Dear New Teacher,
Incubus and their evolution from punk/metal to a more polished, introspective alt-rock sound seems to be one reason the band might resonate so deeply with a teacher like me, but I digress. There’s this line in “Warning” by Incubus that hits me l every time I hear it: “She woke in the morning, and she knew that her life had passed her by.

Whew.

That line…. is real. Especially in this profession.

Teaching will try to make you forget yourself. The emails. The meetings. The bulletin boards. The infinite open tabs and Google Docs. The Sunday scaries. The doing. It will demand and distract until you’re so wrapped up in being a “good teacher” that you forget what it means to be a whole human.

I say this with love and from experience: I’ve been that teacher.

The one staying until 5:30 to make the anchor chart just right. The one answering emails during dinner. The one who showed up even when her soul needed rest. The one who thought being “there for the kids” meant being everywhere for everyone but herself. It took make a good decade to break from that and I am still learning.

Some teachers you will wear that kind of work ethic like a badge of honor. I don’t anymore. I wear it like a lesson.

Because the most important thing I’ve learned--the thing I wish I could tattoo on every new teacher’s heart—is this:

You come first.

Not in a fluffy, self-care-Sunday, spa-day kind of way (though hey, do your thing).

I mean in a rooted, boundary-honoring, life-before-lessons kind of way.

Because you can’t build a meaningful, sustainable teaching career if you’re disappearing inside it. Because no job—not even this beautiful, messy, life-changing one—is worth letting your actual life pass you by.

And don’t let anyone guilt you into believing otherwise.

Take your personal days. Say no to the extra “opportunity” that drains you. Rest without justifying it. Eat lunch with people who make you laugh (or alone if that’s what recharges you.) Get outside. Turn the playlist up. Leave the grading for tomorrow.

Live your life.

Yes, teaching is meaningful. Yes, your students matter. But they need the version of you who is grounded, joyful, and alive.

Not the hollowed-out shell of someone trying to please everyone, trying to be everywhere all at once, trying to do it all while simultaneously burning yourself to the ground.

If you are like most teachers, this is a lesson you might have to learn over and over again. So let go of any guilt if you stumble through the practice of putting you first.

I thought I had owned this truth of putting myself first above all else a decade ago…. but this year, when a medical heart drama put me out for 6 weeks (you won’t be surprised to hear many doctors assume it was teaching, secondary trauma and more hard to believe are real events at work that triggered it) it was a parent of a student (and now dear friend) that urged me to listen to both my body and the doctors and go on leave. Until that day—the day my friend walked up to me during my lunch break, embraced me in a hug and reminded me that my students would be okay, but my family needed me— I was still there, showing up, trying to push through unimaginable physical symptoms. And when I gave myself the time and space to heal, I was welcomed back with grace and love by my Marigolds.

That’s what “Warning” is trying to say, to me. Wake up. Don’t wait. Be present in your own life. So before you lose yourself to the “must do’s,” own this truth. There are no must do’s pressing enough to put before yourself.

Be human first. Teacher second.

And when the pressure builds, when the inbox is full, when the lesson flops and the hallway is too loud—put this song on. Turn it up. Let it remind you: This is your life. Don’t miss it. You are replaceable at work, while its also true that the work matters and matters deeply, it doesn’t matter as much as you do.

You’ve got this. And I’m rooting for the whole you.

With honesty and deep respect,
​
--A Veteran Teacher Who is Also Learning to Listen to the Warning

Hey there, New Teacher Friend,

Can I kick it? Yes, you can.
Perhaps my favorite playful line from the golden era of hip-hop— the song in its entirety embodies one of the most important lessons I ever learned about teaching: find your rhythm, find your people, and never forget that you can kick it—even on the hard days.
Look—teaching is hard.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying to themselves or selling some serious toxic positivity. You’re stepping into a profession that will ask for everything—your heart, your energy, your time…. But you don’t have to give it your soul.

You may have heard about the concept of “Marigold Teachers.” If not, pause and read the classic article “Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule for New Teachers.”
Think about marigold flowers: they are warm, sturdy, and…. they have a natural way of keeping pests away. Marigold teachers are just like that—bright, resilient, utterly life-giving. These are the educators you need in your corner. They’ll give you space to grow, with out critique—in your own way.

These are the teachers you want to plant yourself next to.

This song, “Can I Kick It?”—with its fun rhythm, playful tone, and effortless vibe—is the soundtrack of that kind of teacher. It’s not showy. It’s not desperate to impress.
It’s confident. It's calm. “It’s a box of positives.” (but not in that ever dreaded toxic positivity way)
I’ve been lucky to work in schools that are Marigold-heavy.
Not perfect. Not pain-free.

But full of teachers who’d bring over a cup of coffee and ask, “Want to walk and vent?”

And I borrowed from their brilliance—kind of like jazz artists riffing off each other. We weren’t performing for administrators or pitching perfect lessons. We were building live, humming ecosystems inside classrooms together.

Look: did the job get easy? Heck, no. There were and will always be testing mandates, broken copiers, meetings that made me question my life choices…. But every day after school ended, I had my tribe. We shared hacks. We vented frustrations. We laughed way too loud at inside jokes. We recharged. And we survived. We thrived.

Listen. Find the Marigolds. Listen for that kind of energy. You’ll feel it before you see it—it sounds like laughter after dismissal and looks like a post-it on your desk that says, “You’ve got this.”

That’s exactly what “Can I Kick It?” embodies—the familiar loop of positivity and rhythm:
“Like a box of positives, it’s a plus love.”


That’s your vibe, too—energy you bring before you walk in the door. Curriculum? You'll learn it. Classroom management? You'll grow with it. But being yourself—whole, curious, patient, real—you bring that from Day One.
So here’s my advice:

1. Hunt for your Marigolds. Listen. The teachers who relax with a cup of coffee and sincerely ask, “How are you?” Those are your people. Plant yourself there.
2. Play off the riff. Borrow their methods, adapt and evolve them. Teaching is sometimes imitation—but it’s also improvisation.
3. Protect your rhythm. Know who you are. Put up boundaries fast. Sleep matters. Sunday evenings matter. You matter.
4. When it gets messy (and yes, it will), remember: Nobody’s soloing alone. Your tribe will step in if you let them.

So—can you kick it?

Yes. You got this. And I’m thankful you’re here.
​
And to the Marigolds I have been so lucky to have in my life these last twenty years- and especially last year- thank you, beyond words, always and forever.
In solidarity,

—Mrs. K, A Millennial Teacher Who’s (Somehow) Still Standing

I met Kristin a little over a year ago- I need to pause for a moment because the fact that she was only in my life for just one short year blows my mind. In that short year, and despite our wildly different views on homework (which I have to add because I know it would make her laugh) she quickly went from just a coworker to a dear friend.

For the majority of my career I have worked at the best schools, with some of the best educators in the country- teachers who dedicate their lives to their jobs and their students. Despite having been surrounded by the best of the best for so long, I don’t think I have ever met anyone as hard working or as dedicated as Kristin. She loved what she did and she always put in her all. Going through her classroom these last couple weeks, I marvel at how detailed and organized she was. She put passionate thought into every single detail in her room- from her beautiful library, to the posters on the wall, right down to table supply bins on desks- each bin with carefully placed pictures of the bin, with the supplies, to help remind her students how to keep them organized. And her room was always just that- super organized in a way that helped kids succeed.

She had fourth grade down to a science with materials meticulously organized in color coded folders, by subject, in time order ready to go. But things were never actually ready to go because despite what may have looked like perfection to an outsider, she still felt the need to spend hours ensuring each lesson was a perfect fit for the new students in fourth grade that year. Because she was that teacher. The teacher who worked endlessly to ensure her students were well cared for.

But beyond being one of the best educators I have ever had the pleasure to work with, she became one of the best friends I have had. When my family faced our own tragedy over the summer, she was one of the only people outside of my family I actually talked to about it. I knew starting the new school year with that type of pain would be the hardest thing in my career I could face and Kristin somehow knew how to help me through. The day before she passed away, I was set to leave work right after school as close to the bell as I could manage. There are two exits out of my room, one that leads directly into her room and another that takes me around it. Typically I would walk through her room so we could laugh and chat about our day... but that day I was feeling extra introverted and just wanted to get home. As I was just about to rush out, without saying goodbye, she walked in with a carefully organized stack of papers ready to go for my class for the next week. She handed them to me, looked at me and said, “hey, can we just talk about not school for a bit?” And we did. We sat around and laughed for a good hour. We laughed about our siblings, about my daughter, about how hard it was growing up with curly hair- and then about how my second year of teaching literally scared my hair straight. And when I finally did leave, I left so happy and thankful. Thankful that she walked in when she did, thankful that I didn’t just leave without saying goodbye, thankful for an hour of good laughs and of course thankful for a great friend.

I woke up the next day smiling, thinking about how lucky I am to have the people I have in my life. I was of course not yet aware that I had lost one of my favorites. A big part of me will always be tremendously sad that she was taken from us too soon- but more than that, I am so forever grateful that she was a part of my life. I know that to honor her, we should all keep living our lives filled laughter- and of course an extra large dose of sarcasm- because she wouldn’t want it any other way.

But as the all-knowing professional I believed I was, I wasn’t worried yet. Early intervention, right?? I've got this. Knowing she was getting a pretty solid phonics-based and developmentally appropriate start at her Montessori preschool, I reinforced learning at home. The summer before K we dove into all the fun.... Hopscotch blending, red word jumping… a little OG work sprinkled in here and there with still large doses of just loving books together.

I was pretty confident elementary school would be just fine. Three cheers for early intervention.

Kindergarten - Fake it Til You Make it
Kindergarten started online which was, as we all know, horrible- but it also gave me the chance to watch her brilliant teacher in action- teaching phonics, to a group of 5-year-olds- on a screen and holding them captivated. This is around the same time certain podcasts came out and I was before this filled with angst over what her school (that I had also just been transferred to) would be like. Will they be doing it “right” or will she be stuck in the poor practice described as widespread.

Pure relief. FUNdations for the win.

Until it got hard. Phonics wasn’t something she could memorize with ease, like she did with entire books. She wasn’t able to fake her way through mastering it. So she began slamming her Chromebook shut and running away every single day during phonics. I wrote this off to being screen fatigued and exhaled a sigh of relief when the district announced Kindergarten and 1st grade would be in person (I assumed the slamming shut of Chromebooks was a common theme)

Exhale.

By the end of kindergarten, she had tricked us all (including iReady) into thinking she was a reader. Kudos to that photographic memory of hers.

I was in a false state of believing she wasn’t dyslexic at this time. Convinced all that early work her teacher did in Preschool and my reinforcing daily at home had somehow saved her from being dyslexic.

1st Grade - Reality Bites
Early 1st grade, we found, one can still fake it til they make it in ways especially iReady will not catch.

But mid 1st grade? Buckle up everyone as here is where the realities of dyslexia start to peak out.

Her 1st grade teacher was THAT teacher. I had heard stories about him from parents not even at his current school. "He changed my dyslexic student’s life." Actually specifically it sounded like *through tears* “Mrs. K, thank you so much for everything you did from Sam. You changed his life. Also, Mr. M. what an amazing teacher he was. ....You both are.”

Oh the relief in my heart when I realized this teacher I had heard so much about is now at her neighborhood school. Not sure what stars aligned to make this a reality but.... Surely, he will fix it.

Day one I shared my dyslexic concerns with him, he being dyslexic himself appreciated the info but, to be frank wrote it off. She was, after all, reading according to most measures.

​By mid 1st grade, he backtracked and agreed- dyslexia it might very well be. So I told my husband we needed to test her before he fixed it because he could fix it right?! He was doing all of the things, is known district-wide as a literacy guru and even started one-on-one Barton with her daily. Hurrah for strong tier 1 and 2!

By the end of 1st, she was still at grade level but there were still signs. I could check off most, but not all of this new list and just wanted to believe her brilliant teacher fixed it. So we didn’t test her because dyslexia is fixable! Right?….right???

**notable due to budget restraints there were no interventionists available for 1st grade at this point of time. I am forever grateful her teacher had the time and knowledge to do Barton with her.

Enter Second Grade
Another year, another score for our family with another teacher known in the local dyslexia community as the teacher you want your kid to have. Her iReady this year was lower than one would desire so the school was quick to do deeper testing and boy did CORE phonics confirm all of my fears.

Strong MTSS had her quickly placed with one of my favorite people on earth, an interventionist with all the knowledge and skills to help her. IMSE’s Orton Gillingham intervention was now also in place, in addition to more small group comprehension work with her teacher and of course, continued strong tier 1 in the classroom.

At this point, she could explain phonics at her level like a pro, remind me when to use ee vs ea, and could likely teach the 3 part drill to me if I asked her because she knew it all so well.

Except when it came to authentic text and it all fell apart. Reading was hard. Really hard. I got many calls from the nurse this year. Every call a tummy ache and/or a headache. Every call during the ELA block.

There were days where we would struggle to get her to school- despite her loving it there. She always came home happy, but there was a strong dread at the beginning of the day.

So we found a neuropsych to do an evaluation and even though I knew, I cried when she said it's official. “Moderately compensated dyslexia” She could tell she was receiving great instruction but “The gap between her intelligence and her ability to read is, well, a Grand Canyon sized gap.”
Ouch.

We put a 504 in place as she would not qualify for an IEP given her compensation and above the IEP threshold ability to read. I also knew that the school's tier 2 was STRONG and the teachers are brilliant- so the 504 was in place still with the delusional belief we could all fix it, cure dyslexia and make reading easy for her but… just in case, I wanted that 504 in place given the anxiety over reading and writing and “just in case we moved.”

The Summer Before Third Grade
Trying not to panic, I initiated operation fix it (as I still believed in my heart of hearts that was in the realm of possibilities) Her best friend had a very similar end of year iReady score (just barely below grade level) so I started what we called Unicorn School. We met a couple of times a week, did UFLI and some reading of whatever books we could. We would laugh, we would giggle, we would geek out on phonics. I decided to throw in some multiplication work because why not? We were solving the reading problem right?

Well yes, for her non-dyslexic friend that needed that little push we, in fact, did fix it. She was now at a place that the gaps were filled and she started of 3rd grade strong.

For us…. We went on a 2-week vacation, had another week and a half before school started and then bam. It was like a blank slate. Her beginning of the year 3rd grade scores were actually shockingly low considering all of the work we did over the summer and all of the work she had done along side her teachers in years prior. I was shocked, even knowing iReady is infamous for cause severe angst that leads to false results. But her CORE phonics scores... well proved that she was in fact still dyslexic. (duh.)

Side Note: In my panic over attempting to fix it during the summer, I also pulled together a large group of girls (it's now about 21 lol) to start a book club. This book club is still going strong a year later. Highly recommend it. Maybe ease off on the number of kids. The once-a-month meetings and choosing of books to collectively read together have been huge for every kid in that group- strong reader or not.

Third Grade - The Rollarcoaster
Third grade went as one expected. Reading was hard, but she still somehow loved it. Progress was huge, but the struggle was real. By the end, she was still testing just below grade level.

Strong interventions were still in place in addition to strong tier 1- although I will pause for a bit as at this time there has been over prescribing of phonics and for a blimp there was a time it was suggested k-3 teachers continue with FUNdations in addition to Into Reading's foundational skills. Which is a time suck that I do not believe was a valuable use of time and those in charge must have agreed because it quickly stopped. The entire rope is a must. Squeezing out other parts of school for more phonics is not research backed practice. I am in ways curious if this stalled some progress for her. It definitely robbed time away from Science and Social Studies. Thank goodness for course corrections.

As a 4th-grade teacher, I have to say, at this point pure panic has set in. I know how hard 4th grade is, I know what the demands are, and I want to do everything in my power to prevent the high anxiety, the stomach aches, and the headaches.

So I gave her a choice- "I can do “summer school” with you, just (ha- just) an hour a day or we can hire someone else." Her reward for her hard work and the money saved since she chose me is horse camp. Her dream of dreams. And a carrot I found that needed to be dangled to get her full buy-in.

Teaching your own kid is hard. Like… really hard. But it also has given me insight beyond what I imagined. I am, daily, shocked out how complex dyslexia is. I marvel at what she CAN do and am baffled by the things that still trip her up. I am in awe over her work ethic, I see her as one of the strongest people I know. And... this is hard. Its a rollercoaster I wasn't prepared for. One day I am seeing great progress and soaking in the pride she has in herself with her successes and the next day I am comforting her in a puddle of tears over how hard it all is.

"Mom, it isn't fair that this is so hard."

I know sweet girl. It isn't fair. It just isn't.

Daily we push on. IMSE approach (very similar to UFLI) is great. I love it. But there are some pieces of it that seem to be a bad fit for older kids (as in the summer before 4th grade) with dyslexia. Lyn Stone has this brilliant piece on blends. A piece I wish I had read before this summer as wow the truths here. Its a piece of popular programs that I am now finding needs more critical examination for all the reasons discussed in Lyn's article. It is also, in my daughter's words "babyish" and feels, as I have seen with my students, demoralizing at points. But what else is an upper grade teacher trying to fill some decoding gaps supposed to use? Nothing that I know of exists and I think the success rate of OG programs will back my concerns.

It's simply not a silver bullet. No matter how desperately I wish it were.
And no, expressing concerns over this isn't some how an argument for balanced literacy as described in popular podcasts. Its a critique we all should consider in order to ensure we are doing it all right this time. And not spending another 100 years scratching our heads about why pendulums swing to extremes.

I was finding we were stuck in this strange place. My daughter can read slowly but mostly fluently. The things she trips up on are not what one would expect (example reading the word apothecary? Not a problem. Reading a word comparatively simple one syllable with a beginning consonant blend. Yikes.) So I was left feeling at a loss for what we should truly spend our time doing.

I am a firm believer in the power of novels so I let her choose one. She chose Red by Liesl Shurtliff. A heavy lift for her current ability, but we are reading together, and she is loving it. I found we could do some syllable division with words that would pop up in the chapter we read so that she was prepared to attack them. This part all felt good.

The foundational skills piece felt like a mess. There are some skills she is strong in, others that she shouldn't be struggling with but does, and her spelling is what one might expect with a dyslexia diagnosis.. To be frank- its bad.

While IMSE and/or UFLI felt like a great fit for her when she was younger, I found it was causing tears. Blends being one confusing sticking point and nonsense words in the blending board routine causing frustration and confusion within the drill but more strickingly, while reading authentic texts. (What's perhaps worse than looking at a picture and guessing meaning? Looking at a word and guessing its nonsense- not promoting the former but the later is a trip.)

I wanted to do morphology work with her, but with the tripping on some basic skills she has been practicing since the start, I felt pulled to the status quo and pushed on for a bit. Chatting with expert teachers and interventionists (Thankful for that community on X) I decided to drop the nonsense word part, the flashcards of letters sounds and blends and focus our time on fluency, encoding, writing practice, and reading novels.

Is this the right path? For sure dropping nonsense words out of the routine was. Leaving the flashcard drills with common morphemes behind has felt huge for her. A much needed break from a perceived "babyish" routine and a confident boost she desperately needed. Now we are just applying and practicing all those years of strong tier 1 and 2 into writing and reading. Stopping to correct and review skills as we read, instead of just in isolation. (Remember again, we are talking about a rising 4th grader who has always had strong tier 1 and has thankfully had strong tier 2 in place when it was proven necessary. I am not arguing against these routines for younger students or older students who never had solid phonics instruction.)

Will this fix it? Not in the way I dreamed. Not in a way that will make her a strong speller or a fast reader. She might not ever love reading the way I hoped and dreamed when I first found out I was pregnant. And that is okay. I am slowly letting go of the need to fully and completely "fix it" in the definition I once believed is possible. Dyslexia won’t be fixed, it won’t be cured, but what we have in place is easing the pain of it all. I am thankful for the instruction she has had, I know how much easier it has made it all for her. But it is in no way shape or form easy.

There is a path to success, it might not mean reading with quick fluency, or spelling with ease. It might look much much different than that. But that different... the success that is possible while strengthening skills and simultaneously embracing realities... I am finding is more than a mom of a dyslexic child can hope for.

​Where does this leave us now? Well...

Nine years later, I am embracing dyslexia, the triumphs and the struggles, and doing everything in my power to move forward with realistic expectations that ensure success- by whatever definition that might truly mean.

My dad, who grew up to be an avid reader , was recently asked the question, “When did reading become easy for you?”

He paused, looking perplexed before responding. “Never. It never got easy. It’s still really really hard.”

Some Recommendations for at Home Supports
This one is tricky for me during the school year as I firmly believe the amount of effort all kids put into the school day, especially dyslexic kids, warrants a post school break from it all. During the school year, I would only proceed with reading a book with your child, allowing books on audio, and/or leaning on great tech like Speechify.

​Readibility is a new app we have been trying out- I have mixed feelings about it and the ads absolutely over promise what it is and does for dyslexia.... but this might be a good fit for younger readers building fluency and confidence.

Writing - The link between reading and writing is real. One successful practice we share is collaborative story writing. I write a paragraph leaving a fun turning point and she carries on. At home, this is a fun (tricky) way to practice writing and spelling- as we go I gently remind her of rules she knows so well in theory and how to apply them in practice. If she's having a tough day and we need to focus on joy, we just write together focusing on output, content, and not at all spelling.

Summer Time Practice
Hiring a tutor is out of the reach of so many families as many charge $100 an hour or more. Also mixed feelings on DIY but... for those who feel confident in at home intervention with out the help of a highly trained tutor... (will maybe add links later but until then... google is a powerful tool!)

UFLI is free and easy to use for phonics, OG based instruction. I would personally drop the nonsense words part of the blending board routine.
Nessy is a great app that incorporates game play and reinforces many skills a kid may have learned in an Orton Gillingham intervention.
Blast of to Reading is rather easy to follow and could be a good fit for kids who had strong tier 1 and tier 2 instruction during the school year and want to keep those skills sharp.
Advanced Word Study is a program I like for older kids, is easy to follow and dives into morphology.
Hand Writing Without Tears is a great go to for writing practice. Dyslexia and Dysgraphia are also comorbid and there is strong evidence linking handwriting, spelling, and reading.

Above all else, practice in real books with support seems to be the strongest fit and can lead to most powerful movement forward.

For decades, there has been a hyper focus on instruction in kindergarten through 3rd grade, 
Even when giving advice to teachers, the advice given is far to often from the lens of K-2 instruction. “Have you tried (insert approach that works well in 2nd grade) with your 4th graders?” If only it took 15 minutes to teach conceptual understanding of long division with the area model to then explain why the algorithm works before switching to a small group rotation model. I so wish we could read a ten page short passage with complex vocabulary and literary elements in 15 minutes while also stopping to discuss, analyze, annotate and write about what we are reading. Twenty minutes of phonics instruction? My class would die of boredom and frustration over once again learning about short vowel spellings. A mini lesson for writing would be awesome for a one paragraph description on an animal but for a five paragraph research expository essay? Older kids need more. But for whatever reason curriculum writers and leaders can’t think outside of the K-3 box.

Why is this hyperfocus on K-3 a problem? Given the crucial window, shouldn't we be looking at curriculum for that group with a microscopic lens?

Yes, of course. And… we need to ensure the curriculum changes and adapts to what students need as they grow into critical thinkers and readers. We see the neglect to adapt across content areas, and when specifically speaking of literacy instruction, neglect throughout Scarborough's Rope. We see it in the misstep between phonics and the shift to morphology. 4th graders are asked to continue to learn the spelling of short vowel spellings in many programs instead of examining our language through the lens of morphology- and if morphology is included it's often an afterthought. We see it in writing where as writing demands increase, the direct, explicit instruction needed to get students there decreases. We see it in vocabulary where as difficulty increases, time spent truly teaching the words remains the same instead of adjusting to upper student need.

We see it everywhere and I could write a post on each aspect but will focus on reading in this post.

The Problem With Upper Grade Reading Curriculum
Traditionally, reading curriculum does a decent to great job addressing the needs of our younger students. Instead of then adapting to the needs of our older students, it attempts to apply the same formula it used for lower grades to upper grades. In this failure, it often neglects to acknowledge the changes in text complexity, time needed to read, and time needed to analyze and discuss the text.

This is not a Balanced Literacy vs. Structured Literacy issue. This spans the reading wars. Upper grades have always been neglected, curriculum for this age has over the decades been sloppily put together, and scope and sequences are often not adjusted to the growing needs and rigor of students as they age.

Examples, Fountas and Pinnel suggested reading Tuck Everlasting in three days.
Three. Days. For the entire novel.
Its script prompted teachers to ask three entire questions on a novel with incredibly complex themes and literary elements. This completely ignores the time students would have to sit and attend to just a book, without any stopping for rich discussion. It ignores the needs of kids to stop and analyze what is being read, it ignores any longstanding good practice of using novels in the classroom with the rationale that students shouldn't be spending more than a week reading one text. This idea was probably picked up from past pendulum swings where basals failed to engage kids by spending too much time on one text but- the failure to acknowledge realities of the book's length, let alone other elements to truly teach using it, is stunning.

HMH Into Reading, a basal marketed as a solution for Science of Reading-aligned programs, asks kids to engage in long passages, initially reading the text in one sitting. Accomplishing this prescription of read a text in one lesson is viable in younger grades, with short texts, but no acknowledgment is made in the prescription to adjust needed time for longer, more complex texts in upper grades. It's simply the same formula, without acknowledging student needs, demands on time, or even realistic implementation of the asks. (And don't get me started on then having to read that same text over and over again the next 4 days and the disengagement that ensues.)

With either extreme, burning through novels at a pace an adult couldn't keep up let alone a classroom filled with 28+ students, or a compilation of shorter texts without critically examining the time needs of the demands is a recipe for disaster.


Education's Basal Reader Era
We have been here before and we should have learned from the past. Basal readers, which are compilations of short passages and now often just an excerpt from a novel, aren't exactly what kids need.

Complaints of boredom are plenty (from the teachers teaching as well as from the students receiving the instruction) and the overwhelming bloat of resources siphon away time from other content areas.

This is a problem.

Short passages aren't the root of the issue here. In fact, short passages are very much needed in a well-rounded reading scope and sequence. I appreciate this blog post by Timothy Shanahan on teaching with novels. He begins to argue for a need of both/and. A healthy well-balanced curriculum shouldn't be just novels and it shouldn't be just short passages.

Kids need a both/and. They need the depth and breadth of a program that incorporates a wide set of texts exposing kids to different ideas, cultures, knowledge, etc. And… they need to dive into a great novel.

When used appropriately, novels are (and I hate to describe it this way but it's true…) the magic sauce on top of a well-balanced meal. Sometimes, teachers can use them as the main course- there is absolute magic in a whole class novel. Kids are pulled in and the shared experience of reading, predicting, anticipating, discussing rich characters, analyzing the author's voice (etc. etc. etc.) grabs kids into doing the harder work of engaging in other rigorous texts. Novels cannot and should not always be the main course or the only type of reading kids engage in during whole group instruction. However, when used in combination with a basal, novels in small groups with rich discussion can help kids in the upper grades achieve at or above grade level expectations.
​
With basals now dominating the market, it is crucial that teachers are given room to also incorporate novels. There is nothing inherently wrong with a compilation of short passages. In fact, kids need to be able to both critically analyze shorter texts while also building stamina for longer novels.

Both/and

That said, there is often a lot wrong with the script that comes with the boxed program. The script is often written through the lens of what kids in K-3 needed. It is often written without thought of time demands needed to accomplish finishing the text, and then writing a well-formulated multi-paragraph analysis on it. The assessments are longer and harder, but the program prescribes the same amount of time for them, despite asking kids to read a complex text, answer a slew of multiple-choice questions, and write a multi-paragraph essay. There is no acknowledgment that asking kids to do this in the upper grades every single week is a demand that isn't developmentally appropriate. Curriculum developers are simply applying the same formula they prescribed to lower grades to upper grades without consideration of anything upper-grade students need.

This all needs to change.
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In a perfect world with well thought out curriculum for all students in all grades, upper grade students would both read novels and short passages. The opportunities to align a novel with other short passages that support enrich overall learning are plenty. There is opportunity to use shorter text to tie in content from science and social studies, further building our students' knowledge base. There is opportunity to maximize the way we spend our time to ensure students are learning to read across content areas while then opening time in the day to do the work of scientists and historians. Yet, with curriculum neglecting to address these needs, we lose so much throughout our day- especially when the idea of fidelity of integrity of the program is pushed.

Until large publishing companies acknowledge the needs of our upper-grade students, district and school leaders must empower teachers to go off-script, adjusting to the needs of the kids in front of them.

Its currently the only path we have to ensure the success of all students.

There needs to be a healthy balance between short passages and novels. This can be achieved with a basal- any basal will provide a decent selection of short passages and excerpts. With that, teachers need also be given the time and freedom to incorporate novels.

In 4th grade, I like to start the year with the book Frindle. This is a short read and is great for hooking kids into reading. It is a great model of story elements such as character development, conflicts and progression of plot. It also introduces students to the importance of word study, and I find it is a great book to get student buy in for studying etymology and morphology. The novel also serves as a way to introduce how to engage in a novel study, that can later be used to ensure success in small group book clubs.

After a beginning of the year whole class novel (which really could be anything) novels can be incorporated into small group book clubs where the emphasis is applying skills learned in whole group instruction to an engaging novel.

If you are using a basal... there will be a point that students need a break from the monotony of that. This is where I switch back to a novel somewhere around December. Novel choice is very dependent on class, grade level and need. I personally like to choose a novel that can easily integrate into other subject areas. I lean on historical fiction or... one of my favorite novels, The Wild Robot.

This article, “No More Strategy of the Week”: Considerations for Connecting Comprehension Instruction Back to the Book, does an excellent job explaining incorporating novels into classroom ELA instruction. I appreciate this paragraph below as it sums up how I have always used The Wild Robot in class.

​"This can be done in a number of ways. One approach is to design a quad text set (Lewis & Strong, 2020). For this approach, teachers select a challenging text to serve as their focal text and then find three complementary texts that serve to hook students, scaffold background knowledge, and help students make connections. Another approach is to simply find additional texts to help complement the main reading. For example, Ellen and Tammy have used Peter Brown's (2016) book, The Wild Robot, with fourth graders. Students read the novel with their teacher and peers, but they also read shorter texts about survival, adaptations, and habitats to complement the work. By using this text set approach, students have multiple exposures to shared vocabulary across texts and can integrate common themes and ideas between texts. After implementing this approach, we found that students were able to make deeper connections and think more critically. The fourth graders in Ellen's school had deep discussions comparing the robot Roz from Wild Robot and the invisible friend Crenshaw in Crenshaw (Applegate, 2015) and if the characters could be considered living."

Small Group Book Clubs
For teachers using a basal program, these programs prove to be demanding of time and tasks that are less desirable for students (For example, text analysis essays after every passage)

There is a place and need for that. If the mental load is heavy during whole group instruction, small group book clubs should be a way for teachers to guide students towards authentically applying the skills they learn in whole group to an engaging novel.

Given the writing demands in most basal programs, I would not make this part of the day heavy on writing and annotating.
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Instead, small groups can be a chance to discuss concepts of literary elements with a teacher and peers. It should be a time of learning to love reading, and finding how and why people read for pleasure.

If kids are behind grade level, as a team or school a solution should be worked out to ensure these students are receiving evidence based intervention AND a time to engage in a book club. For these students, allowing time with a teacher and peer to apply skills learned in intervention to a grade level book (with supports and scaffolds where needed) often is the magic needed to prompt quick and drastic growth towards grade level proficiency. 

So what books do I recommend? There are so many but here are some of my favs in no particular order.

• Frindle
• Fish in a Tree
• Esperanza Rising
• A Long Walk to Water
• Restart
• The Wild Robot
• Out of My Mind
• Rules
• Wish
• Inside Out and Back Again
• Black Girl Dreaming
• Crenshaw
• Save Me A Seat
• Turtle in Paradise
• The Birchbark House Series
• Fairly True Tales Series

If I had to quickly summarize what all went right this year... it feels impossible to do. That said, I would name the following as key to amazing results.

• Direct, explicit instruction for the entire class
• A healthy balance of short passages, fiction, non-fiction, texts connected to other content area and of course... novels.
• Small Groups focusing on applying skills learned in whole class and/or small group interventions to novels
• Ensuring every kid was getting what they need while also ensuring every kid in intervention had access to grade level reading material with proper scaffolds to ensure access. No leveled readers.
• A district that prioritizes funding student facing staff (for us this meant grade level access to two interventionists using Orton Gillingham for kids who needed it via assessments) In January we also had two paras to help with small groups. This went down to one in March.
• A school and district that allows for teachers to use their knowledge base to adapt to student need
• A strong team that collaborated often and switched kids during small group instruction to ensure every kid in the grade level was getting what they need
• The time to ensure kids in intervention small group had a second small group where they were engaged in grade level novels
• A strong K-3 teaching team that set us up for success. Because of our K-3 teachers... we had an amazing starting off point and could push our students far. Students new to the school were embraced with supports and peers that helped model expectations.

4th Grade is a scary time to be far below grade level. I firmly believe that to catch kids up and get them to grade level they need intervention per whatever their gaps are after assessing AND they need access to grade level texts. Holding them back in leveled readers will never catch them up and in 4th grade we do not have time to wait and see.

This year I tried something new... with my far below grade level group, I started off with leveled readers despite my disdain for them (but put them in just below or right at grade level texts) This group would come literally dragging their feet to my group after their intervention. So one day I looked at them and asked... Do you guys want to read a book instead?

Cheers of Yes. Joy. Glee, Excitement.

So I put away the leveled readers (for good) and pulled out Wild Robot.

For many in this group, this book was far above their ability so... I used AI to give me lists of words that might be challenging to decode and/or were vocabulary words that might need preteaching.

I chose 5 words and pretaught them using OG syllable divide methods. I let students guide this as they also have an OG intervention and were stoked to be the ones at the whiteboard.

Since they were already getting intervention that's all I did. Of course we stopped to discuss a lot. Of course I snuck in applying skills and strategies. But mostly the focus of this group was to build confidence, give them access to grade level texts, and build a love of reading.

We then read a chapter or two and wow... magic. Even my lowest kid started running to the group. All of them volunteered to read out loud and many would beg to read multiple paragraphs out loud.

Their comprehension and fluency started jumping. All because they wanted to be there and they wanted to read.

They finally were able to read something other than the OG decodable (which have their use too!) and they were no longer stuck in (rather boring) leveled readers.

This is where I will insist until forever that the social/emotional pieces involved in reading need to be addressed. Kids need to want to read. They need to be motivated to read. They need to feel the excitement of being fully involved in a novel.

This is the year of the Bloated Basal. My district adopted Into Reading per state mandates and boy do I have things to say about that program but thats for another day and another post.

The beginning of the year, as "early adopters" we were asked to follow with strict fidelity. So I tried to. Given the composition of my class with 60% below grade level proficiency.... this proved to be a horrible fit. But the district insisted so I pushed on with - 45 minutes of Whole Group reading. This looked like reading the same passage together for 4 days. Picking it apart. Mostly me talking at kids. Lots of annotating in their books (oh we loved this part though) and lots and lots of analytical writing about the short passage we focused on for 4 to 5 days.

My kids hated this and quickly began to moan every time I asked them to take their MyBooks out.

Nevertheless.... We pushed on.

Our reading block looked like this

• Whole Group Direct/Explicit Instruction 45 minutes
  • From August to December - this was me attempting to both follow Into Reading with fidelity while also attempting to make it work for the kids in front of me. This task nearly broke me as it was impossible.
  • From January on - I moved to teaching with integrity over fidelity. I used the stories and the scope and sequence of Into Reading but did not follow the script. I still followed a direct, explicit instruction model but supplemented to ensure skills and strategies were more deeply taught. We stopped reading the same story over and over again and instead read it once or twice. 
• Small Group/Intervention/Enrichment time 50 minutes 4x a week (in January changed to 60 minutes)
  • Well Funded Support - Our grade level had access to two interventionists. One did intensive Orton-Gillingham (she saw two of my students 4x a week, four students in all) One did less intensive OG based group using Really Great Reading (she saw 6 of my kids - 4x a week - 8 students in all. We also had access to an online class for the Really Great Reading intervention. 10 kids from other classes participated for one semester based on need.)
  • The Insanity of Making Small Groups Work - From August to January I was running 7 groups. In the beginning,  I was mostly using Rigby (leveled) Readers per following the new adopted curriculum. Four groups saw me three days a week.  Two groups saw me one day a week and the other three days read a novel together. Some weeks I had a parent come in to read the book with them but this was inconsistent. The two groups were on or above grade level. One small group of two of the kids were in a far above grade level group with a para doing deeper enrichment with other kids from other classes 2x a week. After January... we received more para support and changed things up. Will discuss that later. This change up was huge for our grade level.
    
• Writing - 45 minutes - I used Into Reading's Writing program for one module and then went back to something more explicit and rigorous. (Self created)
• Foundational Skills and Vocabulary - 15 - 30 minutes a day depending on what Into Reading was having kids do. In January I dropped into reading a switched to Morphology Based instruction that focused on learning spelling and vocabulary via morphology.

Attempting to juggle 7 separate reading groups proved to be too much for one person. In January, we somehow got funding for one more para for our grade level for 35 minutes. With this we decided to change things up.

• Each teacher had three 20 minute blocks
• Paras and interventionists pulled kids for 35 minutes
• Kids who were below grade level met with a teacher in addition to an interventionist. The kids read novels with the teacher small group after their intervention.
• For kids who tested out of official interventions, I created a morphology intervention to continue to support what they learned. I saw two groups a day.
• Our farthest below students met with me to do a mix of Orton Gillingham preteaching of words that would show up in the novel we are working on.
• Kids who were showing mastery of grade level concepts did novel groups with paras, but only two times a week.

Working collaboratively as a team was huge in making sure all kids were able to get what they needed while also ensuring kids had access to grade level texts (novels) with scafolds (teacher guidance and supports as needed) to ensure they were able to access texts.

Kids HATE iReady. Teacher's hate iReady. The results are nationally normed so this one small snapshot still can be used to inform instruction and decision making. It shouldn't be used to evaluate teachers but it is. So to nuetralize the disdain for iReady Testing Week here's some things I did.

• My class insisted state testing was fun *because of the snacks* So,... I gave them snacks for iReady too.
• I told my class if they try their hardest they could pie me in the face (Joke is on them, they would have been able to pie me in the face regardless as it was part of a school wide Rube Goldberg building assembly.)
• We took the test in chunks and I told the kids if they weren't feeling it that day just shut their computer and try again the next day (**knowing there was a deadline)
• Reiterated if they rush through they will have to take it again so they might as well try their hardest.

And they did.

I have a love hate relationship with assessments like iReady. On one hand, I appreciate the date and firmly believe that when taken with a grain of salt, as a small snapshot, it can be useful in reflecting on instruction and what a child might need to ensure success.

On the other hand, these tests put kids through unnecessary pressure cookers and the frequency and length of the tests, in my humble opinion, take away from precious instructional time which proves to be detrimental to students. These tests in no way shape or form should be used as a single measure to evaluate student or teacher success. Scores should instead be carefully interpreted. Sometimes they truly are invalid. Sometimes they truly do not reflect student learning. But, when used as a small piece of evidence within a larger body of evidence, I find them to be useful when discussing and planning best approaches to ensure success of students in the class.

We know. And yet, the advice we get to apply  is at best nonsensical. 

Follow programs with fidelity but also definitely don't because one must teach and adapt to the needs of the students in front of them.

Decodables only! Until kids master ALL phonics skills. But also that's ridiculous. Obviously they need authentic texts.

Knowledge building over comprehension skills and strategies! But also definitely comprehension skills and strategies.

Similar to health and nutrition advice, there is a solid path to follow. We know where to begin but... as life is... the plan is never one size fits all. What about the patient with celiac disease?  Or a thyroid problem?  Or Hashimoto's? What about the woman in perimenopause who suddenly is experiencing health issues she never has experienced before despite continuing an incredibly healthy life style? What about those with severe allergies? Or our picky eaters? We cannot simply suggest everyone eats a gluten-free diet. That simply doesn't work for everyone. There is no one size fits all plan for health and nutrition.

And there isn't one for student learning.

This is where education goes wrong. There is no solid advice when it comes to the real life students in front of us. There is only solid advice for the best case scenario. Even the best written program will not address all of the what ifs, all of the needs, all of the resources that real kids might need. 

And no, its often not an implementation problem.

When "pendulums swing," its often a swing to an extreme. Legislation is put into place, new curriculum is purchased, and teachers are asked to teach it with fidelity. Fidelity as if all students fit into the same box. Every cycle, teachers voice their concern- this is too extreme- they say. We cannot swing all the way to whole language, or back to over focus of phonics and then back again. We need a balanced diet. In the same way no one should be eating only red meat. Our kids need more balance. (Not, I don't mean balanced literacy as portrayed in some popular podcasts.) Kids need the entire rope. And they need it in balanced doses. Like nutrition, there is a best practice approach, but like nutrition, so much adjusting must be done for the individual.

There seems to be an insistent refusal to acknowledge the depth and intricacies involved in teaching students. The nuances involved are such that a single program could of course give a solid starting point, but could never make up for the fact that we are neglecting so much. Teacher experts know this, of course, but for some reason they are ignored anad instead the overbearing voices of those who claim to be experts are followed instead.

One single curriculum cannot fully address every issue that comes up in classrooms. We should be hiring teacher professionals (and treating them as such) to do that. A curriculum cannot address the social/emotional needs of students. This is addressed by the teacher, of course, who when given the freedom to adjust and adapt can take the base line of the curriculum and bring it to life for students.

This is what students need.

We now have curriculum that is deeply flawed, ignores current and past research, and is known to be culturally destructive. The lack of mirrors, windows and sliding doors in many programs today leaves inequitable gaps that simply shouldn't exist given all we know now.

Our special ed system is historically and wildly underfunded. The staffing needed to make it successful is never there, rarely hired, and when they are they lack support in such devastating waays, the teachers quit for jobs with less stress and more respect.

We have an unprecedented teacher shortage with teachers fleeing as fast as they can.

And instead of addressing the true issues at play, the loudest voices are screaming to legislate curriculum and force it to be taught with fidelity. They are, perhaps unknowingly, screaming for an extreme solution that simply wont work.

Because like nutrition, our students need balance. They need us to have a solid jumping off point, they need us to be experts in the rope. They need us to be consumers of current research and best practice. And they need us to allow our teachers to use their best judgement to adapt to their needs.