Brandis Cook - Alabama Reading Initiative

09/01/2026

Alphabet Bootcamp is in session at Freedom Prep Academy! Way to go, Ms. Waller and People’s for providing explicit instruction in phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge with their kindergarten scholars. ARI / The Alabama Reading Initiative ARI Region 5

08/27/2026

Shoutout to Ms. Roland-Williams for supporting first grade teacher, Mrs. Peavy, with writing using the simple sentence builder chart. Students used this sentence builder chart to write sentences about their anchor text, The Blackout.

The lesson was engaging and we’re excited about growing writers at Glen Iris. ARI / The Alabama Reading Initiative ARI Region 5

08/26/2026

08/17/2026

📚 Sentence Anagrams at Sun Valley📚

Sentence anagrams are an engaging instructional strategy that gives students opportunities to build sentences by arranging words and phrases into a meaningful, grammatically correct order. Students are able to see, discuss, and manipulate words in action.

👏🏾Shout-out to 3rd grade teacher, Dr. Robinson, at Sun Valley. She intentionally selected compound and complex sentences from her anchor text and used them to provide students with meaningful syntax practice.

This is what purposeful literacy instruction looks like—using the text students are already reading to deepen their understanding of how language works and giving them opportunities to apply that knowledge.

Way to go, Dr. Robinson and our 3rd grade scholars!

07/22/2026

What a powerful two days it has been at Freedom Preparatory Academy! Thanks to RLS, Shaquala Holmes, and RLLS, Dr. Jen Joines for being amazing think partners over the past two days.

Day 1: Participants learned how to integrate evidence-based strategies with their core curriculum.
Day 2: Participants got to plan and practice their first lesson, so they’re prepared for when scholars enter the building. Also, participants gave their colleagues feedback to help them to grow in their craft.
Participants learned a lot and are eager to implement those evidence-based strategies within their foundational skills lessons. ARI / The Alabama Reading Initiative ARI Region 5

07/06/2026

🧠📚 Building Brains, Building Readers Starts Together!

Strong readers are built through strong partnerships. Join us at MEGA Conference for Building Brains, Building Readers: The Power of Home, School, and Community Literacy Partnerships and discover how families, educators, and communities can work together to strengthen the foundations of literacy.

Learn how the Coaching a Better Reader Family Academy, innovative partnerships, and Alabama Reading Initiative resources are helping schools create meaningful family engagement that leads to stronger reading outcomes for students.

Walk away with practical strategies and ready-to-use tools to strengthen the connection between home, school, and community—because when we build together, children thrive.

📍 Join us at MEGA and be part of building brighter futures...one reader at a time!

06/10/2026

Register now for either the June or July session! We would love to have you.

06/05/2026

LRS Yasmine Waller supported instructional assistant Ms. Johnson in implementing evidence-based literacy practices with kindergarten students. During the lesson, students practiced decoding short vowel words, sorting words by phonics patterns, and encoding words to strengthen their early reading and writing skills. Way to go, Ms. Waller! ARI Region 5 ARI / The Alabama Reading Initiative

05/06/2026

It was exciting to see transfer to practice as a direct result of PAUSE at Glen Iris Elementary School. Alongside my partners, Misty Ward, Ms. Roland-Williams, and Assistant Principal Dailey, we observed strong evidence-based literacy practices in action, including phoneme segmentation (with visuals), choral reading, partner reading, word/sentence dictation and word chaining.

In addition, we got to see the Comprehension Planning Checklist in action in third grade - highlighting intentional standards-aligned instruction.

Thank you to the wonderful teachers at Glen Iris for applying their learning to empower strong readers. Your commitment to the Science of Reading is making a difference for students everyday!

Glen Iris Elementary School ARI / The Alabama Reading Initiative ARI Region 5

04/29/2026

First grade students are building strong writing skills using the TIDE strategy! They unpacked their prompts, identified Tier 2 vocabulary, crafted clear topic sentences, and supported their ideas with text evidence.

Great work, LRS Waller, for leading the way at Freedom Prep—we’re proud of our young writers!