Julia Armstrong discusses the activities she provided to supplement Dr. Tim Rasinski’s virtual appearance at the March SoMLA conference in Maryland. An Interview by Dr. Sam Bommarito
The SoMLA’s (Reading Conference) was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both Julia and me. What happened was that I was able to interview Tim Rasinski at a conference dinner held in Tim’s honor. People attending the dinner saw Tim via a live feed. Among the topics Tim discussed was a book he co-authored with Lynn Kulick, Ph.D., and David Harrison. The book’s title is The Fluency Development Lesson Plan: Closing the Reading Gap.
After the interview finished, Julia Armstrong made a presentation to the folks at the dinner tables. Each participant got copies of books from Benchmark’s Decodable Readers Theatre single-copy set. They were able to keep these books, so that means all participants got “take-home materials they can use on Monday”. In addition, one lucky person at each table got a copy of the FDL book. It contains a full year’s set of lessons for grades K-2. It can also work with students in older grades who need help with fluency and comprehension.
Here is a link to the YouTube Interview:
Here are the time-stamped talking points for the interview
(They allow you to go to the sections that interest you the most first)
HERE IS A TIMELINE OF THE EVENTS THAT EVENING
The evening began with the State of Maryland’s Literacy Association’s Young Author awards. Here are some highlights.
Summary of 2026 Maryland’s State-Wide Winners- Here is the link:
Young Authors – STATE OF MARYLAND LITERACY ASSOCIATION
I want to use the winner from 2nd grade to show you an example of the quality of the student writing submitted for this event. I think it contains a message we should all listen to today:
For anyone looking for qualitative evidence that younger readers and writers can and should be allowed the chance to perform at the highest levels of comprehension, here is one piece that does just that.
Next, our live podcast was held in the very same room as the Young Authors event. It began after the Young Authors event ended. Here is what the participants saw:
Tim came in virtually, and the audience got to see the whole interview live. When the interview ended, Tim turned things over to Julia. Here is a link to Tim’s blog LINK.
This is a picture of one of the tables. Notice that each participant received a goodie bag and three copies of books from the Benchmark Decodable Reader’s Theatre series. One lucky person at each table also got a copy of the FDL book. That means they brought home a full year’s worth of lesson plans and support materials for grades K-2. The folks at this table gave us permission to use the photo below.
Heather and Gabrielle (Gab) from Benchmark Publications did the introductions for the event.
Kelly, Carrie and Sandy were three of the hardworking members of SoMLA who helped plan and implement this year’s conference. The conference is an annual event, so keep an eye out for the SoMLA conference next year. Follow the SoMLA Webpage for more information LINK.
Final Thoughts
As I said earlier, taking part in this event with Dr. Tim Rasinski is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I have known Tim for a very long time and have watched the evolution of the FDL from its earliest days to now. Tim’s latest book about FDL is an amazing resource for teachers. It has all the materials you need to conduct a FULL YEAR’S worth of Fluency Development Lessons. The only cost beyond buying the book is printing the support materials, which include word ladders from Tim and poems and passages by the very talented David Harrison. I think you will agree with me that Julie provided participants with some worthwhile activities. Julie found she could use these materials with her 4th and 5th-grade kiddos, with some amazing results. Here is a LINK to her blog post about that. It includes information about the data she gathered on the impact on her kids. Julie is not alone in finding the significant impact Tim’s work on repeated reading has had. You’ll find a large body of research on his website at LINK. The biggest takeaway of the evening is this: teaching fluency using Tim’s methods has produced effect sizes larger than those achieved with phonics instruction alone. I want to make it clear that I see his work as an addition to, not a replacement for, phonics. I’m asking educators to imagine what their programs would be like if they adopted both.
Tim, Julie and I would like to give a special shout-out to Benchmark for sponsoring this evening’s event and for supporting the conference. Do have a look at the many materials they have for supporting best practices like Readers Theatre. Here is a link to a video about their Decodable Books LINK.
So, until next week, it’s Dr. Sam signing off.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the center taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2026 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s views and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization. Benchmark copyrights materials from Benchmark used in this entry. Benchmark retains all rights to those materials. Tim, Julie, and I want to acknowledge the generous support Benchmark has provided by sponsoring this event and providing the take-home materials to the participants.
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