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Welcome to Our Blog

Learning to Read is Complex: No Reading Program is an Alternative to Teacher Expertise

February 26, 2021 Irene Fountas, Director

As a literacy teacher, your understanding of the composite of competencies that are characteristic of effective reading and writing and how they change over time will set the pathway for your teaching.

Our Top Posts from 2020

January 8, 2021 Center News

Now that 2020 has come to a close, we are reflecting on some of our most read and revisited blog posts from the year.

$3 Million Gift Endows Dr. Gay Su Pinnell Fund for Reading Recovery®

December 18, 2020 Center News

Dr. Gay Su Pinnell generously endowed Lesley University with a $3 million gift to support the Center for Reading Recovery® and Literacy Collaborative within the Graduate School of Education. As a longtime collaborator with our director, Irene Fountas, Pinnell has more than three decades of partnership with Lesley.

Tags: Latest News

Case Study: William Ellery Channing Elementary School

December 8, 2020 Official Center News & Updates

Learn more about the Channing School’s partnership with the Center for Reading Recovery and Literacy Collaborative began in 2014 when the school was identified by the Massachusetts Department of Education as a turnaround school.

Time to Confront Learning Loss: Responsive Teaching through Leveled Literacy Intervention

November 25, 2020 Irene Fountas, Director

The unprecedented circumstances of our world have illuminated the need to address the literacy needs of marginalized students in our educational system.

Tags: Intervention

Spring 2021: Online Graduate Courses

November 24, 2020 Spring 2021 Online Graduate Courses

Take your career to the next level, whether you are working in a remote setting or socially-distanced classroom!

Accountability for Independent Reading In-Person or From a Distance

October 7, 2020 Genevieve Arcovio & Rhonda Precourt, Literacy for All 2020 Speakers

Whether we are teaching in person or from a distance, the following are suggestions that will allow you to partake in genuine meaningful conversations about books and learn more about your students as readers.

Video: Debra’s Story—What does literacy mean to me?

September 21, 2020 Next month we're hosting the 31st Annual Literacy for All Virtual Conference, October 25-27 (Live + OnDemand).

To celebrate we’re featuring stories from educators who are passionate about literacy. Thank you Debra for sharing your story!

Tags: Latest News

A New Kind of Virtual Coaching Cycle

September 17, 2020 Stephanie Affinito, Literacy Teacher Educator, Literacy Coach, Author, Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning, University of Albany, NY

While content coaching cycles can never replace classroom coaching cycles, they offer new opportunities to partner together around shared teacher learning and can be an important first step to deeper, more intense collaboration in the classroom, either in-person or virtually.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you…

September 2, 2020 Cindy Downend & Wendy Vaulton

Getting to know every child as an individual requires intention, observation, and inquiry. The fundamentals of good assessment still apply.

Upcoming Professional Development

July 13 – September 6, 2026 (Summer Term II)

Effective Reading Instruction: Community & Practice, K-8

This 8-week, online course will teach the rationales and organizational components of classroom reading instruction. You will examine effective instructional practices and strategies to strengthen reading development for a wide range of readers, including multilingual learners.

$2,895 ($915/credit + $50/credit comprehensive fee) + required texts
July 13-16, 2026

Building Deep Thinkers Through Reading: Engaging Students in Robust Comprehension

Let’s teach readers to think deeply. Join us to explore robust comprehension as an active, layered, and dynamic process to synthesize ideas, make inferences, and critique texts – not just recall facts.

$895 (includes professional text)
July 1-2, 2026

Wondrous Words: Igniting Children’s Passion, Purpose, and Skills for Writing

Join us for this two-day, hands-on workshop where you’ll strengthen your ability to read like a writer and learn how to use mentor texts to help students expand their repertoire of craft moves, grow their identities as writers, and deepen their understanding of writing as a meaningful act.

$595 (Text Included)

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