Student Engagement, Empowerment, and Literacy Learning: Strategies of Three Award-Winning Teachers

Narrator:

Welcome to EDVIEW360.

Anthony Swann:

My message to the teachers is how powerful they are without even realizing it. And after sharing my stories, I have grown men that cry just from hearing it, and so I believe that the nation, as well as the state of Virginia, needed to hear the message of how powerful teachers are, and how education can save your life if you allow it to.

Narrator:

You just heard from Anthony Swann, the 2021 Teacher of the Year in Virginia. Anthony is one of our guest teachers on today's EDVIEW360 podcast.

Jean Thompson:

Hello, and welcome back to Voyager Sopris Learning's EDVIEW360 podcast series. We're so excited to have you with us today. My name is Jean Thompson, and I'm the coordinator for our thought leadership program, and I just want to welcome all of our listeners today from all around the world. Today, we have a unique conversation in store for you. We're quite excited. We've asked three award-winning teachers to share their insight and teaching strategies with us. They are John Arthur, the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year, and a finalist for National Teacher of the Year. John teaches sixth grade. We also have Alisa Cooper de Uribe, 2021 New Mexico Teacher of the Year. Alisa is a first-grade bilingual teacher. And we also have Anthony Swann, 2021 Virginia Teacher of the Year, and Anthony is an elementary assistant principal.

John Arthur will lead this conversation, so at this point I'm going to sign off, and I'll introduce John. John, it's all yours.

John Arthur:

Thanks, Jean. I've got to tell you, I am so excited to have this conversation with my colleagues, with my friends. As we all know, it's important to provide all kids with effective reading instruction and interventions. However, many students are tough to engage, and we as a team want to discuss classroom strategies we all use to get all of our students engaged and make them feel seen and heard as we help them build literacy skills. So, let's go ahead and get started, and connect the dots for today's listeners, between engaging literacy instruction and empowered student voices.

First, though, I really want the listeners to understand just the caliber of teachers that we've got in this conversation. I'm looking at two of my best friends in the world here, especially in teaching, but also two people that I'm incredibly humbled to be in conversation with, because you are both so remarkable in the classroom, and as advocates for teachers and our profession. And I know that you both probably get asked all the time, "Why were you chosen as Teacher of the Year? How did you become Teacher of the Year?" And if you don't mind, I would love to ask you that awkward question now. And just to make it easier, I'll answer it first myself, alright?

When I get asked, "Why were you chosen as the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year?" I...and this is the truth...I always say, "I've been recognized because my students do incredible work. My students have gained recognition for standing up as champions and advocates for immigrants and other children like them, and they're able to do that because we work really hard in the classroom, and we take the skills that they build and use them to do meaningful things with the skills that they have. They don't just write essays, they write letters to the editor, and they write poems that we turn into music videos, advocating on behalf of their own communities.

I just answered the awkward question. Now it's your turn. Alisa, if you don't mind, I'm going to start with you. Why were you selected as the 2021 New Mexico Teacher of the Year?

Alisa Cooper de Uribe:

I think in some part it has to do with two words that have really guided me since I began learning how to be a teacher, as an alternatively licensed teacher, and those two words are "embrace it." Really, everything about education is something that, with everything that comes with it, to just embrace it. To love the kids, to love the families, to love this messy act of learning. To love that education is not just a classroom, but it's the organizations that we can volunteer at outside of school. It's giving it a try. "This sounds like a new good project. We're not sure how it's going to turn out, but let's give it a try." Let's embrace this process of trying something new and helping everyone be a part of it.

And especially when it comes to learning in more than one language, and embracing the fact that a lot of our students bring so much more than learning to read in English to the classroom, and embracing who they are and what they can do in the classroom and beyond. So, I'm thinking that, in everything that I'm trying out and giving it a go, it's really just embracing education as really the nucleus of our culture, and really showing the world what that is, and being a voice for the amazing things that we can do within classrooms, students and teachers, and families, and all the stakeholders, but then also being a solutions-oriented teacher, and knowing that there's always room for change. And with our students' voices, we can bring what they know will work, to continue embracing it and making it better.

JA:

Embrace it. Follow that, Anthony.

AS:

So, first of all, I did not even know that a State Teacher of the Year award ever existed.

JS:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AS:

But I feel as though that I was chosen because of my background and my hardship that I had as a child, and we were right in the midst of the pandemic, and I believe that students and teachers needed some motivation and some empowerment, and so after sharing my story of how it was actually a teacher that saved my life...because I was a ward of the state and placed in foster care at age 9, and stayed in foster care until I aged out at 21, and how it was my fourth-grade teacher who, I was in her class when I was taken. And it was the same teacher who actually followed me throughout my, basically entire life, and she made sure that I did not get caught up in the system.

Because I was really headed down the wrong road, but this same teacher found me while I was in the system and she planted some seeds in me, and she made me to believe that I could make something of myself. And so, being able to just share my story, and just to also let teachers know how powerful they are, because ever since the pandemic, it has exasperated teachers.

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AS:

And so, my message to the teachers is how powerful they are without even realizing it. And after sharing my stories, I have grown men that cry just from hearing it, and so I believe that the nation, as well as the state of Virginia, needed to hear the message of how powerful teachers are, and how education can save your life if you allow it to.

JA:

You've got a grown man about to cry over here, man. I was just remembering...because I've heard your story, and then I heard it especially...You went into depth when you were talking to Gerardo, (Editor's Note: Gerardo Muñoz, co-host of Too Dope Teachers & a Mic podcast), and all the details, man, they're overwhelming. And she's such a special woman, beyond just being a special teacher. Yeah.

Alright, so, now that we know who we're talking to, let's go ahead and dive into these questions. Are you ready for this? Anthony, you feeling good?

AS:

Yes. Yes, let's go.

JS:

Yeah? Alisa?

AU:

Let's go!

JA:

Alright. Well, the first question I'm going to put out to you...and Anthony, I'm going to start with you...is a question about motivation, because you can't get kids to embrace literacy if they don't embrace learning. How do you motivate and build self-efficacy in students who struggle with reading and don't feel heard in their classrooms?

AS:

That's a great question. I would have to say first of all, I attest to the fact of I related to children in the aspect of, a lot of times the students, especially at the elementary level, they hate to do some of the content-area work, and so some things that I do, one of the greatest things that I do is I always tell children that reading is the easiest subject, because it's the only subject that gives you the answer. The only thing you have to do...Because they always want someone to give them the answer, but the only thing that you have to do is go back and find it in the passage. It's like a hide-and-seek thing. And so that is what I tell the children.

When I put it like that, a lot of...especially the elementary level, they're like, "Oh, you're right!" And it calls for them to delve into the reading even more. For instance, I was in a fourth-grade class the other day and they were doing this reading passage, and I was checking some of the answers. And I called one of the students back to the teacher's desk and I was like, "You got this one wrong," and she was like...She started to get frustrated, and I said, "Reading is easy. They give you the answer." So, she went back and found the answer, and then one of her classmates came back to help her and he was like, "Yeah, Mr. Swann's right. Look right here, the answer's right here." And he read it, and the student was like, "Oh my goodness! Y'all are right! Reading does give you the answer!" So, that helps the students to be more motivated in that aspect of wanting to learn reading, and wanting to delve into it a little bit more.

JA:

I love that. What about you, Alisa?

AU:

I love that, too, Anthony. I think a lot about how the standards that we have for English language arts and Spanish language arts through the WIDA system talks about standards as like "can-do" standards, and not even thinking about the standards, I really like framing it that way, because when it comes to reading and writing and understanding and different modes of literacy, it's what the students can do. And I have kids coming into the classroom with various levels of motivation, but framing things for them as, "You can do this, and you can do that," and building on that, and really praising progress is something that I have seen that is a huge motivator.

Framing it as can-do, and every little step, keeping tabs on what the kids can do, what they can do now as opposed to yesterday, and recognizing those gains. I have a student who has been kind of fluctuating ups and downs in terms of how much he's wanting to engage and feeling motivated and not, but every time he comes up and reads something to me and I give him that high-five, that praise of progress and reminding him, "You can do that," it's really been a motivator.

And also, thinking about that same student, really providing options for different types of engagement with literacy and reading has been key for my first-graders. They're young, they've got so much on their plates, in terms of learning, that they have to do, and so providing different types of reading beyond just the very specific things we might be working on in a given day, and also really including viewing and listening as a part of reading, and helping kids understand that if you are listening to this, and you are engaging, and you're understanding and asking questions, that's a part of reading, too. And so, building this global perspective for students about what reading is that goes beyond just letter-sound correspondence, I've found that that's been a big motivator for my young ones.

JA:

I'll tell you what, both of you touched on this idea of framing, and I want to stick with that. There was so much there that both of you just gave us, but I want to come back to some of those other pieces and focus on this framing, because I feel like a lot of what we've talked about just over our years of friendship now is how we think about kids, and how we want them to think about themselves. It's not just teaching kids to read, it's teaching them to think of themselves as readers, and as people who can be successful readers. You know, that "can-do" piece that you're talking about, Alisa, is powerful, because once a kid believes they can do something...just like Anthony said, once they know that they can find the answer within the text, they then go forward as empowered children who get the job done.

But one of the things that stood out to me just as I've been thinking about this conversation is, even though answers are there in the text, like you were saying, Anthony, if a kid cannot decode, if they don't have those fundamental pieces, if they can't put those letter-sound combinations together like you were talking about, Alisa, then that answer is still stuck inside of a puzzle box, and the text becomes intimidating. And I'm wondering how it is that you both help kids work through that puzzle box. You've built this belief inside of them that they can, but then what tools do you give them to dig into it and find those answers? Alisa, do you mind going first with that?

AU:

For me, that part, that puzzle that we're working on, teamwork is everything. I am not the only piece of the puzzle that can make this work, and a lot of us know from experience that when there are more minds coming together to try to put an entire puzzle together, that it happens more quickly. I mean, I even saw it in my classroom this morning because one of our small groups was puzzle making, and there was one group where it was just a couple of kids, due to others being absent today. It took them 15, 20 minutes to put it together. But the next group, that had five or six, the whole group was there; that puzzle came together right away.

And so, for me, when we're thinking about helping kids who need extra work to make that puzzle come together, team work for me is everything. And so, working with families, working with interventionists, working with older kids, other buddies who can help with that, and coming up with ideas that we can try while we're continuing to frame it as, "You can do this," but putting together ideas from Structured Literacy, putting together ideas from kinesthetic, working together with families on very specific things that students can be focusing on, and really tapping into the knowledge of other experts.

One of the things that I've seen really successful this year is having close communication with our reading interventionist so that I can share the experience that I have, and the things that I see in the classroom, and the growth that I see, and comparing that with others who are helping. There are other things, but I'm going to let Anthony answer it as well, but for me, it's really keeping in mind that this is a team effort, and it's not just the teacher and the student who are going to make this happen.

AS:

Totally can attest to that as well, Alisa. I thought about how life is a process, and I try to explain that to my struggling readers, because when they do struggle and they do get frustrated, I explain it to them that you're not going to get everything right off the bat, right? So, life is a process, and so you have to be patient with that process, in conjunction with the partnership, even partnering with families. For instance, I used to tutor a lot outside of school, so I would tutor after-school hours, and then I would tutor on the weekends at a public library.

And one particular mom reached out to me, and her child was a special education student, and he was struggling with reading. So, through this process...and I tutored him from second grade on up through sixth grade, and throughout that process, it gave him the motivation, and it showed him that he could read, although he didn't read at the pace as others, and so with that process, now he's doing excellent in school. His mom just texted me the other day, and he's in eighth grade and he's an honor roll student. That's because we worked through that process, and we just showed him that everything may not come as fast as others, but if you keep working at it, eventually you'll get it. So, those are the things that I use to help those students to know that although you don't get it now, life is a process, and it will take time sometimes, but if you continue to keep going, you will be successful.

John Arthur:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AU:

I'm curious, John, too, I know that I work with really young students...6 and 7 years old, which is a typical time to delve into literacy, regardless of language, for a lot of folks...but your students are a little bit older, and I know that it can still be a challenge for older students to engage with literacy. I'm curious to know, at your grade level, in sixth grade, what are some of the things you do to make that puzzle come together?

JA:

Definitely. I'll tell you, it's...I feel like I have pre-pandemic answers to this question, and then post-pandemic answers, because especially now, given that my students haven't had a normal year since second or third grade, they have come in here with a lot of areas...specifically literacy...which are really...They're dependent upon learning in social environments. You just can't …

AS:

Yeah.

JA:

… Pick it up as well through a computer screen, so these kids are coming in with a lot of gaps that I've never had to address before, so I've had to fall back on a lot of resources. And typically, in sixth grade we're teaching kids to read to learn rather than learning to read …

AU:

Right.

JA:

… And so, as I've recognized not just this need, but also this gap in my game...the fact that I'm not as good at this...I've had to fall back on this team that you've been talking about, and it's always reminded me of that old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child."

AU:

Yeah.

JA:

And when people would ask me...I know you guys got the question all the time: "How come you're Teacher of the Year? What is it that makes you Teacher of the Year?" One of the things I always like to tell people is, "I'm not afraid to ask for help." That's my secret to success. If I don't know how to do something, I'm going to go ask people, and engaging families and parents, like you said, but also literacy coach, fellow sixth-grade teachers, other grade-level teachers...especially my lower-grade teachers...saying: "What do we do when a kid doesn't know what the silent E does? Because I've just never had to explain this, and I'm sure you have a better answer than I do in why it works the way that it does."

I've been able to fall back on this team. When it comes to identifying tools and resources, recognizing the human capital that's in our buildings, and then being humble and wise enough to go ask for them to come into your classroom and watch you in a small group, and see how you're guiding a reading group, that's been the most powerful thing for me, is just falling back on those who know better in my building.

And especially my special ed students, and my multilingual learners. Those students, on top of a pandemic, have brought in these puzzles, these enigmas that have wracked my brain, and thankfully there are amazing professionals in our buildings that we can fall back on. If we don't know the strategies, they probably do.

AU:

Yeah.

AS:

Right.

JA:

But, I do want to go to specific strategies that you both use. Alisa, you mentioned giving kids options with reading. Now, a lot of people would say that if we're talking about our struggling readers, those kids that hold that special place in our heart, those kids who are often acting out because they're not picking up what's happening in class, and who get frustrated by the reading, what specific strategies do you use to help them work through just the fundamentals of reading? What are the resources or strategies that you just always fall back on because you know they're going to be effective?

AU:

For my young students, I know that connecting sounds and letters to familiar objects or familiar concepts, that that's one of the things that carries a lot of both emotional weight for kids, but also long-term memory weight for kids. And especially when combined with hand movements and total physical response. That's the thing that I have found has been most helpful. So, for students that I have who really need more time and more practice, and more strategies to really internalize and assimilate letter-sound correspondence, and then putting it together and blending, it's using a combination of letters and some kind of visual that they can connect it to, but also putting body movements to it.

My kids oftentimes, because they're learning in two languages, will come up to me and often will forget how to say a word, or forget a letter, and all it takes is for me to do a hand motion and they'll remember it, and it clicks. So, there's still support that's needed, but I've found that connecting things through body movement, for younger kids, is something that they're very willing to do, and it's something that has a really powerful and quicker effect in terms of the learning to read and learning to write process.

And in thinking about options, too, I know that all of us, even as an adult, if I am working on something really hard for a long time, I'm going to need a break in something that's pleasurable and can still be connected. So, when I'm working with kids, and especially if it's on the stuff that's really requiring a lot of mental effort for them, I'm always trying to have something for them that is engaging, that's still connected, but something that doesn't require as much focused effort for them so that they can still get something out of it.

And then, an example that I have is that we have been focusing a lot on the sun and the changes that it causes in our planet, and now we're looking at light waves, and so there's a lot of academic language that my kids are learning in both languages, and so when we're learning to read texts that have those words in them, to write our own texts with those words in them, some of the students really just...They have a limited bandwidth for it, and so providing texts that also have a lot of visuals and things that are engaging for them that they love...I had a student who was just fascinated by seeing a really intricate diagram of an astronaut, and so because of that, he was actually starting to try to read some of the words in that diagram, which was a pretty big jump for him, but because he was engaged and it felt like a brain break for him, there was still reading happening, but it was because he was able to take a step back from the really focused work that we were doing and do something that was enjoyable personally to him.

JA:

I love that. So, familiar objects, whole-body response, and then?

AU:

Yes.

JA:

It's so funny, because I never thought of this idea that engagement equals less effort. I've always thought of it as fun or whatever else, but I never even thought about the idea that they're just not working as hard the more engaged they are in the activity. That's great.

AU:

They may feel that way, anyway.

JA:

Yeah, right? Yeah. Anthony, when we're talking about the team, you're a school leader now, and you've taught basically every elementary grade besides, what, kindergarten?

AS:

Yes.

JA:

Yeah? But you've seen this with all ages, from leadership perspective as well as in the classroom. What strategies have you seen that are just, they're just go-tos, they're amazing, they always deliver?

AS:

It's amazing that Alisa mentioned the brain break. I like to spend a lot of time in kindergarten, as a school leader, and some of the brain breaks is focused on literacy. For instance, I was in a kindergarten classroom today and the brain break was the ABC song, but it had such a relatable beat, the tempo of the song. So, what I try to do as a school leader, I get into learning with the children. So, I will get on the carpet with them, and I will sing the song with them, and so when the song is going over the letter sounds, I say the sounds with the kids.

And today I observed one of the students actually doing sign language with the song. With every letter, she was doing sign language, and it amazed me so much. I was like, "Oh, wow!" And the teacher was like, "Yeah, I normally do sign language when we do the song." So, to see how it connected with a kindergartner, it amazed me to know that the kindergartner paid that much attention, and was not only learning the language and learning the letter sounds, but was also learning it in a different way of speaking.

So, a lot of times, I like to get in the trenches. Some other things that I like to do is I like to go in classrooms and pull small groups while the teacher is teaching. If the teacher is pulling a small group, I'll go work with a small group. And I've had some of my teachers to ask before like, "Is everything alright?" Yes, I just want to be a hands-on leader. I don't want to just sit in the office. I want to be involved. And that helps the children to be accountable too, so when I'm asking, "What are you guys learning?" they're able to tell me what they're learning, they're able to help me to get on track with them so I can continue to assist, and so I just think it's very important that we are engaged with the learning just as much, and we are excited about the reading lesson.

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AU:

Yes.

AS:

Because if we're excited about the learning, the kid will be like, "Something's wrong with you. You're that excited? Let me see what's going...Let me see what's so exciting about that." So, I think that is so important.

And then, too, when students make mistakes with reading, you hold them accountable, but not making them feel bad, like, "It's OK. Let's try it again. Let's go back and re-read this sentence." And then just telling them...using the language, "This is what good readers do. Good readers go back and re-read. Good readers sound out their...Good readers...You know, just using that language so that they'll develop that intrinsic motivation as well so that they'll remember, "OK, Mr. Swann said good readers do this, so let me go back and do this."

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AS:

So, those are some of the things that I do.

JA:

Yeah. And it's always so fun for me talking to the two of you and our colleagues. You would think that, if we're talking about teachers of the year, that we would have these magic pills, these tricks of the trade that we've developed in our class, and so much of what makes us successful and what makes us particularly successful in literacy instruction is just, I think...especially listening to the two of you...humanity.

AU:

Yeah.

AS:

Uh-huh.

JA:

Just recognizing that learning can be, not only hard, but for kids who struggle, it should also be fun, and that breaks can be filled with learning opportunities, and that when you're dealing with a kid who's having a hard time, holding them accountable without making them feel bad, it's not hard, and it's not something that you have to go out and you've got to go through professional development for. It's just recognizing that, as teachers, our most critical role is giving them the opportunity to see us get excited about what they are learning. Like you were saying, we've got to get hype about literacy. We've got to get hype about things. You don't want to sit down and say, "Alright, guys, I've got to tell you, we're about to do this thing. I know, I know it's the worst, but it's just 15 minutes. Put your finger on this word." It's like, "Hey man, come on! We're about to build your skills to unlock puzzles! Let's go!"

AS:

Yeah.

JA:

And just recognize that when they're having a hard time with it, that's not something to hold against them. That's just something to help them work through. And with an emphasis on humanity, our kids are bringing in so much with them in terms of their family's culture, their own personal stories, and I would love to know how you guys leverage their cultural richness, the beauty that they're bringing into the classroom with them. How do you bring culturally responsive teaching into your literacy instruction? Anthony, why don't you go for that, man?

AS:

Sometimes I ask them what interests them. I've found through the years, like you said, humanizing children, it makes them have a different level of respect, as well as the way that they look at you as a professional, so it's like, "You're really interested in what I want to learn about, and not just saying, 'Here, this is what you need to learn about,'?"

For instance, there was this one student in my class a couple of years ago, a fifth-grade boy, he hated reading. I mean, he hated it with a passion. You could see it on his...He was just so disengaged. So, one day I was like, "What interests you?" And he began to tell me about football. So, I began to ask him questions about football, I began to relate the reading lesson to football, and it's like he perked up. And ever since then, he loved coming to reading class, because I related it to his culture, I related it to something that interests him, that piqued his interest.

He actually was the student who taught me about football, because I always...I never knew how to follow football, and so when I was asking him questions, I was like, "Why do they keep saying first down after they hit a first down?" And so, he began to explain it to me. Now, when I watch football, I literally understand what's going on in the game, and it's because this particular student explained it to me. Now, when I see his mom...and he's in high school...When I see his mom, his mom is telling me, "Mr. Swann, you were his favorite teacher," and when I'm doing anything with football, I always reach out to her and say, "Can you please let him know that I understand this because he taught this to me in reading class?"

Just building those relationships and seeing what interests them so that they can take ownership for their own learning. And then, once they take interest in it and they see that the teacher has included their culture within the curriculum, you've won them over, because it's like, "You care enough about me to ask me about me, so let me care enough about you to learn the content that I need to learn."

JA:

Yep.

AS:

So, I've used that before.

JA:

I love that. It's so funny, because I actually had a kid a couple of years ago who was big into basketball. It was his life's passion. He wanted nothing more than to be a professional basketball player. And I was having a hard time getting him to engage with the reading that we were doing, and I thought, "You know what? I'm going to give him The Crossover. He's going to read this book. It's poetry, it's basketball. He's going to fall in love with it, he's going to fall in love with reading, and I'm going to have that movie-of-the-week moment." And he took the book, and he just...He took it for about 10 minutes, came back, handed it to me. He was like, "No. I'm just not into it." I said, "But, how is this possible? You love basketball. It's a basketball book. That's it. The story is over." He's like, "No, I like playing basketball. I don't want to read about basketball."

And in that moment, I had this epiphany where I realized that literacy instruction and those learning moments, it's transactional. I failed in that moment to achieve the outcome I was looking for. I gave him a thing, and then he gave me something else, and in so doing, I was both humbled in the fact that I had made just a complete assumption about this kid and what he would absolutely be into, but I also learned something more about who he was and how he operated as a learner. Just because he's interested in doing a thing doesn't mean he's going to be interested in learning more about it. It took me another week until I found out he was big into anime, and was able to put some good manga into his hands.

But, just like you were saying, your transaction with your student, Anthony, was incredibly positive because you got so much from the reading that he was doing. And that's one of the things I love most about teaching kids how to read and reading with them. Science, math, it's very...kind of one-way, like, "I know how to divide fractions. I will teach you also how to do this thing, and it will all be well." But with reading, it's just, they give you so much.

And Alisa, especially working with bilingual students, and so young, too. I have to imagine they give you some magic. They give you some beautiful things in your classroom.

AU:

Oh, they sure do, and I notice that both of you were mentioning things that really tied in with what I've been thinking about this, is that relationships are so fundamental when it comes to reading. And this is outside of the classroom, too. I was an English major. I have been into reading and books my whole life, and I've been in book groups in Mexico, book groups in New York. We do this as a relational thing after we have graduated from our K–12 education oftentimes. It might not be books, it might be other things, but literacy is so based on relationships in many ways. If we read the news, if we listen to the news, a lot of it is about the relationships we have.

So, similar to Anthony, for me, it's been a really helpful thing at the very beginning of the year to connect with as many families as I can to really get to know them not just the child, but the families themselves, and to really ask them about their kids as well, so that I can begin the year already with a good understanding of what the families and what the kids are bringing, where they like to spend time when they're not at school, what they like to do. And even if it's not a book that ties in exactly with something that they love, being able to have a small conversation with them...And you mentioned anime. Even one of my students who just saw that my daughter has...My phone's screen image is an anime character. That right away is just a connection with kids, and having that relationship really does go a long way for having a comfort level to really do what we need to do in the classroom with literacy.

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm. Yeah.

AU:

I know that you've got something to say about that, Anthony.

AS:

Yeah. Yeah. I just want to speak from a school leader's perspective. A lot of times, teachers feel like they cannot veer from the curriculum, while in all actuality we're here to serve children and meet them at their need, and so I'm kind of coaching some of my teachers that if you have a group of students that you're working with and you have this one particular student that's disengaged with the reading instruction, give that student something that's on their level so that they can be successful too.

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AS:

So, if they're frustrated with this, and you know that their baseline data is saying, "OK, they may be in second grade, but they're reading on a first-grade level," give them a first-grade assignment so that they can feel successful, and then it will help push them up to that second-grade level. But a lot of times, some teachers feel like if they veer from the curriculum, then they're wrong, but in all actuality, you're providing equity. You've given that student and those children what they need when they need it, and at the same time, that causes for your differentiation of instruction.

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm. And in order to do that, a teacher has to feel empowered. They have to feel like they can make the decision that they know is best for their student. They can go outside that curriculum, bring in whatever it is that they know is going to be effective. Not all teachers out there feel like they are in that position. They feel like they could get in trouble. They might...Who knows what's going to happen? Especially in this atmosphere, where everyone's so hyper-focused on what's coming into the classroom, and what kids are holding in their hands.

One of the things that I've been wanting to ask both of you about is, just assuming that a teacher is in the same head space as we've been sharing with each other now, that they're humanizing kids, they feel empowered enough to bring in whatever tools and texts it is that they know are going to help their kids advance. Empowered teachers know how to empower students and make kids feel empowered. How do you help kids track their own growth and progress as readers and learners? How do you help them know that, "Oh, you know what? I am on this level, and I should find things that work at this, but then I'm working up to this goal." What do you do to help them strategically keep track of where they're at and where they want to go?

AU:

Kind of tying in with the previous part of the conversation, I work in a school that has an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, which means that we have incorporated a lot of different curricula into the work that we do, but teachers have a lot of agency to choose from published curricula, but also from the resources that we gather ourselves, so I have basically never said "No" when someone says, "I've got some extra books. Would you like them for your classroom?"

AS:

Mmmm-hmmm.

AU:

And so, having a really huge classroom library of materials that students can access, or that I could use on a given year that I think might connect with the students, has been really powerful and given me a lot of agency with that. And it also has really allowed me to develop a lot of resources that kids themselves can choose from based on what they know they're ready for.

So, in addition to things like some of the standardized tests that we have that allow kids to really see visually how much progress they're making on the specific skills that they want to do, we have systems in the classroom where we have different colors of symbols for different types of books, and students know what symbol they can go to, where it is in the classroom, what they might be ready for next. And so, working with me, then they can know, "OK, I've done this symbol for a while. I've hit all the marks for it. I'm ready for the next one." So, it's not necessarily a tiered system, but it's one where they know that there is progress that's being made, and they themselves, working with me, can know when they're ready for the next one.

I also work with families on this, too, with different levels of text that are pretty brief at home. We don't have a long homework policy, but, based on what they're able to do with given texts we have…They know when they're ready for the next one as well, based on how much they've mastered where they're at.

And our school, in particular, we also have a system that's positive behavior reinforcement, and it's also kind of a currency. This is actually a culturally responsive thing. They're called Órales, which basically serve as a dollar, but if you're familiar at all with Mexican Spanish, órale could mean a variety of different things.

JA:

Right, right.

AU:

But in our context of this, it's basically a, "Right on!" And in earning those, they know that they're ready for something new, they're ready for the next level, based on what they're earning. It's almost like a job that they know that they're accountable for and they're earning, and they can use these Órales to buy anything from 3-D printed objects from the middle school to things that our support director has. So, it's a system where kids are engaged, but they're also able to track how far they're coming because they're earning these. So, those were a few things that we've been using in our school that have been really positive.

JA:

I love it. Anthony, how do you help kids take ownership of their learning?

AS:

So, in previous years, I've had students to create a binder where they keep their assessments. They also have a tracking chart of their assessments, so they're able to see whether they're mastering, or how they're...It's like they can see the map and the progress of how they're doing, and with this particular binder, when we will have parent/teacher conferences, the student will take autonomy of their learning and actually have to show the parent their tracking progress, and their binders, and show them their grade, and show them their chart, and show them their assessment. So, students have done that.

And then we take, in Virginia, we take a MAPs test, which is Measures of Academic Progress testing, and it basically, it's like an adaptive test where the students may receive questions that may be above their grade level, or it adjusts to where they're at. So, with that, the students set their own goals. Once again, we show them their tracking process, and we show them what score they should be at, and then we give them autonomy and say, "OK, do you think you can reach this goal, or do you want to go higher?"

And some students actually look at the number and say, "I think I can do a little bit more than that," and so they actually write it on a bookmark and they keep track with that bookmark, and when they're taking their MAPs test, I've seen students look at their bookmark to remind them, "OK, I have to get this particular score so that I can reach my goal." And so, having them to do that, it helps them to have the autonomy over their learning rather than the teacher saying, "This is what you need to do." They're actually able to keep track themselves.

JA:

Mmmm-hmmm. I love that. And I have my kids keep track of Acadience® data, their fluency and such. Also, we take an assessment on comprehension called RI, and one of my students' favorite things is, especially after the pandemic, I mentioned those gaps before, and I didn't know how to really effectively teach kids how to break down multisyllabic words, so my literacy coach helped us get this program called REWARDS® which teaches kids how to break words down to their individual parts, and I would watch kids who had been stuck at the same kind of level from beginning of year to mid-year, on Acadience data, suddenly they started seeing growth, because every time they would come to an unfamiliar multisyllabic word, they would stop and they would break it down to its parts, just like we've been doing in REWARDS, and then they bring it together.

AS:

Yeah.

JA:

And they would start to say, "Man, I'm seeing ... " I always talk about the practice that we do in small group with REWARDS, or rather, tools as like dribbling practice, and then the assessment is the game. "Man, I'm scoring more points in the game because I've been practicing so hard on my dribbling." That's exactly right, man.

AU:

Yeah.

JA:

Framing. You know, at the start of this conversation, we were talking about how you frame both the instruction and the learner. I feel like, more than anything else, that is the key. That's how you move kids from below level to proficient. It's just framing them both as people who can be successful at reading, but also the act of reading as a very doable, and at the same time powerful thing, but I also know that reading is not the end for us. For us, it's the means to an end. For me, I don't want my kids just to be proficient readers, I want them to be self-advocates. I want them to be able to go out there and say big things on behalf of themselves, their families, and their communities, and in order to do that, they have to take in information.

Here at the end of the conversation, I'd just love to know, why is it that you care so much about your kids' literacy instruction, their ability to read? And I know that it goes beyond those scores. What is it for you, Anthony, that makes this so important to you?

AS:

I never had an adult to pour into me, and to care about my academics as I needed, and so I want to be everything to my children that I needed and knowing that...having someone to cheer them on, having someone to believe in them, having someone to say, "You can do it," even in the midst of failure, saying...just reminding them that there is no real success without first having a failure. Just being to them everything that I needed, it really helps me to pour into them even the more.

JA:

Yeah. Alisa, why is it so important to you to empower these kids?

AU:

Growing up here in New Mexico, I learned to read in one language, and I spoke one language, and only knew one language until I became an adult, and learning a second language and being bilingual, I realized that reading not only in one language, but that opens doors to being able to in more than one language. And for me as a teacher, coming back to this profession, making connections not only in the small communities that we're in, but thinking globally, and this international mindedness that I'm really hoping that my students can achieve, being able to connect with others is so connected to being able to relate in more than just the spoken word. Reading and writing are so integral into the connections that we make, and the relationships that we build, and the change that we can make in this world. So, I'm doing this so that my students can also have what I didn't; not only reading, but being able to do it in more than one language, and knowing that the possibilities for that, and the connections that they can make, can really be world changing.

JA:

Humanizing kids and humanizing teachers. Well, I'll tell you what, thank you both so much, because this conversation has been fantastic. If you'd like to learn, listeners, more about me and my students, you can follow my class on social media at 9thEvermore; the number nine, T-H, Evermore. My kids also make incredibly dope music videos that you can find on YouTube at the same channel, 9thEvermore. Alisa, if the listeners want to learn more about you and follow your work, where can they find you?

AU:

Probably the best place to find me right now is on Twitter. That's @ACooperdeUribe. It's a really long name, so, letter A, C-O-O-P-E-R-D-E-U-R-I-B-E.

JA:

Awesome. And how about you, Anthony?

AS:

They can follow me on Twitter at 2021VATOTY, or Instagram at 2021VAT.O.Y.

JA:

Virginia Teacher of the Year. That's right.

AU:

Yeah.

JA:

So, listeners, thank you so much for joining us in this conversation, and please, come join us again on EDVIEW360.

Narrator:

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