Podcast appearances and mentions of lucy calkins

A lawsuit filed by a pair of Massachusetts families is adding to the backlash against an approach to reading instruction that some schools still use despite evidence that it's not the most effective. States around the country have been overhauling reading curricula in favor of research-based strategies known as the “science of reading,” including an emphasis on sounding out words. The lawsuit takes aim at approaches that do not emphasize phonics. Among them is the long-established “three-cueing” strategy, which encourages students to use pictures and context to predict words, asking questions like: “What is going to happen next?,” “What is the first letter of the word?,” or “What clues do the pictures offer?” Families of Massachusetts students who have struggled to read filed the lawsuit against authors and publishers endorsing that approach, including Lucy Calkins, a faculty member at Columbia University's Teachers College. It seeks damages for families allegedly harmed by the material. Thousands of schools once used three-cueing as part of the “balanced literacy” approach championed by Calkins and others that focused, for example, on having children independently read books they like, while spending less time on phonics, or the relationship between letters and sounds. Over the last several years, more than 40 states have enacted bills emphasizing instead materials grounded in evidence and scientific research, according to the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute. It's unknown how many school districts still use the contested programs because the numbers aren't tracked—but there are many, according to Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus in education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Many teachers have been trained to teach three-cueing so it may be used even in classrooms where it's not part of the curriculum, he said. He said research does show benefits from teaching phonics, but there is less information about the three-cueing method. The suit asks the court to order the authors, their companies and publishers to provide an early literacy curriculum that incorporates the science of reading free of charge. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Send us a Text Message.The One About…APM Journalist Christopher Peak Breaking News Episode!Sold a Story Christopher Peak joins us to discuss his THREE APRIL articles with us about the collapse of literacy giants: Reading Recovery, Lucy Calkins, and Fountas and Pinnell, along with Heinemann Publishing.Christopher Peak Bio:Christopher Peak is an investigative reporter who covers education for APM Reports. He co-reported “Sold a Story,” a podcast about a disproven approach to teaching reading used inmany elementary schools. The series was one of Apple's most shared podcasts in 2023. It won a DuPont-Columbia, a National Edward R. Murrow Award, an IRE Award, a Third Coast Award andtwo Scripps Howard awards, and it was nominated for a Peabody. Following its release, at least 16 states passed new laws about reading instruction, and school districts nationwide, including New York City, announced they would no longer use programs covered in the podcast. Peakpreviously covered schools for the New Haven Independent. He was a finalist for the EducationWriters Association's national award for beat reporting, and he won numerous regional awards,including Connecticut SPJ's First Amendment Award. Peak has also written for Nation Swell, the Point Reyes Light, Newsday and the San Francisco Public Press.Christopher Peak APM Reportshttps://www.apmreports.org/profile/christopher-peakApril 4, 2024As states refocus reading instruction, two universities stick with a discredited ideaOther schools are backing away from a disproven theory about how kids learn to read, but programs started by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell train literacy coaches to believe in it.https://www.apmreports.org/story/2024/04/04/retraining-science-of-reading-ohio-state-Lesley-UniversityApril 11, 2024Reading Recovery organization confronts financial difficultiesas schools around the country are dropping Reading Recovery, the nonprofit that advocates for the tutoring program tapped into its cash reserves to push back against journalists and legislators.https://www.apmreports.org/story/2024/04/11/reading-recovery-financial-difficultiesApril 30, 2024‘Science of reading' movement spells financial trouble for publisher HeinemannThe educational publisher raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the 2010sselling reading programs based on a disproven theory. The company now faces financial fallout, as schools ditch its products.https://www.apmreports.org/story/2024/04/30/publisher-heinemann-financial-trouble-science-of-readingFaith Borkowsky's books:Amazon Author Pagehttps://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07YM3X395Support the Show.The Literacy View is an engaging and inclusive platform encouraging respectful discussion and debate about current issues in education. Co-hosts Faith Borkowsky and Judy Boksner coach teachers, teach children to read, and hold master's degrees in education.Our goal is to leave listeners thinking about the issues and drawing their own conclusions.Get ready for the most THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND DELICIOUSLY ENTERTAINING education podcast!

Lucy Calkins has made some tremendous contributions – but at the end of the day, she does not represent balanced literacy or a meaningful-based approach to literacy instruction. At the end of the day, Lucy represents Lucy. She speaks for Lucy Calkins. She's promoting her books, her programs, her products, and her Units of Study. And that's good. Meaning-based literacy educators are not reliant on any external products. She doesn't represent the ILA, the ILEC, or anybody else She does not represent meaning-based educators. She doesn't represent those who opposed the Science of Reading nonsense. She doesn't speak for those of us who advocate teacher empowerment, smaller classes, better pay and working conditions for teachers, adequate health care, and economic opportunities, or those of us pushing for racial equity and social justice. She doesn't. But there's no reading messiahs here. There are no reading messiahs. The only messiah that meaning-based reading educators have is a wide body of research using diverse research methodologies. That is our messiah. That is our holy book. That is our religion.

Corinne Adams' son Charlie came home from school with notes from his teacher saying he was doing great in reading. But during the pandemic, Adams had to give him a reading test at home, and she realized her son couldn't read. He'd been memorizing books that were read to him, but he didn't know how to read new words he'd never seen before.  It's a surprisingly common story. And kids who aren't on track by the end of first grade are in danger of never becoming good readers. Two-thirds of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient readers. The problem is even worse when you look beyond the average and focus on specific groups of children: 83% of Black fourth graders don't read proficiently.    American Public Media reporter Emily Hanford digs into a flawed theory that has shaped reading instruction for decades. The theory is that children can learn to read without learning how to sound out words, because there are other strategies they can use to figure out what the words say – strategies like “look at the picture” or “think of a word that makes sense.” But research by cognitive scientists has demonstrated that readers need to know how to sound out words. And some teacher training programs still emphasize the debunked theory, including books and classroom materials that are popular around the world.  Hanford looks at the work of several authors who are published by the same educational publishing company. One, Lucy Calkins, is a rock star among teachers. Her books and training programs have been wildly popular. Calkins has now decided to rewrite her curriculum in response to “the science of reading.” But other authors are sticking to the idea that children can use other strategies to figure out the words.  This is an update of an episode that originally aired in February 2023. Since then, Teachers College at Columbia University announced that the teacher training project founded by Calkins would be “dissolved.” The word “dissolved” was later removed from the statement, and the college instead characterized the move as a “transition” to ensure its “programs are informed by the latest research and evidence.” Since Sold a Story was first released, at least 22 states have introduced bills to overhaul reading instruction, and several have banned curricula that include cueing strategies.

Jessica Winter is an editor at The New Yorker, where she also writes about family and education. She wrote an article for the New Yorker entitled, ‘The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy'. In this series of podcasts, I'm analyzing this article because it describes or mis-describes reading instruction. As I started reading, I soon realized that Jessica Winter had no idea of what she was talking about. Her misrepresentation and un-understanding could have a negative impact if readers actually take her seriously. Since the New Yorker has a circulation of over a million readers, I felt I should say something. Will my humble little podcast actually make a difference? Will it change anybody's mind? Jessica Winter's article represents everything that's wrong and harmful about the current Science of Reading movement. That's why I'm analyzing it. It's based on a knowledge base related to reading instruction that's shallow and disjointed at best. It relies on anecdotes, personal experiences, and emotions to create a picture that's not at all accurate. And like the science of reading movement, this article uses a very un-scientific process to try to understand reading instruction. And when you use un-scientific methodology to come to know things you must expect to get cartoonish portrayals and misinformation. It is a bit ironic that a movement with “science” in the title (science of reading), is in actuality so very unscientific in its methods used to understand reading reality.

In the first edition of Phenomenal Discussion W/Mr. Short, The Literacy View–Judy and Faith–had an open conversation about several topics in the literacy world. 1. Lucy(Calkins)!!! 2. Are people really moving away from Balanced Literacy? 3. Criticism of SOR being phonics only. 4. Do we throw the baby out with the bathwater? 5. Teaching Comprehension. 6. Parent-Educators 7. Self-Care for Teachers Be Phenomenal, Mr. Short Faith's Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Faith-Borkowsky/author/B07YM3X395?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true My Latest Resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Phenomenal-Analysis-Sight-and-High-Frequency-Words-9863245?fbclid=IwAR3XJkUDrLq3JyS4rVioFE2OtWkHrIgpBD9Z225iU5aeP-bGx6jgOM69GFM Check thephenomenalstudent.com and The Phenomenal Student Podcast.  Follow me on Tik Tok: @thephenomenalteacher and Twitter: @Mr100teacher   Subscribe to the podcast onhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-phenomenal-student-podcast/id1607341077 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3KxzpXy9ULoGIGeIYal9lP or an Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-phenomenal-student-podcast/id1607341077  #EduTok #FYP #TeachersofTikTok #Education #Podcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jeremiah-short0/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jeremiah-short0/support

How long have “the reading wars” been a part of the national education discourse? What are the recurring themes? What can 4K-12 practitioners do to engage in a dialogue that leads to a better understanding of effective literacy instruction?In this episode, Paul Thomas shares his findings about the science of reading movement and how educators can navigate this conversation.Paul, a professor at Furman University, is the author of the policy brief The Science of Reading Movement: The never-ending debate and the need for a different approach to reading instruction (NEPC, 2022). He also wrote How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP, 2020). Paul is a frequent writer at his blog, Radical Scholarship and on Twitter at @plthomasEdD. Special thanks to Mary Howard, Joy La Vay Taylor, Debra Crouch, and Mary Beth Nicklaus for engaging in and elevating this conversation. Full subscribers can join these conversations in real time. They also have access to the video archive and professional discussion guide here. Sign up today to fully engage in this community.Know someone who would benefit from Read by Example? Refer them to this space - see button below. Complimentary subscriptions can be earned with sign ups.Full TranscriptMatt Renwick (00:03):Welcome to Read by Example, where teachers are leaders and leaders know literacy. We are joined today by Dr. Paul Thomas. Paul is a professor of education at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and taught high school English in rural South Carolina before moving to teacher education. He is a former column editor for English Journal, National Council Teachers of English, current series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres and author of Teaching Writing as a Journey, Not a Destination: Essays Exploring What Teaching Writing Means, and the book, which I believe is in its second edition now, How to End the Reading Wars and Serve the Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policymakers, and People Who Care. NCTE named Paul the 2013 George Orwell Award winner. He co-edited the award-winning volume, Critical Media Literacy and Fake News in Post-Truth America. You can follow Paul's work at on Twitter at @plthomasedd and at Radical Scholarship at radicalscholarship.wordpress.com. Welcome, Paul.(01:26):Thank you very much. Nice to be here.(01:29):And we have a few who could join, if they could share too. Who you are, briefly just what you do. We'll start with Mary.Mary Howard (01:39):I am a literacy consultant and now doing Zoom, because I'm in Honolulu and I'd rather not get on a plane. This is year 51.Matt Renwick (01:57):Joy.Joy La Vay Taylor (01:59):Hi, I'm Joy La Vay Taylor, and I work for James Madison University with student teachers. Before that, I was literacy coach, reading recovery teacher and reading specialist.Matt Renwick (02:15):Deborah.Debra Crouch (02:17):Hi, I'm Deborah Crouch. I'm a literacy consultant as well and a co-author of Made For Learning with Brian Cambourne.Mary Beth Nicklaus (02:30):Hi, I'm Mary Beth Nicklaus, and I am with Eastern Harbor County Schools in Minnesota. And I'm a secondary level reading specialist. This is my 34th year.Matt Renwick (02:48):Welcome everyone. And I have a few questions for Paul, but we'll definitely save time for any questions that you might have. The first one for Paul is, you are consistently on point in your policy brief, which we will link in the newsletter, the Science of Reading Movement, which is a condensed version of your book on the topic. It's a nice summary, as well as what you post online on Twitter and on your blog. What motivates you to keep coming back to this topic of the science of reading movement?Paul Thomas (03:27):Oh, that's a really good question because most of my career, I'm really a composition writing person. And when I discovered Emily Hanford's Hard Words, early 2018, it really struck a chord, but I had no idea that it would get the momentum that it did. So I've always been a holistic literacy person, and I've always been skeptical of over focusing on things like grammar and phonics. And although I taught high school English at Furman, I have taught master's literacy program. So I've been working with early literacy teachers who are getting graduate degrees. And a former colleague of mine, Nita Schmidt, who moved from Furman to Iowa and now she's retired, she's brilliant, she was an early literacy people, and she, she brought me in at N C T E.(04:33):And so I had had this kind of transition to being, what I would say, a literacy generalist where I understand kind of K-16 literacy, or birth to grave literacy. My focus I feel like is public work. Like, how do I talk to the public? How do I help people understand education? And this movement just kind of intersected with that public work. And throughout 2018, 2019, I found myself blogging maybe too much, but I had quite a number of blogs on this, and I said, "I've got enough for a book. I did see how it was developing in a direction that regretfully has come true. That early kind of messaging has now become policy. So in the last, I guess that's what, five years now, I have shifted very much into being a policy person, which I think was the rightful place for me to go.(05:44):I do think trying to work on public narratives, how we talk about critical discourse analysis is a big thing for me. It's a central part of my upper level reading and writing course. At Furman, that's a requirement at Furman, they have to have an upper level writing and research course. So I think it was just kind of a perfect storm for me because I do feel like it's really important for scholarly work to have a real world place. And this felt way more engaging. It felt way more productive than my composition work. Although my book before this was on writing. I'm still, I teach first year writing. I care very much about writing. But reading is very central to sort of how we think about education in the United States. So it seemed like kind of a natural development for me.Matt Renwick (06:47):Yeah, your policy brief is very practical, very useful. It was easy to read, but you covered the, the essential topics of it and really gave, for me anyway, it gave me some nice talking points. Right now in Wisconsin, we're dealing with it, right this very week, up for discussion, so to speak. How might educators and parents best use this resource to effectively advocate for more reasonable policies? What can we do with this to, to make some kind of a difference, or at least try to influence policymakers?Paul Thomas (07:29):So first I would like to say I really am very proud of the policy brief. And I think a huge part of that was the N E P C staff itself. They did not make this easy . I had to a 6,000 word policy brief. I probably wrote 15 to 20,000 words and three or four drafts, and I was kind of taken to task three or four or five times before it even went to peer review. And I think they should be commended for that. The editorial group at N E P C weren't literacy people, so they were constantly going, "What do you mean by this? Uh, is this real?" And the the fun part was being challenged on using the simple view of reading.(08:22):One person said to me, "Paul, nobody uses that. That's silly. That's a silly term." And I had to say, "No, it's a technical term. It's a real term." So I do appreciate that opportunity, and I will say any PC believes in practical. So it had to build to what do people do. I do feel really good about the policy implications at the end. I've been working indirectly with Diane Stephens, who is Professor Emeritus from the University of South Carolina. She taught several other places. Diane has really perfected taking actual legislation and copy editing it, . It's amazing, "Here is where you're off base, but here is how to reform that." So I think what we have to do is, it kind of parallels the book banning and the anti C R T movement.(09:23):It seems almost silly to have to argue for access to books. It seems silly to have to say you shouldn't ban books. So I think it seems kind of pointless for a lot of reasonable people to argue for teacher autonomy and serving the needs of all students. And very simply put, that's kind of what the policy brief boiled down to. We really targeted, "there's no such thing as one size fits all instructional practices." So there should not be any one size fits all mandates in policy and legislation. We really kind of honed in on, "it's not the place of legislators to ban or mandate anything that goes against what is a reasonable approach to day-to-day classroom practices." So I think what can people do is I think is, kind of target these simple messages.(10:37):I've been trying to work better about clarifying that I'm advocating for teacher autonomy. I'm advocating for meeting the needs of every individual child. I am not an advocate for reading recovery. I'm not an advocate for balanced literacy. I'm not an advocate for National Council Teachers of English. I'm not an advocate for International Literacy Association. I'm not being trivial here. I don't advocate for labels and organizations, even though I love N C T E, for example. It's been my home for a long time, and I respect N C T E, but I think what we have to advocate for are key principles. And I've called this challenge out many times, you know, on social media. If someone says they don't agree with me or that I'm wrong, I say, so you're saying that there should not be teacher autonomy, so you're saying we shouldn't serve the individual needs of every student, and I really think we have to call people on the carpet about that.(11:47):I also think it's really important, and it might be too much for most people, I just don't believe in misinformation. I get called out that I'm advocating for X when I simply say Y isn't true . This is a really good example to me, is the attack on Lucy Calkins, I think is just unfair. It's not accurate. Lucy Calkins Units of Study and Fountas and Pinnell work are in one in four schools in the country. It's 25% of the reading programs, I just tweeted out today. You know, their programs are not the dominant programs in New Mexico. And New Mexico has the lowest NAEP fourth grade reading scores and the highest percentage of children below basic. So creating a bad guy is a trick of storytelling.(13:00):And regretfully the science of reading movement, I mean, Sold a Story. I mean, it's about storytelling, and they're manufacturing the crisis. They're manufacturing the bad guy. I really just don't like misinformation. And again, I don't like the way balance literacy is defined. It doesn't mean that I endorse balanced literacy, even though I don't have any actual problem with the concept of balanced literacy. I'm really a critical literacy person. Do I like whole language people and their philosophies? Yes, there are a lot of my friends. Do I find balanced literacy ideas compelling? Yes, of course I do. I am a holistic person. So I think we have to, I have to keep sort of simple messaging on the key concepts that we support.(13:55):But we also have to say, actually what you're saying isn't true. Your definition isn't true. Your cause of the problem isn't true. Your solution isn't true. Over and over the national reading panel is just misrepresented. I use Diane Stephen's work. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics was no more effective than balanced literacy or whole language. Almost every single credible study says the exact same thing. The major study out of England said systematic phonics no more effective than balanced literacy. We need balance in England, over and over. That's the truth. And then you've got the science of rooting people saying, it's the Emily Hanford mantra, that it's simple and it's settled, and neither one of those are true.Matt Renwick (14:48):That leads into my next question, Paul, is this towards, especially phonics instructions, kind of this reason why kids are failing to read because they don't have enough of it, or we need more of it to ensure that they can read. And then picking on some of these targets, whether it's a person or it's a program or approach, are these strawmen for maybe avoiding bigger issues that we do need to address, such as poverty or teaching and learning conditions? Or is there some reasonableness to what some people might be advocating for in the sor movement? Where do you see that falling?Paul Thomas (15:33):Really nice job there. I appreciate that. Because that's two other kind of key points that we need to hit on. So, the part of my book and the policy brief that I'm most proud of is the historical perspective. In the 1940s, draftees performed very poorly on literacy tests, and Eleanor Roosevelt and the government shouted reading crisis. And John Dewey in progressivism was blamed. The woman I did my dissertation on, Lula Brandt ,did an analysis and found out that most draftees went to traditional schools and had traditional instruction, like phonics instruction, had skills instruction. And there's Elementary English, which became Language Arts, had a special issue on it, very similar to Reading Research Quarterly, having two special issues on it in the 2020s.(16:33):There was one article, , and they literally say this false attack on progressivism is to avoid the truth. The problem with literacy in the United States is poverty. You know, that was the 1940s. Then it recurs, the Johnny Can't Read in the fifties and sixties, same thing. It's phonics, it's lack of phonics. And people are like, "no, the people who are doing poorly are impoverished." And then it recycles into the sixties, into the 1990s, and then around No Child Left Behind is this same thing. So I think two other messages that we really have to make sure we make clear is, and I refer to Martin Luther King toward the end of his life in 1967, he said, "We would find that instead of reforming education to erase poverty, that if we erase poverty, education would improve."(17:30):And there is nothing truer. If children had universal healthcare, if they had no food deserts, if they had steady homes, if their parents had steady well-paying jobs, if there were books in their homes, the NAEP scores would go up. And that's doing nothing in the schools. Now, I'm not saying don't do anything in schools. I actually think this is the other thing that drives me crazy. I've been accused of being a protector of the status quo. And people who know me would laugh, they should talk to some of the people I've worked for. I think I entered education in 1984. I start year 40 in the fall. And when I started education, I was a reformer.(18:23):That's why I want, I wanted to do school better than it had been done to me. And then when I was in my doctoral program in the 1990s, I found out there were the reconstructionist. There was a whole movement in the early 20th century to reform schools. And so I want things to be different. I want school to be different. And you said it just a second ago. So we've got to address the lives, the homes, and the communities of children. I mean, we have to do that. And this constantly pointing at teachers and saying they don't know what they're doing and that schools are failing is a distraction. But simultaneous to that teaching and learning conditions, I just cannot say that often enough. There's been research for decades that marginalized students are more likely to have beginning and uncertified teachers.(19:25):That's a simple thing to address. We should guarantee that no child who is performing below what we believe they should be, instead of using third grade test scores to retain students, why don't we use third grade test scores to ensure children to have experienced certified teachers and low student-teacher ratios in fourth grade? That's a much better policy. And I would 100% endorse the use of standardized testing for that. But we are not going to do those things. I mean that's what's kind of criminal about this. Special needs children...we're overly concerned about dyslexic students. I am not saying that we should not be, absolutely, we should be concerned with dyslexic students. But special needs students are really highly likely to have beginning and new teachers, special needs students are really highly likely to have uncertified teachers.(20:31):Those are things that could be addressed. Now I think that would solve a lot of problems, systemic forces outside of the school. And then, I agree, this is a national education policy center thing. Instead of accountability reform, we need equity reform. So inside schools, I would say no grade retention. We should not be stratifying students. We should not be gatekeeping students into courses. But the biggest thing to me in school is a teacher assignment. The dirty little secret about education, nobody wants to talk about...if you teach long enough when someone retires, you get the good kids. And I think that's one of those little dirty secrets that we don't talk about. Beginning teachers too often... administration sits down, the remaining teachers get to pick their courses for next year, and the leftovers go to the new person. That is a terrible policy. It's a terrible way to treat children. And these are things we could address. We never talk about them, and we don't do them. So I think as you were implying, I think a lot of this is about ways to avoid doing the hard stuff.Matt Renwick (21:53):Yeah, for sure. You hit on a lot of topics there with that. There were couple of questions and, and I won't bring it up here just because it could, who knows where it would to go. But the money aspect too. You noted on Twitter, that a lot of these arguments and blaming are actually creating a space, a void, in which then certain individuals, publishers, organizations can sell their programs, trainings to solve the problem that they created in the first place. But that's a whole nother topic almost, I think.Paul Thomas (22:38):I could interject there real quick. Sure. I think people don't understand. I just had a conversation with a producer of a major news series yesterday morning. Instead of chasing the right reading program, we should reevaluate that. We use reading programs. It's much simpler than that. At W S R A, I think it was 2019, it was right before covid, teachers taught me a lesson. The problem that they had with units of study was not units of study, it was how it was implemented. And we too often hold teachers accountable for implementing a program instead of serving the needs of students. And I think that's a really important distinction. And it would also, I think it would address the money issue. We do, I think we do spend too much money on educational materials, and then we feel obligated to holding teachers accountable because of that investment.Matt Renwick (23:41):Yeah. Too much money and resources is not enough. And the ultimate research, which is teachers and students as well is, how can we structure students to be resources for each other? I'd like to open it up to other people who have questions here, or Paul, if you have anything you'd like to share that to come to mind. I'll open the floor up.Mary Howard (24:06):Okay. I was just gonna come back to, and I appreciate this so much because it led me back to what you wrote. One of the best things about this is that it's so specific to suggestions for decision makers and policy makers. And so one of the, and I loved every one of them, but one of the things that I kept coming back to is at the very end, two that really keep, are really in my head. One is be wary of overstatements and oversimplifications within media and public advocacy. Acknowledging concerns raised but remaining skeptical of simplistic claims about causes and solutions. And one of the challenges is that there are so many, the policy makers, the people who are making these decisions, they want oversimplification. They want to know, all I have to do is write a check and there's nothing else I have to do.(25:11):And if, because they don't have a background in education, that sounds really, really compelling. And then the other one is just a couple down from that, which is so important. Recognize student-centered as an important, research supported guiding principle, but also acknowledge the reality that translating research-based principles into classroom practices is challenging. So not only do they want those over simplifications, but they want to be able to take the research and say, here's what the research says, which is complicated research. And so we're gonna do this. You know, it brings me back to RtI where the solution was the walk-to-intervention model. So they know the importance of supporting children, but they're going to find the easiest possible, not just the one that they can write a check for, but the one that's going to be the easiest possible to implement.(26:09):So, you know, those just loom really large in my mind, and I don't know how we undo. Let me just say one more thing. I remember so many times walking out of a session where someone, usually someone with a really big name, said something really absurdly ridiculous. Like, time for reading, independent reading doesn't matter. And does it in such a compelling way that people I really admire walk out of that session and say, "Oh my God, I never thought about that before." And that's been happening with the science of reading too. "Oh my God, I never knew that." And so it's really smart, lovely, wonderful people. But for some reason, , it's coming across not as what is being said. I don't know. It's a really weird thing to me.Paul Thomas (27:11):Yeah. One advantage of my career being pretty eclectic is I've taught some graduate level leadership courses, and I used to use Howard Gardner's book Leading Minds. He's known for multiple intelligences, but I don't think that's his best work actually. In Leading Minds, he directly says all the research shows that leadership functions on black and white statements. And there's very little you can do about that. So there's an ethical obligation if you're going to compel the public, you're going to have to be relatively simple. So to me, I think the line is between simple and simplistic. And the challenge we have, and again, the conversation I had yesterday morning, really, really drove this home to me, is we're in a bind because our message is not simple. And the sor people are, it's become a cult of personality because they're doing the simple and settled.(28:12):And it is very compelling. I, like you Mary, know some very lovely people who have bought it. I knew some, and I still know, I know some lovely people, bright, who bought Teach for America. I know some lovely and bright people who bought charter schools. And those have now passed, and we know they didn't work. Teach for America has really dramatically fallen off. And some of the best people I know in education went through Teach for America. So it's not the people. The simplistic message, that you just had to demand more of students, it's that soft bigotry of low expectations. And if you just demand more, and if you just work harder, these kids will succeed. And then those poor people who did that, and those children didn't succeed. They were devastated.(29:07):So we do have a problem. Our message is not simple. But that's the only message that works. And also I think, another point of yours Mary, is the idea of evidence. I think I said this the other day, but the most important evidence is the child in front of you. The first five or 10 years of my teaching, the best thing that happened to me was humility. I had missionary zeal. I came in thinking I knew what I was doing. I kind of had my butt kicked at the National Writing Project. I'll shout out to Brenda Davenport. She almost literally kicked my butt. She saw something in me. She did respect me, but she took me in a room and she let me have it. And it was an awakening for me.(30:00):I softened, I backed up off of my certainty, and I learned to work from the ground up. Research and theory... I love theory. I love philosophy. These things are important, but they're for you back here. I mean, they sit somewhere back here. But it's the actual child in front of you. So I've learned, Furman has really taught me a lesson too. I mean, for the last 21 years, my college first year writing students are a different type of human than what I taught in rural South Carolina in high school. So I try to work from the student and instead of imposing Paul's beliefs about writing, Paul's beliefs about learning. You know, one simple thing is we we're always told that, that you have to give students credit for class participation.(31:04):I know a lot of professors still put that on their syllabus, and there's a percentage for it. Well, Furman has taught me that students can participate by being completely quiet in the room. And I had to listen to that, which is kind of ironic. And , I don't say that anymore. I don't say, "You have to speak in class, you have to participate this specific way." So I think one of our messages, I think has to be that, evidence is not simplistic. And the most important piece of evidence is the child in front of you.Matt Renwick (31:41):Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Mary.Debra Crouch (31:45):Can I ask a question, Paul? How do you simplify in a way, I guess, how do you talk to student-centered in a way that keeps it understandable for people who don't come at this from "Look at the child and recognize what children are bringing" and that sort of thing. How do we talk to that? Because I agree with you. I think that piece is huge.Paul Thomas (32:12):Yeah. And teacher education, that's one thing I do is I talk about artifacts of learning. I talk about things like, I really think music teachers, art teachers, coaches, that I think the average person understands that. So, there was a piece in Phi Delta Kappan many, many years ago, somewhere in the 1990s. And the guy said, what if we had two football teams line up every Friday night and take a multiple choice test to decide the football game? Parents would revolt, my hometown, the entire town would revolt. So, you know, in art class, we have a child actually draw an artifact of learning, and then we work from there. Until the child does a drawing or a clay sculpture, we don't have any way to teach them. We have children play instruments, we have children sing, we have children play the sport.(33:13):So I think putting it in terms of behaviors, having students do the thing, and I think that's where my holistic urge is. I was a soccer coach, I coached for quite a few years. And I love scrimmage. I was a big fan of scrimmaging. So you could end the moment, you could teach, of course we did some skills, but to be perfectly honest, that's not that effective. If people practice the same thing over and over incorrectly, they're not actually learning. They're getting worse. They're building the wrong tools. So, the joke of my teaching high school was I graded about 4,000 essays a year for 18 years. Wow. And I graded about 6,000 journals on top of that. So my joke was, it was volume, volume, volume.(34:07):Until a kid wrote a paper, I did not know what they needed, Until a player lined up as a centerback and played and played a soccer match, I did not know what he needed. So I do think we have to talk in terms of sort of holistic behaviors that we're trying to teach children to do. And then our job to me is mentoring. It is coaching. I love the word coach. I think the right kind of coaching, not the stereotypical United States coach that screams and cusses, but the kind of coach that goes, "Look, you did it this way, now do it this way." Like, here is why. One thing I loved about soccer is it's conceptual. You don't run plays and it's not very structured, the type the clock runs, and it's these concepts. So it's these holistic behaviors at the conceptual level, what should you be doing? But the key element is why are you doing this? I hope that answered your question, I feel like I did.Matt Renwick (35:12):Yeah. Thanks Deborah. Thanks, Paul. Joy, did you want to throw that question out of how did we engage in this? I think Paul spoke to that previously. Was there anything else that you wanted to follow up on though, Joy regarding how to engage in conversation around this time?Joy La Vay Taylor (35:35):The article that you put out, Paul, was really helpful, Mary and I will follow it a little bit better.Paul Thomas (35:51):A lot of this movement is public, so I think a lot of it is on social media. And there is a problem. I do think Twitter is not a good place for discussion. I haven't had good luck with it. I've had a few people try to. I had one person a couple times lately, very kindly say, would you mind, you know, let's have a discussion about this blog post. I don't. There's just not enough room. There is no chance for nuance. I joke and say the best way to deal with social media discussions is don't do it. But a more practical one is, are you dealing with a serious person? So probably six months ago, a woman who is an s o r person engaged with me.(36:42):She was patient, she was kind, she was clear. I did two or three tweets with her. I realized she was a serious person. We had a very long Twitter discussion. She didn't change her mind. I did not mute her. I did not block her. Everything was fine. The key was not that we agreed with each other. The key was that she was a serious person. And that's the hard part. I often check the Twitter bios. If there's four followers, probably not serious. If they've got the little hashtag, #amplify, probably not serious. Way too much of the science of reading movement is driven by the exact thing that Hanford is attacking. If it is in fact a problem that Lucy Caulkins has made money, which is an odd thing to accuse somebody of in the United States, then the science of reading, people who are driven by market intentions are just as guilty.(37:56):My home state and the most recent budget, 15 million for LETRS training, were a very small state. Can you imagine how much state money, tax money is being earmarked for LETRS training? I don't trust advocates of LETRS anymore than I trust anyone. I mean, we learned that the tobacco industry said cigarettes were okay. They had a market interest. So I do think we have to navigate public discussions with serious people. I do not mute people instantly. I generally give everybody one or two tweets. I give you a chance. Then it's it, and it's just little things, right? Are they selling something? Do they have almost no followers? I've got people out there. I know I muted them, so I didn't block them, but they can still do it. They say, don't listen to Paul Thomas. He works for reading recovery. That's just a blatant lie. There was an organization that blogged and said, don't listen to me because I'm not a teacher. I start year 40 in the fall. I've been a literacy teacher for 40 years, over five decades since the eighties. It's just a blatant lie. So lying means you're not a serious person. If if you're trying to sell something, you're probably not a serious person. So I just think navigating that space, we're looking for serious people and then we can engage.Matt Renwick (39:34):I had the pleasure of watching Paul have a panel discussion with other serious people. It was a research panel at the Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference. He was talking with a researcher at UW-Madison, a principal out of California, and they did not all agree. I think we talked about this later, Paul. You did not all agree on the same issues, but you all were respectful the way you talked. "I hear what you're saying. Here's where I'm coming from." It was very, it was just a good conversation. And I learned a lot. And I think, I thought it was a really good model for, for what this could be, but unfortunately, often is not.Paul Thomas (40:16):Right. And I really don't think we have to all agree. Like, there are people I love that I don't agree with everything about them. And that's not what we're looking for.Mary Howard (40:29):Yeah. And in a conversation like that, you have the opportunity to have a fluid coming back and forth. That's impossible. But one of the things that I looked for on Twitter, and I've only been recently really trying to dig into it, there are just certain catchphrases that people use over and over. And that to me is a dead giveaway because it's almost like they came out with a s o r attack list of these are the things you want to say. It really is problematic that you can't. There's a big difference to being able to look at someone in the face, for example, and listen to what they're saying and then come back and respond to that than it is. It's almost like the Twitter social media is a ping pong ball, and it's really easy to get caught up in it, you know, especially when emotions are involved.Paul Thomas (41:32):That's why I say the, the s o r movement is too similar to the anti CRT movement. They're both too often ideological. So when you're ideological it's very simplistic and narrow. So you do have recurring things to say that are just, they're just imposed onto the situation. They're not drawn from the situation. Someone I blocked, I mean, I muted. I didn't see them, but I saw the response. And apparently somebody on Twitter just in the last couple of days, said that they listened to Emily Hanford. Cause she's an expert. I'm not. And the interesting thing there is not only have I taught literacy for 40 years, I taught journalism for 13 years, and I've published journalism for the last 20. I have a level of expertise in both journalism and education. That's where you can tell somebody's not serious. This is not a serious comment. That is just a blanket imposed statement. And so I think that is the ideological problem. It's not everybody who's in the science of reading movement by any stretch. But there is a faction that is just, it's just an ideologue. And it's the same thing. You know, woke , woke by DeSantis, woke by too many Republicans, uh, c r t, these have just been catchphrases. They're not, again, they're not serious people. They're not credible people.Matt Renwick (43:00):This conversation's been great as always. Any closing thoughts or takeaways from anyone in the group that you'd wanna share out before we close things out?Joy La Vay Taylor (43:15):I'm such a novice, I feel like, at Twitter for sure. I was so focused on being in the classroom, working with teachers that I was so shocked when this whole s o r thing just seemed to slam in. And I hadn't, I didn't have time to be on Twitter. I shouldn't say I have time now, but I thank you so much all for all this information that you put out. And Mary, I love Mary and Matt is great. I don't know you too, but I'm sure you two are great too. .(44:15):Because I thought that all the information that you gave about politics and the movement of reading was so helpful for me. It just gave me a background. I kind of came in with balanced literacy when it was just kind of called balanced literacy. So all of that was helpful. But is is then, if we think about the purpose of being on Twitter to share information like you do, so is that the best way to think about it as a vehicle for getting truth out there?Paul Thomas (45:00):Yeah. I would say, I would say two things. One historically we have told teachers not to be political, which is a political demand, by the way. And we also keep classroom teachers way too busy. If you keep people with their head down, they don't see what's happening to them. So I do not expect teachers to sacrifice themselves. I don't expect K-12 teachers to speak out. Absolutely, that is not an expectation. If you do find the opportunity, I think you said it perfectly. Most of my work that I do on social media is to teach, it's an extension of my teaching. I cite, my blogs are heavily cited. I cite, I link to peer review journal articles on Twitter. So I think you have to perform on social media, not to change people's minds that you're speaking to, but to leave a trail for other people to learn.(46:03):I am rarely actually speaking to the individual I'm responding to. I am leaving a trail for other people to learn from. Nobody's asking K-12 teachers to sacrifice themselves. Nobody's asking K-12 teachers to lose their jobs. As a matter of fact, I don't want you to lose your job. I'm relatively safe. I'm even at a private university. If I were in Florida and I was at a public university, I would be toast. But my university is incredibly supportive. I'm a white guy, I'm tenured, I'm old. Let us do it, you know, let us take the brunt of the damage. But if you do engage, it's not to change people's minds, it's to teach.Matt Renwick (46:54):Well said Paul. And your policy brief, half the brief is citations. I mean, it's just so well resourced. And I remember Peter Aach speaking about your work too, and just said you were meticulous. I think that's one of the first people he brought up about how to be become more knowledgeable about this topic and stay engaged. So thank you Paul Thomas. Thank you everyone for being here. This has been great. We wish you all a good rest of the year if you're still going. Otherwise, we hope you are enjoying your summer break. Thank you.Paul Thomas (47:27):Thank you. A pleasure.Matt Renwick (47:28):Thank you. Get full access to Read by Example at readbyexample.substack.com/subscribe

About 50 years ago, the educator Lucy Calkins pioneered a technique called balanced literacy, which de-emphasized the use of phonics to teach reading. It was widely adopted in the United States, including in New York, the country's largest public school system.But doubts about the approach persisted, and now it seems that using balanced literacy has given a generation of American students the wrong tools.Dana Goldstein, who covers family policy and demographics for The Times, discusses the story of balanced literacy and how Professor Calkins is trying to fix the problems that the technique created.Guest: Dana Goldstein, a national correspondent for The New York Times who writes about family policy and demographics.Background reading: Lucy Calkins has rewritten her curriculum to include a fuller embrace of phonics. Critics may not be appeased.Fed up parents, civil rights activists, newly awakened educators and lawmakers are crusading for “the science of reading.” Can they get results?For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In this episode I'm talking about the documentary The Right To Read that highlights the obvious of how many of our children are not prepared as it pertains to reading across this nation. Kareem Weaver is the one who is like the guide if you will throughout the documentary and he focuses on how Lucy Calkins whole word and balanced literacy approach hasn't been very effective in teaching our children how to read. So the buzz phrase "the science of reading" has been the new/old method that states are adopting which focuses on phonics and phonemic awareness to help teach children how to read. So these are the things I'll be addressing in this must listen to episode of Real Reading Talk. Please be sure to click the ling below to grab the dopest concept to get our Black communities more into reading. https://readingisfreedom.store/

We want the shift to reading science to be permanent, not perceived as another ‘educational pendulum swing.' To do this, it's necessary to recognize what worked and  didn't work within balanced literacy. Today's guests, UnboundEd's Lacey Robinson and The Right to Read Project's Margaret Goldberg, both shifted from teaching using balanced literacy (specifically Lucy Calkins' Workshop Model, also known as Units of Study) to structured literacy and became powerful literacy advocates in the process. ResourcesSold a Story podcast and other APM Reports by Emily HanfordThe Right to Read Project UnboundEdSeeing the Good in Balanced Literacy... and Moving On by Margaret GoldbergThe Truth About Reading Film website (and trailer)Connect with usFacebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website to stay connected with Melissa and Lori! Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

Alex Zimmerman, reporter at Chalkbeat New York, and Yoav Gonen, senior reporter for The City, discuss New York City's efforts to move away from its most widely used reading curriculum, created by Lucy Calkins at Columbia University's Teachers College, toward a more phonics-centered approach. →"Hundreds of NYC elementary schools used a Teachers College reading curriculum Banks said ‘has not worked'" (Chalkbeat NY & The City, 2/14/23)

Corinne Adams' son Charlie came home from school  with notes from his teacher saying he was doing great in reading. He seemed to be able to read the little books he was getting at school. But during the pandemic, Corinne had to give him a reading test at home, and she realized her son couldn't read. He'd been memorizing books that were read to him but he didn't know how to read new words he'd never seen before. Corinne decided to teach him herself. It's a surprisingly common story. And kids who aren't on track by the end of first grade are in danger of never becoming good readers. Two thirds of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient readers. The problem is even worse when you look beyond the average and focus on specific groups of children: 83% of Black fourth graders don't read proficiently. American Public Media reporter Emily Hanford digs into a flawed theory that has shaped reading instruction  for decades. The theory is that children can learn to read without learning how to sound out words, because there are other strategies they can use to figure out what the words say. Strategies like “look at the picture” or “think of a word that makes sense.” Research by cognitive scientists has demonstrated that readers need to know how to sound out words. But some teacher training programs still emphasize this debunked theory, including books and classroom materials that are popular around the world. Scientists say these strategies are teaching children the habits of struggling readers. Kids learn to skip letters and words and struggle to understand what they're reading. Hanford looks at the work of several authors who are all published by the same educational publishing company. One, Lucy Calkins, is a “rock star” among teachers. Her books and training programs are wildly popular. Calkins has now decided to rewrite her curriculum in response to “the science of reading.” But other authors are sticking to the idea that children can use other strategies to figure out the words.  Their teaching materials are in classrooms all over the country. Reporter Christopher Peak also contributed to this story. Support Reveal's journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/weekly Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

For years, the literacy methodology of Lucy Calkins has dominated elementary school education. But has her approach actually set American children back? We speak with Emily Hanford, host of the APM Reports podcast Sold a Story, which investigates how American schools have persisted in using reading methods debunked by scientists long ago. Plus, we take calls from parents and educators on the subject.

One in three Minnesota fourth graders cannot read at a “basic” level for their grade, according to 2022 reading test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Reading scores dropped during the disrupted learning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the number of kids who cannot read or read well has been growing for years. The question is, why do so many children struggle? In a new podcast, “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong,” American Public Media reporter and producer Emily Hanford looks for answers. She digs into the idea about how children learn to read that is held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. MPR News host Angela Davis spoke with Emily Hanford about how children are taught to read nowadays, why is the popular “balanced literacy” method failing students, how racial and income inequality impact kids learning abilities, and what are parents' and teachers' responses to the matter. Courtesy Photos Emily Handford side by side with her educational podcast "Sold a Story" The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Click the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. Why did you pursue investigating this issue and what has been the reaction from the public? I don't think that anyone is trying not to teach kids how to read. I don't think this is deliberate. But it is very difficult for a parent to question it. I interviewed parents from all over the country and they knew their kids were struggling, but their schools were saying they were doing fine. There is a disconnect between what many parents see at home, and what is going on in school, and that is what I try to explain in the podcast. I am hearing from a lot of people, especially parents and teachers. Some of them know that this has been going on for years and others seem to be shocked. Many teachers who just didn't know what they really needed to know about how kids learn to read are now feeling remorseful and sad. We are trying to reach the general public and help everyone understand that this issue affects you. Even if you do not currently have kids or grandkids in school. There are some adults who find it hard to read and have kept it as a secret for a lot of their life. How are kids taught to read and what's the best approach? What I have found in my years of reporting is that the vast majority of elementary schools across the country describe the way they teach kids to read as “balanced literacy.” The foundational idea in a lot of reading instruction is that learning to read is a lot like learning to talk: if you immerse kids in literate environments, they will eventually figure it out. And that is not true. Teachers know that they could teach sounding out the words but they choose to pick other strategies that might be easier for them. Because the truth is that sounding out written words in English is kind of difficult. And I think this idea that there are these other things they could teach kids to get the words just became very attractive. And what happens is that a lot of kids are not being taught how to read the words. Why so many teachers in schools embrace the balance literacy strategy? I think that they did not get the knowledge they needed when they were prepared to be teachers. What happens in teacher preparation programs is a foundational problem. We have a significant amount of evidence that teachers are not being taught what they need to know about reading and how it works and how to teach it to little kids. The other thing that I identify and investigate in the podcast is the fact that there are some very popular materials, and brand name versions of balanced literacy, that schools are spending a lot of money on, and that are being sold by some people who have become really sort of gurus of literacy. Three authors, in particular, are Lucy Calkins, who is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia, and a couple of other professors, one named Irene Fountas, who teaches at Lesley University in Massachusetts and Gay Su Pinnell, who is a retired professor at Ohio State. They started selling the balanced literacy approach very effectively back in the 90s and have really had a huge influence on how schools teach reading across the United States and in other parts of the world, too. In your research, what did you learn from racial and income inequality? What we saw in 2019, before the pandemic is that more than eight in ten black children in this country could not read at a basic level and now the situation is worse. Parents will go to school and say, something is not right here. And they would be blamed and told they did not read enough to their child at home. In many cases, we are blaming the families and saying they did not do enough without looking at the instruction itself. There is a very significant role for instruction and there is a lot of research that shows that if you teach kids how to read, most kids will be able to learn to do it pretty well. Your stories Susie from Plymouth We live in a top-rated district here in Minnesota, our son was not identified as having a learning disability by our school, we paid for that through a private evaluation. And since then, our family has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying our way out of an illiteracy problem. And just my final statement is that it should not take the financial privilege to learn to read. Stacy from Minnetonka We have a child who is dyslexic, and for years, we chose to trust the school district. They told us that his extremely slow progress was adequate when it was not. He learned two new letters of the alphabet in one year and we were told that was appropriate. Unfortunately, we had to file for due process with a district to get evidence-based instruction for our son and it took a court order for that to happen. David from St. Louis Park The story goes back about 20 years ago, when my daughter was in second grade in a private school. We started noticing at home that she was not reading correctly. We went to the school but they said that she was reading fine. A year passes, she is in third grade now and the teacher tells me my daughter is not reading well. We were trying to tell the school there was something wrong and they were not listening. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Shannon and Mary ask Linda Rhyne to join them for a live Reading Teachers discussion about how to find balance in our reading instruction.   Teachers are asked to follow various curriculum programs, teach the grade level standards, differentiate for their students' needs, and utilize their own expertise & experience.  How can teachers blend all this together into cohesive literacy instruction that makes sense to students and themselves and balance what they're asked to do with what they know their students need to be successful in reading?    All these points are brought up in the chat, and Linda shares some tips for how teachers can be critical consumers and advocates for their students in their individual school buildings.   We hope this chat inspires you to think critically about your own teaching practice and instructional decisions.  Episode Links for Resources mentioned:It's Our Science blog postProviding Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9Curriculum is MisunderstoodAcadience LearningDIBELS Data SystemUpper Grade Fluency ActivitiesSold A Story by Emily HanfordLiteracy View response to Sold a storyOpinion response to Sold a StoryNEPC:   Ed in the Apple:  The Reading Wars: Balanced Literacy versus Phonics, Revisited  by Peter GoodmanA balanced view of reading The Science of Reading Movement: The Never-Ending Debate and the Need for a Different Approach to Reading InstructionBoth AndReading shifts https://twitter.com/lindaschultziehttps://www.instagram.com/lindarhyneconsulting/https://www.lindarhyneconsulting.com/https://www.facebook.com/lindarhyneconsultinghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-schultz-rhyne-91704b93/COME JOIN THE CONVERSATION!Our WebsiteFacebookInstagramShannon's TpT StoreSupport the show

Lucy Calkins says she has learned from the science of reading. She's revised her materials. Fountas and Pinnell have not revised theirs. Their publisher, Heinemann, is still selling some products to teach reading that contain debunked practices. Parents, teachers and lawmakers want answers. In our final episode, we try to get some answers.Map: How states approach reading instructionOrganize: Sold a Story discussion guide Read: Transcript of this episodeSupport: Donate to APMMore: soldastory.org

Teachers sing songs about Teachers College Columbia professor Lucy Calkins. She's one of the most influential people in American elementary education today. Her admirers call her books bibles. Why didn't she know that scientific research contradicted reading strategies she promoted?Read: Transcript of this episodeSupport: Donate to APMMore: soldastory.org

Small group instruction is not just about the group of 3-5 students gathered in the small group meeting area. Small group instruction is about setting up the classroom environment and structures that will support small group meetings. What you'll gain from this episode... What procedures to set up for Workshop/Independent Work that supports small group instruction The 5 minilessons needed to set up the classroom structures to support small group instruction How to thoughtfully map out your small group meetings and conferences each day (with a freebie download) How to intentionally plan for meeting readers' needs during small group instruction Tips for planning for small group guided reading Tips for planning small group strategy instruction Resources mentioned in the episode: FREEBIE Mapping Out Small Group Meetings and Conference Schedule Tool A collection of ready to go minilessons & tools for launching readers' workshop in the Readers Workshop Launch Mini Bundle of Reading Minilessons & Student Printables Easy to use Small Group Planning Template for Guided Reading & Strategy Instruction To read more about setting up small group instruction, check out the associated blog posts for this episode here, Part 1 Setting up the classroom environment and structures, Part 2 Mapping out small groups and individual conferences, & Part 3 Thoughtful planning for small group instruction Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the -research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Any time of the year is a good time to build a culture of reading. Reading drives everything! Here's a challenge for you! Share your reading life with your peers and your readers! Ask yourself these 3 questions… Do I want to establish a positive culture of reading on my entirecampus? Do I want my students to see each other as readers? Do I want my students to see me and the other adults on my campus as readers? Sharing Your Reading Life and discovering a reader's Reading Identity is MORE than just getting to know your readers, it's all about tracking progress What you'll gain from this episode... why you should build a campus wide culture of reading easy steps to follow for sharing your reading life (and encouraging others to do the same) a map to finding the FREE infographic for Sharing Your Reading Life a sneak peek into the powerful informal assessment tool this could become for you and your reader Resources from this episode: FREE Sharing Your Reading Life – A Printable Guide to Exploring Your Reading Life To read more about building a campus wide reading culture, check out the associated blog post for this episode here, Literacy Treasures Blog A collection of ready to go tools for establishing reading lives, launching notebooks, reflecting & tracking progress in the Readers' Notebook Bundle: Resources to Get Started, Reflect & Set Goals Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the -research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

In this episode we'll dive into the benefits of using Readers' Notebooks within your reading instruction. The Reader's Notebook IS the most powerful instructional tool within the reading classroom. The Reader's Notebook is the place in which your learners can see themselves as readers and watch as they progress and grow. What you'll gain from this episode… 1. How to set up a Reader's Notebook 2. What to include in a Reader's Notebook 3. Learn the 5 sections EVERY Reader's Notebook should have 4. How to use the 5 essential sections of the Reader's Notebook If you are looking to revisit these ideas about Readers' Notebooks you can find it in these resources linked below. Grab Readers' Notebooks Tab Dividers FREE download inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Looking for resources to use for setting up a Reader's Notebook, check out this Readers' Notebook Mini Bundle: Resources to Get Started, Reflect & Set Goals To read more about Readers' Notebooks visit the Literacy Treasures Blog and click MORE and slide down Readers' Notebooks Listen to this podcast episode all about Reading Identity Projects Set up Readers' Notebooks AND have the minilessons to use with your readers as they add to their Readers' Notebooks in the Reading Workshop Minilesson Collection for Building Readers with over 100 minilessons. Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

American Public Media published a series of investigative articles that revved up the Reading Wars. Despite research that has supported phonics-based programs, Guided Reading programs that depend on the three cuing system continue to be implemented across the nation. The APM articles have created a push to expose the ineffectiveness of these programs. Lucy Calkins and Fountas and Pinnell have been targeted in this campaign. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact this movement will have on improving reading education.

An effective minilesson is short and packed with a powerful message that will ignite and motivate your readers to actively engage in their independent reading work. We'll dive into the ‘not so secret' secrets of crafting the perfect minilesson. What you'll gain from this episode... 9 considerations to take when planning minilessons The architecture of a minilesson: Connect ~ Teach ~ Actively Engage ~ Link Grab the FREE mini course with cheat sheet, 5 Steps to Crafting Minilessons That Will Ignite & Engage Your Readers Self-guided mini course for long term planning your reading instruction, How to Plan Readers' Workshop To Ignite Your Readers All Year Long A collection of 100+ minilessons that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Collection for Building Readers To read more about Crafting Minilessons visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat interviews Kymyona Burk, Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd, and Emily Hanford, Senior Producer and Correspondent at American Public Media. Nat, Kymyona, and Emily discuss the reading wars, what’s wrong with balanced literacy, Mississippi’s rising reading scores, why reading isn’t natural, Lucy Calkins, phonics, HBCUs, the science of […]

On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://excelined.org/people/kymyona-burk-ed-d/ (Kymyona Burk), Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd, and https://www.apmreports.org/profile/emily-hanford (Emily Hanford), Senior Producer and Correspondent at American Public Media. Nat, Kymyona, and Emily discuss the reading wars, what's wrong with balanced literacy, Mississippi's rising reading scores, why reading isn't natural, Lucy Calkins, phonics, HBCUs, the science of reading, spelling bees, three cueing, the importance of proper teacher education, and more. Show Notes: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html (In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat) https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read (Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read?) https://excelined.org/2022/06/22/new-resource-comprehensive-how-to-guide-approaches-to-implementing-early-literacy-policies/ (Comprehensive How-To Guide: Approaches to Implementing Early Literacy Policies) https://www.apmreports.org/story/2022/04/23/reading-recovery-negative-impact-on-children (New research shows controversial Reading Recovery program eventually had a negative impact on children) https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-struggling-readers-need-standards-and-structure-based-on-the-science-of-reading/ (Struggling readers need standards and structure based on the science of reading) https://www.apmreports.org/story/2021/11/19/fountas-pinnell-disproven-childrens-reading-theory (Influential authors Fountas and Pinnell stand behind disproven reading theory) https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/08/06/what-the-words-say (What the Words Say: Many kids struggle with reading – and children of color are far less likely to get the help they need)

Annemarie Johnson is a national presenter, staff developer, and literacy coach. In addition to supporting K-8 literacy teachers in public and private schools across the U.S., she also works as a seminar instructor for the Bureau of Education and Research (BER). She also served as a trainer for Lucy Calkins at Columbia University's Teachers College Reading and Writing Project for 7 years, an adjunct instructor for Ashland University (Ohio) for 6 years, and as an elementary classroom teacher and literacy leader in urban and suburban schools for 15 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Grove City College and a master's in Reading Supervision from the University of Akron. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Annemarie Johnson: Website: www.teacher2teacherhelp.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teacher2teacherhelp/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemarie-johnson-831a341b0/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Teacher2Teacher-Help-107840479248082/

For decades, millions of children have been taught to read using a popular method that's out of step with the scientific research on how our brains really learn. Amid pushback and criticism – including from researchers, parents, and education journalists – that's starting to change.   Dana Goldstein, national correspondent for The New York Times, shares the latest from her reporting on the growing pushback to the widely used “balanced literacy” approach advocated by Lucy Calkins, a charismatic professor at Columbia University's Teachers College. Why is Calkins' recent acknowledgment that her methods need revising  such a groundbreaking shift? What might this mean for how schools teach reading? Will the broader push to emphasize phonics produce a sea change in the nation's literacy levels? What questions should education reporters ask local teachers about the materials and instructional models they use? And what are some story ideas on curriculum and instruction, especially amid recent efforts by some grassroots advocacy groups to put new limits on how – and what – students are taught?

For decades, millions of children have been taught to read using a popular method that's out of step with the scientific research on how our brains really learn. Amid pushback and criticism – including from researchers, parents, and education journalists – that's starting to change.   Dana Goldstein, national correspondent for The New York Times, shares the latest from her reporting on the growing pushback to the widely used “balanced literacy” approach advocated by Lucy Calkins, a charismatic professor at Columbia University's Teachers College. Why is Calkins' recent acknowledgment that her methods need revising  such a groundbreaking shift? What might this mean for how schools teach reading? Will the broader push to emphasize phonics produce a sea change in the nation's literacy levels? What questions should education reporters ask local teachers about the materials and instructional models they use? And what are some story ideas on curriculum and instruction, especially amid recent efforts by some grassroots advocacy groups to put new limits on how – and what – students are taught?

In episode 111 of the Creative Kindergarten Podcast, I delve into the latest updates from Lucy Calkins and my perspective as someone who has only very recently heard about her. From the perspective of play-based education and the natural exploration of concepts to a structured literacy approach; I give my views on this controversial topic. > Lucy Calkins New York Times Article https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html To join in on the conversation with me, you can find me on: Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Creative-Kindergarten Instagram: @creativekindergartenblogontpt Facebook: www.facebook.com/creativekindergartenbyamanda Blog: creativekindergartenblog.com

The end of the school year is always a challenge! Keeping your learners challenged and engaged is a hard task when Spring Fever hits and everyone is counting the days until Summer break. This episode is packed with ideas and strategies to help you and your learners stay engaged and survive the end of the school year season on a bright note. What you'll gain from this episode... ~~Making your learners growth visible ~~4 Literacy activities not to be missed at the end of the year ~~Ideas for trying out something new just for YOU After listening to gain ideas to help your end of the year instruction, check out the links below. To read more about these end of the school year activities visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out these links for more info about the activities shared in this episode... ~~~Reading Book Projects ~~~Independent Writing Projects ~~~Inquiry Investigations ~~~Curriculum & Year Planning Resource Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Your students are reading independently. They are reacting to the text and jotting their thinking down on post its. A student comes to you and says..."I've finished my book, now what do I do with all these post its?" You see another student's independent reading book and notebook full of post its and sticky notes are falling all over the classroom floor. You see another student throwing those little treasure pieces of reading thinking in the trash can after finishing a book. Whether it's student #1 or #2 or #3, those post-it notes need to find their way into stretching student thinking about the text. These are clear signs that it's time for these readers to take their thinking to the next level... It's time to move onto longer written reading responses. What you'll gain from this episode... How to take your readers' thinking to the next level 7 Key teaching points for guiding your readers through the process of writing longer reading responses To read more about writing longer reading responses, check out the associated blog post for this episode here, Literacy Treasures Blog A collection of ready to go minilessons with printable resources for Writing Analytical Reading Responses Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the minilessons shared in this episode) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the -research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Reading has a lot of moving parts. Readers need to understand how to put all the pieces together to make meaning. Synthesizing text is when readers "put it all together" to move from literal understandings to inferential understandings. What you'll gain from this episode... The language of synthesis 8 key teaching points for synthesizing text To read more about synthesizing text to ‘put it all together, check out the associated blog post for this episode here, Literacy Treasures Blog A collection of ready to go minilessons with printable resources for Synthesizing Text—Minilessons to Grow and Deepen Thinking About Text. Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the minilessons shared in this episode) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the -research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Your learners have SO MANY QUESTIONS. They wonder ALL THE TIME! However, they may not have developed the skills they need to find answers to those questions. They need guidance in finding answers to their many wonderings. Readers need to understand the inquiry process to find answers to their many questions. What you'll gain from this episode... The 4 Steps of the Inquiry Process The "I wonder" step—asking questions Finding & evaluating relevant resources Creating & sharing their new learning Reflecting on the inquiry process 8 key teaching points for introducing the inquiry process to your learners To read more about introducing the inquiry process, check out the associated blog post for this episode here, Literacy Treasures Blog A collection of ready to go minilessons with printable resources for Introducing the Inquiry Process & Mini Inquiry Project Booklet Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the minilessons shared in this episode) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the -research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Readers are naturally filled with questions about topics they are interested in and are led to read nonfiction texts to find answers to those questions. However, nonfiction texts can be overwhelming and difficult to read from the different text structures to the content specific vocabulary to the way the content is presented to the amount of content stuffed into one piece of text readers can be left overwhelmed. Especially young readers. Help guide your readers through navigating nonfiction texts. What you'll gain from this episode... 9 key teaching points for helping your readers navigate nonfiction text To read more about navigating informational text, check out the associated blog post for this episode here, Literacy Treasures Blog A collection of ready to go minilessons with printable resources for Reading Informational Text. Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the minilessons shared in this episode) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

*Links to resources to be added soon!00:00:00 Molly RauhHello and welcome back to this CCIRA Literacy Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Molly Rauh with my co-host...00:00:08 Jessica Rickert...Jessica Rickert. Today's podcast features, Whittany La Rocca, Whitney's work centers around authentic reading and writing instruction. Whitney shares, ideas for grammar instruction, blending science of reading and balanced literacy, and the Patterns of Power resource. Well, welcome Whitney. We're so excited to have you on the podcast. Why don't we start with you just telling us a little bit about your background.00:00:35 Whitney La RoccaOkay, well, thank you. And thank you for having me on this podcast. So I'm excited to be here my background, I guess, you know, starts since since you're up in Colorado, I can say, I'm originally from Wyoming. So we're formerly neighbors. I graduated from the University of Wyoming and then moved to Texas. And that's where I'm at no. I live in the Houston area. I have over 20 years of education experience. I I've taught I've been an instructional coach, and now I'm a full-time consultant, author, staff developer, co-author of the Patterns of Power family of resources. So Patterns of Power, Patterns of Power Plus. And recently we came out with Patterns of Wonder that I got to take the lead on for emergent writing. So my passion is definitely just supporting children as they find their identities and develop their identities in this world of literacy. So I'm super excited to continue to do this work all over the place, rather than just in my little bubble outside of Houston.00:01:43 Jessica RickertSo I'm wondering, because you talk about authentic grammar instruction, and I think teachers really struggle with authentic grammar instruction and not just putting a worksheet in front of them, but integrating it. So what are your thoughts on authentic grammar instruction?00:02:01 Whitney La RoccaAbsolutely. You know, we're told so often as teachers well just teach grammar in context and keep it authentic. And we're like, okay, sure, how do we do that? What does that really mean? Right? And so when we think about authentic grammar instruction, what we want to do is really lean on brain research and the research that goes into education and how our brains are wired to learn. And if we look at these cognitive structures in our brain, we have this, this structure of observation. And so we get to observe what writers do. And that's what we begin with. We begin with, published children's literature, the books that we love that are in our classrooms. We share some sentences from those or with the emerging writers we share an entire page from a picture book where we look at both pictures and words. And we just ask our students, what do you notice? And we get to have these authentic conversations where students get to really just talk about what they're noticing, what the brain is observing, right? And this power of talk, this power of inquiry, just drives this instruction. And through these observations, our students begin to recognize what writers do. And we get to pull in grammar into this conversation as well. When we do pick sentences or a page from a book, we're very particular about what we choose, right? And so we're going to curate a sentence or a page that really demonstrates this grammar skill that we're looking to show off. But we don't tell our students what that is, because we want them to kind of discover that on their own through inquiry. And that's how this process begins with this authentic grammar instruction. We begin with authentic literature, and we have these authentic conversations within the context of reading and writing about what authors do, why they do that, how they do that. And then we move into comparing and contrasting that to something else, like another piece of writing, right? We're leaning in on the comparative analysis structure, cognitive structure of our brain, which is our brains are wired to learn through, compare and contrast. So we move into that to really retain that information even more. And then we turn around and authentically produce a piece of writing that looks like the model. So we get to imitate that, and we can imitate that together. And then we invite our students to turn around and try it out on their own. And we celebrate this. And our celebration, again it's through this conversation, the sharing, this displaying of the authentic writing that they have tried out, and we turn around and invite them to continue to play with this skill in other parts of their day of writing. In writing workshop, in writing in the content areas - continue to produce more writing in different ways, using that skill. And then we get to end with this conversation around editing and what that really looks like. So rather than starting with the wrong and correcting, correcting, correcting, correcting and focusing on right or wrong, we invite, you know, risk taking, because we're celebrating the craft of writing rather than wasting our time correcting errors. And with that celebration, and with this authentic move looking at what writers do and the craft that they use, we are able to move towards correctness. And we have to, as teachers have this understanding too that every writer has approximations along the way even adult writers, right? So we never have perfect writing. We're always moving towards correctness, but we're starting with correct writing to teach that, rather than starting with the wrong. So, in context, within the frame of reading and writing and using authentic literature and asking our students to produce authentic literature as well, and they lean on their scaffolds when they need to. And when they're ready to move away from that, they take those risks and try it out. And then we can. We can teach into those risks that they are trying.00:06:30 Molly RauhSo knowing that you said, you know, we, it's an inquiry process, and we should start by observing and know, you know, every teacher has some of their like favorite books, or some of their go os. Yeah. So if you were going to share some of your favorite, some of your go-to is with our listeners, what might be some of those, you know, awesome books that you would choose for our class of emerging readers.00:06:55 Whitney La RoccaOh, my goodness, it's so this is this is so hard for me, because you, you both can see like my background or what's behind to be right? I'm in my home office right now, and the wall is just covered with books. I am a book, a holic. So for me, just to share a couple is like ridiculous. I could go for hours of my favorites. My biggest, my biggest tip, first of all, is a mentor text is a text that you love. So I could said, I could share text all day. I could send you lists and everything, but honestly, you have to love it for your students to really love it too. And so those books that are in your classroom, if you really love them, then they're probably a really good mentor text to use. And but I also will say it that we need to be diverse in the text that we choose, right? And we need to make sure that we have a wide representation and of people in the books that we use. We want to be inclusive. We want to make sure that our readers see themselves, and they see others. And this is how we build community. And this is how we build empathy through the books that we I said. Just those little tidbits before I do share some titles with you. So few for emergent writing, I guess, some of my very favorites and "Quit Calling Me a Monster" by Jory John, one of my favorite mentor texts that really could be used for anything. There's a lot of teaching points inside of that Troy Cummings', "Can I be Your Dog" is one of my favorites. He also has "Can I be Your Cat" or along that line. I'm waiting on it. I waiting on the paper back to show up to my house next month. So but there's a second one about a cat cat, as opposed to a dog. Anything by Mo Willems hands down, right? The Pigeon books, the elephant piggy books, pretty much anything there. I also love they, these, the Yasmine books, the these ones by Saadia Faruqi. I'm not sure that I pronounced her last name, right? But it's a series, the Yasmine books I absolutely love for younger readers as mentor texts as well. For older readers, I really enjoy pretty much anything by Matt De La Pena is one of my favorite authors, for sure. And I also love Peter Brown's "The Wild Robot" is probably one of my favorite novels, as well as Katherine Applegate's "The One and Only Ivan," but even more so, "The One and Only Bob," I like that one even more than Ivan, which I didn't think I could like anything more than Ivan. But Bob is just another one as well. So those are just some off the top of my head that I absolutely love. My some of my favorite authors might go-tos. But like I said, I could pull so many books off and just keep talking. So.00:09:58 Molly RauhYou had talked too about, you know, when they're observing, especially with our younger, I called them emerging readers before. But we're really talking about emerging writers. Like you said.00:10:10 Whitney La RoccaBoth. Readers and writers and writers are readers. We make that reading-writing connection in everything that we do.00:10:15 Molly RauhWhen you're working with, you know, some of the really and honestly, I would probably still even do it with my high school kids looking at pictures specifically. You know, I think some teachers are really skilled at analyzing images as kind of a component of writing and others, you know, maybe that's something they're still trying to build. And I'm thinking, you know, this is one of my favorite books, so you said, you talking about books that you love, there's a book called "This is Not My Hat."00:10:53 Whitney La RoccaYes, I have it on my wall.00:10:53 Whitney La RoccaIt's very like it's an inference sort of book, because so much of what's going on in the story isn't in the written words. It's visual. How, how do you bring together something like that when they're looking at writing when the story isn't fully in the writing? Like, what would the conversation look like for a book like that? If I want to bring in one of my favorite books to talk?00:11:17 Whitney La RoccaWell, as you think about this visual literacy. And with graphic novels being so popular here, there's so much more in those pictures than there are in the words as well, and so much thinking that occurs with students who read graphic novels. So I'm a huge proponent of graphic novels as well. So I just think, when we take a look at that again, it's that observation. So, you know, what do you notice? In older students, if we're having conversations around grammar, they're probably going to lean more towards the words that you're sharing an entire page. And I like to think about this process, even outside of teaching grammar, right? This is an inquiry process. What do you notice? Compare it and contrast it with something else, turn around and try it out, right? So that's that's the inquiry part of it. So we can share. I was thinking, I was working with some junior high students not too long ago, and we were talking about I wanted, but we had to a lesson on flashbacks, right? So I actually just put up a page from Jerry Craft's "Class Act" and where he does, he has a flashback and around, the flashback he has like a wavy line. And so they're bell ringer when they came in was just a what do you notice the authors doing on this page? Right? That's all it was. What do you notice? And so they wrote in their notebooks. You know, a lot about, kind of the meaning of what's going on the back story of the student, what they were gathering just from that one page, which so much was in the pictures versus the words themselves. But and but it was interesting, none of them really noticed that little move around the flashback. But they did realize that he was flashing back to something different. And so just that what you know is conversation then moved us into. Well, this is called a flashback and look what Jerry did for us as readers, right? And he made this wavy line. So we actually transferred that over to text. When you did, we did a compare contrast. We moved to where we were just looking at text itself and finding the flashback. And we actually drew the squiggly line. So if you think about about that, that's, you know, that's that visual literacy of what's going on. So if we have books where we're looking at pictures as well, when we asked, what do you notice? You can say, you know, look at the words. But also look at the pictures. What do you notice is happening here in both. Now with emergent readers and writers, the writing that they're doing is mostly pictures as they're learning that there's this thing called letters. And these letters make words. And these words make sentences, right? So when we're looking at really emergent writers, they're just scribbling for their writing. They have this understanding that there's this thing called writing, but they don't have this understanding that there's these letters, you know, these symbols that make letters that tie the sounds yet. And so when we're asking them to look at pictures and what we're doing, we're still looking at the words as well. But their eyes tend to look more at the pictures, because they're not reading these words yet. So we get to lean in on what it is they're noticing, and then we get to develop their oral language through those pictures. So when they're using the pictures in their own books and say, we're working with nouns, right, it's a focus brace we might use is I tell about people, places and things in my story. And so they have these scribbles on the page. Well, as we're developing the oral language, they can be bringing in people, places and things into their language as their sharing, what's in their pictures. And that's just the, the, the foundation of grammar that were working on with our students. 00:14:55 Jessica RickertWell, in all of this is reader like based in readers' and writers' workshop and balanced literacy. What - something that's pushing in on education in Colorado and other places is Science of Reading. So how do you, how do you see merging those two things? Because science of reading is here to stay and whatever people think of it. But then it's, it seems like if they're trying to push out balanced literacy, and what you're talking about is these really great authentic experiences for kids. So what are your thoughts on that?00:15:29 Whitney La RoccaWell, we definitely have this pitch for a Science of Reading everywhere. And what I will say is the science of reading is attached to Scarborough's rope, right? And so to have skilled readers, we have to weave in the phonics. But we also have to leave in what we call language comprehension. And when we look at the language comprehension side of it that is developing this language of having an understanding of syntax and structure and all all of these pieces, you know, of developing how language should sound that fluency piece when we're reading. Well, we're not going to just get that fluency peace unless we are read aloud to right? And so read aloud happens during balanced literacy. And guess what? We need that read aloud to dive into that language comprehension side of the science of reading. And there are so many components in that language comprehension compre- "muuh" (sound to indicate tongue-tied moment) , the comprehension side, where a lot of balanced literacy components come in. I do see the need for a strong phonics part of your day. We need that, right? Our students definitely need to be able to decode it. They shouldn't just be guessing, but it definitely can be weaved together. And honestly, one of my favorite, it works out there right now that I go back to almost on a daily basis, because as a consultant, I'm getting calls constantly, because I do, my consulting is around balanced literacy and reading and writing workshop. And so I get calls all the time. Well, you know, we're really being told we have to do science of reading. How can we mix and match that? And the it's called "Shifting the Balance" by Kari Yates and Jan Birkins. If you haven't heard of it yet, I highly recommend you check it out, "Shifting the Balance" Stenhouse Publishers is the publishing company? But what they do is they share the research behind the science of reading, and then they give, and then they show how that can be balanced with balanced literacy. And there's actually actually six shifts that they dive into of how you can shift your balanced literacy to also follow and dive into this research behind science of reading. And it's beautiful I, like I said, I refer to it almost on a daily basis. It's definitely one of my favorite art pieces of work out there right now as we maneuver through these reading wars. What I will say is there needs to be a balance, right? So we don't need to be at one end or the other. It really needs to come together. There are some really good things with science of reading that I do believe in, but I am also my heart is with reading and writing workshop could, because when we're talking about authentic authenticity and we're talking about engagement, that's where that happens, right? And if we really dive into emergent reading and writing this writing that they're doing through their pictures and through their oral rehearsal, that's not going to happen if we wait until they can write CBC words, right? And so we don't want to stifle them because they're not yet writing words, encoding words or decoding words, right? We want them to be able to go ahead and develop that language comprehension through Reading the pictures as well as writing through pictures.00:19:00 Molly RauhOh, and this is this is more for listeners. This is not for you so much Whitney. But if you are looking for some cool science of reading strategies that you could maybe marry with what Whitney's talking about, we have another podcast with Jessica help me with the name, because it just fell out of my head. I had it a minute ago -Katie Garner. We talked to Katie Garner, and she's got these great little strategies to help kids access those sounds before they're you know, technically, I'm doing air quotes. You guys can't see me but air quotes before they're technically ready. And so, you know, that's that's a great resource. But I'm with you. I like, I'm such an inquiry, like my practice as a teacher is very inquiry-based and I, you know, I love Patterns of Power and the work that you and Jeff Anderson have done, and you know, that like, like you said, it's engaging work that can kids get excited about it. And, you know, Jeff, that I've made no secret about this. Jeff is, we'll see if you can beat him. This is your goal. You gotta beat him.00:20:06 Whitney La RoccaI don't - I don't think I can.00:20:06 Molly RauhJeff is my favorite podcast episode that I've recorded.00:20:11 Whitney La RoccaI can't beat Jeff. He's my favorite too. I absolutely love him. He's my mentor. I have learned so much from him, and when people asked me to come present and they're like, you know, we've seen Jeff, we really want you. And I'm like, okay, but, you know, I'm not Jeff. RIght like, not even close, just so incredible. I could listen to him all day. And I just laugh constantly, right? You know, he'll just have you rolling over. I love it when we present together, because I just almost pee my pants every time, because he's so funny, but I absolutely love him. We did. We had a webinar together this afternoon, and we talked on a daily basis. We're like our we're the married couple who are the we're definitely the work husband and wife there. And so we it's a lot of fun. But yeah, I can't beat Jeff, you can't don't even put me try to like put me there, because I'm not even close.00:21:04 Molly RauhI won't make you do that. But I'm still enjoying this a lot so far. So, absolutely I won't make you compete with Jeff.00:21:10 Whitney La RoccaAnd if you want to laugh more, you know, we have they he and Travis, who's the co-author for the Middle School patterns of winter. They host the podcast as well, called the POPCast. Which is the Patterns of Power podcas: the POPCast and they have you rolling. But the episodes are about 15 minutes long. And they're all and Patterns of Power. So they just have you you rolling. They brought me on to talk about Patterns of Wonder. They've brought Caroline on to talk about Spanish, you know, they've brought on some brain researchers that kind of bring in everybody, but it's those two and their two goofballs. So they really have a good time with this podcast. And it's a lot of fun to listen to.00:21:52 Molly RauhWell, I'm definitely going to have to give that a try. And I will also, this is the first time in a while. When I've had Whitney, you've given me like, you might have seen me like frantically writing things down. This will be the first time in a while where I'll have show notes with links to all kinds of resources. So thank you for sharing already, like so many names and books and resources, because I love to get to link those together for our audience so that they can access even more than we can talk about in, you know, a short podcast session.00:22:23 Whitney La RoccaWell, there's so many people doing so many good things out there. I just I love to just share what's going on out there in classrooms and out in the professional writing world. And it's just, it's just amazing, even though this year is just incredibly difficult for teachers. And I know that I see that I just love that they're still, you know, a little bit of excitement still out there. And I just want to share and celebrate that as often as possible.00:22:50 Jessica RickertWell for our listeners that don't know what Patterns of Power are -is in. You've been talking about that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?00:22:58 Whitney La RoccaYeah. So Patterns of Power is a resource. It's a professional book, but it's really professional resource. And Jeff and I created Patterns of Power for grades, one through five first. So that was our first one that we created together. And it really came from the work that he did with everyday editing and mechanically inclined. And just the back story behind that I was an instructional coach at the time on an elementary campus. We were struggling on our campus because we were using a lot of daily edit, daily oral language, worksheets, and we just weren't seeing a transfer of skills to their writing. And we were frustrated because we were using writing workshop, and it just it was frustrating for us. And I was reading his work. And I and I told my teachers, I said, hey, there's this guy out here who's doing some pretty cool stuff, and we're using mentor texts already. And during writing workshop, you know, this approach makes sense. What do you think we give it a try? And so for? And they said, sure, of course, we're willing. So I just I created some lessons, you know, at the lower grade levels and along the lines of his work, and they started using it, loved it. He came to my district. He and I got to talking, and he invited me to write this book with him, which was really exciting just to, because, Molly, just like you, I love him, right? I go back to my notes before I knew him of just the sessions. And there's so many exclamation marks in my notes, because he just had you so excited and energized and motivated. So I couldn't wait to do this work. So we came out with that. And the reason why we called it a resource over a professional book is because the professional reading that's in this book is a very short amount. We know teachers don't have time to do all of this professional reading. So we have about 50 pages that's the professional reading, and the other 400 pages are ready-to-use lessons that you could turn around and use tomorrow. Every lesson follows the same process and we call it the Patterns of Power process. It's this inquiry process that I referred to earlier where we begin with invitation to notice, we invite our students to notice what they observe in the sentence that we choose. And through that conversation, they discover this move that writers make, which is tied to grammar. And so we introduced in that Focus Phrase for them. And we learn, you know, like, "I use nouns to show people, places, and things" that's a focus phrase. And now we have a better understanding standing of what nouns are, rather than starting our lesson with okay writers. Today we're going to learn about nouns, pull out your notebooks. Let's do a three column chart, right? People places and things, you know know, we're going to start with just this sentence, and ask, what do you notice? And through that conversation, they discover this. And then we move into the invitation to compare and contrast where we compare and contrast that mentor sentence to another example, and continue our conversation around what they notice, which also leads back to our Focus Phrase, then you have the invitation to imitate where we imitate that model together. So that's where we create our own piece of writing. Thunder cracks Oh, my goodness, sorry, we're having a thunderstorm right now. That was a really loud thunder. My dog is freaking out. We have really bad thunderstorms down here. I'm sorry. So the invitation to imitate were imitating together using that Focus phrase, keeping that Focus Phrase in mind, they turn around and imitate on their own. So then they turn around and try it out on their own. And we celebrate that. And then we move into the apply where they go ahead and try it out in other areas. And we come back at the end for this conversation around editing. And our editing is still isn't about right or wrong, but it's about meaning and effect, and really thinking about, you know, when we don't put a period here, how does that affect the meaning? Or what effect does this have on the reader? So these conversations give way to editing to where students actually really edit their work. So often, our students think they're writing is perfect. There are no mistakes in my writing, and we hand them and editing checklist. And they check yes, all the way down, right? And when we look at their writing and there's nothing, they haven't edited, anything. But when we use these Focus phrases and we use this process and ending with that conversation well, and then they have a better understanding of what they really meant to do as editors, and they take more care, and they're more intentional with the editing that they do. So all of our lessons in Patterns of Power follow that process, and we have over seventy five lessons in Patterns of Power. And then we wrote Pattern of Power Plus, which were grade level specific. And that's where, like I was, Patterns of Power was Jeff Anderson with Whitney La Rocca. So my name was real tiny. Then with Patterns of Power Plus, I became an "And" so my name was the same size. And Jeff tells everyone I graduated from a preposition to a conjunction, and that grammar really does matter, right? And then, while Jeff and Travis were working on Patterns of Power for Middle School, I got to work, take the lead and become have my name first and work on Patterns of Wonder for emergent writers. So it just continues to grow. I guess I and I'm allowed to say it. Now we have Patterns of Power, Molly, for high school coming out. Yes! Nine through twelve and is in production right now. So it's supposed to be soon coming out. I don't, I can't tell you exactly when, but I know it's soon because it's been turned over to production. So...00:28:47 Molly RauhAnd to all of you that couldn't see me like mouth, jaw dropped, hands to face, like so excited.00:28:55 Whitney La RoccaYes, I know. I knew you would be excited. I couldn't wait to tell you that. So, yes, we're your pre-k through 12. We will be very soon with this process. And that's what's so awesome is the process is the same at every grade level. The difference is the layers of complexity that we add into it, right? And that's what makes it so powerful as well.00:29:17 Molly RauhWell and you can tell, you know, I'm, I teach high school, but I still know your work, love your work. You know, it's something that I've you know, obviously I go to CCIRA, and I take a lot of of different strategies from a lot of different grade levels and adapt them. But it's so nice when somebody has also done that work for me and I can go. Oh, I can do that so much better, like you guys are brilliant in ways that I'm not.00:29:40 Whitney La RoccaWell, when we encourage that to, we encourage you, you know, to start with the lessons we created. But once you have a sense of how this process goes, go into the books that you love and find sentences, you know that you love or invite your students to find sentences and in move, continue with the process on your own as well. So we don't believe in scripted teaching at all. And so we want this. That's why it's really a process. Yes, we have lessons to support the process. But that's the process that makes it so powerful. And I always, when I signed books, I always sign it with "The power is in the process," because that's really what it is. And you have to trust that process as well. When you think about transfer, right? I so agree with that.00:30:26 Molly RauhSo that gets me to think thinking about 00:30:29 Molly Rauhthat creative process, because you said, when you got started, you know, you had kind of looked at some of Jeff's work, and you created some lessons. And that, you know, just sort of over the years has snowballed into this fantastic, impressive, awesome career. I'm so like, I'm jealous of all you've accomplished, and that you got to graduate.00:30:49 Whitney La RoccaIt's so exciting. It's been really fun. My mom the other day actually said, you know he's really giving you this gradual release of responsibility, and that's exactly it. That's what it was. My mom's a former teachers as well - it's the language, right? She's retired now, but she's like a you know, he just he took you under his wing, and he slowly released you a little bit more to go out and do this work. And and that's what it is. And it's the same thing with the process as well. It's a gradual release.00:31:18 Molly RauhYeah. But thinking back to the beginning of your process as a learner in, in creating this, could you tell us a little bit about those first couple initial lessons, and then maybe what hasn't changed or evolved, or what you've learned, kind of as you've grown? TAnd you know, tell us about your learning process.00:31:36 Whitney La RoccaSure, my gosh, there's so much. So when I first created just the lessons on my own, where I was taking his work from Everyday Editing and Mechanically Inclined and just trying to think at, you know, at an elementary - lower elementary level, what this could look like, you know, we interpret things so differently. And so when I was doing the notice, I actually made three days of noticing where we were noticing three different texts all around the same skill. And and then the compare contrast, we use those, but still, you know, continue to compare contrast. And and the he came in, I remember when he came and did, you know, some PD around this work with us, and I had kind of an aha moment. And I was like, oh, my goodness, you know, my lessons I'm trying to do too much, much like this, you know, it's it doesn't need to be that much. I'm kind of overdoing that notice, you know that we need to get we need to get past that, and really into the work that the students are actually doing, because that's where the power is. And so I, that's kind of what got us started. He also talked about the focus phrase, which I, that was something new that wasn't in Everyday Editing. And so he was definitely kind of growing and doing some work around this as well. And so I took one of my first grade lessons, and I revised it after that PD. Yeah, I went back, and I revised it, and I added in a focus phrase, and I took out some of the other things and completely revised it to match more of what he shared in the PD when I had a better understanding rights. And and that's the power behind hearing the actual authors. Like you learn, you're like, oh, that's what that meant. And so I sent him the lesson, he and I had talked, you know, at the PD and everything. So he kind of knew my name at least because I was, he came to my school. So so I was kind of in charge of making sure he got lunch, right? The important things. And so I sent him a lesson and said, hey, you know, after this PD, I really have been thinking more about some of these lessons I've created. Can you take a look at this first grade lesson and give me feedback? I've added a focus phrase. I've kind of changed some things up. Let me know what you're thinking here. I'm because I really just wanted his feedback on this. You know, I'm I am I on the right track? And that lesson is actually what he emailed me back and said, I really want to talk to you, what's your number? And that's where that got into wow. You know, you and I are on the same page here. This is, you know, I can really take your lower elementary experience and mix it with mine, Upper Elementary and secondary experience. And we could do something here. So as I'm think of those early lessons in that early learning, that's for me. It was just going back and trying it again. It's that revision that we do as writers, right? And then when he and I sat down to actually work Kirk, you know, I was kind of nervous three getting honestly, I was like, oh, my gosh damn good, right lessons with him. And we sat side by side at his table. But Jeff is just so open and and wanting to learn as well. I mean, he's been doing this work for ever, but he's still open and wanting to learn more and wanting to learn from others. So he really was asking, you know, what do you think about this? And what lessons do you have? Maybe we can mix some of these together. And so I just kind of learned even more about how you just have to write. You just have to get it out. So, you know, don't don't worry about if it's right or wrong, just get it out, get it out there. And because then you can revise then that's definitely something I have learned. I will say, as that gradual release of responsibility as I took on Patterns of Wonder, really took the lead on that. I sat with a blank screen for a really long time, and I had a really hard -it was all in my brain, and the editor would call and say, "how we doing? Haven't seen anything yet." I'm like, it's all right here in my brain. It's percolating. And he's like, well, percolate that onto paper, please. And so once I got going, though, I was really able to continue that work. And as we, Jeff and I are kind of working on something else like I'm not sure if I can really say what else is coming. But there may be something else coming soon. And it's amazing how much easier it is now for me, right? I just sit on, and I just go to town on these lessons on we're working on around revision. So just a hint, and I'm able to I'm much more confident in what I'm doing now, and that gradual release of responsibility, adds confidence, right? I've had him when I've needed him. And as he let me go a little bit more, I grew with more and more confidence. And now I feel really strong about what I do. 00:36:21 Molly RauhI love that your own process connected to, you know, again, that writing process. And I also just love that you were bold enough to like, maybe like, I just need to be braver and be like, hey, here's this cool lesson I created based off from your work. What do you think? The thing like? The mentors? Because you gained this awesome mentor because you were just brave enough to send a lesson and say, hey, I could use some feedback.00:36:48 Whitney La RoccaBut really, that's all I'm working for. I never dreamed that this would happen like I, of course, it was in my dreams. But I never, when I sent that was like thinking it what happened? Right? I really was just looking for feedback. So when he said, I need to talk to you, I was like, uh oh, I thought it was going to be terrible like he didn't want to put it in writing, right? It's. So then, when I talk to him, he's like, you know, I really think we need to do some work together. And I was like, wait, what? Hold up, what? And that's when he went into, you know, well, it's going to be Jeff Anderson with Whitney La Rocca and made a point that my name was going to be very small. And I said, I didn't care just the fact that I would get to work with him and learn more from him. I really saw this as a way for me to learn more. And I mean, I have definitely learned more, way beyond what I had expected back then. And like, I think, it was 2014 or 15 or something, when all of this started between he and I. So.00:37:45 Molly RauhWell, I'm thinking, even just the feedback on the lesson, forget publishing. But just like, learning from someone like Jeff or any other, you know, educational- that's a theme we have on this podcast is educational heroes. And...00:37:58 Whitney La RoccaYes, I encourage everyone to ask for feedback. Don't be afraid to do that, whether it's from someone in your school or someone outside of your school, and it don't be afraid to just reach out and say, Hey, can I have some feedback on this? Because that's how we grow. And, you know, we are. We're as smart as the people in the room. Umm, right? And if we're not asking for feedback, if we're not seeking other opinions and and, you know, working towards this growth, we're not helping our children. Right? So It ultimately, it's about our students. And if we seek feedback, then we're also putting that good model out there as we encourage our students to do the same, 00:38:44 Molly RauhAbsolutely. And that, you know, I guess my brain is very much into like connecting to some of our old podcasts today. One of our recent ones was with our Early Career Network, liaison or whatever. we call her role, and we were talking a lot about just those conversations and the learning we can get from collaborating with some of the newer educators, because they've had, some of those...One, they've got some new learning that maybe we've missed out on. Two, they have a lot of of those techniques are fresh in their mind, you know, things that we know, but maybe we've forgotten to do as we get, you know, into sort of the daily patterns of our work. And so it can be so refreshing to sit down and collaborate with someone who's just sort of in a different space and place in teaching, because like it improves my practice so much even, just, you know, looking over lessons of some of my newer colleagues, or I all the time. I'm like, hey, come look at this. Tell me what you think and getting feedback. And I think that goes for any level, you know, whether it's reaching out to you, or reaching out to Jeff for reaching out to the teacher, down the hall? I think sometimes we forget how much we can get from just a fresh set of eyes from our awesome colleagues who have strengths that aren't our strengths like, I don't know, I'm a very collaborative kind of person.00:40:12 Whitney La RoccaI am too. And I just think too, you know, the you know, I've been in this for a while now. So my former students, I remember being a coach, and we were hiring my former sutdents. My like former third graders were now becoming teachers at my school, and I just reached, just learning from them. I learned from them when they were kids in my third grade class, but I also learned from them when they were my colleague. It's just all about learning from others. And I think that's important that we learn from our younger teachers. But we also take time to learn from our students that are in our class as well, because they can teach us a lot too.00:40:45 Molly RauhI love that I, you know, one of my favorite questions to ask my students is just "What are other teachers doing that, I could bring to my classroom to make it better. And a lot of times, they're like, "No, nothing, miss, you're great." But every once in a while, they have, they remember something cool that another teachers done it. And I'm like "score!"00:41:04 Whitney La RoccaYeah, I want to know more about that.00:41:07 Molly RauhYeah, I was talking to one of my and I can't remember what he said. But he came to me. We did this we, co taught a lesson. So we mixed our two classes together and co-taught this lesson the last two days. And he he came to me afterwards and he said, okay, I have this really great feedback from this kid, and I wanted to tell you about it so that if I forget, you'll at least remember, oh, it was about visuals to go with. It was this big sort of geography thing. And they were learning about Imperialization and the countries that they were sort of trying to imperialize and grab. It was just like names written on note cards. And this kid would be said, it would be so cool if we had like a picture visuals to go with it. So, you know, we had a little more sense of what we were grabbing, and he's like, that was such good feedback, because he's like, of course, we could do that like that makes a lot of sense. And you know, it's little things. And, you know, that doesn't quite connect with your work of literacy. But like our kids, they have so much to share an offer. And sometimes the ideas don't come to them, and that's okay. But every once in a while, oh man, they have awesome feedback.00:42:14 Whitney La RoccaBut when we open our our classrooms to their feedback into these conversations, we're showing them that we trust them, right? And we're opening the doors. And and with that comes higher levels of engagement as well. And the best way to learn they have to be engaged first before they can really learn and retain anything. So when we have the trust of our students in that way, and they're, they feel open enough to share some of their thinking around this. We just invite more engagement.00:42:40 Molly RauhAbsolutely. Jessica, do you have questions to get us back on track? Because I have definitely derailed us a little bit.00:42:47 Jessica RickertNo, no questions. I think this has been great. And I just think that Patterns of Power resource is what teachers need, because I think teachers are always, have always been overwhelmed. And so it's nice for somebody else to do like the legwork of the structure. And like you said, then go off and do it. But it's nice to have something that's not a script, but it's here's where you can start, and then take off from there. So I think, and that's like, I'm excited for Molly too, because I think sometimes High School doesn't have of the resources like that. So I think that's a great resource. And I love that it's a resource, not a script, not a program, because we still want teachers to think too. And like you said, use your own books, your favorite books, because that's authentic. I mean, if you're just grabbing a book that the resource told you, it's like God, this is the worst book ever, you know, then then then it loses its authenticity. So I love that. And I love that you ground everything and what's best for students and how students learn and how we learn. I mean, that's how we read and write and learn about different things as well.00:43:57 Whitney La RoccaWell and I do want to say, with this Patterns of Power for high school, the co-author on that is Holly Durham. So she is, she's down here in Texas as well. She is a high school coordinator, language arts coordinator at high school level. So she really knows her stuff when it comes to high school. And to be honest, I get kind of get a little intimidated talking to her, because here I have goodbye little primary world, and that she's like using these words, I don't even know what they mean. So she definitely knows her stuff. But she Travis and Jeff co-wrote that one. So it's exciting that our family also said, continues to grow as we add more resources. And when we're thinking about this resource, it is a resource, right? So it's not a program, it's not a professional books. So it really can be used with any model that you're using, whether you are using balanced literacy and reading and writing workshop, or you are using a program this really, because it's a process, it really can feed into anything, any kind of model that you're using for a teaching writing. You can replace those worksheets with this process very easily. I have a several districts that I am working with that we are, we are doing that. So it is it is doable, and the teachers are excited because it's so much more engaging than those worksheets.00:45:20 Molly RauhAnd I just want to emphasize, you know, I think processes are so empowering to both teachers and our students. When we learn processes, you know, they give us, kind of a strategy that we can apply regularly. And when we teach our students processes, they now have a tool that they can apply to different problems, that they run into themselves. And so I love teaching processes, and I love that you guys have created some awesome resources with Patterns of power and Patterns of Wonder. And, you know, the whole collection of resources for so many people at every different level. So I hope teachers listening, you know, budget a little money aside and grab themselves a great resource.00:46:04 Whitney La RoccaResource. Yes, thank you. Well, I will say too with the process, they you actually go through the entire writing process in a very short, non-threatening way with this Patterns of Power process too, you know, you're immersed in this literature, you're immersed in skill. You turn around and do some brainstorming before drafting something together, you turn around and draft it again on your own. You celebrate that. And often in that celebration, there's revision that's done to that right there. You realize, oh, I want to add this, and you doing some revision that apply often goes into a lot of revision into the writing that you're doing during your writing block of time and ending with the editing conversation moves over to editing. So you're really taking it through the writing process, but it's in such a short digestible chunk that it's very non-threatening to students, again, that that allows them to feel good and confident about that work they're doing before going into these long essays, right, or whatever it is that they're writing.00:47:06 Molly RauhWell. And I love that you. You emphasized that it is a short process, because I think sometimes teachers go oh, writing is such a process. It's so hard to get, and it feels it feels so natural and engaging and short and sweet. And, you know, it's kind of a very snappy kind of thing to work through these these processes. And when you said earlier that you were a little intimidated by, you know, some of the high school stuff in the vocabulary, let me just tell you, like the some of the best instructional practices that I have as a teacher I learned from lower elementary presenters that I've gone to see, like, truly some of the best. And, you know, you talk again about some of those processes. Linda Hoyt is where...00:47:55 Whitney La RoccaI love Linda Hoyt.00:47:55 Molly RauhYeah, I saw her early in my career at a CCIRA conference, and she she blew my mind, because it was very much like what you talked about, where it was like, okay, let's observe this sentence. Let's mimic it a little bit. And we did so much writing. So, you know, in such a short sweet amount of time. And I was like, I can. I was teaching Middle School at the time. And I was like, I can totally take this back to my kids and man. I had such fun experiences using the strategies. And I still like it's still in my classroom today. And, you know, if you've ever looked at her Non-fiction Writing, everything is like three steps. There's nothing more than three steps. And I feel like the work that you guys have done is very similar in that it really is short and sweet. And, you know, empowering, because it's so easy to just take and use. I think that's something teachers really love and want to just be able to like, go into something and be like, okay, I can apply this like I can use this tomorrow because it's like it makes that much sense.00:48:58 Whitney La RoccaAnd the students do that to. They're like, oh, I can do this one sentence. I can do that, right? I can do that. It's that confidence piece. So.00:49:08 Molly RauhAlright. So my final question, okay, it that I pretty much throw at everyone is about educational Heroes.So who are some of you? I know it's a hard one - who are some of yours. Maybe, you know, just a couple. People that have really impacted you in awesome ways as an educator.00:49:29 Whitney La RoccaOkay. So of course, Jeff. You know, I've talked about him this whole time. So I'm going to start with him, but I'm not going to say a lot because I've done that this entire webinar. I will say Lucy Calkins has completely changed my view on teaching writing. And she actually came into my writing education as an early, I was an early teacher at the time. I had been only teaching a couple years when I was introduced to her work, and I actually got to go to New York for an Institute. And that Institute I walked away, saying, this is what I need to be doing. This makes sense and just she is just such an. And I know she's keynoting at your [Conference]. I'm so excited, but she just is such a learner herself to that. She's constantly revising her thinking, and she's constantly researching and constantly getting out there into classrooms and schools and trying to see what is going on right here and now, but still grounded in what's best for kids and that engagement piece and keeping it authentic. What authentic reading and writing really is. So one of my very first books, professional books that I read front to back, like cover to cover and was Art of Teaching Writing and I, it's highlighted like crazy. It's still on my shelf now. But just reading that and then listening to her. And now, even when I teach, people, will say, you sound just like Lucy. And I'm like, well, she was like, she was my person that's who - I remember being at the institute on my birthday and I she was I was in her small group session. And and she had us writing, of course, she always has us writing, and she was going around and conferring. And she came up next to me. And she said, I want to talk to you about your writing -scoot over. This is so Lucy: just scoot over. I'll share your chair with you, and I was like, so I got to like touch butts with Lucy on my birthday. I mean how cool is that.One of my favorite memory. But anyway, I just I could listen to her all day. I she's just she just has so much to say, and she's so genuine in everything that she does and everything that she says. And she's thoughtful in how she speaks, and she speaks how she writes, right? So it definitely she's one of my heroes for sure. I also, you know, I could go on and on, but I am going to I know that we're short on time. So definitely Jeff. Definitely Lucy, but also my mom, my, like I said, she is a former teacher, former coach. Her name is Amy Daley, and I actually dedicated Patterns of Wonder to her. She was, as I was growing up, she she was a preschool director, and then she moved into being a kindergarten teacher. And then eventually a coach, and I just had learned, growing - as a child I learned so much from her. She, I remember the writing that we did together just as a child in the young authors, competitions, she was there to help me, and she never told me what to do. She constantly conferred with me, right? And made me think through everything that I was doing. And then I remember when I first started teaching, I learned so much from her. Just and that way, she's actually the one that got me thinking about Lucy Caulkins. She's the one that introduced me to that whole brilliance in my life, in my world. And and and we just every time that we talk, we still talk shop constantly. We just have so many of the same philosophies and views and feed off one another, even though she's fully retired now, but she's definitely an educational hero for me as well, and that there's so many more, but I'm just going to limit it to those three for now.00:53:16 Jessica RickertIt is so hard to limit, because we have you know, but I know that Molly and I are both envious of both of your experiences with Jeff and Lucy. That's pretty awesome. But I love that your mom has paved the way for you as well. That's pretty special. And I gotta tell you, I never thought I'd be excited about grammar instruction. And I am!00:53:37 Whitney La RoccaMe neither. I never thought I would either and and Jeff even says he never in a million years dreamed he would write a book on grammar, you know. And then like it becomes this empire, you know, later in his life so.00:53:50 Jessica RickertWell, and it's so needed, because it's not something that it's kind of the leftover thing that we don't really talk about. I mean, we talked about writing instruction, but grammars always an aside, but it's so important, and it does need to be integrated. So I love what you guys have done.00:54:06 Whitney La RoccaAnd when it is taught, it's so often taught in isolation and just doesn't make sense right, or it's, or it's a focus on correcting, rather than the the correctness that's already there. And so I'm glad that we have a resource that can support teachers to keep it authentic and also continued their practice of teaching writing in the genres as well.00:54:29 Jessica RickertAwesome. Well, we look forward to seeing you at CCIRA and Molly have something to say before we wrap up.00:54:37 Molly RauhNo, that's okay. I, you know me, I could talk all night.00:54:41 Jessica RickertYou got Molly jazzed too. You got a high school teacher jazzed about grammar instruction.00:54:47 Whitney La RoccaWell, that tends to be, usually High School teachers are very jazzed about grammar instruction.00:54:51 Molly RauhI was actually, okay, I'm gonna say what I was going to say. I was actually thinking, like, there's so many teachers that are passionate about a lot of things writing-wise. And grammar is not one of them. They don't feel as comfortable with that space. And so you guys have really empowered them with something that allows them to feel comfortable tackling grammar.00:55:13 Whitney La RoccaIt's okay to not know everything it's that's okay. That's okay. We support you in that. So yeah, it's great.00:55:22 Jessica RickertWell, we're very excited. And for all of our listeners, if you haven't signed up for Whitney's session, there's still time to get in, or you can change your session to go and see Whitney, because she will have an awesome couple of sessions. And we're so excited to see you in person.00:55:40 Whitney La RoccaThank you. And one of my sessions is following Lucy. So if I'm not there, when you first get there attendees, it's because I'm talking to Lucy, I'll be there soon. Now I'm just teasing, I'm gonna probably have to sneak out of Lucy early to get over to my session, be ready for everyone to come in. However, I'm following her. So I feel like woo look at me. I follow Lucy. I'm honored to come to CCIRA. I have heard so many good things about this conference for years now. So the fact that I am actually get to come and present at it. I'm just incredibly honored, and I can't wait to get to Denver, even though it'll be cold. I can't wait to get there so.00:56:18 Jessica RickertGreat. Well, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us tonight. Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. I've enjoyed it.00:56:25 Molly RauhThank you Whitney. Thanks for listening to CCIRA Literacy Conversations podcast. To find out more about CCIRA, go to CCIRA.org. On CCIRA.org, you can join as a member, or find great resources like our professional development blog, which posts every Tuesday and has variety of guest writers on a awesome selection of topics. CCCIRA is a professional organization of educators and community members dedicated to the promotion and advancement of literacy. We also have a Twitter account @ColoradoReading. You can find us on Instagram at CCIRA_ColoradoReading. Or you can find us on Facebook, where we also have a members only group that we're trying to build. And our Facebook account is CCIRA Colorado Reading. We'd love to hear more from you. And again, if you're looking for new content, please send any questions or things you'd be interested in seeing from CCIRA to CCIRAVideo@gmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

Phenomenal Conversations W/Mr. Short: Dr. Jennifer Scroggin and Hannah Schneewind. I have a treat for ELA teachers who love Independent Reading. I interviewed Dr. Jennifer Scroggin and Hannah Schneewind, the authors of Trusting Readers: Powerful Practices for Independent Reading. We discussed how they got their start, working closely with Lucy Calkins, being consultants and their LitCon 22 presentation. Their Book: https://www.amazon.com/Trusting-Readers-Powerful-Practices-Independent/dp/0325120471/ref=sr_1_1?crid=18IN92ZRR8C78&keywords=hannah+schneewind&qid=1640352000&sprefix=hannah+schneewind%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1 Be Phenomenal, Mr. Short --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jeremiah-short0/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jeremiah-short0/support

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Sandi Jacobs, Principal at EdCounsel and former Senior Education Program Specialist for Reading First at the U.S. Department of Education, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss why reading programs based on debunked science persist in schools. Her answer: It's complicated. Educators, in part, may struggle with the idea that they've been teaching something incorrectly. And strong, evidence-backed replacements programs can lack hefty marketing budgets. After this discussion, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a study on how dual-language education affects math and reading outcomes.Feedback welcome!Have ideas or feedback on our podcast? Send them to our podcast producer Pedro Enamorado at penamorado@fordhaminstitute.org.

Writing longer reading responses can be an overwhelming task for young readers--well, for any readers! What you'll gain from this episode... 5 key points for conducting a minilesson for writing more about reading thinking To read more about stopping & jotting along with writing more about your reading thinking visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out these resources for digging deeper into reading thinking on the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Stretching My Reading Thinking Minilesson and Think Sheet Writing Literary Responses - Text Dependent Analysis - A Collection of Minilessons Stopping and Jotting Minilessons and Assessment Tool Synthesizing Text -- Reading Minilessons to Grow and Deepen Thinking About Text Stay updated on the latest from Literacy Treasures... Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Conferring with readers is all about Teaching the readER, not the readING There are 5 essential phases of a reading conference. Listen in to discover tips and tricks for moving through the 5 steps of a reading conference. What you'll gain from this episode... Tips and tricks for the 5 Steps of a Reading Conference... Research Decide Compliment Teach Link Check out the Progress Monitoring Toolkit (including conferring forms) Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about these reading conference tips visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas, Jennifer Serravallo and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Readers' growth should be visible! Readers need to keep portfolios and samples of work to show their growth. Teachers should create Reader Profiles to help SEE their readers and gather data that will inform instruction. Readers should develop goals to keep moving them forward on their path to reading proficiency. What you'll gain from this episode... Getting to know your readers Literacy Portfolios & Reader Profiles 8 steps to helping readers set reasonable goals Check out Progress Monitoring Tools in the Building Readers Toolkit of Progress Monitoring Tools Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about setting reasonable goals using reader profiles visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

You want to get ahead of your readers and plan some lessons they will need in the immediate future. You want to get ahead and plan lessons that will help readers gain what they need to move closer to proficiency. BUT, the reading standards are so broad and general, and the reading process is a BEAST. Not to mention, the district's pacing guide is not unique to the group of readers you currently have sitting in your classroom. You want to tackle the beast and meet your readers where they are. Which brings you to this question...How do I know what to teach and when? What you'll gain from this episode... Tips and strategies for considerations to make when Observing your readers Talking to your readers Reviewing your readers' work Using Exit Tickets with your readers To read more about monitoring your readers' progress, visit these blog posts here, Literacy Treasures Blog A collection of Progress Monitoring Tools to monitor your readers' progress and inform your instruction, Building Readers' Toolkit for Progress Monitoring Grab these cheat sheets to help you decide what to teach and when, Using Exit Tickets to Inform Instruction & Evaluating Student Reading Artifacts, inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the launching workshop minilessons above) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

All readers need to understand the processes occurring in their brains as they read text. Monitoring comprehension is difficult for young readers. They are not aware of all the things going on in their heads while they are reading. Readers need to know how to monitor their own comprehension. Readers need to be able to recognize signals that their meaning is breaking down. Readers need strategies and tools to help them get back on track. What you'll gain from this episode... 8 key teaching points for teaching readers to monitor their own comprehension Tips and suggestions for each teaching point To read this blog article with photographs, 8 Key Points for Teaching Readers How to Monitor Comprehension visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Resources for teaching readers how to monitor their own comprehension… Monitoring Comprehension Instructional Resources A collection of Progress Monitoring Tools to monitor your readers' progress and inform your instruction, Building Readers' Toolkit for Progress Monitoring Grab the mini course with cheat sheet, 5 Steps to Crafting Minilessons to Ignite and Engage Your Readers, inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the launching workshop minilessons above) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Are reader's stop & jots…those small written reactions and responses to text…a distraction or a bridge to comprehension? I'm one to think that teaching readers to stop and jot as they read is essential. When readers are stopping to jot and write quick little responses to text, they are building their comprehension of that text. Stop and Jots are thinking, reactions and annotations about text written by readers while they are reading. You can learn so much about your readers from these quick written responses. When readers stop and jot as they read, they are staying actively engaged in the text and are monitoring their own comprehension through that inner conversation with the text. What you'll gain from this episode... What is stopping and jotting Why readers should stop and jot What jots will look like through the school year What a teacher can learn about readers from their jots To read this blog article with photographs, WHY Students SHOULD BE Stopping and Jotting Thoughts While They Read visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Resources for teaching readers how to stop and jot & informally assessing readers' jots… Stop & Jot Mini Bundle A collection of Progress Monitoring Tools to monitor your readers' progress and inform your instruction, Building Readers' Toolkit for Progress Monitoring Grab the cheat sheet, Evaluating Student Reading Artifacts, inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the launching workshop minilessons above) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

When your readers are actively engaging in book conversations, they are working at a higher level of analysis. Readers just need time to participate in book discussions to develop and practice their skills. What you'll gain from this episode... Expectations for readers during book discussions Tools to facilitate your readers' book talk What readers need to engage in book conversations Assessing book discussions To read this blog article with photographs, Expectations You MUST Have For Readers Talking About Books visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Resources for facilitating discussions and guiding your readers to better book talking skills… Discussion Rubrics Holding Book Conversations Minilesson and resources A collection of Progress Monitoring Tools to monitor your readers' progress and inform your instruction, Building Readers' Toolkit for Progress Monitoring Grab the guide, Evaluating Student Reading Artifacts, inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the launching workshop minilessons above) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Sometimes readers will tell you they don't like to read, but that just means they haven't found the right book yet! Check out these strategies and tools for helping your readers find the right books. What you'll gain from this episode... Ideas for providing access to books Ideas for building and organizing classroom libraries Finding reading interests Giving book suggestions & book talks Creating nonfiction reading lists To read this blog article with photographs, 5 Ways to Help Readers Find Books visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Listen to the Reading Identity projects episode, How To IGNITE (or REignite) a Culture of Reading Using Reading Identity Projects Grab the mini course with cheat sheet, 5 Steps to Crafting Minilessons That Will Ignite & Engage Your Readers inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Looking for minilessons to launch Readers' Workshop that includes choosing just right books, try this Readers Workshop Launch Mini Bundle of Reading Minilessons & Student Printables A collection of 100+ minilessons (including the launching workshop minilessons above) that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

In this episode we'll dive into the considerations and teaching points needed for Launching Readers' Workshop. Launching Readers Workshop is all about creating the systems, procedures and foundations so that your readers can do ALL THE THINGS a real reader does. What you'll gain from this episode… 1. 6 considerations for Launching Readers' Workshop 2. 12 Key Teaching Points for Launching Readers' Workshop If you are looking to revisit the ideas from this episode about Launching Readers' Workshop you can find it in these resources linked below. · Looking for resources to Launch Reader's Workshop, check out this Readers Workshop Launch Mini Bundle of Reading Minilessons & Student Printables · To read more about Launching Readers' Workshop visit the Literacy Treasures Blog · Listen to the episode all about establishing Reading Identities here, How To IGNITE (or REignite) a Culture of Reading Using Reading Identity Projects · Stopping and Jotting resources found here, Stop and Jot Mini Bundle-Minilessons & Assessment Tool for Student Thinking Jots · Read more about Stopping and Jotting here on the Literacy Treasures Website · Set up Readers' Notebooks AND have the minilessons to use with your readers as they add to their Readers' Notebooks in the Reading Workshop Minilesson Collection for Building Readers with over 100 minilessons to keep your readers active and living like readers all year long. · Grab Readers' Notebooks Tab Dividers FREE download inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

This one is not about a particular student reading experience or encounter but about PLANNING AND MAPPING OUT the kinds of strategy and skill experiences you know your readers will need across the school year. It's important to be thoughtful and intentional when planning literacy instruction. You don't want to get caught every week in that “what am I going to teach next?” cycle. Build the big picture of how you will develop and foster your readers' needs across the school year. What you'll gain from this episode... How to set up a template (outline) for a curriculum year calendar Step by step walk through completing a year plan in literacy instruction Long term planning considerations for Read Aloud Long term planning considerations for Shared Reading Long term planning considerations for Readers' Workshop Long term planning considerations for Writers' Workshop Long term planning considerations for Word Work/Word Study Long term planning considerations for Social Studies as an extension of literacy instruction Picture of long term planning, Then & Now, click this link and scroll down Self-guided mini course for long term planning your reading instruction, How to Plan Readers' Workshop To Ignite Your Readers All Year Long A collection of 100+ minilessons that are ready to go, Reading Workshop Minilesson Bundle for Building Readers To read more about planning literacy instruction visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Grab the mini course 5 Steps to Crafting Minilessons That Will Ignite & Engage Your Readers inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

In today's Building Strong Authentic Reading Experiences episode we'll dive into the benefits of using mentor texts within your reading instruction. As a mentor teacher and reading coach, I've been asked several questions about mentor texts from finding the right kind of text to use as a mentor to how you actually use it within the minilesson. Answers to these questions fill this episode all about finding and using mentor texts within your reading instruction. What you'll gain from this episode… What is a Mentor Text? So just what makes a good mentor text? How do I find good mentor texts? What do I need readers to gain from the mentor text? Where do I start looking? Does the text support what my readers need? Just what do I look for in a mentor text? How do you use a mentor text? When do I teach from a mentor text? How can I revisit a mentor text in a minilesson? What part of the text will I use? How will I use the text to teach the strategy or skill? How will I engage my readers in the text use? How will my readers be able to access the text after the lesson for reference? Will there be other mentor texts to illustrate the same strategy or skill? If you are looking to revisit these ideas about mentor texts you can find it in these resources linked below. Grab Using Mentor Texts free download inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Looking for a planning tool for a mentor text, check out Mentor Text Considerations Tool To read more about using mentor texts in reading instruction visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Long term planning resource How to Plan Readers' Workshop to Ignite Your Readers All Year Long Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast for episode #142, with Michal Ricca[i], the Founder of Now I Can Read who created an online literacy program called ReaDefy Learning[ii] for children aged 10-17 who struggle with literacy.   Watch the interview on YouTube here. https://youtu.be/B-V003TGVu8  See past episodes here https://www.achieveit360.com/episodes/ We know from our past episode #136[iii] with Lois Letchford, with her dyslexic son who went on to graduate with his Ph.D from Oxford University, that some children need different learning strategies than how they are taught traditionally in the classroom. Michal's program focuses on the critical life skills of verbal and written language and communication with the backbone of social and emotional skills to help propel these students to excel both inside and outside of the classroom.  Michal has a powerful story that I wanted to share, to open up some ideas and strategies if you are a teacher in the classroom, or if you are a parent with a struggling reader at home.  For those looking for ideas for the workplace, Michal has a compelling story that she will share on how she took all of her programs online, maximizing her time and efforts with her students, and giving her more balance back in her life. I'm Andrea Samadi, author and educator from Toronto, Canada, now living in the United States, and like many of our listeners, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies in our schools, sports, and the workplace. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we've uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain. When I first met Michael, through LinkedIn, I knew right away that she had created something unique, when I heard that she has been focused on helping struggling students to learn how to read for the past 20 years, and has helped over 1,000 students to read. If you have ever worked with one struggling reader, you will know that it takes someone extremely special to uncover exactly what each student needs, and Michal has this gift. You can learn more about Michal and her programs through her website, but here's a bit about her background. Michal Ricca, M.Ed. Founded the Academic Associates Center in Williston, VT in 2008. She holds an Advanced Teaching Masters of Education from Northwestern University, a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary and Special Education, and has over twenty years experience working with students with all types of learning styles and differences. Michal has been trained in Wilson, Orton-Gillingham, Academic Associates, Framing Your Thoughts, MindPlay, and many other techniques, while also having studied at Columbia University with Lucy Calkins herself.  Michal is a literacy addict and sees herself as a lifelong learner, staying current with best practice through journals, collegiate discussions, and professional development. Michal pulls from many sources to individualize instruction, but her foundation is the Orton-Gillingham technique.  Her program is a multi-sensory and enables students, by using direct instruction, to review, learn new concepts, practice, and to apply what they are learning.  Orton-Gillingham has been utilized for over 50 years and is multi-sensory, systematic, structured, sequential, cumulative, and success-oriented. Research states that the effectiveness of quality literacy instruction has less to do with the program used, and more to do with the efficacy of the teacher and the intensiveness of the student's engagement.  Let's meet Michal Ricca and see what strategies she can bring to light after 20 years of focused work in the field of literacy and social and emotional learning. Welcome Michal. It's wonderful to have this opportunity to speak with you here. Thank you very much for sharing your story that I know will spark some new ideas for those listening who might be working with students who are struggling readers. Q1: When we first met through LinkedIn, something caught my attention about your work with students. It was the fact that you've been focused on one thing for over 20 years and that's to help struggling students learn how to read.  Over the past two decades, You've taught “over 1,000 students how to read without the need for repeat instruction.” What or who was it that inspired you to pick reading for your life's work and what's kept you on this subject area for the past 20 years? Q2: I read on your website something that any teacher can pick up in a heartbeat and it was that “that the art of teaching can't be taught. Instead, it's often the result of a natural gift that has been fostered by continuous study” Can we talk about that? We've all had those teachers that had that quality. They instilled the love of learning in us— I saw it in Lois Letchford whose son failed 1st grade and went on to graduate from Oxford university with his PhD and it was because she found what motivated her son to read when he began to learn about maps and world explorers like Captain Cook. That ignited his learning.  I saw it immediately with you-20 years helping students learning to read.  I know what inspired your love for the subject, but what else is there? Why do you think you've got something that most people don't have? Q3: I remember when I had to move my program for the school market to an online model, and this was in 2014 when I had to learn how to code a website. There was a huge learning curve back then, not like today you can just buy a pre-made template. Can you share how the pandemic and your health caused you to change your entire business model from one-on-one instruction to online, and how exactly did you do that?  Q4: How does your program work? Are you working with students outside of VT? How about internationally? Could someone join your program if they lived in Canada or the UK? Is your training recorded or is it live?  Q5: Since our podcast has a huge component for implementing social and emotional learning, I loved when you mentioned it's also your focus. How do you incorporate social and emotional learning into your programs?  Q6: What's your vision for your online programs? Where would you like to see yourself in the next 3-5 years?  Thank you very much for taking the time to share the incredible work you are doing to empower students through reading. If anyone wants to reach you and learn more about your programs, is the best way through your website https://www.readefylearning.com/ Michal Ricca LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michalricca/ Book a Consultation https://www.readefylearning.com/contact Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Readefy-Learning-101096415410740 I'm Worried My Child Has Dyslexia, What Now FREE Ebook https://www.readefylearning.com/  RESOURCES: https://www.ortonacademy.org/training-certification/ REFERENCES: [i] Now I Can Read with Michal Ricca https://www.readefylearning.com/ [ii] ReaDefy Learning https://www.readefylearning.com/readefy-learning [iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #136 with Lois Letchford on “From Dyslexia to Ph.D” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/case-study-the-story-of-lois-letchford-from-dyslexia-to-phd-at-oxford-using-neuroscience-to-inspire-learning/

Building Strong Readers is all about providing readers with different opportunities to work on their reading skills and strategies. Readers need a variety of reading experiences and encounters to help them build the skills and strategies of a proficient reader. Shared Reading is an essential component of any ELA block. This component of literacy instruction provides readers with a scaffold while working WITH the teacher to co-create meaning. During a shared reading experience, the teacher and readers work together to create meaning. In this episode of Building Strong Authentic Reading Experiences, we will dive into why shared reading experiences are essential for readers at ALL levels. What you'll gain from this episode... *4 reasons why Shared Reading experiences should happen at ALL grade levels *The structure of Shared Reading *Planning and conducting Shared Reading experiences *What Shared Reading looks like across one week Grab the Shared Reading Text Rotation Planner free download here Looking for Shared Reading planners specific to a variety of texts try these Shared Reading Genre Specific Planning pages along with student think sheets To read more about Shared Reading visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Building Strong Readers is all about providing readers with different opportunities to work on their reading skills and strategies. Do we expect our students to go forth and read increasingly complex texts with little or no guidance? Of course, not! Readers need a variety of reading experiences and encounters to help them build the skills and strategies of a proficient reader. Read Aloud is the first type of encounter ALL readers should experience. Read Aloud is a model of what a proficient reader does while reading when planned with intention. In this episode of Building Strong Authentic Reading Experiences, we will dive into why read aloud is important and planning with intention. What you'll gain from this episode... *Why Read Aloud is important to frontload literacy instruction *Why Read Aloud is important for ALL ages of readers *Logistics of conducting Read Aloud *Book Choice *4 intentional components for a Read Aloud plan Available resources... Click here to see the Building Successful Readers (Gradual Release of Responsibility) graphic Grab the Read Aloud Intentional Planner in the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about Read Aloud visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Today on the podcast we're taking a closer look at a recent study from the American Institutes for Research, also known as AIR, evaluating the effectiveness of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, and unpacking the results. We're joined by Francie Alexander, chief research officer at HMH, and Dr. Pam Smith, Heinemann's Vice President of Sales and Customer Success. Francie is an industry leader in the fields of Early Childhood Education, Literacy, and Intensive Intervention for striving reading and math students. Prior to her time at HMH, Francie held key positions in both state and federal education agencies, including serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education's research branch, where she led Department-sponsored standards efforts and campaigns in support of libraries and the arts. Her work is also grounded in the classroom, as she has taught students from kindergarten to college.Prior to joining Heinemann, Pam was an educator for 30 years, having taught grades 3-8 and served as a lead teacher, assistant principal, and principal. As an educator, she worked in districts implementing the Units of Study and has firsthand knowledge of the challenges and rewards of scaling up a new curriculum to transform teaching and learning in a building.Here now is Pam in conversation with Francie on the takeaways of the recent AIR report…

Ep. 4 Culturally Responsive and Affirming Schools Pt.2 (Show transcript)Ellen Willoughby (00:01):Hi, everyone. Welcome to Drinking From The Fire Hose, a podcast for school leaders. I'm your host, Ellen Willoughby. Being a campus leader can feel like you're drinking from a fire hose with all the information requests, tasks, and duties that are thrown your way on a daily basis. So how do you manage to do it all and help students grow? Well, that's what this podcast is all about.Welcome to part 2 in the conversation with Mera Dougherty on the topic of Culturally Responsive Schools.Mera Dougherty (00:17):Absolutely. I want to share another piece of data that according to the Hechinger Report, it's a national nonprofit newsroom and it reports on the only topic of education. And they say that educators who run US schools aren't a diverse group. Almost 80% of the nation's 90,000 principals are white. Only 11% are Black and 9% are Latino. And this is all according to federal data.Ellen Willoughby (00:46):This doesn't come close to reflecting the demographics of the nation's 50 million public school children who are 46% white, 15% Black, 28% Latino and 6% Asian. So I know that when we were chatting about having you as a guest on this topic, the first thing, and I knew that this was going to come up as you were like, "I'm a white lady who is a principal. And you're asking me to talk about cultural diversity." I want you to share a little bit more about why you thought that at the beginning and just kind of your thoughts overall on this data.Mera Dougherty (01:21):Sure. You know, I think the first important part of this is you have to acknowledge who you are as a leader, right? There needs to be cognizant of who you are as a leader. And I don't mean that in terms of, I think some folks use it as like, "Oh, you know, I'm sorry, I'm white." That's not what I'm saying. I am a white leader, and I need to be cognizant of the fact that there has been a huge amount of privilege that has allowed me into the position I currently am, or that I'm in. With that, I have to use that privilege to say, I am actively dedicated to creating pipelines, especially for leadership, right? If we look at that data for leadership, it's just really astounding, right? I will create pipelines for leadership and for my staff that make it equitable, right? That we have leaders coming into our schools, and that we have leadership pipelines that is valuing our leaders that are coming from the communities that we serve, right. That have some shared background with our students, and more than I can say I have.Mera Dougherty (02:24):And so I think what that means is, in a practical sense looking at your leadership teams, looking at things like the advisory board that we have at Compass Rose, looking at people like our assistant principals, our principals, our leadership pipelines within our teachers, right? How we advance folks, and making sure that we are really focusing on leaders that come from the communities we serve, and have that shared background.Mera Dougherty (02:49):And so as a white leader, it's something that I need to be doing that work actively. And I need to be doing it 10 times more than anybody else. And I need to know who I am, right. I need to be doing the work of actively exploring the biases that I have, making sure that I am using anti-racist practices in my schools. And then also realizing, I think with all of this, that even though we talk about school leadership, right, and I have this role of like principal or head of school. Like I said, before, you shouldn't be the person who's steering the boat all the time. Or if you are steering the boat, great. You're asking someone else where to go. Right? You are not just saying like, great, I'm steering the boat here. I've also like never really been on a boat that much. So I don't know if this is how boats work. You know, like driving the van, I guess, right?Mera Dougherty (03:43):Like if you're going to be driving the van you've got this leadership position. You're also not the person who's deciding where it goes, and how you get there, and when you're going to stop, right. That's not how it works. You need to have a team that reflects your community. And you need to have a team that is your community. That's telling you where to go, and how to get there, and is taking over the driving. And that eventually, you're really not needed in that driver's seat. Right? You're setting up the community to drive itself to wherever it needs to go. And so to me, that's what that data really says. Right? That's where we need to make this big shift.Ellen Willoughby (04:17):Yeah. So it's like, they are the GPS in a sense.Mera Dougherty (04:20):Yeah.Ellen Willoughby (04:20):And you're just following the directions.Mera Dougherty (04:23):Exactly. And then I'm using my privilege to get that right. To buy the van, and to get in that seat. But then I'm doing everything I can after that, to actually get myself out of the seat. Right? And that sounds strange. But I mean, you and I, we'll sit down and talk in five, 10 years. And when we do, and we're having coffee, ideally having non-socially distanced in five to 10 years, I would hope that you and I are sitting there and we're talking about the new principals at my school and how wonderful they are. And that these are people who are from the community that we serve or have shared background with our children. Right? And I am doing different work at that point because leaders like me should eventually become not useless, but to some extent very unique and not the folks that typically are in these roles.Mera Dougherty (05:16):I think we can shift this data if we shift our idea of leadership, again to culturally affirming, to looking for leaders who are from our community, to reflecting this culture within the schools that we build, and then valuing that. Actually putting a value proposition to say, when we hire, when we look for values that are important in our kids and our families and our teachers, we are using the values that were actually created by this community. We are not bringing in a separate set of things that we believe, that have nothing to do with the community we serve.Ellen Willoughby (05:49):Yeah. And that your students grow up to be the teachers and the leaders of your schools because they are in your community. And again, I think like really stamping that how we use our privilege. And that is the most important part. It's not a white savior thing at all. Not at all. It's about how do we use our privilege and how do we listen to those in the community to ensure that we are doing and using that privilege for what is in their best interest, and what they desire for their committee.Mera Dougherty (06:22):Absolutely. And I think when we talk about that privilege, what it means is a lot of times ask others. So get out of the way. Get out of the way. Be quiet, and let others share. Again, it goes back to that quote that that Celeste was saying. Like you have to do this work. You can't do this work without the community. Or you can't work for a community without the community. Get out of the way.Mera Dougherty (06:51):So for me, it's about you get that school open and then you listen. You listen to the people that are from there. You put the people who are from that community in charge. You make sure folks have a space to speak, a space to be listened to, and a real space of power where what they're saying is being turned in to action. And there's got to be an equity there. So if you have a position of power or any sort of sense of privilege, we need to use that privilege to get out of the way. Set up structures to get out of the way and let communities do the amazing things they actually have been wanting to do for years and just have had too much red tape to do it.Ellen Willoughby (07:29):Nice.Announcer (07:30):If you like what you hear in this episode, pop on over to whatever platform you use and give us a rating and review. It really helps people find our podcast and lets us know what we're doing right, and what we can improve upon. And of course, don't forget to mention this to your colleagues. Thanks. Now let's get back to the show.Ellen Willoughby (07:51):Talk about another hot topic around this, and one that you and I have both had really long conversations when we were together. So when we were on a campus together, one of the things that we really talked about is being culturally responsive, especially when it became to behavior interventions and discipline. So I love to hear a little bit about what your thinking is on that. It's a tough one, man.Mera Dougherty (08:20):It is. And we've been through that. I feel like you have seen me, gosh, I don't even know how many years. It's been a while, Ellen. But we've done that work together.Ellen Willoughby (08:26):Yes, it has been.Mera Dougherty (08:29):And so you've actually seen me do this wrong and I think you've seen me sort of like get to the point where we're starting to do it right. I don't think anyone's doing it right yet. Or I don't think, I believe. I believe when we are talking about making sure that we are affirming culture and that we're doing that through, I almost hate the word discipline because I think it's been just turned into something else.Ellen Willoughby (08:53):Definitely.Mera Dougherty (08:53):But when we're doing it with any sort of system we create within our school, especially our systems just of behavior. And I think it's culture, right? It's actually the culture of the school. Again, it goes back to do you know your community, right? Do you know what they value? Do you know what they want for their children? Et cetera. And then thinking about what are the practices that we say, what are the things that we believe kids must do every day? Here are the things that they must engage in every day. Here are the things they cannot do. Here are the things that we think are impeding their education. And then looking at those things continuously with the eye on where are these things coming from?Mera Dougherty (09:40):Again, are they reflecting the needs of the community? Are they reflecting what the hopes and dreams of our children and our families are? Are they going to get our kids to that place? Or, and this is where it's really difficult to sort of suss out, are the things we're expecting from children and are saying are right or wrong, did we put those in place because of white privilege, white fragility? Are those systems and structures in place because it was just easier, right? You know, kids being in certain kinds of lines. Kids being quiet during certain times. Was it just easier for us? And like, that's okay too. We got to admit that.Ellen Willoughby (10:19):Yeah, we do. I mean, definitely there's a level of control that we feel that we have to have, or it's going to be like Lord of the Flies. But we also know that that's probably not going to happen.Mera Dougherty (10:31):Especially because kids are great, right?Ellen Willoughby (10:33):Yes, kids are amazing.Mera Dougherty (10:35):They're humans and they actually don't... We have to remember, there's this idea about what will and won't happen with children when we let control go, or when we think of changing a system. We have to remember, all humans want to be loved. Right? They want to do the right thing. And sometimes there are things that get in the way of that, which is like their immediate needs aren't being met. They aren't fed. They don't have a roof. There's something that their immediate needs aren't being met yet. So we need to meet those first.Mera Dougherty (11:08):Sometimes it's they actually don't know what the right thing is and where we think it's so obvious. We're like, duh, this is the right thing. And I don't know how many times I've seen a teacher do that. I myself have done that in areas of like, "Well, of course you don't do this." And you see a kid's face and you're like, "Oh, so you didn't know that. You did not know that there was a different choice in that moment? Cool. Let's like talk about that first." Right?Mera Dougherty (11:32):But there's these roadblocks to having kids do what's right sometimes. And I think what it's really about is actively letting kids know, and teaching, here are the values that we hold dear. Here's how you show them every day already. Right? You actually already have these values in them, because again, they're important to your community. They're part of the fabric of who you are. They're a part of your history. And then here's how we build on those, right? Here's how we make really good choices, or choices that will get us to not where I want you to be in your life, but where you want to be in your life. Here's how you can use those values to make those choices. And here's what happens when you don't make them, and some really natural consequences that come with those. Punitive measures of punishment, we've got to get over these.Ellen Willoughby (12:23):Yeah. I mean, if we think about it as adults, like there are times we don't meet a deadline. There are times that we screw something up and nobody sends us home or makes us stay after work and get it done. And I know that part of that, we're helping kids build their own knowledge and their own self-awareness and self-management through this. But if it's reactive and it's not a natural consequence to that, are we really teaching them something?Mera Dougherty (13:01):I mean, I would say no. And again, it's a little messier. When we're thinking about systems of culture, or creating the culture of a school. And when I say that, I mean creating behavioral systems. Where we typically have gone wrong is creating these stringent, this is what's right. This is what's wrong. Here's what kids must do. Here's what kids can't do. And especially in charter schools, right, I think it's important to just call out this fact. There's no tolerance policy, which actually doesn't refer to anything specific. People have used it, no excuses, zero tolerance. People throw these things around.Mera Dougherty (13:45):The issue with that is most of the things that we put on that list are very white normative, and usually pretty racist ideas, right? We have not considered the background of our children. Again, we have not asked that question to our community. What do you want for your children? What's important to you? I think a great example of this is when we think about how we allow kids to speak in a classroom and thinking about the tone of voice that they use, or the volume, et cetera.Mera Dougherty (14:16):Well, when I think of the conversations I've had with families recently, there has been this idea of advocacy. Families want for their children to be able to advocate, advocate for themselves, and to advocate for their community. Great. I think that's wonderful too. Well then how in the world am I telling a child that your voice level needs to be at a whisper in the classroom, and that it's rude to disagree with someone. Like, no, we actually need to teach children how to actively engage in tough conversations, right? And how do we have a discussion without raising our hands, right? How does that naturally happen?Mera Dougherty (14:56):Because if we want kids who are going to be the next lawmakers, who are going to be people who are on a political stage advocating, they need to know how to be in a conversation where they're not raising their hand and speaking out of whisper. They need to know how to raise and lower their voice. They need to know how to modulate their volume and they need to be able to explore that within a classroom. Not be punished for it.Mera Dougherty (15:20):So again, I believe that we need to look back at our systems and again, use that same tool of what is it people want for their children? What is it children want to be themselves? What are the highest positions of power that we need to tell our children are open to them, right? And then are we creating systems of behavior that get our kids to that place that tell our kids, yes, you can advocate for yourself. Yes, you can ask questions.Mera Dougherty (15:52):Because I tell you when our kids go to the Ivy League school of their choice, they're going to need to be able to go to their professors and ask questions after class. And they're going to need to be able to push back on the ideas of their peers. And if they never learned that because we told them it's wrong, that's going to be a problem. Right?Ellen Willoughby (16:11):Yeah. Because our current kind of behavior system is really all about compliance. It's really all about in a lot of ways what makes it easier for the teacher.Mera Dougherty (16:23):Yes.Ellen Willoughby (16:24):Where there's not a true engagement of students. And again, like you said, them learning to use their voice, whatever that voice is. And also letting them know that their voice is important, and matters, and should be heard just as much as the student sitting next to them.Mera Dougherty (16:45):Absolutely. And I think as a leader, the way that you can do that, because look, I've been a teacher. I've been a teacher in Brooklyn, and Harlem, and Austin, really across South to North.Ellen Willoughby (16:57):You've done it all.Mera Dougherty (16:58):We've been there, as have you. And I know how tough it is. I know how tough it is to be a teacher. And it is so much easier to create these really stringent rules. This is what happens when you don't do this. This happens next. I get that. And I have been there.Ellen Willoughby (17:15):Oh yeah, absolutely.Mera Dougherty (17:17):As a leader, we can really help teachers, and educators, and help ourselves by saying, okay, let's go back to these values that we believe were important. Let's go back to what we believe kids must do in a school. Kids can do. Kids cannot do. Let's continuously go back to these lists. Let's go back to them with our teachers. Let's go back to them with our families and with our community. And then let's make sure to reinforce to our staff and to our community that here's what we want to see. Right? And where some of it's going to be messy and that's okay. Right? Here's where some of the mess is. Of course, as a leader, I have to say there needs to be some safety.Ellen Willoughby (17:57):Absolutely. Yes. It's not the idea of we don't have rules. We don't have expectations.Mera Dougherty (18:04):But there is this idea of, here's what we're expecting. And here's where we're okay with things looking a little bit different. So that teachers don't have a false expectation in their head of, Oh my gosh, someone's going to come in and observe my classroom and they're going to see that kids are talking over each other because we're in a unit right now where we're really learning how to have active discussion in class. And they're going to be upset with me.Mera Dougherty (18:28):We need to, as leaders, make sure that we really communicate here's what we're expecting to see. Here's what it's going to look like on the way. And then we're going to have discussions with you about it, and we're going to be working with you. We're going to be working as a school, and as a community together to figure out how to get there. And sometimes it's going to be messy. But there isn't going to be this sense of like divine retribution, right? Like that's not how this is going to work. We're working on this together, and we're going to figure out how it works, and we're going to make missteps. But here's what we're all aiming to do. And giving that vision of like, this is what our community wants. Okay. Here's how we're going to move together towards getting it. And here's how we're going to modulate and shift when it doesn't go right.Ellen Willoughby (19:10):And having the community be a part of that is huge because that's what we need. We need for that connection and that partnership of our families with our schools. Because then when there are things that feel a little bit outside of our locus of control in helping a student, we reach out to the family, because they know that kid better than we do. And they know ways that they can support, and help us support in the classroom.Mera Dougherty (19:38):Absolutely.Ellen Willoughby (19:40):Wow. This has been so fun. So what I want to do is ask a piece of advice question. So what advice would you give to leaders who are just starting out exploring how to create a culturally responsive school? Just kind of final thoughts on that?Mera Dougherty (19:59):Sure. So one, for leaders that are exploring that, one, like way to go, right? The first thing you need to do is pat yourself on the back and say, it's a tough time in education right now. And there's a million things you could be thinking of. And I know that if I was a younger leader at this time, I probably would say, Oh my gosh, that's like something I need.Ellen Willoughby (20:20):Right. I'm trying to figure out how to do synchronous and asynchronous learning. And I'm trying to do 90,000 other things in a pandemic.Mera Dougherty (20:28):Absolutely. Yes. So good for you. And know that this work is important, and it's not work that can be done next year. It's not work that can be done next week because you're always going to have, if you haven't realized this already, especially for our newer leaders. I'm so sorry, this is your life, right? This is a pandemic, and so it makes crazier than normal. But this is your life all the time. There's always going to be something else happening. There's always going to be a fire burning somewhere. And the first piece of advice is just, way to go for doing this work. It needs to be done now.Mera Dougherty (21:01):Two. The second piece of advice would be again, like go on a listening tour, find a way to make it work with the current workload you have. Right? So find something that is on your plate right now, whether it be a drive-through event that you need to host for your school, whether it be a big curriculum question that has been sort of on your mind burning there, something about what your kids need, et cetera. Find something that you can sort of mesh with this community listening, so that you have a way to listen to the community, but also feel like, okay, I'm getting something done off my list, right?Mera Dougherty (21:41):And set those blocks for yourself every week, where you have to speak to people from the community, and at the same time, you can get something done. Eventually you're going to get to the point where there's a week you don't need to get something done, and you're going to have some very cool conversations. But that's okay. I'm assuming no, one's there yet. If you are, my name is Mera, you contact me. You let me know what you're doing.Mera Dougherty (22:04):But find a way to do that. And don't be scared. You know, I was initially really scared to reach out to some of the people in my community. Right? Even though this is my backyard. People want to talk. Especially right now, you can literally... I just sent emails. "Hey, my name is Mera Dougherty. I'm founding a school at Manor. I just want to hear about your community." Or if I had a specific question like, "I really want to know more about what is it you envision for your children in the future? What kind of school do you want in your community? Or what kind of event would you want for this fall?" Whatever it is, send a bunch of emails out, right?Mera Dougherty (22:43):Just find people's emails. Go on LinkedIn. Go on Facebook and send them Facebook messages. I didn't Facebook till this year. Now I Facebook. Right? So like send them some Facebook messages. People will get back to you. They want to talk to you. And then find a mode of talking to you them every week so that you can start to get a pulse on what your community wants and needs. If you start that the rest of it will come, right? The rest of it, you are going to start to see like, Oh my gosh, I can now solve this problem with these people from the community. Oh my goodness. There is a way that I can incorporate what I heard from this person that I talked to last week into what I'm doing this next week.Mera Dougherty (23:24):It's going to naturally shift what you do. So that is my biggest piece of advice is start there. Start with listening to your community. Start with giving your community that platform. And then if you want to start building on that, think about how you're actually validating the beliefs and the dreams of your community, and how are you giving your community a platform. Right?Mera Dougherty (23:44):That's that third step that I would start to think about, is are you really, now that you're listening, are you giving them the stage? Right? And if you're not, then start to think about that. But get the first two down, right? Start it. Start the work. You've got to start it now.Ellen Willoughby (23:59):Right. You've just got to start.Mera Dougherty (24:00):And start listening. Right? Start those two first. Then start giving people the stage.Ellen Willoughby (24:04):Great. Are there any resources that you recommend, books for people to read, or at this point, just start there, and then?Mera Dougherty (24:12):Honestly, I think there are so many books, right? Just as I was driving here... Not as I was driving. Before I was driving, I was like, "Oh, I need to read this book," and was ordering it to my house. I think there are so many books right now. There are so many incredible leaders that are speaking about this right now.Mera Dougherty (24:31):I'm going to take sort of an oppositional viewpoint to that. You're probably already doing that. Right? Most of the leaders I know are reading a million books. They're doing all those things. You're probably doing that right now. And you can find those lists other places. I, as a white leader in Texas, I actually am probably not the person to ask. Ask somebody who is in your community what books to read, what texts to dive into, what trainings to go to.Mera Dougherty (24:57):I'm not the person to tell you. I think the place to start, again, is your community. And they're going to tell you those things. The book I got this morning was something that somebody told me yesterday.Ellen Willoughby (25:06):Great.Mera Dougherty (25:07):Ask them.Ellen Willoughby (25:07):Yes. There you go. So as we do with each of our podcasts, we're going to end with, we have a seven short answer questions with an educational twist that I just want you to just kind of fire off your thoughts.Mera Dougherty (25:20):Oh, fun.Ellen Willoughby (25:21):So as an educator, what keeps you up at night?Mera Dougherty (25:25):That eternal question, right? Are we/have we done everything we possibly could for our kids?Ellen Willoughby (25:31):As an educator? What allows you to sleep at night?Mera Dougherty (25:34):Getting to see my kids the next day. I mean, it's like different right now. But typically there's that moment when you get to school and kids start coming in. Right? And it's such a joyful moment. And so when I am like, okay, Mera, it is time to conk out. That's what I think about.Ellen Willoughby (25:52):What sound or noise do you love to hear in a school?Mera Dougherty (25:56):Educators and kids participating in things together. So I don't care if it's, like laughing together is the best. But also like when you have that first heartbreaking novel that a sixth grade class reads together and the teacher and the kids are all in tears. Right? So it sounds so weird. And you walk by their class and they're all experiencing this emotion, this like moment together. Or they experience their first time there's like a political disagreement in the class. And they're getting to experience that together. But when you can see the adults and the kids in the building experiencing something together for the first time.Ellen Willoughby (26:33):What sound or noise do you hate to hear in a school?Mera Dougherty (26:35):Suspicious silence. You know that, Ellen. You know that silence. You know that silence. It's like middle school transition time. And all of a sudden you're like, "Why is it so quiet?" And you know something is wrong.Ellen Willoughby (26:50):That is the greatest answer. What is your favorite word in education?Mera Dougherty (26:58):This is so hard. Paul Morrissey, our founder, uses a term the joy love thing. And really, I love that. Right? The idea that we need to take so much joy because this is the best profession in the world, right? Like this is hard. But this is the best. We get to do the best work every day. And we need to bring so much joy to it. And the fact that we are here to love each other and love our kids. That sounds weird, and people get super creeped out. But you know this from working with me. I'm going to tell you, I love you. Ellen. I love you. You know, I love you. I love the kids we serve. I love the families we serve. And I just love when you get to a place where you've got a community that is joyful and like loves on each other every day. You have done something right. It's my favorite saying.Ellen Willoughby (27:47):That's also how you get the hard work done too.Mera Dougherty (27:49):And it becomes not so hard then. When you really love each other, it's like, okay, I will do this for you because you are so great, and I want to see you learn, right?Ellen Willoughby (27:59):Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. What is your least favorite word in education?Mera Dougherty (28:10):These are actually words that I believe in, but I think have just been so misused. One would be structure, right? It's not that I don't believe in structure. Actually I totally believe in structure. You know this from working with me.Ellen Willoughby (28:23):Yes.Mera Dougherty (28:25):But it's just been, I don't know if I can say bastardize, but the word has become something very different than what it means. And accountability. I believe highly in accountability. I think people should be accountable, but I think the way that we use it now is actually this very judgmental, blaming thing, which is not what it's meant to be. So those two words, when I hear them, they always raise my flag to like, "Ooh, this is going to not be something great." Like typically when they're used, it's almost how we talk about what kids come in with, right? That conversation typically goes not the right way. And those two words, typically when I hear them used are being used to talk about real negative thing.Ellen Willoughby (29:12):Yeah. And give people like a visceral reaction, as opposed to like an open-minded thought that this is something that can be really good and really helpful and powerful in a really positive way.Mera Dougherty (29:22):Yeah. Like take accountability for the awesome thing you did. But take accountability for that learning that you, child, put in and that your brain got so much bigger. Take accountability teacher for this beautiful classroom environment that you made. We never hear it. I'm going to say, I have never heard those sentences.Ellen Willoughby (29:38):No. No.Mera Dougherty (29:39):I don't know about you, but I've never heard those sentences.Ellen Willoughby (29:41):No,Mera Dougherty (29:42):We do hear accountability in terms of like, you need to take accountability for this misaction that you made. Right? You need to take accountability for these negative things, which those should come too> but that's not what accountability means. Accountability, like this sense of ownership over what you do. Also like let's take accountability for your ability to change. Have you ever heard that? I've never heard that.Ellen Willoughby (30:03):Nobody said that to me.Mera Dougherty (30:04):No one's saying that to me, and I don't hear our kids saying like, "Oh, I would love to take accountability to make that change."Ellen Willoughby (30:11):How powerful would that be?Mera Dougherty (30:13):Yeah. Versus like, I have heard people speak down to kids, like, "You need to take accountability for what you did." That's great. So take accountability, say "Yes, I did it." That's what you want? Like, that was your big aha moment for a child was or for a teacher was you got someone to say, "Yes 'twas I. I did it. It me." Like no! So those words, they drive me up the wall.Ellen Willoughby (30:38):Okay. And who was your favorite teacher and why?Mera Dougherty (30:43):This was really hard. This one was like the hardest. I was really struggling to think about this, and I came up with two really different people. One of whom I'm not totally sure how it came into my head. So one is really obvious. His name was Mr. Mark Flamoe. I have realized I probably need to look him up at this point and send him an email. But he was a teacher at the high school that I went to, Jesuit High school in Portland, Oregon, which was just a really phenomenal place of instruction. And he was the first person, along with, I think he was our principal at the time, paul Hogan, that made me love literature.Mera Dougherty (31:21):I was someone who grew up. I went to a school, we spoke Spanish first. And so I was a really bad reader in English. And I shouldn't say that. I was a developing reader in English. But the way it was described back then was like, she couldn't read. Right? I was not a reader. I remember someone telling me that in like fourth grade, being like, "She is not a reader."Ellen Willoughby (31:42):So that's a really positive thing to put into a fourth graders head.Mera Dougherty (31:45):That was normal back then.Ellen Willoughby (31:46):Oh, it totally was.Mera Dougherty (31:47):A non-reader. And I caught up because I found books that I loved on my own. Right? Just sort of like salacious teen novels. But he was the first person that showed me how to dig into it. Like open a book and dig into the prose that was there. Dig into the writing, and figure out how to sort of be... Lucy Calkins talks about this too. How do dig into a text and explore it and love that process. And I never understood it until him, and my principal at the time. Both of them really worked together on this very cool and robust English curriculum. So that was great.Mera Dougherty (32:23):The other teacher, I don't know why she popped in my head. But was this woman named Sister Jackie. She was a middle school teacher of mine. And she got me in like huge trouble all the time.Ellen Willoughby (32:37):She got you in huge trouble?Mera Dougherty (32:43):Good point. I got myself in trouble. That was pre-existing middle school and has existed far beyond that. But I was always in trouble with her. That's the better way to say it, thank you. Taking accountability for my actions, Ellen. I was always in trouble with Sister Jackie. But she was the first person, I think, that made me realize that she could really like me. And at the same time, like she knew what was up. Right? Like she knew what I was doing, and I think for me, it formed a lot of the ideas I had, especially that I use now in terms of, we need to, again, sort of like accountability. That's how I've sort of revised that idea. It's like, we need to love kids and let them know no matter what they do, we're going to love them. My love is not conditional on anything for my children. The minute they step in that door, I love them period. And if they leave that door, I still love them period.Mera Dougherty (33:51):But there are going to be moments where they just do something crazy. And that's okay. Right? Like I'm here for it. One, it may be kind of funny, right? It may be enjoyable. It may be really not enjoyable. It may be really uncomfortable. And we're going to have a moment where we talk about it, right? We're going to have some moment where we need to figure this out, but it is not going to make me love you less. And so I think she was the first person that made me realize that in education. And now that is a really important concept to me with our kids.Ellen Willoughby (34:22):Well, Mera, I cannot thank you enough for you sharing your knowledge with us today, and on this really incredibly important topic. And also just the great laughs as well. And we want to thank all of our listeners for joining us for this episode of Drinking from the Firehose, a podcast for campus leaders. If you liked what you heard on this episode today, please hop over to whatever platform you use and give us a rating and review. It helps people find our podcasts and lets us know what we're doing right, and what we can improve upon. And, of course, don't forget to mention this to your colleagues. Thanks again.

Reflective thinking about your professional self IS a self-care strategy! Take some time to think about the kind of educator you want to become. Narrow down your focus to decide on one part of your teaching life you want to improve right now. When you think about the kind of educator you want to become and engage in reflective thought you are practicing self-care. This will not only benefit you but any reflective thinking you have about your teaching life will also positively impact your students. What you'll gain from this episode... ~~Reflective thought about what kind of educator you are right now ~~Deciding the kind of educator you want to become ~~Creating a vision for your professional self Grab the Reflective Teacher Think Sheets as a FREE download inside How to Become a More Reflective Teacher To read more about being a reflective teacher visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Grab some FREE resources inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

In today's episode, I chat with Nishat Firdous Jehan Ali, dedicated and experienced educator, about empowering students to become lifelong learners and global citizens. We discuss strategies to develop meaningful learning experiences, and Nishat shares impactful anecdotes from her own experience teaching 4th grade and enrichment. Press play. Episode Webpage and Transcription: https://edtech-class.com/2021/04/28/episode-41-empowered-learners-global-educators-and-meaningful-learning-with-nishat-firdous-jehan-ali/ EdTech Tool of the Week: Explain Everything Resources Mentioned: UN.org Lucy Calkins https://www.unitsofstudy.com/ Nishat Firdous Jehan Ali: Website: https://www.alienrichmentacademy.com/ Instagram: @learningwithmsali YouTube: Learning with Ms. Ali My Loving World: https://www.amazon.com/Loving-World-Nishat-Firdous-Jehan/dp/1718106483/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= EdTech Classroom: Website: https://edtech-class.com/ Instagram: @edtechclass Twitter: @edtech_class Email: myedtechclassroom@gmail.com

Today on the podcast we’re excited to share a special conversation between Marilyn Burns and Lucy Calkins about Marilyn’s new digital math interview tool, Listening to Learn. They discuss the importance of listening, a value that is central to both Marilyn’s and Lucy’s work.Marilyn Burns is one of today’s most highly respected mathematics educators. Over the course of almost sixty years, Marilyn has taught children, led professional development sessions, spoken at conferences, contributed to professional journals, written a dozen books for children, and created more than twenty professional development publications for teachers and administrators. She is also a co-author of Do The Math, which is now available from Heinemann.Lucy Calkins is the Founding Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. She is also the author or coauthor—and series editor—of the reading, writing, and phonics Units of Study series, which are integral to classroom life in tens of thousands of schools around the world.Here now is Marilyn and Lucy.Read a transcript of this episode on the Heinemann Blog

Are you ready to elevate your learners' thinking and nudge them into deeper understanding. Start using Linda Hoyt's Two Word Strategy. What you'll gain from this episode... *What Two Word Strategy is *How to use Two Word Strategy *Examples of when to use Two Word Strategy Grab a Two Word Strategy printable inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about using Two Word Strategy from Linda Hoyt visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Linda Hoyt's Reflect, Revisit, Retell Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Reading attitude is everything! Sometimes our readers just don't know what they are missing out on when they don't see themselves as readers or see reading as just another chore they have to do in school. When readers are given the chance to explore their identity as a reader they will discover so much about themselves that will propel closer to reading proficiency. What you'll gain from this episode... What your readers can learn about themselves as readers How reading identity projects are a form of informal assessment Why reading identity projects are important How and where to start with implementing reading identity projects with your readers Creating a reading snapshot of the class Sharing your reading life--what to include Building a reading community that goes public Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about creating reading identities and reading culture visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Grab the Share Your Reading Life FREE printable in the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Want some resources for your readers to start discovering and uncovering their own reading identities, try this resource... Readers' Notebook Mini Bundle: Resources to Get Started, Reflect & Set Goals Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Testing is near and you need a plan. Testing season is the time to teach students how to apply all of those strategies and skills to a NEW GENRE OF TEXT...Standardized Reading Passages. Yep the testing genre! Reading a standardized passage is different than just choosing a piece of text we want to read. Readers need to know HOW to approach this new genre. What you'll gain from this episode... *5 Key Teaching Points for EVERY Reading Test Prep Unit of Study *Conferring Checklist for EVERY Reading Test Prep Unit of Study To find the Conferring Guide for Reading Test Prep, grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about reading test prep units of study visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Conducting a shared experience using a Literacy Engagement Chart consists of an initial reading and several rereadings over the course of a week that ends with one final text visit in which all the work from the week culminates into final thoughts and interpretations of the text. What you'll gain from this episode... Literacy Engagement Shared Experiences Putting Together a Literacy Engagement Chart A Brief Look Across 5 Days of a Literacy Engagement Chart What Happens During Each Day's Literacy Engagement Session? A Look At Possible Sections Grab the Literacy Engagement Chart Planning Cheat Sheet inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about Literacy Engagement Charts visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Grab the FREE Minilesson for using the Prereading Strategy BCQ: Browse Connect and Question Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Literacy Engagement Charts are a shared literacy experience for all readers that will build a bridge between the literal and inferential understandings about text. Using a Literacy Engagement Chart is a way to frontload skills and strategies that you will soon expect your readers to begin taking into their independent reading. What you'll gain from this episode... Why should I use Literacy Engagement Charts? Who does the work on a Literacy Engagement Chart? When do I use Literacy Engagement Charts? Where do I fit Literacy Engagement Charts into my day? What is a Literacy Engagement Chart? What texts should I use? What does a Literacy Engagement Chart look like? Grab the Literacy Engagement Chart Planning Cheat Sheet inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about Literacy Engagement Charts visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

When readers can take their learning and synthesize it down into one short response or visual image, they are thinking critically and analytically to evaluate the day's work. Exit tickets are a quick way to test the pulse of the group, assess the day's learning and determine your next instructional steps. What you'll gain from this episode... What is an exit ticket Why use exit tickets How and when to use exit tickets Evaluating exit tickets to inform instruction Grab the Exit Slip Cheat Sheet inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about Exit tickets visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Jennifer Serravallo, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

School closures during the pandemic have pushed education for millions of kids into a virtual setting. The sudden changes have caused some people to rethink our educational system. Why do we do things the way we do? Based on what researchers have discovered in recent decades about the brain and how we learn, do our current approaches actually make sense? Are they based on evidence or tradition? And is it time for a revamp? On this episode, we look at what research can tell us about the way we educate, and how science informs this process — or doesn’t. We’ll hear stories about the controversy over how we teach reading, whether homework actually improves learning, and why Black teachers are crucial to the education of Black students. Also heard on this week’s episode: We talk with Firat Soylu from the University of Alabama about the emerging field of educational neuroscience, and what we’re finding out about the biology of how we learn. Homework is a lightning rod in many homes. It ruins evenings and weekends, leading to tears and frustration. The pandemic has brought new attention to this issue — and has teachers, parents, and students wondering: What is the point of homework? Alan Yu reports. Reading might just be the most fundamental skill schools are supposed to teach — it is the key to learning. But what’s the best way to teach this skill? A growing movement is asserting that one of the most popular approaches is not working for many children. We hear from a range of experts about this debate: literacy researcher Louisa Moats, parent activist Sonya Thomas, and Lucy Calkins, whose early reading curriculum is used across the country.

When understanding what your readers need to gain, progress monitoring becomes an ongoing process. You need an arsenal of tools to help uncover your readers' needs. What you'll gain from this episode... Discover (or REdiscover) 8 tried and true tools for monitoring a reader's progress Gain new insight about each of these tools Learn how to evaluate and sift through these tools to uncover readers' needs Informal assessment tools to monitor your readers progress Building Readers Toolkit for Progress Monitoring Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about these 8 tools visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Authentic active engagement is all about finding opportunities for readers to engage in reflective thinking about a text. Readers who are STILL working towards proficiency need to SEE how the reading process and strategies work to build meaning while reading. Slowing down a strategy to spotlight how it works to develop comprehension is an essential part of reading instruction. Readers should be able to visualize how the process of reading works as well as the strategies they are learning to apply within their own independent reading. But how do we make this work VISIBLE for readers still working towards becoming proficient readers? Literacy Engagement Tools Relevant points to take away from this episode... What authentic active engagement is What authentic active engagement looks like within reading instruction Just what IS a literacy engagement tool Content Stuffed Bookmarks Think Sheets Graphic Organizers Visual Representations Mini Anchor Charts To read more about authentic engagement, engagement tools and to see pictured examples of literacy engagement tools visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Easy To Use Literacy Tools Sure To Boost Authentic Student Reading Engagement Why Authentic Active Engagement Should Be Part of Every Reading Lesson Content Stuffed Bookmark example in a FREE minilesson download in the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store Reading Toolkit: Prereading Minilesson: Browse Connect, Question BEFORE Reading Looking for resources to start building up your readers' repertoire of engagement tools, check out these in the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... Literacy Engagement Tools Or this starter kit on the Literacy Treasures website... Building Reading' Toolkits: The Readers' Toolkit Starter Pack A collection of 100+ minilessons with a variety of engagement tools , Reading Workshop Minilesson Collection for Building Readers Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Prereading seems like an obvious and unnecessary strategy to teach readers, but so many readers at all age groups and levels need to be reminded to use prereading strategies before they begin reading a book or even choosing a book. Relevant points to take away from this episode... Readers will hastily begin reading a book without getting to know it first Readers need to see the reading process at work as they apply strategies within texts. What seems so obvious to proficient readers isn't always ‘clear as day' to developing readers. Prereading will help readers develop a purpose that will deepen their comprehension of the text 3 key teaching points for a minilesson about the prereading strategy BCQ The purpose for prereading strategies How to make prereading strategies more VISIBLE to a reader To read more about BCQ and see pictures of student BCQ reading notebook work visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Browse, Connect & Question: A Prereading Minilesson Free BCQ: Browse, Connect & Question minilesson download Reading Toolkit: Prereading Minilesson: Browse Connect, Question BEFORE Reading Here at Literacy Treasures, I LOVE to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that I've learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. I have immersed myself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is shared on Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Join your host, Tanya, as she walks you through the vision of The Literacy Treasures Podcast and talks about her favorite subject: literacy instruction. She's a bit of what some might call a 'reading nerd'! She LOVES to talk about reading and writing and share with teachers all that she's learned about what it takes to build strong readers and writers. She has immersed herself in the research of Lucy Calkins, Stephanie Harvey, Debbie Miller, Carl Anderson, Gay Su Pinnell, Irene Fountas and so many others. Every resource, strategy, tool, minilesson and teaching tip that is part of Literacy Treasures is rooted in this research. Teaching is hard. It takes a lot of time & energy. Literacy Treasures is all about working to save teachers time and energy while packing their instructional toolkits with the tools they need to build strong readers and writers. What you'll gain from this episode... Discover why Tanya created Literacy Treasures Learn about each piece included inside the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library... Minilesson Cheat Sheet Readers Notebook Tab Dividers Evaluating Student Reading Artifacts Cheat Sheet Exit Tickets Cheat Sheet for Analyzing & Assessing Student Exit Slips Mapping Out a Schedule for Small Groups and Individual Conferences Template Intentional Read Aloud Planner Infographic Text Dependent Analysis Infographic Guide for Using Mentor Texts in Reading Two Word Strategy printable (adapted from Linda Hoyt) Grab the Literacy Treasures FREE Resource Library To read more about literacy instruction visit the Literacy Treasures Blog Check out the Literacy Treasures Teachers Pay Teachers Store... To check out more strategies from Linda Hoyt read more about her book, Reflect, Revisit, Retell here... Website Literacy Treasures Instagram literacytreasures Pinterest @teachershuddle Facebook Literacy Treasures --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/literacytreasures/message

Twitter: @RSiegelTeaching --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Welcome to Dyslexia Coffee Talk with the Dyslexia Initiative. Grab your coffee and join us for a conversation. We are so excited to have you join us! On this week's episode of Dyslexia Coffee Talk we are joined by Faith Borkowsky of High Five Literacy and Academic Coaching. This will be an INCREDIBLE, EYE OPENING and frank discussion on balanced literacy curriculum providers like Lucy Calkins's Teachers College promoting that they can serve our dyslexic population. Oh, and did you catch Faith Borkowsky's blog on the subject? If not, it's POWERFUL!! Read it here: https://highfiveliteracy.com/2020/09/11/a-reality-check-on-the-intersection-of-dyslexia-and-the-reading-workshop/?fbclid=IwAR1H7cFO95kT1sclCwpbAjfDvZjdP1-krzrd6QmH6KJ76oj35UwrlnMEQx8 You can also follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/highfiveliteracy

In this episode, Melissa interviews Angela Stockman, who is a researcher and author of three books including Make Writing and Hacking the Writing Workshop. Angela shares the research method she uses and how it has changed the way she approaches writing instruction.

Matt and Courtney continue their critical thinking series with Annie Taranto, the Senior Lead Staff Developer for Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (aka Lucy Calkins project). Annie talks about why argument is so important, how to deal with controversial topics in the classroom, how teachers with limited resources can still bring a rich argument environment into the classroom, and much more. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to rate and review!

Matt and Courtney continue their critical thinking series with Annie Taranto, the Senior Lead Staff Developer for Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (aka Lucy Calkins project). Annie talks about why argument is so important, how to deal with controversial topics in the classroom, how teachers with limited resources can still bring a rich argument environment into the classroom, and much more. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to rate and review!

Great news! Shannon is here to help address more listener questions about Lucy Calkins, comprehension strategies and professional development for reading specialists.Resource Links:NOTE: As an Amazon Associate program, we earn a small amount from your qualifying purchases. We'd appreciate if you would use our links to help support the podcast.*Lucy Calkins Writing Units of StudyThe Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler*Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis*Dyslexia Training InstituteCOME JOIN THE CONVERSATION!Our WebsiteFacebookInstagramShannon's TpT Store

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Theme tune by David Vesey On this week's programme I continue my conversation on teaching literacy in the early years with Dr. Tara Concannon-Gibney from Dublin City University. The occasion was to mark the publication by Routledge of Tara's book Teaching Essential Literacy Skills in the Early Years Classroom: A Guide for Students and Teachers. Among the topics we discuss on this week's programme are: Her definition of literacy Digital texts and literacy Why some children struggle with reading How parents can help their child to read How a parent should react to a child reading when the child comes to a word that is not known Advice for choosing a book for a child The benefits of repetitive reading of texts Poetry and literacy skills How she became interested in the area of literacy How she went about writing the book In the course of our interview Tara mentioned texts by the following writers: Mem Fox, Georgia Heard, Lucy Calkins, Oliver Jeffers, Hervé Tullet, and Julia Donaldson.

In her new book, Leading Well, author Lucy Calkins draws on the experience she and her colleagues have shared at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project over the last thirty years. Lucy’s leadership is rooted in her practice of reading and writing workshop instruction, but where did that instruction begin and how was she called to literacy work to become the leader we know today? How has Lucy Calkins nurtured her own culture of continuous study? It started at an early age, as we learned when we recently sat down to reflect on her work as an educator...

This week on the Heinemann podcast, a conversation with author Lucy Calkins on leadership. In Leading Well: Building Schoolwide Excellence in Reading and Writing, Lucy Calkins draws on the transformative work that she and her colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project have done in partnership with school leaders over the last thirty years.While a school leader should be inspirational, Lucy says leaders need to be much more than that. Lucy says, making monumental change in literacy education is no small thing and the most powerful leaders lead through influence—not compliance—rallying people to believe in the cause. She also tells us that a good leader reminds us there is dignity in learning and that leaders need to make themselves vulnerable as public learners to foster the kind of environment that will help their teams try new things and continually outgrow themselves.Our conversation started out by asking Lucy what led her to writing a leadership book...

Ralph Fletcher is a pioneer when it comes to teaching writing to both teachers and students. He began his teaching career at Teachers College as a student of Lucy Calkins in the early days of The Writing Project, and he popularized the Writer's Notebook. To date, he's written over 40 books ranging from getting boys to enjoy writing to craft lessons. Join host Anthony Arno as he talks with Ralph Fletcher about his entire career, beginning with his interest in taking careful notes while traveling to the South Pacific as a college student to his latest interest in photography- which is sort of like a Writer's Notebook as described by Ralph.

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, Lucy Calkins, author and series editor of the Units of Study for Reading and Writing, shares details on the latest, groundbreaking work to come out of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: the new Units of Study in Phonics for grades K–2.

Teachers like to talk. A lot. This leaves students with little time to explore, discover, and solidify important concepts and understandings. This episode explores how teachers can minimize their talk time in order to give students ample learning time. Listen to learn strategies to help you maximize your talk time while keeping it short, as well as ways to develop good work habits in your students (because if work time is increased, good work habits is very necessary).  0:00 Intro  1:33 What John Hattie has to say about direct instruction 5:01 Direct Instruction has a decent effect size (0.6) 6:15 Direct instruction explained Tami style  7:11 The MOST effective "thing"  12:08 Teacher credibility as defined by the Hattie man himself 13:39 Up close and personal  15:03 How can we keep direct instruction minimal? 15:30 Good structure 16:06 The structure I use (it belongs to Lucy Calkins) 21:37 What curriculum is not...and what it is 26:00 What time is it? Time to time yourself!!! 29:25 Direct Instruction in small groups 30:30 Direct instruction one-on-one 31:22 Conducting one-on-one conferences (you know...it's called conferring...it's when you have a conference...one's a noun, the other a verb) and small groups 35:01 Establishing good work habits in students so you can work with individuals and small groups 42:24 Wrap up 45:17 Student Segment 54:00 Conclusion Contact: Twitter: @TamiJ123 Podcast show notes & listen online: www.timetoteach.libsyn.com Facebook page: Time to Teach https://www.facebook.com/Time-to-Teach-293173721126201/ Facebook Groups: Teachers For Effective Curriculum  Teachers Who Podcast My blog: Notes From A First Grade Classroom     Resources Evidence Based Teaching   Music Credits: Adventures by A Himitsu @a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 TITLE: Sunnyside ARTIST: NICOLAI HEIDLAS Follow and support the artist: https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas https://www.patreon.com/nicolaiheidlas    

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I interview three members of the Mulcahy family who are originally from Cork but who all work as education professors in the United States. The father, Donal G. Mulcahy, and daughter, Cara Mulcahy both work in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Central Connecticut State University and Cara's brother, Donal E. Mulcahy is a professor and Director of Elementary Education in the Department of Education at Wake Forest University. They each addressed the 2017 annual confernece of the Education Studies Association of Ireland, of which Donal G. was a founding member. Among the points raised on the programme are: The purpose of Education Control of education and the role of teachers, policymakers, administrators, foundations and corporations The workshop approach to teaching reading and writing 18'26” Authors referred to include Lucy Calkins, author of The Art of Teaching Writing; Linda Rief, author of Seeking Diversity: Language Arts with Adolescents; and Nancy Atwell, author of In the Middle. Why policymakers pay insufficient heed to education research.

“As a profession, we are gripped by fear.” Those are the opening words from Lucy Calkins in her forward to The Unstoppable Writing teacher by Colleen Cruz. As Lucy prepares the reader for Colleen’s words, she goes on to write: [Click here to find out more about our new three-part webinar with Colleen Cruz, starting […] The post Colleen Cruz and The Unstoppable Writing Teacher appeared first on Heinemann Blog.

Google News and Updates Kasey's Google April Fools Day YouTube Playlist How three teachers turned classroom inspiration into action through the Certified Innovator Program Innovator Academy Dates and Locations New AutoDraw App Featured Content Shaelynn Farnsworth is a leader in the convergence between literacy and technology. As a high school teacher, she redefined her English classroom as not only a place to learn about literature but also explore how technology is shaping the future of communications. She continues this exploration as an Education Services Consultant for AEA 267 in Iowa. There, her primary focus is on technology, literacy, and Authentic Intellectual Work. Shaelynn is a staff developer, literacy coach, and supports districts in the implementation of initiatives. She is a Google Certified Innovator and has training in Project Based Learning from the Buck Institute, Instructional Coaching, and Reading and Writing Workshop from Lucy Calkins. Connect with Shaelynn Farnsworth Follow @shfarnsworth Website: http://Shaelynnfarnsworth.com Resources Shaelynn's Resource Page (loaded with apps, extensions, add-ons, oh my!) Shaelynn’s Lesson: Multigenre Project (grades 7-12) Google Teacher Tribe Mailbag In episode 10 you asked about ways for people to submit files through Google Forms if they are outside of your domain. Since that feature is limited to use within your domain, here is a different idea that districts may want to try if they need parents or other folks to be able to submit files which get automatically saved to your Drive... An option to consider might be to use the "Save Emails and Attachments" add-on for Google Sheets: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-emails-and-attachmen/nflmnfjphdbeagnilbihcodcophecebc You can see full details on how it works here: https://www.labnol.org/internet/send-gmail-to-google-drive/21236/ Basically instead of using a Form, people would send an email to a specific address (I would suggest setting up one specifically for this purpose like dropbox@myschool.org). Emails sent to this address will trigger the add-on. Any attachments they send would be saved into a Google Drive folder you specify (which could be shared with the appropriate people for access). On The Blogs Matt - Exploring ‘Explore’: How Google works for you and your students Kasey: Enroll in the Google Certified Trainer Course TODAY! http://BecomeAGoogleTrainer.com [shortcode-variables slug="signature"]

Teaching is a tool to help make this world a better place for everyone and today I am very lucky to have Mr. Barry Mernin on the show this episode. Mr. Mernin is a lifelong elementary educator. Before teaching overseas, Mr. Mernin spent 12 years teaching in the US. Now, at the time of this episode, Mr. Mernin has spent the past fifteen years teaching in Singapore, Japan, Jordan and Hong Kong. He is currently a teaching administrator at Hokkaido International School- Niseko, Japan. Mr. Mernin's professional mission statement is: “ I will provide a wholesome and upbeat environment for any and all students to succeed. I will teach students to learn to be content. I will demand that students care for the world around them as well as themselves. I will remember what it is like to be a child.” Mr. Mernin has a master's degree in Mathematics and has attended summer workshops with Columbia University's Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, directed by Lucy Calkins. Mr. Mernin has also obtained a leadership certificate from the Principal's Training Center for International Educators. This interview touched me and I see why Mr. Mernin is really a professional educator who values lifelong learning and is constantly enhancing his craft. ABOUT GUEST:: Name: Barry Mernin Home nation: USA Current location: Niseko, Japan Mr. Mernin's personal were he writes about teaching and living overseas: Expat Teacher Man : https://expatteacherman.com MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Hokkaido International School: http://home.his.ac.jp/niseko/ Hokkaido International School NISEKO12 Aza Fujimi Niseko-cho, Abuta-gun Japan 048-1501 How To Contact Us Email: his.niseko@his.ac.jp THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE! Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast. If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you! If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts. And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get. Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here! Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

Teaching is a tool to help make this world a better place for everyone and today I am very lucky to have Mr. Barry Mernin on the show this episode. Mr. Mernin is a lifelong elementary educator. Before teaching overseas, Mr. Mernin spent 12 years teaching in the US. Now, at the time of this episode, Mr. Mernin has spent the past fifteen years teaching in Singapore, Japan, Jordan and Hong Kong. He is currently a teaching administrator at Hokkaido International School- Niseko, Japan. Mr. Mernin’s professional mission statement is: “ I will provide a wholesome and upbeat environment for any and all students to succeed. I will teach students to learn to be content. I will demand that students care for the world around them as well as themselves. I will remember what it is like to be a child.” Mr. Mernin has a master’s degree in Mathematics and has attended summer workshops with Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, directed by Lucy Calkins. Mr. Mernin has also obtained a leadership certificate from the Principal’s Training Center for International Educators. This interview touched me and I see why Mr. Mernin is really a professional educator who values lifelong learning and is constantly enhancing his craft. ABOUT GUEST:: Name: Barry Mernin Home nation: USA Current location: Niseko, Japan Mr. Mernin’s personal were he writes about teaching and living overseas: Expat Teacher Man : https://expatteacherman.com MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Hokkaido International School: http://home.his.ac.jp/niseko/ Hokkaido International School NISEKO12 Aza Fujimi Niseko-cho, Abuta-gun Japan 048-1501 How To Contact Us Email: his.niseko@his.ac.jp THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE! Thank you very much for taking the time to share this podcast. If you have any feedback, please leave a note in the comments section below or leave a voice message via our SpeakPipe voice message page. We would love to hear from you! If you enjoyed this please share it with your friends, family and co-workers by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates of our podcasts. And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get. Please help us spread the word and leave a review in iTunes by clicking here! Thank you for listening to Four Seas One Family. We are all the same and at the same time uniquely different!

We chat with Amabelle Sze, who I worked together with as teaching associates.  Since then, she has extensive experience teaching in the lower grades and has attended several highly coveted PD projects (Lucy Calkins at the Teacher's College in Columbia in NYC, and at Howard Gardner's Project Zero at Harvard).   Amabelle shares deep insights in being a teacher in a Quaker school and gives us a look into the philosophy and outlook of being a Quaker educator.  

Featuring authors Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan; and invited panelists Lucy Calkins, Warren Simmons, Randi Weingarten, Mary Arevalo, and more. Moderated by TC President Susan Fuhrman.

Lucy Calkins, senior author of the Units of Study for Reading/Writing explains how the workshop model of teaching reading and writing differs from traditional and basal approaches. Listen as Lucy... Visit Heinemann.com for K-College professional development books and services, teaching systems, and innovative multimedia tools for educators.

Lucy Calkins, founding director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, gives an overview of the Units of Study for Teaching Reading program, which provides... Visit Heinemann.com for K-College professional development books and services, teaching systems, and innovative multimedia tools for educators.

An overview of the different types of minilessons and essential elements of elementary reading lessons using the reading workshop model developed by Lucy Calkins for the Units of Study for Teaching... Visit Heinemann.com for K-College professional development books and services, teaching systems, and innovative multimedia tools for educators.

Lucy Calkins, author of the Units of Study reading workshop model, explains how to strike a balance between the reading/writing workshop approach and basal reading programs that include sustained... Visit Heinemann.com for K-College professional development books and services, teaching systems, and innovative multimedia tools for educators.