Professors are People too
Here’s my bottom-line:
We cannot change and improve reading instruction without changing teachers’ minds.
We cannot change and improve educator prep without changing professors’ minds.
The most effective advocacy will center both of those ideas.
Reading Reform Across America: The most interesting thing I read this summer…
Inevitably, this analogue report would be harder to write and compile–where do you even begin? But when I think about changing the way reading is taught, when I think about persuading teachers and school leaders that this whole structured literacy thing isn’t just another initiative that will die on the vine after a few years, I’m way more optimistic about bottom-up, opt-in initiatives that incentivize educators and recognize that educational change cannot be mandated overnight.
Crowdsourcing Science of Reading Wisdom
In this padlet, we’ve compiled a list of questions that we expect to encounter as we start these conversations. We believe that these are important questions that can be difficult to answer on the spot. For that reason, we invite YOU to share ideas, practiced responses, and helpful resources that can support teachers, interventionists, administrators, and anyone else who needs to speak to the importance of evidence-based practices on both sides of the reading rope.
Socratic Seminars for Beginners: Learning to “Let Go”
On a final note, I must reiterate the importance of letting go once you get started. Although there will be a good amount of preparation you will do “behind the scenes” prior to a Socratic Seminar, students must “take the reins” during the actual discussion. It will not always be perfect and there will be mishaps along the way, but allowing students to take ownership of their ideas and work through minor moments of struggle will cultivate growth. Be prepared to “let go,” pull up a chair outside of the Socratic Seminar circle, and watch the magic happen. The true reward and joy will be found in watching your students lead each other to new ideas, questions, and even shared understandings. And the best part? They will have done it all on their own.
Student-Structured Literacy
Including Student-Structured Literacy elements into my approach to teaching foundational literacy was a game changer for me. Not only was I able to teach phonemic awareness and phonics in keeping with best practices from the science of reading research, I saw students engage in a more joyful and collaborative way as they took ownership of their literacy learning through a more culturally responsive model. If you are an early literacy practitioner, consider adopting this framework as you plan for effective and engaging reading instruction next school year. Start small by trying just one of these options and you might be amazed to see where the kids lead you with their creativity and leadership in literacy.
Standard Celeration Charts
It’s worthwhile to learn how to use this tool to monitor student progress and to inform instruction. There are programs that can generate digital charts and even some that can program in the data for you. There are many ways this chart can be used, and it is highly adaptable. You can measure almost anything. I’ve seen some precision teachers who can build up a wide variety of cognitive and behavioral skills as well as academic skills. There are limits to this tool, as there are with every tool, but it is a powerful option for building up our students’ skills.
Bridging Research to Practice: Mount St. Joseph University’s Reading Science Programs
Whether it’s called The gap between reading research and classroom practice, The missing foundation in teacher education, or The two cultures of science and education, the research consensus is clear: there is a major chasm that exists between reading research and reading instruction. In fact, the disconnect between reading science and the teaching of reading is so significant and substantial that those “labels” are all chapter titles in books written by prominent researchers in the field of reading science: David Kilpatrick, Louisa Moats, and Mark Seidenberg, respectively.
SIPPS 101
The next day we had to sit in multi-grade level bands, with first and second grade seated together. I quickly learned that SIPPS is best used as differentiated instruction across multiple grade levels. If a teacher were to teach SIPPS in just their classroom, they would be limited to roughly two small groups. There simply wouldn’t be enough time to differentiate beyond that. However, by combining both first and second grade, suddenly we have 6 teachers for 12 small groups. That flexibility allowed us to fine-tune our differentiation down to whether a student was struggling with sight words or sounds within the same series of lessons.
Fellowship Application Reflections
These videos have been a delight to watch. Among many other things, this morning I’ve watched:
3rd graders participating in a Socratic Seminar about who gets to decide the meaning of a work of art.
Kindergarteners decoding and encoding multisyllabic words.
A 7th grader teacher leading sixty (yes, sixty) 7th graders through a fluency review to prepare for state testing.
Roadmap to Reading: Implementing Evidence-Based and Data-Driven Literacy Instruction at Marin Horizon School
“I think we’re getting smarter!” declares an enthusiastic kindergartner after impressing himself with his participation during phonemic awareness “word games.” Students notice that breaking words apart into sounds - such as cat into /c/ /a/ /t/ - feels easier than it had in the beginning of the year. From a different spot in the same classroom, other students are excitedly noticing all of the parts of the day’s schedule that have newly-introduced digraphs: “math!” “Spanish!” “lunch!” There are few things more exciting than being five or six and learning that the written stuff all around you is a code that you are learning to break.
How My 1st Graders Learned the Word “Observe”
Fast forward one month, my five students at my small group table opened their new Geodes text, ‘Bee Waggle.’ In this set of four Geodes texts, students learn about Vervet monkeys who communicate different alarm calls to warn about different predators, about ants who communicate using scent, elephants who communicate in many different ways, and bees who have dances to communicate the location of nectar. My students read the page.
The Dos and Don’ts of Literacy Change
Wars have sides. Every time someone talks about the “Reading Wars,” we are making teachers choose a side. Once you choose a side, your side becomes part of your identity, and the other side becomes your enemy. This framing, though exciting and dramatic, makes it hard for teachers to see the good and the humanity in the “other side,” let alone contemplate changing their teaching approach.
Talk To Teachers: Amanda Bryant
I had an amazing mentor, who happened to be trained in phonics. She was Orton-Gillingham trained, and she shared all of her knowledge with me. I still teach the way she taught me to teach. Even when my school adopted balanced literacy, I kept incorporating the things she had taught me into my instruction. New teachers coming into education after me usually only received training in balanced literacy. I feel blessed that I had a good teaching foundation built around phonics before the transition to balanced literacy occurred but felt bad for colleagues who didn’t.
The Middle School Literacy Bottleneck
At the end of the day, it’s about seeing that each child has the skills they need to have choices in life. We can’t perform miracles, but we can make decisions on a macro and a micro level within the system that will benefit the maximum number of students.
How To Celebrate Learning
Celebrating student learning is vital. It shows students that their work is meaningful and something to be proud of. Knowing that their work will be on display motivates them. They love to be experts on topics and teach adults all that they have learned. These celebrations also help to maintain the important connection between the school and the community. Parents are able to see what their students are learning and talk to them about their new knowledge. They also love coming into school and seeing all the great work the students have produced.
What Do Balanced Literacy and Red Meat Have in Common?
We are not wrong to emphasize the urgency of making these changes. But we are wrong when we do not acknowledge how difficult these changes are to make. Change, under any circumstance, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, is really, really, really difficult. Homeostasis rules.
Talk to Teachers: Katie Brunson
I think this shows the trust we had in Kathleen. She made it clear that we were going together, as a school, to improve reading instruction. We’re all going to give it our best shot. We’re going to implement this new curriculum with integrity. Trusting and being trusted by our principal made such a big difference.
How A $30 Book Changed the Way We Teach
PLANNING NOW: No more hunting for materials. All of the materials are right there, down to wordlists and lesson plans (a link is provided for a PDF version which makes for easy copying). Now that we have an explicit scope and sequence with scripted lesson plans, we have more time to understand the materials and make our instruction more intentional. There is no need to plan anything extra. We know the students are getting exactly what they need. Students love the predictability of each lesson and how they build on each other. The skills spiral so students are constantly practicing what they have learned.
Blending, Segmenting, and Decoding In Kindergarten
Going back to my LETRS manual, I decided to try out additive blending. In my classroom, it worked! The students who were having trouble decoding with 3 sounds, were able to decode when they blended the first 2 phonemes together and then added the 3rd sound. Here is an example of me using additive blending in my classroom. The trouble they were having was remembering the first phoneme; therefore, when it came time to blend it all together they made errors. Additive blending took that struggle right out of the equation for them.
A Conversation About Small Groups
Centers! Small Groups! Leveled Reading! Guided Reading! Foundational Skill Groups! Whatever you want to call it, we’re obsessed with differentiation! We’re told that small groups are the way for kids to get exactly what they need. But how do you pull off foundational skill groups without sacrificing time for Tier-1 instruction? And how do you make that independent time valuable for all students (i.e. NOT Chromebook or busywork time)? And should you be using small groups at all? In the following conversation, Katie Scotti and Miranda Eldridge, two Goyen Literacy Fellows, explore these questions and reflect on the differences between their schools.