School and Community Fall 2023

Recommendations for Building Literacy

BY LYSHA THOMPSON H ave you heard of LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) and the Missouri Read, Lead, Exceed initiative? Of course you have, unless you’ve been living under a rock! All joking aside, evidence-based literacy instruction and the Science of Reading is likely on your mind. As many of you may be aware, my role changed a couple of years ago from school librarian to Youth Services Consultant for the Missouri State Library. This has allowed me to support all youth-serving librarians across the state. Even though I am not working in a school library, I am still researching, reading and learning as much as possible. According to the World Literacy Foundation, six out of ten children and adolescents are not learning at a minimum proficiency in reading and math. This is troubling because literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning. Someone with poor literacy skills is over two times more likely to be unemployed. Functionally illiterate parents often prioritize work before education and have lower expectations regarding schooling, which can lead to a cycle of disadvantage through generations. Those with low levels of literacy are also more likely to experience adverse health outcomes, have poor health literacy and practice poor health behaviors. The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy ranked Missouri as 27th out of 50 for literacy in adults. As we work to combat this, I want to take this opportunity to share a few of the resources I’ve been utilizing. These are titles I found to be extremely helpful and worth taking a skim through. As an added bonus, each title is available in the EBSCOhost eBook Collection which you can access through your school’s online resources. Check with your school librarian if you need help locating any of these books.

For additional information, please check out MSTA’s Reading Circle at readingcircle.org or contact an RC member: Brenda Steffens, bulldogreads@gmail. com , reviews lower elementary, PK-3; Jenn Baldwin, Jennifer.baldwin@ jasper.k12.mo.us , reviews upper elementary, 4-6; Lysha Thompson, lysha. thompson@sos.mo.gov , reviews middle school, 6-8; and Kayla Gilmore,

f reyk15@gmail.com , reviews high school.

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