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…
TLAC team members Teneicesia White and Sadie McCleary recently returned from leading a workshop in Raleigh, NC, where the focus was on Checking for Understanding. While there they gathered some fantastic examples of Lesson Preparation from teachers who joined them! Sadie was so inspired she shared this analysis: This example of Lesson Preparation from Paige, a…
The newest clip in the TLAC library is one that’s really worth watching. It’s of Rebecca Sloots’ grade 4 class at Fernbrooke State School in Redbank Plains, Queensland, Australia. That makes it some of our very first classroom video from Australia. But more importantly it’s an outstanding example of how to build a high ratio…