Yes—tools can support learning, but they don’t generate it. The learner’s path comes first: language, decoding, confidence, meaning. Once that’s clear, tech is just a well-trained assistant, not the lead actor.

Hi-lo isn't "dumbed down" reading — it's precision engineering. Same suspense, same stakes, tighter syntax, controlled vocabulary. After 28 years watching kids finally see themselves as readers, I'll take a great hi-lo novel over a bloated "grade-level" one any day.

That's exactly the hi-lo publishing principle too: reading level has to serve the story's map, not the other way around. Chase 'engagement features' before securing the learning path, and you lose the very readers you're trying to reach. (2/2)

@edupath.bsky.social 28 years in ELL and reading intervention taught me this the hard way: kids don't disengage because the interface isn't slick enough. They disengage when we design around features instead of the learner's actual path to literacy. Tech follows pedagogy, not the reverse. (1/2)

Twenty-eight years of watching reluctant readers skip straight to the SparkNotes taught me something: kids don't hate reading. They hate being handed a locked door with no key. Give them a story built like a mystery to solve, and watch them pick the lock themselves. #HiLo #YALit

Teacher-Tested Strategies for Improving Reading Instruction (Opinion): How educators are making literacy lessons stick in their classrooms.

Teacher-Tested Strategies for Improving Reading Instruction (Opinion)

How educators are making literacy lessons stick in their classrooms.

edweek.org

Reluctant readers deserve stories built for them. THE LISTENER ARCHIVES is a YA series with branching-choice chapters and hidden archive artifacts — readers investigate the story, not just read it. Book One, THE GHOST IN ROOM 401, is ready. Seeking an agent for hi-lo YA. #AmQuerying #YALit

Even if you pledge nothing, just following the projects helps us out immensely #Backerkit #BookBazaar26 #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #Booksky

The Book Bazaar: Coming October 29th, 2026@the-book-bazaar.com · 3w ago

It's time to introduce everyone to the 38 #IndieAuthor projects that will be trying to fund starting October 29th! We can use your help NOW... Subscribe to your favorites to help them get launch ready 🧵 #BookBazaar26

From empires to coups, from propaganda to Native history, Jermaine Fowler of The Humanity Archive offers a reading list of books that will make you "impossible to lie to" thehumanityarchive.substack.com/p/these-his...

These History Books Will Make You Impossible to Lie To

How power actually works, who got erased, and where we go next. Mainstream history can be rewritten. The books on the shelf in your house cannot.

thehumanityarchive.substack.com

28 years teaching reading & ELL taught me reluctant readers don't need dumbed-down books — they need books built for them. I wrote The Listener Archives: a YA series with a branching-choice format and archive-style artifacts. Currently querying. #YALit #AmQuerying