Summary

In this episode of Literacy Now, we meet an amazing parent advocate, Jenine Hanson. Jenine is from Naperville, Illinois, a city which is consistently listed in the top 10 U.S. cities in which to raise a family, particularly because of its excellent schools. So when her oldest child was having difficulty with learning to read as early as 1st grade, Jenine started asking a lot of questions. She takes us through her family's long and arduous journey to identify the source of her child's challenges. Only after receiving a dyslexia diagnosis in 5th grade by a private neuropsychologist did the school district agree to do an educational evaluation. By then, Jenine was connecting with a lot of other parents with similar stories, all asking, how does a world class school district miss the most common learning disability? What started as a parent support group shifted to advocacy and the formation of the Dyslexia Action Group of Naperville. Jenine led the effort to engage with the District and the school board of education to change how reading was being taught. Listen and learn how these efforts ultimately led to the district adopting a reading program with a structured literacy approach (with parent input in the process), a dyslexia screener, and professional learning for teachers in evidence-based reading instruction. Prepare to be inspired!

Resources

Dyslexia Action Group of Naperville (DAGN)

Barton Reading & Spelling System

IEP/s504 Accommodations Matrix and related conversation about it on Twitter

Naperville professional learning day

DAGN dyslexia simulation day

Everyone Reading Illinois (ERI)

International Dyslexia Association

Illinois State Board of Education - The Dyslexia Guide

Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE)

Book- Shifting the Balance, by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates

Sold a Story podcast, by Emily Hanford

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Please join us on our socials, watch our documentary, take our Masterclass, register your parent group, pay it forward and DONATE on our website!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our Dyslexic Children - Documentary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Masterclass⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parent Group Directory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ParentsForReadingJustice.org⁠

"You just gave me the code to the English language. I can read!"

We are thrilled to bring you this inspiring conversation with David Chalk. David is a Canadian technology entrepreneur, cybersecurity specialist, and a media personality. Until very recently, he couldn't read. David has learning disabilities including acute dyslexia. He shares the physical, mental and emotional toll it has taken on him throughout his life. He knew early on that working for someone else was not going to be a successful path, and as a result he was driven into starting his own businesses. He had many career successes, but when COVID hit, he lost his business at that time. By sheer chance, he was introduced to Nora Chahbazi, founder of EBLI - Evidence Based Literacy Instruction, and leaped at the chance to learn to read. After just six days of instruction, David went from an elementary level of reading comprehension to a post-university comprehension level because he was no longer struggling to read every word. He said to Nora, "This is like a secret code. I can do math, I understand physics... You just gave me the code to the English language. I can read!"

He goes on to explain this transformation with these words: "No one had ever told me. It wasn't about reading, it was about understanding that words are the positioning of language onto paper for extraction later. So if you know how to encode it onto paper, you can pull it off and read it. But when you are only taught that this is what's on the paper and try and understand it- no, I need to know how it got on the page, what was the coding that got it down there. Know that, you can read!

All Website Links:

EBLI - Evidence Based Literacy Instruction

Documentary: ⁠The Truth About Reading

Resources:

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Twitter Pages: @AskDavidChalk, @truthabout2023

Facebook Page: @DavidChalk

LinkedIn Page: @DrDavidChalk

Instagram Page: @thetruthaboutreading

______________________________

Please join us on our socials, watch our documentary, take our Masterclass, register your parent group, pay it forward and DONATE on our website!

⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Our Dyslexic Children - Documentary⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Masterclass⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Parent Group Directory⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Donate⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠ParentsForReadingJustice.org⁠

We are so excited to welcome Donna Hejtmanek to our podcast! Donna is the founder of the Facebook page, Science of Reading- What I Should Have Learned in College.

She is also a retired special education teacher and reading specialist. In our conversation, Donna talks about what led her to form the Facebook group, how it supports teachers and parents, and how it developed into the incredible resource it is today with over 230,000 members! She also shares with us her efforts to disseminate what has been learned from scientific research on how children learn to read and write so that it is accessible to our childrens' teachers, her advocacy locally and at the state level for students with dyslexia, and her thoughts on shifting practices in colleges of education. Our conversation ends with Donna's advice to parents on being your child's advocate. Listen in now to this inspiring conversation!

Resources:
Facebook- Science of Reading What I Should Have Learned in College

SoR What I Should Have Learned In College New Member Welcome Letter and List of Resources

Socials:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/704498996666615/

______________________________

Please join us on our socials, watch our documentary, take our Masterclass, register your parent group, pay it forward and DONATE on our website!

⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Our Dyslexic Children - Documentary⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Masterclass⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Parent Group Directory⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Donate⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠ParentsForReadingJustice.org⁠