In this episode, Dr. Erin Bailey joins Jethro Jones to talk about how to engage families in inspiring the joy of reading in children. 

• Making reading backed by research, powered by joy
• Concerns in children’s reading - not teaching it correctly
• Teaching teachers to be culturally responsive
• Train teachers in getting to know their students. 
• Things we should do to teach kids reading: phonological awareness (hearing and manipulating sounds), phonics, vocabulary, fluency (rate, accuracy, expression), and comprehension.
• Typically science of reading stops at the first two.
• There’s no one way to teach reading
• Motivation to read
• Giving children access to books that they own and choose
• Link between motivation and reading, and motivation and comprehension
• Bookmobile, printed, Skybrary
• Getting joy from the experience
• Parents are the primary educators
• You can’t out-teach the culture of the home.
• Teacher PD about family engagement systems
• Family engagement vs. family involvement
• Family engagement is the family system and the school system working together 
• Power of story
• Family Literacy Evening - bring families on board to plan the event, rather than just having the school do everything, involve food, childcare (or activities) for other siblings, and give away books. 
• Outreach is important, reach out to see why people didn’t attend. 
• The location where you have your events is important - where else could you have the event? 
• RIF coordinators getting books to kids during the pandemic.
• How to be a transformative principal? Listen to your families and make a connection. 

About Erin Bailey, Director, Literacy & Content, Reading Is Fundamental

Erin Bailey, Ed.D., joined Reading Is Fundamental in 2021 and currently serves as the Director of Literacy and Content. Her role includes serving as the subject matter expert and developing, curating, and managing content and professional learning for educators and families on literacy. Dr. Bailey has been an educator in U.S. and international classrooms. Her teaching experience spans from PreK-8 including roles as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, English language learning specialist, and university instructor. Her interests include professional learning for teachers on family and community engagement, instructional strategies for multilingual learners, and literacy instruction. She is interested in the ways that partnering with families and communities, particularly for children from historically marginalized communities, can transform literacy instruction. Additionally, she designs curriculum and professional development for utilizing play-based learning to teach language and literacy to young children.

Dr. Bailey has a robust and interdisciplinary research repertoire including learning through informal spaces such as public gardens, art museums, and social movements. She takes up art processes such as film, photography, and sound mixing to expand approaches to qualitative inquiry. She has presented her work at several major conferences including the American Education Research Association (AERA) and the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) and has published in academic journals including Qualitative Inquiry, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and Journal of Literacy Research.

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