How to Select Decodables for Your School That Follow the Latest Science of Reading Research

Presented by Sara Rich, Former Award-Winning Principal, Current CEO, Just Right Reader; Christy Lamb, Elementary School Principal and Co-Founder, The Modern Principal; and Heidi Anne Mesmer, PhD, Professor and Program Leader of the Reading Specialist Program, Virginia Tech

Sponsored by Just Right Reader

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We know research shows the importance of phonics and phonemic awareness for later reading success, but how do you take the research and apply it to the decisions you make to support your district, school, or classroom?

In this edWebinar, the presenters address an important part of the equation by walking you through how the latest Science of Reading research applies to selecting high-quality decodables that support phonics curricula and reading achievement. They discuss what to look for in texts and materials according to the latest Science of Reading research, and how to apply that research to selecting decodables for your school.

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to PreK-5 school and district leaders, teachers, and librarians.

About the Presenters

Sara Rich is the founder and CEO of Just Right Reader. She is an award-winning former principal of 20+ years whose success in turning schools around came from focusing on early literacy and reading achievement. She has traveled to more than 35 states to train teachers and principals in reading and writing-skill development. After her own daughter struggled with reading, Sara started Just Right Reader with the mission to make reading fun and for students to learn to read with engaging decodables that are representative of students in America’s schools.

Christy Lamb is the co-founder of The Modern Principal, where they discuss practical strategies for doing the job while reforming the system as school leaders. She is an elementary principal in a PreK-5 building with the district’s gifted program. She knew she wanted to be in education after learning that for-profit prisons were using third-grade African American boys’ reading levels to determine the number of prisons to build in the future. Christy has since held many roles and leadership positions between elementary and middle school serving as an ELA teacher, instructional coach, reading specialist, admin intern, assistant principal, and principal. Up until the 11th year of her career, she had never had the same job/classroom/building/district two years in a row. She now craves collaboration with professionals both in and out of education to help make her dream of an equitable learning environment a reality.

Heidi Anne E. Mesmer, PhD, is a Professor in Literacy in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. She has studied beginning reading materials, text difficulty, phonics, and struggling readers since 1999. Her research has appeared in Reading Research Quarterly, The Educational Researcher, Elementary School Journal, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She has written and directed eight grants aimed at improving reading instruction in K-5 classrooms. Dr. Mesmer is the recent author of Alphabetics for Emerging Learners, as well as Letter Lessons and First Words: Phonics Foundations that Work, Teaching skills for complex text: Deepening reading in the classroom (Teachers College Press, 2016). She regularly consults with school districts, state departments of education, and publishers.

Her research has been supported by a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an American Educational Research Association/Institute of Education Sciences grant. She is the recipient of the Outreach Award, from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, and the Promising Scholar Award, from the School of Education, Virginia Tech. She delivered the George Graham Lecture in Reading at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia.

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Just Right Reader’s mission is to make reading fun and for students to learn to read with engaging decodables that are representative of students in America’s schools. When students want to read and feel successful, their achievement rises!