The ultimate goal of reading is to gain meaning, and it can be incredibly tough to do so. There are several models of reading comprehension that try to explain/simplify the process, including The Simple View of Reading, Scarborough’s Reading Rope, the Four Part Processing Model, and the recently developed Active View of Reading. A recent … [Read more…]
I was thrilled to be joined by eight other educators from Fort Madison Community School District at the Decoding Dyslexia Iowa Conference this past week. We were treated to a host of sessions that furthered our knowledge around dyslexia and structured literacy. Our keynote speaker on Thursday morning was Mindy VanZuiden, a reading tutor and … [Read more…]
I’ve been wrestling with this blogpost for several days now, and am late in posting it according to my self-imposed Sunday, 1:00 p.m. deadline. I’m not sure that I can pinpoint the struggle with getting coherent words on the screen, but perhaps the struggle is evidence of the internal struggle I’m experiencing. The Internal Struggle … [Read more…]
The EDVIEW360 podcast from Voyager Sopris recently released a stellar episode featuring two of education’s greats: Dr. Anita Archer and Dr. Louisa Moats. The world is a better place because of these two individuals. Their work has resulted in and will continue to result in high levels of learning for teachers and students everywhere. I … [Read more…]
What a whirlwind of a week… or three! As I write today, I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport, buzzin’ like a bee from an AMAZING four days at the 2023 Open Up Resources HIVE conference! There is so much learning to process; I’m thankful for several hours in the airport to do just that. This … [Read more…]
The summer learning season kicked off in beautiful fashion this past week. On the very first two days of summer break, the Guiding Coalition members from each building in Fort Madison Community School District spent two days assessing our data, prioritizing areas of concern, and developing a targeted action plan for the upcoming 23-24 school … [Read more…]
Words matter. Routines and procedures matter. The more we can simplify each in our educational systems, the more likely we are to reach high levels of success. At the risk of sounding like I desire robotic teaching, where we all do the exact same thing, I’m going to make the following statement: I think we … [Read more…]
100% This post was 100% inspired by the three literacy leaders I affectionately call “The Trifecta,” Stacy Hurst, Lindsay Kemeny, and Donell Pons, hosts of Reading Horizons’ Literacy Talks podcast. In Episode 6 of Season 3, Reading: The Numbers Help Tell the Stories, The Trifecta focuses on the irony of how many numbers are involved … [Read more…]
The Truth About Reading The truth about reading is that we have been failing to teach kids how to read for years. According to The Truth About Reading website, “Illiteracy and sub-literacy in America (and around the world) is a growing issue. Awareness is important, but so is action.” Action is happening in the state … [Read more…]
Change is all the things: tough, inevitable, great, unnecessary at times, and hard to sustain. Change is both meaningful and worthwhile when it makes something better. Two quotes from George Couros ring loud and true here: Bill and I are in the throes of planning for a house remodel. This remodel was supposed to be … [Read more…]