Last summer, when I wasn’t busy trying to find the best muffuletta in New Orleans, I attended a spectacular session at our annual Fusion conference on supporting kids with dyslexia. Charachel Gordon, dyslexia coordinator with Houston Independent School District, co-led a session that demystified what trips up so many educators: how to identify, help and, yes, challenge, those students.
Her session was so compelling that we asked Charachel to join us on a webinar about her district’s use of MAP® Reading Fluency™, our K–5 reading assessment, and even during that our chatroom was filled with folks who had curiosity about Charachel herself. That’s because under even the shortest offhand comment, you can tell there’s a wealth of expertise about what it means to be an educator who’s passionate about the science of reading and loves books.
So, we gave in. We sat down with Charachel to learn more about what it looks like when a reading champion is forged.
1. Tell us about your journey as a reader.
When I was a kid, my classroom was a very traditional space: desks in rows, lessons neatly written on the chalkboard, and a teaching model that was mostly what we now call “drill and kill”—think rote memorization of words without any real understanding of the underlying structure of language, like phonics or syllables. In lower elementary, the dominant model was the “whole language approach.” This philosophy centered on the idea that reading is a natural process, much like learning to speak, and that students would learn best through literacy immersion and context. As if we learn by osmosis.
I firmly believe that this approach did a disservice. The truth is, the human brain is not wired to read. It requires explicit, systematic instruction. Expecting students to learn holistically, as they learn to speak, can be ineffective, especially when Tier 1 reading instruction in early elementary is so essential. My experience taught me a vital lesson: if every child had access to a scientific approach to reading instruction, like the methods I’ve learned working with students who have dyslexia, we would see much greater gains in reading today.
Despite the instructional limitations, I did find some joy in reading, and I owe that to two things. First, I was a big fan of Dr. Seuss. Second, I loved going to the library. It wasn’t just checking out books that I liked; it was also the sheer delight of hearing the librarian read to us beforehand. Her genuine love for reading was contagious, and it was her enthusiasm, not a natural instinct of my own, that sparked some joy in my literacy journey.
2. How did you begin your journey as a dyslexia specialist?
My career path didn’t start with a traditional education degree. I began in corporate America, but in 2004, I took a leap to explore teaching and landed in Sheldon Independent School District, here in Houston. I started as a second-grade English language arts and social studies teacher, but my focus quickly narrowed when I was given the opportunity to serve as the Title 1 reading interventionist for grades 3–5. This meant working intensely with students who needed Tier 2 and Tier 3 reading intervention.
The next pivotal step came when I was presented with a chance to apply for a newly established department in Houston ISD. Its sole focus was providing evidence-based dyslexia instruction. Taking that opportunity was the best unplanned decision ever! It allowed me to move from general education to a highly specialized field where I could apply focused, scientific strategies to truly change a student’s life.
3. Is there one myth about dyslexia you wish you could take to the TED Talk stage to dispel?
If I could step onto the TED Talk stage, the one myth I’d immediately tackle is this: neurodivergent students, especially individuals with dyslexia, are not lazy.
This is a perception I wish I could wipe out entirely. The truth is, students with dyslexia are often the hardest-working individuals in the room. They are not having difficulties because they lack effort, motivation, or intelligence; they are having them because their brains are wired to process language differently, which makes a task that can seem automatic for others—reading—a genuine intellectual challenge. They often expend more mental energy and sheer effort on foundational tasks than their peers, leading to exhaustion, frustration, and, sometimes, a visible withdrawal that is tragically mislabeled as laziness.
We need to shift the narrative to recognize the immense cognitive effort these individuals put forth and replace judgment with evidence-based support and understanding.
4. What helped you understand that you needed a more holistic solution for supporting readers with dyslexia?
The frustration of data-rich but action-poor decision-making before the implementation of a true multi-tiered system of supports, or MTSS, framework with integrated tools. We had:
- Siloed data. Screening data, like initial benchmark scores, were housed separately from instructional progress monitoring data. This meant teachers had to manually piece together a student’s profile, leading to significant time wasted and the potential for misdiagnosis.
- Reactive intervention. We waited for students to fail a grade-level benchmark before intervening. Support wasn’t guided by a clear, predictive framework, resulting in delayed and generalized Tier 2 and 3 services.
- Inconsistent fidelity. Without a clear system, intervention content and delivery varied widely between our classrooms and teachers.
Adopting a holistic solution allowed us to create a more integrated system. We now have dyslexia progress monitoring and use MAP Reading Fluency as part of our MTSS model, which gives us:
- A unified view. Screeners like MAP Reading Fluency provide a single, clear view of each student. We can see which specific reading components, like phonological awareness, are weak and link that directly to an intervention. This allows us to adjust evidence-based dyslexia instruction as needed.
- Proactive tiering. Now we use predictive data from early screeners (K–2) to identify students at risk for dyslexia before they fail. This enables our team to deploy Tier 2 supports immediately and more precisely.
- Instructional coherence. We must have consistency across all tiers. The data now drives the conversation, making it clear what specialized instruction is required and highlighting where we need our excellent classrooms and teachers to be role models to others.
5. What characterizes a realistic first step in evaluating a strategy for supporting students with dyslexia?
I would say a deep, honest audit of your Tier 1 reading instruction and universal screening process. You can’t effectively intervene, that is, you can’t address Tier 2 and Tier 3, if the foundational instruction is flawed, or if you don’t know who is truly at risk.
Before adding new programs, ask yourself if your core instruction—the instruction every single student receives in the classroom—truly aligns with science of reading principles. This means verifying the core curriculum is explicit, systematic, and cumulative and confirming it includes all five pillars of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Many older programs, or those based on the whole language or balanced literacy models, do not meet this standard. You might have to be the “bad guy” who takes away curriculum that’s been teachers’ favorite for years, but trust that you’re believing in the science of what truly works.
Then, it’s time to observe and refine your teachers’ practice. Are they teaching phonological awareness and phonics skills explicitly and directly, for example? A teacher’s comfort and training in these areas directly impact student outcomes.
Next comes evaluating your universal screener. Schools must move beyond using only benchmark assessments because doing so wastes valuable time. Adopt a brief, valid, and reliable screener that specifically measures key prereading skills, as these are the strongest predictors of later reading difficulty). They include:
- Phonological/phonemic awareness (e.g., blending, segmenting)
- Rapid automatized naming (RAN)
- Letter sound fluency
Finally, use the screening data to immediately determine who may have dyslexia and determine next steps for those students. Data-driven decisions should guide next steps, which could include returning to Tier 1 instruction (maybe the student had a bad day or did not take the screener seriously, for example), Tier 2 or 3 intervention (such as small-group or targeted practice), or referred for special education services. Do not wait for them to fail to provide necessary support.
6. When you picture a success story, does a certain student come to mind?
Yes! I remember working with a second-grade emergent bilingual student whose home language was Spanish. When he started in our evidence-based dyslexia curriculum, he needed a lot of support with letter-sound correlation. This foundational gap made it nearly impossible for him to engage in certain parts of the lesson, and I could tell he was getting frustrated.
Based on his data, I made the decision to take him out of the standard group and place him into a more foundational, evidence-based program that focused specifically on building those missing skills. He worked there for a whole semester. The following school year, I transitioned him back into the initial curriculum. I kept his original student recording sheets from before the intervention, and one day, he and I were looking at them together. His face lit up as he compared his current work to his past performance. “Wow, I am doing much better, Ms. G.!” he said, beaming. When I asked him how that made him feel, he cited his ability to participate in class, something he hadn’t been able to do before. That’s all he wanted—to belong!
To hear more about serving students with dyslexia, watch our webinar, now available on demand, and view our archive of posts about dyslexia here on Teach. Learn. Grow.
