Innehållsförteckning för July 2021 från Dystinct Magazine

/’evɪdǝns/Matters THE THREE "E"s EXPERIENCE, EMOTION, & EXPERTISE Lois Letchford "Reading is a complex skill that is pretty much taken for granted by those who can do it." Keith Rayner (2012, Psychology of Reading) This statement shows up in every textbook on reading and is commonly reflected in teacher attitudes (they succeeded) and in the lack of empathy for those who didn't learn to read. However, as a 25-year veteran reading teacher who focuses on teaching children who have failed numerous reading programs, I know that literacy success does not fall into one 'neat and easily addressed' category. Instead, I have come to realize that learning happens through the complex interplay of overlapping experience, emotion, and expertise domains. A threelegged stool is stable. Just as a stool needs all legs…

/’evɪdǝns/Matters EQUITY AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN EDUCATION Zaretta Hammond is an equity-minded educator who has been working on instructional design, school coaching, and professional development around the issues of equity, literacy, and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) for the past 25 years. Her book 'Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students' advocates the development of cognitive scaffolding in classrooms, which builds on the broader knowledge that students from multicultural backgrounds already have, to enable them to become competent, independent learners. Her work revolves around linking instruction, equity, and literacy. I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Zaretta about equity and culturally responsive teaching and have shared her insights in this article. Zaretta Hammond Interviewed by Zahra Nawaz WHAT IT…

Dr John Carosso Clinical Child Psychologist and Certified School Psychologist Community Psychiatric Centers Dyslexia Diagnostic and Treatment Center Autism Center of Pittsburgh HelpForYourChild.com Click here Dr Carosso has more than 35 years of experience as a Clinical Child Psychologist and Certified School Psychologist. He is the Clinical Director of Community Psychiatric Centers and operates both the Dyslexia Diagnostic and Treatment Center and the Autism Center of Pittsburgh. In that respect, Dr Carosso has dedicated his career to helping children and empowering parents in becoming confident and capable in meeting their children's academic needs. Dr Carosso has worked for decades as a Certified School Psychologist, including at Dade County Public Schools in Miami, FL, the fourth largest school district in the country where he worked at Barbara Goleman Sr. High School,…

Nora Chahbazi CEO/Owner, EBLI EBLIreads.com https://www.facebook.com/EBLIreads https://twitter.com/EBLIreads https://www.youtube.com/user/EBLItube https://eblireads.com/ Click here Check the free EBLI webinars on various literacy topics. Nora Chahbazi, previously a Neonatal ICU nurse, became a literacy champion as a result of her own daughter's literacy struggles. She researched literacy instructional practices extensively before teaching her daughter to read. Nora is the creator of EBLI: Evidence Based Literacy Instruction and Owner/Founder of Ounce of Prevention Reading Center. She has an insatiable passion for expanding the reach of effective, efficient, engaging, researchaligned literacy instruction. Nora and her team have trained thousands of educators and others, in-person and online, providing training, coaching, and support as well as student lessons and materials. She's delivered EBLI instruction to tens of thousands of children and adults in classrooms and at her center.…

| /’evɪdǝns/Matters THE IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATING THE WHOLE CHILD Ashley Roberts Recently someone asked me why getting a formal diagnosis for dyslexia was so important for their child. Their position was that if they are aware their child has dyslexia, they can just help them with their reading, and that will be enough, right? Well, the answer is not necessarily. This debate came up recently where I live. At the heart of the debate was looking at some of the reading markers of a struggling child, as opposed to evaluating the whole child. To better understand the difference between the two, it is important to understand that reading is not as simple as it seems. First, reading is a manmade invention dating back about 5000 years, so nothing about reading…

/’ɪdǝns/Matters THE HIDDEN FRAMEWORK OF SPELLING MORPHOLOGY Sue Hegland Our oldest son had a rocky start learning to read and write, but by third grade, he went everywhere with a book and could remember every detail of the stories he read. However, he struggled to complete written work and made frequent spelling errors. Observing this, we were mystified since he was articulate with a rich vocabulary and was excelling in many other areas. Why was writing so difficult for him? As time passed with little improvement, we decided to get him tested to find out what was going on. We were initially puzzled when the test results came back. Dyslexia? How could an enthusiastic reader be dyslexic? We eventually learned that difficulty with spelling can be a sign of dyslexia,…

Lois Letchford LoisLetchford.com https://twitter.com/LetchfordLois https://www.facebook.com/loisletchfordauthor https://www.linkedin.com/in/lois-letchford-13762917 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW-eC1bd7uZBizY-rzWhrQQ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36163388-reversed Click here to purchase this book. Lois Letchford's dyslexia came to light at the age of 39 when she faced teaching her seven-year-old non-reading son, Nicholas. Examining her reading failure caused her to adapt and change lessons for him. The results were dramatic. Lois subsequently qualified as a reading specialist. Using her non-traditional background, multi-continental experience and thus her passion to assist failing students, she continues to change teaching methods to ensure all her students become successful readers. Her learning has equipped her with a unique skillset and perspective. Lois continuously engages in reading academic literature, strengthening the connection between research and teaching practice. Her stories have her audiences on edge. Living with dyslexia, Lois overcomes writing challenges--daily. Reversed: A Memoir is…

Zaretta Hammond CRTandtheBrain.com https://www.instagram.com/crtandthebrain/ https://twitter.com/ready4rigor https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaretta-hammond-2b122ba/ Click here Zaretta Hammond, M.A. is a national consultant and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (Corwin, 2015). She is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor who is passionate about the intersection of literacy, equity and neuroscience. She supports schools and other institutions in deepening their understanding and application of culturally responsive practices. Ms. Hammond sits on the Board of Trustees of the Center for the Collaborative Classroom, is a member of the science advisory committees of the Science of Learning (SoLD) Alliance and the Consortium for Reading Education (CORE).…

Dystinct Journey JACKY SMITH Jacky Smith is a single mum raising her two children with special needs on a farm in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Having struggled through her early years with dyslexia and poverty, she's had a challenging life that has given her the strength and wisdom to provide her children with the best that life has to offer. Interviewed by Zahra Nawaz A native of Katherine, Northern Territory, Jacky was one of four siblings born to a severely alcoholic father and a mother with mental health issues. Her father passed away when she was five years old. "I came from a poorer white family. I was raised by a single parent. My mom had health issues, so she was very focused on her own needs. I had three sisters,…

Kendra Wagner ReadingWritingThinking.net http://www.readingwritingthinking.net/ https://www.facebook.com/ReadingWritingThinking Click here to purchase the WRITING TOOL KIT designed by Kendra. In private practice, Kendra teaches students of all ages how to read and write with precision and passion. Kendra's writing passion started with her mom writing daily entries in a diary at her bedside at six years old. After a year of this, she asked her mom if she could take over. 65 diaries later, she continues to write - and has published academic articles, poetry, and essays, and is forever working on a novel. When she is not immersed in literacy, she is hiking, volunteering in prison, and practicing yoga for her racing brain.…

Ashley Roberts Co-founder, The Dyslexia Initiative TheDyslexiaInitiative.org http://www.thedyslexiainitiative.org/ Click here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbHMBvY8QurMgcndafBsHJQ?view_as=subscriber https://www.facebook.com/DyslexiaInitiative https://www.instagram.com/thedyslexiainitiative/ https://twitter.com/thedirevolution https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dyslexia-initiative/ https://www.pinterest.com.au/DyslexiaInitiative/ Ashley Roberts is a mother, an advocate for both dyslexia and literacy for all children. She is the cofounder of The Dyslexia Initiative and the author of her blog, A Mom's Journey – My Dyslexic Life, where she chronicles the journey with her child. Ashley became an advocate after feeling alone in her fight for the educational rights of her dyslexic and dysgraphic son in the US public school system, specifically Texas. She writes for both The Dyslexia Initiative and her blog and hosts a live stream event on most Saturdays during the school year called Dyslexia Coffee Talk. Ashley is dedicated to the education and empowerment of all parents so that we can,…

Sue Hegland LearningAboutSpelling.com https://learningaboutspelling.com/ Click here Sue Hegland is an author and frequent speaker on topics related to spelling. She provides information to support explicit, systematic instruction in written English, including the importance of morphology and the influences of etymology. Her early professional experience was in experimental research and instructional design, but her focus shifted in 2003 when she learned that one of her children is dyslexic. Trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach, she has served on the Board of Directors for the Upper Midwest Branch of the International Dyslexia Association and on the Board of Education for the Brandon Valley School District. She is currently Editor-In-Chief for the International Dyslexia Association's Fact Sheet publications and is the author of the website LearningAboutSpelling.com…

/’evɪdǝns/Matters TEST SCORES & REPORTS The Formula for Understanding School Psychologist / Neuropsychologist Test Scores and Reports FORMULA Dr John Carosso Attempting to comprehend all the jargon, test, scores, subscales, percentiles, and classifications of a neuropsychological and/or school psychologist report can be daunting, confusing, and frustrating. You'll be faced with any number of terms that often are not adequately explained. Moreover, at the conclusion of the report, you may see that child is classified with a 'learning disability', or that he is not. So, what does that mean? Does a 'Specific Learning Disability', which is a commonly-used classification for a child to receive public school-based special education services, equate to 'Dyslexia' and if the criteria for such a classification are not met, does that mean your child does not have…

Carla McNeil Founder & Managing Director LearningMATTERS.co.nz https://www.learningmatters.co.nz/ https://www.facebook.com/learningmatters.co.nz/ Click here Carla McNeil is the Founder and Managing Director of Learning MATTERS Ltd, an organisation that provides evidence-based support for children with learning differences and professional learning support for teachers and leaders. Before establishing Learning MATTERS, Carla served as a Classroom Teacher, School Principal, Maths Advisor at the University of Waikato and assisted her son William as he walked his journey with Dyslexia, APD, and ADD. Carla has always had a vested interest in education. She is a member of the steering group Lifting Literacy Aotearoa, presents nationally, enjoys regular topical conversations with a variety of professors and specialists within the education sector, and has been an advisor on the MOE Dyslexia kete. Carla is a Structured Literacy advocate. A…

/’evɪdǝns/Matters REMOVING LIMITS HELPING ALL CHILDREN REACH THEIR HIGHEST LITERACY POTENTIAL Nora Chahbazi Back in 1997, I was a Neonatal ICU nurse and a parent of three young daughters. That year my middle daughter, Colleen, was designated by her teacher as the 'best reader in 2nd grade'. However, she couldn't read anything she hadn't previously memorized. Colleen tested in the 98th %ile on maths in the Iowa test that year but was a year below grade level in reading on the same assessment. She got 100% on every spelling test but spelled about 50% of the words wrong on every writing piece she did. She typically misspelled the words she'd previously gotten correct on her spelling tests. Her teacher said that we didn't want to correct her misspellings because it…