregivers. This is also a great time to share Family Tip Sheets, which have resulted in more visits to the local public library than I can name.

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Four Common Questions You May Have When Getting Started with Geodes

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Heidi Foley provides practical guidance on how educators can use Geodes to support knowledge building in the classroom.

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You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

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and to build independent reading skills, but that doesn't mean that Geodes® allow students to apply their growing decoding and word recognition skills in the context of authentic, content-rich books. Geodes are designed to be accessible to emerging readers , during small-group instruction or center time, and even at home with the My Geodes Geodes are just a tool for independent practice. The beauty of Geodes is that they can be used flexibly for whole-group instruction ® take-home books that accompany each module.

A Readable Collection: What Makes Geodes Ideal for Developing Readers?

Accessibility - Geodes allow students to systematically practice taught phonetic concepts and high frequency words in the context of authentic texts.

Knowledge - Geodes systematically build student knowledge of compelling topics and contain carefully selected Recurring Content Words that enable students to access and express knowledge about each topic.

Text-based supports - Nondecodable words are surroundedby clusters of decodable words toease cognitive load andsupport decoding, andaverage sentence length is increasedgradually across Levels K, 1, and 2 to support students in building reading stamina.

With so many possibilities, it can be hard to imagine what it might look like to put Geodes into practice. You might even be wondering, "How can I use one set of books, or a single text, to meet the needs of all my students?" While whole-group instruction may be the most efficient way to introduce a new Geodes book to students, using Geodes in small groups offers more opportunity for practice and targeted support.

In small-group instruction, students are typically placed into groups of three to six students according to the most immediate hurdle-accuracy, fluency, or comprehension-preventing them from successfully reading a given Geodes text. Each text includes guidance in the Inside Geodes® teacher resource that enables teachers to easily plan lessons that help students overcome these core reading hurdles. This means that, ultimately, teachers can use a single Geodes text in three ways to offer differentiated, small-group instruction that addresses the root cause of students' reading challenges and moves them closer to skilled, independent reading.

Let's look at each hurdle in more detail.
Accuracy: Addressing Students' Word-Attack Skills Key Question: Can my student automatically read the decodable and high-frequency words in the text?

Reading Tricky Words

To read accurately, students need to recognize words quickly and efficiently on sight. There are many words that students will regularly see during reading that might not be decodable yet based on the letter-sound patterns they have learned so far during foundational skills instruction. These words will need to be explicitly taught, and each curriculum may have a different approach to teaching them.

Every Geodes text includes Fundations® Trick Words, which are high-frequency words that students are explicitly taught to recognize and decode during Fundations® instruction. Other foundational skills programs will include instruction on a similar set of words.

A strong foundational skills curriculum systematically builds students' understanding of letters, their sounds, and the ways that letters are often combined in English writing to produce specific sounds. Geodes texts align with the pacing of foundational skills instruction and include words from four categories:

Decodable Words (can be sounded out based on known phonetic concepts),

Fundations® Trick Words (high-frequency words with unexpected sounds-see the sidebar for more information),

Recurring Content Words (8-12 content-based words that repeat across books in a module), and

Words that are not yet decodable (contain phonetic concepts that have not yet been taught).

At least 80 percent of the words in each Geodes book are either decodable or high-frequency words that have already been taught during foundational skills instruction, which makes Geodes highly readable.

When students struggle to read the decodable and high-frequency words in a text, teachers can use strategies from their foundational skills program to reteach phonetic concepts and practice accuracy during small-group instruction. The strategy a teacher uses with a student may vary depending on the type of word the student is having difficulty with. For example, teachers may help students sound or tap out words, use flashcards, or break a word down on a whiteboard before students practice reading part or all of a Geodes text as a choral reading, with a partner, or independently.

"Teachers were differentiating by planning lessons for multiple letter-leveled groups of students, using leveled texts that were controlled for everything but phonics rules. Now, with Geodes, all the students read the same text and the teacher differentiates their teaching in one of three ways ... It's way easier to differentiate with one Geodes book than it is with three different leveled texts."

-Danielle Gaither, Literacy Coach

Fluency: Developing Students' Phrasing and Expression Key Question: Does my student read the text with appropriate phrasing and expression?
Once students become strong decoders, they spend time in small-group instruction working on their phrasing and expression. Beginning readers often read word by word and may not use appropriate expression when reading aloud, while fluent readers read in phrases with rhythm, emotion, intonation, and pauses that make sense for a listener. Research into reading fluency has shown that oral reading fluency is a strong indicator of students' ability to silently read and comprehend a text independently. If students show a lack of oral reading fluency, even if they are accurate decoders, fluency is the next hurdle to address on the road to reading comprehension.

Repeated readings with varying levels of support can help students recognize the role of punctuation, better understand how to scoop up phrases, develop variations in their expression, or adjust their reading pace. Teachers may begin by modeling a fluent read of challenging sections of a Geodes book while students start by whisper reading along with the teacher and then progress to choral reading and then partner reading, gaining more independence and fluency with each read.

Comprehension: Helping Students Make Meaning of Texts

Key Question: Does my student understand what is happening in the text?

Wit & Wisdom Connection
Geodes texts explore connected topics across multiple books, which are organized into modules that are based on the content and progression of the Wit & Wisdom ® module topics.

This sustained study of a variety of texts on related topics provides additional content knowledge support as students learn to read and allows students to build depth of knowledge and develop more academic vocabulary.

Students who demonstrate strong accuracy and fluency are ready to work on comprehension. These students can often read Geodes independently or with little support, and small-group instruction can help them strengthen their understanding of a text and their analysis of grammar, vocabulary, and text features such as illustrations, maps, charts, and diagrams. Teachers can strategically guide students' exploration of a Geodes text, or parts of the text, and select from several comprehension tasks to build students' knowledge and skills.

Geodes also offer many opportunities for enriching and extending student learning. For example, students can use topics from the More section of each Geodes text, which is available in English and Spanish, to delve into other areas of the content. Students who are ready for more of a challenge and are intrigued by a particular Geodes topic can also find additional books with similar content at the library.
Flexible, Targeted Instruction Helps Unlock Reading Success
Research tells us that emerging readers need books that consistently support them in applying their growing phonics skills while also offering rich content that builds the knowledge needed for comprehension (Castles et al. 2018; Cervetti et al. 2016; Cervetti and Hiebert 2019; Juel and Roper/Schneider 1985; Paris 2005). Each student's path to developing these skills may look different, but there are common hurdles that every student may face at various points along the way. Differentiated, small-group instruction using Geodes is a great way for teachers to provide explicit, targeted instruction to students based on their identified needs while reinforcing the grade-level reading skills that have been taught.

For more support with small-group instruction using Geodes, learn more about our Getting Started with Geodes and Geodes Strategic Planning professional learning sessions.

Student groups should remain flexible, and teachers can easily shift students between groups as needed. Using observations of student performance during foundational skills instruction along with appropriate assessments can help teachers make sure students are receiving the support they need, when they need it, to become skilled readers. With this knowledge of students' developing skills, teachers can choose from the flexible instructional options and activities-including the Recurring Content Words Routine, Teachable Moments, and Comprehension and Image Discussion Guides-outlined in the Book Notes that accompany each text to amplify student learning.

For more Geodes in action, read this Q&A blog series about educator experiences with Geodes implementation, or watch this webinar that features a panel discussion with three educators about how they are using Geodes in their elementary classrooms.
Works Cited
Castles, Anne, et al. "Ending the Reading Wars." Psychological Science in the Public Interest, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018, pp. 5-51.

Cervetti, Gina N., and Elfrieda H. Hiebert. "Knowledge at the Center of English Language Arts Instruction." The Reading Teacher, vol. 72, no. 4, 2019, pp 499-507.

Cervetti, Gina N., et al. "Conceptual Coherence, Comprehension, and Vocabulary Acquisition: A Knowledge Effect?" Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 29, no. 4, 2016, pp. 761-779.

Juel, Connie, and Diane Roper/Schneider. "The Influence of Basal Readers on First Grade Reading." Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 2, 1985, pp. 134-152.

Paris, Scott G. "Reinterpreting the Development of Reading Skills." Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 2, 2005, pp. 184-202.

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One Text, Three Ways: Small-Group Instruction with Geodes

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An overview of how to provide science of reading aligned small group reading instruction using Geodes books.

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Links to several different resources here....

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Discover , an innovative approach to early literacy from Great Minds ® that provides emerging readers with the opportunity to read to learn as they learn to read. Rich with facts and ideas that spark students' curiosity, these books feature diverse characters, beautiful illustrations, and opportunities for beginning readers to practice phonics and decoding skills. Geodes are designed to be paired with foundational reading programs such as Fundations ®, Really Great Reading, and 95 Phonics Core Program that provide systematic and explicit phonics and phonemic awareness instruction.

Hear from our content expert Virginia Day, implementation leader for humanities at Great Minds, as she provides a comprehensive walk-through of the components that set Geodes apart. Virginia will share more about

how Geodes couple specific decoding skills with content and vocabulary,

the support offered for educators, students, and their families, and

how to bring Geodes to your school or district.

Additional Resources

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Putting Foundational Phonics into Practice

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This free webinar offers a comprehensive walk-through of the components of Geodes, knowledge-building books from Great Minds.

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Alignment with Fundations by grade level

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Alignment with Fundations by grade level

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Engaging, accessible, knowledge-building books for emerging and developing readers

Reading to Learn While Learning to Read

Rooted in the belief that children are capable of reading to learn while learning to read, Geodes ®, published by Great Minds®in association with Wilson Language Training ® (WLT), are a collection of accessible, knowledge-building books for emerging and developing readers.

Named after the modest-looking rocks that contain countless crystals inside, Geodeshold a surprising amount of interesting, complex, and beautiful qualities inside each book. Students practice applying taught skills and concepts while learning about important ideas in science, history, and the arts.

These texts combine Wilson's expertise in foundational reading skills instruction and Great Minds' experience at building students' content knowledge. Geodesalign with both the scope and sequence of Fundations ® and the module topics in Great Minds' English language arts curriculum Wit & Wisdom®.

About the Readables

What does the term "readable" mean? Geodesare "readable texts" because, with specific decoding strategies coupled with explicit instruction in vocabulary and content knowledge, they are wonderfully accessible to students with emerging reading skills. While written for emerging and developing readers, the books provide an authentic reading experience that builds content knowledge about science, history, and the arts, fostering intellectual curiosity.

Unique Features of Geodes

Each of the four modules cover a specific topic, and the sets within a module cover a subtopic.

Topics from many content areas and genres build content knowledge and context.

Texts are organized in grade-level appropriate sets, with each set building a "mental shelf."

Geodes are 80%* decodable or higher at a designated point in the Fundationsscope and sequence.

Decodable words include previously taught and newly taught phonetic concepts that align with Fundations.

Recognizable words include previously taught and newly taught Fundations Trick Words.

Pre-selected content words related to the topic are taught for sight recognition. Including these, the decodability of the text is greater than 80%, making them "readable" and accessible.

*While the majority of Geodes are 80% decodable or above, three books in the Level 1 library are intended to be read along with students and are at least 70% decodable. Also, in the K library, the child-read text in Modules 3 and 4 is 90% decodable or higher.

Using Geodes

Geodes align to the Fundations Scope and Sequence - they can be used outside of Fundations lessons or incorporated into fluency practice. The foundational skills and concepts included in the Geodes Classroom Libraries align with the corresponding Fundations ® program level. Geodes are 80% decodable or higher at a designated point in the Fundations scope and sequence. This means that a minimum of 80% of the words contain phonetic elements and trick words that have been explicitly taught up to a specific Fundations Unit; this is indicated on the back of each book. It is recommended that each book be read by the Fundations student after they have completed the Unit identified on the back of the book.

Maintain your 30 minutes of dedicated Fundations ® instruction time. Use Geodes for decoding and fluency practice during small-group, whole-group, or independent reading time for appropriate students.

In a Fundations ® Tier 2 intervention block, Geodes may be incorporated into the fluency part of the lesson. Students should not move beyond the texts that were designed for the application of skills that the student has been explicitly taught and is currently practicing.

Learn more about using Geodes with Fundations.

Inside Geodes®

Inside Geodes ® is a teacher resource with Book Notes that correspond to each Geode and include the Fundations® alignment, story summary, word lists (with decodable words, trick words, and words that cannot yet be decoded at the specific Fundations ® Unit) discussion questions, and journal ideas. Explore Library Cat Book Notes here!

Level-specific Libraries

Geodes' texts are organized in grade-level appropriate sets. Each library is organized into topical modules that interest young minds.

Geodes Level K aligns with the scope and sequence of Fundations ® Level K. Children build on an early understanding of story structure to graduate from wordless picture books and sound search books to duet books, where students practice decoding words, phrases, and simple sentences. Duet books contain child- and adult-read text, and the child-read text is at least 90% decodable as aligned with the scope and sequence of Fundations Units. From the very first book, students begin to build knowledge.

The classroom library is organized into four topical modules: The Five Senses; Once Upon a Farm; America, Then and Now; and The Continents.

The Five Senses: Students explore sensory experiences in South America and in museums around the world.
Once Upon a Farm: Students explore farm life across the United States.
America, Then and Now: Students explore changes over time in American life and culture.
The Continents: Students explore the world through art, geography, animals, landmarks, and traditions.

The Geodes® Level K Classroom Library includes 48 unique titles containing both informational and literary text with multiple copies of each title; grayscale compilations with multiple copies for each child to have one for extra practice or at home; a teacher resource to guide instruction and implementation; and a unique geode rock with a stand highlights that this library set is called Geodes because the books belie the rich and complex knowledge they contain.
Learn more about Geodes Level K

Geodes Level 1 aligns with the scope and sequence of Fundations ® Level 1. The classroom library is organized into four topical modules: A World of Books, Creature Features, Powerful Forces, and Cinderella Stories.

A World of Books: Students explore the power of books shared across time and culture.
Creature Features: Students explore intriguing animal traits and behaviors and are introduced to people who study animals.
Powerful Forces: Students explore how wind affects life on earth and how its energy can be used to generate power.
Cinderella Stories: Students explore countries and cultures through the lens of an enduring tale.

The Geodes® Level 1 Classroom Library includes 64 unique titles containing both informational and literary text with multiple copies of each title; grayscale compilations with multiple copies for each child to have one for extra practice or at home; a teacher resource to guide instruction and implementation; and a unique geode rock with a stand highlights that this library set is called Geodes because the books belie the rich and complex knowledge they contain.
Learn more about Geodes Level 1

Geodes Level 2 aligns with the scope and sequence of Fundations ® Level 2. The classroom library is organized into four topical modules: A Season of Change, The American West, Civil Rights Heroes, and Good Eating.

A Season of Change: Students explore the four seasons throughout the world.
The American West: Students explore the American West region and learn about westward expansion.
Civil Right Heroes: Students learn about civil rights heroes and examine their impact on equality and justice in the United States.
Good Eating: Students explore where food comes from and how food fuels our bodies and communities.

The Geodes® Level 2 Classroom Library includes 64 unique titles containing both informational and literary text with multiple copies of each title; grayscale compilations with multiple copies for each child to have one for extra practice or at home; a teacher resource to guide instruction and implementation; and a unique geode rock with a stand highlights that this library set is called Geodes because the books belie the rich and complex knowledge they contain.
Learn more about Geodes Level 2

The Geodes books provide an authentic reading experience that builds content knowledge about science, history, and the arts, fostering intellectual curiosity.

Geodes are available in Levels K, 1, and 2 to align with the Fundations scope and sequence.

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Geodes Classroom Libraries - Wilson Language Training Corporation

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Reading to Learn While Learning to Read Rooted in the belief that children are capable of reading to learn while learning to read, Geodes®, published by Great Minds® in association with Wilson Language Training® (WLT), are a collection of accessible, knowledge-building books for emerging and developing readers.

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Winner of a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards in the category of Social Sciences and Education

"Is it possible to create a more inclusive and fairer education system? The Knowledge Gap shows the way." Daisy Christodoulou, tes.

"The Knowledge Gap is not just a scholarly work. It pulsates with vivid detail as it winds its way through the strange terrain of the Educational Upside Down. Anyone who seeks to understand the quixotic state of educational ideas in American schools and beyond should place it on the top of their summer reading list." Greg Ashman, Quillette

"The best book I have seen on improving elementary schools." Jay Mathews, Washington Post

"The Knowledge Gap makes a persuasive case for attending to the importance of rich content and high-quality curricula in elementary classrooms." Carnegie Corporation of New York

"This book serves as a reminder of our own potential knowledge gap and provides an opportunity for educators to be wiser consumers of information with the ability to 'distinguish between approaches that are likely to produce the outcomes we want and those that will only lead to a heartbreaking waste of precious time.'" Sheryl Ferlito, Perspectives on Language and Literacy

"Wexler ... has made a first-rate case for content. ... If you are among the uninitiated on the value of content knowledge for kids, buy a copy. If you're already among the true believers, buy two copies and put them in the hands of persuadable educators." Robert Pondiscio, Education Next

"In this compelling work, journalist Wexler pinpoints the underlying issues that plague the American public education system, provides context to recent educational reforms, and offers possible solutions." Library Journal (starred review)

"A compelling critique of American elementary schools" that "highlights pervasive problems." Kirkus Reviews

"Illuminating and thought-provoking." Publishers Weekly

THE KNOWLEDGE GAP focuses on a long-overlooked issue lying at the heart of what is known as the achievement gap: the failure of most elementary schools, and especially those serving low-income children, to systematically build knowledge of the world.

Every school day, elementary teachers spend hours drilling students on comprehension skills and strategies like "finding the main idea" or "making inferences," in an effort to boost their reading ability-and their scores on standardized reading tests. Subjects like history, science, and art have virtually disappeared from the curriculum in many schools.

In fact, these schools are doing the exact opposite of what can actually turn students into good readers. Comprehension strategies can be useful-when delivered in limited doses and connected to specific content. But cognitive science has shown that the primary factor in whether you're able to understand what you read is whether you possess relevant background knowledge and vocabulary.

The prevailing narrow, skills-focused approach to literacy instruction can hold any child back, but its effects fall hardest on those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum. Children from more educated families often absorb knowledge about the world at home. But those from less educated families have to rely on schools for the kind of knowledge that will equip them to do well on tests-not to mention in high school, college, and life. Every year they spend in school without getting that knowledge puts them farther behind their more affluent peers. By the time they get to middle or high school, it's often too late for them to catch up.

Through the stories of educators, students, and parents, The Knowledge Gap examines what elementary literacy instruction currently looks like, how it evolved to this point - and how it can be changed so that all students receive a meaningful, rigorous education.

Excerpts from the book have appeared in The Atlantic, Chalkbeat, MindShift, American Educator, and the blog of the Albert Shanker Institute.

Read or listen to interviews with Natalie and presentations about The Knowledge Gap:

TV:

Morning Joe, MSNBC

After Words With Natalie Wexler, C-SPAN

Good Morning Washington, WJLA

VIDEO:

Why Prior Knowledge Wins the Game (two-minute video from Edutopia)

Western NY Science of Reading Conference, November 2022

Iniciativa Educacao, Lisbon (in English)

Why Teaching Social Studies Is Teaching Reading, The OC for Social Studies Conference

RADIO:
Total Information AM South Dakota Public Broadcasting
The Pulse (WHYY/NPR) (episode on comprehension)

On Point (WBUR/NPR)

Leonard Lopate at Large, WBAI

All of It, WNYC

The Record, KUOW

St. Louis in Tune, KWRH

Nightside with Dan Rea, WBZ

PODCASTS:

Through the Educational Looking Glass with Don Sturm and Courtney Eddleson

Lars og pal with Lars Sandaker

Education Uncharted with Amanda Bratten (Propello)

Raising Healthy Kid Brains podcast with Amy Nielson

TeachThought Podcast panel discussion with Emily Hanford and others

The Literacy View with Faith Borkowsky, Judy Boksner, and Mary McCool Berry

Building Knowledge with Kristen Rodriguez

Mr. Nico Summer Schoolin' with Nico Eaglin

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy (with Judith Hochman)

On the Scene with SST 13 with Mary Williams

The Inquiring Mind with Stanley Goldberg

After the Bell with Cassie Tabrizi
Talking to Teens
Alabama Literacy Network's Podcast with Shelley Vail-Smith

The Charles Love Show (second hour)

Catalysts for Change with Jill Shah

Rethinking Intervention with Emily Freitag

Tests and the Rest with Mike Bergin and Amy Seeley

Filling the Pail with Greg Ashman

Rethinking Intervention with Emily Freitag and Christina Gonzales

PodcastED with Doug Tuthill
EDVIEW 360 Podcast, Voyager Sopris: Righting the Wrongs of the Elementary Education System EWA Radio: Can Schools Close "The Knowledge Gap"?Just a Few Questions with Marc Sims
Education is Power with Chris Stewart (Facebook Live)

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy (second appearance)
More Teacher Talk: Transforming Teaching and Learning for Disadvantaged Pupils Full Prefrontal: A Podcast About Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function Ed's Not Dead: A podcast covering today's hottest education issues Off the Assembly Line: A Podcast with Rebecca Reed ExtraOrdinary Districts: Ordinary school districts that get extraordinary results Vrain Waves: Teaching Conversations with Minds Shaping Education Science of Reading: The Podcast The Learning Curve with Bob Bowdon and Cara Candel The Report Card with Nat Malkus Education Research Reading Room with Ollie Lovell Principal Center Radio with Justin Baeder Melissa and Lori Love Literacy

PRINT INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES:
EdSource/KQED, This Literacy Expert Reveals the Key Problem Undermining American Education, April 25, 2024 Edutopia, "Why Our Youngest Readers Need 'Knowledge,' Not 'Skills,' July 28, 2022 Edutopia, "Is It Time to Drop 'Finding the Main Idea' and Teach Reading in a New Way?, July 28, 2020 American Educator, "Building Knowledge: What an Elementary Curriculum Should Do", Summer 2020 EdNC, "Reading instruction needs to improve. Who will lead the charge, and how?", February 17, 2020 Perspectives on Language and Literacy, "The Importance of Knowledge" (International Dyslexia Association), Fall 2019 MindShift (KQED) ,"Why Deeply Diving Into Content Could Be the Key to Reading Comprehension," October 22, 2019 Chalkbeat, "Want better readers? Spend less time teaching kids to find the main idea, 'Knowledge Gap' author Natalie Wexler argues", September 16, 2019 District Administration, "Closing the knowledge gap: Why schools are failing to teach fundamental reading and comprehension skills-and how to change it", October 2019
Click HERE to order The Knowledge Gap through the publisher's website or HERE to order from Amazon. Listen to an excerpt from the audio version, read by the author, below. To order the audio book, click HERE.

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Winner of a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards in the category of Social Sciences and Education "Is it possible to create a more inclusive and fairer education system? The Knowledge Gap shows the way." Daisy Christodoulou, tes. "The Knowledge Gap is not just a scholarly work.

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Episode 1: The Knowledge Gap with Natalie Wexler

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Amplify Education, Inc. 55 Washington St #800, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Core Knowledge® and related trademarks are the property of the Core Knowledge Foundation. DIBELS® is a registered trademark of the University of Oregon. The Lawrence Hall of Science is a trademark of the Regents of the University of California.

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"Wolf offers a persuasive catalog of the cognitive and social good created by deep reading.... She's right that digital media doesn't automatically doom deep reading and can even enhance it. She's also correct that we have a lot to lose if we don't pay attention to what we're doing with technology and what it's doing to us." - Washington Post

"[A] gentle manifesto.... [Wolf] affirms and celebrates the power of reading for the formation of our moral imaginations, and a lifetime of bookish devotion bubbles to the surface of her lovely prose in allusion and quotation." - Washington Free Beacon

"Maryanne Wolf has done it again. She has written another seminal book destined to become a dog-eared, well-thumbed, often-referenced treasure on your bookshelf.... Reader Come Home conveys a cautionary message, but it also will rekindle your heart and help illuminate promising paths ahead." - International Dyslexia Association

"This rich study by cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf tackles an urgent question: how do digital devices affect the reading brain? Wolf explores the "cognitive strata below the surface of words", the demotivation of children saturated in on-screen stimulation, and the power of 'deep reading' and challenging texts in building nous and ethical responses such as empathy.... An antidote for today's critical-thinking deficit." - Nature

"[T]imely and important.... if you love reading and the ways it has enriched your life and our world, Reader, Come Home is essential, arriving at a crucial juncture in history." - BookPage

"Wolf wields her pen with equal parts wisdom and wonder. The result is a joy to read and reread, a love letter to literature, literacy, and progress." - Shelf Awareness

"Wolf stays firmly grounded in reality when presenting suggestions... for how to teach young children to be competent, curious, and contemplative in a world awash in digital stimulus. [ Reader, Come Home ] is a clarion call for parents, educators, and technology developers to work to retain the benefits of reading independent of digital media." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Wolf is a lovely prose writer who draws not only on research but also on a broad range of literary references, historical examples, and personal anecdotes. The strongest parts of Reader, Come Home are her moving accounts of why reading matters, and her deeply detailed exploration of how the reading brain is being changed by screens.... Wolf makes a strong case for what we lose when we lose reading." - San Francisco Chronicle

"A love song to the written word, a brilliant introduction to the science of the reading brain and a powerful call to action. With each page, Wolf shows us why we must preserve deep reading for ourselves and sow desire for it within our kids. Otherwise we risk losing the critical benefits for humanity that come with reading deeply to understand our world." - Lisa Guernsey, co-author of Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in A World of Screens

"Scholar, storyteller, and humanist, Wolf brings her laser sharp eye to the science of reading in a seminal book about what it means to be literate in our digital and global age. Informed by a review of research from neuroscience to Socratic philosophy, and wittily crafted with true affection for her audience, Reader Come Home charts a compelling case for a new approach to lifelong literacy that could truly affect the course of human history." - Michael H. Levine, co-author of Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in A World of Screens

"In this profound and well-researched study of our changing reading patterns, Wolf presents lucid arguments for teaching our brain to become all-embracing in the age of electronic technology. If you call yourself a reader and want to keep on being one, this extraordinary book is for you." - Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading

"Wolf (Tufts, Proust and the Squid) provides a mix of reassurance and caution in this latest look at how we read today. . . . A hopeful look at the future of reading that will resonate with those who worry that we are losing our ability to think in the digital age. Accessible to general readers and experts alike." - Library Journal (starred review)

"An accessible, well-researched analysis of the impact of literacy." - Kirkus

"Wolf has a profound respect for the beauty and power of the reading brain as well as a great curiosity about the digital brain that may soon displace it." - Boston Globe

"[ Reader, Come Home ] is an elegant and insightful analysis of how deep reading is under threat, and of how this particular form of attention is being eroded by the digital universe in which we now live. For an English teacher, the book is essential reading. For me, it is one of the most important books of recent years. Wolf expresses with increasing forcefulness what is by now a common anxiety: that digital devices are challenging all of us (certainly not just children) in entirely new ways." - Julian Girdham, teacher at the English Department of St. Columbia's College

"A tour de force." - Claremont Review of Books

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Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

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Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World [Wolf, Maryanne] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

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Each episode is so informative! Lots of topics covered regarding best practices to help your students.

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Each episode is so informative! Lots of topics covered regarding best practices to help your students.

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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.

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.

Dr. Reid Lyon Episodes

Fascinating.

Horrible

I thought this was about science / potential energy and forces and motion acceleration and kinetic energy I'm maddddd

So when do we actually get to the science of reading?

The first five episodes are about how teachers are horrible to children, and how they have been letting them down for years, and that children only aren't learning because they've had horrible teachers. Not a single mention behind any of the science of reading methods or practices or theories. Just some interviews with some people who hate teachers

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‎Science of Reading: The Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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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.

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This is Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Reid Lyon, one of the leading experts in reading research. After years working for and with the highest levels of the U.S. government, Dr. Lyon stepped away from working on reading research. However, in May 2023, he released his "Ten Maxims: What We've Learned So Far About How Children Learn to Read." Picking up where we left off last episode, Dr. Lyon continues to expand on what we know about how children learn-and explains how much of this information was known two decades ago when he was testifying before Congress. He also goes into what he sees in the current Science of Reading landscape, and what he hopes for the future, and how both of those things led to the creation of his "Ten Maxims."

Show notes:
Listen to: Embracing the complexity of learning to read (Part 1)Dr. Reid Lyon: "Ten Maxims: What We've Learned So Far About How Children Learn to Read"Keith Rayner's research: "Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research"Marilyn Adams: Beginning to ReadSusan Brady: Phonological Processes in Literacy Emily Hanford: "Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong"Quotes:
"The Science of Reading is cumulative and we're learning all kinds of new things." -Dr. Reid Lyon
"A more realistic look at reading is in fact to understand the complexity, but not be intimidated by it." -Dr. Reid Lyon

"When you're working on something that's so critical to a life-to a child's life-belief systems don't cut it. Evidence cuts it." -Dr. Reid Lyon

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interlude episode 2 (part 2): embracing the complexity of learning to read with dr. reid lyon

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‎Science of Reading: The Podcast: Back to School '23, Interlude episode 2 (Part 2): Embracing the complexity of learning to read with Dr. Reid Lyon on Apple Podcasts

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This is Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Reid Lyon, one of the leading experts in reading research. After years working for and with the highest levels of the U.S. government, Dr. Lyon stepped away from working on reading research. However, in May 2023, he released his "Ten Maxims: What We've Lea...

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This is a great starting point.  It's a two part podcast.    Part 1:

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This is a great starting point.  It's a two part podcast.    Part 1:

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Meet our guest(s):

Dr. Reid Lyon is a neuroscientist and specialist in learning disorders. In 1980, he joined the faculty of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern, where he also directed the neuropsychology laboratory. He later joined the Stern Center for Language and Learning as the director of research, and the University of Vermont Medical School as a clinical associate professor of neurology. From 1992 to 2005, he served as a research neuropsychologist and chief of the Child Development and Behavior branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health.

After leaving the NIH, Lyon held distinguished scientist and professorships at the University of Texas (neuroscience) and Southern Methodist University (educational leadership). Dr. Lyon is the author or co-author of over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters addressing developmental neuroscience, learning and reading disorders/dyslexia, and the translation of science into practice and policy. He also co-authored the definition of dyslexia used at the NIH and worldwide, and was a two-time recipient of the NIH Director's Award.

Meet our host, Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Susan is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Susan is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

Transcripts and additional resources

"Phonics-that is, looking at letters, letter patterns, learning how to bring sound to associate to those letters-is absolutely essential, non-negotiable. It has to be learned. But it in no way is sufficient to be able to comprehend, which is the goal of reading." -Dr. Reid Lyon

"Reading is a complex behavior subserved by multiple systems in the brain that integrate and inform each other." -Dr. Reid Lyon

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Season 7 Interlude Episode 2 (Part 1): Embracing the complexity of learning to read, with Reid Lyon

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Tune in to hear Reid Lyon discuss today's literacy landscape and the Science of Reading movement for learning to read.

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This Emily Handford article brought the problems to light:

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This Emily Handford article brought the problems to light:

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Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences - children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They'd catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.
Sold a Story is an independent investigative journalism project from American Public Media. We rely on your donations to support this kind of rigorous reporting.
The controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade. Explore a map of school districts.

More states are now requiring districts to adopt curriculum that adheres to the science of reading. Look up the policy in your state.

At least 15 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since the Sold a Story podcast was released in 2022, but there is pushback.

Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford.

This discussion guide, created by a teacher, invites educators, parents, community members and kids to have a conversation about the podcast.

Emails and voice messages poured in from people who listened to Sold a Story.

We'll let you know when we release new episodes of the podcast. Enter your address below.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

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There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read.