Foundations of Literacy: The Science of Reading

November 2. 2023  Duration: 75 minutes

When LENA was founded in 2004 by the late Terry Paul and his wife, Judi, one of their primary goals was to improve literacy outcomes for children. Terry and Judi were entrepreneurs, having founded Renaissance Learning before LENA. They pioneered such reading, math, and testing products as the Star Assessments, which are used in 70,000 schools in the United States and more than 50 countries worldwide. As they saw gaps in academic outcomes continue to widen, they began to realize that the foundations of reading and academic success were being laid long before children entered a kindergarten classroom.  

In this webinar, we’ll go back to these origins, with an expert deep dive into how early conversational turns lead to the development of the foundational reading skills that ultimately build to word recognition and language comprehension.  From this understanding, we’ll explore how communities are using this link to tap into literacy funding to support LENA’s early language programming and explore the structure of their implementations.

Panelists include:

• Lucy Hart Paulson, lead author of LETRS for Early Childhood Educators.
• Jenny Mackenzie, director of the documentary film The Right to Read.
• Sonia Cabell, author/editor of several new books about the science of reading, including Strive-for-Five Conversations: A Framework That Gets Kids Talking to Accelerate Their Language Comprehension and Literacy.
• Katie Denton-Walls and Regina Henning, literacy specialists and LENA Grow coaches at Signal Centers.
• Rebecca Parlakian, Senior Director of Programs at ZERO TO THREE.