Episode 13: A Mixed Bag Episode Running Records, Long-Term Planning, and Getting Kids Writing A LOT
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and for today’s episode, I’m sharing a mixed bag of topics, stories, and examples you can use in teaching literacy.
Running Records
Running records are informative assessments that tell the teachers what the kids are doing so they can make informed decisions about what to teach their students. They provide teachers with what they need to know to make wise teaching decisions.
Here, the students read the text out loud, and the teacher marks what the student is doing as they’re reading. Do they need to work on their vocabulary? Their phonics? Are they struggling with comprehension?
These assessments usually last 5-10 minutes, but what would you do if they lasted 15-20 minutes instead? What if the student doesn’t say much or seems unwilling to participate? This is the exact situation I witnessed recently, and I share how the teacher handled it fantastically.
Long-Term Planning
I get it. Planning your lessons for a long period of time is a guarantee that things won’t go according to plan.. Field trips happen. Students get sick. Classes get canceled. So long-term planning can seem futile. But long-term planning helps you create lessons that are related to each other and actually helps your students develop the literacy skills they need.
Rather than thinking of your lessons and activities in isolation, you can design them to progress and build on one another. And when the time comes that things aren’t going according to plan, it will be easier for you to adjust because you have a long-term goal to guide you.
Writing Activities
I also share several writing activities such as writing centers, and opinion writing, that you can use and apply in your classroom to increase engagement. These ideas are fun for the kids, but challenging enough that it would keep their attention, and they’ll still learn the skills they need.
I hope you find this episode useful, and that you’ll find more than a few things you can apply in your own classroom.
Episode 12: More Tips for Parents: Working with Kids at Home!
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and for today’s episode, I’m sharing with you more tips to help your child practice literacy at home—those that won’t take a lot of time!
When it comes to the actual activity of reading, especially for kids who are just starting to learn, a few strategies you can do are the tap-it-out strategy to look at the word, segment the word, or use a bookmark or finger under each word. The goal is to improve their focus while reading, and for them to learn to be comfortable with being frustrated if they encounter difficult words.
When it comes to activities you could do at home, here are a few I suggest:
Write letters to friends and families.
This would be cooler if you could have your friends and family write back to your kids.
Write journals.
Either their own or have a journal where you can write back and forth to each other. This will encourage them to express themselves more, write down their thoughts, and it would also improve communication between you and your child.
Roll storyboard.
This is a fun activity that would have kids come up with their own stories.
Choosing books with your kids.
Whether at a bookstore or the library, having your kids choose their own books would make the reading experience more fun, and they would be more invested in it.
Make it fun.
If your kids don’t enjoy sitting down with a book, find other activities they enjoy or ones you could do together, and find ways to incorporate reading into it.
You can go through each of these strategies, modify them and apply them in your own way. The key here is to find which strategy and activity works for your child.
Episode 11: Tips for Parents - Supporting Your Young Readers at Home
March is often the time for Parent-Teacher conferences, so now is a great time for parents to ask what can be done at home to help their young readers, and for teachers to give some guidance about how parents can do this.
As parents, you don’t need to spend a lot of time with your kids to help them read. You just have to be creative with what time you have. Here are some ways to support your young readers.
Utilize playtime.
Whether it’s playing with their stuffed toys, playing pretend, or making pizza together, you can use these activities to engage your kids, introduce more words to their vocabulary, work their imagination, and encourage them to think more.
Talk to your child while you’re reading together.
When reading with your child, interject some observations you make. It can be about the plot, characters, words, or anything else that piques interest. Ask them what they think about different points in the story. This activity extends the thinking about the book and extends the conversations you have with your child about the book.
Have your child read to you.
This is a great practice for your kids, and it helps them with speech and oral reading. If you need help finding books at the literacy level of your child, the parent-teacher conferences are a great opportunity to consult with your teachers and ask them for suggestions.
Family reading time
Block out a few minutes each day when you and your child are all reading together. This can be done when the kids need to unwind a little bit, whether it’s from being outside or after finishing a series of activities.
For more tips and practical examples, listen to the full episode and stay tuned for the next episode if you want to hear a part 2 on this topic.
Episode 10: More About Teaching Writing! Ideas to Get Students Writing & Assessing Writing
As the literacy graduate program coordinator at SUNY Old Westbury, one of my tasks every January is to run a literacy clinic for graduate students earning their literacy specialist certifications. For today’s episode, I’m sharing with you my observations from this clinic on what’s working for both teachers and students, giving strategies on how to encourage kids to write, and tips for assessing writing.
Kids really like to write.
One of the things I noticed is that kids really like to write. The catch is that they might not like the writing they’re doing in school. I’ve encountered students who have joined the clinic for years and claim that they don’t know how to write, they don’t really like to write, or aren’t any good at it, but under the right environment and with the right activities, their ability and skill at writing really comes through. The challenge for teachers and parents is to pay attention and find the activities that the student will enjoy, find engaging, and encourage them to write.
Activities to encourage writing.
At the literacy clinic, the focus is on the individual student and each of the graduate students design lessons that are catered specifically to the student that they are working with. This provides an environment where as teachers, they can learn more about the student, recognize what help they need, what they’re interested in, and figure out how to incorporate those to any type of writing work. Here are some of the activities I explain more on in this episode:
the blank page
the heart map
saw-heard-did chart
the roller story
how-to writing
interviewing a friend
Tips for assessing students’ writing.
Assessing writing can be challenging. To keep it more manageable and help the students receive feedback better, here are some tips:
Always start with positive feedback
Use a bright-colored pen (not red!)
Keep mechanical feedback to a minimum
Process feedback vs. product feedback
Give checklists before drafting
Give a rubric before the activity
Keep a portfolio for each student
When teaching kids to read and write, it really helps them to work on activities that keep them engaged, that involve topics they are already interested in, and to keep on encouraging them. I hope this episode helps you to achieve that.
Episode 9: Discussing Writing & Craft with Children's Author & Illustrator, Amy Young
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and for today’s episode, we’ll hear how we can encourage kids to write and draw more, both inside and outside the classroom. We’ll also learn that encouraging kids to have ideas isn’t that tricky, ideas for writing are all around us.
Our guest today is Amy Young. Amy has wanted to be an artist from as early as she can remember. She became a lawyer, but ended up missing art too much, so she left the practice to write and illustrate full-time. She’s the author of several children’s books such as Belinda the Ballerina and A Unicorn Named Sparkle and illustrated multiple other stories.
Amy shares the unlikely sources of her past stories. Like how Belinda the Ballerina came to her while she was having dinner with her husband one night, or how Sparkle the unicorn came about while she was walking her dog, remembered the ads for sea monkeys from when she was a kid, and asked herself, “What if it was a unicorn?”
The ideas from Amy’s stories come from everywhere. A conversation she heard, what she felt or did as a kid, some of the things her friends and family did, and even from watching animals. The trick lies in two things: writing the ideas down and recognizing when an idea is a good one.
“Once the ideas are flowing, they’re more likely to flow. So, I can tell I’m getting close to a story because things are just more fun. I have to find a place where it’s kind of fun, and the ideas are coming, and then I’ll get that Bang! out of the sky.” –Amy Young
But there are also times when she finds it really hard to come up with new ideas. Her advice? “If whatever you’re doing isn’t working, you try it for a while, and then you try something else.”
To encourage ideas for writing or drawing from kids, Amy shared multiple suggestions such as lists, prompts, journals, letters to future self, and writing from the point-of-view of someone or something else. The key is to make it fun and make it non-judgmental. That way, kids will not only be encouraged to let their ideas flow and be creative, but they will also have fun.
To hear more about Amy’s experiences and suggestions, listen to the full episode. And head on over to her website to see all the amazing books she has.
Episode 8: Talking About Writing!
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and for today’s episode, I’ll talk about writing and the purpose of writing. We’ll go deeper on this topic in the next few episodes as well.
The purpose of writing in the elementary grades
Kids love to share what they know and express themselves, and writing helps them do this. What they write varies depending on their age and grade level. Kindergarteners, for example, start with pictures of what’s important to them: their toys, their friends and family, and eventually they add print to the pictures, labeling each of them. For the higher grade levels, they learn the different forms and genres of writing which include narrative, persuasive, or even poetry.
Writing also impacts reading, as reading and writing are interconnected. When children can write and talk about what they read, they become even more motivated to read.
Setting up a workshop and time for kids to write
First, kids find it helpful to have a consistent structure. You can teach about writing processes and the craft of writing. Then give them time to write afterwards where they can apply these lessons. The setup of independent writing time would depend on your class and what your goal is.
At home, we can do small things to encourage kids to write more. If there is paper and writing utensils in each room the kids spend time in, it’s very easy for them to grab and write whenever they feel like it. Texting to friends and family members and being able to share their stories, allows kids to write in a way that they would eventually have to so they can communicate with others.
Useful tools to help kids when they’re writing
Paper and writing utensils are the most obvious, but we can utilize these tools to motivate kids to write even more. Kids love colors, so add more colors to their writing utensils. You can use crayons, colored pencils, and different markers. There is also different paper you can use now, and even different notebooks with lines, pictures, blank pages, and with fun covers.
Pay attention to the things they find interesting and use it to encourage them to write.
I hope this episode was helpful for you, and you’ll implement these in your own class or at home.
Episode 7: Talking Reading Strategies with Jennifer Serravallo
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis, and for today’s episode, I get to speak with Jennifer Serravallo. She is a literary classroom consultant, author, and former NYC public school teacher.
In this episode, we discuss Jennifer’s newly released book, The Reading Strategies Book 2.0. She shares the changes that she made in this new edition as well as how teachers can use the strategies to support the readers in their classrooms. She also shares advice for parents who may want to try out the strategies with their children at home.
Jennifer starts off by defining strategies, listing its importance, and differentiating it from skills. She also listed some of the differences with this 2.0. version of her book compared to the first one. Short answer: A lot. Enough to feel like this is a completely different book.
First off, in writing this, Jennifer worked with a research assistant who helped her go through peer-reviewed studies, citing over 700 studies, compiling them, and presenting them in a way that would be easily absorbed and implemented by teachers. In this version, out of the 302 strategies presented, over a hundred are brand new, and more than 150 have been revised so much that they are almost unrecognizable. And this book is now organized according to skill progressions, making it easier for teachers to follow.
The first version of Jennifer’s book is very well-loved and useful for teachers and parents alike. Several copies found permanent homes in classrooms. It was translated into Spanish, French, and Chinese. In fact, the market for this book in China is parents who are reading and teaching these strategies to their children who are learning English!
If you want to learn more about the strategies Jennifer so meticulously researched and shared with us, listen to this episode, and you’ll be better equipped to get back to your classroom this New Year.
Connect with Jennifer:
Website: https://www.jenniferserravallo.com/
Publications: https://www.jenniferserravallo.com/publications
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferserravallo/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.serravallo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JSerravallo
Episode 6: Gearing up for the New Year: Setting Goals with Students
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and for today’s episode, I spoke with a former student, Talisa Cantos, who is a Bilingual Literacy Specialist about setting reading and writing goals with students for the new year.
The new year is an amazing time to touch base with students and children and set goals with them, even literacy goals. Students don’t start off knowing how to set goals, so we’ll need to help them do it, but they can set goals for themselves, and they know what it is they want to work towards.
Here are the points Talisa shared when setting goals with students:
Setting the goals
Start with a definition of good reader/writer with each student
Give your students agency and let them be a part of setting their goals
Constantly reflect on the goals
Meeting the goals
Work closely with their strengths and follow their interests
Constantly remind them of their goals and point out how their practices are helping them achieve their goals
Celebrate their victories
This episode expounds on these tips, as well as discusses practical practices to apply in the classroom. As you set your goal for the New Year, I hope this episode will be helpful for you, and remember to not be so hard on yourself and your students, and to have fun and enjoy this time.
Episode 5: The Importance of Instruction for Developing Decoding Skills: A Conversation with Julia Lindsey
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and for today’s episode, I have with me our guest Julia Lindsey. Julia B. Lindsey, Ph.D., is a foundational literacy expert, consultant, and proud former elementary school teacher. Her work aims to help educators implement research findings in reading instruction.
She is the author of the newly released book, Reading Above the Fray: Research-based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills. Julia is also the creator of a framework for research-tested, content-rich decodable texts used by districts, curriculum developers, and tens of thousands of teachers across the globe.
Her book comes with the label “The Science of Reading in Practice” which she defined as “all of the science, scientific knowledge and research from many disciplines that explain the phenomenon of reading.” This includes common knowledge and practices, disproven theories, and new, emerging studies. Another definition could be a “movement which is about improving the teaching of reading to match research.” In this episode, we discuss the science of reading, the research around it, and practical information on how to apply these scientific concepts in the classroom and at home.
Julia defined decoding as “using the knowledge of sound-spelling relationships in order to read a word.” When talking about decoding, she shares that we can start having kids practice decoding as early as 8-10 alphabet letters, and that when learning the alphabet, it is better to have student learn around 3 letters a week, learning the whole alphabet before the winter break. This gives students the foundational knowledge they need to learn to start reading, and this way, they get to apply what they know much sooner, have more time to practice decoding, and review the letters in cycles.
We also discussed shared reading, an effective practice for teaching reading. This is where the teacher reads a text with their students. Julia and I discuss several practices that would make shared reading more effective. The first is that the text should be around their reading level. With each session, focus on something to point out to the students, either specific letters, new words, frequently used words, capital letters, or whatever it is your class is learning at the time. More than anything, shared reading is effective because it is a shared experience with your students.
Listen to the full episode to hear more of the studies, practical suggestions, and practices Julia shared to help your student learn to read.
Connect with Julia:
Website: www.juliablindsey.com/
Website: www.beyonddecodables.com/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/juliablindsey
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/juliablindsey/
Episode 4: Getting Kids to Read During the Holiday Season
I’m your host, Elizabeth Morphis and today, in preparation for the Holidays, I have for you 3 tips to get kids reading both in the classroom and at home, and I’ll also share some bonus suggestions along the way. In today’s digital age where children can get so easily distracted, it’s even more important to be able to instill in them the habit and discipline of reading.
Reading in the Classroom
My first suggestion for teachers is to make kids aware of books and authors they may be interested in. Beyond letting them know that a particular book exists and why you think they would like it, read the first few chapters with them, and discuss it until they themselves grow interested in it.
The second thing you can do is share details about the author. This gives students additional excitement for the book, and as they read, they get to identify details in the book that the author might have taken from personal experience.
Last suggestion for the classroom is to give the students the opportunity to talk to each other about the book they love and why they do. And let’s be honest, students are sometimes more likely to take recommendations from their peers than from a teacher.
Reading at Home
This is something I’ve done with my daughters for each holiday, and it has built their excitement for reading and the holiday we’re celebrating. Find books that are specific to a holiday and bring them out before the holiday starts. Add a few different titles each year, then after the holiday put them away, not to be seen until next year. This builds excitement around the books since kids don’t see them all the time and adds a special element to each holiday.
Another thing you can do as parents is to cook with the kids. This could be helpful for kids who don’t like to read. Have them help you with cooking and have them read off the cookbook or recipe. If they enjoy helping you in the kitchen and reading is a part of that experience, it reinforces the idea that reading is fun and enjoyable.
Read a book series over an extended period of time. Book series allows kids to stay with characters longer over new plots and storylines and it builds their reading stamina. Having it as a series also creates excitement since they know that there’s more to the story.
I hope that you find these suggestions helpful and that you and your kids will have an amazing time reading this holiday season.
Episode 3: What is a Literacy Specialist?
I’m Elizabeth Morphis your host and today I’m addressing the difference between a literacy specialist and a reading specialist. I also want to provide context for how the job came to be in schools.
I’m also interviewing Kasey, a literacy specialist and one of my former students about her job and what it entails.
Two questions I get often are:
● What is the difference between a reading specialist and a literacy specialist?
● What does a literacy specialist do?
In theory there isn’t much difference between the two. The term has shifted from reading to literacy recently. Hear how specialists came about. They’ve been in schools since the 1930’s, and the role they play in schools has changed over time.
The shift from reading to literacy is because schools have recognized that reading is not the only area of focus. Literacy specialists address all areas of language arts. Specialists are working to support students with reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and even visual representation.
Different school districts may choose to use different terms, but it’s essentially the same role.
Kasey is a reading specialist working with K-2 kids who are ages 5-8. She explains that her job is to be the point person for anything reading based and to provide additional support for children struggling with reading skills.
You’ll find Kasey in the classroom pushing into the classroom and working with a teacher as well as outside the classroom working with small groups of children using her own lessons and planning instruction to support the needs of the students.
She explains the different programs that are used both in-and-outside the classroom to help students where they are. Assessments are done by Kasey every other week and school-wide three times a year.
Writing skills are also reinforced and vary depending on the program being taught.
Sometimes kids are writing the words they are learning in a sentence or may be applying the rule or concept that they have just learned.
Kasey also explains how she works with parents. She’s accessible and wants them to know how their child is progressing with reading and writing. Elizabeth and Kasey also discuss tutoring and support outside of school and what parents may want to do to help support their child’s progress.
Kasey has a passion for teaching, and she shares how nice it is to be able to work with children from kindergarten through 2nd grade. She’s helping a new generation of readers and writers master important skills and most importantly learn to love reading and writing!
I hope this has helped you better understand the role of a reading or literacy specialist, and answered a few of your questions about what type of support they provide and how they add to the school.
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Episode 2: Getting to Know Your Students and Host Elizabeth Morphis
As teachers, it is important to learn about the students in your classroom and for the students to learn a little about you. This helps build trusting relationships, which are essential for students to learn and for teachers to teach effectively. This episode does just that!
I introduce myself so that you learn about me, my current position as a professor, and my teaching experiences. In the Spotlight Segment, I share a few activities that I use to learn about my students and who they are as individuals.
Here’s what I recommend to develop trust, inclusion, and motivation:
1. Spend some time getting to know the students before and as part of the lessons.
2. Let the students get to know you as well. It’s hard for students to learn from teachers they don’t trust.
3. Help students make connections between the curriculum and the students’ interests.
I’ve always loved teaching and in today’s episode you’ll hear my first experiences in the classroom and how I developed my expertise around literacy. I have had some unique teaching opportunities as well. I spent a year on the National Broadway tour of Annie. It was my job to make sure the children in the cast kept up with their class work between performances.
Bringing the curriculum to life is important to me and I’m sharing some of the ways I tried to do that for y students.
While working with Sesame Workshop I created curriculum for students in Japan to learn English with the Sesame content. As part of the project, I went to Japan, and had the opportunity to work with teachers there and I realized how much I enjoyed working with other teachers.
Teaching new teachers at the college level is rewarding. It’s wonderful to work with others who have a passion for teaching.
In the Spotlight I’m sharing some of my favorite activities to do with students to get to know them better.
· Me bag exercise.
· My Map Book by Sarah Fanelli
· The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald
· Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers
These are great activities for parents, and I’ve enjoyed doing them with my girls who are enthusiastic readers.
If you’re a teacher or a parent looking to help children enjoy reading, any of these ideas are a good place to start. Learning to love reading can happen in a variety of ways and I’ll share more ideas on the next episode.
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Episode 1: Literacy — More than Reading and Writing
Welcome to the first episode of the Literacy Teacher's Life Podcast! Today's episode introduces the topic of literacy and expands on the common definition of literacy as simple "reading and writing."
Host Elizabeth Morphis Brings her experience as both a teacher and amo to two elementary school-age daughters.
Today's Topic on the Literacy List
What is Literacy and what does it mean? The most common answer most of us hear is "literacy is reading and writing," and that's correct. But it's not all. The definition also includes the meaning tht is made, the context, and the environment.
Elizabeth shares examples from her classroom to explain that often kids may read well but struggle to explain what they’ve read. Or they may understand but be unable to write about what they’ve read.
Literacy is a way of making meaning in a specific environment. What does that mean? That’s the focus of literacy education today. Skills vary depending on the specific work students engage in.
Absolutely, literacy refers to reading and writing. But it’s also the meaning that we take from a text or the meaning we make, and the environment.
For parents at home, if your child is frustrated when reading alone, try reading with them. You can slowly lead up to having them read independently.
Spotlight on Children's Books
* The Three Pigs by David Wiesner – this is one Elizabeth's favorites. The pigs leave their story and fly into other stories. The pigs are reading their world!
*Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora – This book is a great example of how a child relates to the content.
*The Idea Jar by Adam Lehrhaupt – This shows how ideas for writing can come from anywhere and it encourages possibilities.
*This is a good story by Adam Lehrhaupt – This book explains the elements of the story including what happens when mistakes happen.
* You are a Reader/You are a Writer by April Jones Prince – This book shows all the content we read like signs, cereal boxes and more. It’s a great reminder that we read and write in all kinds of ways in our everyday lives.
Today’s Positive Note
This week's episode shares two resources that can be used to encourage kids to talk about books they read. It also explains comprehension wands and cubes with prompts to help extend the reading into a conversation.
You can find more resources at https://www.theliteracyteacherslife.com/
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Welcome to The Literacy Teacher’s Life Podcast!
This podcast is for teachers and parents who are dedicated to helping young readers and writers thrive. Children are naturally curious and it’s our role as parents and teachers to provide them with support so they learn to love reading and writing. Host, teacher, and mom Elizabeth Morphis is here to help you support your kids at home or in the classroom.