Teachers’ Social-Emotional Support Can Help Struggling Readers

Students who struggle with foundational reading skills need more than remedial instruction to make them successful students; they need their teachers’ social and emotional support as well. Many students who read below grade level and have difficulty mastering basic concepts like phonics, vocabulary acquisition, fluency, and prosody feel anxious, frustrated, and even ashamed of their … Continue reading “Teachers’ Social-Emotional Support Can Help Struggling Readers”


Remote Support for Students with Dyslexia

We’ve previously discussed the challenges of reading for students who have dyslexia (links to all blog posts here), but our extended experience of remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic has led these students to face a new host of difficulties in education in general and reading in particular. Some students discovered their support services, including … Continue reading “Remote Support for Students with Dyslexia”


Has the Coronavirus Created a Generational Gap in Education?

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted our lives in numerous ways, from limiting social gatherings to seeing businesses close and even fold from the loss of income. One of the biggest ways it’s impacted us as a society, though, is one that has even greater implications for the future — the movement of education to strictly … Continue reading “Has the Coronavirus Created a Generational Gap in Education?”


Does Your Picture Book Have Too Many Pictures?

One of the characteristics of beginning readers’ picture books is that they have, well, pictures. And usually lots of them. A new research study, though, is challenging the idea that more is better when it comes to pictures and reading comprehension. According to the paper published in npj Science of Learning, more pictures can actually … Continue reading “Does Your Picture Book Have Too Many Pictures?”


How Closed Captioning Can Improve Literacy

If you want to learn to read well, watch TV — with closed captioning. Captions provide readers, and especially emergent, struggling, or English Language Learning readers, with additional print exposure; and they offer an inexpensive way for students to build and improve their foundational reading skills, including phonics, word recognition and vocabulary building, and fluency. … Continue reading “How Closed Captioning Can Improve Literacy”


The Science of Reading – Part 3A: Developing Fluency

[Editor’s note: This is the third part of our five-part series on the best practices of learning to read and learning to read better.] To read Part 1, “Unlocking Language,” click here. To read Part 2, “Vocabulary and Comprehension,” click here. For emerging readers, text reading fluency generally refers to oral reading fluency, as students … Continue reading “The Science of Reading – Part 3A: Developing Fluency”


The Science of Reading – Part 1: Unlocking Language

[Editor’s note: This is the first part of our five-part series on the best practices of learning to read and learning to read better.] There’s a long-standing debate about how best to teach children to read, which has led to what is colloquially known as the “reading wars.” On one side of the battle are … Continue reading “The Science of Reading – Part 1: Unlocking Language”


The Importance of Text in an Online World

We live in an age of screens, from smartphones and tablets to video instruction and other forms of eLearning. Our attention span has gotten shorter as we move from one tweet to the next, and short, in-your-face videos as opposed to pages and pages of written text. But does that mean text as a medium … Continue reading “The Importance of Text in an Online World”


Should I Be Reading Faster?

This is a question that we, at AceReader, get a lot. There seems to be a general mindset that reading faster always means reading better. But the real question is ‘Am I reading fluently?’ Here’s why. Speed, also known as rate, is the number of words you read in a minute. Most people read the majority … Continue reading “Should I Be Reading Faster?”


The History of Writing and Reading – Part 13: The Evolution of Musical Notation

[Editor’s note: This is the fourteenth of an ongoing series that examines the rise of writing – and therefore reading – around the world. We will be looking at the major developments and forces that shaped the written languages we use today. Links to all the previous posts are listed at the end of this … Continue reading “The History of Writing and Reading – Part 13: The Evolution of Musical Notation”