Jump Start! What Teachers Need Now

Have you been side by side with students most of the year? Then you've been a success in their lives!  Every bandaid, every smile, and every gentle touch-you are forever a part of their lives.  Celebrate your success! Teaching is hard, and the data only tells one part of the story of this year.  

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

Today I’ll talk about poverty.  Everyone seems to have an opinion about public education these days. Test scores make headlines, and magazines debate public or charter schools. People write blogs, and reels appear on social media.  Without telling us what poverty IS, they say children living in poverty can’t learn like ‘the rest of us. They don’t succeed academically.  Their parents don’t have any family values. The adults don’t want to work. They are sucking the state coffers dry.  Teachers are not exempt from making assumptions.  “If only their parents would…blah, blah, blah…I could teach them. “ 

I disagree.  

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

Hey everyone, welcome back to Jump Start!  We’re wearing short sleeves.  No more scarves, mittens, and raincoats.  We’re dreaming of summer.  Slow coffee in the mornings, walks with the dog, lazy summer breakfasts instead of a protein bar and a banana. 

We're counting down the days with a chain of colorful papers, or we're proceeding with each day as a normal day (while doing a happy dance in your head).  I’ve done it both ways. Most often, students are excited that summer is approaching, some of them know they have travel plans, and some of them expect to return to swimming and soccer games.  But others-they may be sent to stay with relatives while parents work.  

But something for all of you to do: We want to celebrate their hard work, and celebrate the season of spring. Get outside if you can.  Here are a few activities that are low-cost, but different from the normal day.  Some of them are even tied to math or science.  Great opportunities to make learning fun. 

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

In today’s episode, I’ll share what I learned about learning loss due to covid.  I’ve got to say, I honestly thought we were past this topic!  We do seem to be through the most isolating days of the pandemic, but the effects of the virus will be with us for some time.

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

Most of us aren't informed enough to explain language sounds, spellings, and word meanings. It isn’t because we don’t want to be. 

Most likely, the college courses in your education program didn’t prepare you. I’ve spoken with two colleagues who have master’s degrees in reading instruction, and they remember, vaguely, being taught the names of parts of language, the morphemes, phonemes, syllables, and the spelling patterns of digraphs, blends, trigraphs--but they were not expected to master it. 

Louisa Moats agrees that most education programs aren't doing a good enough job of preparing teachers for early reading instruction. This leaves us feeling ineffective, and may contribute to teachers leaving the profession they've chosen. 

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

College teachers mentioned Title 1 schools, classroom management,  curriculum, poor behavior, and support from the administration...but your true learning happens in your first year as a teacher.  Truly, teaching is something we learn on the job, in the classroom, year after year.  My conversation with a first-year teacher is not an interview, but I paraphrased from the highs and lows of her first year.  Take a listen!

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

I first saw Jeff's teaching during a summer Writing Project.  It changed my writing and grammar teaching!  And I want him to change yours.  A video link is included, and be sure to listen to his podcast, The POPcast!  Invitation to Notice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV7Wvuk61Vs

Jeff writes: “In the classroom, I experimented to see how I could accelerate students’ learning of editing and writer’s craft from reading---  even with students who are not always natural or voracious readers.”  The idea that he does his own research with students in front of him makes him a teaching guru in my book.  Where better to test ideas than with your own students instead of “participants” in a large-scale project?

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

Learning to write well begins at the sentence level.  Our youngest students can learn to write strong sentences with explicit instruction. An example from kindergarten: The live oak tree needs a lot of water.    We could expand this sentence into a compound sentence: The live oak tree needs a lot of water, but it doesn’t need a lot of sun.  Students learn that writing the word 'but' between two sentences means that the two ideas are in opposition to each other.  When we teach compound and complex sentences, we’re helping students understand the content and the structure of non-fiction writing. 

Link to The Writing Revolution webpage-Lots of free resources!

https://www.thewritingrevolution.org/resources/book-resources/

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

Natalie collaborated with Judith Hochman on The Writing Revolution-the most no-nonsense approach to teaching writing. Natalie’s own book is called  The Knowledge Gap.  Last week I talked about how many of our kids don’t have any BK or background knowledge.  Natalie shares how having background knowledge of a topic allows more struggling readers to make sense of the text. 

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

"They've got no BK!" laments my team teacher.  There's been a drought of content teaching and learning while trying to improve math and reading scores.  But what if adding CONTENT would help them become better readers? What do you think?

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics