We know how important it is to have flexible and culturally responsive classroom tools that honor each learner’s unique identity.
When students are afforded the opportunity to see the value and depth of inclusive materials, it can open their eyes to the transformative power of thoughtful, empathetic experiences designed to help everyone succeed.
That is something we can all support both inside and outside of classrooms.
Here is another truth: educators are the most essential part of making this vision a reality.
Getting Started in Your Classroom
We want classrooms to enjoy meaningful and rigorous discussions of a wide range of texts. A student’s literacy identity (their self-perception as readers, writers, and communicators) is a critical component of their progressive or stifled success across many school subjects and areas of life.
In order to bolster their skills, it is best to balance classroom time where students can be away from screens.
We believe in the power of print and that students learn better with paper. After all, reading comprehension and retention are significantly higher with print.
Adaptive Reader is a print-first solution, supplemented with digital and audio for enhanced accessibility.
We would love to work toward a future where every student can have a paperback in hand that makes them feel engaged and confident.
Adaptive Reader can help preserve student dignity by maintaining an impression of uniformity– accomplished by cover art that is replicated across editions– while allowing students access to leveled and/or translated texts that suit their needs.
Here’s how it might look in your classroom:
- To meet the needs of a diverse array of students, educators can use leveled texts for independent reading or pre-reading, and then engage the whole class in a close analysis of the original, grade-level material. This allows students time to practice decoding and build background knowledge, while also giving them exposure to grade level texts and vocabulary.
- To foster critical and higher-level thinking skills, students can compare the original version of a passage to a leveled version. A teacher might ask, “What are the differences? What makes the original more challenging? How does seeing the original version impact your approach to or energy toward the text?” These inquiries will allow students to engage in exercises that fuel learning and metacognition. At the start of a school year or unit, insights gleaned from these questions can give a teacher a sense of the collective identity of a classroom of students.
- To highlight diverse languages as an asset in the classroom (and world!), educators can implement translanguaging, a teaching approach that honors multiple languages in the classroom. Students can use their language to boost their ability to engage confidently in social interaction and learning.
- To promote reflection and accountability, educators can offer choice. Allowing students to choose which level to use can inspire them to challenge themselves, promote engagement, and help them build their literacy identity. After all, teacher and student perceptions of student preferences and capabilities sometimes differ. What might we learn about students and their preferences? How might students grow through challenge? What opportunities will be created when students usher themselves through levels of passages that prove that they can read a classic or ancient text successfully? How will school (and life) change when they realize that what seemed insurmountable is actually within the realm of capability?
With three distinct levels (Original, Gold, and Silver) and more than 30 languages in the Adaptive Reader library, schools can meet the needs of all students by offering a pathway to build background knowledge, promote rigorous academic engagement and discussions, break down language barriers, and help students build a positive literacy identity.
We encourage you to read our other blogs about the pedagogy and classroom strategies that can bring success to students in your learning community.