September 11, 2024 • 18 mins
Wisconsin's newest reading law, Act 20, led to an examination of South Milwaukee's curriculum and practices - many of which were already part of the practice of SDSM.
In this episode, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Christie Gajewski discusses new literacy practices this year with elementary teachers and instructional specialists.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right, welcome to the SM Way podcast. My name is Christy Gajewski. I am the director
(00:08):
of instruction for the school district. Normally, I'm on the other side of the microphone answering
all the questions from Dan Bader, but we wanted to switch this episode up a little bit and
bring in some educators who are on the ground working with our teachers and students to
implement some of the new reading practices that are coming with Act 20 law. So today
I have three of our reading specialists from our elementary schools and I'm going to pause
(00:31):
for a second to allow them to introduce themselves. Hi, I'm Renee Larson and I'm the reading
specialist at Blakewood. I've worked in South Milwaukee School District for 12 years now.
My name is Janice McKeith and I work at EW Luther as the reading specialist and I'm going
into my 17th year in South Milwaukee. My name is Nikki Passantino. I'm a reading teacher
(00:54):
at Lakeview. I have also worked at our middle school and this is my seventh year in the
district. Thank you guys. Thank you for being here. All right, so we just ask a few questions
and kind of have a conversation about this because there's a lot of information and some
misinformation that goes along with some of the reading legislation that's going on right
now. From your lens as a reading specialist or interventionist, what is your biggest hope
(01:18):
for all the learning and instructional shifts that we're making right now? My biggest hope
is that both teachers and students feel successful and supported through this change. Change
can be difficult and can take some time, but I am super confident that there'll be positive
outcomes with this shift. Yeah, for sure. I'm hoping that teachers feel that they have
(01:40):
the tools to teach kids how to read. For years I've just heard like the fourth and fifth
grade teachers saying these kids are coming in and they just don't have the foundational
skills that they need. And so how can we read to learn if I'm trying to go back and fill
in the gaps? So my hope is that they're building their foundation from kindergarten up and
(02:01):
they are very prepared for middle school, high school and beyond. I was thinking something
similar to Renee that we're just hoping that students learn to read proficiently and become
critical thinkers from the very start. Like that's happening in kindergarten. So by the
time they get into third, fourth, fifth, or even into middle school, they're going to
be prepared for the challenges that are ahead of them academically. Thank you. And this
(02:26):
is not something that we necessarily talked about beforehand, but one thing that is coming
up is the banning of MSV or 3Q. Can one of you talk about what that is? Sure. So we lived
in that world for a long time and MSV is the miscue analysis where you're kind of telling
(02:46):
students when they get stuck on a word to use the meaning surrounding the context of
that word or what is the structure, what would fit well within the structure of the sentence,
the syntax, and then the V is the visualization piece. So what might look visually similar,
you know, house and horse, but does that make sense? So it's really any time you're directing
(03:10):
a student's attention away from the word itself to use other information such as a picture
to figure out what that word means. So it's essentially teaching kiddos skills of a poor
reader because they're not actually using their letter sound correspondence and the
phonics skills that they should know to decode a word. A lot of people were saying it's just
(03:33):
guessing in reality. That was one thing that was talked about a lot. Like we're just teaching
kids to guess with some information, but virtually they were just guessing and not looking at
the word. Yeah. And then the biggest shift right now is to look at words differently
and incorporate phonemic awareness, letter sound knowledge, and phonics, and how you
put all that together to make words and make sounds. And that's the biggest shift I think
(03:57):
that we're looking at right now. So we've actually been working on this as a district
for several years, not just because the law came into play, but like Renee said, we've
been in this world knowing our kids having gaps. What are some of the successes that
you have seen so far that you've experienced either as working with kids as an interventionist
or that you've seen in classrooms with some of the shifts that we've been making with
(04:20):
the intentional design of instruction? So, so far I've seen success with foundational
reading skills, especially in phonics in the lower grades. Having a systematic scope and
sequence, which is like a roadmap for our phonics for our lower grades, has made a big
impact on their reading and spelling skills. And I'm seeing it, students apply it throughout
(04:41):
their day. When they're reading, they're blending the individual sounds to make words, they're
breaking apart syllables, and they're also noticing prefixes and suffixes, which is how
they should be cracking the code to read. And then also with spelling, I'm seeing students
breaking apart individual sounds as well as applying the rules and patterns instead of
guessing how to spell words. And they're very successful with both reading and spelling.
(05:05):
Yeah, along with what Nikki said, I think what's so exciting is that kids know the six different
syllable types, which they just did not know before. And so they're able to read and spell
out bigger words, which is something that they just did not have the tools before because
they weren't being explicitly taught. So seeing that just knowing like, okay, the vowel team
(05:26):
AY, like where does that come in a word and they know, oh, it's at the end, you know,
AI, or that comes in the middle of a word. So just knowing that they have those skills
and see how excited they get when they spell something correctly, or when they can decode
something correctly, they now have the code cracked, like Nikki said. So yeah.
(05:48):
Some really specific examples, I've been heavily involved in summer school in the past, and
it's always been tricky for our core reading classes, which students are recommended for
those classes because they're needing some additional support academically. And so in
the past for our readers, we've had to take materials that were really were meant for
(06:10):
a first grader and use them with a second grade group. This was the first summer that
that didn't happen. We were we were able to use the materials for second graders with
second graders. And that's because of the work that's been done in the classroom. So
that was a pretty significant example of how this is impacting our students. I was just
in a meeting yesterday too with a second grade teacher. And she was saying that for our UFLY,
(06:35):
which is our phonics materials that we're using, that she didn't need to do the beginning
lessons that they suggest that you do in case kids need some extra practice. But these students
had come from kindergarten and first grade with very different phonics approaches than
they'd than she'd seen with students prior. And so she was able to skip those lessons
and get right into the second grade work. So that's pretty excited. And we've just seen
(06:57):
increased interest in the content by students. So they're not struggling so much to read
that they're able to really enjoy the content more than they have before.
Awesome. Yeah. And even from a district lens too, I think looking at some of our forward
exam scores. Now I know some things have shifted with the forward exam, but we had increases
(07:17):
that we haven't seen in a while. And even with our map scores, the map scores for most
of our grade levels and maps for the parents that that's the test our kiddos take three
times a year so we can check their progress as readers and writers and mathematicians.
And we saw the biggest growth that we've seen in a long time on our math tests in almost
(07:38):
all of our grade levels in reading. And it was it's so it's a testament to what our teachers
are really trying to embrace. But that also means, you know, change, like you said, a
couple of you said it takes time and it's not always easy to kind of a little trial
and error. And through this podcast, we've really tried to be open and honest about what's
happening in our classrooms and transparent about those things. From your perspective,
(08:01):
what are some of the challenges that crop up that you or maybe your fellow educators
are seeing as you're making the shifts?
So new materials are hard. It doesn't matter what the materials are, they're new and it's
it's hard. It's different way of prepping for lessons and it can be quite time consuming.
So it's just hard and teachers are perfectionists and they want to do it well from the start.
(08:25):
They don't want things to go awry. They take their jobs very seriously and want to do the
best for their students. And so it's really hard when you're asked to do something new
to do it as well as you the pressure that you put on yourself. And Renee had alluded
to this before too, that fourth and fifth grade teachers have never taught foundational
skills. They don't know how really how to do that. That's not part of their training.
(08:49):
And the students are coming to them and they're being asked to teach some of those foundational
skills now that they had before. Even some teachers that teach the lower grades. If they
had gone through their teaching, learning to teach a while a long time ago, that wasn't
part of their programming. So and it's just a whole different way of teaching.
(09:11):
Yeah, absolutely. I think because we lived in such a balanced literacy world for so long
and we relied on assessments such as running records to give us an indication for where
students fell, what grade level they were working in. I think that to take away what
we were so used to and being able to identify our students in certain ways, I think is a
(09:33):
big challenge for some teachers and for some teachers, they're excited to make the shift
into change. But I think just having lived in that world for so long, that is that's
a challenge in itself. Because as Jana said, I mean, we did things for for a certain way
for a long time and to make the shift and to learn new curriculums and new ways of teaching.
That's a challenge in itself.
(09:54):
Yeah, I agree with both of those statements. And then you know, just there's a lot going
on right now in the elementary world, which can be overwhelming for students and our staff.
For instance, the elementary teachers are completing an online 30 hour course for structured
literacy, they're introducing a new resource, Witten wisdom. With the law act 20, there's
(10:15):
going to be changes with testing and student plans. So with all this being said, we really
have to be mindful of ways to support our teachers as they're as they're striving to
do their best. And we have to wait, find a way to get to a healthy balance. So we can
all be successful.
And from a student lens, we're really changing how students are thinking, and they're being
(10:39):
asked questions that they haven't been asked before, and requiring them to think in different
ways, they're talking with each other more than they've ever done before. So just even
learning how to have a back and forth conversation and really truly listening to what somebody
else has to say, is challenging for some adults. And we're really pushing our kids to do that.
So it's, it's exciting too, because kids are now also interacting with new text, which
(11:02):
is new for teachers, or they're looking at artwork, and they're talking more about poetry.
And it's just, it's exciting, but it's just a different way to to approach literacy.
And I think just the idea of that productive struggle that now we're imposing on our kids
and for the teachers, and to build that stamina, I think we're going to see great success later
(11:24):
on. Right now, it's just getting into that routine and like living in the struggle. And
it's okay to fail and like learn through that, pull out the lessons in there. But just the
first week of school, that's what I've seen is, wow, this productive struggle thing, man,
this is hard.
Definitely, definitely.
Very true.
And you guys have kind of mentioned that we were implementing a new reading resource this
(11:46):
year, we used to have Lucy Calkins units of study. And years ago, that was one of the
best resources that people we went to, it was the idea was around balanced literacy,
that was what we were taught. And that is what we really believed was good for kids.
And now we're realizing that wasn't working. And parts and components of that resource
weren't necessarily bad. It was the pieces that really were missing. When we talk about
(12:10):
the foundational skills that were really missing from it. But as an educator, we don't just
use, it's really hard to just piecemeal a curriculum together with one or two resources.
If a gap is somewhere, then you got to pick up something else and all that. It's expensive,
number one. And number two, it's really hard for the teacher to go from resource to resource
to resource. So we spent a lot of time last year going through really clear and all of
(12:34):
you I think were on that team, vetting the resources to identify, you know, the right
resource to put in front of kids. And we had a lot of criteria and that criteria directly
matched the state's criteria as well. Can you talk a little bit about what parents can
expect to see with that new reading resource?
Sure. So there's going to be a shift in learning. And as Janice touched a little bit about, it's
(13:00):
a lot more inquiry based. There's a lot more productive struggle. Students are learning
to be curious learners. There's things that they're noticing and wondering. And it's an
overall different approach to instruction and learning.
Yeah, that's a very different approach. Students aren't going to be reading what we call level
(13:23):
text. Like you won't be seeing kids come home with books like you might have in the past.
So that might look a little different. The books that kids are bringing home more about
interest and...
Yeah, much more in the decodable world, right? Until they're making that shift. Yes. So we
have geodes now, which the kiddos are practicing. So I believe it's about 80% of it is decodable,
(13:46):
right? The rest of it is content based language. So I think that that'll be a great shift in
practicing their reading skills that they're learning in the classroom.
The deodes will also provide a lot of great background knowledge and vocabulary skills
and provide students to be successful with their modules and their units.
One of the... Like you talked to a lot of the kids talking about one another is a strategy
(14:09):
called Socratic Seminar, which I was introduced to not until I was in college. And it's just
a way of having a really formal discussion about something and learning to take turns
and really critically thinking. And we're doing that as early as kindergarten about
topics and not age appropriate, the topics are age appropriate. But if you've ever met
a kindergartner, they have opinions and they will share them. And it's really fun to watch
(14:33):
them actually interacting like that. So we're really, I'm really hopeful that this produces
a lot of speakers and that not being afraid to speak because there are tests that we have
to take where they have to use their oral language. And it's great for our language
learner students as well.
And what's really exciting is that we hadn't touched much on the speaking and listening
(14:54):
standards in the past, but this curriculum directly touches on those. And so it even
reaches out to the social emotional pieces, right? So students are listening to each other
and they're learning how to respectfully respond. And so learning that from a really young age
and it's going to carry on as they grow older, I think is a very exciting component of this
(15:16):
curriculum.
So, you know, our listeners are a lot of our community members and our caregivers. And
do you have any advice for any of our families about if they're curious about this resource
or anything that's happening with their children's literacy instruction?
From a parent's lens myself, and I know this is really hard, I always say try to limit
the screens and talk to them as much as you can, especially when they're little little
(15:40):
and just really embracing their growing language and their growing vocabulary skills and trying
to have a conversation with them. And I know it's so hard when you say, Oh, what'd you
learn in school today? Oh, nothing. Or how was your day? It was good. Try to probe a
little bit further and see what vocabulary you can get from them.
I was thinking something similar to Renee that don't take one word answers. They need
(16:05):
to expand on their thinking. That's what they're going to be asked to do every day at school.
And really when you're reading with your kids, don't just read the book, actually talk about
it, stop and have conversations throughout. And Renee used the word vocabulary, there's
going to be new vocabulary that they might see in a book and just have conversations
with them about that vocabulary. But they there might be words that they don't know.
(16:27):
And that's a big part of what we're going to be doing as well. So but talking is the
biggest thing. Have conversations with your kids.
Yes, I absolutely agree. Having conversations at home is super important. Ask questions,
encourage students to be curious in the world all around them and just encourage them to
read at home. Reading can come in different formats, but we do it all the time. So the
(16:47):
more you can encourage it, the better we all are.
Definitely.
Awesome. Well, thank you ladies for coming today and talking a little bit about the literacy
pieces. Just know also that parents have a right to see the curriculum. And if you want
to take a look at what we're learning, please feel free to reach out to your school principal
(17:08):
or me. We will set up a time for you to be able to evaluate and take a look at some of
the stuff that we're looking at because we know that it's important for our families
to understand what their kids are learning. So it's an open door and we will make sure
that we answer all the questions that we can. You may see people, there is a lot of social
media posts going on about the three queuing violations. One thing to know is that that's
(17:31):
why I asked those ladies about what is three queuing. It's really a practice and it's really
a practice and some of those things that those practices are, you know, more appropriate
for older grades because they have the code, they have the ability to look for context
clues, then they have those things because they have the background knowledge to do so.
We do want to try to eliminate some of that at the elementary level, which is why we've
(17:54):
switched our curricular resource because three queuing was very prominent in our previous
resource. So just rest assured we are in compliance with that portion of the law by implementing
the resources that we did. Also, it is important for you to know that again, anytime you have
questions, please reach out because we can certainly answer those for you. All right.
(18:14):
Well, that is the end of our podcast for this episode. So thank you again for joining us
ladies. Thank you. Thank you.
All right, welcome to the SM Way podcast. My name is Christy Gajewski. I am the director
(00:08):
of instruction for the school district. Normally, I'm on the other side of the microphone answering
all the questions from Dan Bader, but we wanted to switch this episode up a little bit and
bring in some educators who are on the ground working with our teachers and students to
implement some of the new reading practices that are coming with Act 20 law. So today
I have three of our reading specialists from our elementary schools and I'm going to pause
(00:31):
for a second to allow them to introduce themselves. Hi, I'm Renee Larson and I'm the reading
specialist at Blakewood. I've worked in South Milwaukee School District for 12 years now.
My name is Janice McKeith and I work at EW Luther as the reading specialist and I'm going
into my 17th year in South Milwaukee. My name is Nikki Passantino. I'm a reading teacher
(00:54):
at Lakeview. I have also worked at our middle school and this is my seventh year in the
district. Thank you guys. Thank you for being here. All right, so we just ask a few questions
and kind of have a conversation about this because there's a lot of information and some
misinformation that goes along with some of the reading legislation that's going on right
now. From your lens as a reading specialist or interventionist, what is your biggest hope
(01:18):
for all the learning and instructional shifts that we're making right now? My biggest hope
is that both teachers and students feel successful and supported through this change. Change
can be difficult and can take some time, but I am super confident that there'll be positive
outcomes with this shift. Yeah, for sure. I'm hoping that teachers feel that they have
(01:40):
the tools to teach kids how to read. For years I've just heard like the fourth and fifth
grade teachers saying these kids are coming in and they just don't have the foundational
skills that they need. And so how can we read to learn if I'm trying to go back and fill
in the gaps? So my hope is that they're building their foundation from kindergarten up and
(02:01):
they are very prepared for middle school, high school and beyond. I was thinking something
similar to Renee that we're just hoping that students learn to read proficiently and become
critical thinkers from the very start. Like that's happening in kindergarten. So by the
time they get into third, fourth, fifth, or even into middle school, they're going to
be prepared for the challenges that are ahead of them academically. Thank you. And this
(02:26):
is not something that we necessarily talked about beforehand, but one thing that is coming
up is the banning of MSV or 3Q. Can one of you talk about what that is? Sure. So we lived
in that world for a long time and MSV is the miscue analysis where you're kind of telling
(02:46):
students when they get stuck on a word to use the meaning surrounding the context of
that word or what is the structure, what would fit well within the structure of the sentence,
the syntax, and then the V is the visualization piece. So what might look visually similar,
you know, house and horse, but does that make sense? So it's really any time you're directing
(03:10):
a student's attention away from the word itself to use other information such as a picture
to figure out what that word means. So it's essentially teaching kiddos skills of a poor
reader because they're not actually using their letter sound correspondence and the
phonics skills that they should know to decode a word. A lot of people were saying it's just
(03:33):
guessing in reality. That was one thing that was talked about a lot. Like we're just teaching
kids to guess with some information, but virtually they were just guessing and not looking at
the word. Yeah. And then the biggest shift right now is to look at words differently
and incorporate phonemic awareness, letter sound knowledge, and phonics, and how you
put all that together to make words and make sounds. And that's the biggest shift I think
(03:57):
that we're looking at right now. So we've actually been working on this as a district
for several years, not just because the law came into play, but like Renee said, we've
been in this world knowing our kids having gaps. What are some of the successes that
you have seen so far that you've experienced either as working with kids as an interventionist
or that you've seen in classrooms with some of the shifts that we've been making with
(04:20):
the intentional design of instruction? So, so far I've seen success with foundational
reading skills, especially in phonics in the lower grades. Having a systematic scope and
sequence, which is like a roadmap for our phonics for our lower grades, has made a big
impact on their reading and spelling skills. And I'm seeing it, students apply it throughout
(04:41):
their day. When they're reading, they're blending the individual sounds to make words, they're
breaking apart syllables, and they're also noticing prefixes and suffixes, which is how
they should be cracking the code to read. And then also with spelling, I'm seeing students
breaking apart individual sounds as well as applying the rules and patterns instead of
guessing how to spell words. And they're very successful with both reading and spelling.
(05:05):
Yeah, along with what Nikki said, I think what's so exciting is that kids know the six different
syllable types, which they just did not know before. And so they're able to read and spell
out bigger words, which is something that they just did not have the tools before because
they weren't being explicitly taught. So seeing that just knowing like, okay, the vowel team
(05:26):
AY, like where does that come in a word and they know, oh, it's at the end, you know,
AI, or that comes in the middle of a word. So just knowing that they have those skills
and see how excited they get when they spell something correctly, or when they can decode
something correctly, they now have the code cracked, like Nikki said. So yeah.
(05:48):
Some really specific examples, I've been heavily involved in summer school in the past, and
it's always been tricky for our core reading classes, which students are recommended for
those classes because they're needing some additional support academically. And so in
the past for our readers, we've had to take materials that were really were meant for
(06:10):
a first grader and use them with a second grade group. This was the first summer that
that didn't happen. We were we were able to use the materials for second graders with
second graders. And that's because of the work that's been done in the classroom. So
that was a pretty significant example of how this is impacting our students. I was just
in a meeting yesterday too with a second grade teacher. And she was saying that for our UFLY,
(06:35):
which is our phonics materials that we're using, that she didn't need to do the beginning
lessons that they suggest that you do in case kids need some extra practice. But these students
had come from kindergarten and first grade with very different phonics approaches than
they'd than she'd seen with students prior. And so she was able to skip those lessons
and get right into the second grade work. So that's pretty excited. And we've just seen
(06:57):
increased interest in the content by students. So they're not struggling so much to read
that they're able to really enjoy the content more than they have before.
Awesome. Yeah. And even from a district lens too, I think looking at some of our forward
exam scores. Now I know some things have shifted with the forward exam, but we had increases
(07:17):
that we haven't seen in a while. And even with our map scores, the map scores for most
of our grade levels and maps for the parents that that's the test our kiddos take three
times a year so we can check their progress as readers and writers and mathematicians.
And we saw the biggest growth that we've seen in a long time on our math tests in almost
(07:38):
all of our grade levels in reading. And it was it's so it's a testament to what our teachers
are really trying to embrace. But that also means, you know, change, like you said, a
couple of you said it takes time and it's not always easy to kind of a little trial
and error. And through this podcast, we've really tried to be open and honest about what's
happening in our classrooms and transparent about those things. From your perspective,
(08:01):
what are some of the challenges that crop up that you or maybe your fellow educators
are seeing as you're making the shifts?
So new materials are hard. It doesn't matter what the materials are, they're new and it's
it's hard. It's different way of prepping for lessons and it can be quite time consuming.
So it's just hard and teachers are perfectionists and they want to do it well from the start.
(08:25):
They don't want things to go awry. They take their jobs very seriously and want to do the
best for their students. And so it's really hard when you're asked to do something new
to do it as well as you the pressure that you put on yourself. And Renee had alluded
to this before too, that fourth and fifth grade teachers have never taught foundational
skills. They don't know how really how to do that. That's not part of their training.
(08:49):
And the students are coming to them and they're being asked to teach some of those foundational
skills now that they had before. Even some teachers that teach the lower grades. If they
had gone through their teaching, learning to teach a while a long time ago, that wasn't
part of their programming. So and it's just a whole different way of teaching.
(09:11):
Yeah, absolutely. I think because we lived in such a balanced literacy world for so long
and we relied on assessments such as running records to give us an indication for where
students fell, what grade level they were working in. I think that to take away what
we were so used to and being able to identify our students in certain ways, I think is a
(09:33):
big challenge for some teachers and for some teachers, they're excited to make the shift
into change. But I think just having lived in that world for so long, that is that's
a challenge in itself. Because as Jana said, I mean, we did things for for a certain way
for a long time and to make the shift and to learn new curriculums and new ways of teaching.
That's a challenge in itself.
(09:54):
Yeah, I agree with both of those statements. And then you know, just there's a lot going
on right now in the elementary world, which can be overwhelming for students and our staff.
For instance, the elementary teachers are completing an online 30 hour course for structured
literacy, they're introducing a new resource, Witten wisdom. With the law act 20, there's
(10:15):
going to be changes with testing and student plans. So with all this being said, we really
have to be mindful of ways to support our teachers as they're as they're striving to
do their best. And we have to wait, find a way to get to a healthy balance. So we can
all be successful.
And from a student lens, we're really changing how students are thinking, and they're being
(10:39):
asked questions that they haven't been asked before, and requiring them to think in different
ways, they're talking with each other more than they've ever done before. So just even
learning how to have a back and forth conversation and really truly listening to what somebody
else has to say, is challenging for some adults. And we're really pushing our kids to do that.
So it's, it's exciting too, because kids are now also interacting with new text, which
(11:02):
is new for teachers, or they're looking at artwork, and they're talking more about poetry.
And it's just, it's exciting, but it's just a different way to to approach literacy.
And I think just the idea of that productive struggle that now we're imposing on our kids
and for the teachers, and to build that stamina, I think we're going to see great success later
(11:24):
on. Right now, it's just getting into that routine and like living in the struggle. And
it's okay to fail and like learn through that, pull out the lessons in there. But just the
first week of school, that's what I've seen is, wow, this productive struggle thing, man,
this is hard.
Definitely, definitely.
Very true.
And you guys have kind of mentioned that we were implementing a new reading resource this
(11:46):
year, we used to have Lucy Calkins units of study. And years ago, that was one of the
best resources that people we went to, it was the idea was around balanced literacy,
that was what we were taught. And that is what we really believed was good for kids.
And now we're realizing that wasn't working. And parts and components of that resource
weren't necessarily bad. It was the pieces that really were missing. When we talk about
(12:10):
the foundational skills that were really missing from it. But as an educator, we don't just
use, it's really hard to just piecemeal a curriculum together with one or two resources.
If a gap is somewhere, then you got to pick up something else and all that. It's expensive,
number one. And number two, it's really hard for the teacher to go from resource to resource
to resource. So we spent a lot of time last year going through really clear and all of
(12:34):
you I think were on that team, vetting the resources to identify, you know, the right
resource to put in front of kids. And we had a lot of criteria and that criteria directly
matched the state's criteria as well. Can you talk a little bit about what parents can
expect to see with that new reading resource?
Sure. So there's going to be a shift in learning. And as Janice touched a little bit about, it's
(13:00):
a lot more inquiry based. There's a lot more productive struggle. Students are learning
to be curious learners. There's things that they're noticing and wondering. And it's an
overall different approach to instruction and learning.
Yeah, that's a very different approach. Students aren't going to be reading what we call level
(13:23):
text. Like you won't be seeing kids come home with books like you might have in the past.
So that might look a little different. The books that kids are bringing home more about
interest and...
Yeah, much more in the decodable world, right? Until they're making that shift. Yes. So we
have geodes now, which the kiddos are practicing. So I believe it's about 80% of it is decodable,
(13:46):
right? The rest of it is content based language. So I think that that'll be a great shift in
practicing their reading skills that they're learning in the classroom.
The deodes will also provide a lot of great background knowledge and vocabulary skills
and provide students to be successful with their modules and their units.
One of the... Like you talked to a lot of the kids talking about one another is a strategy
(14:09):
called Socratic Seminar, which I was introduced to not until I was in college. And it's just
a way of having a really formal discussion about something and learning to take turns
and really critically thinking. And we're doing that as early as kindergarten about
topics and not age appropriate, the topics are age appropriate. But if you've ever met
a kindergartner, they have opinions and they will share them. And it's really fun to watch
(14:33):
them actually interacting like that. So we're really, I'm really hopeful that this produces
a lot of speakers and that not being afraid to speak because there are tests that we have
to take where they have to use their oral language. And it's great for our language
learner students as well.
And what's really exciting is that we hadn't touched much on the speaking and listening
(14:54):
standards in the past, but this curriculum directly touches on those. And so it even
reaches out to the social emotional pieces, right? So students are listening to each other
and they're learning how to respectfully respond. And so learning that from a really young age
and it's going to carry on as they grow older, I think is a very exciting component of this
(15:16):
curriculum.
So, you know, our listeners are a lot of our community members and our caregivers. And
do you have any advice for any of our families about if they're curious about this resource
or anything that's happening with their children's literacy instruction?
From a parent's lens myself, and I know this is really hard, I always say try to limit
the screens and talk to them as much as you can, especially when they're little little
(15:40):
and just really embracing their growing language and their growing vocabulary skills and trying
to have a conversation with them. And I know it's so hard when you say, Oh, what'd you
learn in school today? Oh, nothing. Or how was your day? It was good. Try to probe a
little bit further and see what vocabulary you can get from them.
I was thinking something similar to Renee that don't take one word answers. They need
(16:05):
to expand on their thinking. That's what they're going to be asked to do every day at school.
And really when you're reading with your kids, don't just read the book, actually talk about
it, stop and have conversations throughout. And Renee used the word vocabulary, there's
going to be new vocabulary that they might see in a book and just have conversations
with them about that vocabulary. But they there might be words that they don't know.
(16:27):
And that's a big part of what we're going to be doing as well. So but talking is the
biggest thing. Have conversations with your kids.
Yes, I absolutely agree. Having conversations at home is super important. Ask questions,
encourage students to be curious in the world all around them and just encourage them to
read at home. Reading can come in different formats, but we do it all the time. So the
(16:47):
more you can encourage it, the better we all are.
Definitely.
Awesome. Well, thank you ladies for coming today and talking a little bit about the literacy
pieces. Just know also that parents have a right to see the curriculum. And if you want
to take a look at what we're learning, please feel free to reach out to your school principal
(17:08):
or me. We will set up a time for you to be able to evaluate and take a look at some of
the stuff that we're looking at because we know that it's important for our families
to understand what their kids are learning. So it's an open door and we will make sure
that we answer all the questions that we can. You may see people, there is a lot of social
media posts going on about the three queuing violations. One thing to know is that that's
(17:31):
why I asked those ladies about what is three queuing. It's really a practice and it's really
a practice and some of those things that those practices are, you know, more appropriate
for older grades because they have the code, they have the ability to look for context
clues, then they have those things because they have the background knowledge to do so.
We do want to try to eliminate some of that at the elementary level, which is why we've
(17:54):
switched our curricular resource because three queuing was very prominent in our previous
resource. So just rest assured we are in compliance with that portion of the law by implementing
the resources that we did. Also, it is important for you to know that again, anytime you have
questions, please reach out because we can certainly answer those for you. All right.
(18:14):
Well, that is the end of our podcast for this episode. So thank you again for joining us
ladies. Thank you. Thank you.
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