Read3 Newsletter (June 2024)
Greetings everyone. With Term 2 wrapping up in some states this week we thought it might be time for a quick update.
Since our last newsletter we’ve presented at the Language Literacy and Learning Conference in Perth, hosted our inaugural Office Hours (Q&A) for Educators, and launched FISH – our new fluency screener for older struggling readers!
It’s been quite the term, but the icing on the cake was the recent news from the Victorian Department of Education who announced that systematic synthetic phonics will be a syllabus requirement for F-2 from 2025.🥳🍾 Read more about Victoria’s approach to teaching reading.
As more states come onboard with quality phonics instruction, Read3 is becoming recognised as the ‘go-to’ program for students who fail-to-progress adequately due to reading fluency, working memory, or rapid naming challenges. If you need a robust Tier 2 or Tier 3 solution for your most at-risk students, please reach out anytime.
FISH fluency screener for older students just released!
After 12 months in the making, it was exciting to finally be able to release FISH, our new fluency screener! Many thanks to the hundreds of practitioners and schools who have jumped onboard already.
FISH stands for Fluency Indicators in a Story Hierarchy. FISH offers a unique series of short, decodable passages that are designed to help identify where fluency breaks down in a systematic phonic sequence.
In around 5-10 minutes you can gain essential insights into a student's reading rates and phonics skills, allowing you to identify an appropriate starting point to target literacy intervention.
Created for students aged 8 years and over, FISH can also be used to review foundational skills in younger readers.
If you’re keen to get started, you can read up on all the details and order FISH here.
If you’d like a little more detail, our recent blog post outlines the role of fluency, where FISH fits in, and how to score student results.
Office Hours (Q&A) for schools kicks off
At Read3, we recognise that learning is a journey. In our ongoing commitment to supporting educators and optimising student outcomes, we are pleased to announce the introduction of free monthly ‘Office Hours’ via Zoom for those using Read3 in schools.
While our Read3 Staff Training for Schools equips everyone with the necessary tools to get started implementing Read3, it's natural for questions to arise while navigating real-world applications.
Our new Office Hours initiative is a chance for staff to gain direct and timely access to our team, offering an invaluable opportunity to delve deeper into the intricacies of the Read3 intervention and address any challenges relating to student progress.
These sessions will occur monthly on different days and at different times, allowing greater flexibility for those wishing to attend.
Our next Office Hours will be on July 17 at 2:00pm. A reminder will be sent to all Read3 schools prior to the date.
Free Journal Club for Speech Pathologists
We love a bit of research 🤓, particularly research into what works best for children with serious literacy challenges.
We also love working with our community of speech pathologists who are supporting those children.
So we decided to combine these two loves and create a Journal Club for Speech Pathologists!
Journal Club is a great opportunity for you to dive deeper into peer-reviewed literacy research and review its relevance to your professional practice. The club operates under the evidence-informed model of the TREAT Journal Club and attendance counts towards professional development points.
As a way of giving back to our broader community, this club is FREE for all speech pathologists with an interest in literacy.
Our next session will be held on 3 July 2024. If you have speechie friends and colleagues who may be interested, share this newsletter and they can register here.
Read3 Action Research
findings presented at the DSF
Language Literacy and Learning Conference
In late March we had the pleasure of attending the DSF Language, Literacy and Learning Conference in Perth. Apart from attending many excellent sessions, we co-presented Read3 research findings with speech pathologist/educator and project facilitator, Bernadette Yeo from the Armidale Catholic Schools Action Research Project. Despite a late afternoon time slot, there was considerable buzz in the room at the progress of students who had previously failed to respond to high quality SSP literacy intervention.
During 2022 and 2023, Read3 was implemented in six schools across the Diocese of Armidale as a Tier 3 intervention. Students who participated had severe reading difficulties and additional diagnoses (ASD, ID, ADHD, DLD, CAS/SSD). All schools who participated used the same high quality Tier 1 and Tier 2 systematic synthetic phonics program and all students participating had made limited gains.
Student progress was tracked using normed assessments and we are pleased to report a positive response to intervention with this significantly reading-impaired Tier 3 cohort, with a positive shift in standard scores.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the schools who participated in this Action Research project, and to Bernadette for her commitment and vision for better literacy outcomes for the most at-risk in our schools.
If you are interested in hearing more about student outcomes, please contact project facilitator Bernadette Yeo at the Armidale Catholic Schools Office on byeo@arm.catholic.edu.au.
How to teach irregular words
What does the research show?
One of the sessions at the recent DSF Language, Literacy and Learning Conference focused on addressing the myths, misconceptions and methods of instruction in relation to irregular words.
Following the conference, Kate reached out to presenters Professor Saskia Kohnen and Dr Danielle Colenbrander, from the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy, ACU, who advised they were happy for us to paraphrase some presentation content for you all.
If you’re keen to know what is and isn’t evidence-based when it comes to teaching irregular words, click the link below. You might be a bit surprised!
If you’re wanting to know more about the research, have a listen to Danielle on Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Episode 188 or check out the links included in the blog post.
Our team has discussed the findings of this presentation at length, with a view to making sure Read3 provides the most up-to-date, evidence-based approach to all elements of our intervention. It’s possible there will be an update to the Say & Snap game in the coming months, so stay tuned!
Training Block #2 for Speech Pathologists starts 19 July!
Block #2 saw another 45 speechies complete Read3 training and now it’s time for Block #3! Training starts 19 July, 2024. The 4-week block consists of four x 1.5 hr sessions. Each participant will have access to Module 1 Step 1 of the Read3 program throughout the training block so they can practise what they learn!
Self-paced Staff Training for Schools
We recognise schools are busy places which is why our self-paced format enables staff to get started the the Read3 program following a few initial hours of training.
Once they have some experience in using the program, they then continue learning about progress monitoring and further adjustments to meet individual student needs.
Read3 intervention is ‘individualised’ but it does not have to be one-on-one. Our games-based approach lends itself well to a small group setting. You’ll learn more about how to run Read3 in groups during staff training.
If you're thinking about getting started with Read3, need a refresher, or have new staff who have joined your team, please reach out for a training and/or licence proposal.
Want to know more about Read3? Just Ask!
If you are not yet using Read3 or the Easy Alphabet, but are keen to know more, reach out via support@read3.com.au or book a phone call at a time that suits you. We're always happy to help.
Cheers for now,
Kate & Robyn