Have you noticed all of the Back to School advertising and displays in your local store? While we are still in the middle of a hot summer, we are turning our thoughts towards the fall and the launch of school. With so many competing narratives in literacy instruction, we wanted to share a few messages that matter about cultivating joy for your school, teachers and students this year.
Unfortunately, social media and other outlets have presented a polarizing choice for educators, creating false choices such as:
- do you teach explicit systematic phonics OR do you focus on comprehension instruction?
- do you focus on knowledge building OR do you teach skills and strategies?
- are you using direct explicit instruction OR do you lead with inquiry and student agency?
We reject the notion that you have to choose and instead embrace a BOTH/AND approach to effective literacy instruction, drawing deeply from the work from Duke & Cartwright’s Active View of Reading.
This complex view of the reader is a visual reminder of just how sophisticated it is to teach children to learn how to read. Simple models are helpful, but we must focus not only on words and language, but also on motivation and engagement – or what we keep coming back to – JOY!
We know that our words matter, and so we considered the three essential messages that we would want all teachers to know as they launch their year. Here are our ABC’s that we hope incorporate our both/and approach, instill a cornerstone instructional practice, and inspire teaching and learning. They are:
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Apply Knowledge & Skills
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Build Community through Read Aloud
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Cultivate Joy
Apply Knowledge and Skills
You’ve heard the phrase “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”? We find this sentiment is all too true in our instruction as well. For example, what happens during whole group phonics lessons stays only in whole group phonics time. Kids are often not transferring the knowledge and skills they learn to real life examples or meaningful texts.
Explicit instruction is imperative, but only so far as it gets kids to take that instruction and apply it for themselves. Is knowledge critical? YES! Are skills important? YES! But we must apply the knowledge and skills in order for lasting learning to take place.
One simple example of application would be to give upper grades kids a laminated index card that they keep as a bookmark. When the students come to a multi-syllabic word they can apply the syllabication strategies they’ve been taught right then and there.
Build Community Through Read Aloud
In the busyness of the school day, we have noticed that far too often, teachers are cutting out Interactive Read Aloud. The schedule is jam packed, transitions take time, and interruptions happen. We’ve all been there! However, as the saying goes show me your schedule and I’ll show you your priorities. We must make time for read aloud for a number of reasons.
First, we know that beautiful children’s literature is rich with academic vocabulary that helps to build students’ oral language and knowledge. In fact, there are more rare words in a children’s book than in a conversation between two graduate level professors! (link)
Second, read aloud is a great time to build community and support the social emotional goals for your students. Classroom culture is created through shared stories and experiences. We can think of no better way to create those experiences than through read aloud.
The following visual is our sample representation of the components of reading instruction with interactive read aloud at the heart.
Cultivate Joy
Finally, we want it to be shouted from the rooftops that literacy instruction, classrooms and schools in general should be places of JOY. There are many definitions of joy – as an emotion of happiness, a feeling of connection and belonging, an experience of peace and exuberance all at once.
We encourage you to ask teachers and students alike, what does joy look like to you? In listening, we can learn what are the practices and habits that we can cultivate so that everyone experiences joy.
It is our hope that these messages serve as an anchor for you. Imagine a school where classroom communities were centered around a shared text, where independence and application of knowledge and skills were the norm, and where a calm exuberance permeated the teaching and learning experience. We know that together, we CAN transform the literacy experiences of children – making this school year one that is full of meaning and JOY.