Quail Creek Fall Festival Recap – November 2022
November 5, 2022, was a busy day for Reading Is Fun Books! We participated in a Dyslexia Simulation and Decodable Book Day in Vancouver, Washington. We also participated in two community events, Quail Creek’s Fall Festival in Green Valley, AZ, and Forest Hills Lutheran Christian School’s Arts and Craft Show near Portland, Oregon. Three states in one day!
Cheryl Anthony’s Are Decodable Books Necessary? talk was well attended at Successful Learning Educational Services’ day-long dyslexia information event. Classroom teachers, education specialists, and parents and grandparents of children with dyslexia attended the event. Cheryl’s presentation highlighted the phases of reading acquisition, the instructional approach needed for literacy proficiency for both regularly developing readers and those with dyslexia, and the need for reading practice associated with student reading instruction. Reading research directs reading practice to be at 95%-98% accuracy for comprehension to be consistent, thus the need for decodable books, particularly at beginning reading stages.
A Walk-In-My Shoes Dyslexia simulation, provided by SLES staff as well as a Dyslexia 101 presentation and discussion led by new owner, Melissa Rainoldi, was also presented at this event. Attendees learned about what it may be like in the classroom for a student with dyslexia. They also learned that 1 in 5 students struggle with reading due to dyslexia. Next, they learned about the many symptoms of dyslexia. It was a very informative day!
Our friend, Connie Leinhos, a tutor for students with dyslexia, helped introduce our decodable books to the community of Forest Hills Lutheran Christian School, where she provides tutoring. Thank you, Connie!
Reading Is Fun Books! decodable books were also sold at this event.
Author, Yasmin John-Thorpe was back in Quail Creek for a brief stay, and sold Reading Is Fun! Books to a number of attendees at Quail Creek’s Fall Festival. One visitor to our table stated that her daughter had used RIF books for her classroom use and she shared that it was the best book she has used for reading practice for her students.
Yasmin has been distributing RIF Books to some teachers and specialists in Canada. One of the recipients, Norma J Hill, is a tutor who focuses primarily on developing students’ personal learning styles, and helps discover and fill in their educational gaps, to build strong basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics. She has been a teacher and librarian in public and private schools in British Columbia, Canada, where she has worked with special needs students and curriculum development.
Norma shared, “I used Bob, The Mop and the Mob book yesterday with one of my new students. Although he already decodes quite proficiently and has reasonable comprehension, his oral reading sounds very choppy (though the words are correct) his speech lacks flow, and I found the book helpful as it has simple flowing sentences. I noticed that it is helping his “fluency” (reading more smoothly). He also enjoyed the activities. …The repetition of sounds is also helpful. So, though his decoding itself is already okay, the book is providing other areas of help for him!”
