Taking an extra week off (sort of). Actually just did a last-minute set of presentations for Teacher’s College. Soooo… I will resume the blog again next week and tell you all about what I learned from Eric Litwin at the Young Years Conference. Till then
Happy Reading and Writing. Dr. Sam
Dr. Sam is on SPRING BREAK this week. Returning from the Young Years conference at Tan Tar Ra Conference center at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. I had a chance to meet and talk with Eric Litwin. I also give 400 plus teachers ideas about how to best teach our youngest readers. Will be blogging about that and more next week. In the meantime:
Happy Reading and Writing!
An interview with Jan Richardson about her book The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading- Jan tells the whole story about Guided Reading. An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito
I had the privilege of having dinner with Jan Richardson while at LitCon a couple of weeks ago. Several literacy leaders were there, and we had an amazing discussion about the current state of affairs in teaching reading (and writing). One thing we discussed was the current criticisms of Guided Reading and other balanced literacy practices being made by some on social media. The social media versions of those practices are often in strawman form and bear little or no resemblance to the current models of guided reading. Phonics is an important part of guided reading, as is writing and comprehension development. Nowhere will you find a better explanation of what Guided Reading is or a better blueprint of how Guided Reading should be implemented than you will find in Jan’s book. Let’s learn a little about Jan’s background and then dive into what Jan said during the interview.
These are highlights from the interview. In case you want to jump to a particular topic, the highlights are time-stamped.
HERE IS A LINK TO THE YOUTUBE VIDEO:
Here is a link to Jan’s Website- This site has many wonderful resources and information! LINK
Her newest Lit Tip on this website really is special. It is a well-documented paper on guided reading and science. Be sure to download and read it. It tells the whole story about Science and Guided Reading. LINK
Jan also has a link to a white paper entitled Better Reading Instruction. It includes even more well-researched ideas that tell the whole story. LINK.
Jan provided us with a link to research about her use of guided reading LINK.
Here is a link to the PVB Office Hours Webinar Series: Teaching Phonics Explicitly and Systematically during Guided Reading (Pioneer Valley). Jan talks about how phonics is taught in guided reading LINK.
Dr. Sam’s reflections & his schedule in the next few weeks: I’m presenting at the Young Years Conference held at Tan-Tar-A. I will discuss the tremendous advantages of using play as a teaching tool for our younger children. I’ll be doing a presentation to teachers in Maryland after that. I’ll also be doing some professional development for beginning teachers in the St. Louis region. Busy times! Until next week-
Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2023 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.
P.S. If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following it to ensure you won’t miss it. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
Here is a complete list of the speakers at the conference:
Keynotes: Josh Varner, Ron Shuali, Dr. Adolph Brown, Eric Litwin and Jim Gill.
Featured: Jill Molli, Sharron Krull, Dr. Sam Bommarito, Vladimir Sainte and Ernesto Rodriguez.
An interview with Jan Richardson about her book The Next Step Forward in Guided
An interview with Jordan Page- An early childhood instructor advises us about play & best practices in early childhood classrooms. Interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito
As I was preparing for the Young Years Conference in Missouri (that’s two weeks away!) I talked to many of my friends and colleagues about best practices in early childhood settings and the role using play as a teaching tool should have in those settings. One of the folks I talked to was Jordan Page. She is an adjunct instructor at the University of South Carolina and a supervisor to pre-service elementary teachers. Because she had so much great information to share, I wanted to interview her, and she agreed. In this interview, Jordan uses her extensive knowledge of early literacy to help her students understand the research and put that research into practice. She has a knack for giving lots of practical tips in the process. Here is a little more information about Jordan.
These are highlights from the interview. In case you want to jump to a particular topic, the highlights are time-stamped.
HERE IS A LINK TO THE VIDEO:
Here are the books Jordan recommends for early childhood teachers.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Kids 1st from Day 1: A Teacher’s Guide to Today’s Classroom
Dr. Sam’s reflections & his schedule in the next few weeks:
I’ll present at the Write to Learn Conference in Jefferson City, Mo, next week. The week after, I’m presenting at the Young Years Conference held at Tan-Tar-A. I’m encouraging folks I’m presenting to at that conference to look at this interview in advance- lots of valuable information and teaching tips. I’d also recommend my readers of the blog consider all that Jordan has said. If we are to follow the research- that means making sure the instruction for our youngest children fits their age and stage. Specifically, that means that the move by some to exclude play as a major teaching tool for our youngest children does not consider all the research. Next week I will interview Jan Richardson about her book The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading. That’s one you won’t want to miss. Until then-
Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2023 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this 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 it to ensure you won’t miss it. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
Here is a complete list of the speakers at the conference:
Keynotes: Josh Varner, Ron Shuali, Dr. Adolph Brown, Eric Litwin and Jim Gill.
Featured: Jill Molli, Sharron Krull, Dr. Sam Bommarito, Vladimir Sainte and Ernesto Rodriguez.
An interview with Eric Litwin about his upcoming keynote at the Young Years Conference. He’ll be talking about Early Literacy Optimization. Interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito
I interviewed Eric Litwin about his upcoming appearance at the Conference on the Young Years (CYY), held on March 9 – 11, 2023, at the Tan-Tar-A Conference Center in Osage Beach, Missouri. This year the conference is celebrating its 50th year! Osage beach Missouri is centrally located and easy to get to. Eric is scheduled to be the Keynote Speaker on March 10th.
This interview was an amazing experience for me. That is because I first met Eric at an all-day workshop he did at the Tan-Tar-A Conference Center several years back. So, meeting him again at Tan-Tar-A brings things to a full circle. In the years since we first met, we have become good friends. It is amazing to share ideas about literacy, especially early literacy, with a world-renowned figure like Eric. His songs have brought joy to tens of thousands of children, and his materials have been a source of good teaching for many teachers- myself included. In this interview, Eric talked about what he will say during his keynote. It is all about optimizing early literacy instruction. His work to do that centers around the acronym HELPFUL. Here is a chart from his conference handout that helps to explain that acronym:
Eric believes literacy instruction can be optimized by immersing children in all the elements of HELPFUL. This is done throughout the entire school day. During the interview, he gives many examples of what that looks like in practice. He even shows how a couple of his most popular songs can be used to optimize instruction. Besides children’s books, Eric has also authored a professional development book. The book is entitled The Power of Joyful Reading. It is a book for both teachers and parents. In the book, he and his co-author, Dr. Gina Pepin, make a compelling, research-based case for parents and teachers to encourage students to want to read. He talks about how we can use immersion and play throughout the day to help children raise their test scores and become lifelong readers.
These are highlights from the interview. In case you want to jump to a particular topic, the highlights are time-stamped.
HERE IS A LINK TO THE VIDEO:
Here are links to some of Eric’s Books.
The Power of Joyful Reading: LINK
The Poop Song: LINK
You’ll also want to visit Eric’s website. There are free downloads, links to videos of him singing some of his favorite songs, or links to buy one of his many books.
Link to the CYY conference. (Registration closes February 22nd, so don’t delay!)
Here is a complete list of the speakers at the conference:
Keynotes: Josh Varner, Ron Shuali, Dr. Adolph Brown, Eric Litwin and Jim Gill.
Featured: Jill Molli, Sharron Krull, Dr. Sam Bommarito, Vladimir Sainte and Ernesto Rodriguez.
NEXT WEEK:
I’ll be talking to Jordan Page, founder of Page-by-Page Literacy. Jordan has extensive teaching experience and is currently an adjunct at the University of South Carolina. She supervises early childhood teachers as they take their practicum. In the interview, she gives a lot of nuts-and-bolts advice on how to include play in your teaching routines while providing direct instruction to early childhood students. Jordan makes a compelling case for play. She gives advice on how to sell the idea of play to administrators and supervisors. She also makes a couple of recommendations about good professional development books for preservice teachers. All in all, her interview provides the perfect segway into topics covered at the Young Years conference. As I mentioned last week, Eric Litwin will be the keynote for that conference. I’ll be presenting two sessions there as well. Registration is closed for this year’s conference, but be sure to put it on your radar for future years.
Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2023 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.
Several upcoming events in Missouri feature literacy leaders like Nic Stone, Julius Anthony and Eric Litwin. Please have a look! By Dr. Sam Bommarito
As a lifetime resident of the state of Missouri and a member of that state’s local and national ILA groups, I am proud to announce some great events are coming up in Missouri. Let me tell you about some of them.
First, there is a FREE event featuring Nic Stone. It will be in person and held in St. Louis, Missouri. But you can also access a live broadcast of this event via the internet. Booksource is providing that live broadcast. The event will be held 6-7 pm CST on February 16th. The speakers will talk about the transformational power of diverse and inclusive classroom literature. Here is the in-person registration LINK. If you cannot attend the face-to-face event, here is a link to register for the live broadcast LINK. Further information is below.
Second, our state’s ILA organization is co-sponsoring a face-to-face conference in Columbia, Mo. The name of that conference is Write to Learn. For the first time in its history, that conference is “sold out.” Guess we’ll have to move to a larger venue next year. What a great problem to have!!!
I still want you to know about it. I will be presenting a session at that conference about finding common ground. I will also be honored to introduce David Harrison as he receives the 2023 Celebrate Literacy Award from MLA (Missouri Literacy Association). Julius Anthony will also be receiving that same award, accepting it on behalf of the St. Louis Black Authors. By the way, Julius will become the president of the Missouri Literacy Association next year. He just opened the 10th site for his groundbreaking Believe project at the Woodland School in Jennings, Missouri. In the small world department, Woodland is the school where I spent 18 years as a Title 1 teacher and staff developer in its award-winning Title 1 program. Please read all about the wonderful work the Believe project is doing at Woodland and its other nine sites in the St. Louis region: website LINK, and Facebook LINK. The Believe project is reshaping the literacy world in the St. Louis region. I hope that it will eventually become a model for nationwide literacy programs. Here is more information about the award presentations at Write to Learn.
Another event in Missouri is the CYY’s 50th Anniversary Celebration: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Embracing the Future. The Young Year’s conference will be held March 9 –11, 2023, at the Tan-Tar-A Conference Center in Osage Beach, Missouri. The Young Year’s conference is pulling out all the stops to make the 50th-anniversary event something extra special. Eric Litwin will be keynoting the conference. I will be presenting on the topic of Singing Our Way into Fluency. Both those things will happen on Friday, March 10th. As I mentioned previously, I will be interviewing Eric next week about his keynote address and other literacy activities. That interview will be posted a week from today. Here is a link to the CYY website LINK. Registration will close soon, so please don’t wait! This face-to-face event will be held at the centrally located Tan Tara Convention Center in Missouri. We get participants from all around the country at this event. Here is a link to Eric’s website where you can find out about his many books and resources) LINK.
Hope to see you all at the CYY 50th anniversary event !!!
So, there is a lot going on in Missouri. I hope you can come to one or more of these literacy events. I will “see” you next week when I interview Eric. I am also doing follow-up blogs about my presentation at the Pioneer Valley Books webinar sometime soon. In the meantime:
HAPPY READING AND WRITING!
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who, uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching.
Copyright 2023 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 it to ensure you won’t miss future posts. Please use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
Andrew Davis, anthology Editor of the book Dyslexia: Developing the Debate, talks about the debate over the term Dyslexia: An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito
In this interview Andrew Davis, the Anthology Editor of the book Dyslexia: Developing the Debate talks about this book and the lively debate between authors Julian Elliott and Rod Nicolson concerning the nature of Dyslexia. These excerpts from the book will give my readers some idea of the exchange between the two authors and what they will find in the book.
First this from page one, written by Andrew Davis whose role was to referee the lively exchanges in this book.
Now this from Nicholson on page 113:
Nicholson goes on to summarize what he says are the areas of agreement and disagreement between himself and Elliot in this chart page 120 of the book.
In addition to talking about this book, Andrew also talks about a variety of things, including his recently published Young Adult Science Fiction book Neuralnet’s Children.
Here is Andrew’s Biography:
Dr. Andrew Davis is a former primary teacher who lectured in philosophy of education and mathematics education in both Cambridge and Durham Universities. At Durham University, he directed the PGCE Primary course and the primary mathematics provision. He has taught students of all ages from 3 to 93. Among other things, he has published academic books and articles, textbooks, newspaper articles, magazine series, short stories for children and computer software. His research interests include educational assessment and the teaching of reading. A few years ago, there was widespread media coverage of his short book To Read or not to Read: Decoding Synthetic Phonics. Neuralnet’s Children is his first novel.
Here are the talking points covered in Andrew’s YouTube interview. They are time-stamped to help you locate the topics of most interest.
Andrew’s Books
“Dyslexia: Developing the Debate’ – Elliott, Nicolson and Davis
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/search/?q=Dyslexia%3A%20Developing%20the%20Debate
“To read or not to read: decoding synthetic phonics”. Free download from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2048-416X.2013.12000.x
“A Critique of Pure Teaching Methods and the Case of Synthetic Phonics”
And my Young Adult Science Fiction “Neuralnet’s Children” published June 2022
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/neuralnets-children-andrew-davis/1141336258
Reflections about Andrew’s book. As indicated in the biography, Andrew’s book caused quite a stir when it was published in 2016. It provides an in-depth look at the issues surrounding the use of the term Dyslexia as a diagnosis. It takes care to look at all sides of this issue. My take is as follows: on the one hand, there is no question that Dyslexia is real; it exists. On the other hand, there are children with reading difficulties who are not Dyslexic. Those children will not necessarily benefit from the kind of instruction that benefits those with Dyslexia. There is a real need for careful study of who those children are and for more reliable screening instruments for Dyslexia that differentiate in a way that allows us to identify those children. Otherwise, we run the risk of wasting a large number of resources by giving some children instruction that doesn’t really fit their needs. My mantra remains to use ALL the research and help ALL the children as we move forward with improving our literacy instruction.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES FOR DR. SAM
I will have a busy time in the next month or so. I’ll be interviewing Jordan G. Page, Elementary Literacy Consultant and founder of Page-by-Page Literacy LLC. She will be talking about her work with younger readers. I will also be interviewing Eric Litwin, a well-known children’s author and co-author of the book The Power of Joyful Reading LINK. In addition, I also have upcoming presentations at Write to Learn LINK, Missouri Early Childhood Conference LINK, and I’ll be doing a webinar for Pioneer Books LINK. Busy times!
Copyright 2023 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.
PS If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following it to ensure you won’t miss future posts. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
PPS Interested in presentations, webinars, or class visits, please e-mail me at bommaritosam@yahoo.com
Lessons from LitCon and A Call to Action: It’s time for teachers’ voices to be heard. By Dr. Sam Bommarito
I’ve returned early from the LitCon conference. I came to the conference with my daughter & her family and my wife. While I did my presentation, they visited some of the sights of Columbus. This included the Lego Discovery, and the grandkids got makeovers for their American Dolls. We left town early to get the grandkids back to school today. I want to give a HUGE shoutout to the City of Columbus. The folks were friendly and helpful; the transit folks helped a ton in getting us to and from our hotel (many an adventure about that). I was impressed with the propane-powered busses and the bikes available to ride in and around the convention area. Columbus, my whole fam loved you!!!!
Before talking about my presentation and the key messages that I want to deliver, let me give another shout-out. This one is for some of my Twitter friends. This includes one that came from New Zealand to be at our conference. Here is a Twitter post about that from my longtime friend Susan Vincent.
It was amazing to see these folks in person, get to know them as people, and talk to them about the important literacy issues we currently face. I want to report that MANY well-informed teachers carry out many well-thought-out reading practices and that a couple of thousand of them came to Columbus this weekend to share camaraderie and sharpen their skills as practicing teachers. The helpless, hopeless picture of teachers that some social media pundits paint when talking about teachers today most certainly doesn’t fit the teachers I interacted with at LitCon.
Here are some key messages I would like to deliver based on my recent experiences at LitCon:
Message one– What works with one child doesn’t always work with another. We need teachers who can follow the child and adjust their instruction to fit each child. Are you looking for teachers like that? Just come to Columbus for the next LitCon- you’ll find a ton of them!
Message two– The story social media pundits tell is replete with inaccuracies and misdirections. In part, that is because they oversimplify things. They don’t #usealltheresearch. Instead, they weaponize the research, selecting only research that supports their narrow and limited view of the reading process. It’s time to push back hard on the media version of SOR and put ALL the science back into the science of reading.
Message three– No one has all the answers. But, collectively, we do have enough answers to help the kids, which means all the kids. That means talking to each other. We must not let radical bullies prevail in social media conversations. This also means we must follow the research wherever it leads. Sometimes, that will mean dropping cherished practices. It will always mean teaching students to be problem solvers in decoding and comprehension. By the way, if problem solvers are guessers, then all scientists are guessers. If problem solvers aren’t guessers, then we most certainly are not teaching kids to guess when we teach them to problem-solve their words. Either way, the social media pundits claim we teach kids to guess is bogus.
Message four– It is time to create a grassroots teacher-based movement to improve literacy instruction, with our rallying cry being #useallthereasearch. I hope to have deep discussions on that point during my upcoming Pioneer Books Webinar LINK. I’m trying to get some support material ready for that event. Included are both relevant research and getting clear on the kind of information we need to get into the hands of legislators and administrators.
Its’ time to start the Reading Evolution LINK. I hope to see many of you at my upcoming presentations and webinars.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES FOR DR. SAM
I will have a busy time in the next month or so. I’ll be interviewing Dr. David Andrews from the School of Education, Durham University and Eric Litwin, well-known children’s author and co-author of the book The Power of Joyful Reading LINK. In addition, I also have upcoming presentations at Write to Learn LINK, Missouri Early Childhood Conference LINK, and I’ll be doing a webinar for Pioneer Books LINK. Busy times!
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.
PS If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following it to ensure you won’t miss future posts. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.
PPS Interested in presentations, webinars, or class visits, please e-mail me at bommaritosam@yahoo.com
Dr. Sam is presenting at LitCon: The blog will resume next week.
There’s More to Teaching Comprehension Than Building Background Knowledge- Excerpt from my Upcoming LitCon Presentation by Dr. Sam Bommarito
Next weekend I’ll be at LitCon talking about various literacy issues. One of them will be about TEACHING comprehension strategies (as opposed to naming them or describing them). Here’s a little of what I’ll be saying. For starters, I will be pushing back on those who champion the notion that providing background knowledge is more important than providing instruction in reading strategies.
In the presentation, I point out that Shanahan found Willingham’s claims that strategy instruction should be of “extremely limited duration” and that “students learn everything they need after two weeks of strategy instruction” to be on “extremely thin ice.” Link to Shanahan’s blog LINK, Link to my blog talking about Shanahan’s blog LINK.
I then talk about Duke’s idea that reading is much more than decoding words LINK. I also talk about her idea that it is clear that “if we explicitly teach and then give students lots of opportunity to practice specific comprehension strategies, their reading comprehension will improve….” This even includes students in the very early years of schooling LINK. I also talk about what Duke had to say at the What Research says about Reading Instruction session at the 2019 ILA convention. She said “It’s as though because we think content knowledge building is so important, we’re just going to ignore three decades of research on comprehensive strategy instruction,” said Duke. “This isn’t a zero-sum game saying, ‘if you can’t attend to content, then you can’t teach comprehension strategies’ or ‘if you teach comprehension strategies, you must not be paying enough attention to vocabulary or morphology.’” LINK
I also talk about the importance of the Science of Reading Model that Duke helped to create LINK.
I then discuss a few highlights about what P.D. Pearson has to say about the Science of Reading comprehension. When talking to SOR advocates on Twitter, I found many of them liked the Layered Model of Effective Comprehension Instruction that Pearson includes in his YouTube presentation LINK. Perhaps that chart could become an area of common ground.
Pearson also points to studies that demonstrate that reading comprehension is not automatic, even when fluency is strong. I want to point out that Koon, Foorman & Galloway’s 2020 study found that about 1/3 of the students who did not pass the third-grade test were fluent. This indicates that factors other than fluency play a role in students’ comprehension difficulties and that it takes more than just decoding instruction in order to help those students in reading. LINK
Here is a slide about my advice for teaching comprehension strategies.
The bottom line is that just teaching students to name or describe reading strategies is not enough. It is critical that they also learn to internalize and apply comprehension strategies. Effective comprehension strategy instruction must include the use of a gradual release model. That model must be carried out in a way that results in students internalizing and using the strategies. It is important to check that studies that claim to measure the effect of the teaching of comprehension strategies are transparent about whether the strategies were taught using gradual release. It is also important that the student use of the strategy is authentic. Once they know how to use it, it is far more effective to let them decide when to use it, and to reinforce its use by having students discuss how and when they used the strategy. As critics have pointed out, asking students to use strategies at times when they really don’t need them is a waste of instructional time.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES FOR DR. SAM
I will have a busy time in the next month or so. I’ll be interviewing Dr. David Andrews from the School of Education, Durham University and Eric Litwin, well-known children’s author and co-author of the book The Power of Joyful Reading LINK. I also have next week’s presentation at LitCon LINK. In addition, I also have upcoming presentations at Write to Learn LINK, Missouri Early Childhood Conference LINK, and I’ll be doing a webinar for Pioneer Books LINK. Busy times!
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 it to ensure you won’t miss future posts. Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.