"Your mission, READ 180 students, should you choose to accept it, is to work together as a class to read a million words by the winter break." This mission is one of the key ways we get students in our district to read often. We support our teachers to help them get their students to engage in the work. Once we have our first class hit the million-word mark, it motivates other classes, who then work on the goal with more effort. Soon, we have many classes that have hit the mark.  Reading a…

Do your students know how to compose and send an email? Do they know how to check for new messages and reply to them? Sure, they may be familiar with texting, Snap Chat, Instagram and snapping photos, but are they aware that email is an effective way to communicate with their teachers, parents, friends, and future "job" personnel? Hmm...Yes, the title of this blog says it all. At a team meeting a few weeks ago, a parent mentioned that their child didn't understand what an email was. Well, that…

Teaching READ 180 allows educators to be creative. The following lesson can be applied to Universal Stage C ReaL Book Workshop #2. This paired reading helps to answer the question "What Makes Us Who We Are?" To extend opportunities for the exploration and to go further into the text within the Workshop, I wanted to share the following successful activities that can be used with an excerpt from Untwine by Edwidge Danticat. On the first day, of the Workshop, play a few minutes of…

Independent Reading has been my nemesis since I began teaching READ 180 and System 44 three years ago. We have a wonderful weekly Enrichment program for our whole elementary school, but this means that my intervention time with students is scheduled four times a week for 45 minutes each. My dilemma? How could I fit independent reading time in and still give students enough time in small-group and on the software? I tried several things unsuccessfully:Independent reading every other…

Get Out! Twenty-five Years of Doing What I Love? This part of the Professional Learning Cycle is by far the most challenging. It requires each of us to get real and do this often, which let’s face it, is not something that is easy. You can ask my friend Patricia, last Friday was a challenging day, full moon, immersed in planning, and a cancelled flight. It took a conversation with her to spark my desire to flip into my reflective mode. What did she remind me? Her words were simple, "You matter…

Dyslexia, Hard Work, System 44: A Student’s MemoirDear Fellow Community Members,I didn't fully understand what dyslexia was or how to adequately address it, when I taught a former student, Danny, in his 7th and 8th-grade years. I did my best with implementing best practices of the System 44 program and incorporating a few additional strategies into my lessons that I acquired from resources that I sought out.  Danny completed the System 44 program at the beginning of his 8th-grade year and…

There's a new credit card commercial starring Jennifer Garner. The tagline of the commercial asks, "What's in your wallet?" The premise is that the credit card you choose to carry in your wallet defines the type of person you are. In the real world, defining who we are requires more than what we have and it is based on what we do. This week while engaging in my Twitter professional development, I came across a post by @educationweek that focused on equity. Simply stated, equity must be more…

Since READ 180 Universal's released in 2016, we've been flooded with messages and comments from teachers about how much they love the new version of the program---from the student app to the teacher supports---find out they like most!Program Overall"READ 180 Universal moves into the 21st century with enriching student-appropriate content to access all potential deficit areas of literacy. It encourages students to acquire a growth mindset and pushes them forward with gentle…

After the HMH Mindset Survey I really started paying attention to what my students said in conversation with me and each other. Many had a growth mindset but not a lot of gumption. The term nowadays is "Grit"! I started thinking, "How can I encourage my students to seriously go after their hopes and dreams?" I didn't want them just "dreaming" about graduating high school, getting a job, living in a pretty house, having a nice family, vacationing anywhere of their choice, getting a…

If you watch golf on any given Sunday, you’ll hear the announcers talking about the leaders really bringing their "A" game. Our reading students deserve a chance to understand what an A game in reading is and how much fun it is to develop one. To set the tone to achieve a better reading game we need to offer them hints and tips in a kind and respectful way to inspire an inquisitive nature. If we require students to do the work, then we are obliged to coach them to approach the various tasks in…