Covington’s Early Literacy Initiative: Fostering a Love for Reading in Young Learners

Covington’s Early Literacy Initiative: Fostering a Love for Reading in Young Learners

In Covington, Kentucky, a unique and inspiring approach to early literacy is having an impact across the school district. The Read Ready Covington initiative, a hybrid program supported by both city government and nonprofits, is creating a lasting impact on young readers and their families. This comprehensive literacy program combines interactive activities, digital resources, and community engagement to inspire a love for reading among Covington’s youngest learners.

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Beat the Summer Slide: 7 Essential Tips for Keeping Students Sharp

Beat the Summer Slide: Tips for Student Engagement

Each summer, students risk falling into the “summer slide.” The summer slide is a phenomenon where students can lose up to three months of academic progress during the summer months, setting them back and making reentry into the next school year more difficult. Now that summer is upon us, here are seven proactive strategies that educators can recommend to parents and caregivers to ensure students return to school ready to continue their learning journey without missing a beat. With these essential tips for student engagement, you can help your students beat the dreaded summer slide.

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New Reading Comprehension Games Get Students Thinking Deeply about Text

We’ve got fantastic news to delight teachers in grades 1, 2 and 3! Footsteps2Brilliance Central™ now includes 80 new reading comprehension games in English and Spanish that get your students reading and thinking deeply about text. Best of all, when these games are assigned, teachers get automatic insight into their students’ proficiency with reading comprehension.

The new comprehension games start with student reading. Sometimes students read a high-interest book. Other times, students read a short passage. After reading, students complete a game designed to support them in clarifying and organizing information from the text. Modeled after some of the best graphic organizers, the comprehension games provide students with an interactive space to think deeply about what they have read. With the touch of a button, students can return to the text to further refine their understanding at any time. The new comprehension games support students with:

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Introducing Rapid Readers!

We are excited to announce a new book series to inspire your students’ curiosity about the world around them! The new Rapid Readers series can be found in Footsteps2Brilliance Level 3 and in Footsteps2Brilliance Central™. This series provides short books that answer interesting questions—bringing science to life in English and Spanish.

 

 

The Rapid Readers series offers high-interest books for transitioning readers to develop reading fluency, background knowledge, vocabulary, and critical thinking. Students listen to a model readers, practice reading independently, and record themselves reading to develop oral language and reading fluency. Additional activities guide students through comprehension strategies and critical thinking. Students complete each book unit with a writing prompt. Best of all, the entire experience can be toggled between English and Spanish to support emergent bilingual students.

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Building Spanish Phonics Skills for Biliteracy

We are excited to announce 27 new books and 161 new games organized into 41 new lessons designed to support Spanish phonics curriculum!

The brand new Fonética: silabas y palabras and Mis libritos fonéticos in Footsteps2Brilliance Central™ offer highly-effective practice for vocales, consonantes, sílabas directas – CV, and sílabas trabadas – CCV. All of the phonics games are automatically scored so that teachers can easily monitor student’s Spanish phonics proficiency.

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Growing Foundational Reading Skills with Decodable Books

We are excited to announce a new book series designed to support your classroom phonics curriculum. The Growing Readers series in Footsteps2Brilliance Level 2 and in Footsteps2Brilliance Central™ offers highly-effective multi-sensory practice with immediate feedback to support students in developing phonics skills. Even better, all of the phonics games are automatically scored so that teachers can easily monitor student growth.

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Miss Kentucky 2022 Hannah Edelen Challenges Early Learners to Read and Write During National Family Literacy Month Modeled after Mayor Joe Meyer’s Early Childhood Initiative in Covington, KY.

For Immediate Release

Miss Kentucky 2022 Hannah Edelen  is challenging all Kentucky early learners to read and write during National Family Literacy Month beginning on November 1.  Joining this effort, Footsteps2Brilliance, a bilingual early literacy solution, is offering Kentucky children and families free access to interactive eBooks, songs, and games in English and Spanish. Kentucky families can access this free library at www.footsteps2brilliance.com/kentucky.

 

Inspired by Read Ready Covington‘s local initiative under the leadership of Mayor Joe Meyer, Hannah, a Kentucky teacher and author, created Read Ready Kentucky to equip all children with the tools to change the world through reading. As part of her Read Ready Kentucky campaign, she has partnered with Footsteps2Brilliance to provide access to a free library of 500+ interactive educational activities. Families can use this free library to participate in National Family Literacy Month by:

  • Reading books
  • Using the Footsteps2Brilliance Create-a-Book feature to write their own books
  • Recording themselves singing or reading the books
  • Taking selfies of themselves reading with their families
  • Sending their best work to Hannah at MissKY@footsteps2brilliance.com

 

“The access that all children will have through this free bilingual interactive library creates a much-needed bridge for literacy between school and home,” says Mayor Joe Meyer. “We look forward to seeing the students’ successes during National Family Literacy month.”

Participants will receive certificates signed by Miss Kentucky 2022. A select number also will receive a signed copy of Hannah’s book, Hank the Horse and the Case of the Missing Eggs or Honey the Horse and Kentucky Proud. Hannah wrote these books to teach young children, in a developmentally appropriate way, the importance of critically analyzing information and the value of Kentucky agriculture.

About Mayor Joe Meyer’s “Read Ready Covington”
Read Ready Covington is a city-wide early literacy initiative that helps families, caregivers and educators prepare our littlest readers to become future leaders. By using free access to learning applications such as Footsteps2Brilliance® and Clever Kids University® as well as other educational resources throughout the city, our shared goal creates an environment for lifelong learning in Covington that’s collaborative, comfortable and fun. Together, we are helping the children of Covington be prepared for a brighter future.

https://www.covingtonky.gov/government/departments/neighborhood-services/literacy

About Miss Kentucky 2022 Hannah Edelen
Hannah Edelen, Miss Kentucky 2022, is committed to student success. From teaching in her own classroom to inspiring students across the Commonwealth, Hannah encourages students to learn by sharing how education helped her overcome the obstacles in her life. Hannah recognizes the value of early literacy and how it is fundamental to creating a successful pathway whether it be attending a postsecondary institution, vocational training, military, or entering the workforce. “Together, let’s create a Read Ready Kentucky!””
https://misskentucky.org/meet-miss-kentucky

About Footsteps2Brilliance
Footsteps2Brilliance, Inc. is the breakthrough early learning platform that accelerates early literacy achievement by uniting the power of mobile gaming technology with the latest in cognitive research. Footsteps2Brilliance provides enticing, interactive, 24/7 learning experiences that digitally link school and home to give students the edge they need for success in school today and the world tomorrow.  For further information contact: info@footsteps2brilliance.com.

Sparking Students’ Curiosity

We are excited to announce a new book series to inspire your students’ curiosity! The new Life Sciences series can be found in Level 3 of the Footsteps2Brilliance app. This series provides rich informational text to develop students background knowledge and vocabulary—bringing science to life in English and Spanish.

 

 

Life Sciences Book Series

Beautiful Birds Book Unit

Developed in close alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards, this series explores the life sciences. Students have the opportunity to compare and contrast information between books as they learn the characteristics that make each animal kingdom unique. Throughout the series, students develop their understanding of animal adaptations, life cycles, ecosystems, and habitats. Students are drawn into the topics with high-interest photographs and diagrams.

Each book unit includes a series of activities designed to develop critical thinking, reading comprehension, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary, and writing skills.

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