*Two quick notes, before we dive in:
- Dyslexia is one of many reading-related learning differences. The following resources, because they are almost all multisensory, work for a wide variety of learning abilities.
- What is recommended for people with specific diagnosable reading-related special needs is also usually excellent and effective for the general population.
When I was a newly-minted middle school English teacher, I was shocked by the number of students who entered my classroom unable to decode text. Their herculean efforts to mask their reading disabilities revealed intelligence, determination, and traumatic relationships to school.
So, in 2020, restless from staying and teaching at home, I decided to participate in Drexel’s Multisensory Reading Instruction certificate program (now known as the Dyslexia Specialist certification) to become the teacher my students needed: one who could teach foundational reading skills in a way that was appropriate for adolescents.
Through my former school’s partnership with the New York City Department of Education’s Middle School Quality Initiative (MSQI), I got to learn a lot about reading assessment and intervention along with more general adolescent literacy topics. This training, in addition to witnessing firsthand the efficacy of multisensory reading instruction by my co-teacher, contributed to my desire to be able to implement it myself, so that I could become a true literacy leader in my classroom, school building, and beyond.
This journey meant so much because it taught me something that every single graduate school program in education should teach future teachers, regardless of planned grade level; I learned how to teach someone to read.
Here are my biggest takeaways from my time as a dyslexia specialist:
1. Effective instruction is always mastery-based. Using formative assessment throughout each lesson, a dyslexia specialist and interventionist makes data-informed decisions to decide if the student is ready to progress to the next substep. There are clear criteria for mastery embedded in the programs and scopes and sequences for students with dyslexia. Students learn about concepts repetitively until they’ve mastered them.
2. We need culturally responsive reading intervention programs. There is a need for culturally responsive, relevant decodable texts — ones that reflect the rich diverse experiences of our students. Authentic and engaging stories can make reading more accessible and enjoyable.
3. We need decodable texts for adolescent readers. At Storyshares, we create decodable chapter books that tell dynamic stories and feature diverse characters and experiences. Our decodable chapter book series align with best practices for teaching students with dyslexia, following a research-based scope and sequence, with each decodable text providing opportunities for scaffolding and spiraling phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension practice as students strengthen their skills.
4. Reading = decoding + encoding + fluency + comprehension. Many people with dyslexia or other reading challenges have tremendous strengths in one of these areas so as educators, we have to capitalize on those strengths!
I worked with adolescents and pre-adolescents who have slipped through the massive cracks of our education system. What I witnessed during my seven years working in vastly different types of schools is that learning, achievement, and opportunity gaps either dramatically widen or dramatically close in middle and high school. Passion for social justice within our education systems is insufficient; the actual work that makes change possible needs to occur. That work is the work of literacy.
Where do we begin, though? Here are some resources I recommend for supporting students with language-based learning differences (including dyslexia):
Storyshares Decodable Chapter Books
Over the past year, Storyshares released three new decodable chapter book series for grades 3-12, where each title is made up of 4-6 distinct decodable texts along an SOR-aligned scope and sequence. These decodable texts are designed to be engaging for older developing readers, through a new spin on the key components of book length and shape, themes, characters, and illustrations. The books are closely aligned with best practices from the science of reading, following a research-based scope and sequence, with each decodable text providing opportunities for scaffolding and spiraling phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension practice as students strengthen their skills. These titles are all available in both eBook and paperback form, and they come with supporting teacher resources (including an 80-page educator companion), and a new PL series: Teaching with Decodable Texts.
The Dr. Dyslexia Dude Book Series
There are three books in the series. All can be found on Dr. Dyslexia Dude’s website!
What a gift Dr. Shawn Robinson has given the world with his Dr. Dyslexia Dude Series! Part autobiography, part superhero graphic novel, these 3 comic books are staples of my classroom library because not only do they give students with dyslexia a mirror to reflect back their own experiences, they also provide students who don’t have dyslexia with a window (and therefore empathy) into what daily life is like for their classmates. Plus, they’re gorgeous and invite that beautiful sense of curiosity that makes graphic novels fly off classroom library shelves. The text in the speech and thought bubbles are mostly decodable, meaning that it’s a great text for students with dyslexia to practice reading independently as well. This first resource is really several resources in one because Dr. Robinson also has an amazing blog and is developing his own computer-based reading program. He is also a judge for our 2024 Story of the Year Contest!
SuperDVille
SuperDVille created a video-based social emotional learning curriculum that celebrates the unique minds of the 1 in 5 kids with learning differences. From their website: “No matter what subject you teach it’s critical to help students develop the confidence to try new things, persevere through challenges, navigate tricky emotions, and more. SuperDville is, therefore, the perfect tool to help every child gain success in school and life.”
Sensory Toys
You can use this bubble fidget sensory toy as is (just like you would have a student tap to spell or tap to read) or you can use sharpie followed by clear nail polish (trust me on this!) to create a letter-sound board with letters, digraphs, and welded sounds.
As I’m sure you know, most education programs have Facebook groups created by teachers that crowdsource some of the best ideas in the field for immediate implementation. When I joined one for dyslexia practitioners, I saw the most genius idea that truly encapsulates the adage: “If you can’t beat them, join them!”
Those extremely annoying bubbly fidget toys that have a way of making their way out of desks and lockers for kids to poke at throughout the entirety of a class? Try a multisensory letter-sound board that’s perfect for students struggling with phonological awareness! It works like tapping does. I highly recommend DIYing this one, seeing as the pre-made ones don’t include digraphs.
Collins Co-Build Dictionary App
A huge issue with dictionaries is that they define challenging vocabulary words by embedding other challenging vocabulary words within the definition! How frustrating! That’s where the Collins Co-Build Dictionary comes in, which has some of the best definitions of Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary that I’ve ever come across. I use the iPad app for this almost daily. I use it when I do my dyslexia tutoring and I use it whenever we define words in school (when students struggle to make Frayer models, I give them the definition and before I know it, they come up with examples and connections).
For more resources to support dyslexia and learning differences, head over to our Educator Toolkit.