Establishing an Effective Reading Program

Program description

Schools around the country are faced with the challenge of changing their reading programs to fall into compliance with No Child Left Behind. This teleconference discussed how schools and their districts can find the best research-based reading program to meet the needs of their student population according to the mandates of the new law.

This teleconference was produced by Reading Rockets in partnership with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), the National Education Association (NEA), the International Reading Association (IRA), and the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE). Funding for this teleconference was provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education.

Establishing an Effective Reading Program is available for purchase at our online store, LearningStore.

Presenters

G. Reid Lyon is the Executive Vice President for Research and Evaluation at Best Associates and Whitney International University

Timothy Shanahan is the Director of the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Literacy

Charlotte Parker is the Principal of Burbank Elementary in the Houston Independent School District

Moderator

Delia Pompa is the moderator of this webcast. She is the Vice President of the Center for Community Educational Excellence, at the National Council of La Raza.

Recommended resources

Articles and books by our presenters

G. Reid Lyon

• Measuring Success: Using Assessments and Accountability to Raise Student Achievement
• Learning To Read: A Call from Research to Action

Timothy Shanahan

• The National Reading Panel: Using Research to Create More Literate Students
• How to Improve Reading Achievement: Core Teaching and Differentiated Instruction (PPT) (1M PDF)*

Other resources

• Effective Schools / Accomplished Teachers
• Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom
• Supporting Phonemic Awareness Development in the Classroom
• The Value of Direct and Systematic Vocabulary Instruction (3M PDF)*
• Looking inside classrooms: Reflecting on the "how" as well as the "what" in effective reading instruction (344K PDF)*
• Comprehension Instruction: What Works
• Catch Them Before They Fall (244K PDF)*
• Whole Language High-Jinks
• Candidate Measures for Screening At-Risk Students
• What Principals Need to Know About Reading Instruction
• What Secondary Teachers Can Do To Teach Reading
• The Fifteen Key Elements of Effective Adolescent Literacy Programs
• Parents As Partners In Children's Learning
• 5 Surefire Strategies for Developing Reading Fluency

Related products from LearningStore

Phonemic Awareness in Young Children

From simple listening games to more advanced exercises in rhyming, alliteration, and segmentation, this best-selling curriculum helps boost young learners' pre-literacy skills in just 15 to 20 minutes a day.
learn more >>

Road to the Code: A Phonological Awareness Program for Young Children

For helping kindergarteners and first graders who are having difficulty on their early literacy skills, this successful 11-week program for teaching phonemic awareness and letter sound correspondence will make a difference
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Getting Into Words: Vocabulary Instruction that Strengthens Comprehension

For children with poor vocabulary development, reading is intimidating rather than exciting. That's why elementary and middle school teachers need this activity-filled guidebook.
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Please visit our Reading Resources section of LearningStore to discover how you can help a child learn to read.

Discussion questions

1. Share something that you learned from the webcast that was new to you. Then, talk about ways you see yourself using that information within your school setting.
2. Describe the professional development opportunities you've had that have helped you learn more about the scientific findings about how children learn to read, why some children fail to learn to read, and what instructional methods have a scientific basis.
3. Discuss things your school does to screen students who might be at risk for reading failure. Then, describe the interventions in place for struggling students.
4. Reflect on your curriculum / spelling program. Does it encourage memorization or does it involve students' learning about spelling patterns? Is the content presented in a logical order> In what ways does the program encourage application to reading and writing?
5. Explain some of the steps your school has taken to get parents involved in the reading program. Do you feel your students' parents have an understanding of the reading process and why certain strategies are used within the building? Describe how you feel you could increase the parental involvement in the reading program.
6. How does your school or school district support new teachers? What systems are in place to help your newest colleagues?