Doug Lemov's field notes

by Erica Woolway

At a workshop in Fayette County, GA today, I had the pleasure of showing several rockstar teachers (BreOnna Tindall in Denver, Jaime Johnson in Gwinett, Christine Torres in Massachusetts) work their magic with our Reading Reconsidered Curriculum and I was reminded once again by what a gift it is for teachers and students alike. As a book-based, knowledge-driven vocabulary and writing intensive curriculum, it’s a perfect resource for teachers to use for summer school in grades 4-10, as well as an excellent resource for homeschooling parents to use over the summer (or anytime!).

What better way to spend a summer learning with your students than to dig into a great book? Each of our units is designed around a book and can be completed in 4-6 weeks or less (perfect length for summer school). Check out our list of titles here – the best part about how our curriculum supports summer school is that you can order by individual unit – no need wait for a statewide adoption – you can have robust curricular materials in your hands to use this summer!

We are lucky to have gotten to learn from an amazing teacher in Amarillo, Melanie McNutt, who participated in a video learning collaborative a few years ago. After her experience working with our team, she reached out to see if she could try a Reading Reconsidered unit in her 4^th grade summer school class. 

Of her experience with the curriculum, she wrote:

“TLAC has completely changed the way I teach. I use it when setting my yearly goals.  When creating questions to go with our state program, I think of encoding and how to phrase a question or connect it to previous learning. The other teachers that attended the training are veteran teachers and saw real world classroom ideas. I cannot say enough “glows” for TLAC. Thank you for this opportunity. This program has given my learners endurance I had not noticed in years previous. This last week we took our mid-year exam to prepare for our state standardized test. Scholars did not run out of stamina as they had in years prior. I know it was due to the rigor of the lessons and intentional teaching of sustained focus that ensured the success of my students.”

In an amazing virtuous cycle of learning for our team, Melanie then shared back videos of her Number the Stars instruction in action, and we are so grateful to get to learn back from her implementation.

So, if you’ve always wanted to try to teach one of your favorite novels with a science of reading based approach, please reach out and we’ll hook you up for summer school or homeschooling!