Staying ahead of the curve is essential for personal and professional growth. At ReadWorks, we are serious about our mission of supporting teachers and students with high-quality reading resources and support - all for free. With this in mind, we are thrilled to announce our webinar line up for January and February 2024. Gain more information about the science of reading, real life classroom tips, structured literacy, and how to build more background knowledge with your students. Be sure to save your spot for one or all of the webinars!
Free Webinars for Educators
January 2024
We are excited to offer a series of free webinars presented by ReadWorks staff members who have years of experience as classroom teachers! Driven by the scientific study of reading, ReadWorks creates live and pre-recorded teacher guidance webinars to help improve teacher effectiveness in reading instruction through our fun and engaging online tools. Written by: Melissa Calder, Director of Marketing and Engagement
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Students bring a ghostly cliffhanger to life in our national illustration contest - see our winner!12/14/2023 Each fall, ReadWorks hosts a contest to engage and spark creativity among grade school educators and students while celebrating our ever-growing fiction library! This year, students read and created illustrations for Our Family Ghost. Read the first installment, “A Shadow at the Celebration,” on ReadWorks now. In this six-part series, Manuel's family has gathered to celebrate the anniversary of his great-great-great-great grandfather, José, arriving in the United States. However, Manuel soon learns that his family seems to be cursed! When a ghostly José visits Manuel in his dreams, he tries his best to lift the curse, while discovering more about his family's history. “The shadow kept coming closer, forcing Manuel to back up, close to the edge. A few more steps and he would fall off….” Eliza's illustration with minor alterations
In addition to the winning entry, our judges selected five runners-up, one for each grade level that participated in the contest. See their outstanding entries below: 2023 Runners-UpDon’t forget - anytime is the perfect time to get creative as a class! Use any of our exciting fiction series to host your own illustration or alternate-ending contest as a classroom or school-wide. Then, share your contest with ReadWorks on social media using #ReadWorksContest or share your contest stories with our team at Engagement@ReadWorks.org.
In the dynamic landscape of education technology, understanding the needs and preferences of our community of educators allows us to better meet the needs of educators and students. Every two years, we conduct a comprehensive survey to gain valuable insights into the thoughts of our teachers, reading specialists, administrators, and parent users. The results are in, and we're excited to share them with you!
The survey is a pulse on trends and highlights from our educator community. The response was overwhelming, with 11,925 participants providing feedback to help move us forward. User Satisfaction: A whopping 95% of respondents expressed satisfaction with our services and would recommend ReadWorks to a colleague. 94% of all respondents said that FREE reading comprehension resources are important to their community. We are thrilled to know that our efforts at continual improvement and our commitment to ensuring access for all, always, align with what our users need.
Areas for Improvement: While the overall satisfaction is high, the survey also highlighted a continuous area of need for our users: time. Teachers are still short on time to learn about additional tools to supplement their curricula. This constructive feedback is invaluable for improving the simplicity of our communications and ease of onboarding for new users.
Actionable Insights: These valuable insights from our community have already led to updates and enhancements that you can watch for in the new year!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey. Your input is invaluable, and we look forward to evolving together based on the insights gained. Stay tuned for even more exciting developments in 2024!
Written by: Melissa Calder, Director of Marketing and Engagement
With planning, teaching, grading, one-on-one and small group interventions, plus administrative duties, it’s no wonder the most commonly cited reason for not using ReadWorks more is not having enough time. This consistent feedback has helped our team prioritize routines designed to give you back critical time in the classroom. Here are three ways ReadWorks can save you time: 1. Build background knowledge and grow vocabularies in only 10 minutes a day Article-A-Day is a 10-minute routine designed to be done every day to build background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading stamina, complementing a broad range of curricula for kindergarteners to eighth-graders. To make planning even easier, teachers can introduce students to a new topic every week of the school year with our Scope & Sequences, grouped topically or systematically to build vocabulary. Sets gradually become more challenging as the school year progresses and are coordinated by topics across grade levels. 2. Integrate ReadWorks’ Book Studies with your novel units Enrich your curriculum with ReadWorks Book Studies: hand-curated text sets to support commonly taught books in ELA curricula, like The Lightning Thief, Esperanza Rising, Wonder, Sarah, Plain and Tall, and many more! The three types of Book Studies are: (1) Knowledge Book Studies that build deep knowledge around key content, (2) Theme Book Studies to inspire thematic reflection and discussions, and (3) Deeper Dive Book Studies that excite students with engaging topics related to the books. Each passage includes a text-dependent question set to support integrated reading practice. 3. Use ReadWorks’ alignments and connections to integrate research-based reading routines into your curricula
There are many ways to easily integrate ReadWorks into your instruction with our FREE alignment offerings -- by book, by topic, by decoding, by vocabulary, and by your core curriculum!
We are thrilled to thank all our ReadWorks teachers and users throughout the nation this Thanksgiving season with a simple and clear-cut statement about how our high-quality resources fit directly into the science of reading and into your daily teaching. Many teachers, schools, districts, and communities are currently working to ensure that the reading resources they use are based on the scientific study of reading, and we want to make it easy for you to know how ReadWorks can support you in this incredibly important work. We remain the leaders in building background knowledge and vocabulary for improving reading comprehension, and we want to continue to be your go-to high-impact resource with a low lift! Easily download our official statement and fun poster for free! Hang on your wall, share with a colleague, or post on social media. Together we can ensure students can steadily expand their background knowledge, vocabularies, and reading comprehension—helping them become the confident readers they deserve to be.
Partner Highlight for Native American History Month - Q & A with the International Quilt Museum11/13/2023 As a nonprofit, ReadWorks is in a distinct position to easily partner with organizations, museums, and universities to provide more than 6,000 FREE, high-quality texts and resources to build background knowledge, grow vocabularies, and strengthen strategic reading. Please enjoy this Q & A with the International Quilt Museum (IQM), located in Lincoln Nebraska and check out all the IQM content within the ReadWorks library! 1. Can you share a brief introduction to the International Quilt Museum? Nebraska natives Robert and Ardis James’s decision to start a quilt collection was a personal one – to save quilts and the information that could be learned from one. Realizing what could be lost, the Jameses decided to build a collection that would save the whole picture of quilt history – time, place and workmanship. In 1997, after much discussion, the Jameses offered their collection, which consisted of nearly 1,000 pieces, to the University of Nebraska with the caveat that a State-of-the-art storage facility would be built to house it and an academic program in the Department of Textiles, Fashion Design and Marketing would be built around this unique resource. Initially the collection was stored in a renovated climate-controlled space and was known as the International Quilt Study Center. The Center used the quilts to create exhibitions displayed in galleries on campus and around the world. It was a dynamic center of formal and informal learning for students, teachers, scholars, artists, quilters and the public. In 2008, to accommodate the growing collection, the International Quilt Study Center, now known as the International Quilt Museum, moved into a 37,000 square foot building with three exhibition galleries and state-of-the-art storage. The Museum was expanded in 2015 and now has five formal galleries and two public spaces for community and educational exhibitions. The Museum welcomes over 20,000 visitors from all 50 states and an average of 38 countries visit the museum annually. Visit the IQM from anywhere, anytime! View their digital galleries. 2. When student groups come to the Museum, how do they typically engage with exhibits? Student groups are always led by a docent, which is a professional member of our team or a trained volunteer. Upon welcoming student groups to the museum, the docent provides sample pieces of a quilt that students can touch. These touch pieces help students be able to see the three layers of the quilt, feel the fabrics that might make a quilt, and have a better understanding of how a quilt is designed and created. The touch pieces also help to satisfy students’ desire to feel the objects they see, since there is no touching of the objects on exhibit. During a museum tour, docents have two main goals for their student groups: Look and Engage. We want students to feel comfortable looking closely at something in order to study or understand it. We also want students to engage in discussion based on their observations. Docents provide guiding questions about color, design, construction, and other concepts of art, and students are given opportunities to discuss their thoughts with a partner, or to share them with the group. Quilts are familiar to students; many have seen them before or have a personal connection to a particular quilt or quilt-maker. Quilts are a great vehicle for discussion about various art concepts, because quilts are non-intimidating and something that many students have already have some level of exposure to. Quilting also ties to so many other topics of study: history, math, art, design, and social studies. You can quickly discover a student’s interests in talking about quilts; there is always something to relate to. We host a variety of student groups. We see every 4th grader in Lincoln Public Schools annually on a field trip to the International Quilt Museum, as well homeschool groups, summer campers, collegiate interns, and classes of university students. 3. Quilting can be tied to nearly all cultures, histories, and traditions - we’d love to walk through some of the content IQM & ReadWorks have worked together to provide for free to millions of students: What importance does quilting play in Native American/Black/Hispanic History and Heritage? As the International Quilt Museum, we put a lot of intention into how we describe and celebrate quilts from a variety of cultures. Each quilt is as unique as its creator. We are honored to house quilts from sixty-six countries around the world, including quilts made from Black and indigenous artists and makers, as well as other artists and makers of color. Within each culture and heritage, there is an amazing variety of artistry, intention, and style. Quilts vary from person to person, and are an expression of each individual's experience. The function of every quilt is also unique to its creator. Quilts from around the world have been made for religious or spiritual ceremonies, for protection, to celebrate a birth or wedding, or to mourn a death. Quilts have also been created as part of a social or community event, to document history, to send a message, to evoke emotion, to inspire awe, to showcase creativity, to raise funds, and as a means of providing for one’s family. A quilt is not culturally defined, but rather each individual’s choice. Use all the IQM texts for Native American History lessons and more. Available on ReadWorks right now. Written by: Lindy Clausen, Education Coordinator and
Leslie C. Levy, J.D., Ardis & Robert James Executive Director, International Quilt Museum This fall, follow Manuel’s five-part journey as he works to lift his family’s curse after a ghostly visit from his great-great-great-great grandfather, José in ReadWorks new fiction series Our Family Ghost. Then, have students bring this story to life in our 2023 national illustration contest! Entries are due Friday, November 10th, 2023.
One contest winner will have their illustration published on ReadWorks.org alongside its respective installment. The winning educator will receive a package of ReadWorks goodies and a $100 gift card for classroom supplies. Read Contest Details In addition to Our Family Ghost, we are excited to bring new, 4th-8th grade cliffhangers created by an array of talented and diverse authors that will engage and delight your students! A Dodgeball Mystery [Her BFF's Big Secret, #1] - 4th Grade A Shadow at the Celebration [Our Family Ghost, #1] - 5th Grade The Fence [Alien Kids, #1] - 6th Grade The Assignment [The Riverkeepers, #1] - 6th Grade Crystal's Powers [The Weird Ones, #1] - 7th Grade The Run [The Run Series, #1] - 7th Grade Danger Arrives [Hacked!, #1] - 8th Grade The Forest and the Trees [Lee's Mountain, #1] - 8th Grade Written by: Melissa Calder, Director of Marketing and Engagement
Partnering with Districts Nationwide As part of our strategic plan, ReadWorks is collaborating with districts nationwide, especially those serving primarily low-income students, through thoughtful engagement, professional development, and marketing plans. This year, we’ve launched partnerships across Philadelphia and New York City, including providing customized professional development for Harlem Community School District 5. If you know of a district that may be interested in tailored support from the ReadWorks team of experts in reading comprehension, email us today. Explore Our Newest ContentSeen on Social MediaMissed an issue of our newsletter? See an archive of all our supporter updates here. Have ideas for what you would like to see in our updates? Please email engagement@readworks.org. The month of October is often filled with anticipation of Halloween and all the fall festivities surrounding it. Build background knowledge and curiosity, while enhancing reading comprehension, in your classroom by assigning Halloween-themed texts and question sets to your students! ReadWorks comprehension-monitoring text-dependent question sets provide students with scaffolded practice as they follow a consistent template. They also help readers engage more deeply into the content that they are reading. Additionally, research shows that students benefit from regularly working on our question sets, as their multiple choice question correct-rate increases as they keep completing them. Use our filters on the content page to start assigning these spooky texts to your students:
Also check out these exciting passages!
Written by: Tamika Reece, Educator Support Project Manager
“Thanks for sharing your new partnership with News-O-Matic. I really appreciate the opportunity to integrate News-O-Matic's current event articles with ReadWorks knowledge-building texts to help my students develop critical thinking, media literacy, and global awareness.” -Bailey, North Carolina
Explore Our Newest ContentSeen on Social MediaMissed an issue of our newsletter? See an archive of all our supporter updates here. Have ideas for what you would like to see in our updates? Please email engagement@readworks.org.
Written by: Becca Vaughn, Director of Development |
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