For many children, learning to read is the process of learning to understand their spoken language in a written form. The relationship between oral language skills and reading skills is well documented. But what happens when there is a disconnect between a child’s ?oral language system and the language?of reading? This webinar will discuss ?oral language as the foundation for reading and the added complexity of learning to read for Black dialect speakers and how not understanding this complexity contributes to illiteracy and inequity.