Charting the Future of Literacy: Jen Kless Unveils Olean City Schools' Innovative ELA Curriculum

Embark on an educational odyssey with us as Jen Kless, Olean City Schools' Director of Curriculum and Instruction, recounts her compelling transition from a kindergarten classroom to the halls of district leadership. Witness the unveiling of a groundbreaking ELA curriculum, as Jen lays bare the transformative journey from a traditional balanced literacy framework to an innovative approach designed to ensure sustainability, equity, and consistency across our schools. With a vision for equitable literacy education that transcends classroom boundaries, Jen and her dynamic team—comprising educators from varying specialties—have crafted a curriculum that promises to sculpt the future of literacy learning for every student.

Tune in for a deep exploration of the collaborative spirit that's breathing life into our new ELA program at Olean City Schools. The dedication of our team shines through as we eagerly anticipate engaging with our community, inviting feedback, and addressing queries to reinforce the transparent thread woven through this educational endeavor. Join us as we pledge our unwavering commitment to literacy, outlining strategic steps to foster thriving literacy outcomes for our scholars. The Husky Huddle is more than a conversation; it's a commitment to the educational enrichment of our Husky family, and we're excited to have you be a part of this transformative chapter.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, hello everybody, and welcome to our
newest episode of the HuskyHuddle.
I am very excited to havejoining me today Jen Kless, who
is our esteemed director ofcurriculum and instruction in
Olean City Schools, and todayshe's going to tell us more

(00:21):
about the ELA new curriculumthat we have for our Husky
scholars, so can't wait to hearmore about it.
Jen, why don't you begin bytelling us a little bit about
yourself?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, thank you, dr Morris, for having me here on
the Husky Huddle.
I'm so excited to be doing apodcast and to be talking about
ELA, which is very close to myheart.
I started teaching and OleanCity School District in 1993.
I started as a kindergartenteacher and after that taught a

(00:55):
few different grade levels.
I taught fifth grade, pre-k,first grade and then about 2006,
olean City School District wasinvited to be part of the
Reading First Grant and I washired as one of four building
coaches for our district, and sothat experience really brought
me out of the classroom to seecurriculum and instruction at a

(01:20):
building level and a districtlevel.
And as I worked my way throughbecoming instructional coach and
then going into my admin work,ela has always been very close
to my heart, because havingliterate children is really

(01:41):
really important to any successin life and that job of a school
is probably the most importantjob.
So, being in this position asDirector of Curriculum and
Instruction prior to thepandemic about 2020-2021, we

(02:04):
were moving into some updatedstandards for New York State and
, looking at our current programwe had there was a lot of work
to do because we were in abalanced literacy framework and
making those pieces cometogether and work together was

(02:24):
very important for teachers tohelp them be able to be
productive in a classroom, andstudents to learn how to read
and write.
What I found, though, in being abalanced literacy program or a
balanced literacy framework isthat at some point, it doesn't

(02:46):
remain sustainable, because youintroduce several different
resources and you provide allthis training, and then what
happens is and what happened tous was we started to have
teacher turnover withretirements, and so what I was
witnessing was all these veteranteachers leaving with all this

(03:11):
professional knowledge on how tomake different things work, and
then I sat in front of brandnew teachers, trying to say to
them, trying to put them intotrainings to help them make this
all work, and your first coupleyears of teaching, you're
really trying to learn how towork in an adult world.
You're trying to learn whatschool is like.

(03:35):
As a teacher, you're trying tounderstand kids at your grade
level, and training upontraining upon training ends up
loading the cognitive energy,and I just started to think
there's got to be a better wayto sustain what we're doing here
in the district Right,absolutely, and then provide

(03:56):
that consistency from classroomto classroom, even school to
school.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
you know that.
You know you're receiving agreat um education in literacy
in this particular classroom butour students of the hall
receiving a similar that, andthat is that is so true as well.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
That was something, too, that I became very well
aware of as the further we gotinto a balanced literacy
framework.
Um, because teachers are tryingto make resources work together
and they will purchase things ontheir own, and that, in and of
itself, provides an inequity tostudents, because you have some

(04:38):
teachers that are willing to dothat and you have some teachers
that can't do that, and reallythe job of the school district
is to provide a guaranteed,viable curriculum that can be
taught to all students, nomatter what classroom they're in
.
That is a job for us to provideour teachers.
And so and seeing all thesepieces and knowing what we were

(05:02):
doing is not working for themajority of our students either.
In regards to what we're seeingreflected on our state
assessments in grades threethrough eight, there was work to
do, and I knew that it had tohappen, and so, with the support
of you and Jenny Bellotta andDr Irizarry, we were able to put

(05:22):
a committee together to talkabout what was working, what
wasn't, and what do we need todo for our teachers and our
students here in the district.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
And that was a very intense process, right it sure
was.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I had some teachers come to me prior to us starting
the process about could we startlooking at programs?
And so last October we startedworking to put a committee
together.
We had an initial meeting andthis very hardworking group of

(05:58):
teachers looked around and saidwe need more representation.
We don't have this grade levelrepresented.
We don't have this grade levelrepresented.
And so I said to them why don'tyou go talk to your colleagues
and see who you would like tobring into this committee?
And they did.
That's all they did.

(06:18):
They went and they talked tocolleagues.
I got emails or I got a phonecall or a text message and
before we knew it, we had over16 teachers working with us and
we had one speech therapist workwith us.
I was able to, many years ago,this speech therapist and I

(06:40):
shared a room while I taughtreading and she taught speech
therapy, and about three monthsinto this arrangement we had
with each other, she says to medid you notice that when I leave
to take a group back to theirclassroom, a few minutes later
you're bringing that same groupback to work with them for
reading?

(07:04):
I was giving her details abouther students that she was doing
speech language therapy with,and she was giving me
information that I could usewhen I was helping them become
better readers and writers, andso she was part of this
committee.
Oh wonderful, and I was sograteful for her perspective.
Yeah, because she's a truepassionate fan of students in

(07:28):
this district and she just wantsthe very best for everybody.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
We had a special education teacher, we had
reading specialists, we hadclassroom teachers, with almost
every grade level represented.
And then Principal MaureenDeSerbo asked if she could
invite the ELA chairperson forthe district, which was Marie

(07:52):
Rakes, if she could invite herto be part of the committee, and
I said that's a fabulous ifshe's willing.
Absolutely, and Marie ended upbeing very instrumental on that
that committee.
There were times when someteachers would say they would
look at a program or componentand say that's too hard for our

(08:12):
kids and Marie would stand thereand say that is the level of
writing we need our kids to beat when they enter the high
school is the level of writingwe need our kids to be at when
they enter the high school.
That is what our kids need to bedoing when they walk across the
stage to graduate.
She brought a whole differentperspective to the committee
that I couldn't have done.
Yeah, but even if I said that,it did not mean as much as it

(08:40):
came from a fellow colleaguethat has been working with these
teachers for many, many years.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's great to hear and what an awesome authentic
linkage to what you're doingfoundationally at the very young
grades and how it helps preparethem when they're going to
graduate.
Yes, that's great.
That's great.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
We all wanted the same thing.
Yeah, on that committee we wantto be able to provide teachers
with good materials andcurriculum that they can count
on, and we want to be able tohelp them feel success in their
jobs of teaching kids every day,and we want that success to
pour into our students so thatthey're feeling successful as

(09:20):
well.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.
Okay, so now we've made ourselection.
Yes, we have a new program.
What can parents and thecommunity expect next?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, we are in the process of setting up our
professional learning forteachers.
We are in the process of settingup our professional learning
for teachers, so they will get aday of professional development
on the program and how it works, which is HMH into reading and
into literature.

(09:55):
So when the committee cametogether, the decision was made
we want to have a system forreading and writing and we want
it to be comprehensive, meaningit has all the components.
And so we have a K-8 system.
K-5 will be into reading andsix through eight is going to be
called into literature.
And so the first thing we'regoing to do is we're going to

(10:17):
train our teachers before theyleave for summer on how the
program works, right.
The second thing we're going todo is provide them support to
work with those materials overthe summer so that they're ready
for instruction come the firstmonth of school.
Right, communicating out toparents about our new reading

(10:39):
program and what they couldexpect to see, perhaps coming
home every week in their bookbags with materials that
students are completing,portions of what they can do to
support that literacyinstruction at home and ways to
help bridge that gap betweenwhat students are learning and

(11:02):
reading and writing every dayand how that can be supported
and cherished when students gohome in the evening and talk
about their school day.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Okay, all right.
So then in the fall, as wetransition to this brand new
program, if parents want tolearn more about how they can
help their students on the newmaterial, will there be ways
that we can pull parents andfamilies into learning

(11:36):
opportunities to learn moreabout how they can support their
students during the school year?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
I think that's a fabulous idea.
We would love nothing more tomeet with parents to talk to
them about the new ELAcurriculum we have in place for
our students.
I think that is a fine idea tounderstand how it all works,
just a big picture overview, andwhat they could be talking to
their child at home when theirchildren come home at night.

(12:04):
Just having that interest inhow did your day go, what was a
good part, what was a bad part,having that communication with
their students so that, or withtheir children so that they can
give the teacher an idea of youknow what.
Johnny isn't feeling too sureof what you did yesterday.
Okay, could you go over withhim again?

(12:28):
Or even just giving their sonencouragement or their daughter
encouragement about going backto school.
You know what?
It was the first time you heardit.
You're going to have to.
You'll probably need to hear ita couple more times, a couple
more times before you have itmastered.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Building that confidence level in their
children is very important too.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Fantastic, and their children is very important, too
Fantastic.
So that's the one thing that Ithink will be important to make
sure that we're building thatpartnership between families and
our schools.
Our teachers really want tomake sure that this is a success
, and I know our parents do wantto have this be a successful
program for their students aswell, so that'd be great.
So is there anything else youwant to make sure that our

(13:12):
families and our teams knowabout this brand new ELA?

Speaker 2 (13:17):
program.
We're going to work really hardto make sure we are providing
literacy instruction for allstudents at all levels and we're
doing a lot of planning at alllevels and we're doing a lot of
planning and a lot ofpreparation and we look forward
to giving everybody moreinformation about this and we

(13:39):
are ready to take any questionsor any concerns you have as well
.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Wonderful, that's so fantastic.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me on this episode of
the Husky Huddle, and I am veryexcited to have learned more
about the ELA program, and ifyou in our community have any
questions additionally about ournew program, please let us know

(14:04):
so that we can give you moreinformation.
All right, well, thank you somuch for joining me today and I
hope you have a wonderful day.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Thank you, you too.