Reading Confidence Accelerator© — A Bold New Approach to Transforming Literacy
“Stories That Connect” workshop is a Reading Confidence Accelerator© — a radical shift in how we engage struggling readers of any age.
This is the second article in a series focused on the crucial issue of reading literacy. Read the first article. The phrase “Reading Confidence Accelerator©” is Copyright Greg Twemlow, Feb 3rd, 2025.
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The reading crisis is not a distant threat — it’s a pressing issue that demands immediate attention. It’s here, eroding the futures of millions of students. The data confirms what educators have long feared. In 2023, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that only 33% of eighth-graders were proficient in reading, while 37% performed below the basic literacy level. But these numbers don’t fully capture the reality inside classrooms. They don’t reveal the frustration, the shame, or the quiet retreat of students who have already given up on reading. This is a crisis that cannot wait.
Ask any struggling reader, and they will tell you that reading is challenging. It’s exhausting. It exposes their weaknesses in ways that feel painfully public. Using earphones and letting someone else do the reading is far easier. And so, they withdraw. Not just from books but also opportunities that require literacy — higher education, career advancement, and even essential independence in adult life.
When students lose confidence in reading, they lose confidence in themselves. This is why the problem is not simply a literacy crisis — it’s a self-belief crisis.
Yet, we have seen that this downward spiral is not inevitable. A different kind of intervention is not just possible but transformative. It’s a shift in focus from skills to how students feel about reading, and it’s a powerful mechanism to deal with the reading crisis and the associated self-confidence crisis.
Beyond Literacy: A Confidence Revolution
With a proven experiential learning design, the ‘Stories That Connect’ workshops are foundational in the battle against the reading crisis.
‘Stories That Connect’ is not just another literacy program. It is a revolutionary approach that transcends traditional methods, focusing on experience, interaction, and engagement rather than worksheets, phonics drills, or comprehension tests. Its unique features, such as its focus on personal and social aspects of reading, make it a standout solution for the reading crisis.
Instead, Stories That Connect is a Reading Confidence Accelerator© — a radical shift in how we engage struggling readers.
Students who lack reading confidence don’t need more instruction. They need an experience that fundamentally changes their relationship with reading.
If students feel powerless when they read, they will avoid it. If they feel empowered, they will seek it out.
This program is designed to make reading personal, social, and powerful. Instead of forcing reluctant readers to “catch up” with abstract exercises, it immerses them in storytelling experiences — ones where they are the creators, the narrators, the voices that bring words to life.
At its core, Stories That Connect is about identity transformation. This means the program improves reading skills and changes students’ perspectives. They don’t just leave the program as better readers. They go, seeing themselves as readers, with a newfound confidence and belief in their abilities.
One of the most potent aspects of Stories That Connect is its flexibility — it is not designed for a single age group or reading level but can be adapted to any learner at any stage of literacy development.
The core structure remains consistent regardless of whether the participants are early readers, middle school students, high schoolers, or adults looking to build literacy confidence. What changes is the nature and sophistication of the story being developed, ensuring that the content is always relevant, engaging, and appropriately challenging for the participants.
This adaptability contributes to making Stories That Connect unique.
Unlike traditional reading interventions catering to narrow proficiency bands, this workshop serves as a scaffolded learning experience that meets participants where they are and elevates them. A younger child might co-create a simple, adventure-driven story with short, accessible language, while an older student or adult might develop a more complex, character-driven narrative with more profound themes. However, the process remains the same — collaborative storytelling, structured reading confidence-building, and public presentation to solidify self-belief.
This program is not just for a select few-it can be for everyone, regardless of age, literacy level, or context.
The experiential learning design ensures that Stories That Connect is more than a workshop — it’s a framework that scales across age groups, literacy levels, and contexts while consistently delivering the same transformational outcome: turning hesitant readers into confident storytellers.
How Do We Scale a Confidence-First Approach?
The initial success of Stories That Connect has made one thing clear: this approach works. Now, the challenge is to expand it. We need the support of school communities to ensure that more students experience the shift from reluctant reading to confident storytelling.
To scale effectively while preserving the program’s unique impact, we must focus on three key pathways:
1. Digital Expansion: Taking Confidence Beyond the Classroom
Most literacy programs fail to scale because they rely on static, one-size-fits-all methods. But Stories That Connect is different — it’s built on experience, interaction, and engagement.
This makes it uniquely suited for digital transformation.
Imagine an interactive platform that guides students through immersive storytelling experiences, adjusting to their skill level and building confidence first and literacy second.
AI-Powered Personalised Learning: A system that adapts to individual reading fluency and provides real-time encouragement rather than just corrections.
Interactive Story Games: Instead of passive reading, students can build, edit, and narrate their stories, reinforcing literacy as a creative act, not a chore.
Confidence Metrics, Not Just Test Scores: We must track self-belief growth as rigorously as reading proficiency — monitoring engagement, fluency, and risk-taking in reading aloud.
We can replicate the confidence-boosting impact of the live program in a scalable, digital format. In that case, we can reach thousands more students without losing what makes it powerful.
2. Train-the-Trainer: A Network of Literacy Confidence Coaches
Scaling “Stories That Connect” requires more than just expanding access — it requires increasing inspiration.
Students don’t need tutors — they need mentors who believe in them. That’s why the program must grow through a certified facilitator network, equipping teachers, community leaders, and volunteers with the skills to ignite reading confidence in students.
Fast-Track Facilitator Certification: A half-day immersive training, potentially enhanced with AI mentorship, where educators learn to facilitate confidence-first literacy sessions.
Storytelling Workshops, Not Lectures: Trained facilitators do not “teach” reading — they guide students through storytelling experiences, where reading is a tool for expression and collaboration.
A Community of Practice: An ongoing peer network where facilitators share best practices, refine techniques, and support each other in keeping the program’s core mission intact.
By empowering more leaders, we ensure that Stories That Connect scales as a movement, not just as a curriculum.
3. Community-Driven Literacy: Schools, Libraries, and Beyond
This initiative cannot be confined to classrooms. Literacy confidence must become a shared responsibility- a collective effort woven into communities, libraries, and youth organisations. We need everyone on board to make this a reality.
Public-Private Partnerships: Engaging businesses, nonprofits, and policymakers to invest in literacy confidence initiatives.
Library-Based Reading Confidence Labs: Making Stories That Connect workshops a standard literacy program in public libraries.
Community-Led Crowdfunding: Parents, teachers, and local leaders can fundraise for school-based literacy confidence programs, creating a collective investment in student self-belief.
Stories That Connect isn’t interested in higher test scores. It’s about making literacy confidence a cultural norm — something valued and nurtured at every level of society.
Scaling Without Losing the Heart of the Program
The most significant risk of scaling any education initiative is dilution.
We cannot let Stories That Connect become just another literacy program. Its core identity — a self-confidence transformation — must remain intact.
Here’s how we do it:
Protect Program Fidelity: Every in-person or digital facilitator must prioritise confidence-building over test performance.
Measure Growth in Self-Belief: If students don’t see themselves as readers, we haven’t succeeded — regardless of their fluency gains.
Adapt, But Stay True to the Mission: Whether delivered through digital platforms, in-person coaching, or community partnerships, every expansion must preserve the experiential learning model.
If we get this right, scaling won’t just mean reaching more students but transforming how literacy education is approached.
A New Chapter in Literacy Begins Now
Scaling “Stories That Connect” is not just about making more students read — it’s about enabling self-belief as readers.
This is not literacy remediation.
This is literacy confidence acceleration.
This is how we change the story.
The reading crisis is urgent, but so is our opportunity to rewrite the narrative. It starts by scaling confidence first and literacy second.
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📌 Greg Twemlow, Founder of XperientialAI & Designer of the Fusion Bridge
XperientialAI: AI-powered learning for leaders, educators, and organizations.
Fusion Bridge: My latest work — building AI-enabled frameworks for innovation & leadership.
🌎 Read more of my 300+ articles → https://gregtwemlow.medium.com/
📧 Contact: greg@xperiential.ai or greg@fusionbridge.org
