How a Colorado Public School for Students With Dyslexia Is Changing the Game for Struggling Readers — and the State Conversation on Reading
October 22, 2019
By: Ann Schimke
Source: Chalkbeat
Tammy Kennington and the four children in her cozy therapy room prepared to sound out the word “April.”
“Divide before your first medial consonant. Accent the first syllable,” Kennington said, her fourth graders quietly echoing her words.
“A vowel in an open-accented syllable is long. Code it with a macron,” they said. “A vowel in a closed syllable is short, code it with a breve.”
This is what learning to read looks like for the 122 second- through fifth-graders who attend the Academy for Literacy, Learning & Innovation Excellence in Colorado Springs. Run by School District 49 and commonly referred to as ALLIES, it’s the state’s only public school for students with dyslexia.