March 20, 2025 • 44 mins
Join host Cheri Dotterer in this insightful episode of The Writing Glitch as she speaks with Marion Waldman, the founder of Teach My Kid to Read. Marion shares her personal journey of navigating literacy challenges with her own child and how that experience led her to create a nonprofit dedicated to equipping librarians, educators, and parents with the tools they need to support struggling readers.
This episode also highlights Podcastathon, a global initiative amplifying nonprofit voices, and how Teach My Kid to Read is playing a pivotal role in shaping library-based literacy interventions. Learn how libraries can become literacy hubs, the science behind effective reading instruction, and how YOU can support dyslexia-friendly reading spaces in your community.
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment about your favorite literacy resources!
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Products Mentioned
- Tier 1 Interventions Podcast
- Disability Labs
- Relief in 3d Subscription Box
- Handwriting Brain Body DisConnect
- Monthly Math and Writing Webinar
- Teach My Kid to Read
- Online Membership Community
- Podcastathon
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TIME STAMPS
00:21 What is Podcastathon?
01:00 Meeting Marion Waldman: The birth of Teach My Kid to Read
02:09 The struggle of librarians and educators
03:46 Understanding dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD
06:40 Marion’s journey
08:11 The hidden gaps in literacy instruction and the science of reading
09:09 Finding Orton-Gillingham-based instruction
12:00 The role of decodable books
14:49 How Teach My Kid to Read is transforming library programs
17:24The challenges of getting libraries
20:00 How parents and caregivers can access free literacy resources
22:23 Bringing writing and math to the literacy conversation
27:02 Exploring Teach My Kid to Read’s online membership community
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BOOKS
Handwriting Brain Body DISconnect Digital Version: https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/hwbbd
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Handwriting-Br...
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SUBSCRIBE and LISTEN to the Audio version of the podcast here on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 4 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, and welcome to The Writing Glitch.
I'm Cheri Dotterer, your classroom coach.
Several months ago, I wasapproached by some gentlemen
in France about participatingin a thing called Podcastathon.
Their website is podcastathon.
org, and I'm going to share alittle bit about their vision.
(00:21):
Podcastathon.
They say that the strength of a podcastepisode lies in listening, quality
and duration, giving a microphone sothat many associations with such high
level engagement allows them to sharetheir stories, their challenges and
their projects, conveying emotionsto bring associations closer to
the future donors and volunteers.
(00:44):
Their mission is to have . 1, 500podcasts from around the world
sharing charitable organizations.
I met a lady by the name of MarianWaldman around the same time as I was
(01:05):
meeting these folks about Podcastathon.
I was very humbled by what she is doing.
She is a charitable organization thatis going into libraries and schools
around the country and helping themunderstand dyslexia, dysgraphia,
(01:27):
dyscalculia, and why some of theseconditions are, the librarians are
struggling with these conditions.
They're actually going in, they havetraining for librarians to explain how
to set up dyslexia places in the library.
(01:47):
What are some of the advantagesand disadvantages of The
locations what can we do?
Because a lot of comorbidities happenwith dyslexia and that is ADHD.
How can we set up a stationfor kids to participate who
may have conditions like ADHD?
(02:09):
I want to introduce her today.
Now, I did not plan on the podcast.
Oh man, am I strugglingwith this one today.
I started the podcast likeI start every podcast.
(02:31):
You're going to get to hear my greetingagain, but I hope that this charity
brings you a bit closer to what isout there to help kids understand.
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia.
They have programs for teachers,they have programs for libraries,
(02:53):
they have programs for parents,they have programs for therapists.
Stay tuned and listen towhat they have to offer.
Thanks a bunch.
Oh yeah, I almost, I always forget this.
Make sure that you subscribe tothe podcast and don't forget to
leave a comment and tell us ifyou like Teach Your Child to Read.
Speaker (03:15):
Hey, welcome everybody to the Writing Glitch Podcast.
I'm Cheri Dotterer, your classroom coach.
Today, we are visiting with MarionWaldman from Teach My Kid to Read.
Teach My Kid to Read is a 503cnonprofit, and their mission is to
provide parent, librarian, educators,and anyone else interested in literacy
(03:40):
education with the tools and theresources to help all kids to read.
Before we go to talk with her alittle bit, We're going to have a word
from our sponsor, Disability Labs.
Disability Labs is a, we, atDisability Labs, we are committed
(04:01):
to impact the journey of 200,000 teachers by 2030, so they can
reignite their passion for learning.
Our professional development seriesfocuses on math and writing strategies
to help all students in your classroom.
These interventions improve studentswith and without disabilities.
All students have access to mathematicsand writing skills, and we are launching
(04:26):
in this new year a subscription box.
Inside that subscription box, you willfind tools for reading, writing, and math
skills for students that are struggling.
Plus, you'll have some surprises foryou, the teacher or the parent or the
therapist who is working with the student.
(04:48):
We did a Pre launch here in Octoberfor the holidays and the people that
purchased it were overwhelmed with gleebecause they said it was just layer
upon layer of fun things to do with mystudents and some nice surprises for me.
(05:10):
When we launch, you'llget more information.
As we get closer to launching thesubscription box, but look for it sometime
next year in 2025, I'll have to editthe next year out, look for it in 2025.
Let's get on with the show, Marion,thank you for being here today.
(05:35):
Tell us a little bit about yourselfand how you started this nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
First of all, I'm thrilled to be here and very
excited about your work as well.
My background is in educational publishingand I came to the literacy world when
my own daughter struggled to read.
Having a background in Educationalpublishing being an English major
(06:03):
even teaching occasionally in highereducation, I felt that literacy and
reading was something I had my armsaround and that surrounding my daughter
with books and reading to her and tellingeverybody when they asked if, They
want gifts to get her give her books.
She can never have too many books.
I thought that I was just superequipped to help any child read.
(06:28):
I, when I went on ajourney that many parents.
Go on.
And that at first I thought, okay,she needed a little bit of help.
English wasn't her first language.
I thought maybe that was it.
If we kept up the first language,it would make it easier.
And then, as time went on, and Istarted having more Discussions with
(06:49):
the teachers and administrators.
I knew something wasn't quite right.
She wasn't progressing working with.
I work very closely with content andcurricula in educational publishing
and the work that she was doingto keep up with her classmates
and supposedly learn to read.
(07:10):
May as well have been inanother language for her.
She wasn't learning the soundsand the basic skills yet.
She was supposed to answerquestions and read sentences.
Homework became a nightmare.
And then I started on my journeystarting to learn a little bit
about how kids learn to read.
And, again, coming from publishing, I Hadworked on a ton of higher education and
(07:31):
vocational and in K to 12 books, and I wasfamiliar with that familiar with balance
literacy, and I thought that was theright way to learn to read in that level.
Texts were all that there was.
It was quite an eye opener to realizethat I had worked on projects that I
(07:52):
then learned were not quite the best wayfor nearly any kids, let alone kids that
have a disability reading disability orreading issue like dyslexia learn to read.
Again, like many parents, I got to thepoint where I knew as much as many of
her teachers about what she needed.
And I found a tutoring center in ourregion that was that used alphabetic
(08:17):
phonics, one of the, one of thesystematic explicit reading programs
based on the science of reading.
It's not used that commonly,but it's an effective program.
And that's where she started to progress,but, she had still fallen way behind
and by the time she was going into6th grade, I had been, it had been a
long journey and I threw my hands up.
(08:41):
She was just falling so far.
Behind and I ended up driving to theKildonan school to Camp Donaback and
sitting down with the director of thecamp and just saying, can you teach
my, can you teach my kid to read?
And I was, I and.
That was, it was before she was going into6th grade and that was like the a turning
(09:04):
point in my entire career because I hadbeen in publishing for so many decades.
Then I was a vendor.
I was a partner in a small business andI never envisioned leaving publishing.
It's all my contacts were it's whatI had Focus my career on all the way
from marketing to editorial to salesand, working for the big publishers
and myself and suddenly suddenly itwas the summer before my daughter was
(09:28):
going into sixth grade and we wererenting literally a cabin in the middle
of nowhere and she was spending sixweeks going to a camp for specialized
for kids with reading disabilities.
And I met parents from all over.
The country, mostly from the region,but certainly from the country.
Everybody was pretty much in a daze.
My kid can't learn to readand they would do anything.
(09:50):
We received a scholarship.
It still was 10, 000 for 6weeks and I couldn't believe it.
And I felt and there were manypeople there that had so much.
That had the means to even buy a secondhome while their kid went to camp there.
These were not kids.
I, we live in Albany and, thiswas not our community going to
(10:11):
help the kids learning to read.
Just the inequities of thisentire situation, absolutely.
Blew me, blew me away.
The fact that, I was at the time inmy fifties rooming with other parents
the same age, living in the middle ofnowhere, my dog with me or just leaving my
family just so my kid can learn to read.
(10:32):
And in six weeks, she went up three gradelevels into coding and granted, that
was just the beginning of the journey.
But I thought this is yeah.
This, and that was basedon Orton Gillingham.
There was a period of time where Ithought that Orton Gillingham was the
only way my daughter could have learnedto read and I've since realized I'm a
big fan of vote of OG, but I've sincerealized that, there are there were other
(10:55):
ways that she other systematic explicitreading programs that could have had the
same effect with that intensive tutoringthe right teacher being able to understand
what her and Weaknesses are, but thatsummer was a turning point for me.
And because I couldn't keep up with thework in my own business I started blogging
and writing about our experiences.
And that's how teachmy kid to read started.
(11:17):
I had a good friend from collegecome up to spend some time with me.
She was a brand, she's a brand manager.
And she's the one who together we came upwith teach my kid to read for the blog.
Because at the point at thattime, that was what it was.
What it was all about and again,being in publishing, I was brought,
I was brought up that if there'ssomething wrong in the educational
(11:39):
system, you don't talk about it.
You don't blog about it.
You recommend some solutions.
I was far enough.
Along in my career that I hadthat ingrained in my blood that
I better figure out a way thatwe contribute to the solution.
Fast forward fast forward teach my kidto read decides to do a pilot with me.
(11:59):
Libraries, and that partially camecame about because one of my colleagues
at the time had written to, I thinkit was a library in New Zealand,
and said, why are the decodablesin just the dyslexia section?
All kids learn to read with decodables.
And I said, over the years, one thingthat has always, it's always been a
Erked me is I'm a constant reader.
(12:20):
I can't imagine life without my Libbyapp and constant, just the constant
books I have on backorder and the factthat anybody could access a library.
Yet when I've gone there,none of the librarians seem to
know anything about dyslexia.
Once I learned about decodablebooks or ways to help Families
like mine at the time.
(12:40):
In 2019, we decided let's do a pilot.
Let's do it.
Focus on 50 libraries in New York, andlet's we partnered with Glean Education
let's give them access to Glean's onlinecourse on dyslexia, give them some
handouts, a poster a suggested list,we got samples, t shirts, and see if
they're willing to do a discussion.
It was a great success.
(13:07):
Other states heard about it.
We ended up working with 50 librariesin New York and a bunch of other states.
We had planned to expand our work intoto serve New York, but then COVID hit.
We slapped everything we didonline in a very, rudimentary
kind of wordpress plug in.
And suddenly we were hearingfrom libraries all over the
(13:28):
country, even other countries.
And that's how that's how wegot into the library space.
And in the course of this time, I happenedto meet somebody who, a parent who had
nearly a This a parallel experience tome but she was a librarian and so she
had created a literacy hub at her libraryin in the Finger Lakes in New York.
(13:52):
She had a vast decodable bookcollection and parent resources,
teacher resources, and we came together.
She's our current program director andshe now works with us full time and also
at the Lodi Whittier Library manages.
The literacy hub there as well.
We began, so we joined forcesand what our work became.
(14:15):
And I should stop here.
Do you want me to keep going or doyou want to answer some keep going?
Okay.
We joined forces and what we startedoffering as we offered webinars to
librarians on librarians, library systems.
Sometimes at the state level, systemlevel, but in three main areas
understanding the science of readingand how it relates to librarians to
(14:40):
understanding all the early resourcesand decodable books so that they could
choose wisely and understand the differentWhere the different resources fit and
the third area is initiating literacysolutions at the library, whether it's
a literacy event with a successfulevent that they already have, that
maybe they want to add a story walk or.
(15:02):
Have some resources for parents ofearly and struggling readers, even
offer a tutoring program offer kitstake home kits, all the that, a broad
array of literacy solutions thatare taking place at the library.
So those are the three areas thatwe focused on, and I'll backtrack
(15:23):
to that to support this work.
We also have a literacy we havea library committee and we have a
decodable book partnership so that wecan offer librarians and subsequently
the parents and caregivers that theyreach goods deep information on the un
decodable books and even through ourmembership program that we'll get to.
(15:45):
Discounts and ways to make it easierto sometimes purchase these books.
Those were the three the three mainareas that we provide education in.
And then we also provide operationalsupport where we get brought into
grants often where a pub, usually apublic or a school library that, they
want to start offering decodable books,a literacy hub for their community.
(16:07):
Can you come in and help provide theeducation component, whether it's bridging
a school library with what is happeningin the school, whether it's a public.
library that we're also offeringtools to help the librarians
then serve the community.
We provide that education pieceas well as what to order how to
(16:29):
order, even how to set up the books.
You see there's some bins behindme and as well as resources for
parents, for teachers, because whenwe do community literacy initiatives,
we want to serve the community.
We're going to spend a percentageof our budget on, what other books
are, do you feel would serve yourcommunity that maybe you don't have?
It could be books in other languages,different family structures, cultures,
(16:53):
whatever they think would be wouldhelp their community have access
to books where they can mirror,where they could see themselves.
That's how we, that, that becamethat's our work in a nutshell, but.
We had we had one big conundrum with ourwork and one quote unquote head scratcher.
And that's that we couldn'tserve the individual libraries.
(17:13):
And we might get broughtinto a a a grant in an.
Urban area, even a certain district,a region, some of the smaller
states, they could even be statewide.
We were still getting calls fromindividual libraries and it frustrated
us because we couldn't help them.
We didn't have a model to help them.
And and it was always the samequestions we got, like, how does
(17:35):
the science of reading affect us?
Are we the only library that canthat their patrons are asking all
about these decodable books andwe're trying to learn about them
and hey, sometimes the bindings.
What do we do about thebindings that aren't durable?
Do we get these books?
How do we know which book to choose?
How do we, where do we put them?
Where do we put the decodablebooks for older struggling readers
(17:57):
or that was in the why a sectionor the, the Children's section.
We would have all these conversationsand we would just pro bono.
We were constantly doing these30 minute consults and again,
just connecting everyone.
And we got to a point where we're like,we have to have a robust community.
The only way we're going to create impactor truly have any effect on bridging
(18:17):
the literacy crisis with libraries andcommunities, which is what our mission
is if we have a community and we connect.
We're now we do have a, we do have anonline community that we just launched.
We have a pilot program We have apilot group in there and a couple of
members, but we're, in the processstill of finishing it up and fine tuning
(18:39):
it and working with the community wehave so that we're certain, that it's
serving librarians and library staffas well as parents and caregivers.
Where we are right now is we've gotthis online community and we're very
excited about working with differentlibrary systems working at a state
level and just getting librarians inthere so that they can meet each other.
(19:04):
I think at this point, the best thing isfor me probably to show you the community.
Speaker (19:12):
Beautiful.
How the membership community,how long, how much does it cost?
What is the background?
What do you need to do to becomea member of your community?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
If you go to our website, teach my kid to read dot org right
from the home page, you'll be ableto get to the community page, which
is the landing page for the community.
And the way it works is for asingle librarian to subscribe.
It's 124 95 for the whole year,which is, I think quite a good deal.
And once a library, once a librariansubscribes starting in 2025, we'll
(19:46):
also give them a separate invite thatthey can share with their patrons and
their patrons will be able to accessthe parent caregiver section for free.
A librarian can, we're early on,but a librarian can sign up today
and we still have some trickling in.
We also have Special pricing for for fivestaff members and above that, we just
(20:10):
recommend that a librarian email us atinfo at teach my kids to read dot org and
we'll give them information for systemwide licenses or state licenses, but an
individual librarian can sign up today.
They want to
Speaker (20:27):
beautiful.
What about a parent?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Right now our model is that is that the parents will access
it for free through the library.
. We might have a model after we've beenafter we've launched and gotten some
traction with our library community wemay have a model so that parents can
subscribe at a much lesser, Fee withouta library, but right now, we would
(20:51):
like to offer it for free to parentsand caregivers through the library.
Speaker (20:58):
I'm a parent.
I'm not associated with the library.
I would like to be part of this community.
And one of the things that youand I were talking about is that
Disability Labs and CheriDotterer.
com and everything, all the work thatI'm doing, I've been wanting to partner
(21:20):
with a non profit and I would love topartner with your non profit to help.
Help parents be part ofthat membership system.
Parents that are out there, OTs that areout there, teachers that are out there
that are not affiliated with a library.
We are developing a system whereyou can donate to build up the.
(21:49):
Individual membership program,and hopefully we can then launch
that individual program as acollaborative resource for you.
That's where on my mind is thinking isif we, as individuals can support you
(22:14):
and create that secondary system, Iwould love to be, helping you do that.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That would be great.
And we are looking for content partnersand partners, for that parent section,
because we initially our plan was to1st launch the librarian library staff
community, which I'm going to show you,because I think it's always easier to see.
Then to then to tell and, justgetting that librarian library
community launched and some of thethings we're working on for that has
(22:45):
been, pretty overwhelming for us.
We thought, then the next phasewill be the parent phase, but the
feedback we got from the librariansis we want right from the get go.
We want the parent.
We want the parent piece.
We want to be able to provide.
For our, we want to be able toprovide resources for our patrons.
We fast tracked it.
It's there now.
It's not . But when I have thedemo, you'll be able to see it.
(23:06):
You'll be able to see what parentsand caregivers have access to.
And the.
Nice thing about communityis it's a community.
And we've had to we've had to dig ourheels in for some of our own initiatives
in the community and say wait a minutewhen we get a little bit more of a
mass in here, we might decide to wemight decide that Hey we want to have
(23:28):
we want to have a a book study grouponce a week, or we want to have a right
now we're having we have office hours,we have, science and reading, but.
A lot of a lot of what we do, we wantit to be a community we don't want to
we've provided structure, but we want,we don't want to get so far in what
we've dictated this community needsthat the community joins and we're going
in this direction and the communityis bubbling along, looking for certain
(23:53):
looking for certain information, certainsupport, and we're not listening.
Whether, we've had some feedbackabout opening it up for parents
sooner rather than later.
And that's definitelynot out of the question.
There's a ton of flexibilitywith how this works.
And I think we're very much in the.
Learning phase with the community.
(24:13):
We have calls almost every daywith our members that are in
there about there's so many topicsthat come up like we talk about.
You'll see what you'll see.
There's a lot of what's hard isthere's a lot of breath in there.
And where do we go with thedepth with all of these topics?
We're getting a lot of our urbanlibraries are like, we need so much
more support in for the Englishlanguage learners that we serve.
(24:35):
We've been busy meeting with,especially with Spanish, which is
often the top language, but sometimesthere's as many as 48 languages.
But how can we help librarianswith this very complex area?
In the rural areas, there's, it'sthe homeschool community and how
can we provide a level of support?
There's so many differentquestions we're trying to answer.
And, you can't be, it's you can'tyou can't be you can't be broad that
(25:01):
there's nothing you're quite providingenough depth in, so it's, we're
tiptoeing in, but with the parentarea, can I show you the community?
It might be,
Speaker 3 (25:10):
you should be
Speaker (25:11):
able to.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Okay,
Speaker (25:13):
and
Speaker 3 (25:13):
have
Speaker (25:13):
you seen
Speaker 3 (25:13):
it
Speaker (25:14):
before?
I don't believe so.
While you're pulling that up.
The community that's been followingme has heard about this book,
Handwriting Brain Body Disconnect.
It's very ironic thatyou're talking about 2019.
That's when I published.
I published because I was trying tohelp my gifted student with spelling.
(25:35):
Plus, I was trying to help the studentsat school as a direct service provider
help them with spelling as well.
I've come to realize that The thing thatboth of those students need, the one
that's struggling to read and write,the one that knows how to read, but has
trouble getting information on paper,the biggest thing that there's 2 areas,
(26:02):
1 of them is visual pattern recognition,understanding the patterns of the
way words and are created and Memory,working memory is the other area and even
the right gifted students have memorydeficits that relate to the writing.
(26:23):
It's a slower neurological path.
And this was designed for parents, butmost of the people that have purchased
that I know of I think it's expanding, butinitially the people that purchased were
OTs, but I've had so many teachers andparents call me and ask me more questions.
(26:44):
I'd like, as we're talking here Ifeel strong enough in my foundation
to be able to offer a webinar toyour libraries about writing skills.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, that would be very appealing.
That would be great.
And that's the kind of, these are thekind of partnerships we're looking for.
And, with writing, you can't , wecan't talk about literacy
without writing and spelling.
And
Speaker (27:13):
math is in there too.
I'm actually doing a webinar.
I do it once a month on a Thursday night,happens to be this coming Thursday,
where I teach three different strategies.
That helps support math, but becauseof the writing involved I talk a little
bit about how the mathematics and thewriting blend together and create either a
(27:34):
positive or a negative impact on learning.
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah.
Wow.
That would be, that sounds,my curiosity is piqued.
Oh, good.
Tell us a little bit about your community.
, here is.
The homepage and this is the this iswhere we provide some information for
the librarians and staff, just somegeneral information about what to do
when you're in the community and samewith the parents and caregivers, we
(28:01):
have a little bit of a message for them.
Now, currently, the librarians have accessto everything where the parents you'll
see, we'll get to their section as wellas and then they have some select areas,
but this is the start here for librarians.
And it's a little bit of a videotalking about the community why
it was formed, who it's for.
The librarians and stafffeel clear about where to go.
(28:23):
We have three recommendedlearning paths based on the most
common questions we get asked.
One is what are the other libraries doing?
And then, within it, we have somesuggestions about what to do, where
to go, how to learn about that.
Two, I want to learn more aboutthe science of reading, which
comes up all the time with us.
And three, I want tocreate a literacy hub.
(28:45):
We have a learning path forwhere to go for that information.
Then we have announcements and thesego out once a week, every Thursday,
it's more high level High levelinformation that we're sharing.
This is one of our literacy partnerswho the Reading League and the Reading
Institute and they're doing a seminar onFriday that we shared with our community
(29:08):
and then we have events and these areopen to they will be open to parents
as well right now, since We have alllibrarians in here, and it's mostly again,
what we call more ritualistic events.
Let's talk decodable books,discussions about decodable books,
office hours is like an orientation.
Another book discussion, this onehappens to be books about dyslexia.
(29:32):
And then we've got an upcoming webinarin the science of reading grant
opportunities are for librarians tobe able to purchase decodable books.
Then we have, this isthe library community.
We call it the road todecode library community.
We have some prompts, they introducethemselves and Get to know each other.
This is where the librarians and staffpost ask an expert and you can even
(29:55):
be one of our ask the experts rightnow because we're a new community.
All the experts are going almostthrough the end of the year.
And it's an opportunity to askspecific questions to at least as a
literacy specialist, former teacher.
Also with express readers.
This is our library chair, Laura lay.
She works for the Department ofEducation in Colorado and she's a a
(30:18):
librarian and a literacy specialist.
She's written some OG based programsas well, so just a pretty exceptional
program and a person in our own BethBevers who helps librarians about
Where to start, how to create a literacyhub, how to connect with your school.
That's ask an expert.
Then we have a space for librariansto post what they're doing.
(30:40):
This is a library in a rural area inNew York that created a collection.
These are sometimes the photosthat we end up sharing and passing
around, so we're excited about ourshowcase, community feedback, just
we can continue to improve, and thisis our our beta group of librarians.
Then we have resourcesfor librarians and staff.
(31:03):
We've got a video library, and thisessential list is for librarians and
parents, and these are robust lists thatwe have someone working almost full time.
To to continue to maintain, as you see,we have a bunch of different categories.
And then within those categories,we have the ISVN, sometimes
(31:24):
where to get the book, et cetera.
And these lists are, again, for parentsAnd for librarians, and we have a
whole explanation of what the differentlists are and then before you move
Speaker (31:36):
on, go back and see at the bottom there.
You have podcast.
I'm hoping that the writing glitchand tier 1 interventions could
be part of your podcast list.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
We will add them.
I need the we will absolutely add them.
And that's Beth Bevers whomaintains all these lists.
And we're always looking for good podcastsand books to add to all these lists.
So whatever you want tosend me, we're happy to add.
Speaker (32:03):
Oh, thank you.
You're
Speaker 2 (32:05):
welcome.
And then library resources.
These are what we provide to librarianswhen we work with them and it range ranges
from brochures we provide so they canoffer their community some information
on their decodable book collection,what it is, handouts for parents,
story walks engagement tools signs.
A wide range of toolsfor librarians and staff.
(32:28):
Articles, articles about librariesand literacy and then data is
literacy data as well as some of ourprogramming data working with libraries.
Now we're at the parentcaregiver section and.
Speaker (32:42):
Yes, it's a very robust, but is this on a circle?
Yes, it's on circle.
It's on circle.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
These are all the spaces.
In our in our parent caregiversection so far, we have our welcome
say hello ask a parent caregiver sothat parents can actually talk to
each other an early literacy space.
That's whoops.
I don't want to leave the space.
We're going to go right.
Early literacy space, which
Speaker (33:10):
I have an early literacy program that I want to share with you as well.
They're out of Canada, however,they are giving their early
literacy information away for free.
It's.
It's absolutely adorable littleprogram that a mom of a child with
(33:30):
dyslexia who found out that her husbandalso had dyslexia and dysgraphia
and what they're doing with it.
I will share Play Roly with you as well.
And look for that andlook for the listeners.
Look for that episode.
I'm not sure when that willcome out, but that'll come out
sometime this year as well.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
No, I will look for it.
And matter of fact, we have a lot of backand forth with with I want to say, is it
IDA Canada or Decoding Dyslexia Canada,but we have a call even Friday with them.
We have some good representation andwe may even have a separate space
just for the Canadian librarians.
They're doing some amazing work.
Even they even guided usthrough a grant process for it.
(34:13):
This is early literacy.
Again, we're just startingto, populate this space.
And you'll see that this is this is newto Dyslexia and Reading Differences.
And all these spaces, I should say,too, we are in the process of talking
with content partners so we couldkeep offering fresh information.
You would be a perfect partnerfor, many of these spaces.
(34:33):
But we also have moderators.
In these spaces, which we don't have itwith the librarian spaces so that parents
who maybe want to ask a 22 year old whocouldn't learn to read until they were
in 7th grade questions about her journey.
She's in here as a moderator.
Our 2nd moderator is an adult.
She's also a publisher.
(34:54):
Who is dyslexic.
We wanted to make sure with some ofour parents sections that we also
in addition to resources that theyhave somebody who's experiencing
what you know what maybe their childis in there to ask questions, too.
As you see, I'm just going to again,we've got the early literacy, ask a
parent caregiver, homeschool resources,tutoring and apps and technology.
(35:18):
That's the parent section.
That we're that once the library'ssubscribed, that we'll have we'll be
able to provide parents with their owncode in addition to some of, access to
some of the other parts of this space.
Our literacy partners are our non profitpartners who we work with and some
of them are content partners as well.
(35:39):
And then we have our publishing partnersand we have a program for publishers.
It's it's more of a partnershipthan a direct sponsorship program.
And they get access to the space.
They get an event.
And many of them, this is where theyalso offer incentives or discounts
to members of the community.
(35:59):
And not only are we lining up morepublishers in this in this space,
we're also in discussion withsome of the distributors because
some of the larger library systemscan't order from the publishers.
They have to go through the distributor.
That's a benefit.
And then we have courses.
I'm not going to demo the courseright now because we have some sample
content in there, but we are goingto offer courses in the main areas
(36:22):
that we have Webinars in as well as aparent course on fundamental reading
skills are featured sponsor volunteerinformation, and then we have links.
We have links to our guidelines.
Our website are we have an affiliatebookshop on books bookshop dot org.
We have a link to wehave our own e commerce.
(36:43):
Our store.
We have free e books of I see Sam,a map of who we work with and sold a
story kind of, of course, a classic.
Podcast and the reading brain.
Those are our links and I'm going to stopthis share unless you have any questions.
And this is our community.
Speaker (36:59):
I love it.
I see so many ways that we could be comepartners and in this pandemic of literacy,
it's it's its own pandemic is what I feellike, but I see that and the connections
that I've made here doing the podcast.
(37:20):
That's, I can see different ways thatwe could connect, so we'll have to
continue talking and continue to tohave you come and share more things
over time, but we are out of time.
We need to to end the podcast today.
Is there anything elsethat you'd like to add?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
No, except to share our work.
We are we're a newer nonprofit andwe were always looking for donations
and sponsors to help us build morecontent create create courses bring in.
Experts and resources as wellas for own capacity to grow.
We are presenting at the WorldLiteracy Summit on between April
(38:08):
7th and 9th, and that's available.
It takes place in Oxford, but Oxford UK.
It's also going to be be virtual.
We're excited about thatopportunity and, maybe growing our
community to, to other countries.
Speaker (38:23):
That's wonderful.
That's amazing.
Listeners out there, remember, youwere put here for such a time as this.
Go be awesome.
Go be brilliant.
And Marion, this was an absolutejoy to have you with your wisdom
and everything that you're doing.
It, I can see that your programis just going to explode over
(38:46):
the next couple of years.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I hope so.
Thank you for this opportunityand I'm looking forward to all
of the all of the collaborativeopportunities that we'll have together.
Speaker (38:58):
Fantastic.
Thanks everybody.
See you next week.
I've only seen, I haven'tseen anybody use it.
. Speaker 2: We'll, we'll see.
We were going to do also doour core values and a mission
statement of the group.
But I said, we don't haveenough people to do it now.
It'll be just, the us in ourlibrary chair sitting here.
(39:19):
Let's wait until we have more.
Yeah, it's the engagement piece.
And I tell them all when Ishow it, I said, we're going to
provide you with the best content.
Yeah.
We're going to argue with resources,but if we want this to be a
successful community, you wantyour parent your patrons to engage.
We need you in.
We need you in there.
You need we need and what's maddening withus, though, is that they do contact us.
(39:43):
They continue one on one.
It's just like constantlyposted in the group posted in
the group or ask the group.
We'll see.
I'm glad it's not just us because Iwent to a seminar on member engagement
yesterday and I asked a question.
Question.
And I said, we're a new communityand we've implemented a lot of the
recommendations that you just suggested.
And we're still not gettinga lot of engagement.
(40:04):
Is it that
it's teachers?
It's that whole community of teachers.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
It's funny, because he answered I don't know your specific
community, but he said, you mighthave something wrong under the hood.
And I said to Beth, who we run, I said.
Did we do something wrong under the hood?
I said, I don't know.
But I asked him, I said, oris it just time and marketing?
And
Speaker (40:26):
yeah, I find it getting anybody to engage is hard.
And that's the same thing that Donnellysays, would you be interested in setting
up a date for a free webinar on writing?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I would be, but wait till we have more members.
And that's what I've been tellingpeople is I would love to.
I would love to, we could putsomething on the calendar, but
I don't want to have right now.
Like you see, I have myfundamentals of science of reading.
I threw that out there becauseour course isn't ready yet.
And just to see, I don'twant you to spend the time.
(41:01):
And we have 3 people because we have 3
Speaker (41:04):
people.
We have 3 people, but, if you want toschedule a date for that, we can do that.
I was thinking like, January,
Speaker 2 (41:14):
you do it for
Speaker 3 (41:15):
the end of
Speaker 2 (41:16):
the end of January.
Pick a date.
Speaker (41:18):
Yeah, want to do that while we're here while we're thinking about it?
Sure,
Speaker 2 (41:25):
and you know what I haven't figured out too is we have a lot of events
within the community I would just haveto give you access to the community We
could do it on zoom for the communitythat might be easier have them register
Speaker (41:38):
That's fine.
I like to do my stuff onthursday nights for my free stuff
the 20 Third is probably the best night
(41:59):
we can
Speaker 3 (42:00):
work.
Speaker (42:02):
Okay.
7 o'clock
Speaker 3 (42:09):
7 o'clock.
Did you say?
Speaker (42:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
And can you could send me a blurb on it?
I will.
Speaker (42:22):
All right.
I will do that when we get off of here.
Yeah, and I'll do a, you want me todo more of the writing than the math.
So we can do that.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And I'll let
Speaker 3 (42:36):
them,
Speaker 2 (42:37):
I'll tell them to invite their parents and caregivers, their
community too, like if any parents.
Speaker (42:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah.
Speaker (42:45):
Yeah.
Great to have a, be great to have afull screen, but it's also if it's
three that I'm used to doing that.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah that's true.
We could do it as a Zoom meeting,but keep the cameras off or we
could do it as a webinar either way.
Speaker (43:02):
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
The more interactive, the way I amis the more interactive I can be
with the people on Zoom, the better.
I like To have them do thingsthat are non writing activities
that help promote writing.
We, we do exercises while we're on zoom.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
I like that, too.
I prefer meetings to webinars as well.
Even when we do our tours, even thoughmost people still turn their cameras off.
I want to give people the option.
Sometimes also we and we alsoget interactive, even in our.
Webinar, especially the early resourceswhere we're looking at different books.
Read by four at the Philly FreeLibrary System and our grant
(43:42):
work in Chester for Senator Muth.
It's not quite Chester County, it'sChester, Montgomery, and Berks.
That got extended to school librarians.
A lot in Pennsylvania.
Our pro bono law firm is basedin Philadelphia, DLA Piper, okay.
And I used to work for Elsevierin Philadelphia, ah, okay.
Coincidentally, it's always, itseems like I'm always there and,
(44:06):
but it's been a, we get more work.
We have, it's probably the mostactive state for us just because
things always snowball when youstart working closely with an area.
Speaker (44:18):
Yeah, Pennsylvania is a unique state.
I've got to give it that.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
All right.
You have a nice day, andI'm glad we connected.
It's good to see you again.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye
Speaker 3 (44:33):
bye now.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to The Writing Glitch.
I'm Cheri Dotterer, your classroom coach.
Several months ago, I wasapproached by some gentlemen
in France about participatingin a thing called Podcastathon.
Their website is podcastathon.
org, and I'm going to share alittle bit about their vision.
(00:21):
Podcastathon.
They say that the strength of a podcastepisode lies in listening, quality
and duration, giving a microphone sothat many associations with such high
level engagement allows them to sharetheir stories, their challenges and
their projects, conveying emotionsto bring associations closer to
the future donors and volunteers.
(00:44):
Their mission is to have . 1, 500podcasts from around the world
sharing charitable organizations.
I met a lady by the name of MarianWaldman around the same time as I was
(01:05):
meeting these folks about Podcastathon.
I was very humbled by what she is doing.
She is a charitable organization thatis going into libraries and schools
around the country and helping themunderstand dyslexia, dysgraphia,
(01:27):
dyscalculia, and why some of theseconditions are, the librarians are
struggling with these conditions.
They're actually going in, they havetraining for librarians to explain how
to set up dyslexia places in the library.
(01:47):
What are some of the advantagesand disadvantages of The
locations what can we do?
Because a lot of comorbidities happenwith dyslexia and that is ADHD.
How can we set up a stationfor kids to participate who
may have conditions like ADHD?
(02:09):
I want to introduce her today.
Now, I did not plan on the podcast.
Oh man, am I strugglingwith this one today.
I started the podcast likeI start every podcast.
(02:31):
You're going to get to hear my greetingagain, but I hope that this charity
brings you a bit closer to what isout there to help kids understand.
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia.
They have programs for teachers,they have programs for libraries,
(02:53):
they have programs for parents,they have programs for therapists.
Stay tuned and listen towhat they have to offer.
Thanks a bunch.
Oh yeah, I almost, I always forget this.
Make sure that you subscribe tothe podcast and don't forget to
leave a comment and tell us ifyou like Teach Your Child to Read.
Speaker (03:15):
Hey, welcome everybody to the Writing Glitch Podcast.
I'm Cheri Dotterer, your classroom coach.
Today, we are visiting with MarionWaldman from Teach My Kid to Read.
Teach My Kid to Read is a 503cnonprofit, and their mission is to
provide parent, librarian, educators,and anyone else interested in literacy
(03:40):
education with the tools and theresources to help all kids to read.
Before we go to talk with her alittle bit, We're going to have a word
from our sponsor, Disability Labs.
Disability Labs is a, we, atDisability Labs, we are committed
(04:01):
to impact the journey of 200,000 teachers by 2030, so they can
reignite their passion for learning.
Our professional development seriesfocuses on math and writing strategies
to help all students in your classroom.
These interventions improve studentswith and without disabilities.
All students have access to mathematicsand writing skills, and we are launching
(04:26):
in this new year a subscription box.
Inside that subscription box, you willfind tools for reading, writing, and math
skills for students that are struggling.
Plus, you'll have some surprises foryou, the teacher or the parent or the
therapist who is working with the student.
(04:48):
We did a Pre launch here in Octoberfor the holidays and the people that
purchased it were overwhelmed with gleebecause they said it was just layer
upon layer of fun things to do with mystudents and some nice surprises for me.
(05:10):
When we launch, you'llget more information.
As we get closer to launching thesubscription box, but look for it sometime
next year in 2025, I'll have to editthe next year out, look for it in 2025.
Let's get on with the show, Marion,thank you for being here today.
(05:35):
Tell us a little bit about yourselfand how you started this nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
First of all, I'm thrilled to be here and very
excited about your work as well.
My background is in educational publishingand I came to the literacy world when
my own daughter struggled to read.
Having a background in Educationalpublishing being an English major
(06:03):
even teaching occasionally in highereducation, I felt that literacy and
reading was something I had my armsaround and that surrounding my daughter
with books and reading to her and tellingeverybody when they asked if, They
want gifts to get her give her books.
She can never have too many books.
I thought that I was just superequipped to help any child read.
(06:28):
I, when I went on ajourney that many parents.
Go on.
And that at first I thought, okay,she needed a little bit of help.
English wasn't her first language.
I thought maybe that was it.
If we kept up the first language,it would make it easier.
And then, as time went on, and Istarted having more Discussions with
(06:49):
the teachers and administrators.
I knew something wasn't quite right.
She wasn't progressing working with.
I work very closely with content andcurricula in educational publishing
and the work that she was doingto keep up with her classmates
and supposedly learn to read.
(07:10):
May as well have been inanother language for her.
She wasn't learning the soundsand the basic skills yet.
She was supposed to answerquestions and read sentences.
Homework became a nightmare.
And then I started on my journeystarting to learn a little bit
about how kids learn to read.
And, again, coming from publishing, I Hadworked on a ton of higher education and
(07:31):
vocational and in K to 12 books, and I wasfamiliar with that familiar with balance
literacy, and I thought that was theright way to learn to read in that level.
Texts were all that there was.
It was quite an eye opener to realizethat I had worked on projects that I
(07:52):
then learned were not quite the best wayfor nearly any kids, let alone kids that
have a disability reading disability orreading issue like dyslexia learn to read.
Again, like many parents, I got to thepoint where I knew as much as many of
her teachers about what she needed.
And I found a tutoring center in ourregion that was that used alphabetic
(08:17):
phonics, one of the, one of thesystematic explicit reading programs
based on the science of reading.
It's not used that commonly,but it's an effective program.
And that's where she started to progress,but, she had still fallen way behind
and by the time she was going into6th grade, I had been, it had been a
long journey and I threw my hands up.
(08:41):
She was just falling so far.
Behind and I ended up driving to theKildonan school to Camp Donaback and
sitting down with the director of thecamp and just saying, can you teach
my, can you teach my kid to read?
And I was, I and.
That was, it was before she was going into6th grade and that was like the a turning
(09:04):
point in my entire career because I hadbeen in publishing for so many decades.
Then I was a vendor.
I was a partner in a small business andI never envisioned leaving publishing.
It's all my contacts were it's whatI had Focus my career on all the way
from marketing to editorial to salesand, working for the big publishers
and myself and suddenly suddenly itwas the summer before my daughter was
(09:28):
going into sixth grade and we wererenting literally a cabin in the middle
of nowhere and she was spending sixweeks going to a camp for specialized
for kids with reading disabilities.
And I met parents from all over.
The country, mostly from the region,but certainly from the country.
Everybody was pretty much in a daze.
My kid can't learn to readand they would do anything.
(09:50):
We received a scholarship.
It still was 10, 000 for 6weeks and I couldn't believe it.
And I felt and there were manypeople there that had so much.
That had the means to even buy a secondhome while their kid went to camp there.
These were not kids.
I, we live in Albany and, thiswas not our community going to
(10:11):
help the kids learning to read.
Just the inequities of thisentire situation, absolutely.
Blew me, blew me away.
The fact that, I was at the time inmy fifties rooming with other parents
the same age, living in the middle ofnowhere, my dog with me or just leaving my
family just so my kid can learn to read.
(10:32):
And in six weeks, she went up three gradelevels into coding and granted, that
was just the beginning of the journey.
But I thought this is yeah.
This, and that was basedon Orton Gillingham.
There was a period of time where Ithought that Orton Gillingham was the
only way my daughter could have learnedto read and I've since realized I'm a
big fan of vote of OG, but I've sincerealized that, there are there were other
(10:55):
ways that she other systematic explicitreading programs that could have had the
same effect with that intensive tutoringthe right teacher being able to understand
what her and Weaknesses are, but thatsummer was a turning point for me.
And because I couldn't keep up with thework in my own business I started blogging
and writing about our experiences.
And that's how teachmy kid to read started.
(11:17):
I had a good friend from collegecome up to spend some time with me.
She was a brand, she's a brand manager.
And she's the one who together we came upwith teach my kid to read for the blog.
Because at the point at thattime, that was what it was.
What it was all about and again,being in publishing, I was brought,
I was brought up that if there'ssomething wrong in the educational
(11:39):
system, you don't talk about it.
You don't blog about it.
You recommend some solutions.
I was far enough.
Along in my career that I hadthat ingrained in my blood that
I better figure out a way thatwe contribute to the solution.
Fast forward fast forward teach my kidto read decides to do a pilot with me.
(11:59):
Libraries, and that partially camecame about because one of my colleagues
at the time had written to, I thinkit was a library in New Zealand,
and said, why are the decodablesin just the dyslexia section?
All kids learn to read with decodables.
And I said, over the years, one thingthat has always, it's always been a
Erked me is I'm a constant reader.
(12:20):
I can't imagine life without my Libbyapp and constant, just the constant
books I have on backorder and the factthat anybody could access a library.
Yet when I've gone there,none of the librarians seem to
know anything about dyslexia.
Once I learned about decodablebooks or ways to help Families
like mine at the time.
(12:40):
In 2019, we decided let's do a pilot.
Let's do it.
Focus on 50 libraries in New York, andlet's we partnered with Glean Education
let's give them access to Glean's onlinecourse on dyslexia, give them some
handouts, a poster a suggested list,we got samples, t shirts, and see if
they're willing to do a discussion.
It was a great success.
(13:07):
Other states heard about it.
We ended up working with 50 librariesin New York and a bunch of other states.
We had planned to expand our work intoto serve New York, but then COVID hit.
We slapped everything we didonline in a very, rudimentary
kind of wordpress plug in.
And suddenly we were hearingfrom libraries all over the
(13:28):
country, even other countries.
And that's how that's how wegot into the library space.
And in the course of this time, I happenedto meet somebody who, a parent who had
nearly a This a parallel experience tome but she was a librarian and so she
had created a literacy hub at her libraryin in the Finger Lakes in New York.
(13:52):
She had a vast decodable bookcollection and parent resources,
teacher resources, and we came together.
She's our current program director andshe now works with us full time and also
at the Lodi Whittier Library manages.
The literacy hub there as well.
We began, so we joined forcesand what our work became.
(14:15):
And I should stop here.
Do you want me to keep going or doyou want to answer some keep going?
Okay.
We joined forces and what we startedoffering as we offered webinars to
librarians on librarians, library systems.
Sometimes at the state level, systemlevel, but in three main areas
understanding the science of readingand how it relates to librarians to
(14:40):
understanding all the early resourcesand decodable books so that they could
choose wisely and understand the differentWhere the different resources fit and
the third area is initiating literacysolutions at the library, whether it's
a literacy event with a successfulevent that they already have, that
maybe they want to add a story walk or.
(15:02):
Have some resources for parents ofearly and struggling readers, even
offer a tutoring program offer kitstake home kits, all the that, a broad
array of literacy solutions thatare taking place at the library.
So those are the three areas thatwe focused on, and I'll backtrack
(15:23):
to that to support this work.
We also have a literacy we havea library committee and we have a
decodable book partnership so that wecan offer librarians and subsequently
the parents and caregivers that theyreach goods deep information on the un
decodable books and even through ourmembership program that we'll get to.
(15:45):
Discounts and ways to make it easierto sometimes purchase these books.
Those were the three the three mainareas that we provide education in.
And then we also provide operationalsupport where we get brought into
grants often where a pub, usually apublic or a school library that, they
want to start offering decodable books,a literacy hub for their community.
(16:07):
Can you come in and help provide theeducation component, whether it's bridging
a school library with what is happeningin the school, whether it's a public.
library that we're also offeringtools to help the librarians
then serve the community.
We provide that education pieceas well as what to order how to
(16:29):
order, even how to set up the books.
You see there's some bins behindme and as well as resources for
parents, for teachers, because whenwe do community literacy initiatives,
we want to serve the community.
We're going to spend a percentageof our budget on, what other books
are, do you feel would serve yourcommunity that maybe you don't have?
It could be books in other languages,different family structures, cultures,
(16:53):
whatever they think would be wouldhelp their community have access
to books where they can mirror,where they could see themselves.
That's how we, that, that becamethat's our work in a nutshell, but.
We had we had one big conundrum with ourwork and one quote unquote head scratcher.
And that's that we couldn'tserve the individual libraries.
(17:13):
And we might get broughtinto a a a grant in an.
Urban area, even a certain district,a region, some of the smaller
states, they could even be statewide.
We were still getting calls fromindividual libraries and it frustrated
us because we couldn't help them.
We didn't have a model to help them.
And and it was always the samequestions we got, like, how does
(17:35):
the science of reading affect us?
Are we the only library that canthat their patrons are asking all
about these decodable books andwe're trying to learn about them
and hey, sometimes the bindings.
What do we do about thebindings that aren't durable?
Do we get these books?
How do we know which book to choose?
How do we, where do we put them?
Where do we put the decodablebooks for older struggling readers
(17:57):
or that was in the why a sectionor the, the Children's section.
We would have all these conversationsand we would just pro bono.
We were constantly doing these30 minute consults and again,
just connecting everyone.
And we got to a point where we're like,we have to have a robust community.
The only way we're going to create impactor truly have any effect on bridging
(18:17):
the literacy crisis with libraries andcommunities, which is what our mission
is if we have a community and we connect.
We're now we do have a, we do have anonline community that we just launched.
We have a pilot program We have apilot group in there and a couple of
members, but we're, in the processstill of finishing it up and fine tuning
(18:39):
it and working with the community wehave so that we're certain, that it's
serving librarians and library staffas well as parents and caregivers.
Where we are right now is we've gotthis online community and we're very
excited about working with differentlibrary systems working at a state
level and just getting librarians inthere so that they can meet each other.
(19:04):
I think at this point, the best thing isfor me probably to show you the community.
Speaker (19:12):
Beautiful.
How the membership community,how long, how much does it cost?
What is the background?
What do you need to do to becomea member of your community?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
If you go to our website, teach my kid to read dot org right
from the home page, you'll be ableto get to the community page, which
is the landing page for the community.
And the way it works is for asingle librarian to subscribe.
It's 124 95 for the whole year,which is, I think quite a good deal.
And once a library, once a librariansubscribes starting in 2025, we'll
(19:46):
also give them a separate invite thatthey can share with their patrons and
their patrons will be able to accessthe parent caregiver section for free.
A librarian can, we're early on,but a librarian can sign up today
and we still have some trickling in.
We also have Special pricing for for fivestaff members and above that, we just
(20:10):
recommend that a librarian email us atinfo at teach my kids to read dot org and
we'll give them information for systemwide licenses or state licenses, but an
individual librarian can sign up today.
They want to
Speaker (20:27):
beautiful.
What about a parent?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Right now our model is that is that the parents will access
it for free through the library.
. We might have a model after we've beenafter we've launched and gotten some
traction with our library community wemay have a model so that parents can
subscribe at a much lesser, Fee withouta library, but right now, we would
(20:51):
like to offer it for free to parentsand caregivers through the library.
Speaker (20:58):
I'm a parent.
I'm not associated with the library.
I would like to be part of this community.
And one of the things that youand I were talking about is that
Disability Labs and CheriDotterer.
com and everything, all the work thatI'm doing, I've been wanting to partner
(21:20):
with a non profit and I would love topartner with your non profit to help.
Help parents be part ofthat membership system.
Parents that are out there, OTs that areout there, teachers that are out there
that are not affiliated with a library.
We are developing a system whereyou can donate to build up the.
(21:49):
Individual membership program,and hopefully we can then launch
that individual program as acollaborative resource for you.
That's where on my mind is thinking isif we, as individuals can support you
(22:14):
and create that secondary system, Iwould love to be, helping you do that.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That would be great.
And we are looking for content partnersand partners, for that parent section,
because we initially our plan was to1st launch the librarian library staff
community, which I'm going to show you,because I think it's always easier to see.
Then to then to tell and, justgetting that librarian library
community launched and some of thethings we're working on for that has
(22:45):
been, pretty overwhelming for us.
We thought, then the next phasewill be the parent phase, but the
feedback we got from the librariansis we want right from the get go.
We want the parent.
We want the parent piece.
We want to be able to provide.
For our, we want to be able toprovide resources for our patrons.
We fast tracked it.
It's there now.
It's not . But when I have thedemo, you'll be able to see it.
(23:06):
You'll be able to see what parentsand caregivers have access to.
And the.
Nice thing about communityis it's a community.
And we've had to we've had to dig ourheels in for some of our own initiatives
in the community and say wait a minutewhen we get a little bit more of a
mass in here, we might decide to wemight decide that Hey we want to have
(23:28):
we want to have a a book study grouponce a week, or we want to have a right
now we're having we have office hours,we have, science and reading, but.
A lot of a lot of what we do, we wantit to be a community we don't want to
we've provided structure, but we want,we don't want to get so far in what
we've dictated this community needsthat the community joins and we're going
in this direction and the communityis bubbling along, looking for certain
(23:53):
looking for certain information, certainsupport, and we're not listening.
Whether, we've had some feedbackabout opening it up for parents
sooner rather than later.
And that's definitelynot out of the question.
There's a ton of flexibilitywith how this works.
And I think we're very much in the.
Learning phase with the community.
(24:13):
We have calls almost every daywith our members that are in
there about there's so many topicsthat come up like we talk about.
You'll see what you'll see.
There's a lot of what's hard isthere's a lot of breath in there.
And where do we go with thedepth with all of these topics?
We're getting a lot of our urbanlibraries are like, we need so much
more support in for the Englishlanguage learners that we serve.
(24:35):
We've been busy meeting with,especially with Spanish, which is
often the top language, but sometimesthere's as many as 48 languages.
But how can we help librarianswith this very complex area?
In the rural areas, there's, it'sthe homeschool community and how
can we provide a level of support?
There's so many differentquestions we're trying to answer.
And, you can't be, it's you can'tyou can't be you can't be broad that
(25:01):
there's nothing you're quite providingenough depth in, so it's, we're
tiptoeing in, but with the parentarea, can I show you the community?
It might be,
Speaker 3 (25:10):
you should be
Speaker (25:11):
able to.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Okay,
Speaker (25:13):
and
Speaker 3 (25:13):
have
Speaker (25:13):
you seen
Speaker 3 (25:13):
it
Speaker (25:14):
before?
I don't believe so.
While you're pulling that up.
The community that's been followingme has heard about this book,
Handwriting Brain Body Disconnect.
It's very ironic thatyou're talking about 2019.
That's when I published.
I published because I was trying tohelp my gifted student with spelling.
(25:35):
Plus, I was trying to help the studentsat school as a direct service provider
help them with spelling as well.
I've come to realize that The thing thatboth of those students need, the one
that's struggling to read and write,the one that knows how to read, but has
trouble getting information on paper,the biggest thing that there's 2 areas,
(26:02):
1 of them is visual pattern recognition,understanding the patterns of the
way words and are created and Memory,working memory is the other area and even
the right gifted students have memorydeficits that relate to the writing.
(26:23):
It's a slower neurological path.
And this was designed for parents, butmost of the people that have purchased
that I know of I think it's expanding, butinitially the people that purchased were
OTs, but I've had so many teachers andparents call me and ask me more questions.
(26:44):
I'd like, as we're talking here Ifeel strong enough in my foundation
to be able to offer a webinar toyour libraries about writing skills.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah, that would be very appealing.
That would be great.
And that's the kind of, these are thekind of partnerships we're looking for.
And, with writing, you can't , wecan't talk about literacy
without writing and spelling.
And
Speaker (27:13):
math is in there too.
I'm actually doing a webinar.
I do it once a month on a Thursday night,happens to be this coming Thursday,
where I teach three different strategies.
That helps support math, but becauseof the writing involved I talk a little
bit about how the mathematics and thewriting blend together and create either a
(27:34):
positive or a negative impact on learning.
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah.
Wow.
That would be, that sounds,my curiosity is piqued.
Oh, good.
Tell us a little bit about your community.
, here is.
The homepage and this is the this iswhere we provide some information for
the librarians and staff, just somegeneral information about what to do
when you're in the community and samewith the parents and caregivers, we
(28:01):
have a little bit of a message for them.
Now, currently, the librarians have accessto everything where the parents you'll
see, we'll get to their section as wellas and then they have some select areas,
but this is the start here for librarians.
And it's a little bit of a videotalking about the community why
it was formed, who it's for.
The librarians and stafffeel clear about where to go.
(28:23):
We have three recommendedlearning paths based on the most
common questions we get asked.
One is what are the other libraries doing?
And then, within it, we have somesuggestions about what to do, where
to go, how to learn about that.
Two, I want to learn more aboutthe science of reading, which
comes up all the time with us.
And three, I want tocreate a literacy hub.
(28:45):
We have a learning path forwhere to go for that information.
Then we have announcements and thesego out once a week, every Thursday,
it's more high level High levelinformation that we're sharing.
This is one of our literacy partnerswho the Reading League and the Reading
Institute and they're doing a seminar onFriday that we shared with our community
(29:08):
and then we have events and these areopen to they will be open to parents
as well right now, since We have alllibrarians in here, and it's mostly again,
what we call more ritualistic events.
Let's talk decodable books,discussions about decodable books,
office hours is like an orientation.
Another book discussion, this onehappens to be books about dyslexia.
(29:32):
And then we've got an upcoming webinarin the science of reading grant
opportunities are for librarians tobe able to purchase decodable books.
Then we have, this isthe library community.
We call it the road todecode library community.
We have some prompts, they introducethemselves and Get to know each other.
This is where the librarians and staffpost ask an expert and you can even
(29:55):
be one of our ask the experts rightnow because we're a new community.
All the experts are going almostthrough the end of the year.
And it's an opportunity to askspecific questions to at least as a
literacy specialist, former teacher.
Also with express readers.
This is our library chair, Laura lay.
She works for the Department ofEducation in Colorado and she's a a
(30:18):
librarian and a literacy specialist.
She's written some OG based programsas well, so just a pretty exceptional
program and a person in our own BethBevers who helps librarians about
Where to start, how to create a literacyhub, how to connect with your school.
That's ask an expert.
Then we have a space for librariansto post what they're doing.
(30:40):
This is a library in a rural area inNew York that created a collection.
These are sometimes the photosthat we end up sharing and passing
around, so we're excited about ourshowcase, community feedback, just
we can continue to improve, and thisis our our beta group of librarians.
Then we have resourcesfor librarians and staff.
(31:03):
We've got a video library, and thisessential list is for librarians and
parents, and these are robust lists thatwe have someone working almost full time.
To to continue to maintain, as you see,we have a bunch of different categories.
And then within those categories,we have the ISVN, sometimes
(31:24):
where to get the book, et cetera.
And these lists are, again, for parentsAnd for librarians, and we have a
whole explanation of what the differentlists are and then before you move
Speaker (31:36):
on, go back and see at the bottom there.
You have podcast.
I'm hoping that the writing glitchand tier 1 interventions could
be part of your podcast list.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
We will add them.
I need the we will absolutely add them.
And that's Beth Bevers whomaintains all these lists.
And we're always looking for good podcastsand books to add to all these lists.
So whatever you want tosend me, we're happy to add.
Speaker (32:03):
Oh, thank you.
You're
Speaker 2 (32:05):
welcome.
And then library resources.
These are what we provide to librarianswhen we work with them and it range ranges
from brochures we provide so they canoffer their community some information
on their decodable book collection,what it is, handouts for parents,
story walks engagement tools signs.
A wide range of toolsfor librarians and staff.
(32:28):
Articles, articles about librariesand literacy and then data is
literacy data as well as some of ourprogramming data working with libraries.
Now we're at the parentcaregiver section and.
Speaker (32:42):
Yes, it's a very robust, but is this on a circle?
Yes, it's on circle.
It's on circle.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
These are all the spaces.
In our in our parent caregiversection so far, we have our welcome
say hello ask a parent caregiver sothat parents can actually talk to
each other an early literacy space.
That's whoops.
I don't want to leave the space.
We're going to go right.
Early literacy space, which
Speaker (33:10):
I have an early literacy program that I want to share with you as well.
They're out of Canada, however,they are giving their early
literacy information away for free.
It's.
It's absolutely adorable littleprogram that a mom of a child with
(33:30):
dyslexia who found out that her husbandalso had dyslexia and dysgraphia
and what they're doing with it.
I will share Play Roly with you as well.
And look for that andlook for the listeners.
Look for that episode.
I'm not sure when that willcome out, but that'll come out
sometime this year as well.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
No, I will look for it.
And matter of fact, we have a lot of backand forth with with I want to say, is it
IDA Canada or Decoding Dyslexia Canada,but we have a call even Friday with them.
We have some good representation andwe may even have a separate space
just for the Canadian librarians.
They're doing some amazing work.
Even they even guided usthrough a grant process for it.
(34:13):
This is early literacy.
Again, we're just startingto, populate this space.
And you'll see that this is this is newto Dyslexia and Reading Differences.
And all these spaces, I should say,too, we are in the process of talking
with content partners so we couldkeep offering fresh information.
You would be a perfect partnerfor, many of these spaces.
(34:33):
But we also have moderators.
In these spaces, which we don't have itwith the librarian spaces so that parents
who maybe want to ask a 22 year old whocouldn't learn to read until they were
in 7th grade questions about her journey.
She's in here as a moderator.
Our 2nd moderator is an adult.
She's also a publisher.
(34:54):
Who is dyslexic.
We wanted to make sure with some ofour parents sections that we also
in addition to resources that theyhave somebody who's experiencing
what you know what maybe their childis in there to ask questions, too.
As you see, I'm just going to again,we've got the early literacy, ask a
parent caregiver, homeschool resources,tutoring and apps and technology.
(35:18):
That's the parent section.
That we're that once the library'ssubscribed, that we'll have we'll be
able to provide parents with their owncode in addition to some of, access to
some of the other parts of this space.
Our literacy partners are our non profitpartners who we work with and some
of them are content partners as well.
(35:39):
And then we have our publishing partnersand we have a program for publishers.
It's it's more of a partnershipthan a direct sponsorship program.
And they get access to the space.
They get an event.
And many of them, this is where theyalso offer incentives or discounts
to members of the community.
(35:59):
And not only are we lining up morepublishers in this in this space,
we're also in discussion withsome of the distributors because
some of the larger library systemscan't order from the publishers.
They have to go through the distributor.
That's a benefit.
And then we have courses.
I'm not going to demo the courseright now because we have some sample
content in there, but we are goingto offer courses in the main areas
(36:22):
that we have Webinars in as well as aparent course on fundamental reading
skills are featured sponsor volunteerinformation, and then we have links.
We have links to our guidelines.
Our website are we have an affiliatebookshop on books bookshop dot org.
We have a link to wehave our own e commerce.
(36:43):
Our store.
We have free e books of I see Sam,a map of who we work with and sold a
story kind of, of course, a classic.
Podcast and the reading brain.
Those are our links and I'm going to stopthis share unless you have any questions.
And this is our community.
Speaker (36:59):
I love it.
I see so many ways that we could be comepartners and in this pandemic of literacy,
it's it's its own pandemic is what I feellike, but I see that and the connections
that I've made here doing the podcast.
(37:20):
That's, I can see different ways thatwe could connect, so we'll have to
continue talking and continue to tohave you come and share more things
over time, but we are out of time.
We need to to end the podcast today.
Is there anything elsethat you'd like to add?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
No, except to share our work.
We are we're a newer nonprofit andwe were always looking for donations
and sponsors to help us build morecontent create create courses bring in.
Experts and resources as wellas for own capacity to grow.
We are presenting at the WorldLiteracy Summit on between April
(38:08):
7th and 9th, and that's available.
It takes place in Oxford, but Oxford UK.
It's also going to be be virtual.
We're excited about thatopportunity and, maybe growing our
community to, to other countries.
Speaker (38:23):
That's wonderful.
That's amazing.
Listeners out there, remember, youwere put here for such a time as this.
Go be awesome.
Go be brilliant.
And Marion, this was an absolutejoy to have you with your wisdom
and everything that you're doing.
It, I can see that your programis just going to explode over
(38:46):
the next couple of years.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
I hope so.
Thank you for this opportunityand I'm looking forward to all
of the all of the collaborativeopportunities that we'll have together.
Speaker (38:58):
Fantastic.
Thanks everybody.
See you next week.
I've only seen, I haven'tseen anybody use it.
. Speaker 2: We'll, we'll see.
We were going to do also doour core values and a mission
statement of the group.
But I said, we don't haveenough people to do it now.
It'll be just, the us in ourlibrary chair sitting here.
(39:19):
Let's wait until we have more.
Yeah, it's the engagement piece.
And I tell them all when Ishow it, I said, we're going to
provide you with the best content.
Yeah.
We're going to argue with resources,but if we want this to be a
successful community, you wantyour parent your patrons to engage.
We need you in.
We need you in there.
You need we need and what's maddening withus, though, is that they do contact us.
(39:43):
They continue one on one.
It's just like constantlyposted in the group posted in
the group or ask the group.
We'll see.
I'm glad it's not just us because Iwent to a seminar on member engagement
yesterday and I asked a question.
Question.
And I said, we're a new communityand we've implemented a lot of the
recommendations that you just suggested.
And we're still not gettinga lot of engagement.
(40:04):
Is it that
it's teachers?
It's that whole community of teachers.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
It's funny, because he answered I don't know your specific
community, but he said, you mighthave something wrong under the hood.
And I said to Beth, who we run, I said.
Did we do something wrong under the hood?
I said, I don't know.
But I asked him, I said, oris it just time and marketing?
And
Speaker (40:26):
yeah, I find it getting anybody to engage is hard.
And that's the same thing that Donnellysays, would you be interested in setting
up a date for a free webinar on writing?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I would be, but wait till we have more members.
And that's what I've been tellingpeople is I would love to.
I would love to, we could putsomething on the calendar, but
I don't want to have right now.
Like you see, I have myfundamentals of science of reading.
I threw that out there becauseour course isn't ready yet.
And just to see, I don'twant you to spend the time.
(41:01):
And we have 3 people because we have 3
Speaker (41:04):
people.
We have 3 people, but, if you want toschedule a date for that, we can do that.
I was thinking like, January,
Speaker 2 (41:14):
you do it for
Speaker 3 (41:15):
the end of
Speaker 2 (41:16):
the end of January.
Pick a date.
Speaker (41:18):
Yeah, want to do that while we're here while we're thinking about it?
Sure,
Speaker 2 (41:25):
and you know what I haven't figured out too is we have a lot of events
within the community I would just haveto give you access to the community We
could do it on zoom for the communitythat might be easier have them register
Speaker (41:38):
That's fine.
I like to do my stuff onthursday nights for my free stuff
the 20 Third is probably the best night
(41:59):
we can
Speaker 3 (42:00):
work.
Speaker (42:02):
Okay.
7 o'clock
Speaker 3 (42:09):
7 o'clock.
Did you say?
Speaker (42:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
And can you could send me a blurb on it?
I will.
Speaker (42:22):
All right.
I will do that when we get off of here.
Yeah, and I'll do a, you want me todo more of the writing than the math.
So we can do that.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And I'll let
Speaker 3 (42:36):
them,
Speaker 2 (42:37):
I'll tell them to invite their parents and caregivers, their
community too, like if any parents.
Speaker (42:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah.
Speaker (42:45):
Yeah.
Great to have a, be great to have afull screen, but it's also if it's
three that I'm used to doing that.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah that's true.
We could do it as a Zoom meeting,but keep the cameras off or we
could do it as a webinar either way.
Speaker (43:02):
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
The more interactive, the way I amis the more interactive I can be
with the people on Zoom, the better.
I like To have them do thingsthat are non writing activities
that help promote writing.
We, we do exercises while we're on zoom.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
I like that, too.
I prefer meetings to webinars as well.
Even when we do our tours, even thoughmost people still turn their cameras off.
I want to give people the option.
Sometimes also we and we alsoget interactive, even in our.
Webinar, especially the early resourceswhere we're looking at different books.
Read by four at the Philly FreeLibrary System and our grant
(43:42):
work in Chester for Senator Muth.
It's not quite Chester County, it'sChester, Montgomery, and Berks.
That got extended to school librarians.
A lot in Pennsylvania.
Our pro bono law firm is basedin Philadelphia, DLA Piper, okay.
And I used to work for Elsevierin Philadelphia, ah, okay.
Coincidentally, it's always, itseems like I'm always there and,
(44:06):
but it's been a, we get more work.
We have, it's probably the mostactive state for us just because
things always snowball when youstart working closely with an area.
Speaker (44:18):
Yeah, Pennsylvania is a unique state.
I've got to give it that.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
All right.
You have a nice day, andI'm glad we connected.
It's good to see you again.
Thank you.
Bye.
Bye
Speaker 3 (44:33):
bye now.
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