Heartland AEA Literacy Newsletter

The International Dyslexia Association presents the highly anticipated 75th Anniversary Edition of Perspectives on Language and Literacy. This milestone publication offers invaluable insights into Structured Literacy, a crucial aspect of modern literacy instruction. Within its pages, readers will find contributions from leading experts in the field, providing comprehensive perspectives on the importance and practical application of Structured Literacy instruction. This edition of Perspectives promises to deepen your understanding of literacy instruction and inspire positive change in educational practices. Here is the Table of Contents and a brief summary of each article.

Table of Contents

Structured Literacy Prevents Reading Failure

Introduction to Structured Literacy: An Approach Grounded in the Science of Reading

Structured Literacy Wheel

Structured Literacy Infographic

The WHY of Structured Literacy

Scientific Research and Classroom Practice: How Structured Literacy Spans the Divide

Inclusivity and Excellence: Why Structured Literacy is Essential to Safeguard Students' Civil Rights

Structured Literacy Overview

Structured Literacy: An Integrated Approach to the Science of Reading

Domains of Language

The WHAT of Structured Literacy

Developing Word Reading and Spelling Skills with a Structured Literacy Approach

Structured Literacy and Handwriting: Explicit Instruction of an Essential Skill

Making and Conveying Meaning: How Structured Literacy Integrates Comprehension and Composition

Integrated Language, Reading and Writing Instruction Supporting Automaticity, Fluency and Proficient Reading

HOW

The HOW of Structured Literacy: Just as Important as the "What"

WHO: Students and Instructors

Structured Literacy: The Backbone of a Robust Literacy Ecosystem

Structured Literacy for English Learners: A Bridge to Equity

Educational experts at MCPER have created videos to help parents and guardians use effective practices to teach students at home. Below, click on any image to read a description, download free resources, and watch the video.

Here are the titles of the resources:

Helping Your Kid with Early Language and Literacy

Many of our videos emphasize reading with your child because of the importance of learning language and literacy. In this video, we provide specific examples—from children’s books—and 10 simple strategies for interacting with your child while reading books.

Helping Your Kid with Building Vocabulary and Comprehension with Read-Aloud

Most of you read books with your kids. This video shows you how to use book read-alouds to build vocabulary and learning. Choose a book, predict what the book is about, talk about vocabulary, and enjoy your reading time!

Helping Your Kid with Transitioning between Activities

Sometimes it’s difficult to help your kid transition from one activity to the next. We provide several suggestions, such as using a schedule, giving choices, and being consistent. We also share how to make transitions fun for kids.

Helping Your Kid with Cooperation with Difficult Tasks

Have you ever found it tricky to get your kid to cooperate? This video provides a few ideas about building cooperation in the home. You may want to make a schedule, use checklists, break down tasks into manageable chunks, give breaks, and give choices. You also want to provide specific feedback and may use a reward system

Helping Your Kid with the Learning and Loving the Language of Math

The earliest learning of math comes through language—as kids learn words such as more, difference, square, or three. We share how to help your kid with early math learning through the use of math storybooks. Choose a book, identify key words, and do activities around the house to connect to the math!

Helping Your Kid with Reading Comprehension

From preschool to high school, kids have to understand what they read. When reading at home, ask and answer questions, such as what, how, and why. Then, work to identify the main idea. With these strategies, kids will learn more when they are reading!

Helping Your Kid with Comprehending Texts Independently

Asking children to read and understand texts independently is one of the most difficult things that we can ask them to do. This presentation shares a straightforward approach to improving independent text comprehension for students in grade 3 and beyond.

Helping Your Kid with Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is about hearing the smallest units of sounds, and it is one of the most important skills for young kids as they learn to read. Learn how to blend words and segment words by doing brief activities around the house.

Helping Your Kid with High Frequency Words

Teaching your child high-frequency words is an important and easy way to develop word reading skills at home. This presentation shares a simple 10-minute routine that you can use daily to positively affect the reading development of your elementary-school-aged child.

Helping Your Kid Read Multisyllable Words

In middle school, the number of multisyllable words that kids read increases greatly from elementary school. We share how to help students read multisyllable words with sounding out activities that you can do at home.

Reading comprehension is multidimensional and complex. The persistent challenges children, adolescents, and even adults face with reading comprehension call for concerted efforts to develop assessments that help identify sources of difficulties and to design instructional approaches to prevent or ameliorate these difficulties. Doing so requires drawing on extant research to understand the core components and processes of reading comprehension. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the construction of meaning during reading comprehension and derives implications for research, practice, and policy related to instruction and assessment. We focus specifically on the inferential processes that extract meaning from text and the sources of knowledge that facilitate the extraction and construction of meaning.

Key Points
• Reading comprehension is complex, and a clear understanding of its component processes is neces-
sary to effectively and efficiently address difficulties.
• Theoretical models of reading comprehension specify inferential processes and background knowledge as integral components.
• Advances in the development of assessments and interventions that address inferential processes and knowledge show great promise.
• Much more work is needed to determine how best to prevent and ameliorate reading comprehension difficulties and close achievement gaps

The research article explores the complexity of reading comprehension and the challenges many students face in developing this skill. Despite ongoing efforts to improve reading performance, a significant percentage of students still struggle, with disparities especially evident among minority groups. Proficient reading involves more than just basic word recognition; it requires the ability to extract and construct meaning from text through inferential processes and background knowledge.

The article discusses various theoretical models and empirical findings related to reading comprehension, particularly focusing on inferential processes and the role of background knowledge. Inferences, which are essential for understanding text, develop from an early age and play a crucial role in comprehension throughout life. The ability to make inferences is a general skill, not limited to reading, and interventions aimed at improving inference-making skills have shown promise.

Assessment of reading comprehension should focus not only on the end product but also on the processes involved, such as inferencing. While traditional assessments have mainly targeted the product, newer tools are emerging to measure inferential processes more directly. However, further research and funding are needed to develop and refine these assessment tools.

Additionally, the article discusses the importance of background knowledge in reading comprehension. Readers draw on various sources of knowledge, including linguistic, orthographic, and general knowledge, to construct meaning from text. Instructional programs that integrate knowledge-building strategies have shown promise in improving reading comprehension.

Overall, the article emphasizes the need for continued research, policy support, and funding to address reading comprehension difficulties effectively. By understanding the core components and processes of reading comprehension and developing targeted interventions and assessments, educators can better support students in developing this essential skill for academic achievement and lifelong success.

Conditions for Learning Surveys open soon

The CFL surveys will open for collection beginning April 1. You can find support documentation and a recording of the CFL Administration webinar here.

Spring window for universal screening opens April 22nd and ends May 31st

Plan to start and complete all screening for ELI during this time regardless of the assessments used. Check out our window planning article here.

Action needed: Start planning for the end of the year

Review Iowa End of Year and Rollover Information. There are tasks that need to be attended to before certain information goes away at the end of the school year.

Tentative 24-25 screening window dates announced

Confirmed dates will be posted in the Panorama Resource Library and Iowa Resources in the FastBridge knowledge base here.

• Fall Window - 8/26/24 to 9/27/24
• Winter Window - 1/6/25 to 2/7/25
• Spring Window - 4/21/25 to 5/30/25

myIGDIS availability

Iowa Department of Education continues to support the myIGDIS literacy screener for students in Statewide Voluntary Preschool Programs. Visit the myIGDIs Hub or contact mary.breyfogle@iowa.gov for more information.

Blocked myIGDIS imports

Some schools have their myIGDIS data imports to Panorama Student Success blocked because the data contain faked or duplicated State Student ID numbers in the myIGDIS data system. If it is important to your district to have the myIGDIS data imported, please ensure that all students have the correct, valid State Student ID in the myIGDIS system.

NWEA MAP test names in Panorama Student Success have changed

Beginning with the current school year data (2023-24) and moving forward, users will see NWEA MAP Math and NWEA MAP Reading in place of the detailed names NWEA provides. NWEA MAP test names will be adjusted in Student Success to accommodate the display limits of Panorama and provide cleaner, easier to read reports. This change will not be applied to data from previous years.

Training video series coming soon

We are currently working on a series of brief (~5-8 minute) videos designed to show how to use parts of the Panorama Student Success system. Our hope is to post the first videos soon, and continue posting through the rest of the school year. Look for the links to appear here.

Staff updates

If you are aware of changes in staff who will support MTSS work in FAST and Student Success, please make sure to have the new people sign up for these emails to ensure continuity of communications. https://iowapanoramaed.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/11390575802260-Register-for-Early-Warning-System-MTSS-emails

One of the hot topics in literacy currently is Set for Variability. Set for variability is a skill that readers use to transform a pronunciation error into the correctly decoded form of the word. For example, if a student reads the word, hotel, as hot-el, and then thinks "wait, that is not a word, I bet it is ho-tel." Explore this concept through the Bit By Bit!