THE START OF SOMETHING BIG

Written by THRIVE Program Teacher, Tyson Schoeber • Last Updated: 10-15-2017

People who work with dyslexic children often run into a problem: it is difficult to find interesting, age-appropriate text that the kids can read independently.

I've taught many beginning readers over the past twenty years and have tried many different ways to deal with this reality. While I've discovered a handful of very good resources along the way, most of them are very expensive. Moreover, some of the best were written a long time ago and their text increasingly comes across as dated.

So I began writing some of my own material several years ago. I reflected upon some of the best practices I'd seen in other books and have stitched together a coloful, two-page format that seems to work very well. Over time, the project has really begun to take shape.

Every word used is either easily decodable, drawn from a small set of only 142 high-frequency words or systematically introduced. The stories have colorful photographs to support learning and they include a variety of interesting vocabulary and comprehension questions.

The first twenty stories are in solid draft form and dozens more are in development. They are already in active use and the kids are responding positively to them.

My long-term goal is to produce a large collection of levelled non-fiction articles that kids who struggle with reading will find engaging. As with everything I produce, the finished stories will all be posted here — FREELY AVAILABLE to anyone who can use them.

With all of these things in mind, I'm looking for other teachers (or tutors or parents) who are willing to try some of these stories with their own students. Volunteers would get early access to all of the stories and their feedback would help me refine this growing collection! Just send me a note if you'd like to give it a try!