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Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Episode 85: Lighting a Literacy Fire Beyond School Walls
In Episode 85, we’re joined by Brook Schueller and Amy Simpson, members of a community committee working toward an ambitious goal: 85% of third graders reading at proficient levels.
This conversation explores how Spencer Community Schools recognized that literacy growth couldn’t live only inside classrooms. By building relationships, meeting families where they were, and continuously reflecting and evolving over five years, the community helped create a shared culture of reading.
This episode offers practical insight and inspiration for districts wondering how to move literacy from a school initiative to a true community effort—and how lighting a literacy fire beyond school walls can change what’s possible for students.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Compass PD podcast where we dive into evidence-based practices and research-driven strategies that empower educators and leaders to make a lasting impact. I'm Dr. Carrie Hepburn, your host, alongside my friends Brooke Shuler and Amy Simpson from Spencer Community School District. Hi, Amy. Hi, Brooke. Hello. How are you guys? We are great. Doing really well. Just to give you a little bit of information about Spencer, Iowa. Spencer Community Schools is located in Spencer, Iowa, which is in the northwest corner of Iowa. They have around 10,000 residents and 2,300-ish students. I would love for both of you to just take a couple minutes and tell us who you are.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. My name is Brooke Schuler. I'm currently working for Spencer Community Schools. I've spent about 21 years in education. Most of those years were spent in early childhood, mostly kindergarten, but also specialists. I have my reading endorsement, a lot of learning around reading and how kids learn to read. Currently I am serving as an elementary principal, but my most recent role before this was the district literacy coach. So I continue to keep some of those literacy roles in the district. One of those is Spencer Reads, which we'll tell you about.
SPEAKER_00:Yay! And I'm Amy Simpson, and I am Brooks co-chair of the Spencer Reeds Initiative here. I have a background actually in psychology and child and family services. I grew up in Spencer, spent about 15 years in the nonprofit sector, and about six years ago, started working with Spencer Community Schools, contracted to coordinate some programs, and some of them are um contracted, some of them I volunteer with. And so then when Spencer Reed started, my friend Brooke reached out and said, Hey, we need a we need someone to represent the parent sector, the community sector. And so that's how I came on board with this.
SPEAKER_03:Well, everyone has a friend like me.
SPEAKER_01:Those are the best friends, right? Amy, like Brooks, they just like say, This is gonna be fun. This is gonna be great.
SPEAKER_00:Actually, I do think that's how I spun it. She did, and she said it would be just a real small time commitment. And here we are five years later. Yeah. Still going strong.
SPEAKER_02:So wow. Well, I'm really excited because at Compass PD, we've been serving several districts across the country as they develop their comprehensive literacy plans. And what we know is that a key pillar of literacy is family and community engagement. And that's exactly what Spencer Reads is, and that we're going to be talking about today. One of the things that I loved about this is my co-founder Erin and I both were at Spencer Community Schools for um working on our comprehensive literacy plans. And we heard there was a Spencer Reads meeting that night, and we got to engage and attend the meeting, and we'll talk more about that later, but it was so inspiring attending this meeting that we knew this was one of the things that districts are looking for to get their communities and their families engaged in literacy. We are finding that as we're engaging in this work, districts are really struggling with engagement declining as a whole in their in their school districts. So it's declining and attending events and uh you know parent involvement, and then seeing that uh that engagement is struggling at home too. And so what we loved about Spencer Reads was it was bringing the community in and meeting parents where they were. The purpose of our episode today is that family and community engagement is really a non-negotiable when it comes to a strong comprehensive literacy plan. And if you're not doing a comprehensive literacy plan, I would say it's should be a pillar in your strategic plan as a district. So be thinking about what you're hearing today and how you can build upon it, try some of it, or incorporate like something similar. Another thing I want you to think about is how our literacy outcomes can change when schools stop trying to get the families to come to us, and instead we start meeting families where they are. So Amy and Brooke are gonna talk about some really great ideas of things that they're doing that aren't asking the school to do more, but ways that they're getting out into what's already happening. So be listening for those kinds of things. Another thing that I think is really important is everything's super expensive. Literacy budgets in elementary will destroy your entire curriculum budget year after year after year. And so when we're working with organizations, we have a lot of other content we have to teach and things that we're responsible for. So when I learned about Spencer Reads, there is minimal expense. And I want you to know that really our goal is literacy to become something that the communities rally around and not something that just happens inside the school and your school walls, and Spencer Reeds does this really well. So I'm going to stop talking and like we're shifting gears for the next however long it takes us because I think this is important, and we're going to hear from Amy and Brock. So let's get started. Like, what did you notice about Spencer Reeds that immediately stood out as different from typical family engagement efforts? Can you talk to us about that?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so like like other districts, just what you're talking about, and and this still happens, like when we have events inside our school walls, we're we're often a little disappointed about um the number that came or even the clientele that came, like who we were trying to reach. We just weren't getting those people to come to school. Even even when we up our game and we offer, you know, food and meals, um, we just weren't getting the the people that we wanted the most. So um we have, you know, we've had this huge moon chat goal kind of post-COVID about, you know, after looking at the lowest scores that we've ever seen, like like many other districts, but we set a moonshot goal that we were going to get back and to 85% of our third graders reading at a proficiency level, and then some goals beyond that as well. And it can be overwhelming when you feel like you aren't getting the people that you're trying to target and how you're going to cover that big deficit in their reading scores without contacting those families and being engaged with them. So we decided basically that it didn't have to be solely on us and that we needed to make this a community effort. And so then this was not Spencer Reads with the name, but the idea was come up with by our superintendent, Terry Heeman, and he wanted to embed it in the community. Um, and so we just decided that we were gonna get together with some people in our community that have a big impact on kids, especially like where are our kids at when they're not at school? They're at the YMCA, they're at the Spencer Pool, they are in parks and soccer and baseball, and um the public library we wanted to highlight. So we invited many people from various businesses and organizations to see how we could sort of start a trend of reading in the community. And that's how Spencer Reads was born.
SPEAKER_00:We knew that it needed to be more than within the buildings of our school district and even just expanding to those households, to those families, because that was the frustration. The parents that we wanted engaged were really difficult to engage. And so then we thought, let's get bigger and let's make it a community event, a community initiative. And so who are the movers and shakers that we can connect with to really kind of get the champions involved to make some change? And that was kind of where we started. Who we need who we needed at the table. And that was, you know, you talk about expense. There was no cost. It was just let's think about who might be passionate, who might be helpful, who might know who we need to connect with. We didn't have to have all the answers. We just needed to connect with the right people. And we had a pretty small group initially, but it it grew. Um, but that was really it. And that was just let's just value what they have to say. Let's tell them what we want to achieve and what we hope they could bring to the table and invite them. And let's just let's just start and see what we can do.
SPEAKER_03:Another cool thing that happened kind of accidentally through Spencer Reads is um adults in the community started talking about reading too. So I think that was a good um influencer in Spencer Reads as adults started to share reading more. Um, and then our kids got to see, hey, our moms and our dads are talking about books. In our case, mostly moms, we had like a little text script going about um Spencer Reads and what we were reading, and just sort of highlighting that you're gonna love reading your whole life.
SPEAKER_00:So um, but we kind of used a little bit of positive peer pressure with that to uh, you know, as we engaged members of the business community, we asked them to participate in different ways and then posted on social media. Well, when one bank participated, the other bank was more likely to participate because you didn't want to be the one that didn't support this initiative in a great way. It was wonderful. And so we had um, like, so our well, we'll talk a little bit about our big kickoff. I don't know, we're kind of bouncing around, but we the start, we got all of those people at the table and we thought, how are we gonna? We got this, has got to go out with a bang. What are we gonna do? What's gonna be our big thing? And so we our first event was we called Together We Read, and we picked one day at one time, and we asked everybody take 15 minutes, let's all read together. That's it. No cost, no nothing. But it was a matter of we went um, we went to the local cable show and did a TV interview, we went to the radio stations and and and did interviews live on air with them. We went to business community partners and all of these different people, and we brought them a flyer and we said, here's what we want. We need you to help us get this word out, and then we want you to share it. And then that way, then throughout the day, as people participated and they posted their pictures, others were seeing, oh, they did that. The members at the hospital, our city hall people were doing it. We had a UPS driver who stopped on his route and took a picture of him reading um with his truck behind him, and you know, so it was just and it that cost us zero dollars. And it was just a matter of like, let's just try to do one big um inclusive event, and it included all every student, K-12, every building, every student, every classroom, no matter if you were in PE or band or in a regular classroom, they all stopped at the exact same time and got a book out and read. So it was a really successful way to uh kick it off, get everything started.
SPEAKER_02:Can can I pause you right there? Because I want to name a couple things that um are sticking out to me right now as you're talking. One thing is um you set a very audacious goal and you uh learning um moonshot goal was new for me. Like I hadn't heard somebody use that term until I was at Spencer Community Schools. So they set this big goal, 85% of third graders. So I mean, people right now would be like, whoa, that really is like shooting for the moon. And and so you set this goal as an organization at community Spencer Community Schools. It came like the the leadership was bought in. That's what I heard. The the superintendent was like, What are we going to do? And you didn't create this goal in isolation, I know that. So, for for those listening, this goal wasn't created in isolation, this was done as a shared vision, a shared desire at Spencer Community Schools. They live it, they sleep, they eat this, they eat, sleep, and breathe this. That's what I want to say. They don't eat that, they they believe this. Um, then you got a few people that were just committed. Like, let's just be brave and name our goal out in the community. Let's like tell people. So there's something about naming it and making it transparent. Like, we're gonna be brave enough to say that this is what we're gonna work towards together, but we can't do it alone inside our schools. It's going to take all of us together. Then you did a kickoff, right? So you you well, that's not before you did that, you guys were like, Who are all the people? Where are all the places our kids and families are at when they're not with us? So we're gonna bring those people to the table, and then together you guys came up with this kickoff. Um, I'm not sure if we said it explicitly, but they use a hashtag, a hashtag Spencer Reads, and they'll probably talk about that again and again, but that's how people could find and tag that they were reading, and then you did the together we read for 15 minutes. What I love about this is kids and families can see, you know, when you mention the UPS driver or a construction worker or a banker or a farmer or any walk of life, we all read, and that can be a vision for maybe um somebody who's like, I'm not a good reader, I never really could read, and I do fine in life. Um, for a kid that maybe that's kind of the message that they've heard, it was so inclusive that way, and what an inspiration, what a great way to get people sharing and talking about literacy. Something else you said, adults started talking about reading too. If kids start seeing adults highlighting what they value, they're going to follow. And so you did that really well. Just this small group of people of igniting that fire and getting that started. So, is there anything you would like add? I just had to stop and say that in like five minutes, you gave us all of that.
SPEAKER_00:We can talk. Yeah, we can talk. Um, one thing I just wanted to add, you mentioned um all walks of life and being inclusive. Um, the our kickoff event, what people were reading, like the UPS driver, he he was reading some kind of a manual. It was it was work-related, and we and same with a couple of them were um, you know, a nonfiction related to their job, something that they were reading. Some of them were a novel, one was a newspaper. And we, when we, you know, went out and spoke to people about that, and when we were on the radio, um, we said, listen, you don't have to be a giant fictional novel reader to participate in this. Whatever you want to read is fine, just read because it's gonna be a part of your world every single day at your job. You're gonna have a manual, you're gonna have paperwork, you're gonna whatever it is. It doesn't, we'd love it if it's read for fun, but even if it's not, it's still part of your world.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, yeah, I do think that you know, when you we spoke back to the chat goal, um, you know, sharing that out loud did create like a sense of urgency and and speaking to everyone like these are our kids and this is our community, and we can do this together. And so just like naming it, like you said, we sort of made Spencer Reads like a noun, like we created a logo, we um got signs and posters made and shirts and on the back of our shirts, it actually says, and on the kids' shirts too, it says, ask me what I'm reading, just like creating this idea that you should be reading something. And when I ask you, I want you to be able to tell me either I even have like some upper elementary kids that are able to tell me, like, oh, I'm really into this genre, which was never in our in our repertoire of talking about books. Like right now, my daughter would say, I'm I'm really into mystery. What could what what book should I read next? Um and I don't know, just creating this like uh logo, this noun of oh, Spencer Reads is gonna be there, or maybe we can invite Spencer Reads.
SPEAKER_00:And it's also a verb. It's all I mean, it was kind of uh clever that it's like, yes, we do read. Also, it's a thing, and we're a group, and you're all everybody's a part of it. It's there's a group that kind of organizes things, but really it's everybody in our school. Every the um the logo that we have, every building you go into, you're gonna see Spencer Reed's. There's a there's a sign-up, there's a banner, there's a flyer, there's homemade signs. You're gonna every visitor that comes to an event in our school building, the first thing they see when they walk into the high school building is a Spencer Reed sign. So the the value of it being a big part of it of our district is very visible. And, you know, so then we get people that say, what does that mean? What is, you know, what is Spencer Reads? Is it you're saying what you do? Is it something, you know, it it did get people talking a little bit, so which is fun.
SPEAKER_03:Another something that I've noticed since we've kicked off Spencer Reeds, it's kind of like a lighthearted kind of joke, but still like brings reading to the forefront. Like if we go, for example, Amy's dad is a bus driver and he takes many of our teams to sporting events sometimes all day. And um, other parents will be there and um sometimes he'll be reading. And so he'll they'll take a picture and send it to us and then say, Spencer Reads. Or like like our own kids will see a friend uh reading at a coffee shop and they'll shout to each other, Oh, Spencer Reads, you know, I know kind of joking, but just a fun way of, oh, I told you so. Spencer Reads, here we are. So that's kind of fun. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And it's just become very commonplace, which didn't happen overnight. But I think the our effort to be inclusive and broad and the front made that possible. Because, you know, anyone we talked to, we said, oh, you have a book club. That is so cool. When you guys meet, will you post a picture and hashtag Spencer Reads? Like it doesn't have to be anything that we organize, but it's supporting this community effort. And we want to highlight it. And we want kids when they go online and they search that hashtag, they're going to see, oh, there's my, you know, teacher and the school janitor and my friend's mom who who knew they have a book club. You know, they it's not something they would have talked about otherwise, but then we see that where you didn't even know it was happening. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and there's another example of you're not exhausting your resources. Like we always talk about people, time, and money being our most important resources and valuable. And it you feel like you're always exhausting those resources in any initiative we're trying to do. Well, they're just living life. And all you have to do is take a picture and hashtag Spencer Reads. That's all we're asking. So that in your day-to-day life, let's build this love, this excitement, this engagement. That's so smart. So smart. It's really fun. How did you find that you could shift the mindset of how do we increase attendance at school or at our events to how do we build connection and excitement around literacy? What did that look like for you guys?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we decided that like a lot of things that are changing and evolving in education, so is the way that we um connect with families. So we decided that instead of expecting people to come to us, we were just gonna do like a survey of the land. Like where are our kids when they're not with us? Where are our families when it's not during the school day? Um, what kinds of things can we be present at that they will already be there?
SPEAKER_00:We talked a lot about resources already, and that where is it's difficult because we learned very early on. We thought we were gonna plan all of these things, and we put all this time and we did, you know, and we'd plan a big event and we were all excited, and very few people would come. And so then you have the frustration and the disappointment with that. We realized really quickly instead of recreating the wheel, how do we go to them? Where are they already going to be? Where how can we jump on something that's already happening and meet those families there? And that goes back to you know, being mindful of the resources that it takes and what you know, where we're putting our energy.
SPEAKER_03:And also, we just sort of listened to like teachers have good insight on where the kids are that they work with. So, like our EL teachers, for example, were like our kids are not gonna come to the events. Transportation is an issue, working hours are an issue for families to get to these events, and so we work together with them, especially with the EL population. We've had some EL specific nights that we have joined. We have just provided books for those families based on, and when I say provided, I'm talking like we did like a community book drive, and people were very generous with books that have been just sitting on shelves at home that their kids are no longer reading. And we we just make sure that all kids have have books on their shelves at home to have access to. We have tried to really highlight our public library in all events that we have and invite them to other events in the community just so people can get signed up for a library card and they understand what that means. It's a free resource, um, especially for those families that aren't regular visitors. Like, what does that mean? What can I access? It's way more than books, they find out. It's a lot of great learning opportunities. How do I access books online through the public library? That has been a popular thing. We have um our public library. I think most public libraries in Iowa have the Libby app available. I think so. Yeah. And just sort of being a constant everywhere in the community rather than an isolated event a couple times a year.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and the and the community events that are already occurring. We just kind of jumped on and called whoever the coordinator of that is, or in some cases, they reached out to us and said, Hey, we have this coming up. This is our annual. Um, we have there's an event called Family Fest. We have a big fair in the fall, we have um in the start of the Christmas season, we have an event called Grand Meander. Like there are different community events that we just said, can we add something to this? Can we add a little reading activity? And it might be a story time, it might be a book giveaway, it might do something very simple. Again, no cost needed to do it. And we just organized a couple of volunteers to jump in and handle that night. And so if if there's an a family event in town, there's probably Spencer reads something there. We try hard to be present at any of the places that they're gonna be.
SPEAKER_02:Let's talk about what impact did you see not just academically, but emotionally and socially on the students and the families of Spencer community.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, one of the speaking of emotionally mostly, one of the ways that we try to um connect readers in our community is um connecting our elementary kids with our high schoolers. And so um we have grade-alike elementaries, so preschool through kindergarten isn't one elementary, first and second is another. And sometimes I think if you don't have kids that have older siblings or are involved in um activities at the high school, our elementary kids don't even realize that those high schoolers are Spencer Tigers too. And so we have highlighted um a few grade levels, first grade, second grade, and third grade, um, do an event once a year where they go to the high school and like in the fall, they go to the football field. In the winter, they go to our field house. Um, and then in the spring they go to the baseball diamonds. And all Spencer High School students that are involved in any activity, we call it on the ball readers, but it's really all activities. Um, fine arts, um the whatever sport is going on that particular season, all those high schoolers can sign up and they partner with a small group of elementary kids, talk to them about like how old they are, who their teacher was when they're in elementary, what activities they do, what they what was their favorite book as a kid. Yep. And then our public library supplies hundreds of books, and then we just read together um and sort of highlight the growth that kids have in our district, and that um one day you'll be the high schooler reading to the elementary kids.
SPEAKER_00:So that has been and the high schoolers love it. It was, you know, when we were hopeful that they would be excited about it, but you never know. You know, they're teenagers, you never know exactly what kind of buy-in you're gonna get. Um, and we scheduled it at the time of day that we our high school calls it flex. It's kind of an open period um where you know, we're not taking pulling them out of an important class, but it's voluntary, they sign up to do it. And we have, I mean, it the number is massive. Almost everyone that can participate chooses to, and it's just joy. It's so fun. The little kids love it, the big kids love it, and you know, some of those things they look forward to it. They know, you know, if you're a multi-season student, you know, involved in things all year long, they ask at the end of it, when's the next one? What make sure I want to make sure I can get signed up next time.
SPEAKER_03:Um parents love it too, because we always put it on um our social media, and parents like to see their high schoolers reading with little students, and then the younger students' families love to see their kids at the high school too. So it gets a lot of attention usually. Yeah. Um, so that's one way that I feel like we've worked to kind of connect our readers all together across the district. We invite um, you know, not just our public school kids, but also um our private schools come and participate too. We because we really want this united force of together, we're readers.
SPEAKER_00:Um and our private schools locally go through middle school. And so even if they're not in our in our public school system as an elementary student, but when they're high schoolers, they will be. And so, you know, it's sometimes a little bit, a little bit difficult when you're working with different systems that don't always, you know, coincide easily. But at the end of the day, they're all gonna end up being Spencer Tigers and we and it's and it's back to the community piece, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and that's a perfect segue into my next question is like, why do you think this resonates so deeply in your community?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I you know, I think we kind of like we talked about with the um UPS driver with his manual, you know, we tried really hard to bring focus to students who are focusing on literacy and are and are good readers lead to success within our school district, lead to a healthy community, lead to the healthy business community. People want to come to town, you know. I mean, it we really did find a way to include um, you know, like some of the events that we do. Like actually tomorrow we have an event we call firehouse raids that's um over Christmas break. We invite all families to come to the fire station. They pull all the fire engines out and firefighters read books to kids and we give them some donut holes and it get out of the house. They're on Christmas break. They need to they need something to do. But I think like really simple opportunities like that are just so heartwarming, and you know, to see um uh a way for cute little kids to go to the fire station and you know be sitting on the lap of the firefighter that's reading them a story, and then they get to have tours, and you know, it's just just simple ways like that where it's like, oh, that that's really neat that we're doing that, and it really speaks to the culture in our community, which makes it a little easier for people, I think, to want to support it because it's it's positive on all the levels, it represents our community well.
SPEAKER_03:I also think that you know the urgency behind some low test scores post-COVID was kind of like a whoa, like that doesn't usually happen in our district. We we typically have great scores, especially at that time period. Um, we've been working really hard. We have awesome teachers that are always dedicated to new learning. Um, our teachers have been spending so much time learning how the brain works and how kids learn to read and changing some mind shifts that might be different from what we were taught in college. Most of us are in that boat. Um we've also highlighted that reading is not easy for everyone. We've we've partnered with um just some awareness things around dyslexia. We had a program for parents one night that Spencer Reads promoted about um learning to read with dyslexia. Um and so I think that sort of valued some parents that know that they have struggling readers and that Spencer Schools is is recognizing that difficulty and learning ways to help them every day and that they're not alone with struggling readers, even if they are a struggling reader themselves, just sort of bringing attention to the importance of it and that it's not easy for everyone and it might not be fun for them yet. But we are here to help them kind of find something about reading that they love, whether it's a genre or um a type of reading magazines, audiobooks, even we have really highlighted and made sure that people have access to finding ways to listen to books.
SPEAKER_00:Most of the things we've done have been very low cost. One of the things we were lucky to do is this last school year, we did get a nice donation um from some very generous people in town, and we were able to purchase a new book for every middle school and high school student in Spencer Schools, like really good, like really good novels. We we tapped into our resources and we curated a wonderful list of books, and they were hot topics. It was so much fun to be able to do that. So we every student then, um, sixth through twelfth grade was able to come to our we called it a pop-up bookstore and buy a book, pick a book. But there a lot of those kids came in and said, I don't really read, I don't know what I want, I don't really, you know, and we had magazines, we had graphic novels, we had, you know, and to sit, just sit and have a conversation with them and say, What movies do you like to watch? Tell me something that you enjoy and let what if you try this? Here's one that I've heard this is great. I read this one, my daughter liked this one, you know, and at no risk to them because they weren't purchasing it, uh, you know, and they didn't have to check it out. We were just like, just take it home, you know. And so it was really, really fun to get to do that. That was uh kind of a big ticket um activity. We don't usually get to do things like that, but that one was a lot. But then thinking outside the box a little bit for some of those kids. Um, the the our really avid readers were really funny too, with that, because they figured out we had several of them were series, um, you know, in every book in the series, they got really smart and they worked with their friends. And you you pick book one, I'll pick two, you pick three, and then we pick and they were pretty clever figuring out ways to, you know, or they would text their friend and say, Oh my gosh, I've been waiting for book three, I just got it, you know, and they were um so excited. So it was really fun, uh a simple way to bring bring some joy to some of those kids.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we found that it's it's easier to be present in elementary schools, like thinking of ideas of embedding reading there. So that was one way when we realized it's harder in secondary to to to kind of highlight reading like that. So the pop-up bookstore was something that we did get a donation for. Get it. But also um we, this is our second year offering. Um, our um foundation through the school has um provided a scholarship on behalf of Spencer Reeds, where we've kind of created a buzz about, okay, if I have a library card and reading has had an impact on my life and I can tell someone about that impact, um, I can apply for a college scholarship, um, a Spencer Reeds um college scholarship. So that's another way that we've sort of highlighted reading in the secondary levels, but but we continue just to kind of brainstorm ideas about engaging them.
SPEAKER_00:One thing I really loved about that scholarship, a lot of those that they can apply for have restrictions as far as your grade point requirement or your involvement in activities and thing, you know, they're ranked in certain ways. We didn't want that with this. It was open to anyone. All we wanted to know was how has reading impacted your life? If you know, if you're maybe not the best student and you didn't love reading, but you found a way to power through and you can tell us about that, that makes you a candidate for this scholarship. And so it was really fun to um broaden that a little bit to students that maybe wouldn't have otherwise.
SPEAKER_02:Our goal in this whole first section was to inspire you. I want you to see how Spencer Reads, you know, came to life, how it had a shared vision, a shared vision and a goal of literacy, their moonshot goal, and how they knew that they couldn't do that in their just their buildings alone. And I'm going to tell you, you all, um, that listen to me again and again and again and again and again. I'm just pulling some of my favorite books right now. If you've read Reader, come home, if you've read Reading in the Brain, if you've read this is one of my favorite books, Revenge of the Analogs. This has nothing to do with reading, but it I promise it'll be really impactful. The teaching brain. If you've read any of these books on the multi-sensory teaching, the writing revolution, beyond the science of reading, like I could go on and on, uh, speech to print, fresh look at phonics. If you've read any of those, you know that the and you know all about Scarborough's rope and all of the strands and how they fit together. We have got to find a way to build kids' literacy skills because uh in vocabulary and background knowledge, um, because they're coming to us with less and less because of devices. I'm sh I'm showing this. So if you're watching this, you see it, but if you're listening, you're like, what is she doing? I'm just pulling out books and and this. So there is a lot of work that we're going to have to do at the schools that's going to build to build up that background knowledge that kids used to have and the vocabulary that they get from actually holding a book and digging into a book. And we're seeing that same thing with the adults because we're spending so much time on these devices. We're losing, you know, kids are losing their ability to sequence, to comprehend, to point, pick, figure out like the minute details that help them figure out what the main idea or the central idea is, which leads to theme. All of this. So we've got to spend as much time as we can building connections, the literacies, the dialogue, the conversation, the the actual hardcore of it. And I feel like all that you've talked with us about so far is building that connection, building that vision. It's very little technology required, with the exception of the Libby app, so that they have access to more text. Just trying to get people access, access, access. Now, the conversation that I had with Amy and with Brooke regarding Spencer Reeds was so inspiring. It tended to go on because we loved talking about this and we loved talking about increasing engagement with families and communities around literacy. So we had to split this episode, this original episode, into two parts. So I want to encourage you to come back and listen to the second part of this conversation, which will be episode 86. Um, know that we're not just Ending it here, our goal in this section of the podcast was to inspire you through story, through shared values, show you how Spencer Reeds created a joyful, welcoming, inclusive experience for not only their students, but for the community overall. I want to just share with you that their Spencer Reeds meeting was after school that Aaron and I were able to attend. It was after school. People came happy, smiling, excited. This is not something that we see in a community at an after-school meeting. People were ready. They believe in this work. And so as you consider starting something similar in your organization, I think Amy and Brooke hit the nail on the head early on that you find the right people to be at the table. And you may not have a plan. You just start creating that vision, you start to create that goal, and you start to brainstorm and think like, what do we already have? And go there. And, you know, they'll talk later on about how maybe they try to have two events a month. That's probably too much starting out. They are five years into this, right? So it's like a well-oiled machine. We showed up to their meeting, they had an agenda, they were excited, they stayed on topic. We were even there to look through and read the pieces of writing that students had written for the scholarship that they talked about, and just wanting to get kids excited and want more for themselves in literacy. So I want you to walk away today, like jotting down ideas and thinking about what does this look like in our community? Who might be the right people that would be at the table? What can we do to get everyone inspired when it comes to reading and writing? I want to say thank you so much, Amy and Brooke, for this time because I do believe that you're going to inspire some people and that we together can change lives and literacy for all kids. And that's really what we want. We want our communities to be filled with kids that can pick up a book and read anything they want to read. And as adults, that you can read whatever you want to read and be able to write whatever you want to write. So it doesn't have to look the same, but you need but we believe in opportunity and want to inspire everyone for that. So as we wrap up today, I want to say thank you to everyone for joining us on the Compass PD podcast. Remember at Compass PD, we believe that every educator and community member has the power to inspire, change, and transform student learning. Stay focused, stay inspired, and keep making a difference.