Endrew F. vs. Douglas County School District decision: "The IEP must aim to enable the child to make progress. After all, the essential function of an IEP is to set out a plan for pursuing academic and functional advancement... When all is said and done, a student...
Mind Mapping Math
Fractions can be confusing. Some students are confused by the new terminology that comes with fractions (numerator, denominator), while others are confused because they seem to have different principles from those learned from whole numbers. Numbers that "get bigger"...
Recovering from Pandemic Loss
Numbers are starting to trickle in from February testing and the good news is that things are beginning to recover, but younger grades are behind more than older children. The numbers below are all students, without dyslexic students studied separately, but if...
Avoiding the Third Grade Madness
If you're the parent of a third grade child with dyslexia in the public school system, your student may be having an especially difficult time. Some of the struggle might be understandable as classrooms attempt to move past learning to decode to reading to...
If Your Student Can’t Write [Premium]
If your student can’t write, no matter what age – prepare yourself for the long haul because so much of schooling and even many aspects of hiring and work can require writing. When writing is difficult for students with dyslexia, it may be that they are having difficulty converting feelings and images to words, trouble […]
More Free Leveled Texts and Reading Passages [Premium]
The grand-daddy of them all is still probably Readworks, but if you like to change things up with leveled reading, check out News in Levels (alas Newsela is no longer free) or Tween Tribune, run by the Smithsonian. If you do use Readworks, make sure you know about the slider at the bottom of […]
How Families Help [Premium]
Families can really make a difference. Many times, they are the last place to find encouragement or to help find a connection to the next opportunity in life. MARC’S UNCLE Marc shared with me that he grew up in a family that was poor with both parents working full-time to make ends meet. He […]
Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]
In the many years Brock and I spent testing and listening to dyslexic students at every level of education, we often heard first hand accounts of how they learned how to tackle difficult subjects and bypass school-related challenges. As research studies bear out (for instance, see Kirby’s study of dyslexic university students), many dyslexic students […]
Should I Homeschool?
With a large part of the world at least partially homeschooling this past year and students falling behind, some parents are asking whether they should homeschool their kids for the rest of the school year or perhaps for the 2022-23. Homeschooling during the pandemic...
Math Distance Learning for Students with Dyslexia
Here are several desirable features for remote math programs for dyslexic students: - Comprehensive (math builds on prior knowledge; programs must be comprehensive) - Spiralling (reviews and deepens knowledge of concepts over time; more info here) - Video and...
The Highs and Lows of Remote Learning
"I don’t know how I’ll get through this. I know I must, but I am beyond exhausted." - a parent, APM Reports "What did we do to deserve this torture?" - a student about I-Ready By now, many school children and university students around the world have had some...
Education During the Pandemic: Preparing for the Unpreparable [Premium]
As I am writing this, omicron cases have not reached their peak in the US, and calls for schools to close again because of the extreme contagiousness of this variant. How do parents, teachers, and tutors prepare for another unpredictable year? ONE STUDENT AT A TIME If pandemic education has told us anything thus […]