Blog

Middle school presents a unique opportunity to solidify a foundation of literacy that is rooted in student agency. In elementary school, literacy is baked into every part of the curriculum and every part of a student’s day. In middle school, students are starting to emerge as independent thinkers, and with the right approach, educators can capitalize on that self-efficacy to “hook” students on reading in a way that creates a lifelong love of reading.

Louise and Shira (Storyshares) join Kate Crist (Founder and Director of Education 4500), to explore one of the most important—and often overlooked—drivers of adolescent literacy improvement: instructional coherence. ‍Their conversation offers an important reminder that improving literacy isn’t about adding another program or intervention. It’s about creating systems where every classroom, every educator, and every instructional decision works together toward a common goal.

This week, we're continuing our deep dive into the Adolescent Literacy Wheel with the piece that holds everything else together. We're talking with Emily Russin from HILL for Literacy about the transformational power of collaboration.

This week, we're talking about evidence-based, data-driven instruction, grounded in insight and recommendations from Mary Schreuder, PhD, Director of Literacy at The Achievement Network (ANet).

This week, we're building on that foundation with a topic that sits at the heart of everything we do at Storyshares — and one that is too often misunderstood. We're talking about accessibility, with contributions from Ethan Pierce, founder of Adaptive Reader.

This week we're diving into infrastructure, as envisioned by Dr. Sarah Holbrook from the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz and Sundays with Sarah.

For too long, literacy instruction has focused almost exclusively on K–3. The assumption — spoken or not — has been that if students aren't reading by third grade, the window has closed. But millions of students in grades 4–12 are proof that this assumption is wrong. Now is the moment to build something better.

A dedicated literacy advocate and middle school ELA teacher, Jamie Class was seeking a new literacy intervention curriculum for her older striving readers that was engaging, accessible and relevant.

Millions of teenagers leave middle and high school without the reading skills they need. Storyshares is building the comprehensive, engagement-first approach that finally changes that.