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INTRODUCTION Imagine you are in a room full of peers desperate to improve students’ reading skills and test scores. Your district has adopted a new foundational literacy program;...

Have you heard the buzz around the science of reading (SoR) lately? Actually, it’s less of a buzz for many of us and more like the roar emanated by a turbo jet. There’s no...

Grade retention came up in a conversation with one of my school’s administrators last week. Like many states, hers requires a student to repeat third grade if they are not...

We must teach our students how to read to have option-filled lives. Developing lifelong readers means teachers provide opportunities for their students to apply what they learn...

Research shows that 95 percent of third-graders are cognitively capable of reading proficiently (Torgesen, 2004). The most effective action education leaders can take to ensure...

“Equity” has always been more than just a trending buzzword. It’s an ideal to aim for, and educators and district leaders often know the “what” but not necessarily the “how.” A...

The word impact has various meanings, but the one best fitting for why we, as educators, do what we do is to powerfully affect or influence someone or something. As educators, we...

The research is clear: students need systematic, explicit phonics and phonemic awareness instruction that is sequenced from simple to complex. As a Senior Facilitator, my role...

After working for Reading Horizons for nine years, I found out one of my nephews was struggling with reading. Having been trained in our method and having access to our...

Reading Horizons recently conducted a national survey about literacy instruction in the age of COVID-19 and how schools are planning to address reading skills in the coming...

Teachers across the country are coming up with brilliant and creative ideas for connecting with their students during school closures. Here’s what a few of our customers...

With COVID-19 spreading around the world, it’s important to do what we can to keep each other safe and healthy. But it is also important to stay hopeful and keep moving forward....

When most people consider the middle and junior high school years, they often think of one word: awkward. Luckily, research from Dr. Geoffrey Borman and his colleagues at the...

Writing is an excellent place for students to apply and transfer what they have learned in Reading Horizons Discovery® and Reading Horizons Elevate® reading curriculum. Here are...

"When parents are heavily engaged or connected to the school and their students’ work in school, we see an increase in attendance, behavior, and course performance." —Dr. Nikole...

Have you ever wished you could know what your students are thinking? How they wanted to be taught? What they want to get out of your class? In a recent episode...

We sat down with Implementation Coach Chloe Rhea Beauford to talk about the unique philosophy behind Reading Horizons pacing. Q: Chloe, what do you tell districts that are...

The sooner you identify which students show the signs of dyslexia, the sooner you can intervene. When remediation is conducted early and appropriately, students who demonstrate...

Now that almost every state has passed legislation that classifies dyslexia as its own category of special needs, more districts are working to identify and accommodate students...

In a recent episode of Podclassed titled “Putting Evidence-Based Literacy Initiatives in Action,” Laura Axtell interviewed an expert and two educators about...

The content in this article is based on an episode of Podclassed—a podcast sponsored by Reading Horizons. The tips in this post are combined and rephrased from the interview...

As a kid, school is your life. You spend more time there than in any other setting except your home (if that). For many students, school gives them a sense of purpose and...

  "One of our challenges was how to make us great. We had a hodgepodge of good reading teachers and good things going on, but nothing in common. As Lucy Calkins says, 'When we...

It wasn't long after I started working at Reading Horizons as an educator that we launched a Facebook community page that I managed to help teachers using our program. We needed...

In a recent panel discussion with dyslexia experts Donell Pons, M.Ed., and Shantell Berrett, M.A., the what, why, and how of universal screening for dyslexia were discussed in...

What would be your ideal solution for improving the educational experience of students with dyslexia? This is a question we asked when we recently interviewed the parent of a...

By Guest Writer, Lauren Bailey For several years now, I’ve actively participated in a local literacy organization, which aims at teaching reading to recent immigrants. Although...

One of my biggest character flaws is definitely impatience. One way I’ve discovered this is through my drive to complete other people’s sentences. I usually do this when I want...

From the 1997-98 school year to the 2008-09 school year, the amount of ESL learners enrolled in U.S. public schools increased from 3.5 million to 5.3 million, a 51% increase...

What do you find to be the most difficult thing about teaching beginning and struggling readers? We asked this exact question to educators as they registered for a webinar. Of...

Earlier this year we asked for teaching advice from members of the Reading Horizons Teachers League. If you have ever implemented a new reading curriculum, then you know that...

During our webcast, Don’t Stop the Learning: Assistive Technology in the Classroom, Eric Price, M.Ed., talked about the importance of using technology to improve learning for...

When I was working in the classroom, I would often say that I could sleep over at school every night and still not feel caught up. What’s even worse is that the moments with our...

I used to have a student’s grandmother volunteer in my classroom each week. She was a retired university professor, a mentor of teachers, and a well-educated woman. I loved...

What leads to reading success? In 2000, the National Reading Panel labeled the five critical components of reading instruction for developing strong readers: phonemic awareness...

Creating a Motivating Classroom Environment We know that struggling readers are more motivated when they value reading as something that is important to their success in life....

The end of the school year is fast approaching and students and teachers are looking forward to summer. May is the perfect month for teachers to engage students in reading and...

It’s Get Caught Reading Month! As an educator, we know how exciting is for you to catch one of your students reading. But, we also know that there are some students you wish you...

As a former special education teacher working with students from kindergarten to 12th grade, I spent a great deal of time attempting to stay current with educational research and...

There is a proclivity among middle schoolers to do what their friends are doing. Shocking, I know. But I didn’t realize how this proclivity also shows up in their choices of...

Thanksgiving is a great time to think about what we’re grateful for. But it’s also a time to enjoy great food! In that spirit, here are some reading passages that you can use to...

Parents, how well do you know your child’s teachers? Teachers, how well do you know your students’ parents? How does the relationship between your child’s teachers affect their...

My daughter, Mairead, was born in Indonesia and we lived there until she was 8 years old. By age 3, she could speak three languages: English, Indonesian, and Sundanese. She...

Each year, teachers welcome a diverse group of students into their classrooms. Some students are high achievers, absorbing everything they read and hear and performing well at...

A student who has learned basic phonics from an effective reading instruction program such as Reading Horizons Discovery™ has the word attack skills he needs to read the majority...

The advantages of students reading over summer break are well known. Here is how one teacher encourages her students to read:  Before they are let out for the summer, I always...

When you think of scientists and inventors, you may think of silly, white-haired men with eccentric ideas. But the truth is that they are just like you and me. They have hopes...

For the last few weeks we have been testing all of the students in our school. We give each child a DIBELS test to help predict his or her reading success. This test is the...

By david.clark@readinghorizons.website No Comments          Follow ReadingHorizons   Women’s History Month is a time to learn not only about influential figures in the women’s...

March 2nd is Read Across America Day, as well as the birthday of Dr. Seuss!  It’s amazing how often I am reading a Dr. Seuss book and find inspiration for my own life! The impact...

Black History Month is not only a time to learn about influential figures in the war against racism, segregation, and voting inequality, but also a time to celebrate those who...

What do English Language Learners (ELLs), dyslexics, and struggling readers all have in common? They are among the 30% of all students who require direct, explicit instruction to...

Hello readers! As the new marketing content manager for Reading Horizons, I’ve been writing on the blog for the past few months and I know that I am just barely introducing...

I often get asked why I do what I do for work and why I travel. When I’m sitting in another airport with a level of exhaustion difficult to describe due to the juggling act of...

***This content is based on an interview with Reading Horizons Director of Training and Dyslexia Specialist, Shantell Berrett.*** Many teachers successfully teach the rules of...

      Halloween can be such an exciting time for your classroom. Halloween themed activities are not only fun but can also increase student engagement. And while...

Have you ever been conflicted by two opposing opinions? Both opinions had merit and seemed logical—but—they also seemed to contradict each other. One of the most pervasive...

By Guest Writer, John Mendes, Ed.D. A crucial component of learning is being aware of our own thought processes and consciously understanding how we filter new information. This...

When I do classroom observations, I truly don’t even need to watch the teacher to evaluate instruction; I watch the students. If the processes are consistent and the instruction...

It is probably bad form to start a blog post with a disclaimer but I feel that it is necessary. Let me go on record saying that collectively, teachers are not to blame for the...

In honor of football season, I will begin this post with a lesson from one of NFL’s most memorable coaches. Vince Lombardi was the head coach for the Green Bay Packers and the...

As the smells of sunscreen and chlorine start to give way to the smells of new textbooks and freshly sharpened pencils, teachers are shifting their focus to planning for the new...

Since the end of another school year is approaching, you may be expecting an annual post about the importance of summer reading as it relates to student progress. As a proponent...

For 29 years the insurance company MetLife has been surveying teachers across America to identify challenges involved in public school education. In the fall of 2012, one...

This blog post is brought to you by the lowercase letters b and d. They look so similar that you can see where confusion occurs for beginning readers and writers. Letter...

Do you have to love reading to teach reading? To some, that may seem like a rhetorical question. But ... if you are like most teachers, you spend no more than 10 minutes daily of...

With all the talk in the news about politics and education, it's good to look at what is really going on in regards to education and literacy:   These statistics expose...

How many words are there in the English language? A question with a complicated answer. Depending on your criteria, the answer can range from somewhere around a quarter of a...

By Guest Writer, Robin Merrill People learn to read better when they’re having fun. They relax and lose some of the anxiety that often comes with learning to read a new language....

How do you approach phonics instruction? Join the Reading Horizons Reading Workshop and learn our method for free from home.  By Guest Writer, Jamie Menard, M.A. Reading Where...

By Guest Writer, Dr. Eugenia Krimmel In the inner city high school setting I found many unmotivated students who were talking about dropping out of school. Some English Language...

Have you ever asked someone a question or started discussing a topic and were shocked by the level of passion that comes out of the other person? You think you are asking a basic...

Guest Post by Jamie Menard, MA in Reading Over the years, most elementary schools have made it a priority to assess students' reading skills and, if students are below...

One of the most difficult things about teaching the English language to beginning readers, struggling readers, and ESL students is that there are exceptions to many of the rules...

Let’s compare a classroom to a ship.  There are about 20 passengers (the students) and usually only 1 captain (the teacher).  The ship is small and modestly equipped, often...

“No. Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O. YOU could never be Jell-O!” As Julia Roberts perfectly explains to Cameron Diaz in My Best Friends Wedding. Sometimes people want things to...

There is a lot of information about helping students with processing disorders (such as dyslexia) with reading, but what about other conditions that can make reading difficult?...

We were so excited to have reading expert Kathy Chappell-Muncy present a webinar for us! She presented on “The Essential Need for Orton Gillingham Based Reading Instruction” and...

Lately, with their strong emphasis in the Common Core State Standards, there has been a lot of talk about informational texts. But, their cute little cousin, fiction books, are...

Today’s students are surrounded by distractions in the classroom: friends, cell phones, social media, computers, books, and papers that are screaming to be doodled upon. Not to...

Every teacher wants their students to succeed. Not one teacher out there hopes that their students will perform poorly. So… if there was a simple, easy to implement process that...

There’s nothing more painful than making someone do something they don’t like to do. When a student absolutely loathes reading… even though you know they need to practice, you...

There is a simple 2-minute task you can have your students do each day, that, if repeated for 21 days researchers have found brings the following results: “Your intelligence...

Many teachers and parents, perhaps including you, worry about the future of their dyslexic students. Because reading and other language skills are difficult for these students it...

Teachers depend on assessment tools to help them determine the reading abilities of students in their classrooms. Administrators depend on assessment tools for making decisions...

As you have taught over the years, have you noticed a difference in the performance among your male and female students? Have you found performance gaps more of an individual...

Sometimes it is obvious that a student is struggling with reading. However, some struggling readers are very good at covering up their weakness—after all, reading is often...

DIBELS is a literacy test that is an acronym for the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills. The test was developed by a federally funded group at the University of Oregon....

We are learning that there are certain reading strategies that have been proven to work best for students with autism. For example, students with autism need: Instant Feedback...

There are many myths and misunderstandings about dyslexia in both the private and educational sectors. A large number of these misconceptions persist in spite of recent research...

It’s amazing how large of an impact struggling with reading has on students’ education. It’s just one skill, but it affects everything. A recent research study from the American...

I recently watched an interview on dyslexia with Orlando Bloom that was hosted by the Child Mind Institute. This interview was part of the Adam Jeffrey Katz Memorial Lecture...

Excerpts from Myths About Response to Intervention (RTI) Implementation by Bill East, Executive Director, National Association of State Directors of Special Education 1) Myth:...

Up to 20 percent of students have reading difficulties. You can help these children and young adults by reexamining how you approach and adapt your early reading...

When a student is taught how to read with explicit phonics instruction, they learn how to breakdown, spell and pronounce any word—no matter how long it is. These easy-to-learn...

The RTI model helps educators know how to organize interventions, but it can be difficult to decide which students should be placed in each of the three tiers.  Author, Dr. Jack...

For our Reading Horizons Book Club we have been reading: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. While reading it, this statistic sent me into a thinking frenzy:...

By guest writer, Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist Most reading teachers place some importance on the teaching of sight words. However, what each teacher means by sight...

Cursive isn't taught in many of our schools today. You would be hard-pressed to find good examples of cursive in everyday writing. We can text, email, and Facebook our little...

I’m the first to admit it… I blurt out a comment, think ahead, and interrupt. It’s a bad habit that I’ve been trying to overcome my entire adult life. I really want to be a...

When I was a fifth-grade student, my teacher, Mrs. Pezzapone, taught us that reading would reward us with new adventures and opportunities that we might never know without...

As you may know, dyslexia is a learning disability that causes reading and language difficulties. These difficulties are the result of the way the brain with dyslexia processes...

One outcome of the "reading wars" between the phonics and whole language advocates was the tremendous growth of research in the area of teaching young children how to read...

Reading is not a skill that comes naturally to every student. Even highly skilled readers needed guidance and direction at some point as they learned to read. Simply showing a...

When a student is struggling with reading there are certain signs or symptoms that show up consistently. Everyone can struggle over unfamiliar words at times, so we are looking...

Even if a school is fortunate enough to have an excellent reading curriculum in place, several other factors play a large role in whether students will be able to meet their...

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an early intervention model used to help teachers and schools like yours, prevent long-term academic failure. The following outlines how you...

This post is part of a three-part series which discusses tips for helping teachers reach dyslexic students. To read the first post of this series, visit the link next to #1....

According to a recent report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 68% of America’s 4th graders read below grade level last school year. The necessity of literacy skills in today’s...

There are few things more challenging than motivating a student who doesn’t want to learn. But as all good teachers know, no such student really exists. After working with...

Although literacy skills are beneficial on an individual level—enhancing one’s psychological well-being and the knowledge one can gain from being able to read. However, literacy...

Multisensory explicit phonics instruction is effective for struggling readers and dyslexics because it helps students: 1. Create a Solid Reading Foundation Imagine you were...

This is one of the best stories I have ever read about literacy: “Preventing Violence By Teaching Literacy.” The story was written by a girl who lost her sister to violence in...

Reading Horizons Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself (now called Reading Horizons Discovery®) reading program was recently reviewed by Old Schoolhouse Magazine. ***After you...

The internet and technology haven’t only impacted the way we read, but it has also created several distractions and alternatives to reading.  We are still reading via technology...

Today I read an article about children and aggressive behavior and the factors underlying such behavior. The article described how it is usually the home environment that is...

Hi, my name is Angie and I am the Public Relations Assistant for Reading Horizons.  I have been with the company for just over 6 months and I have learned a lot in my time here. ...