Creating Literacy Rich Environments with Read to Succeed Buffalo's Julia Brueckl

For 17 years, Read to Succeed Buffalo has been combining exposure to high quality, intentional instruction, and literacy rich environments for birth through 3rd Grade children, regardless of economic or social challenges, to help them reach their highest potential. In this podcast, I sit down with Director of Program Julia Brueckl to explore how Read to Succeed Buffalo is making a difference in the lives of Western New York children. www.readtosucceedbuffalo.org/

Episode Transcript

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Are you ready to embark on an adventure through the world of words?

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Join us on the reading revolution and let's explore the exciting world of literacy together.
Hello and welcome to the reading revolution powered by book vending.com.
I am your host, Josh Gregory.
Today we are being joined by Julia Bruckel, director of program from Read to Succeed,
Buffalo. Read to Succeed started in 2007 right here in Western New York and is focused on

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improving the literacy in early childhood ages.
Now that they are still going, this many years later, they are now serving over 1,000 students
in the Buffalo area, helping them in all facets of reading and learning from ages six weeks up
until the ages of eight. Do I have that correct, Julia? Thank you so much for joining me.

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Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
To get things going, can you talk a little bit about your background and how you came to be a
part of Read to Succeed, Buffalo, before we talk about the nuts and bolts of what Read to Succeed is?
Sure. So my mom was a first grade teacher for many, many years. She retired from Akron Central
School after teaching there for 30 plus years in first grade. So I really understood the commitment

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that teaching and education was. And then throughout my childhood, reading was always so
important. My parents like to talk about this. Apparently this one time on the 4th of July,
I was waiting for the fireworks with a flashlight and a book. So the early days of a book light,

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right? So reading has always been really important to me. But somewhere in high school or college,
with all of the mandated reading, reading for fun, reading for pleasure just started dropping off
for me. So it wasn't until after college really picking up the Harry Potter series that I got

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back into reading for enjoyment, reading for pleasure. And particularly now with book groups
and talking about books on social media and so many great book lists available. I'm very much into
reading and talking about a good book with my co-workers and with my friends. So yeah,

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reading has always been very important. Obviously that passion needs to be there in any walk of life
and employment and even in hobbies. What brought you to read to succeed? I went for education in
college and just out of college I was hired as a Head Start teacher. So I was working with three
and four-year-old students, the little ones, and really on all of those foundational skills

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while working on my master's in literacy. And really at that time I think that
my classroom was my classroom and my schoolwork was my schoolwork. And I kept them
almost separate in my mind. After working at Head Start for a number of years, I saw a position open

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for a literacy coach at Read to Succeed Buffalo. At the time Read to Succeed Buffalo had an early
reading first grant and the literacy coaches were going into the Head Start classrooms to help
to help provide embedded professional development or coaching in the classrooms. And I thought it

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was such a wonderful opportunity with my Head Start experience. And at that stage in my life,
that's where I really learned how to take the theory of what I had learned in college and really
apply it to what the students should and could be learning in the classroom. And I really

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just loved being able to see that theory from theory to practice.
So you started off right at the beginning stages of Read to Succeed. And it's a four-year grant for
this EFR. Was there any vision already to say, even when this four-year grant is up, we want to
continue with this? That had to take a lot more vision and a lot more planning to just make sure

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that this was going to exist as an organization that was going to continue to help kids.
Correct. I think at the time, there was a change in leadership. And rather than focus on kind of
whole literacy from beginning to end, we really narrowed our focus on where we could support best,

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which is increasing childhood literacy, as you said, really from infancy all the way through
third grade. And if you're wondering why third grade, third grade, by the end of third grade,
children really need to learn how to read. All those mechanics of phonics, of phonemic awareness,

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letters representing sounds, sounds forming words, all of those different skills in learning how to
read so that after third grade, they can read to learn. All of those skills in fourth grade and
above, they really need to be able to read to understand math and science and social studies

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concepts that they'll be taught in those upper elementary grades.
So when we're talking about what you're doing on a day-to-day basis there, walk us through all the
programs that are available for those who need it. So we have three programs currently. We have a
care, child care program where we have a literacy coach who goes into licensed home child cares and

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licensed child care centers and helps coach the teachers. Again, really bridging that theory into
practice, but also providing that coaching. We know even the best athletes in the world need a
coach, need that encouragement, need that sometimes direction, but really an opportunity to pause and

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reflect what has gone well and what can be done to do even better in the second half, if you will.
We also have a care preschool program where we have a literacy coach that coaches
head start or preschool teachers. Again, that embedded professional development, that coaching.

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So the coach is in the classroom, in the classrooms every day observing, really conducting
fidelity observations. Are the teachers doing the most they can be doing to support the children
in the progression of literacy skills? They look at data and assessment data and making sure that

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the data is being used effectively and efficiently. Again, there's that reflection time for the
teachers to really pause and think, what have the students been doing? How can I help change their
practice? And then they provide professional development or training, bringing in new

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concepts or ideas, new theories, new strategies for them to apply in the classroom.
And then our third program is Experience Core. It is sponsored by AARP Foundation.
And you might be wondering, what does AARP Foundation have to do with literacy? But we

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support a core of volunteer tutors, age 50 or better, that come into the schools. They tutor
four to six hours a week for the entire school year. And they too are supported with literacy
coaches. The coaches provide fidelity observations. They go through the student assessment data.

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They also talk about planning and reflection. They go through the tutoring sessions with the tutors,
have them reflect on how the students did, where the students need to go. And then there's a lot
of professional learning because we do not ask that the volunteers have any kind of education
background. So we provide a lot of training and theory on literacy, foundational skills,

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and how to best support students, not just with their academic skills, but also with the social
emotional learning, some mindfulness strategies, and all of the ways to support the students.
You mentioned phonetics, and I think that's a system that a lot of people have learned to read.
And without kind of snubbing or looking down on new technologies and new theories,

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are there tried and true practices that Read to Succeed kind of focuses on? And what are the
focuses on because of the fact that this has worked for so long? Yes. So many years ago,
the National Reading Panel was formed. And they really came out after studying thousands of

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research studies, really found that students in elementary years really need to focus on
five literacy components and able to be able to learn to read. I would like to ask,
when you're working with children as early as six weeks, I mean, these are brand new babies.
What are the kinds of things that you're encouraging parents to do, family members,

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when they are around a child that obviously is learning no matter what? But what are the kinds
of things that they could do that will kind of boost that, perhaps, better understanding of where
they're going to actually be when it comes to reading and literacy? Absolutely. Reading and
literacy really starts at birth, even before birth, and with especially those young ones,

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those infants and those newborns, really the importance of talking, giving them so many words
and so many languages, giving them a vast pool of words which to draw from, and continuing that,
not just from infancy, continuing to give children words that you might think are too difficult, that

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might be too hard for them to understand, but giving them this rich vocabulary. Studies have
shown all different sorts of numbers, but some research has shown that students need to hear
words over 28 times in order to really learn that word. So, really, the repetition, hearing words

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over and over again in different contexts, giving them meaning, giving them background knowledge.
I think that's also really important with the infants is giving them all of those different
experiences that they can learn and draw from, which really sets such an important foundation
as they grow up and start to learn in school. As you're promoting literacy in words and these

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vocabulary and the reading techniques, how hard is it to kind of combat the desire to pick up
an electronic device, whether it's TV, tablet, whatever it may be, and that just is so much more
entertaining at these formative ages. It's got to be a tough battle. It is. It's a tough battle for

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me sometimes when I have a book, but there's also a show that I want to watch. So, I think that it's
encouraging a balance, that if you are going to provide children with some screen time, make sure
that it's still engaging. Ask some questions during or after the show about what they were watching.

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Engage in some back and forth conversations about it, rather than just turning the TV off and saying,
did you like that, and really accepting a one-word response. And then I think there's also the
importance of making sure that reading is not seen as a punishment. Oh, you have to turn the screen

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off. Turn the screens off and now go sit with a book. Reading can definitely be used during quiet
time, but it shouldn't be seen as a punishment. You can't play with your toys. You can just read a
book. Reading should be seen as something that students, that children can get pleasure out of,

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whether it's just flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures or reading and being read
to. Is there something to be said about a child who is at this formative age that can identify
words, but maybe not understand the full context of what's going on, but making up their own stories
as they go along? Absolutely. Absolutely. We talk about reading and the importance of

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having children have a favorite book and wanting to hear it over and over and over again. And every
time they read the book, just like as adults, if we read a book or reread a book or even rewatch a
TV show, every time we read or watch, we're getting something new or something different out of it.

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So every time we reread, it's an opportunity for something else. Maybe they pick up on a subtlety
that they didn't read before. And I think that's all just very important stages in children
learning to read and connecting the pictures to the words, the words that have meaning. Every time

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the student is read to, they comprehend it a little bit more. Their confidence grows because
they can anticipate what comes next and there's that predictability. They have that background
knowledge from hearing the story before, so they feel a little bit more confident when asking or
answering questions. I love the idea of the favorite book because my daughter has them. I'm sure

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kids who love to read or are learning to read also will pick up on that sort of thing. And everybody
usually has a favorite book just like they have a favorite movie. How important is it to also
establish that ownership of, you know, this is my book. This is the kind of thing that I like.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I know with the book Vending Machines, in our program,

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the tutoring program, students are reading a reading A to Z book with their tutor for a number
of sessions. Once they finish the book, they read the book in its entirety and then they're able to
take that book home and have it part of their at-home library. And many of our tutors ask,
you know, when you take this book home, who are you going to read it to? And I think that's such

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an important question. Read it to your mom, read it to your sister, read it to your cat or your dog
or your stuffed animal, but really engage in it. And I think that there's that importance of a child
feeling proud of having that ownership of something. This is something that I've worked on.

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I might have struggled at it at the beginning, but now I own this. I love that you bring up
animals because that is becoming very popular in schools where they might have a service dog or a
dog that just comes in and you can read to it. I like to think that the theory behind that is,
is there's no adult who is going to interrupt or correct. There has to be something said for that

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to really let the child explore. Absolutely. Absolutely. Let, you know, allow a child to
create their own story around the pictures, allow the child to come up with their, you know,
make your own adventure, come up with their own ending for a story. All of those different things
are so important in not just with their reading skills, but also with comprehension, coming up

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with alternative endings. You know, what makes sense? What can also, you know, what can also
make sense? Really tap into their critical thinking skills. I'm guilty of that too. I read so many
books and I always have that part of me that says I could have made that ending better. Right. We
could still do that into adulthood. We've talked a little bit about electronic devices being such a

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prevalent thing now in society. What other issues are facing this problem of illiteracy that we have
that are causing these issues? I think, I think, yes, technology is definitely one of them. You know,
we see that conversations, the importance of oral language in conversations, and you can measure the

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number of words heard. And research has looked into the number of words heard at different ages.
Some of it can be attributed to technology and that replacing some back and forth exchanges,
different work schedules of parents and of caregivers that might also lead to some challenges.

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And really valuing experiences and language and having that important, really stressing the
importance of homeschool connect. I know homework was always very valued in my house. Is your

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homework done? What do you have to do? Did you get it all done? And really making sure that piece is
followed up on, I know kindergartners are getting homework now. I know it's a big task, but there's
so much importance of really a seamless homeschool connection and making sure that learning is valued.

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I know that Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tonjua Williams has often talked about the
inequities of city kids. And, you know, a lot of these underprivileged kids, up to 90%, I know
she's been quoted as saying, are falling into this category. What does Read to Succeed Buffalo do to
help those kids who are struggling socioeconomically outside of the socio-emotional learning that

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they're also going through? So AARP Foundation Experience Corps pairs students in pre-K through
third grade with a volunteer tutor. We are currently in 10 schools throughout Buffalo.
And this student gets a tutor, the same tutor for the entire school year, from October, roughly

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October through June. And they work on either pre-literacy skills or on reading accuracy and
fluency. Reading so it sounds like you're talking, reading smoothly. And we've seen tremendous
benefits, as you said, not just with the literacy component, but also that socio-emotional

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piece. So these students in underprivileged schools receive a reading literacy tutor that comes in
twice a week just to see them. We always have tutors ask, well, do the students feel like
they're being singled out when they're being asked to come to tutoring? Which is not the case. All of

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the other students in the classroom always want to know what's going on. They always want to come
for tutoring. And this is an opportunity for the children to receive 30 minutes of one-on-one time.
We're not saying that the teachers can't do that. It's just, it's such a struggle with all of the
other things that they have to do within a school day. So we provide that twice a week for students.

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We've seen tremendous growth, particularly in accuracy, reading the words as they're written
on the page. Students last year, we had a 76% of students reached the benchmark or above on the
school assessment by the end of the year. So the students have really showed that they're able to

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read really accurately and they're able to get and feel that success.
I'm glad you brought that up. I wanted to follow up with what you're doing here and what is actually,
what kids are going through this learning process. We hate to rely on tests, but sometimes we have to
do these proper assessments. You are seeing strives towards better test scores in the schools

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because sooner or later, I know that they're still in third grade. They're going to be taking these
state assessments whether they want to or not. Absolutely. I didn't want to either, but hey,
I had to do it. So now they have to go through it. Feel my pain, children.
Absolutely. I think it's one thing to say, I think a term that it's almost being overused or misused

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is using data to inform instruction. We always want to do that, but Read to Succeed Buffalo,
I think it does it very well and we practice what we preach. If we have data from all the way from
the number of sessions to the minutes of sessions to the time on task all the way up to the words
read per minute, we really want to take and look at those numbers and really see what we need to

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change. If the students are not reading accurately, should they be doing more echo reading in their
sessions? Should they be doing more choral reading where the student and the tutor are reading
together in unison at the same time to increase their words per minute or their reading skills?

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But really taking a look, really pausing to look and see all that data and making sure
that the data changes our practice. Outside of say getting a decent test score,
there has to be a level of personal satisfaction that fuels all of this to want to continue to

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improve and even make reading that much more fun. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think the students,
sometimes the students, especially by second and third grade, they know they're not the strongest
readers in the class. We really want to build up their confidence. At the beginning of the year,
that might mean reading a book that is just below their grade level so they can master the words in

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that book and they can feel confident and successful with it and then build on that success.
A lot of it is also student choice. We've seen that with the science of reading data is showing
students when they are more engaged with text that they pick out and really finding books that mean

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a lot to them. I know from personal experience that required reading in college wasn't always
the most interesting for me. I know that I can definitely read a book and much more interested
in getting engaged. I might have more to say about a book that I get to pick rather than having a

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book given or selected for me. Is there a healthy balance with that where we can say,
throw out a challenge, rise to the occasion? It might seem scary to a student and it might
be difficult to read a subject that they're not terribly interested in, but does that have any
benefit as well? Absolutely. I think that students, if you give them a challenge,

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they want to rise to the occasion. Absolutely. I think that creating something like that,
creating challenges, let's see how you do on this. Last time you read a book with
200 words. This book has 250 words. Let's try reading this and see if you can do just as well.

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Up until and even after they might go through the Read to Succeed program, what are the kinds of
things that parents and families can do to extend those things? Are there book clubs or what other
kinds of things are kids encouraged to be involved with to keep that joy or at least the interest in
reading going? I think some of the things that we were talking about, really building that
background knowledge. Giving children different experiences. This is not just taking them to the

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museum, but going to different places, going to local parks, going for rides in the car and
exposing them to different places. Definitely reading with students and giving them those
different experiences. Then I think providing them with new and novel vocabulary, I think is

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just such an important piece. We talk about the challenges with reading. If students are able to
sound out words, but they don't know what those words mean, they're basically just word callers.
There isn't that comprehension piece that's really the goal of reading. Really providing students

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with new words and a lot of words. I think reading is really the key to that. They've done
lots of studies on the importance of vocabulary in children's books and how children's books really
contain just about 50% more rare words than adult primetime TV. Conversations between two college

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educated adults. Those are words that children are not necessarily going to see or hear on TV.
I was just reading a children's book yesterday and the character rubbed his bleary eyes and
patted out of bed and hustled around the room rather than waking up rubbing his tired eyes

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and walking across the room. I think that vocabulary really creates such a better mental picture,
such vivid imagery, but also exposes children to that rich language as well.
We've heard oftentimes that to be into social studies, to be into mathematics and to perform
well or again just have that interest, reading is going to be a component of that no matter what

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you do. You can't really say that about a lot of other subjects. There are some people who
compartmentalize and say, well, when am I going to use trigonometry? When am I going to use
knowing all the capitals of whatever countries are out there? Do kids at that early age that
you're working at understand that this is really a foundation that opens the door for success in
all those other subject areas? I think so. I hope that we promote that with our students as well as

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if we want you to become the next mayor of Buffalo or the next county executive, the next
president of the United States. To be able to do that, we need to create this strong foundation.
I know math is so important. All of the other subjects are so important, but that exactly is

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why literacy is so important to me because it is. Without that understanding of language, yes,
once they get to fourth grade, they're really going to struggle with that content knowledge,
but even in the early grades, they're going to struggle with word problems in math and those

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skills that just all come back to reading. How important is it to have role models promoting
literacy? I'm not just talking about NBA stars or that this person plays for the Buffalo Bills,
which is wonderful and great. I like the fact that you have the AARP program because these kids also
see folks from everyday walks of life, but still providing something to look up to to see, hey,

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this is how important reading was to me. Therefore, this is how it applies to you as a young person
growing up. Yes, absolutely. I think that that's so important. I think it's part of the reason why
there are so many celebrities with their own reading clubs and book groups. I think it's
always been incredibly important to me in my family to see both of my parents reading and the

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importance of it. Even in a busy household, even in a busy family where you're not able to read for
enjoyment all of the time, just again stressing that reading shouldn't be a chore. Pointing out
different print in the environment, really valuing the importance of reading. If you're putting

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something together, if you're following instructions, following a recipe, really talking
through the steps of that so that children really see the importance of, oh, the reading unlocks
and making a recipe. Reading unlocks for creating a skill. I think that applies to all subject

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matters, whether you're going down academia or what's becoming a little bit more popular now that
it's went away for a little while. The career and technical instruction where the lexile levels on
some of those textbooks are off the charts, but again, you have to have those fundamentals before
you can start opening up the hood of a car and poking around. You need to know what you're doing

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and you're going to get that from books. Absolutely. Really valuing again, there are so many
different... We need all of those different skills to make the world work, but there are some things
that... Again, going back to those foundational skills that are so important, if you give me

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those textbooks, I might be able to sound some of those words out, but without the background
knowledge and the vocabulary, I'm not going to be able to make sense of it.
Really, again, the importance of all of those things coming together.
Here we are in 2024. Read to Succeed Buffalo's been here for... Look at how many years you're

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still around, 17 years later, still here and doing great. What is new for 2024? Do you have
anything that's coming up that people should know about? We're actually piloting a new program.
We're looking to recruit tutors of all ages, not just 50 and older, in looking at foundational
reading skills and work going into schools, K through third grade, and working on decoding skills,

(31:35):
on basic reading skills with students. We'll be recruiting for both programs this fall.
If you are 50 and older, you can look into our Experience Corps program. If not, but you are
interested in tutoring, we'll be piloting our Intensive Tutoring Corps, or ITC, this school year

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that we're very excited about. I would assume as a 501C non-profit organization, you also must have
a lot of efforts going into fundraising to keep the program going on. If you'd like to talk a
little bit about how people can help and what's going on there, that'd be great. Absolutely.
As a non-profit, we are always accepting donations. We're also always looking for book donations.

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We get the books, new or gently used books, right into the hands of students in our care child care,
our care preschool, our Experience Corps. Again, the importance of that ownership.
We distribute books. We let the students choose books that they can take home

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and join their at-home libraries. Those are ways to get involved. If you're not able to
financially donate, we'd love to have you as a volunteer tutor.
There is still some funding that's coming down statewide. I know Governor Hockel here in New
York made some pronouncements earlier in the year. Can you talk a little bit about how that's going

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to impact what you're doing at Read to Succeed, Buffalo?
I think the governor is really talking about getting back to basics in her plan, making sure
that teachers receive the best education, and really looking at getting back to the science of

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reading, really ensuring that what's happening in the classroom is research-based, and that it's not
just doing what we've always done, and getting what we've always gotten. Making sure that
everything goes back to research, everything goes back to data. I can say we've definitely

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made some changes, but following research and following data has always been extremely important
to us. Budgets are always going to fluctuate, and we're always going to have them without getting
political. It's got to be a sense of satisfaction knowing that, well, a school might be going
through some tough times. These resources are still available to them.
Absolutely. These are topics that are very important to folks, making sure that their money is

(34:23):
invested wisely, and that they can see the data. We have program reports every year that we show
our funders that speak to the progress of the students, the satisfaction of the tutors, as well
as the satisfaction of the classroom teachers. What changes do they see in the students' confidence?

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How are they seeing the students learn and grow? They've had tremendous feedback for us as well.
Awesome. How can people find out more information, websites, social media? If you'd love to share
that, that'd be great. Yeah, that'd be great. Our website is readtosucceedbuffalo.org,
or you can call the office at 716-843-8895, or you can find us on Facebook.

(35:14):
Awesome. Julia Bruckle, it has been wonderful having you here. Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. That'll wrap up this episode of
the Reading Revolution powered by bookvending.com. We've got much more coming down the pipeline,
so we hope you'll join us for our future episodes. Again, if you have a suggestion of what you would
like to hear on the Reading Revolution, email readingrevolutionpod at gmail.com. I'm your

(35:39):
host Josh Gregory. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time.