A Message to the Teachers and Educators of Milwaukee (and beyond)- Congrats on a Job well done: My takeaways from the WSRA Conference

This has been an amazing week. It seems my professional life has come full circle. It was five years ago this month I began writing this blog. One of my first blog entries was made from a hotel room in Missouri. It was written during the Write to Learn conference, where I was making a presentation about literacy. A lot has happened since then. In addition to talking about literacy issues from all sides and op-eds, I’ve added a YouTube channel, LINK. The entries on that channel include the interviews done as part of the blog. Those interviews now include major figures from the literacy world.

Tonight, I am again sitting in a hotel room. This one is situated in Milwaukee. The hotel has a skywalk that connects to the Baird Center. That is the same convention center that will soon be hosting the Republican Convention.  I am again writing a blog entry. It will talk about what I learned at this conference. It’s Deja Vu all over again. As I said, professional life has come full circle.

Let me tell you a little about the Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA) conference. It attracted nearly 900 educators this year. The line-up of speakers at the conference was amazing. It included folks like Peter Afflerbach, George G Hruby, Jeffery D. Willingham, Frank Serafini, Ralph Fletcher, Carl Anderson, Kelly Gallagher, Patrick Harris II, and Dr Towanda Hariss, just to name a few. How did this state conference, one that rivals national conferences in its scope, come into being this year? The answer is that it is the creation of full-time teachers who still found the time to do the volunteer work necessary to create and carry out this amazing endeavor. It is volunteerism at its best. It is one of the many reasons for me to say congrats on a job well done to these hard-working, dedicated educators. Here is a picture of me with the Conference Chair, Norm Andrews, and the WSRA 2023-24 President, Ryanne Deshane.

As I’ve already indicated Bruce and Ryanne are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the volunteer teachers who put together this conference. Teachers matter, teachers care, and teachers need to be empowered.

For my part in the conference, I did several presentations where I talked about some tough literacy issues. Here are some pictures from my presentations.

My recurring themes during these talks included reminding folks that all sides of the great debate should avoid cherry-picking evidence and using strawman versions of the other sides.

I also reminded teachers that what many futurists say is right with American education is that our students come out as problem-solvers. BTW this is an idea I first heard at the Write to Learn Conference in Missouri. When I heard Dr. Zhao speak at the Write to Learn conference a few years ago, he made the point that one of the things other countries like about American education is that our students tend to come out as problem solvers and thinkers. There are a lot of valuable takeaways that can be made from his book. LINK

My takeaways from this conference require a book, not a blog entry. But the upshot of it all is this- that the teachers there were knowledgeable, often successful and they care deeply about the kids. My favorite part of the conference was listening to the teachers as they took part in the turn-and-talk activities in my sessions. They talked extensively about their successes. They know how to help students become problem solvers/meaning makers. They were hard-working, dedicated, and knowledgeable.

Unfortunately, they also had stories to tell about how current trends in education are stripping way power from teachers and local districts and are moving us back to ideas that have failed us in the past. By the way, I sensed most of the teachers I talked to were centrists, willing and able to use ideas from all sides. But unfortunately, we are once more shifting to one of the extremes.  In this current swing, we are shifting to a mainly code-emphasis approach to literacy. Reading First did that, cost billions and didn’t give the desired results. See Dr. Hruby’s entertaining video about that point LINK. In the history of reading, we have done this many times, shifting from meaning-making to code-breaking and back again. Every time we shift to one extreme or the other, we fail to reach some of the kids. I sense the teachers I talked to are worried that no one is really listening to them. No one cares that they are being forced to drop methods that work. From my perspective, the teachers at the conference were, first and foremost, centrists. They are part of Pearson’s Radical Middle. I wish all of you could have heard them talk about their successes and about the concern that current movements are going to strip them of the tools they need to make those successes happen. To be successful, they need to be able to draw from both meaning-based and code-based practices, but in the current climate, that is becoming impossible.

I’ll be busy with two other presentations in the next few weeks.  These include the MHRC Mid-Hudson Reading Conference  (virtual) and the Write to Learn Conference . I hope to see you at one of them. Stay Tuned!!! Great interviews coming up (I’ve made a lot of good contacts at the conferences I’ve attended lately.  Expect more op-eds about the topic of best practices in literacy and the current rush to legislate based on not ready for prime-time research and ideas.  

So, I’ll end by saying- Kudos to the teachers and educators in Milwaukee. Kudos for your volunteerism.  It has produced a conference normally only seen at a national level. Kudos for bringing together a set of speakers who represent ideas from many sides. Kudos for staying in our profession at a time when that is a very hard thing to do. Most of all, Kudos for the many successes you talked about at the conference. Sooner or later, it is my hope that folks will start including dedicated, successful teachers in the dialogue about what we need to be doing in education. My advice- let’s join these centrist teachers.  We need to use ideas from all sides. Let’s join P.D. Pearson in the radical middle. Dare to dream!

Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)

Copyright 2024 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.