Blog

A leveled adaptation of Judith Heumann’s memoir anchors a Readtopia writing curriculum unit centered on disability rights.

Dr. Lisa Irwin-Davidson shares the initial results of her ongoing study on the impact of comprehensive literacy instruction.

How and why to build a foundation of literacy learning for students with significant disabilities through repetition with variety.

Hear a recording and read a summary of Dr. Karen Erickson’s keynote address, “Be That Person” from the 2022 Virtual Summer Summit.

While the definition of the science of reading can be debated, there is a large body of research on effective literacy instruction.

Lessons from the beach that illustrate the need to presume competence and honor individual learning styles.

What distinguishes one special education curriculum from another? Readtopia – what makes it different and why it matters.

Readtopia Thematic Unit: Stronger Together, anchored by The Secret Gardener Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic novel inspires a special education curricular unit rich in nature and history. Building Wings is excited to announce that a new thematic unit for upper elementary anchored in an adapted version of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is now […]

ReadtopiaGO Introduced to Special Educators Special Educators received a preview of a new early-literacy curriculum for learners with complex needs at Closing The Gap 2022. For years, special educators have used Readtopia, a comprehensive literacy curriculum for learners with complex needs. While Readtopia provides an instructional foundation for learners in grades three through high school, […]

As part of a recent press release, Building Wings, Inc, announced the acquisition of Knowledge Unlimited, a provider of supplementary learning materials.

Step-by-step instructions for how to whitelist an email address or domain so emails you want to receive are not blocked.

Here are a few tips to help you manage your first time in the classroom as a special education teacher.

We are thrilled to announce integrated math lessons for dozens of Readtopia’s thematic units!

How do the introduction videos enhance Readtopia’s thematic units? What information do they cover? Continue reading to find out.

Anchored by “Diana Trujillo: A Space Scientist”, Building Wings has launched a new Readtopia thematic unit called Making Dreams Come True.

Don Johnston has formed a new company, Building Wings™ to expand its comprehensive literacy curriculum to focus on the needs of teachers working with students.

Two edtech giants are coming together to strengthen assistive technology for the world.

The addition of Don Johnston Inc.’s leading product suite, expertise, and skill set will expand Texthelp’s leadership in helping individuals better understand.

Special education thematic unit Fact or Fiction anchored by The Wizard of Oz teaches students the difference between truth and make-believe.

Negative Behaviors with Autism: Why it Happens and Eight Ways to Help Each school day, just before circle time, the kindergarten boy ran out into the hallway and pulled his classmate’s belongings out of their cubbies and onto the floor. His teacher tried everything she could think of to make it stop, but nothing worked. […]

Engaging Special Ed Classrooms with Video: Mike Byrne’s Quest to Bring the World to Students The classroom lights dim. Students fall quiet as a strange and desolate terrain fills the screen. We’re in Iceland, our video host Don Johnston tells us, as we enter what appears to be a cave. “There’s only one place in […]

Using Reflective and Tell Me Questions as a Part of Shared Reading Instruction This article was originally published by Beth Poss at Lessonpix.com 2021. Shared Reading is much more than just a read aloud. This evidence-based strategy focuses on the interactions between adults and learners as they read with the purpose of building language and […]

Building Communication through Literacy for Students with Intensive Disabilities—The inspiring story of Carter School “Meaningful, purposeful communication is at the heart of learning to read and write. Students who learn that they can use reading and writing to investigate areas of interest, share their ideas, thoughts, and feelings, or interact with new people, understand that […]

Readtopia Thematic Unit— Mysteries and Mummies anchored by King Tut Readtopia® is on a roll. Thousands of special educators now have access to the just-released thematic unit expanding Readtopia to 25 units—each containing 6-8 weeks worth of instructional content. This new unit is one of the growing selection of upper elementary units, which make Readtopia […]

Delivering Leveled Access to the Curriculum: Readtopia’s Laura Cuthbertson When Laura Cuthbertson was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be a teacher. But it wasn’t until she became close to a family member with complex needs that her path was made clear and she decided to pursue a job as a paraprofessional in […]

Addressing the Most Diverse Learning Needs: Allison Dennis, Readtopia’s Differentiation Architect Allison Dennis’ passion for special education is homegrown. As a child, she admired her mother’s work as a preschool teacher for students with significant cognitive and physical disabilities, and later in life, as an Inclusion Specialist. So it was no surprise that Allison followed […]

Bringing Stories to Life: Jerry Stemach, Readtopia’s Chief Storyteller In our Readtopia author series, we profile members of the Readtopia team and share how their unique experiences and skills shape Readtopia’s instructional resources for special education and autism classrooms.When I first met Jerry Stemach, I instantly recognized that there’s something special and disarming about him. […]

The View from 2025 A lot has been said about 2020, but what I think about is the view when we look back from 5-10 years in the future. In many ways, 2020 illuminated the issues that were already present in our society and our educational system. The pandemic brought them to light and then […]

Readtopia Thematic Unit — Bodies that Work The Readtopia® Team is creating some very powerful content and resources for special needs classrooms. Thousands of special educators now have access to the just-released thematic unit for middle and high school classrooms. The theme, Bodies that Work will introduce students with complex needs to biology concepts (like […]

Readtopia Thematic Unit — A Story of Survival anchored by The Swiss Family Robinson for Upper Elementary Readtopia® is on a roll. Thousands of special educators now have access to the just-released thematic unit for upper elementary students. The theme, A Story of Survival teaches students that there are always challenges in life. It takes […]

Readtopia at Home: Supporting Students with Complex Needs Thinking back to February 2020—it seems like an entirely different world. In a mere matter of weeks, COVID-19 has flipped the fabric of your day upside down. Your teaching has long since been uprooted, and now you’re left wondering what to do for your special education class. […]

eLearning and Inequity—Why Districts are Turning to Accessible Technologies eLearning came like a stranger in the night. Many educators walked out the door one day to find that school was canceled the next. Plants and even classroom pets were left in classrooms—like the stories of ancient villages who left so suddenly, their pots were still […]

Comprehensive Literacy Instruction Without the DIY— How one special education teacher restored balance in her classroom and life When people ask me why I became a special education teacher, I tell them that I always knew I would be a teacher. I imagined teaching English in a general education setting. By the time I reached […]

Teachers In Crisis: Why Special Educators are Leaving and What You Can Do About It There’s a crisis happening in our special education classrooms. If your career is in education, you’re probably aware of it. If it’s in special education, you probably feel it on a daily basis. The problem, of course, is burnout. Many […]

How I (Finally!) Challenged My Special Education Students As special education teachers, we hear a lot about changing expectations in our classrooms. About how we’re going to move students from one place to another throughout the school year. I feel I can speak for many teachers by saying that is a very difficult thing to […]

Strong Special Education Resources Showed What was Possible for my Students Jeanmarie Jacoby was a special education classroom teacher for more than 30 years, and can attest that teaching reading to students with complex needs was one of the biggest struggles she faced. Feeling overwhelmed with trying to create materials for a wide range of […]

Teaching Writing Didn’t Work For My Kids with Complex Needs…Until I Tried This Growing up, Jenay Prytula always wanted to work with kids. In her freshman year of college, she got the opportunity to volunteer in a classroom with students who had physical and cognitive impairments. She simply fell in love with working with those […]

Re-Defining the Special Education Classroom at MacArthur Middle School Abbey Lynch walks over to a table and offers her hand to a smiling, eager student who takes it to point at her AAC device indicating the answer to a particular question. Lynch, a special education teacher at MacArthur Middle School in Prospect Heights, IL, just […]

WE Teach — Teaching Special Education—a most important job! Over the last five years, I’ve visited dozens of special education and autism classrooms. In meeting with teachers, I learned a few things that I feel are important to address: By and large, teaching special education is a calling and brings fulfillment and meaning (“I just […]

The Brain in a Jar: Lessons to Open Up Writing in the Special Education Classroom Imagine waking up to find you’re a foreigner in your own body, and you suddenly can’t communicate as you used to with the people you love. What would you do? How would you adapt? How would you survive? This was […]

Jackson Pollock and a Boy Who Couldn’t Write-Understanding Human Expression and Potential Oil on canvas, pencil on paper, what can we say about the value of expression? What can we learn from the greats and apply to our educational programs—even at the earliest developmental stages?  In 1948, in the midst of his legendary Drip period, Jackson Pollock took […]

Social Emotional Learning Comes to Readtopia Readtopia is on a roll filling a much-needed void in middle and high school special education classrooms. Our development team is pushing forward with new thematic units and features that give teachers the resources they need to do their best work ever! Summer brings new growth to Readtopia® with […]

Why writing matters and successes shared by a special education teacher with learners with complex needs.

Top 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Special Education Reading Curriculum Your curriculum and the accompanying resources shape everything that happens in your special education classroom(s) for years to come, so making the right decision on curriculum may be the most important decision you make this year. What criteria will you use to evaluate […]

The Teacher Who Chose to Stay: Laura Cuthbertson In the summer of 2017, Laura Cuthbertson had a chat with her husband. The subject was a familiar topic all couples cover from time to time: future work plans. As much as she loved her job and the kids in her self-contained classroom, Laura was a bit tired of […]

Making Reading Meaningful — A Teacher’s Journey Special Educator, Carrie Ponitz, didn’t choose Readtopia. Her administrators brought it into the district, but Mrs. Ponitz quickly embraced the materials when she saw how quickly her students connected to the content. Reading time used to be filled with groans, now her students are even excited to take […]

I’ll See it When I Believe It As a student growing up with dyslexia in the 1950s, most people had very little hope for me. Not much was known about dyslexia back then other than what people saw. What they saw was a troublemaker who couldn’t read. I heard that I was just lazy. I’m […]

They Can’t Write, Let Them be Authors It’s easy to look at a writing sample like this and draw conclusions. The letters aren’t fully formed. There are no identifiable words. There is no clear message. A conversation with the author would likely reveal a lot more. An entire story may even unfold about this “writing.” […]

First Author Effect — Writing Beyond Expectations in New York City A few weeks ago, I visited New York City schools to see first-hand the excitement they were generating with First Author Curriculum. New York City has a writing initiative made famous by Staten Island’s school turnaround article featured in The Atlantic. Like many other […]

Read about first-time authors from Warren Woods Middle School and Bovenschen School in Warren, Michigan as they share their excitement about First Author.

Not without challenges, Special Education Teacher Erlind Laci connected the dots between Life Skills and Curriculum Content at Kirk School, and here’s how.