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ISU G8 Humanities Learning Labsite - Jan 2025

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Competing for Clean Water Has Led to a Crisis

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Learn more about the way we, as a global community, think about and use freshwater resources.

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ISUganda - Info Reading SS Workshop - Jan 2025 (1)

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ISUganda - JS and SS - Vocabulary 90 minutes

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Create custom puzzles based on the Connections New York Times daily game

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ISU JS - Science of Reading Session - Jan 2025

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Building Background Knowledge Through Reading: Rethinking Text Sets

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Building Background Knowledge Through Reading: Rethinking Text Sets

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Achieve the Core

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Overview: This professional development module focuses on the Text Set Project: Designing and Integrating Expert Packs. Text sets support all learners, especially those with background knowledge or vocabulary deficits, by building up these domains through a volume of reading. The training is for teachers, those who support teachers, librarians, and media specialists to build understanding and experience with Common Core State Standards (CCSS)-aligned instruction and materials. Within the module, there are materials, activities and discussions to enable participants to begin creating and using Expert Packs to support students in building knowledge, vocabulary and the capacity to read independently.

How to Get Started: Be sure to read the User's Guide first! The User's Guide is a detailed guide for you, the facilitator. The guide includes the facilitator's guide which lists the recommended order of the presentation.
All times are suggested and can be expanded to incorporate more discussion as needed. Any portions of this module may be modified, reproduced, and disseminated without prior permission. The materials on this page are currently being revised to align with the Professional Learning Principles. For updates on these resources and other Achieve the Core resources, click here to subscribe. Send Feedback

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Text Set Project: Building Knowledge and Vocabulary

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Overview: This professional development module focuses on the Text Set Project: Designing and Integrating Expert Packs. Text sets support all learners, especially those with background knowledge or vocabulary deficits, by building up these domains through a volume of reading.

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Cultural Relevant Pedagogy (Achieve the Core)

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Cultural Relevant Pedagogy (Achieve the Core)

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Text sets are intentionally grouped collections of texts and media resources focused on a specific topic, and are a research-based way to grow vocabulary and knowledge for all students. This collection of text sets intentionally elevates culturally relevant content and pedagogy. You might use a culturally relevant text set to fill a gap in relevance, perspectives or representation in your instructional materials, center student interests, or enhance an existing unit.

Each culturally relevant text set:

Centers on a single topic (e.g., women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott; the sun, moon, and stars)

Is designed to elevate connections to counternarratives, current events, student identities/languages, multiple perspectives and/or social justice

Contain a variety of open source resources (i.e., articles, videos, websites, art, music) at a variety of complexity levels

Purposely orders resources to support students in building vocabulary and knowledge through a volume of reading

In this resource, we wanted to amplify ways to focus on building knowledge and vocabulary through text sets that center culturally relevant pedagogy and students, particularly students who are often marginalized by schools. We focused on the question: How might we design text sets that elevate connections to counternarratives, current events, student identities/languages, multiple perspectives and/or social justice?

Our deepest appreciation to our educator co-designers for their collaboration, guidance, and brilliance: Ifetayo Abdus-Salam, Crystal Graham, Tanya Hill, Tawana Jordan, Tempest NeuCollins and Islah Tauheed.

We hope to expand on this set of prototypes and welcome your feedback on any of these resources by using the "Send Feedback" button at the bottom left hand side of the page.
Explore more:

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Creating Text Sets to Support Culturally Relevant Instruction

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Text sets are intentionally grouped collections of texts and media resources focused on a specific topic, and are a research-based way to grow vocabulary and knowledge for all students. This collection of text sets intentionally elevates culturally relevant content and pedagogy.

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ISUganda G9 Electromagnetism Unit Vocabulary

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Understanding Morphemes Helps to Unlock Meaning

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Email: jenny@erinkentconsulting.com

Linked In: Jenny Killion

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Is Comprehension Better with Digital Text? | Shanahan on Literacy

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Ths blog explores how well readers read digital text. Overwhelmingly, the studies show that digital text is harder to read than paper text. But what does the research have to say about teaching reading with digital text?

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ISUganda SS - Data Driven Workshop - Jan 2025 (1)

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Thank you Kelly for making this - TWICE!

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Want to connect over literacy and wellness? Join us in March - in Bangkok!

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Want to connect over literacy and wellness? Join us in March - in Bangkok!

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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"Here's the vision for this retreat: to gather a bunch of smart, amazing people in a beautiful place where we can dive into literacy research together, talk about international school literacy trends that are working (or not), and then go share a great meal."

~Erin Kent, EKC Founder
This conference is ideal for any K-12 teacher or leader who wants to raise the impact of literacy learning, strike a work/life balance, and deepen their regional connections.

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Bangkok March 8-9 | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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"Here's the vision for this retreat: to gather a bunch of smart, amazing people in a beautiful place where we can dive into literacy research together, talk about international school literacy trends that are working (or not), and then go share a great meal."

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension | The Scholastic Teacher Store

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In this timely book, the Libens explore what kids truly need to comprehend texts. Focusing on vocabulary, knowledge building, and language structures, they offer ideas to put into action now.

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Great, comprehensible resource for learning more about reading comprehension! 

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Great, comprehensible resource for learning more about reading comprehension! 

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension | The Scholastic Teacher Store

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In this timely book, the Libens explore what kids truly need to comprehend texts. Focusing on vocabulary, knowledge building, and language structures, they offer ideas to put into action now.

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Great professional books AND website resource!

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The Six Shifts Where Science of Reading Meets Balanced Literacy. We provide resources, professional development, and literacy audits for busy literacy educators like you.

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ISU G8 L&L Learning Labsite 1 - Jan 2025

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Great resource for a closer look at close reading (and more!)!

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Great resource for a closer look at close reading (and more!)!

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension | The Scholastic Teacher Store

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In this timely book, the Libens explore what kids truly need to comprehend texts. Focusing on vocabulary, knowledge building, and language structures, they offer ideas to put into action now.

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Great resource for diving into sentence and paragraph level work as writers!

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The Writing Revolution - Empower teachers to help students

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By training educators in The Hochman Method©, The Writing Revolution (TWR) aims to help all students become proficient writers, readers, and critical thinkers.

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Check out S2 with the Libens!

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Natalie Wexler, education journalist and author of "The Knowledge Gap," hosts the inaugural series of our new podcast, Reading Comprehension Revisited.

In six short (~30-minute) episodes, Natalie tackles crucial questions such as, why do students from low-income backgrounds typically score lower on reading tests? Why do improvements in the early grades fade out as students advance to higher levels? And most significantly, why haven't substantial investments in education reform delivered expected results?

The answer lies in a longstanding misunderstanding about reading comprehension itself, and how students learn to make meaning from texts. Over six episodes, you'll learn what research tells us about how children really learn to read, and you'll hear from educators from around the country as they share their experiences of embedding knowledge-building into their literacy instruction, and the powerful effects this change has had on their students.
Episode 1: "Kids were bored to death"
June 28, 2023 - Despite substantial investments in education reform, the US remains in the grip of a decades-long reading crisis. But why? With the help of teachers and researchers, host Natalie Wexler introduces the urgent need to revisit our approach to reading comprehension.
Episode 2: "A simple way of looking at a complex problem"
June 28, 2023 - Thanks to tireless efforts by researchers, advocates, and educators, the importance of systematically teaching decoding is finally being recognized. But, as you'll hear, there's far more to reading than decoding, and more we need to do to help our kids become truly literate.
Episode 3: "That cloud looks like an anvil"
July 5, 2023 - Abby Boruff, Deloris Fowler, and Kyair Butts teach different ages and subjects, in different parts of the country. When their schools adopted knowledge-building curricula they were skeptical, but the dramatic results they saw in their classrooms helped change their minds.
Episode 4: "Now they had something to write about"
July 12, 2023 - It's hard to read about a topic you don't have knowledge about, but it's virtually impossible to write about it. By having students write about content they're learning about, knowledge-building curricula boost both writing ability and learning in general.
Episode 5: "Everything was in silos"
July 19, 2023 - To become fully literate, many students need a curriculum that builds knowledge in a logical, coherent way across grade levels, and only a leader can put that kind of system in place. Meet Brent Conway and Dr. LaTonya Goffney, two leaders who did exactly that.
Episode 6: "Think what a better society we'll have"
July 26, 2023 - American education has a number of serious problems - and our failure to start building kids' knowledge early is a fundamental one. But there are ways to ensure that the growing trend toward knowledge-building curriculum takes root and spreads.

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Natalie Wexler, education journalist and author of "The Knowledge Gap," hosts the inaugural series of our new podcast, Reading Comprehension Revisited. In six short (~30-minute) episodes, Natalie tackles crucial questions such as, why do students from low-income backgrounds typically score lower on reading tests?

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Great podcast that dives into lots of literacy topics!

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EDVIEW360 | Voyager Sopris Learning Webinars, Blogs, and Podcasts

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Keep on top of the latest trends in education and hear from leading literacy experts through the EDVIEW360 series of blogs, webinars, and podcasts.

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Great resource for diving into sentence and paragraph level work.

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The Writing Revolution - Empower teachers to help students

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By training educators in The Hochman Method©, The Writing Revolution (TWR) aims to help all students become proficient writers, readers, and critical thinkers.

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An interesting and provocative listen on the history of reading teaching, particularly in the USA.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences - children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They'd catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.
Sold a Story is an independent investigative journalism project from American Public Media. We rely on your donations to support this kind of rigorous reporting.
The controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade. Explore a map of school districts.

More states are now requiring districts to adopt curriculum that adheres to the science of reading. Look up the policy in your state.

At least 15 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since the Sold a Story podcast was released in 2022, but there is pushback.

Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford.

This discussion guide, created by a teacher, invites educators, parents, community members and kids to have a conversation about the podcast.

Emails and voice messages poured in from people who listened to Sold a Story.

We'll let you know when we release new episodes of the podcast. Enter your address below.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

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There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read.

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Such a great account to follow for learning new words, etymology, and language!

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Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

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Although we may not be aware of it, we do not skip over words, read print selectively, or recognize words by sampling a few letters of the print, as whole language theorists proposed in the 1970s. Reading is accomplished with letter-by-letter processing of the word.

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Although a small sample size, interesting research by Matt Burns about why reading levels aren't an effective measure.

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Shanahan has multiple posts related to the lack of research to support focusing on reading levels - and so much more!

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Shanahan on Literacy has a variety of literacy blogs in one place. Find out here the information that can use by teachers and parents in teaching and assessing reading, writing, and literacy. Read more here!

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Just FYI for those of you that are parents and/or would like to know what was shared with them.

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Supporting Language & Conversation During Read Aloud (Parent Resource)