Our Award-Winning Partnership

In 2024, Realized Curriculum Solutions partnered with Barbershop Books, based in New York City, to support them on revising and developing their award-winning online reading intervention, Reading So Lit^TM for students of color, neurodivergent learners, multilingual learners, and students from economically disadvantaged communities in grades Pre-kindergarten through 3. This online reading intervention won the 2024 New Schools Venture Fund in the category of Learning Solutions and the 2025 Lipman Family Prize.

We worked closely with the Barbershop Books team to develop a learning framework aligned with the Reading So Lit^TM online reading intervention for the target demographic groups of learners with an emphasis on supporting positive attitudes about reading for students who are historically marginalized in their schools and communities. We adapted lesson plans and digital activities to support the diverse learning needs of their target student demographic groups with a focus on evidence-based strategies like activating students' background knowledge to make connections, asking text-dependent questions, using visual supports for students who are reluctant readers, and reinforcing the inquiry process related to the types of reading students prefer or would like to try exploring. 

A Multi-Year Partnership Increasing Literacy Outcomes

In 2022, Realized Curriculum Solutions partnered with The Innovative Learners to develop custom lesson plans and unit plans for their tutoring company to increase the literacy outcomes of students of color in both virtual and in-person learning environments. We supported The Innovative Learners staff by creating culturally relevant reading and writing lessons aligned with the Science of Reading research to drive academic excellence among their students from underserved communities.

We supported The Innovative Learners with selecting and using culturally relevant texts that reflected their students' personal experiences while embedding essential reading components like syllabification, examining morphological patterns, and decoding words with vowel digraphs for their Kindergarten through 9th grade students. We designed an opinion-based writing curriculum for 9th grade students of color where they focused on evaluating the pros and cons are different arguments, researched complex topics like immigration laws and voting rights, and developed their essay writing skills with a focus on coherence and organization. 

To learn more about how our custom curriculum development service positively impacting the work The Innovative Learners does to increase the literacy skills of students from underserved communities, please visit https://theinnovativelearners.com/testimonials.