Julius Anthony and the Believe project: A close look at his work in literacy- An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

I first met Julius at one of our St. Louis Literacy Association meetings. At the time, he had just founded the St. Louis Black Authors organization. Everyone at that ILA meeting was impressed by what he and his group of children’s authors had already accomplished. The St. Louis Black Authors shared their books with us (there were many). They also shared their passion for bringing children of color culturally relevant books, books whose authors and protagonists looked like them. Over the next several years, Julius and his group became active in the St. Louis Literacy scene. Julius became the President of the St. Louis Literacy Association and is now the President-elect of the Missouri Literacy Association (an ILA affiliate). As you will learn in the interview, under his leadership, the St. Louis Literacy association sponsored several major speakers and provided in-service for Saint Louis area teachers. At the same time, he also created and expanded his Believe Project.

The Believe project is amazing. Julius and his organization have established reading rooms in local schools and community centers. Each site is stocked with one to two thousand culturally relevant books. Look at the pictures of some of the sites found a little later in this blog. They are inviting, and they have murals created by local black artists. Listen to Julius as he talks about the impact of the murals and the wonderful atmosphere created for these sites. He already has six sites and is about to open two more. Please listen to the interview to find out the full story of the Believe project.   

Here is the YouTube podcast of the interview:

Here is the interview discussion. Topics are time stamped:

Here is a link to Julius’ website (donations to the Believe project are always welcome): LINK

HERE IS A PICTURE OF SOME OF THE BELIEVE SITES(additional pictures are available on the website):

Here is a picture of some students reading at one of the Believe sites. One of the project’s goals is to make the rooms inviting and welcoming.

For more information about the Missouri ILA & St. Louis Regional affiliates, please visit the MLA website. If you live in Missouri, remember that we always welcome new members. We are one of the fastest-growing ILA affiliates in the nation, and we would love to have you join in our continued efforts to promote literacy. Membership in MLA automatically gives you membership in one of our four local affiliates. We have lots of great things planned for next year. Here is the LINK.

Dr. Sam’s Upcoming Summer Blogs- In the next few weeks, I am continuing to arrange for additional interviews with authors of some of the many professional books that have been published lately. I’m planning to talk to Tim Rasinski, among others. I hope to carry out those interviews before the new school year begins. Also, near the end of summer, I hope to talk to you about my plans for my push-ins this fall at the school where I serve as a pro bono reading consultant in grades K-3. I’ll be teaching two full days a week, doing large group, small group, and individual sessions. I hope that talking about what I’ll be doing will allow readers to see how I adapt my instruction to the many ideas I’ve gotten from my lifelong search for common ground and common sense. In the meantime:

Happy Reading and Writing.

Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching

Copyright 2022 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the author’s view 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.

Speech First Reading Instruction- A conversation with Nora Chahbazi about her powerful EBLI instructional system: An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

I’ve interviewed Nora Chahbazi several times over the past couple of years. Nora is the founder of EBLI Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction. I first met Nora over the internet while exploring the net, looking for effective evidence-based instructional systems. Her instructional system stood out because she has demonstrated gains in both comprehension and decoding performance for elementary students. She has achieved those gains much more quickly than in other programs. In this interview, she tells us about herself, how EBLI came into being, and how EBLI uses a Speech First Approach to get the impressive results she is reporting.

On a separate note- I also want to thank Nora for arranging for me to participate in the upcoming documentary The Truth About Reading. An independent producer is creating the documentary. Nora encouraged that producer to include many different points of view about how reading should be taught, including my centrist views about reading. While Nora and I don’t agree on everything about reading, we do share an increasing common ground of ideas about what works and what is important. I’m hoping that by sharing current thinking and ideas from various perspectives, including Nora’s, readers of this blog can help enlarge the size of that common ground. Let’s now look at what Nora said about herself and her system of instruction.

Biography (provided by Nora):

Nora Chahbazi, B.S., R.N.

Founder, EBLI Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction

As a leading literacy expert, Nora has spent 20+ years revolutionizing reading instruction. She has received recognition for her lifelong work in the form of several noteworthy nominations and awards including the Editor’s Choice Award from Celebrity Press, the Quilly Award from the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors, and the Literacy Champion Award from DNA Films. She is a published author worldwide and has been featured in multiple literacy development articles and books. Nora is a featured speaker across the nation and has collaborated with universities to advance research and development of reading. She is the literacy consultant for the upcoming documentary The Truth About Reading. Nora has been featured in multiple TV and radio interviews and podcasts, including APM and Oprah Radio (where she was interviewed by Maya Angelou). Her life’s work is to teach the world to read.

Here is the YouTube podcast of the interview:

Here is the interview discussion. Topics are time stamped:

Here are the links to two of the books Nora talked about:

Why Our Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About It: A Scientific Revolution in Reading LINK

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning LINK

SIGN UP to receive NORA’s blog and email newsletter! LINK

Here is Nora’s Website LINK

Click on these key links to go to these specific items on Nora’s Website/YouTube Channel:

• Blog
• Student Instruction Apps
• YouTube Channel
• Facebook Page
• Webinars

Dr. Sam’s Upcoming Summer Blogs- As I indicated last week, in the next few weeks, I am continuing to arrange for additional interviews with authors of some of the many professional books that have been published lately. I’m making arrangements right now to talk to both Julia B. Lindsey and Tim Rasinski, among others. I hope to carry out those interviews before the new school year begins. Also, near the end of summer, I hope to talk to you about my plans for my push-ins this fall at the school where I serve as a pro bono reading consultant in grades K-3. I’ll be teaching two full days a week, doing large group, small group, and individual sessions. I hope that talking about what I’ll be doing will allow readers to see how I adapt my instruction to the many ideas I’ve gotten from my lifelong search for common ground and common sense. In the meantime:

Happy Reading and Writing.

Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching

Copyright 2022 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the author’s view 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.

Alice Faye Duncan talks about her newest children’s books about civil rights: An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

Alice Faye Duncan is a prolific writer of children’s books. Her books include both fiction and nonfiction titles. As you will discover, Alice is a long-time educator/librarian. Her books are engaging. She is a teacher-friendly author. Her website not only contains links to her books it also includes links to PDFs that provide teachers with great lesson plans they can carry out using her books. Here is her biography:  

Biography:

Alice Faye Duncan is a National Board Educator who writes books for children.

She taught in the Memphis schools for 30 years. Memory is her motivation.

She writes to help young learners remember forgotten moments from American History.

Her newest titles include Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free and

Evicted—The Struggle for the Right to Vote. Her September release is Yellow Dog Blues,

a blues fable about love, loss, and good times, in the Mississippi Delta.

Here is the YouTube podcast of the interview:

These are the questions we covered:

Here is an Alices Website LINK

While you are there, use the tabs on the website to link to these various items:

Dr. Sam’s Upcoming Summer Blogs- As I indicated last week, in the next few weeks, I am continuing to arrange for additional interviews with authors of some of the many professional books that have been published lately. Near the end of summer, I hope to talk to you about my plans for my push-ins this fall at the school where I serve as a pro bono reading consultant in grades K-3. I’ll be teaching two full days a week, doing large group, small group, and individual sessions. Talking about what I’ll do will allow readers to see how I adapt my instruction to the many ideas I’ve gotten from this summer’s interviews. In the meantime:

Happy Reading and Writing.

Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching

Copyright 2022 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the author’s view 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.

An interview with Peter Afflerbach about his new book Teaching Readers Not Reading conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

When I first saw the title of Peter’s new book, Teaching Readers Not Reading, I was intrigued. I anticipated that the book would fit nicely into centrist’s views about reading- and I was not disappointed. Follow the child, not the program, check! Look at all the research, check! Empower teachers by teaching them about the keys to a successful reading program using a variety of teaching methods, check. I could go on and on. I think my readers will find this book to be a treasure trove of ideas about how to teach reading in a way that will promote the creation of lifelong readers (and writers!). Those will be lifelong readers who learn to read with understanding and to think about and evaluate what they’ve read. In my opinion, Peter’s book can help teachers to teach kids not just what to think (content) but also how to think (process). Metacognition and self-regulation are at the heart of what he promotes. Before listening to what Peter had to say about his book and its ideas, let’s look briefly at his biography, taken from the Guildford Press website.

The things that jumped out at me were that he was elected to the International Reading Association’s Hall of fame and is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. In addition to being one of the nation’s top researchers, he also has run reading clinics and has teaching experience as a Chapter 1 (Title 1) remedial reading and writing teacher. What a solid set of credentials he has for writing this book! Let’s now look at the interview and what was discussed.

Here is a link to Peter’s book LINK

Peter will be doing keynotes at two major conventions. These will happen in January of next year. Both keynotes will focus on his book. Here are links to each of those events.

LITCON, January 2023, Columbus, Ohio LINK

Florida Reading Association January 2023 (BTW- Nell Duke is doing the opening Keynote at this conference) LINK

Dr. Sam’s Upcoming Summer Blogs- Over the next few weeks, I am continuing to arrange for additional interviews with authors of some of the many professional books that have been published lately. Near the end of summer, I hope to talk to you about my plans for my push-ins this fall at the school where I serve as a pro bono reading consultant in grades K-3. I’ll be going in for two full days a week doing large group, small group, and individual sessions. Talking about what I’ll be doing will allow readers to see how I adapt my instruction to the many ideas I’ve gotten from this summer’s interviews. In the meantime:

Happy Reading and Writing.

Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching

Copyright 2022 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the author’s view 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.

The past two months have been eventful ones for the blog. There have been over 40,000 views in that time frame. I think the interest is rising because I am making the case that constructivist methods get results with BOTH decoding and comprehension. Unlike some SOR folks who “prove” their methods are better using tests that only require reading word lists to measure comprehension  LINK (see pg. 2), constructivists use reading tests that ask students to read meaningful passages and then answer comprehension questions about those passages. In my opinion, comprehension is really the  Achilles heel of the folks taking a narrow view of the science reading. I’m not saying they don’t “teach” comprehension. I am saying that they “teach and assess” comprehension very badly using methods/strategies the rest of the reading world abandoned after Durkin’s research AND after several decades of work demonstrating that teaching comprehension strategies using gradual release REALLY raises reading achievement test scores. For more details about this, see these blogs LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK  

This week I am returning to doing interviews. Recently Jill Speering has been on the road spreading the good word about her new book. I thought I would help that effort by reposting this interview. Here it is:

A report of the Jill Speering interview about her newest book-Rubies in the Rubble, An Educator’s Transformation from Pain to Prominence, From Abuse to Absolution, conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

As an educator who has a long-standing interest in the best ways to teach beginning reading, I was very happy when I heard that Jill Speering had written her first book. Jill has many years of experience as a teacher and a teacher of teachers. Also, as you can see from her biography, Jill is a longtime advocate and supporter of Reading Recovery. She believes in creating programs that fit the child rather than forcing the children into one size fits all programs. Her book is an autobiography, and that autobiography goes well beyond the issues surrounding the best ways to teach beginning reading. It is the story of her whole life, a story of how she overcomes adversity. Here is what one reviewer had to say about this wonderful book (taken from the back cover of the book):

I have to concur. Jill’s story does show hope and promise for us all. It is a story that provides a rigorous defense of Reading Recovery. Before it does that, it also provides us with her story, which gives the reader a roadmap of how to overcome adversity. As Jill points out, overcoming adversity is something that many of the students we serve also must do if they are ever to become readers and writers. Here is a screen capture of the book’s cover and a link to the book:

LINK

Here is a link to the interview:

Here are the questions we covered. They are timestamped.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. 01:19
2. Why did you write this book? 02:35
3. Talk to us as an author. Tell us how your background in learning about writing helped you as you wrote this book. 4:28
4. Is the book more of a memoir or a biography? 09:33
5. What do you feel is the most important takeaway for readers of this book? 15:06
6. In just a few weeks, I will be presenting at LitCon, talking about why RR is a viable approach and why children deserve access to RR (that is a strong position my friend Paul Thomas has taken). Any thoughts about that? Do you agree with Paul and I on the need for children to have access to RR when needed? 15:06 (5 & 6 were covered jointly)

By the way, Jill was the keynote speaker at the Delta Kappa Gamma Educational sorority on June 2, 2022, at the University of the South at Sewanee to discuss her book (LINK). As you can tell, the book is becoming quite popular, and I again encourage you to get your copy to find out why.

FUTURE BLOGS BY DR SAM: I’m in the process of setting up more interviews of authors who are publishing new books about the teaching of reading. In the coming weeks expect more interviews about the newest books on the topic of teaching reading.

In the meantime- Happy Reading and Writing!

Copyright 2022 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.

PS 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.