| | | | Back to School: Distance and Online Learning |
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| How have school closures impacted the delivery of special education services to students across the U.S.? What questions should families and educators be asking to prepare for the coming school year? Which districts have had success in serving their special education population remotely? Find answers to these questions and more in this new guide from Reading Rockets. (This project was developed in partnership with the National Education Association and Colorín Colorado.) |
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| Set up and run an effective virtual classroom with these recommended tools and tips from Common Sense Education. |
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| Finding new ways to teach our most vulnerable learners is challenging. Skillful teachers can continue to teach a systematic and explicit curriculum that was used in the classroom through remote instruction if we implement essential adjustments. This article from the Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education (CORE) provides guidance. |
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| Whether you call it remote learning, online learning, or distance learning, school looks different during the COVID-19 pandemic. While some students are thriving with this way of learning, many students don’t seem to be engaging in it. In this article from Understood, discover five possible barriers to student engagement during distance learning—and ways you can help. Related:
The Surprising Benefits of Online Learning for My Not-So-Typical Child |
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| Across the country we hear stories of teachers and students grappling with the demands of the virtual classroom. For the 7 million students in the US who receive special education services, the challenges are even more acute. In-person instruction and continuous 1:1 support are critical. The shift to online learning raises red flags and questions about not only how to provide similar support, but IF that support can still be provided via distance learning. While alarming stories of struggling students abound in the news, there are rays of hope. In this blog post from Benetech, see how three students with dyslexia are making homeschooling work with their learning differences. From Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams, to the dedicated support from teachers and insight into their own needs, these students are impressive. |
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| To maximize student learning and increase independence, it is important for students to develop appropriate study skills habits. Luckily, there are many technology options that can help students learn, build, and maintain strong study skills to be applied across all subjects. Get the details in this LD OnLine article by the Landmark School. |
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For Parents: Helping Your Child with Reading |
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| In this special Reading Rockets video series, experts answer real questions from families about reading and how to support their children at home. COVID-19 has disrupted regular reading instruction for our K-3 kids. Families want to step in and help fill some of the gaps, but that can be challenging. That's where Reading SOS comes in — the help you need, right now! In the first series of videos, reading expert Linda Farrell shares her strategies and tips for which letter sounds to teach first, how to explain the “ea” vowel pair, reading sight words, and more. We're asking families to submit questions about how to help their striving readers. If you'd like to ask a question, please write to us at: info@readingrockets.org. |
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| Support your child’s literacy learning with this new video series from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR). In these videos, parents and their kids try out a range of fun, easy literacy activities. To find more activities, see the FCRR’s Student Center Activities library. |
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| Audio books are a wonderful way to teach critical listening, and expose children to complex language, expressive reading, and new genres. Related: |
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| The Learning Ally Audiobook program helps you provide equal access to grade-level content for all your students. To help you teach or learn during this challenging time, Learning Ally is providing free online resources for reading, ideas for teaching reading at home, teacher and parent lesson plans, and struggling reader strategies to help all readers get into good books. |
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| Graphic novels are a great way to help struggling readers strengthen vocabulary, build reading confidence and stamina, and develop a deeper appreciation of storytelling. (In English and Spanish) Related: |
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| Dyslexia is no longer a mystery. MRI scans and other tools of neuroscience have advanced our understandings in the last decade. We now know what to do to help students become skilled, confident learners. In her new book, Conquering Dyslexia, Dr. Jan Hasbrouck shares the instructional approaches that work best for children with dyslexia, and the most current information for parents so they can advocate for their children and communicate with educators effectively. |
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| This Facebook Group was launched to help connect research to our teaching practice. Dr. Louisa Moats: “The body of work referred to as the ‘science of reading’ is not an ideology, a philosophy, a political agenda, a one-size-fits-all approach, a program of instruction, nor a specific component of instruction. It is the emerging consensus from many related disciplines, based on literally thousands of studies, supported by hundreds of millions of research dollars, conducted across the world in many languages. These studies have revealed a great deal about how we learn to read, what goes wrong when students don’t learn, and what kind of instruction is most likely to work the best for the most students.” The group, which has 40,000 members, hosts lively daily conversations where educators share best practices, PD opportunities, book recommendations, and much more. |
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| In these video clips, Linda Farrell talks about her role as a reading intervention specialist, and what more than 20 years of experience working with kids, teachers, and schools has taught her about the potential of struggling learners, including children with dyslexia— that with the right instruction (and patience) every child can become a better reader. |
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