News & Tips

A Tar Heel Shared Reader screenshot

Here’s an exciting new resource to know about.

The Tar Heel Shared Reader is an evidence-based tool for reading with students who have significant cognitive disabilities. The Tar Heel Shared Reader brings together the celebrated, accessible, age-appropriate Tar Heel Reader library with new onscreen tools and supports to encourage interaction and comprehension.

Reading together with the strategies and tools encouraged by the Tar Heel Shared Reader helps develop the knowledge necessary for eventual reading success, for example:

• Vocabulary
• Concepts of print
• Knowledge of the alphabet
• Phonological awareness
• Expressive communication

Find the Tar Heel Shared Reader at www.shared.tarheelreader.org. Each book includes onscreen customizable communication and commenting supports.

Learn how to use the Tar Heel Shared Reader. Visit www.sharedreader.org and find seven professional development training modules, implementation guides, and quick reference and how-to supports.

Check out the bibliography of research used to create the Tar Heel Shared Reader.

Thank you, Center for Literacy and Disability Studies of UNC — and Karen Erickson, Ph.D — for all you do for students with disabilities! The original Tar Heel Reader has grown over the last 12 years to include thousands of titles. Books may be speech-enabled, accessed by a variety of assistive technologies and include a range of subjects of interest to adults as well as children.