The Literacy Tower offers teachers the opportunity to engage, extend and accelerate today’s young readers in a way that acknowledges and responds to today’s literacy learning environment.

Our levelling, texts and designs reflect the experience, abilities and prior exposure of contemporary students
to a diverse range of visual and print media outside
the classroom.

There are challenges; but they are always presented
in a supportive framework. Giving young readers the skills and confidence to overcome those challenges is fundamental to helping every child achieve their full literacy potential.

Levelling
Our levelling uses a number of different criteria.
Our high-frequency word lists (sometimes referred
to as “sight words”) are based upon the universally accepted Dolch word lists. The back covers of titles
from Levels 1-15 note the percentage of the 100 most common high-frequency words used in the book, decreasing from 100% at Level 1 to around 50%
by Level 15. Teachers will find that every one of the
top 100 Dolch high-frequency (sight) words is used, repeated and reinforced throughout Levels 1-15,
along with the top 30 initial consonant clusters
and the top 35 word-ending clusters. In addition,
every common blend, digraph and consonant cluster
is introduced and repeated throughout the collection.

Challenges
At the early levels, vocabulary and diverse text forms
are introduced at an earlier stage than many of the traditional reading schemes. That’s because every teacher knows that teaching and learning expectations and reading competencies have changed. Today’s twenty-first century kids need twenty-first century reading experiences which reflect a very different learning environment than that which existed only
a decade ago.

Most importantly, in every instance, literacy progressions are introduced in thoroughly natural language and text styles, and their use is never contrived or artificial.
These challenges, and the way they are presented,
is what makes The Literacy Tower so different and
so engaging for young readers.

Helping You to Help Your Students
Our aim is to help teachers engage, inspire and ignite today’s young readers. We do that with outstanding texts and lively designs, all the while ensuring that every important teaching and learning base has been covered. Teachers can be confident that these supports are delivered in every book; and in a way that ensures students enjoy, succeed and find real purpose in their literacy journey.