The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) provides a range of free resources and support programs designed to assist educators and families in promoting literacy. These offerings are aimed at preventing the "summer slide," encouraging family learning, and providing classroom-ready tools. The resources are primarily focused on structured literacy, phonics, and reading comprehension strategies suitable for parents, teachers, and specialists working with beginning readers.
Freebie Friday Email Series
One of the primary ways IMSE distributes free ideas and lessons is through its "Freebie Friday" email series. According to the source material, IMSE encourages educators to sign up for these weekly emails. The content shared by reading experts includes creative ideas for lessons, quick reading refreshers, and articles designed to help structure and guide an at-home reading support system. This program is positioned as a tool for educators to reach out to parents and caregivers to inspire involvement in family literacy potential.
Summer Reading Resources Guide
To address the "summer slide"—the loss of reading skills during school breaks—IMSE offers a free downloadable resource known as the Summer Reading Resources Guide. This guide is intended for educators to share with students' parents to engage readers at home. The resource includes: * Outdoor reading games and activity ideas. * Student reading activity printables. * Online literacy tools. * Grade-level concept review guides.
These materials are designed to help parents transition their students into the next grade level of reading. The guide is available for download via a specific link provided in the source data.
Parent Video and OG in a Bag Bundle
IMSE offers a resource specifically designed for teachers and specialists to help parents understand learning methods beyond the classroom: the Parent Video and OG in a Bag Bundle. This package includes a two-hour video training session that covers foundational reading skills. The training is described as hands-on training for guardians of beginning readers. The bundle also includes multi-sensory learning tools to facilitate the learning process at home.
Digital Resource Center and Social Media Platforms
IMSE maintains a digital resource center where users can access free resources. Additionally, IMSE utilizes social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest to share tips and tricks from peers and IMSE experts. Pinterest, specifically, hosts a collection titled "IMSE Free Resources," which contains 39 pins. These pins cover a variety of educational topics, including: * Word sorts. * Reading strategies posters. * Phonics songs. * Alphabet writing. * Phonemic awareness teaching tools. * Morphology interactive notebooks. * Blending sounds. * Red Words (high-frequency words). * Halloween-themed literacy activities and teaching tools (e.g., pumpkin math freebies, Halloween phonics, Spookley the Square Pumpkin book companion). * Short vowel teaching materials (e.g., mouth articulation posters, picture cards).
Classroom-Ready Teacher Tools
IMSE identifies and shares popular teacher tools based on peer feedback and customer engagement. In a review of 2021, the "Dry Erase Dictation Hands" were highlighted as a top tool. These hands are described as easy to tap, write, rewrite, erase, and reuse. They are intended to be used with a vinyl envelope and dry erase markers for classroom activities.
OG Weekly Email Series
In addition to the Freebie Friday emails, IMSE offers an "OG Weekly" email series. This series provides refreshers and tips related to Orton-Gillingham methods. It is part of the broader effort to support educators and families in maintaining consistent literacy instruction.
Impact of Family Learning
The source material notes that when family learning takes place, children showed a gain of 22.5% in reading scores at or above grade level. This statistic underscores the importance of the resources provided by IMSE, which are designed to facilitate family involvement in literacy development.
Conclusion
IMSE provides a comprehensive suite of free resources, email series, and digital content aimed at supporting literacy education. From the "Freebie Friday" emails and "Summer Reading Resources Guide" to the "Parent Video and OG in a Bag Bundle," these tools are designed to bridge the gap between the classroom and the home. By offering accessible materials such as printables, activity guides, and video training, IMSE assists educators and parents in their efforts to improve reading skills and prevent learning regression, particularly during school breaks. The availability of these resources through various digital platforms and email subscriptions makes them accessible to a wide audience of educators and families across the United States.