Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


School Specialty Debuts Blended Reading Intervention Program

School Specialty has launched iSPIRE, an interactive reading intervention program for students in grades preK-8.

Incorporating comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling and vocabulary, iSPIRE aims to speed development of literacy skill among the lowest performing students and is based on the Exploros online teaching platform for use in digital classrooms.

"The dynamic structure of iSPIRE's 10-Step Lesson Plan allows for digital, teacher-led instruction that lets districts increase traditional reading intervention group sizes of two to four students to five to eight," according to a news release, "resulting in a cost-effective solution for districts and making it more efficient for educators when working with struggling learners."

Other features of iSPIRE include:

  • Digital manipulatives;
  • Drawing tools;
  • Daily fiction and non-fiction reading activities;
  • Interactive activities with embedded formative assessment focused on vocabulary, comprehension and fluency;
  • Student progress reports with real-time information; and
  • On-demand professional development opportunities.

"Closing the literacy gap for U.S. students continues to be a challenge for schools across the country. In order to conquer this challenge, it is critical that teachers have access to effective and engaging learning resources that will help students' build the reading skills requisite for success in school, college and careers," said Bodie Marx, senior vice president of School Specialty Curriculum, in a prepared statement. "We developed iSPIRE based on the proven S.P.I.R.E. 10-Step Lesson and multisensory approach to reading instruction, and designed it to work on technology that is increasingly prevalent in classrooms to provide a powerful platform for engaging struggling readers and put them on the path to mastery. Schools now have a choice between an online approach and a print-based approach, with the teacher always at the center of the instruction."

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • circuit patterns

    Anthropic Intros Lower-Cost Claude Sonnet 5

    Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5, positioning the model as its most autonomous mid-tier offering to date and a lower-cost alternative to its flagship Opus 4.8 system. The company said the model can plan multi-step tasks, operate tools such as browsers and terminals, and complete agentic work at a level that previously required larger and more expensive models.

  • interconnected nodes with currency symbols

    Report: Half of Gen AI Projects Could Exceed Budget by 2028

    Organizations may be underestimating the cost of generative AI as they move from experimentation to production, according to Gartner's "10 Best Practices for Optimizing Generative and Agentic AI Costs" report.

  • Abstract background with a dynamic wave

    New Microsoft Initiative Aims to Help Move AI Projects from Experimentation to Production

    Microsoft has launched Frontier Company, making a $2.5 billion bet that the next competitive battleground in artificial intelligence will not be foundation models, but helping enterprises put those models to work.

  • lock symbol with quantum bits in dynamic motion

    Microsoft Accelerates Quantum-Safe Security Timeline

    Microsoft is speeding up its quantum-safe security timeline, noting that advances in quantum computing and new federal requirements have pushed post-quantum cryptography from a future planning issue into an immediate engineering priority.