A comprehensive early literacy curriculum for emergent learners, Pre-K to Grade 2+.
Put all Early Learners on the path to Conventional Literacy with ReadtopiaGO™
ReadtopiaGO™ by Building Wings is a comprehensive early literacy curriculum for emergent learners, Pre-K to Grade 2+, designed to help get our youngest students on the road to literacy.
ReadtopiaGO™ Benefits for Special Educators
Daily Support
Daily instructional guidance to help adults deliver instruction effectively and easily.
Evidence Based
Evidence-based literacy instruction reflective of the latest literacy research.
Four-Years of
Content
Will include four-years of engaging content that is comprehensive, emergent, and core curriculum-aligned.
Instructional
Routines
Organized around shared reading, the single most important routine for developing readers.
What’s included: Four years of literacy lessons with 32 leveled books per year. Each book has an associated Teacher Guide with explicit instructional routines, engaging videos, research-based lessons for alphabet and phonics instruction and activity centers.
A Library for ALL Kids
A leveled library anchored by 32 custom-created books for each year.
Diverse
Books where children can see themselves as heroes, dreamers, learners. Videos, illustrations, and photos that represent the rich diversity of learners. Puppet characters/shows that introduce concepts and build background knowledge in engaging, age-appropriate ways.
Developmental
For children pre-K to Grade 2 who face learning barriers (communication, sensory, motor, or developmental challenges). For children who may be learning in a variety of settings (Head Start, Pre-K/K program, speech clinics, self-contained, or general education early elementary). Leveled instructional activities.
Nurturing
Safe, supportive, and nurturing relationships with adults help to drive students’ engagement and growth. Instructional dynamics are personalized to each child’s needs to optimize efficacy. Supported exploration in communicating, listening, reading, and writing helps to build engagement and confidence.
Building a Foundation of Literacy
for ALL Learners
ReadtopiaGO™ by Building Wings is a comprehensive early literacy curriculum
for emergent learners, Pre-K to Grade 2+, designed to help get our youngest students on the road to literacy.
Drawn from Erickson & Koppenhaver’s Comprehensive Literacy for All: Teaching Students with Significant Disabilities to Read and Write (2019), ReadtopiaGO provides educators with all the books, activities, and instructional guidance they need to deliver 4+ years of age-appropriate, engaging, and evidence-based literacy instruction.
Meet the Authors
Maureen Donnelly, M.Ed.
Maureen Donnelly, M.Ed. is a Curriculum Development Manager at Building Wings. Maureen is an early childhood educator by training who has worked with students of diverse ages and abilities, from preschool through college. Throughout her 25-year career, Maureen has developed numerous products and written hundreds of books that support the literacy learning needs of beginners. She lives and works in Maine, in an office stuffed with children’s books.
Allison Dennis, PhD
Allison Dennis, PhD, is a former special education teacher who serves as the Manager of Curriculum Development at Building Wings and has master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Frequently Asked Questions About ReadtopiaGO
ReadtopiaGO is not a linear curriculum, per se. You can follow the progression
we’ve set out or you can order and teach themes and topics in the way that works
best for you and your learners. Within ReadtopiaGO, there are:
- 16 themes per year, divided into 4 collections
- Each collection contains 4 themes
- Each theme contains 2 topics
- 32 books per year, written at the T3 level (early elementary level), E2 level
(preK/K level), and E1 level (preK).
Another way to state this is there are two topics to a theme, four themes to a
Collection, four Collections to a year and there will be four years of content.
Research tells us that providing young children with access to rich or descriptive
language (the words we hear in conversation, TV, storybooks, etc.) serves two
purposes: it builds the kind of curiosity that leads to a positive disposition toward
language and it helps learners develop a more robust oral vocabulary, which is
critical for later success in reading. While there are no prerequisites for learners
to engage with and benefit from ReadtopiaGO, the introduction of rich vocabulary,
is included in the T3 level books. This was intentional on the author’s part.
ReadtopiaGo provides you with all the lessons, books, videos, and activities you
need for the next four years, relieving you of the time you might otherwise spend
finding, aligning, and adapting curricula to meet the needs of your learners. While
some level of preparation is beneficial, it is possible to pick up the Teacher Guide
on Monday morning and start teaching. This is because ReadtopiaGo includes
2-minute Teaching Tutorials that provide you with the what, why, and how of each
instructional routine. Additionally, you can follow the step-by-step lesson
sequence contained in the Teacher Guide. This program is also a time-saver as it
can be integrated into substitute plans or by knowledgeable others or
co-teachers if the primary teacher has to be away from the classroom for a
meeting.
Each year of ReadtopiaGo is organized around 16 themes that are topically
aligned to curricular frameworks and standards that are commonly included at
the state level. Rather than cherry-pick individual standards and create activities
that align to them, ReadtopiaGo’s weekly cycles of comprehensive instruction
provide layers of repetition with variety to ensure that the standards are not just
met, they are integrated meaningfully. Each collection consists of a science, a
social studies, a social-emotional, and a life skills theme. These diverse topics
ensure that learners have opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the world
and build their literacy skills at the same time.
Yes! ReadtopiaGo conforms to this vast body of research that recognizes that
learners need daily support and instruction in comprehension and vocabulary, as
well as instruction in the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, and phonics.
ReadtopiaGo’s instructional cycle encompasses all of these domains, including
our patented Learning Letters and Learning Letter Plus supplements, designed in
consultation with Dr. Karen Erickson and the Center for Literacy and Disability
Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill. These packets will systematically and sequentially
support you to take your learners on a journey from identifying letters, to
associating letters with sounds, to making words at two differentiated levels
across more than 80 lessons.
Research recommends instruction in all five emergent instructional routines
(90-120 minutes of early literacy instruction) each day and that can be
accomplished with the instructional materials within ReadtopiaGO time
permitting in your classroom..
We want to protect student data and do not require individual student logins.
Research tells us that young children learn best when supported and scaffolded
by you, their knowledgeable other.
We all know that collecting data is not as simple as it sounds. We need
meaningful, measurable, and sufficiently incremental literacy goals for each child,
seamless systems for collecting evidence, and easy mechanisms by which to
share information with others. Meeting any one of these requirements, and
indeed all of three, can prove challenging. We are creating a companion tool to
accomplish this which will be released soon.
We agree that learners need access to pages and pencils / alternative pencils
that support emergent reading and writing. That’s why we will be offering an
accessible library of books as well as accessibility tips in the Teacher Guide, to
ensure that learners have maximal access to ReadtopiaGo’s materials, activities
and experiences. You can also find links to additional support and resources
created by Project-Core, at the end of the Teaching Tutorials).
Every classroom needs different amounts of printed materials so we provide
resources which can be copied at the district, school or classroom level. Here are
our top tips for saving paper and optimizing printing.:
- Print in Draft: You use less ink and print faster!
- Clean your ink jets: Most printers have a cleaning feature. Use it!
- Choose grayscale: Only print in color when you need it.
- Use Multi-Page Printing: Set your printer to print 2 or more pages on a single sheet of paper (in settings).
- Don’t Print At All: Send the Teacher Guide and book to your phone, ipad or or other digital interface.
To purchase, you can either fill out a form by hitting the ‘request a quote’ button
on the buildingwings.com or you can chat with a Curriculum Support Specialist
by clicking on the chat icon on the lower right-hand corner of our homepage.
Once you’ve agreed to purchase, we accept payment in the form of a check,
credit card or a purchase order.
ReadtopiaGo was developed as a partner to our flagship program, Readtopia.
which is a special education instructional program for learners in grades 3-12.
This means you can provide seamless, evidence-based ELA instruction from
pre-k through grade 12 while simultaneously supporting learning in Math, Social
Studies, Life Skills, and Science.
The retail price of ReadtopiaGO is $675 for a single user license for one year. Discount pricing for multiple licenses and multi-year options may be availalbe.
For subscribers to ReadtopiaGO, we will be offering a supplemental math
component in the future.
ReadtopiaGO Pricing
Free Curriculum
Sampler
Sampler
FREE
Get free access to samples of
Readtopia materials
and try them with your
students—no credit
card required.
Individual
Educator
Educator
$675 USD/year
(per educator)
Homeschool/Parents:
If you’d like to bring
Readtopia into your
home, call us at
847-238-8889 for a discounted license.
847-238-8889 for a discounted license.
School District or Organization
5-50%
Savings
Discounts are
available for
districts/facilities with
multiple licenses or who
select multi-year options.