Annual Conference Archives

How the ReaderPen Can Foster Independent Reading

July 30, 2022 by Kathryn Bauchelle

This is a guest post from Scanning Pens, one of the exhibitors at the 2022 Literacy Texas Annual Conference. Visit their booth in the Exhibitor Hall starting Sunday evening (July 31)!

Reading is a key that has the power to unlock many doors throughout a lifetime. It can be the catalyst that allows development in education to take place, open up career opportunities and further study, and it’s the cornerstone of how we communicate and navigate the world.

We know that neurodiversity (including dyslexia, ADHD and dyspraxia) presents a host of unique challenges when studying and reading. For some, it can induce reading anxiety, or make reading feel impossible – and that’s where we see these doors begin to lock from the inside, cutting readers off from the activities and experiences that they may aspire to. Confidence gets lost, reading develops negative associations, and many children and young people disengage from learning – which can have whole-life consequences.

So how can we open these doors again, and create a landscape where all readers are confident, able and empowered to take on reading?

Finding the right reading support can be a complex issue as no two readers are the same: many educational settings turn towards human support readers to help individual learners with reading tasks, however this method can end up being counterproductive when it comes to fostering reading independence. The idea of having a human support can make reading feel difficult when that support individual isn’t there, meaning that reading becomes something that happens in school time, instead of anytime and everywhere. It also implies to some that reading has to be assisted, and some will begin to doubt their ability to read alone. It also should be noted that in classroom settings, the act of having a support reader present consistently can make some learners feel singled out and policed, even when they haven’t done anything wrong.

So that’s where the ReaderPen comes in.

The ReaderPen is a piece of Assistive Technology by award-winning assistive tech suppliers Scanning Pens. It looks similar to a highlighter pen, but with a digital functionality that can transform the reading experience. Users simply scan the words on the page and can experience them in audio in a way that clarifies meaning, supports developing skills and empowers them as they read. It helps beat anxiety, as readers feel independent and able to tackle reading alone – and built-in dictionary support ensures that new or complex words aren’t simply read, they’re learned too.

They’re a cornerstone of creating a learning environment that’s neurodiversity-positive, have the power to level the playing field when it comes to exams and testing – and thanks to a long-life battery, can be easily used on the go, outside of the classroom too.

The ReaderPen is a support mechanism that not only targets reading anxiety at its source, but helps educators manage their time too. If a class teacher can pull away from individual reading support, it means that they’ve got more time to focus on whole-class activities and the administrative tasks of the lesson. It can also represent a much more school budget-friendly means of ensuring that every child who needs reading support has access to it, with no ongoing salaries or subscription services- and it can be accessed via the funding made available by the US Department of Education.

Reading support is all about giving learners of all ages the confidence and independence to experience their education in comfort. Find out more about award-winning assistive tech solutions and how they transform lives at www.scanningpens.com; or check out the ReaderPen today.

Thank you Scanning Pens for your support of the 2022 Literacy Texas Annual Conference!

5 Things You Might Be Missing About Awards

March 9, 2022 by Kathryn Bauchelle

Let’s face it, there are a lot of awards out there. From Student of the Year to Volunteer of the Month to Community Rockstar to who knows what else, we get offered a lot of places to nominate the folks in our programs (including the Literacy Texas Annual Awards, which open every spring and are presented every year at the annual conference in the summer). It can be… a lot.

And it’s just possible that you see these awards go by, and you think something like, “One day we should nominate someone for that… but who has the time?” You wouldn’t be alone.

But it’s also possible that you’re missing some of the reasons you really should be nominating volunteers and students for awards – and not just the Literacy Texas ones! I’m here to make the case for nominating everyone you can for every award possible. Here’s why:

5. They might win

OK, this one you’re probably not missing. In fact, it’s likely the first thing most people think of when it comes to awards: What’s the prize? Is it “worth it”? Could the agency win money?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of that. Some awards DO come with money, or books, or another prize, and others come with recognition for your agency.

And winning is nice. Letting someone know they’ve won can be even nicer. And there are people who have lived their whole life and, in their own words, “never won anything”. YOUR nomination could be the first time they get publicly recognized. YOU could make that happen. Just imagine.

All of that is pretty compelling, but there are four more reasons, and I’d argue they just get more important from here.

4. You get to celebrate people you think are amazing

Hopefully you’re doing this sometimes anyway, awards or not. But there’s a saying about “not saving things to say over a coffin lid” and it’s good advice.

We sometimes think people know how we feel about them, and MAYBE they do, but pulling together an award nomination for a volunteer or student at your agency can uncover stories and sayings and other facts about them that you never knew before – and is always an excuse for a celebration (maybe even cupcakes!). Because despite everything going on right now – there is always something to celebrate.

3. You get to TELL people that you think they're amazing

One of the things I genuinely liked the most, when I was working as a program director at a volunteer-based adult literacy organization, was telling volunteers and students that we wanted to nominate them for an award. See point #5 above – many said that was the first time that had ever happened. And that was always touching.

But it just got better from there. Because as part of the nomination process, we would spend 10 minutes at the end of a staff meeting, just brainstorming as a team about what we all knew about these wonderful people. We’d gather the best of what we came up with together, complete the nomination, and submit it.

And then we’d go one step further – we’d take a few more minutes and put the nomination content together in a simple document, add our logo and any photos we had of that person in action at our agency, print it off, and give it to the nominee.

Y’all. That was ALWAYS moving. Sometimes there were tears. And usually, the person would say something like, “I never knew y’all thought all of this about me!” They had something to take home and read over again (and again!), words of praise and joy. They KNEW, without a shadow of a doubt, how much we appreciated and admired them. Volunteers knew we saw everything they did for the students, and how priceless that was to us. Students knew that we witnessed their efforts and were there alongside them cheering them on as they took steps toward the next success.

That felt like winning every time, regardless of whether our nominee actually got chosen for that award or not.

2. You model appreciation to others on your team

Remember how I said we used to brainstorm our nomination content at staff meetings, as a group? That wasn’t by accident. Of course it was a practical way to gather a lot of information in a short amount of time, so I recommend it for that reason alone. But it makes celebration, and articulating positive thoughts and compliments, a natural and accepted part of work.

The more we did it, the easier it became. Staff started to keep an eye out for fun stories that could be included in some nomination some day. One even kept a list. And it became more natural for all of us to voice that appreciation to volunteers and students throughout the week, and make positivity a daily element of our working lives.

1. You stop and feel appreciation yourself

Don’t underestimate the power of this. I don’t know you, but you’re reading this, so you probably work in adult literacy in Texas. So I know you’re tired; in fact, you were probably exhausted BEFORE the pandemic, and now – well, there probably aren’t words to describe how overworked and stressed you’ve been. And when you’re constantly exhausted and anxious, it’s very easy to fall into the habit of seeing everything with a deficit mindset – how are we going to pay for – to manage – to do – to finish – ? That’s very normal.

Being conscious of stopping, thinking, gathering positive thoughts and stories from others, writing them into a short but coherent whole, and then handing the whole beautiful account to the person you appreciate so much is all good for your body, mind, and spirit.

So – start a list of awards you can nominate folks for. You’ll have local opportunities, as well as statewide and even national awards. Take that little extra time to sit with the team and talk about what makes people wonderful. Write it up into a simple nomination. Give it to the person with a smile. So many people will be glad you did.

Nominations for the Literacy Texas Annual Awards are open now, and winners will be recognized in August. You can find out more, and submit your nominations, here.

Student Goals

March 10, 2021 by Literacy Texas

4 Things You Must Consider When Developing Adult Literacy Curriculum

No matter what age we’re working with, our students learn best when motivated. Whether internal or external, practical or aspirational, the stronger the “why”, the better they perform. As educators, we must never lose sight of this, even as we coordinate our students’ educational goals with various state and federal standards.

As we set our instructional intentions, we need to keep (among many other things!) these four things in mind:

1) Blended Learning: Don’t just wheel in a television.

Of course, nowadays it’s more likely to be a projector or a Youtube link, but multimedia should no longer be thought of as a supplement. The pandemic provided an opportunity to explore technology as the foundation, as a flexible way to cater a lesson to each student’s needs, learning style, and living situation. The Online Learning Consortium defines blended/hybrid learning as “integrating online with traditional face-to-face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner.”

Technology isn’t a novelty anymore. Inside the classroom and out, it’s essential to understand and use it skillfully.

2) Upskilling: Preparing for the test that matters.

“Upskilling is the process of acquiring new and relevant competencies needed today and in the near future.” (Digitalhrtech.com) It’s an understatement to say that the world is evolving. People hoping to find meaningful employment need an increasingly diverse set of skills and experience to keep up with this change. Dallas is #3 in the nation for job creation in the tech industry. We need to be aware of these broader changes happening around us and consider how they will affect our student’s goals. That means not only knowing but keeping tabs on our student’s goals, and supporting their needs through how we curate our instruction.

Upskilling can include digital skills (social media, UX/UI), analytics skills (critical thinking, research), soft skills (creativity, persuasion, communication), and many other skills that we’d do well to integrate into our classrooms.

3) Family Literacy: Who’s teaching who?

Teaching an adult means teaching the citizen, the parent, the employee, the friend, and all the other roles that person has taken on in their life. Family literacy means recognizing and fostering the parent’s role as a primary teacher in their children’s lives. Read talk more about the ties of family to literacy in this article.

4) Health Literacy: The gap between the textbook and real life.

Specialized language can be difficult even in our mother tongue. One particular area where this is true is with medical jargon, pharmaceuticals, and simply navigating our health system. Simply being able to read complicated instructions doesn’t equal meaningful comprehension. Is there a way to meet your student’s goals, comply with state and federal standards, and address challenges like health literacy that students might not even be aware they must face?

But how?

You see the importance of these considerations, but creating an effective instructional strategy can be daunting. Thankfully, the 2021 Literacy Texas Annual Conference offers solutions to this challenge. Join us August 2-4 as speaker Ann Beeson presents “Student Goals & Instructional Standards: Coordinating your Curriculum and Instruction for Success”. She offers the resources and strategies you’ll need to keep your student’s goals front and center while also staying on target to achieve external standards.
Visit https://www.literacytexas.org/calendar/2021-literacy-texas-annual-conference/ to register and learn about the other speakers and sessions offered at this extraordinary event.