Empowering Educators through Dynamic Professional Development

Jeffrey Bradbury (00:12)

Hello everybody and welcome to the TeacherCast Education Network. My name is Jeff Bradbury. Thank you so much for joining us today and making TeacherCast your home for professional development. Today we're gonna be continuing our exciting summer series Literacy with Laura featuring Laura Stewart, the chief academic officer for 95 Percent group. Now we've had some great questions come in last week all about the science of reading and today we're gonna be excited to keep that ball rolling and talk about and spotlight professional learning. Now for more information about this and our entire

series, can head on over to [TeacherCast.net](http://teachercast.net/) forward slash literacy with Laura. Laura, how are you today? Welcome to TeacherCast.

Laura Stewart (00:50)

Jeffrey, thanks for welcoming me back. I'm happy to be here. This is an exciting series for me because these questions come directly from our listeners. And so I'm really excited for this series to continue.

Jeffrey Bradbury (01:02)

I am excited

to have you here. And of course, this being the second topic, we have had so many questions come in, both on our YouTube channel and also over on our blog. Again, you can find more information at [teachercast.net](http://teachercast.net/) literacy with Laura. But Laura, today we're talking all about professional development and I got two important questions that have come in from our listeners. Are you ready?

Laura Stewart (01:26)

Jeff, let's go.

Jeffrey Bradbury (01:27)

Now it is the summertime, we're looking forward to back to school. There are so many people who are beginning their roles as literacy coaches, literacy interventionists, and trying to work in even brand new school districts. So our first question comes in, I'm starting a new role as a reading interventionist in K2. What do you recommend for summer reading and training?

Laura Stewart (01:48)

You know, I'm so happy to see this question because, you know, bravo for you starting a new role and wanting to get as much information and support as possible over the summer. So thank you for the person who wrote that question. Thank you for serving in this important role. And thank you for asking that great question. So I'm going to start by giving a shout out to 95 Percent group because we have an outstanding teacher, professional learning.

called Top 10 Tools by 95 Percent Group. And it is 10 modules. It's an asynchronous course on all things reading. It's really comprehensive. It's easy to use. It's accessible. It's engaging. It gets rave reviews from people who've taken it. As I mentioned, it's asynchronous. It's very accessible. it's kind of anywhere. You happen to find yourself this summer. It's on your own time.

And also, I have to say, it's very affordable. So check it out on our website. That, to me, is really a great overall choice for comprehensive training on the science of reading. I would also say, if you are new to the science of reading, to this person who asked this question, ⁓ I would encourage you to check out the Reading League. I mentioned that last week when I talked about the Reading League Defining Guide. They have a lot of resources that I think are really helpful.

There are lots of great websites and podcasts that I would invite you to kind of explore and noodle around. ⁓ International Dyslexia Association has some great information on structured literacy. If you're entering a new role as an interventionist, I think that's a really great place to start, International Dyslexia Association or IDA. ⁓ Reading Rockets, some of you might be familiar with that. That's a reliable source of information.

And then there's also a new website called Reading Universe. It's still being built, but it gives some really good comprehensive information. I have a lot of podcasts I recommend, including, of course, TeacherCast. So I did put together a bibliography of recommended resources, books and podcasts and websites and links to all those things. And we can attach that to the show notes. So I'll make that available for all of you.

it's resources that I've just put together as possibilities for you. So thanks for asking that question.

Jeffrey Bradbury (04:16)

Again, all those links are gonna be over at [teachercast.net](http://teachercast.net/) forward slash literacy with Laura. And it is great to see so many people starting a new career, starting at a new school, starting in these instructional coaching and interventionist positions. Laura, I imagine you have an opportunity to work with people in these positions quite often.

Laura Stewart (04:33)

I sure do and I'm really I always express this to people that I have the the privilege of working with. I always say thank you for entering this profession. It's a noble profession and we're doing important work ⁓ for children in their lives and so I'm always grateful for people who enter this profession.

Jeffrey Bradbury (04:52)

Well, let's take a look at our second question of the day. Where should secondary teachers who are new to reading intervention start to gain a foundational knowledge in teaching word recognition?

Laura Stewart (05:04)

Jeff, this is such a great question. And you and I were talking right before we started filming about how this is really top of mind for so many people. Just a couple of weeks ago, actually, I had the opportunity to speak at a conference where many intermediate, middle school teachers, secondary educators were in attendance. And many of the secondary teachers expressed that they had students who had not mastered those basic foundational reading skills.

as secondary teachers, they didn't know what to do. You know, they're used to being content experts and focusing on content. So, ⁓ so this is a really timely and important topic. You know, they know, these teachers know as we do that ⁓ every teacher is a reading teacher ultimately. And I'm happy to see that schools and districts are providing professional learning on reading for secondary teachers because the truth is we do have students.

who come into, again, middle school, secondary school, who have not mastered those basic skills. The other group of people that I have the opportunity to speak with quite a bit are educational leaders. And I always encourage them when they're thinking about professional learning.

keep literacy at the forefront. Because if we don't get literacy right, we don't get anything right. And every teacher is a reading teacher. And so how do we get everyone that base of knowledge about how to teach children to read or about the process of students learning to read so that we all have actionable steps in our toolkits, regardless of whether we're elementary teachers, secondary teachers. So I'm going to mention Top Ten Tools by 95 Percent group again.

because this is that comprehensive course that allows us to learn about teaching reading. Again, very accessible, provides not only the knowledge, but some practical application of that knowledge. So check out our website to learn more. Another great resource that I would recommend, I was very fortunate to be a contributor to this book, Climbing the Ladder of Reading and Writing, and it addresses differentiation for learners, and it really addresses a good look at

It takes a good look at how we teach some of our older students. ⁓ And then there's a book coming out next spring from Solution Tree that is going to be about working with adolescent readers. And I had the opportunity to contribute to that as well. So those are some resources. But one thing I want to say is that building the neural circuitry, which allows a reader to decode text, has to be accomplished.

for all readers and there really aren't any shortcuts. And if a student is in secondary school and has not mastered basic word recognition, we have to act with a sense of urgency and with this kind of what I call relentless focus to catch a student up and fill those gaps. It's not okay for students to continue to lag ⁓ behind because

If they're not able to keep up with the reading load, they can eventually give up. And there's a lot of research that really connects low literacy and school dropout and the connections from school dropout to poverty and potential grim life outcomes. So as we look at literacy teaching holistically, we have to act in a preventative way by providing good first instruction in the early years.

to make sure that students are strong readers early on. At the same time, we have to intervene quickly and with relentless focus for those students who may have slipped through the cracks. ⁓ So as secondary teachers, I encourage you to seek out professional learning that allows you to understand that process of learning to read, understand those structured literacy explicit steps that you can take to support your readers.

to make sure to ⁓ get them to the point where they can access that more complex text that they need to be able to be successful in secondary classrooms.

Jeffrey Bradbury (09:22)

In our next episode, we're going to be talking all about instruction and assessment. Don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button so you guys can be notified the moment that we release that episode. Laura, thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to the next one. And that wraps up this episode of TeacherCast on behalf of Lauren, everybody here on TeacherCast. My name is Jeff Bradbury, reminding you guys to keep up the great work in your classrooms and continue sharing your passions with your students.