What’s New for Back to School? Digital Reader Updates & New Book Sets
We’ve had a busy summer at Pioneer Valley Books creating exciting new products and features to enhance your 2024–2025 school year! We’re thrilled to share some updates to our literacy programs and Digital Reader, plus new decodable books and text sets.
Table of Contents
- New Efficacy Research
- Knowledge-Building Text Sets
- MyCodables Decodable Books
- Digital Reader New Releases
New Research: Study Finds Stepping Together & Phonics Launch Increase Student Achievement
Hot off the presses! An ESSA Tier 2 study designed and conducted by an independent third party has shown implementing Stepping Together and Phonics Launch to have statistically significant results. Using these whole-class and small-group literacy solutions can help students gain essential literacy skills at an accelerated rate.
Results among a closely matched sample of students showed that Stepping Together and Phonics Launch have a positive impact on student literacy performance and can help students gain essential literacy skills at an accelerated rate. Furthermore, K–2 students using Stepping Together and Phonics Launch all demonstrated significantly higher scores in the i-Ready assessment over students that did not use the programs.
Knowledge-Building Text Sets
Build cross-curricular knowledge and strengthen reading skills with Knowledge-Building Text Sets, our brand-new book collections carefully curated around a common theme. Students will learn something new about the world and themselves with categories such as Examining Ecosystems and Characters Overcoming Challenges.
Knowledge-Building Text Sets enable teachers to differentiate core Tier 1 instruction by uniting students under one topic while providing accessible reading materials to individual students. Students will expand knowledge in earth science, life science, history, and more!
MyCodables Decodable Books
Introducing MyCodables decodable book sets featuring your favorite Pioneer Valley Books characters! Engage each and every reader with MyCodables’ captivating storylines and snuggly character companions. Each set includes six high-quality decodable books plus a corresponding plush companion.
These highly decodable books follow a carefully designed systematic scope and sequence that builds upon previously taught phonics skills. Each set includes a variety of target phonics skills to support the diverse learners in your classroom.
Digital Reader New Releases
We’ve added some exciting new features to Digital Reader, our digital library of 1,000+ books and reading activities—just in time for back to school.
Digital Letter Tray
Use our best-selling letter trays wherever the learning takes you! The new Digital Reader Letter Tray is an interactive digital tool that provides hands-on practice for letter learning and word study.
Students and teachers can manipulate letters in a virtual workspace to support phonics instruction, practice Making Words activities, learn sight words, and more!
Incorporate the digital Letter Tray into whole-class phonics lessons, differentiated small-group instruction, and independent learning. While the Letter Tray works wonderfully on desktops, try it out on a tablet or smartboard to get the full drag-and-drop experience!
Listen to Students Read Aloud—Anytime, Anywhere
You won’t always be sitting right next to a student to listen to them read. Assess students’ oral reading on your schedule with the new Student Audio Recording feature.
Students can record themselves reading any book aloud on the Digital Reader, including from their bookshelves, Reading Adventures, and their assignments. Teachers can review the recordings at their convenience to assess decoding skills, reading accuracy, and fluency.
Read to Me
Want to provide additional scaffolding for your striving readers? With Read to Me, students will be able to hear select books read out loud while following along with the text. This feature will not only improve listening skills, vocabulary, and comprehension, but it also models accurate and fluent reading.
Currently available for select books and expanding to more titles throughout the year!
Decoding Reading Inventory
The Decoding Reading Inventory is a tool for placing students in the appropriate range of decodable text. The online assessment begins by evaluating students' knowledge of upper and lower-case letter names and their corresponding sounds. Next, students read decodable words and/or high frequency words in isolation, which places them in a controlled assessment text. The results provide educators with a starting point for phonics instruction and also suggest suitable decodable books targeted for students' phonics knowledge.
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