This week Jen Rugani and I have been presenting our first iteration of a new workshop, Foundational Literacy. Why a Foundational Literacy workshop? There’s been a massive and important migration towards structured literacy programs with systematic and synthetic phonics in the primary grades. That’s a good thing. (Heavy debt of gratitude here to Emily…

  Our weekly team meeting gives us the chance to do what we love most: study great teaching. This week, we had the privilege to study Dayla Bedford of Emma Donnan Elementary School in Indianapolis, IN. Dayla joyfully and skillfully executing a phonics lesson with her first-graders. [We’ll share a longer video of Dayla’s impressive phonics…

  I watched a fascinating moment in a reading classroom last week. The class (third grade) was reading Charlotte’s Web when they came across this scene: “But Charlotte,” said Wilbur, “I’m not terrific.” “That doesn’t make a particle of difference,” replied Charlotte. “Not a particle. People believe almost anything they see in print. Does anybody know…