LevelUp Reader

How do foundational literacy skills connect with state standards in the classroom? 🤔

Our new blog post explores how thoughtful alignment can help educators spot learning gaps, plan targeted instruction, and support students as they grow into confident readers. 🚀

What Teachers Tell Me About Foundational Literacy—and Staying Aligned to Standards - LevelUp Reader Keeping phonics, practice, and assessment aligned to foundational literacy standards is a major challenge for teachers. Explore expert alignment strategies and tools.

LevelUp Reader is Highly Commended in Education Technology! 🚀

We’re thrilled to share that LevelUp Reader has been recognized as Highly Commended in the education technology category at this year’s Innovation Excellence Awards — the “Award of Awards” for the UK’s communications and content industries.

Now in its 11th year, the awards celebrate originality, commercial impact, and positive social and environmental contributions across sectors from publishing and print to digital innovation.

A huge thank you to the educators who inspire us every day, and help make innovation in learning possible through LevelUp Reader.

✨Activate your free trial today: https://levelupreader.net/free-trial/

📢 We are thrilled to launch Game Center, a new hub filled with 25+ high-interest games designed to motivate readers and reward progress.

Teachers can manage rewards, track achievements, and watch their students level up like never before! 🚀

Learn more:
https://levelupreader.net/blog/game-center-levelup-reader/

Sign up for a free trial or pilot program for your classroom: www.levelupreader.net

Big News: LevelUp Reader Wins Adaptive Reading Platform of the Year!
We’re proud to announce that LevelUp Reader has won the 2025 Education Insider Adaptive Reading Platform of the Year award!
This recognition from one of the most trusted voices in education is a powerful validation of our commitment to empowering teachers and igniting a love of reading in every student.
Thank you to all the educators who make LevelUp Reader part of their classrooms every day. You inspire us!
Discover why LevelUp Reader is the literacy partner trusted by schools worldwide:
www.levelupreader.net

We are thrilled to announce that LevelUp Reader has been shortlisted for the 2025 Stationers’ Innovation Excellence Awards, in the Education Technology category!

For over a decade, the prestigious Stationers’ Innovation Excellence Awards have shone a spotlight on the most impactful and forward-thinking innovations in education, publishing, and communication. This year’s competition was one of the most competitive yet, with an impressive array of entries across all categories—making it an even greater honor for LevelUp Reader to be recognized among the finalists.

Our mission at LevelUp Reader has always been clear: to empower educators with the tools they need to teach foundational literacy to students in PreK through grade 6 with confidence and clarity. From real-time data that supports personalized instruction to engaging authentic texts aligned with ELA skills and standards, LevelUp Reader is built to make a difference in classrooms every day.

Being shortlisted for this award affirms the hard work, creativity, and dedication of our entire team, and it reflects the incredible educators and students who inspire us to keep innovating.

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to the Stationers’ Company for this recognition, and we send our congratulations to the other finalists. We look forward to the final awards announcement on October 17 and the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our industry.

Thank you for being part of the LevelUp Reader journey—we wouldn’t be here without you!

https://levelupreader.net/blog/levelup-reader-stationers-awards-2025/

Remind your students that it's okay to go back to the text!
With Jump to Book in LevelUp quizzes, they can reference the book while answering—supporting deeper thinking and stronger answers.

✔️ Enabled in Quiz Settings under My Classroom
📚 Great for close reading + textual evidence!

https://levelupreader.net/blog/introducing-jump-to-book-a-new-option-for-quiz-customization/

🎯 Curriculum Alignment Charts - Your Time-Saving Solution! 📚
Teachers, we heard you! Our Curriculum Alignment Charts make it incredibly easy to match LevelUp resources with your core curriculum. No more guessing which books fit which units—we've done the work for you!

✨ What you get:
Easy-to-follow alignment charts
Direct matches between LevelUp books and curriculum units
More time to focus on what truly matters—your students
Downloadable resources you can access anytime

Ready to save hours of planning time? Visit https://levelupreader.net/levelup-curriculum-alignments and bookmark it!

📚 Want to help students become confident, expressive readers? Literacy expert Dr. Tim Rasinski highlights the power of assisted and repeated reading—and LevelUp Reader puts those strategies into action. With engaging leveled texts and audio narration, students can hear fluent reading, follow along, and build fluency through meaningful repetition.

✅ Watch the full webinar to learn more!
https://levelupreader.net/blog/assisted-and-repeated-reading-for-fluency/

Fluency is more than speed—it’s the bridge between decoding and true comprehension.

Reading fluency combines accuracy, automaticity, and prosody (expression), allowing readers to focus on meaning instead of mechanics. For struggling readers, identifying the why behind their disfluency—whether it’s decoding, pacing, or expression—is critical.

LevelUp Reader supports every aspect of fluency with tools like decodable texts, phonics instruction, and read-aloud features that let students track progress and build confidence. With built-in running records and a diverse library of texts, LevelUp helps students grow into fluent, expressive readers.

➡️ Learn how LevelUp makes fluency instruction easier, smarter, and more effective.
Get Started for Free, visit https://levelupreader.net/free-trial/

“What about the words that really make a difference?”

In every structured literacy classroom, vocabulary instruction plays a crucial role—but not all words carry the same weight. Tier 2 words are powerful: they show up across content areas, aren’t usually taught directly, and are hard for students to infer from context. These are the words that elevate comprehension and communication.

This week on the LevelUp Reader blog, we explore what makes Tier 2 vocabulary essential, how to identify it, and how to teach it intentionally through meaningful, engaging instruction. You'll find practical tips for selecting the right words, integrating them across lessons, and helping students truly understand and use them.

📚 Read the full blog post here:
👉 https://levelupreader.net/blog/explicit-vocabulary-instruction-in-a-structured-literacy-classroom/

“What about my students who are excelling?”
— A question we hear from teachers all the time.

Nancy Young’s work helped us reframe this powerful question.
Advanced readers often go unnoticed—but they deserve meaningful challenges and instruction tailored to their needs.
Let’s make sure they’re seen.

👉 Read the full blog post here: https://levelupreader.net/blog/advanced-in-reading/