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(From Amy Harvey)

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Short podcasts with Yates & Burkins

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In this episode

Welcome to the seventh and final episode of The Six Shifts, with Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, co-authors of Shifting The Balance: Six Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom. In this series, Jan and Kari, with Stenhouse's Dan Tobin, address misconceptions and misunderstandings that have discouraged educators from incorporating the science of reading into the balanced literacy classroom.

In this episode, Jan, Kari, and Dan dig into the sixth shift: Reconsidering Texts for Beginner Readers.

Listen to episode 7

About the book

In Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom, authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates address this tension as a critical opportunity to look closely at the research, reevaluate current practices, and embrace new possibilities for an even stronger enactment of balanced literacy.

From phonological processing to brain research to orthographic mapping to self-teaching hypothesis, Shifting the Balance cuts through the rhetoric (and the sciencey science) to offer readers a practical guide to decision-making about beginning reading instruction. The authors honor the balanced literacy perspective while highlighting common practices to reconsider and revise-all through a lens of what's best for the students sitting in front of us.

Meet the authors

Dr. Jan Burkins was an elementary classroom teacher for seven years and a literacy coach for seven years. She has worked as a part-time assistant professor, a district literacy leader, and is currently a fulltime writer and consultant.

Kari Yates is an author, speaker, consultant and staff developer with a passion for helping busy literacy educators thrive. Her experiences include classroom teacher, special education, Reading Recovery teacher, elementary principal and district literacy coordinator.

Read the transcript

Dan: Welcome back to our podcast series, we've arrived at the sixth and final shift from the book, Shifting the Balance. Seems a good time to step back and reflect on the idea of shifts. What do you actually mean by a shift?
Jan: Well Dan, when things aren't working, or they're not working quite as well as you wish they were, you might just ask yourself, "What is it that needs to shift in this moment? Where can I shift in order to get a change?" Any educator who is honest with themselves can See that there is room for improvement in our literacy outcomes with students. And so when Kari and I decided to tackle this project, that's really the question we had in mind, "What needs to shift in our early literacy practices?"
Kari: And we wanted to understand, why is there so much pushback on some of the things we have held so dear. Chapter six's topic is certainly an example of one that strikes at the heart and soul of balance literacy practices. And this chapter, I think, invites a really important shift, or you could call it adjustment, calibration, alignment, about something that more and more literacy educators are talking about and that is the kind of texts that we choose to use with our most beginning readers.
Dan: Now in the first podcast I asked you about the order of the chapters, and why you started with reading comprehension. Now, I'm interested in asking why do you end the book with text selection? Both of you care, a great deal. And you've written a lot about the importance of selecting the right text. Why does this come at the end of the book? Is that Is there an intention behind that?
Jan: Great question. We did, in fact, purposely position this topic as very last for a couple of reasons. First, it draws on understandings built across the whole book, that really, chapter six makes sense with the support of chapters one through five. You have to come to chapter six, with an understanding of how the reading brain really works, and how orthographic knowledge accumulates.
Kari: Yeah. And another reason that we positioned this chapter last is exactly what you said, Dan, it's that we do believe text selection is really kind of at the heart and soul of successful literacy instruction. And we think of texts as the primary tool kit in a teacher's bag of tricks. And so text selection. For the beginning, readers, though, it turns out is both more delicate, and even more critical, we think in a number of ways. And so we tackle those here in chapter six.
Dan: And what are some of the misunderstandings that have developed despite our teachers' best intentions of choosing text carefully and thoughtfully. What are some of the misunderstandings that get in the way of instruction for beginning readers that's the most effective instruction we could have?
Jan: We'll just start with the first misunderstanding in the chapter, Dan, that's the decodable texts are loaded with problems. And everyone regardless of whether they align with quote-unquote, the science of reading or quote-unquote, balanced literacy. We can all see the truth in this statement, there are some really terrible, there's some horrible decodable texts out there. Unfortunately, there are also some terrible pattern texts out there. There are just in general, some really poorly designed, poorly written beginning reading texts. So, the question really is, how do we find excellent beginning reading texts for readers? And the decodable versus predictable question is really a matter of degrees, because every text has some degree of decodability, and some degree of predictability. So, we'll definitely understand the concern about decodable texts, but we're certainly not ready to decide that none of them are worth our attention.
Kari: And I think they're again, because this chapter builds on the previous chapters by the time you arrive at chapter six, we hope that you have lots of reason to sort of open your heart in new ways to the power of decodable text. And I think we also want to highlight misunderstanding four and that is that as long as kids are just spending time with books every day, they're going to become better readers. And although we know that high volume reading is so important for all readers and we are strong advocates of both choice and independent reading, again, especially for the most beginning readers, it's not just about how much time beginning readers spend reading that matters, it's also about what they are reading. And kind of think about it as, if in the beginning, when kids are just learning the sort of rules of the road for reading, we need to do whatever we can to make sure that those early experiences align with and kind of even shore up what they're learning rather than confuse students further or confuse those early phonics principles that they're working. We want texts that will help them to verify what they're learning in their phonics lessons to sort of internalize and be able to successfully use that orthographic filing system that they're working so hard to build in ways that will ultimately contribute to fluency and comprehension down the line. So, it's sort of more care with early texts will ultimately pay off in terms of the kinds of texts kids are able to read later and maybe even sooner, as a result of the early care that we take.
Dan: What are two actions you would expect teachers to take out after reading chapter six?
Jan: Well, it's likely that in many cases, we've over relied on predictable pattern texts to get kids quickly up in reading, or at least that's our intention. And yet, in doing so, we may actually have made things slower and more difficult for kids. And this chapter draws heavily on understandings built in the previous chapters, as we have mentioned a couple of times, but it challenges us to reconsider the kinds of texts we put in front of of beginning readers. And we refer to aligned texts, and you'll have to kind of read the chapter. It's more than we can go into here, but texts that really align with where the kids are as readers.
Kari: And again, the chapter doesn't only challenge current practices or explain the science. It does that in the first half but in the second half, it really follows up with concrete actions, instructional routines, and just thoughtful adjustments we can make as we shift our practice and make sure that we opened up literacy more easily for children in those early years of school.
Jan: And we do have, at the sixshifts.com, there are a number of downloadables there but one in particular is a series of questions or tensions to consider as you're evaluating beginning reading texts. And it's a nice compliment as you study the book. So...
Kari: Yeah.
Dan: As I listened to you thinking of the idea that out of struggle the pleasure of realization is all that much intensified. The struggle is important. The struggle you went through and the struggle teachers and students will go through but on the other side, isn't there a real sense of satisfaction you get as you work through that change of practice, and their change of thinking and come out the other side? Is that somewhat what you experienced, Kari, in your journey from the hard-nosed to the high?
Kari: So, Dan, absolutely. And I really believe what you're saying personally. In fact, I have in my pile of things that hang on the wall in my house that are currently being reordered because we're getting ready for a move, out of difficulties come miracles. I really believe that. But the other thing that's really on my mind, as you're saying that, is whatever we've done in our classrooms, we've done with the best of intentions to help kids. And however we've gotten early readers started, we want them to be readers. And so, lots of what we've done, we've done in the name of trying to make it easier to get started. But it actually turns out the same is true for readers that they have to be able to struggle. So, looking at that picture and being able to maybe figure it out, serves a child in the moment, but it's actually that struggle with the print a little bit of doing that cognitive work, that starts to build that orthographic understanding and that orthographic knowledge. And so that is actually an aha that we've really come to is that we've got to be willing to be with kids and help them dig in and do that work.
Jan: Think just in terms of our working through this project. Certainly, the struggle of a project under a condensed timeline, during a pandemic in a writing partnership that was new, certainly coming out on the other side of that proud of the proud of the product, having done what was hard and in some moments and kind of through the fire, I guess they say it's always... What is it? I don't like to write but I like to have written. After the fact certainly, it does feel gratifying and satisfying. But some of the walking through the fire. There were some moments. But it does make, I think, the ending sweeter.
Dan: Thank you for writing the book, for doing the website and for sitting with us here for these interviews, they have been really interesting and eye opening. I think, they're a good preview into the book.
Kari: Dan, it's been our pleasure to be able to walk through this book with you and the listeners. And we're truly excited about continuing this conversation.
Jan: Yes. Thank you so much Dan.

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PODCAST: The Six Shifts, Episode 7: Reconsidering Texts for Beginner Readers

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Welcome to the seventh and final episode of The Six Shifts, with Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, co-authors of Shifting The Balance: Six Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom. In this series, Jan and Kari, with Stenhouse's Dan Tobin, address misconceptions and misunderstandings that have discouraged educators from incorporating the science of reading into the balanced literacy classroom.

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Bringing the Actual Science of Reading into Practice with Nell Duke

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Bringing the Actual Science of Reading into Practice with Nell Duke

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Bringing the Actual Science of Reading to Policy and Practice

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This 19-hour professional development course provides educators with practical strategies for supporting struggling readers and those with dyslexia. By combining evidence from education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience coursework pieces together the educational elements that are critical for literacy achievement.

The course is appropriate for practitioners who support students in elementary school including: classroom teachers, special educators, reading specialists, school psychologists, speech/language pathologists, tutors, and administrators.

Module 1: Background on the Reading Brain and Skills that Contribute to Reading Achievement (2 hours: Live)

Module 2: A Preventative Approach to Reading Impairment: Early Literacy Assessments and Screening (2 hours: Asynchronous)

Module 3: Using Literacy Assessments for Tier 2 Instructional Decision-Making (2 hours: Live Online Instruction)

Module 4: Orthographic Mapping (5 hours: Self-guided)

Module 5: Literacy Strategies and Routines That Offer Targeted Support (2 hours: Live Instruction Online)

Module 6: Understanding Dyslexia: From Neural Signature to Remediation (2 hours: Live Instruction)

Module 7: Applying Knowledge to Case Studies (2 hours: Self-Guided)

Module 8: Bridging Research and Practice (2 hours: Live)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The course is delivered through 8 live and asynchronous modules that provide content through narrated powerpoints, instructional demonstrations, and supplemental readings.

LIVE SESSIONS (10 hrs - via Zoom)

These weekly workshops will allow us the opportunity to come together as a learning community, explore new concepts, and practice instruction. Full participation in live sessions is required to receive PDPs at the conclusion of the course.
Thursdays - 6 - 8pm
May 13, 2021

May 20, 2021

June 10, 2021

June 24, 2021

July 8, 2021

ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING (9 hours)

Three online course modules are available for participants to complete on their own schedule between May 13 - July 16, 2021. Many modules conclude with a brief quiz which can be taken repeatedly until mastery.

Graduate Course Credit may be available, please email Melissa Orkin at [email protected] to learn more.
COURSE FEE & MATERIALS
Enrollment Fee - $325, includes a course manual.

To pay with a purchase order please send an email to Melissa Orkin, [email protected]
*There is an additional fee for shipping to participants outside the U.S. ENROLLMENT DEADLINE
May 5, 2021

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Understanding and Supporting the Complex Nature of Reading Difficulties Including Dyslexia

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This 19-hour professional development course provides educators with practical strategies for supporting struggling readers and those with dyslexia. By combining evidence from education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience coursework pieces together the educational elements that are critical for literacy achievement.

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Shifting the Balance -Yates and Burkins Webinar Week 2

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Shifting the Balance -Yates and Burkins Webinar Week 2

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Shifting the Balance -Yates and Burkins Webinar Week 3 

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Shifting the Balance -Yates and Burkins Webinar Week 3 

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Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

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Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done.

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Today on the podcast we're taking a closer look at a recent study from the American Institutes for Research, also known as AIR, evaluating the effectiveness of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, and unpacking the results. We're joined by Francie Alexander, chief research officer at HMH, and Dr. Pam Smith, Heinemann's Vice President of Sales and Customer Success.

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Today on the podcast we're taking a closer look at a recent study from the American Institutes for Research,also known as AIR, evaluating the effectiveness of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, and unpacking the results. We're joined by Francie Alexander, chief research officer at HMH, and Dr. Pam Smith, Heinemann's Vice President of Sales and Customer Success.

Francie is an industry leader in the fields of Early Childhood Education, Literacy, and Intensive Intervention for striving reading and math students. Prior to her time at HMH, Francie held key positions in both state and federal education agencies, including serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education's research branch, where she led Department-sponsored standards efforts and campaigns in support of libraries and the arts. Her work is also grounded in the classroom, as she has taught students from kindergarten to college.

Prior to joining Heinemann, Pam was an educator for 30 years, having taught grades 3-8 and served as a lead teacher, assistant principal, and principal. As an educator, she worked in districts implementing the Units of Study and has firsthand knowledge of the challenges and rewards of scaling up a new curriculum to transform teaching and learning in a building.

Here now is Pam in conversation with Francie on the takeaways of the recent AIR report.
Below is a transcript of this episode.
Pam: The American Institutes for Research, serving as a third-party in partnership with Heinemann, recently released a study of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Reading and Writing Units of Study curriculum. What's the significance of this study, Francie?

Francie: I am so glad that we are looking at the science of what we already know has gone on in classrooms for decades with the Units of Study, so this is an exciting time. From the very beginning of the Units of Study, they were based on the best evidence that was out there, so they have always been scientific, but the significance of this study, this is the first time we've partnered with a third party, in this case, the American Institutes of Research, as you mentioned.

We looked out there for the best evidence when these programs came together, but now we are subjecting what we've done to the most rigorous science. We are looking at, what we call in that world, a quasi experimental design. So that means we're at the top of the science pyramid, if you would.

Pam: Can you tell us more about the methodology they used?

Francie: This study was a retrospective and it took place in two parts of the country, in the New York public schools, and then we went to a newer implementation for four school districts in Georgia around the Atlanta area. we looked back on evidence that was publicly available and we applied scientific analysis to it.

This is the kind of thing that is done in different kinds of tagging and coding and a very analytical way of looking at this data, and then the data was collected, and then all of these things had to be approached with utmost care and caution because you can't report results unless the science is of a level of rigor that people will understand the results and that they will merit being reportable.

Pam: That is really important to note, but let's get to what folks really want to know. And what folks really want to know is, what did we find out from this study?
Francie: You're right, everybody always skips to the end. And you'll notice if you're reading in a scientific journal, methodology comes first, always, but people always go to the end first because they want to see what the results were. So thank you for letting me go on about the methodology before we got to the results.

Francie: But the results actually should be proceeded by a drum roll, please. Because in the rigorous study as described, here's three things that I'd like people to understand about the results.

One is, in the first year, the Units of Study classrooms and the business as usual classrooms performed about the same. The second year is when the world needs to stand up and take notice. In the second year, the Units of Study classrooms outperformed, in a carefully controlled analysis, the business as usual. So that's something.

In education getting statistically significant results is not easily achievable, and what we learned about it in that second year, and I've shortcutted talking about our teachers college units of studies readers and writers, I shortcut that to Units of Study, so it looks like we're talking about materials, but I want to be really clear, we're talking about instructional resources, but we're talking about professional development too.

Clearly you can hypothesize why was there so much success across demographic groups, statistically significant. These are things we aim for an education. This is who we are in education, is attaining those kind of outcomes. But the significance is, we know that when the teachers have had time to attend professional development, collaborate with each other, that's when the results start to show, manifest themselves.

The third thing we learned, these effects are cumulative. That's where we want to be. We are looking at things longitudinally. We are taking the opportunity . I was a classroom teacher, and I understand fully that what comes first is changing your own practice and then understanding the changes you're making in practice. Of course, teachers are willing to change their practice.

When in the case of Units of Study, these materials have been in use for years, they were based on best evidence, so this is an evidence based, research based approach, that I'm going to be instituting. And then I think an important aspect of it is, and why the cumulative effects are on the positive side, is because one of my heroes in the world of research is John Hattie and he does meta analysis and then looks at what are the things that are most effective in education.

Francie: He talks about something called collective efficacy. When I read this report, when I saw from the no change year one, the statistically significant changes in year two, positive for those students using the Units of Study, and then the cumulative effects in year three, I thought about the interplay between the materials and the professional development and this idea of collective efficacy, meaning all of the teachers in these schools were working on this together, that the teachers weren't in an isolated faction, but they were intersecting and collaborating and talking about what works and what doesn't and improving their practice all along the way.

This bodes well for the continual use of Units of Study. So once you've established it in your practice, once you have become more expert in it, once you have shared and participated and collaborated with your colleagues, you continue to get positive effects.

Pam: Francie, I want to highlight a couple of things you said there. One is, it's very intriguing that the impact was recognized in year two. I know when I was in the classroom, anytime something new was brought in we were always told what it's going to take at least three years before we reap the benefits of implementing. So I wanted to highlight that.

The other thing I want to call out is the connection of professional development. And oftentimes when districts have to cut back on budgets, they choose to cut back on professional development dollars, and I think that's such a disservice to our teachers, but more importantly to the kids they serve.

Francie: In addition to being a classroom teacher, I like to boast I've taught from kindergarten through college, and so I taught prospective teachers too, and when I was on that part of teaching teachers, one of the things that was talked about was how long it takes to make a change and then, in terms of how long it takes to make a change, and then before you can measure the change. So it was quite encouraging to see that in the second year, we could start to observe achievement and in a statistically significant and in a positive way, because you know what I think that also does? There's a psychology to everything. Once you start to see your students gaining in their reading confidence and competence, you're going to want to deepen your practice and you're going to want more experience with this, and you're going to want to discuss with other teachers what's going on and what you're seeing. That gets that conversation going, and I think that deepens the commitment to what you're doing.

Then, talking about the professional learning part of it, and why do, and we've both done it, why you go into teaching? Because probably you love learning and you see being a teacher as part of your lifelong journey as a learner, and you want to be able to continue that.

I always thought one of the major gifts of teaching was to... My job was to keep learning, and so when we see when you support teachers learning, their ongoing journey, then that's only going to continue to improve results. So the professional learning is an important part of it and it also gets away from the notion that some people have, well, just hand somebody the resources and they just arrive on your doorstep. Without learning together about the resources, without collaborating with other teachers, you're not going to get the kind of results that the Units of Study can provide, and the promise of applying science to education in general.

Pam: If you had to share this with schools, districts, what are takeaways for them? What would you say to them? What should they take from this research study and apply in their settings?

Francie: First, of course, support the teachers who are making the changes, and so that is the commitment to professional learning. And by the way in so doing, when working with the school district, while teachers are making changes, we want our partners, our school leaders, to know what those changes are so they know what to look for in classrooms and they know how to offer support.

Having some of the professional learning be co-learning with teachers and school administrators. Again, everybody's in this work together, so I'd like people to take away from that.

Then I would like people to take away the understanding that it does take an investment of time, that this isn't something like turning on a tap of water and the water's there, this is something that you do have to put in the professional learning time, the time for teachers to talk and collaborate together, and the time to communicate with the community and others what's happening in the classrooms and in the school.

Pam: Francie, thank you so much. It's been such a joy talking with you.

Francie: My pleasure. Always good to talk to you.

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On the Podcast: Unpacking the Results from the American Institutes for Research on Units of Study

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Today on the podcast we're taking a closer look at a recent study from the American Institutes for Research,also known as AIR, evaluating the effectiveness of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, and unpacking the results. We're joined by Francie Alexander, chief research officer at HMH, and Dr. Pam Smith, Heinemann's Vice President of Sales and Customer Success.