CASTANETO, Effective Literacy Site #4

                                                    

            The fourth site I have found to help increase student literacy is Reading is Fundamental (https://www.rif.org). This non-profit organization is a leading advocate for children’s literacy that provides fundamentals of success to create and enhance literacy. I really liked the fact that in addition to resources they first provide statistics and reasoning to explain why children’s literacy is so important. The Reading is Fundamental organization’s main mission is to educate society about just how severe the literacy deficiency is in the United States. Some of the facts included on their site are among children in the U.S., 34% of kindergartners lack the basic skills needed to learn how to read, 63% of fourth graders read below grade level (which in turn contributes to the 8,000 students dropping out of school every day), and only 37% of students who do graduate are able to read at or above grade level. 

            With these facts in mind, the Reading is Fundamental site offers high quality content, programs, and supports to the community. They feature a “theme of the month”  and for January the content is based on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. I like this idea because in my Character Education class I use upcoming events as an opportunity to introduce important events in history. This site also features filter options to customize by grade level content (PK-7)  and the Lexile Reading Range. If you are looking for a book/resource not tied to the current month’s theme you can easily search the “All collections” database to find what best suits your needs. 

In addition to offering book recommendations for teachers and parents alike, this site also provides reading activities that can be done at home with children. This is a great resource to be aware of since most students spend their time at home if they are not at school. Thus, making it easier for parents to be involved in their child’s education. Reading is Fundamental also offers a literacy tracker to track a child’s progress, apps to support and engage students in reading, reading logs, activities, and puzzle creators.  

This may seem like a wide variety of literacy resources, but this site surpassed my expectations and provides even more! Teachers have access to lesson plans, book bites, read aloud videos, ready-made puzzles, and passages. In my opinion, this organization’s site is the most well-rounded literacy-based resource I have reviewed so far. This is a great site to use any time of the school year and I would highly recommend it to my fellow educators or parents with struggling readers.