Have you noticed all of the Back to School advertising and displays in your local store? While we are still in the middle of a hot summer, we are turning our thoughts towards the fall and the launch of school. With so many competing narratives in literacy instruction, we wanted to share a few messages…
Our current system is asking a lot of teachers and if you’ve ever worked in schools supporting adult learners in new instructional practices, you know that coaching adults is both rewarding and complex. Teachers have a variety of belief systems, content knowledge and “go-to” instructional strategies that are deeply embedded and often hard to change.…
We all want our students to make meaningful growth in their reading and writing. But too often we get stuck with supporting our students and our feedback is generic rather than specific. By using a student facing tool like a microprogression we can show our students exactly what we hope they will apply in their…
Over the past 15 months we have been stretched and learned more than we ever thought possible, especially in light of the digital tools we are now using. Yet, as the new school year approaches, we are reflecting on which of these digital tools will actually stay with us as we move forward into our…
It’s been a long year full of tremendous twists and turns, and yet, this school year is ending and students and educators are looking forward to summer vacation. It can be very tempting to look ahead, make a bucket list of the activities for summer, add to your TBR (to be read) list, and think…
If you are reading this blog, chances are you are a literacy coach, reading specialist or elementary teacher who has strong beliefs about readers workshop and balanced literacy. And in light of all of the podcasts, blogs, articles about the science of reading, you might be wrestling with some of the instructional practices that have…