New Reading Comprehension Games Get Students Thinking Deeply about Text

We’ve got fantastic news to delight teachers in grades 1, 2 and 3! Footsteps2Brilliance Central™ now includes 80 new reading comprehension games in English and Spanish that get your students reading and thinking deeply about text. Best of all, when these games are assigned, teachers get automatic insight into their students’ proficiency with reading comprehension.

The new comprehension games start with student reading. Sometimes students read a high-interest book. Other times, students read a short passage. After reading, students complete a game designed to support them in clarifying and organizing information from the text. Modeled after some of the best graphic organizers, the comprehension games provide students with an interactive space to think deeply about what they have read. With the touch of a button, students can return to the text to further refine their understanding at any time. The new comprehension games support students with:

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Demystifying the Science of Reading Series Collection

Bookmark this page for the entire Teacher Tip Tuesday Demystifying the Science of Reading series in one place!

Click on each image to be taken to the Demystifying the Science of Reading article.

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Introducing Rapid Readers!

We are excited to announce a new book series to inspire your students’ curiosity about the world around them! The new Rapid Readers series can be found in Footsteps2Brilliance Level 3 and in Footsteps2Brilliance Central™. This series provides short books that answer interesting questions—bringing science to life in English and Spanish.

 

 

The Rapid Readers series offers high-interest books for transitioning readers to develop reading fluency, background knowledge, vocabulary, and critical thinking. Students listen to a model readers, practice reading independently, and record themselves reading to develop oral language and reading fluency. Additional activities guide students through comprehension strategies and critical thinking. Students complete each book unit with a writing prompt. Best of all, the entire experience can be toggled between English and Spanish to support emergent bilingual students.

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Demystifying the science of reading #4: Instruction That Works

We’ve moved beyond the buzzwords and uncovered the mystery of the science of reading. Now we’ll talk practically about five essential reading domains, critical pillars that will lead to student reading achievement. While there’s no single set of instructions for teaching each of these domains, science of reading research has shown that spending instructional time building skills in these domains will set students up to be successful readers. In this final installment of the Demystifying the Science of Reading Teacher Tip Tuesday series, we’ll talk about ways you can address these essential domains in your reading instruction and offer some tools to make it easy and fun!

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Demystifying the science of reading #3: How exactly do we learn how to read?

We know that learning to speak and learning to read are not the same in the brain. Learning to speak is innate, while learning to read is not. Reading must be systematically, explicitly taught to bridge the connection between oral language development and reading proficiency. In this installment of our Teacher Tip Tuesday series: Demystifying the Science of Reading, we’ll discuss how decades of reading science research describes the act of learning to read. We’ll also discuss why even the most successful teachers can benefit from science of reading research and research-informed practices.

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Nurturing Bilingual Minds: Unveiling Insights from the Science of Reading

In a recent webinar conducted by Kathy Maximov, Chief Academic Officer of Footsteps2Brilliance, educators and administrators gathered to explore the intersection of the science of reading and the needs of multilingual learners. The session kicked off with a poll gauging participants’ attitudes towards the science of reading for multilingual learners, revealing a mix of perspectives. This blog will delve into the key takeaways from the discussion, focusing on three essential questions: 

  1. What is the science of reading? 
  2. How does it apply to multilingual learners? 
  3. And does the bilingual brain necessitate a unique approach?
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Demystifying the science of reading #2: Learning to read is not an innate process

Why do some students develop as readers more easily than others? Why do most developing readers need more than being immersed in a language-rich environment? The answers lie in the brain and have major implications for teaching reading. In this installment of Teacher Tip Tuesday: Demystifying The Science of Reading, we’ll talk about the research behind how exactly we learn to read.

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Demystifying the science of reading #1: What it is, and what it isn’t

science of reading

You’ve probably heard the phrase “the science of reading” being tossed around lately. Your district or school may be taking initiatives to align to the science of reading, and may even be changing your curricula after years or even decades. Why all the hullabaloo? Let’s talk about what the science of reading really is, what it isn’t, and why it matters.

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Building Spanish Phonics Skills for Biliteracy

We are excited to announce 27 new books and 161 new games organized into 41 new lessons designed to support Spanish phonics curriculum!

The brand new Fonética: silabas y palabras and Mis libritos fonéticos in Footsteps2Brilliance Central™ offer highly-effective practice for vocales, consonantes, sílabas directas – CV, and sílabas trabadas – CCV. All of the phonics games are automatically scored so that teachers can easily monitor student’s Spanish phonics proficiency.

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Growing Foundational Reading Skills with Decodable Books

We are excited to announce a new book series designed to support your classroom phonics curriculum. The Growing Readers series in Footsteps2Brilliance Level 2 and in Footsteps2Brilliance Central™ offers highly-effective multi-sensory practice with immediate feedback to support students in developing phonics skills. Even better, all of the phonics games are automatically scored so that teachers can easily monitor student growth.

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