Top Literacy Resources for Parents and Educators
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- GCPS Links
Finding good reading resources online can be tricky for parents and teachers. There are so many tools to help kids read better, love books, and learn more. In this article, we've picked the best ones to help you choose. These tools will help kids succeed and enjoy reading. Whether you need fun reading programs, phonics activities, or helpful guides, our top picks will support you in helping children love reading forever.
Resources for Birth to 5
Gwinnett Public Library Partnership
The Gwinnett County Public Library and Gwinnett County Public Schools have combined efforts to create a partnership that expands the amount of resources available to GCPS students.
Play 2 Learn is a program for children ages birth to 5 and their parents or caregivers that encourages learning through play.
Play 2 Learn at Home
Play 2 Learn is a program for young children, ages birth to 5, offered at all elementary schools in Gwinnett County Public Schools. Children, parents, and other adults in the family learn TOGETHER through engaging lesson plans in a high-quality preschool environment for 90 minutes each week during the school year. Families are empowered to keep the learning going at home so that all children will be ready for Kindergarten!
Adolescent Literacy
The Center for Instruction: Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers
This practice brief focuses on essential areas like fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and motivation to improve their ability to access content-area curricula. The document highlights best practices and instructional strategies for secondary educators to address the specific needs of older students, helping them overcome reading challenges and achieve academic success.
10 Key Reading Practices for Middle / High School: The Meadows Center
This guide, provided by The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, outlines 10 key practices that have strong evidence of effectiveness for improving reading in middle and high school students. It emphasizes strategies like teaching vocabulary, encouraging comprehension monitoring, providing diverse reading experiences, and using collaborative learning to strengthen reading skills across all content areas.
Effective Instruction for Middle School Students with Reading Difficulties: The Reading Teacher’s Sourcebook
This resource, developed by The Meadows Foundation and the Texas Education Agency, provides middle school teachers with evidence-based instructional strategies to support struggling readers. It covers essential topics such as assessment, effective teaching practices, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and word recognition aimed at improving reading proficiency for students in grades 6-8.
How to Help Students Read Long Words: Pol-y-syl-lab-ic Word Read-ing Strat-e-gies
Reading Big Words
This video, presented by Devin Kearns, focuses on strategies for teaching students how to break down and read long polysyllabic words. It provides practical tips for educators to help students improve their decoding skills and tackle challenging vocabulary.
Helping Students With Dyslexia Read Long Words Using Syllables and Morphemes
This resource by Kearns and Whaley offers strategies for supporting students with dyslexia in reading complex, polysyllabic words. It discusses the challenges of English spelling patterns and emphasizes the importance of teaching syllables, morphemes, and sound-spelling relationships to improve word recognition and decoding skills.
Resources for Grades K-12
Gwinnett Public Library Partnership
The Gwinnett County Public Library and Gwinnett County Public Schools have combined efforts to create a partnership which expands the amount of resources available to GCPS students.
Georgia Children's Book Awards
The Georgia Children’s Book Award was established in 1968 by Sheldon Root, a professor in the Department of Language Education in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. The purpose of the award is to foster a love of reading in the children of Georgia and to introduce them to books of literary excellence.
The GCPS Book Mobile program is the district's traveling library. The mission of this literacy initiative is to put books into students’ hands and encourage them to build personal libraries.
GCPS Online Research Library (Elementary Database)
The Gwinnett Online Research Library provides students with 24/7 access to accurate, up-to-date, age appropriate information that supports the school system’s curriculum. GCPS students can log into their My eCLASS to access the online research library.
GCPS Online Research Library (Middle School Database)
The Gwinnett Online Research Library provides students with 24/7 access to accurate, up-to-date, age appropriate information that supports the school system’s curriculum. GCPS students can log into their My eCLASS to access the online research library.
GCPS Online Research Library (High School Database)
The Gwinnett Online Research Library provides students with 24/7 access to accurate, up-to-date, age appropriate information that supports the school system’s curriculum. GCPS students can log into their My eCLASS to access the online research library.
Learning Games
Literacy at Home: Digital Children's Reading Initiative
This digital resource provides literacy activities at each grade level, pre-kindergarten through 5th grade. Families and communities may access this resource for activities that specifically target the literacy skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and oral language. When children grow in each of these foundational areas they are well on their way to becoming proficient readers.
Games to Boost Early Literacy Skills
This resource provides games and activities that can be played at home to help boost early reading skills. There are games for pre-readers, early readers, and older students to develop skills to improve reading and comprehension.
Families play an essential role in the literacy development of children at all ages and stages. We want to provide every student with the opportunities they need to master foundational literacy skills.
Literacy and Dyslexia Resources
Dyslexia Resource Guide For Georgia Families
This handbook describes what dyslexia is and what it looks and sounds like when a child is experiencing difficulties in learning to read. It addresses how to screen for characteristics of dyslexia and how to systematically improve reading instruction, while ensuring each and every child has access to individualized supports if the system is not meeting their needs.
International Dyslexia Association-Georgia
The International Dyslexia Association Georgia Branch is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals living with dyslexia, a learning difference, as well as their families and the communities that support them.
Decoding Dyslexia GA is part of a network of parent-led grassroots movements across the country, aiming to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families to support their children, and inform policy-makers on best practices to identify, remediate, and support students with dyslexia.
Our mission is to increase the awareness, understanding, and use of evidence-aligned reading instruction in Georgia. We believe all children deserve to learn to read, and all educators can learn to teach them.
MCPER develops booklets, lesson plans, videos, handouts, and other practical materials that align with the latest high-quality research findings. These resources help educators, parents, policymakers, and others translate research into practice and improve outcomes for students.
Literacy at Home: Digital Children’s Literacy Initiative
This digital resource provides literacy activities at each grade level, pre-kindergarten through 5th grade. Families and communities may access this resource for activities that specifically target the literacy skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and oral language.
Institute of Education Sciences: REL Southeast Family Involvement Guides
The YouTube playlist from REL Southeast, titled "K Family Involvement Guide," features 29 videos designed to support family involvement in early literacy. The videos cover various topics, such as reading aloud, syllable practice, and engaging in conversations during daily activities like cooking and dinner time. Each video provides practical tips and activities for parents to help their children develop strong reading and language skills.
Florida Center for Reading Research Student Activities
A team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through 5th-grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently. Students can complete the activities in small groups, pairs, or individually.
The Strong Readers MS, is a valuable resource for promoting literacy among children from birth through 5th grade. It offers grade-specific activities, parental guidance, and progress monitoring tools to help children develop strong reading skills. The site also provides comprehensive resources, including reading activities and tips for fostering critical thinking about texts.
Free Resources and Books
The following organizations provide books and resources for free to families:
- Reach Out and Read
- Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
- Little Free Libraries
- Children’s eBooks on Project Gutenberg
- The Spanish Experiment
Professional Learning Opportunities
The Engage, Equip, and Empower series hosted by the Department of Federal Programs’ Office of Family Engagement provides opportunities for families to participate in instructional sessions, workshops, events, and activities to engage with Gwinnett County Public Schools. The series will provide opportunities for families to learn how to support their children at home in the core academic content areas, be active participants in their children’s education, and learn about resources, programs, and wraparound services to support their children.
K-5 and 6-12 Literacy Boot Camp for Staff (Fall & Winter) & Literacy Institute (Summer)
Teachers and administrators are invited to engage in collaborative learning to support High-Quality Tier 1 instruction and elevate instructional practices to drive student success. This focused training series will deepen content knowledge and equip educators with evidence-based strategies within the structured literacy framework. Participants will learn how to leverage our Board-adopted Language Arts resources and GCPS materials to deliver high-quality, impactful lessons that meet the diverse needs of all students. Through engaging, interactive experiences, educators will walk away with practical tools and strategies to apply in the classroom.
In addition to the K-5 and 6-12 Literacy Boot Camps (Fall & Winter) and the Literacy Institute (Summer), teachers have access to ongoing, tailored professional development throughout the academic year.
- Literacy Campaign