Reading Between the Lions: Reading Roots 5th Edition is an innovative first grade literacy education product developed and researched by Sirius Thinking and the Success for All Foundation, in collaboration with WGBH Boston.

It has been designed to integrate the power of game-like software-assisted partner practice activities, and a newly developed online tool that gives teachers easy access to animated, interactive lesson-presentation materials, into the research-proven Reading Roots classroom instructional model. By doing so, our product enables teachers to support the progress of students reading at the wide range of skill levels typically found in a first grade classroom, eliminating the need to re-group students across classes that has been a barrier to broader use of Success for All’s Reading Roots model.

Furthermore, to enhance instruction both in the classroom and at home, we have integrated systematically targeted, funny and memorable videos and games from the 10-time-Emmy-Award-winning literacy education TV series Between the Lions into all modules of our new product. During the decade the program appeared daily on PBS, co-producers Sirius Thinking and WGBH created hundreds of highly entertaining video segments each keyed to a specific curriculum objective. Scientific research conducted by the University of Kansas, Harvard University, Mississippi State University, the University of Pennsylvania and others has consistently demonstrated that Between the Lions significantly boosts children's early reading skills in key areas, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary. It is worth noting that optimizing the use of Between the Lions assets for intentional learning with individual students – as opposed to the widely diverse audience served by a nationally broadcast TV show – is leveraging, with minimal additional production expense, the multi-million-dollar investment originally made in the program by the U.S. Department of Education, CPB, the Carnegie Corporation, and other philanthropic institutions.

Through an additional feature called Home Links, families can access amusing and entertaining Between the Lions videos and songs directly related to each day’s classroom instruction at home, so parents can review with their children exactly what they’re working on in school and help support their progress.

A critically important module of Reading Between the Lions: Reading Roots, 5th Edition is the Administration Management Portal that educators use to set up student teams and groups within classes; to track students’ progress and regroup them as their skills improve at different rates; to chart class, school, and district progress; to issue reports to students’ families; to collect and access student contact information, to manage staff, etc.

Research and development have been made possible by an SBIR award from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.