How do you design products that increase literacy?
Donyall D. Dickey, Ed.D, founder of Educational Epiphany, is a nationally recognized authority on curriculum, instruction, organizational development, and district improvement.
He hired me to conceptualize, design, and produce high-impact instructional resources that address, mitigate, and overcome both opportunity and achievement gaps.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive and the results have exceeded expectations:
- 99% Educational Epiphany’s of clients have purchased one or more product
- product sales have increased 433%
- reading proficiency levels have increased by 20 – 60% in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, and Tennessee
- Buckeye Union High School District sees the largest improvement in test scores compared to other Arizona districts
Brand Identity
Style Guide
When I began working with Educational Epiphany, they had a brand logo, but little else in terms of visual identity. Over time, I’ve built a design system that defines the overall look and feel of the brand across platforms, informs product development, and is now recognized by a loyal and growing customer base.
The system incorporates typography and color palette, but most importantly, Dr. Dickey’s tone of voice and mission:
Provide high-quality, initial instruction and strategic remediation to the more than 65% of the population reading below the proficiency threshold.
Products and Services
Catalog
I am so proud of the 2023/24 Educational Epiphany Curriculum and Services Catalog that I have been designing for the last year. It’s a comprehensive listing of the company’s products and services, instructional materials and virtual and/or in-person professional development services—adaptable across all K–12 grades and content areas.
The company has reputation for being a deeply committed and long-term partner, dedicated to improving student outcomes in the most effective and practical ways possible. This catalog will most certainly help the company—and their customers—meet and exceed their goals. I’m only showing a sampling of the 100 pages; you can see (and order) the entire catalog online.
Anniversary Promotion
Social Media
Educational Epiphany is celebrating 15 years business. It’s an impressive accomplishment, as is the success of the students and teachers who benefit from using the company’s standards-informed instructional materials.
I designed an anniversary logo and created a corresponding social media campaign (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn) to:
- celebrate the company and the effectiveness of its instructional resources and workshops
- launch the new product and services catalog
Grades K–12
Literacy Kit
Educational Epiphany’s K-12 Literacy Kit provides the tools and resources needed to help all students read at or beyond developmental expectations.
The kit supports teachers in making it possible for all students to:
- decode (pronounce words) fluently
- develop a full understanding of the relationship between the smallest unit of writing and sound
- create meaning and understanding of what they’ve decoded
- decode and create meaning with similar levels of success (fluency) and intensity
Decoding and Creating Meaning
Fluency requires proficiency in two domains of literacy development: Decoding and Creating Meaning. Being able to do both is critical to students’ ability to perform at and beyond grade level expectations.
Each Literacy Kit teaches:
- 44 phonemes (sounds) that make up the English language
- 144 graphemes (ways to write the 44 sounds)
- the 30 most commonly occurring prefixes in the English language
- the 30 most commonly occurring root words in the English language
- the 30 most commonly occurring suffixes in the English language
Double-Sided Cards
Each Double-Sided Card features the definition of each term to provide point-of-use access for teachers and students during whole-class, center work, and independent reading.
Snapshot Cards
Snapshot Cards provide an at-a-glance view of the building blocks of reading fluency.
Pre-K–3
Dolch Sight Word Kit
Educational Epiphany’s Dolch Sight Word Kit features the most commonly used words in the English language that must be easily recognized in order for students to achieve reading fluency and beyond.
Dolch Sight Word Cards
This Pre-K–3 kit supports teachers in making it possible for all students to:
- develop a deep understanding of the 315 Dolch Sight Words, making it easier for them to focus their attention on the remaining, more complicated words in texts
- access the 220 “service words” and the 95 high-frequency nouns that make up 80% of the words students will encounter in the texts they read.
Dolch Snapshot Cards
Snapshot Cards provide an at-a-glance view of the building blocks of reading fluency.
Grades 3–9
Fry Sight Word Kit
Educational Epiphany’s Fry Sight Word Kit features a complete listing of the 1,000 most commonly used words in reading materials for Grades 3–9 that must be recognized in order for students to achieve reading fluency and beyond.
The Fry words are listed by the frequency with which they occur and are broken down into groups of 100, with the first 100 Fry words being the 100 most frequently occurring words in the English language.
Fry Sight Word Cards
This kit supports teachers in making it possible for all students to:
- develop a deep understanding of the 1,000 Fry sight words necessary to focus attention on the remaining, more complicated words in texts
- access 90% of the words in a typical book, newspaper, or website
Fry Snapshot Cards
Snapshot Cards provide an at-a-glance view of the building blocks of reading fluency.
Grades K–12
Universal Language of Literacy
Educational Epiphany’s Universal Language of Literacy Kit contain 36 universal terms that transcend grade levels and content areas.
The cards and corresponding posters are designed to help students build capacity and deepen their understanding of the texts they’ve read and achieve reading proficiency.
Grades K–12
Critical Literary Language
Literary language refers to the form of writing used in works of literature, such as novels, plays, poems, and stories.
The K–12 Educational Epiphany Critical Literary Language Kit is designed to promote deep conceptual understanding of terms and devices associated with reading, analyzing, critiquing, and composing literary texts.
