DPI Launches Free Online Literacy Resource for Parents, Teachers

RALEIGH, NC (November 10, 2021) — The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) Office of Early Learning has developed and released a new virtual resource, Literacy at Home, to help support North Carolina’s youngest readers. Literacy at Home provides activities specific to each grade level from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. This online resource provides background knowledge on evidence-based literacy practices, as well as instructional activities for families and caregivers.

The digital children’s reading initiative launched to assist parents and educators in supporting young readers…

Users can explore this free online resource, sort by skill, and begin to explore the essential components of literacy such as phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling, fluency, vocabulary, oral language, and comprehension. By learning about each of these essential components of language, caregivers can effectively aid younger students in learning how to read.

While the Literacy at Home resource was designed for families, caregivers, and communities, the instructional activities included are in alignment with the knowledge North Carolina’s educators are receiving across the state through the newly-implemented literacy instruction professional learning for educators, called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). This training relies on research-based methods of early literacy instruction referred to as the science of reading. LETRS training, which is being rolled out in phases during the next three years, equips teachers with the skills they need to better support students as they learn how to read.

Both the LETRS training initiative and the Literacy at Home resource were developed as part of the state’s Excellent Public Schools Act (SB387), which was enacted earlier this year to ensure that every student reads at or above grade level by the end of third grade and continues to progress in reading proficiency.

The Literacy at Home resource also aligns with Superintendent Truitt’s literacy priority outlined in Operation Polaris. A substantial amount of work has been done in the state among partners and with education stakeholders to improve literacy proficiency among students and to equip all Pre-K through Grade 5 teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with early literacy instructional methods.

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