Learning Without Tears Launches K–3 Supplemental Phonics Program
Education developer Learning Without Tears has launched Phonics, Reading, and Me, a supplemental reading program for students in grades K–3. The news was announced today at the ISTELive 22 conference taking place this week in New Orleans.
Lessons incorporate a variety of media, including student books, lesson cards, digital learning, reading response journals, sound-spelling activities, and formative assessment cards designed to help develop students' reading skills.
Also at ISTELive, the company announced a collaboration with speech recognition company SoapBox Labs to provide digital assessments using speech recognition technology. The offering is designed to "give educators a more streamlined and accurate view of a student's reading progress, making it easier to personalize instruction," according to the company.
"We listened to teachers and educators," said Learning Without Tears CEO Terry Nealon in a prepared statement. "Teachers have more work to do with more students than ever before. But they also lack the resources and time to allow them to assess, monitor, and individualize reading instruction based on a clear understanding of each student's progress. We know that word study and morphology skills are fundamental to all other learning and overall literacy. Phonics, Reading, and Me incorporates speech recognition technology from SoapBox Labs into the LWT personalized learning environment, providing teachers a more streamlined and accurate assessment of a student's reading skills. With this single program, teachers get tailored recommendations attending to the needs of each student. And, with our embedded professional learning, we have made it incredibly easy for teachers to implement the program."
Learning Without Tears is demonstrating the new Phonics, Reading, and Me at its booth at ISTELive 22, booth 2848.