At Kids Discover, we always talk about how our North Star is our mission: to get kids excited about reading and learning. As educators, parents, librarians, and district leaders, you know just how challenging that can be to accomplish, especially for striving readers.
When I think about striving readers—students who may struggle with reading fluency or comprehension, or who may present with dyselxia—it’s hard not to think of the many bright and curious minds who just simply need a different approach. And for far too long, that different approach has felt challenging, if not elusive.
When I first connected with Sarah K. Blodgett, I was fascinated by her story. The mother of a child who struggled to read, her journey for answers and solutions started all the way back in 2003. Heavily influenced by Dr. Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski, an expert in learning and literacy at the University of Connecticut, Sarah took Dr. Cherkes-Julkowski’s recommendations to heart, and put them in practice with her son. Those recommendations centered around an explicit, systematic linguistic program to attune Sarah’s son to critical word sound patterns. Sarah found the method to be extremely effective.
Sarah’s technique of making these patterns visible in text evolved after her child completed the program. He was a solid fourth-grade reader but was still dysfluent when reading higher-level books. Like so many kids and young adults, he found higher-level reading exhausting. Readers like him typically start out strong, then lose stamina as they continually face more complex words. They begin to avoid reading at all costs.
Sarah always envisioned her son enjoying books like Harry Potter but soon realized it would be difficult for him. English is a complex language, and sustained wide reading of authentic text can be daunting for many readers. Explicit teaching of morphology and word roots is very helpful but providing students with a tool that enables them to engage successfully in wide reading is also very important.
Sarah’s quest to find a solution, not just for her son but for all striving readers, led her to invent Noah Text®.
Grounded in the science of reading, Noah Text® highlights syllable patterns and long vowels while keeping words intact.
Noah Text® is a patented evidence-based methodology for displaying text. Grounded in the science of reading, Noah Text® highlights syllable patterns and long vowels while keeping words intact. By showing students the structure of words, this scaffolded text frees up cognitive resources to help students to comprehend what they are reading.
Structured literacy specialists find Noah Text® to be a phenomenal tool to bridge students beyond decodable text reading, providing students the ability to apply and transfer their skills to authentic text.
Through our newly formed partnership, Kids Discover is thrilled to announce our launch of Noah Text® on the Kids Discover Online platform. More than a mere feature, this method of converting any article or text passage on Kids Discover Online is now available to all paid Kids Discover customers at no additional cost.
“Over the years, we’ve built out the technology to convert reading passages to Noah Text® on demand,” said Noah Text® founder Sarah Blodgett. “To see that technology utilized on Kids Discover Online, and watch it transform a web page by simply clicking an icon, is like witnessing pure magic!”
The most exciting research finding about Noah Text® is that it motivates struggling students to read while building their reading skills as they use it, and that its benefits transfer to plain text reading. In addition, for dyslexic readers, it can be included as a modification on IEPs or an accommodation in 504 plans.
At Kids Discover, we are not just committed to making great, high quality instructional resources—we are committed to every learner’s success. By focusing on the needs of striving and dyslexic readers, we’re making a real difference in the lives of students who deserve to have their voices heard and their talents recognized.
