How? Pure and simple - integrate science or social studies with literacy!

Integration of literacy in the content area has been proven to

- Engage, Motivate and Excite our kids

- BUT...curriculum matters - Choose high quality curriculum to support your literacy needs. Ex: FOSS science

- Use Text as tools!

• nonfiction
• poetry
• narrative nonfiction
• historical fiction
• realistic fiction
• persuasive text
• articles
• procedural text
• infographics
• etc!!!

-Safeguard time for teaching social studies and science in your schedule during the day.

Partnering active hands-on or real world scenarios in the classroom with engaging text is where the magic happens!

I hope this answers some of your questions!

Hello,

This is a follow up to episodes 1 and 2 as we continue to explore the article featured on ASCD on Knowledge Building curriculum. Today we tackle ways to help children access complex text.

- Through Read Aloud

- How it supports Foundational Skills

- Comprehension Strategies for Sense Making

I hope this will help you clarify the role that Knowledge Building has in your classroom!

Last episode we talked about how vocabulary and language are a key building block for building knowledge and comprehension. In this episode (while my dog barks loudly outside) I will share more insights from part 2 of the ascd article on HOW to build a language rich classroom through:

- play

- talk

- conversations

- read aloud

- print

and more!

This podcast is based on the article "Looking to Research for Literacy Success" that appeared in ASCD last February. It outlines the three headings for success:

- Build Knowledge Through Language

- Expand Access to Texts that build Knowlege

- Set the Conditions to Build Knowlege

This podcast is a quick run down about this article and the Knowledge Matters Campaign. I will dive into application of these 10 ideas in future podcasts!

Once again, I felt called to share with you some tips for handling frustration and drowning out the noise of negativity. We are surrounded by it and it can help us or hurt us in our work environment. Many of the tips that I have compiled came from this article - how to handle frustration at work.

So the next time you are frustrated, determine what is in our control and what is out of our control.

Analyze the situation:

• Am I hungry, tired, being selfish

• Is this something I am misinterpreting

• Or Is this something I can control?

Feel the feels and then…

Be proactive - think through ways that you can stop this from happening again

Or think about how you can handle your frustration when it happens again

Surround yourself with things that lift you up.

Do you watch the TV show called the Bear? I have loved watching the show this year. For those of you who don't know about this show, it is about a dysfunctional family who decide to shut down the current restaraunt they run in order to build something better. Think swiching from a greasy spoon to a 5 Star Restaraunt! Wow! Those are some big goals.

But in many ways this is what we are doing in education today. We are trying to take a failing business and turn things around.

I spend some time sharing my thoughts on how the characters are like teachers, admin and students. But then, I dive deeper into Carmy the chef with the vision and how he tries to deal with the stress of the new place. In the end, unfortunately, he goes back to bad habits (as we do - as humans) - which is also a reflection of what happens when we let our fears and anxieties take over.

And then, I talk about the noise. There is a lot of noise in our world right now. How do we figure out what noise matters and what noise isn't helping us grow?

How do we stay true with all the noise?

I share some of my thoughts and break it down into manageable chunks:

• Know what is mandatory - what changes must I make

• Know what you value

• • Pedagogy

  • Classroom community

  • School community

  • In your personal life

• Make a commitment this year to stay present, positive and prepared

• • It will help your anxiety tremendously!

  • Lean on others who have a positive outlook about working with kids

- Above all else, drown out the noise that is contributing to our burnout.

I have already created a few podcasts on this topic, but this short and succinct version tells how to determine what best practices to follow and what resources I recommend. I am also exploring the idea of an inexpensive short course, that would allow you the tools to create your own pathway using your curriculum and content. If this is something that you are interested in, click the poll below!

Recommended resources include:

- the Writing Revolution

- Syntax: Knowledge to Practice

See you soon!

Every few summers, we get a new curriculum. Sometimes its for math, or science or social studies. Sometimes it's for literacy. And when it comes, we have a ton of boxes to go through. It can be overwhelming! How do you know what to use and what to wait on?

Today I share what I did the last time I got a new curriculum - in the middle of the pandemic - in order to make it work for me and my students. First, I follow what I know about the science of reading - comprehension side. Next, I use this checklist to think through the materials. What will I use? Why do I chose those things? What can I wait on for next year? Finally I use this lesson planning template to help plan with the new teacher guide.