Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving/Two Important upcoming events- Dr. Sam Bommarito
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As indicated last week, I’m taking a break from the blog this week in order to spend time with family and friends. Next week I will begin a series of interviews of literacy leaders. Included will be Susan Vincent, Carolyn Helmers, David Harrison, Laura Robb, Ann Kay and Nina Kraus. Each set of co-authors will be talking about the books they have written. There will be lots of new ideas and teaching takeaways in those upcoming interviews!
Also, here are links to two reading events I’ll be speaking at:
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching
Copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following the blog to make sure you won’t miss it. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
As a centrist, one of my goals in the past few years has been to meet and learn from people of all different points of view about how to teach reading. Doing that helps me find the common ground that I know exists on this very important topic. Niki Simonetti has spent 50 years teaching children with dyslexia. As you will see in the interview, she has found ways to help them become readers and writers. She has done this in part by focusing on what she calls the overlooked factors. In our many conversations on Twitter, I’ve found Niki to be open-minded and full of ideas that help teachers help kids. I was excited when she agreed to talk to me about her experiences and the new book she has written. The name of that book is Dyslexia Defused: Reading Struggles and Reading Solutions.
This book contains several unique and innovative ideas about strategies that can be used to help children with dyslexia. In addition to ideas for the classroom, she also includes ideas for helping everyone, including parents, who are dealing with dyslexia. There’s even advice for folks who are thinking about entering the field of working with dyslexic children. This book is a must-have for teachers. I highly recommend teachers consider getting one for themselves and making sure that their building has at least one copy available in their professional library.
Here are some highlights from the interview. They are time-stamped so you can go to the parts of the video of most interest to you:
Introduction to Niki 00:00
Niki talks about a case study of a six-year-old she worked with 01:01
Niki’s approach to phonics 8:55
Niki on consonants 14:10
Other tips from Niki, including how to break words into syllables 19:01
Next week I’ll be taking a break for Thanksgiving. After that, I’ve lined up a series of great interviews with leading literacy experts. All of these interviews center around new books they’ve written. Among the people that are scheduled are Susan Vincent, David Harrison, Laura Robb, Ann Kay, and Jenna Cunningham.
In the meantime- Happy Reading and Writing!
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching
Copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following the blog to make sure you won’t miss it. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
Recently I had the honor of interviewing two major figures from the literacy world, Dr. Tim Rasinski and Lori Oczkus. While they really need no introduction, I’ll begin by sharing a few facts about each of them.
Here are a few facts about Tim taken from his biography on his website
• Timothy Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University
• He is the director of its award-winning reading clinic. He has written over 200 articles and has authored, co-authored or edited over 50 books on curriculum programs in reading education.
• His research on reading has been cited by the National Reading Panel and has been published in many professional journals.
• He was the first author of the fluency chapter for the Handbook of Reading Research.
• He was the co-editor of The Reading Teacher & Journal of Literacy Research.
• In 2010, Dr. Rasinski was elected into the International Reading Hall of Fame.
This biography is taken from Lor’s website:
Lori Oczkus is a literacy coach, author, and popular speaker across the United States. Tens of thousands of teachers have attended her motivating, fast paced workshops and read her practical, research-based professional books. Lori has extensive experience as a bilingual elementary teacher, intervention specialist working with struggling readers, and staff developer and literacy coach. She works with students in classrooms and knows the challenges that teachers face in teaching students to read!
Lori’s best selling books on comprehension and literacy have been featured in the Reading Teacher journal. The third edition of Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension foreword by John Hattie (ASCD, 2018 book and video) features 40 new lessons and is endorsed by many noted reading experts including Donalyn Miller, Tim Rasinski, Doug Fisher, and Regie Routman. Lori has been inducted into the California Reading Hall of Fame for her many contributions to literacy in California and internationally.
Lori resides in Reno, Nevada near Lake Tahoe with her husband, Mark. She enjoys spending time with her three grown children, traveling anywhere by any means, reading historical fiction, walking with friends, dancing, and snowshoeing!
As you will hear in the video interview, Tim and Lori’s sessions at ILA have always been well attended, standing room only events. Who wouldn’t want to hear one of the top researchers in the world, and a gifted practitioner talk about their collaborations? This interview focuses on one of their most effective collaborations- the book series Close Reading with Paired Texts. In the interview, you will find out where the idea for the series came from and how they implemented it. The series is an amazing resource. Using short preselected readings, the series provides teachers with easy-to-implement lessons. Lori will talk about just how effective those lessons have proved to be in the field. There are books spanning KG through High School. The series has multiple uses. Lori and Tim discuss those in the interview. Here are the questions they answered. They are time-stamped so you can go to the questions that interest you the most first. If you are looking for effective, easy-to-implement reading interventions, please do give this interview a look and a listen. The questions asked are as follows:
Would you each tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Tim 00:48
Lori 01:46
What is the rationale for the Close Reading with Paired Texts? 04:05
Is this a substitute for a regular reading program? 11:44
How have teachers and students responded to this program (Lori, I think you have info on this, with improvements in students achievement levels. 14:45
Final Thoughts? 22:30
I hope you enjoy the interview. Now here are some additional resources from Lori and Tim.
Next week I’ll be interviewing Nicki Simonetti, a long-time Dyslexia expert about her new book Dyslexia Defused. Until then:
Happy Reading and Writing,
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching
Copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following the blog to make sure you won’t miss it. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
Today I am doing a session for beginning teachers in St. Louis. Will share the contents in a future blog. Next week I have an interview with Tim Rasinski and Lori Oczkus (WOW!). It’s already recorded and I promise you you’ll want to hear what they have to say. I’m repeating my “early” announcment about Village of Mom’s. See below. Their store is still open!
SPECIAL ANOUNCEMENT- PLEASE SUPPORT THE VILLAGE OF MOMS PARENT
GROUP by Dr. Sam Bommarito
I wrote a blog about the Village of Mom’ parent group. I posted that blog last month LINK. The Village of Moms have been having a special promotional event selling t-shirts.
They are also accepting donations through a go fund me page to help support
their many literacy activities around the St. Louis Region.The last day for the store for those T-shirts is Thursday November. 4th. I bought one.Hope you would consider buying one or making a donation. Here is the information about the store:
Here is the link to the store, donation site, and Facebook
page. Thanks for considering this!
The store is now close- please do consider a donation through go-fund-me and be sure to visit the facebook page.
Happy Reading and Writing!
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to
inform his teaching
Copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed
here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the
views of any other person or organization.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider
following the blog to make sure you won’t miss it. Use the
“follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
SPECIAL ANOUNCEMENT- PLEASE SUPPORT THE VILLAGE OF MOMS PARENT
GROUP by Dr. Sam Bommarito
I wrote a blog about the Village of Mom’ parent group. I posted that blog last month LINK. The Village of Moms have been having a special promotional event selling t-shirts.
They are also accepting donations through a go fund me page to help support
their many literacy activities around the St. Louis Region.The last day for the store for those T-shirts is Thursday November. 4th. I bought one.Hope you would consider buying one or making a donation. Here is the information about the store:
Here is the link to the store, donation site, and Facebook
page. Thanks for considering this!
The store is now close- please do consider a donation through go-fund-me and be sure to visit the facebook page.
Happy Reading and Writing!
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to
inform his teaching
Copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed
here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the
views of any other person or organization.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider
following the blog to make sure you won’t miss it. Use the
“follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
