Contex matters www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5T5...

Don't let Lexia or Louisa Moats trick you into thinking that there's research to support LETRS professional development. There is none. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM6Q...

So instead of fighting for smaller classes and more time to plan and collaborate with actual humans, districts will jump on this as the bold, innovative solution to teacher workload, and then gradually use the "efficiencies" to ... increase teacher workload. Why are we so gullible and short-sighted

Your toddler wants nothing more than to be like you. To walk like you. To talk like you. To emulate your every move. And sometimes they can get pretty creative about their approach. I just love this video shared to TT by h3yitskaylee. (Thread 🧵)

Give them the joy of reading, it's never too soon! 🎁 More here: www.childs-play.com 🎁 #Bookswithusallin #ReflectingRealities #SmashingStereotypes #KidLit #ReadingTogether #ReadingforPleasure #Bookgiftsarethebestgifts

'We need poetry … We deserve poetry / We owe it to ourselves to re-create ourselves / and find a different if not better way to live.' Nikki Giovanni – Acolytes, 2007

We Teach English in Times of Perpetual Crisis: Selling a Story of Reading (and Literacy) [Webinar Companion Post] radicalscholarship.com/2024/11/23/w...

“How was your day, Cora?!” This video is such a lovely illustration of toddler play that I couldn’t resist sharing. (Thread 🧵)

The science of reading for pleasure 'it’s worth considering what might happen to us as a species if skills like reading become less prioritised. Our capacity to interpret the world around us and understand the minds of others would surely diminish' theconversation.com/people-who-a...

Why hasn't this report had more publicity and more discussion? Or have I just missed it? The compulsory phonics screening test is taking up huge amounts of classroom time & yet seems to have no beneficial impact on either reading or writing. epi.org.uk/publications...

Where does the idea come from that inquiry-based learning is the driving philosophy & principal practice of American public schools? It's a criticism I see frequently to justify a "shift" toward teacher-driven instruction when, from what I can tell, we never left in the first place. 🤷🏼‍♂️

A unique opprtunity for Early Childhood Educators! Please share widely!! literacyconference.org/sessions/prek/

I wrote a whole paper in graduate school criticizing the Units of Study, so I’m not a fan by any means. Still, this is insane and sets a horrific precedent. It’s the type of zealotry that can only be found in the newly converted & under informed. www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Wait, people are suing over curriculum??? Look, I’m a *huge* fan of public scholarship. It’s how I position most of my work & is sorely needed right now—but the fact a journalist podcaster with zero research background has set the literacy legislative agenda for half the country is wildly unhinged.

A unique opprtunity for Early Childhood Educators! Please share widely!! literacyconference.org/sessions/prek/

This absolutely thrills me. We protested so hard for so long against Act 10

Fun fact about teaching at my Danish school: when we are sick, we’re not required to write sub plans because we’re sick. The subs are paid well to come up with their own activities with the students. We also have the same staff of subs all year, so the students know them fairly well.

US teachers, can you even imagine this happening?? Because, and I’m not exaggerating, it would be life changing 😭

A Christmas #maths mystery is unraveling...

The Joint Primary Group of the ATM and MA are pleased to launch ‘KS1 Assessment Tasks – Tasks not Tests’. a collaboration between mathematics educators and are freely available by all to access. @Mathematical_A atm.org.uk/News/ks1-tas...

If you haven’t taken a look at these yet … please do 👇🏼 #TasksNotTests at KS1

Thinking inside the box. 📦 Yesterday I shared some holiday gift giving advice, one piece of which resonated with many of you. It was a note that your toddler may be just as interested in the box a toy comes in as the toy itself. (Thread 🧵)

Fostering literacy through play💕Canadian study describing how play can be intentionally used with powerful & long lasting results! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Another must read out of the UK- synthetic phonics & phonics screening that many are advocating for do not appear to be having the desired effect. Thanks @alwriting.bsky.social for sharing theconversation.com/phonics-scre...

My friend @terieh.bsky.social has joined and I added her to the Lifting Literacy starter pack. go.bsky.app/CJ8yy9B

My son’s district switched to Fundations (a science of reading based curriculum) this year. I was asking him how class was going and he said: I hate it. We used to read books and novels and now all we do is talk about what sounds letters make. I just want to have fun reading. #EduSky

Thanks @helenjwc.bsky.social for encouraging me to put pen to paper - it set off so many fertile avenues of thought and investigation!

Sometimes, when I slow down, I get to see children’s impulse to revisit ideas for what it is: a natural engine room for learning. It’s a thing of beauty that’s frequently waving back at me from their drawings.

Nursery child describing her creative process: “This is mummy. I wanted to paint her with rainbow hair, but her hair is browny black and yellow, so instead I painted her ‘Rainbow Shaped’ hair so people could see!” Picasso: ‘it takes a long time to become young’

I’m struck by the capacity of young minds, whose age is measured in months, to learn at a speed much greater than mine, measured in years. Can I match the speed of learning they’ve achieved in their 36 months since birth? No. Working with brilliant minds is a serious business!

A nursery child joyfully holds a single Montessori ‘Golden Bead’ in one hand and a 1,000 Golden Beads, in the form of a cube, in the other. He’s enthralled by the difference in magnitude, number & weight. He holds 10 & 100, feeling their relationship. It got me drawing…

Nursery child draws his dad surfing, with Pen & Paint. In a few strokes he captures: the puffiness of clouds; rhythm & motion of waves; shape & movement of a surfboard; the balancing position of dad’s arms. Lucky us: we glimpse just how much a child of 38 months can see. Joy!

“Why did the Hungry Caterpillar make a cocoon?” #EYFS child: “So no one bothers him.” “Sorry?” I ask. EYFS child: “He needs time to THINK himself INTO a butterfly.” “Wow!” I respond. EYFS child: “Well, he didn’t do it by magic.”

Nursery child sets up the fruit & milk bar ready for the morning: “10 cups & 10 plates!” He looks up, spare plate in hand: “Is 11 the biggest number in the world?” he asks. “Are you wondering there might be bigger numbers somewhere?” I respond “..39?…78?…but I don’t know how big they are.”

The science of reading debate is so hot in education spaces right now and this is an important point #EduSky

Deaf readers are the ultimate plot twist for the Science of Reading. SoR insists sound-based approaches (oral language, phonics, phonological awareness) are required. Yet here we are, a whole community of deaf folks reading without hearing or speaking a word. What does that tell you?

I host a meetup for teachers interested in pedagogical documentation each month. It's one of my favorite gatherings, including practitioners of all experience levels and from different walks. We are hopping on Zoom at 7pm EST. If you'd like to join, lemme know. We'd love your company.

Thank you for sharing this list. #KidLit

As a HS English teacher, I’ll also add that NONE of this helps them become better writers. None of it. They become better writers by reading more and writing more. Teaching grammar in context of that is so much more beneficial.

Thank you to the book booths for giving away so many picture books. I’ll be reading these and then giving them to classrooms. @kristimontague.bsky.social #KidLit #ReadAloud #NCTE2024

My one constructive criticism on BlueSky, as a community: we need to “like” less and “retweet” more. In the absence of an algorithm, that’s the way we find each other and reward good content.

“Clay's literacy processing theory is complex & multifaceted, & she cautioned that "if literacy teaching only brings a simple theory to a set of complex activities, then the learner has to bridge the gaps created by the simplification" (2015, p. 105)...https://tinyurl.com/shene89r

If you were blessed enough to visit with Chanea she is looking for you haha

You guys there is so much hope and joy at #ncte24 it’s not that things aren’t hard, it is that I am not alone. I can be an advocate for Ss and Ts knowing you are with me. #EduSky

Love this blog post from @teresacremin.bsky.social about the power of sharing narrative poetry with children. I’m wondering about my North American friends… how are you using narrative poetry in your classroom? Any favourites? Particularly interested in titles for K-2 children… tinyurl.com/4kz3rxvf

“…context for this study: U.K. primary schools have a heavy emphasis on phonics, so students referred to Reading Recovery had already had systematic phonics instruction in K & yet were not decoding well. It appears that RR…found a way to crack the phonics code for most students.”

‘Think and Do’ my driving instructor advised. ‘Think and do, think and do.’ And when I finally passed my driving test he said: ‘It takes a lot of thinking and doing before you can do without thinking.’ Genius. It inspired a drawing…