Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of IDA

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary by offering a FREE Special Anniversary Edition of their highly acclaimed publication, Perspectives on Language and Literacy. You may read the entire Anniversary Edition online HERE. Watch for the downloadable PDF coming soon.

Josh Clark, Chairman of the Board at IDA says, "We are excited about this issue and hope that it will help stakeholders and educators better understand and explain why implementing high-quality Structured Literacy instruction is so important. We thank the experts who have dedicated their time to creating these articles with the mission of building a common language and framework around Structured Literacy, which will bring awareness, answer questions, and pave the way for effective literacy instruction across the country."

Read the full press release HERE. 

There are so many great thought leaders represented in this publication speaking on so many important topics, but the one that really popped for me was the article about creating equity through literacy. 

In "Inclusivity and Excellence: Why Structured Literacy is Essential to Safeguard Student's Civil Rights" Kareem Weaver states, "Calls for equity without ensuring that systematic, direct, explicit instruction is provided, open the door for bias and assumption to enter into the classroom." p. 30

Equity is such a hot topic. We hear a lot of information in the media these days about equity. The authors in the Special 75th Anniversary Edition provide a road map for how to get there by empowering children through literacy:

You may join IDA via the MEMBERSHIP page to support the mission of this important organization. Special discounted teacher memberships are only $50. Advocate and parent memberships are only $40. That is less than the cost of one small mocha latte per month. Join Today! 

Whether or not you decide to join, be sure to explore the many free resources at https://dyslexiaida.org/ such as the Advocacy Toolkit and the downloadable Fact Sheets.

On a separate but related note, leaders from IDA branches across the country met in Baltimore for strategic planning March 15-17 to support the IDA sharpened vision of  "Structured Literacy for every child in every classroom across the nation and around the world." 

While in Baltimore, I stopped by the Edgar Allan Poe Museum before I left to do a little research for my upcoming decodable book, The Raven Remix: A Mash-Up of Poe Titles. Watch this blog for Poe Trivia from my museum visit. Stay tuned for a special poetry writing activity coming in April.  Sign up for my newsletter HERE to keep up with book news.  Read my March 11 post about Poe's Irish Heritage.