Please join me and my colleague Tonika as we present FreeReading next Tuesday during a live Webcast at 4pm EST! We will give you a tour of the FreeReading site as well as ideas for implementing the FreeReading literacy intervention program in your literacy classroom.
Register for the Webcast here.
Anna
FreeReading is a high-quality, open-source, free reading intervention program for grades K-1. Schools and teachers everywhere can use the research-based FreeReading program, selecting lessons to supplement basal curricula, or working through the complete 40-week scope and sequence, which currently focuses on phonological awareness and phonics. Vocabulary and comprehension are coming soon. Developed by a team of instructional designers at Wireless Generation and teachers across the country, FreeReading has been reviewed by an advisory board of the country’s leading reading researchers, who also guide the expansion of FreeReading content.
Open-source-based instructional programs such as FreeReading offer schools significant benefits. Open-source technology makes it possible to update and change an instructional program in real-time, without the 5- to 7-year wait between new textbook editions. FreeReading is significantly less expensive to produce and distribute, enabling widespread access to a high-quality instructional program at no charge. The growth of FreeReading.net and open-source instructional programs has the potential to free up billions of dollars annually earmarked for textbook purchases, giving school systems the opportunity to spend instructional dollars on what they decide is important for improving teaching and learning — materials, tools, or services.
Open-source and Web 2.0 technologies also enable FreeReading users to easily adapt the content to their needs, contribute and share their own materials as supplemental lessons within the scope and sequence, and participate in discussions about early literacy. As a result, FreeReading always reflects the collective wisdom of a worldwide community of educators who understand how children best learn to read. Since its introduction in November, the FreeReading community has grown rapidly to include educators in all 50 states and 165 countries. In addition, FreeReading is the first open-source instructional program to be approved through an official state adoption. The state of Florida recently approved FreeReading as a supplemental reading program that state schools may use during the 2008-2009 school year.
Thanks to everyone that attended the FreeReading Webcast today! We will post recorded versions of the Webcast on http://www.freereading.net shortly!
Anna