News and Events

In the last blog post, we focused on the essential content for literacy instruction: phonics and phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and high level talk and writing about text. This week, we will discuss structures that support the ongoing teaching of these areas, culturally...

(Nhat Hanh, 2013) “We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.” Thich Nhat Hanh It’s February, 2022, and it seems there are a million reasons to feel hopeless. We are in the midst of a seemingly never ending pandemic, another man was killed at the hands of the police in my hometown of...

I struggle to answer the question - “what do you do for a living?” The easy response is that I am a teacher, but that never seems to capture the real essence of what my day to day experience is. When I tell people that I teach, I usually get a response along the lines of, “oh man, you must have...

In the last post , we focused on five areas to consider in developing a school-wide vision for literacy: establishing literacy as a priority, creating a sense of collective responsibility for all children, ensuring evidence-based, high quality literacy instruction, establishing a balanced system of...

Leading Literacy - Developing a School-Wide Literacy Vision We hope you enjoy the first of a four part series on Literacy Leaders The first question I ask when I work with teachers and leaders around literacy practices is what is your school-wide vision for literacy instruction? I typically receive...

Mini-Series: Honoring and Leveraging Students’ Home Languages in the Classroom This is the third blog in the mini-series “Honoring and Leveraging Students’ Home Languages in the Classroom.” In this post, I consider why it matters for students to encounter books that represent their lived experiences...

This is the second blog in the mini-series “Honoring and Leveraging Students’ Home Languages in the Classroom.” In this blog, I introduce language and culture portraits as a method for learning about and affirming students’ diverse linguistic and cultural identities. Language and Culture Portraits...

This is the first blog in the mini-series “Honoring and Leveraging Students’ Home Languages in the Classroom.” In this blog, I introduce some core concepts underscoring the importance of cultivating multilingual classroom spaces. I Am My Language "So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about...