Schoolutions - S2 E34: To the Classroom Podcast and Reading Strategies 2.0: Behind the Scenes with Jennifer Serravallo
[00:00:00] Olivia: Welcome to Schoolutions, where listening will leave you inspired by solutions to issues you or others you know may be struggling with in the public education system today. I am Olivia Wahl, and I am so excited to welcome my guest today, Jennifer Serravallo. Jen is a reading and writing educator, teachers’ teacher, author, speaker, and leader of the consulting team, Literacy Strategies Consulting, LLC.
[00:00:30] Olivia: She supports K-8 literacy educators around the globe in developing skillful, enthusiastic readers and writers by translating research and complex theories into doable practices that fit in today's classrooms. Jen writes research-based books and materials and works alongside teachers, coaches, administrators, and district leaders to support their understanding and implementation of student-centered literacy instruction.
[00:00:55] Olivia: She believes in instruction that honors the whole unique learner, culturally, emotionally, socially, and academically. Jen also believes that we must approach learning with the spirit of vulnerability, embracing mistakes, reflection, and self-advocacy along the path to progress. Jen is the author of (drum roll…), 15 best-selling professional books and resources for K-8 literacy educators worldwide.
[00:01:24] Olivia: With that said, it is my honor to welcome the one and only Jennifer Serravallo. Jen welcome.
[00:01:31] Jen: Thank you, Olivia. I love your podcast, and I was so honored to receive an invitation from you, so thanks for inviting me.
[00:01:37] Olivia: Jen, I love to kick off every episode by asking guests who an inspiring educator is from their life. Would you share with listeners, please?
[00:01:45] Jen: It's hard to choose just one favorite educator because I've been fortunate to know so many. Both educators who have taught me, educators that my children have had in school, as well as so many of the educators I've been fortunate to work with in their schools and classrooms. Um, but one that comes to mind is my high school art teacher.
[00:02:08] Jen: His name was Ken Vieth, and I think one of the things that made his teaching so impactful was that he had such high expectations for all of us. He was so encouraging, and, um, he taught his art class in a way that allowed us to practice a lot. He would spend a tiny bit of time teaching us about a concept like how to find the center line in your face when you're drawing a portrait.
[00:02:38] Jen: So you put your eyes in the right spot, things like that. And then he'd send us off, and we'd spend the majority of the time working. He used to walk around the room, and he'd tell us that our work was successful or he'd, he'd encourage us to keep going. He was just really hands-on. Super engaged with everybody, and I just always really looked forward to his class.
[00:03:00] Jen: Um, and I think maybe that's part of why I'm so drawn to workshop model teaching. Why I love setting kids up to be successful, giving them lots of time to work, giving them encouragement and feedback. And I move around the room a lot. I feel like in a lot of ways, the way I, I teach reading and writing echoes the way that, uh, Ken Vieth taught me art.
[00:03:20] Olivia: Absolutely. So there is an issue that has been an issue for a long time and as we all try to be voluminous readers of research being educators, your website with the new podcast tab could not articulate the issue that I want to talk about with you better: “The collection of knowledge and advice about best practices and literacy education is always evolving. This is both a gift and a challenge.”
[00:03:43] Olivia: And boy, is it ever! And the solution that I am so excited to offer listeners today is your new podcast, To the Classroom. So that's what our conversation is going to focus on today. What would you like listeners to know about your new podcast, To the Classroom?
[00:04:04] Jen: Well, one of the things maybe that would be interesting is why I started this podcast in the first place.
[00:04:10] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:04:10] Jen: And there are a few different things that kind of led me to this project. One is that I did so much research for my new book, The Reading Strategies Book 2.0.
[00:04:20] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:04:20] Jen: There are over 700 citations that ended up in the book, so even more on the cutting room floor. I worked with a phenomenal research assistant who helped me to evaluate research, summarize research, um, learn about researchers I hadn't been familiar with prior to our work together. And it just made the book so much better to be standing on the shoulders of that quantity of research. And before I hired this research assistant, I tried myself to get to some of this research.
[00:04:52] Jen: I tried just looking online, tried on Google Scholar. Sometimes I'd get this like scrambled version of a PDF…
[00:04:58] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:04:58] Jen: …and I'm like, this is ridiculous. I tried doing what so many researchers offer is, oh, just email the researcher, the lead researcher, and they'll send it to you…sometimes. You know, and, and it was just like, I can't do at the speed that I need to be working at without access.
[00:05:15] Jen: And so there's this real access problem. Um, and so one of the things I wanted to do is to just make some of this research and some of these scholars more accessible to teachers. Both to hear from them firsthand, but also to hear about their research in a way that's digestible. Because that's the other point of access, right…
[00:05:34] Olivia: Yes.
[00:05:34] Jen: …is sometimes you read these papers, and you're like, what?
[00:05:37] Jen: What does that say? What does this method section mean? What's a regression analysis? What's that? Right? And it's just very hard to understand because we don't all have advanced degrees in statistics as classroom teachers. So it started off as just how can I help classroom teachers access this research and these researchers, um, and I know I'm not the only one trying to help classroom teachers access research, but I thought that this format of podcasting would be a fun one.
[00:06:02] Jen: I had done a few episodes prior to this through another podcast, and I interviewed Maryanne Wolf, Wiley Blevins, and I loved that. I loved meeting them and interviewing them, and it's just great professional development (P.D.) for me too. So that's how I got started with it.
[00:06:16] Olivia: So I have spent the last few weeks listening to every episode, of course.
[00:06:42] Jen: I am honored. Thank you.
[00:06:21] Olivia: Um, and well, to me, the structure is so, um, it's just beautiful because you interview the actual researcher, but then as you said, you digest the research, and you talk about how can this be applied. Can you say more about that structure so listeners know what to expect?
[00:06:42] Jen: Sure. Sure. It was a fun, you know, just like a writing process when I'm making a book. It evolves and evolves and evolves until I land on something. I'm like, this feels right. So what I started off thinking was I just interview researchers, but then I was like, but one of the problems is this disconnection…
[00:06:56] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:06:56] Jen: …between the stuff that's behind a paywall and the classroom. And what's the research really for? And many researchers will even say this, it's, it's to help inform classroom practice. That's where the magic is. Right? So basically, the format is, I have colleagues listening in. Often there are members of my consulting team, but we also have some episodes coming up where I've invited some other educators, um, that are friends of friends or in schools that I work in. And they are on live while I'm recording the interview with the researcher.
[00:07:27] Olivia: Okay, I wondered about that. Yeah.
[00:07:28] Jen: And yeah, so they're listening, um, while we're doing the interview. And then I say goodbye to the researcher. Sometimes they don't wanna leave. They wanna hear the conversation.
[00:07:37] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:07:37] Jen: So sometimes I'll let them hang out and listen to what the teachers have to say.
[00:07:40] Olivia: That's cool.
[00:07:41] Jen: And the first question is, so what do we do? What, what do we take to the classroom? What shifts in our practice, you know, make sense based on what we just heard? What do you think from what you just heard reinforces the kinds of practices that we do? Um, sometimes they're making direct links to things in my books and other resources where people can go find more information.
[00:08:01] Jen: Um, but we try to have this really practical - it's all very brief because no one has a lot of time for a very long session. You know, this very practical conversation about classroom practice.
[00:08:11] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:08:11] Jen: Um, so yeah, that's the format.
[00:08:14] Olivia: I also appreciate that they interviews themselves with the researchers. They're just enough. They make your brain hurt a tiny bit, but it's just enough. Just enough to be like, okay, and then you get to sit and just hear the reflection and practical, I'm gonna emphasize practical application to the classroom from multiple perspectives.
[00:08:35] Olivia: That's what I adore. So my format for listening to each episode is, a dry run in the car, just taking it in processing. And then my favorite thing is to go back to the transcripts. You are a gift because you give transcripts. And I plan, moving forward, to use the transcripts as well for professional learning alongside The Reading Strategies 2.0 Book.
[00:08:59] Olivia: Um, because I think a lot of folks have given feedback that they also love, even if they're listening to see the transcript and follow along so they can annotate. You're offering so many opportunities - a quick nugget of research and then ways to process it. And you give us virtual thought partners, which is so cool.
[00:09:21] Olivia: So I appreciate it very much.
[00:09:23] Jen: Aw, thank you. I love, um, the process to prepare for the interview. I asked the guest, what are some recent papers you've written that I should know about? Would you mind sending them to me?
[00:09:33] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:09:33] Jen: So I read their original research and as I'm reading, I'm thinking: What's in here that I don't hear a lot of teachers talking about? Or, what's in here that feels like it might be new? Or what's in here that feels like it's a really important concept because it's so high impact? Like the guest I have this week, Melanie Kuhn talks about this practice for fluency instruction that just has like…
[00:09:33] Olivia: Mind-blowing.
[00:09:59] Jen: … helped kids make so much gain in such a short period of time that I'm like, oh, everyone has to know about this. So I craft the questions really trying to get at the most powerful nuggets from their research findings. So I'm glad you feel that's true. And yeah, the, the transcripts, I love transcripts. I, I watch TV with the closed captioning on. I like to read as much as I like to listen. So when you have a transcript, you could do a keyword search.
[00:10:19] Jen: What was that thing she said about FORI (fluency-oriented reading instruction) instruction? F-O-R-I? Let me do a quick search in the transcript for that. Or like you said, print it, annotate it, or use it in professional learning. I've had some requests to do, uh, like a study guide, like questions, like discussion questions.
[00:10:34] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:10:34] Jen: So I might do something like that, too, as a summer project. We'll see.
[00:10:37] Olivia: Not surprising. You always have something…always thinking of what's next.
[00:10:38] Jen: I always have a project.
[00:10:41] Olivia: Always projects. One of the episodes that I cannot stop thinking about is episode four with Dr. Peter Afflerbach. And I think the reason it resonated with me so strongly, um, is because I referred to it about 15 times, working with middle and high school last week.
[00:10:58] Jen: Oh wow.
[00:10:59] Olivia: Um, and what really struck me is that notion of how he sees the attribution theory and self-efficacy, and I worry so much about school districts that label children and track them. So we have the kids that have a life sentence of AIS or a life sentence of RtI. And I don't know, as adults, if we're considering the impacts on self-efficacy and the attribution of I am not smart by keeping students, um, on this track.
[00:11:33] Olivia: And so I used that conversation and his grounding of self-esteem in the multiple exposures for success. That was the route I took with districts to just push and say, look, this isn't working. What could we do differently to reinvent and rethink what special education means for this school district?
[00:11:53] Jen: I think that his reading of the research in that area is so critical…
[00:11:57] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:11:57] Jen: …and such important, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to have him as a guest was because, you know, there's this dominant, um, conversation about what we need to help readers, and there's other pieces that are just as important where there's strong research finding.
[00:12:13] Jen: And if we're not paying attention to those two if we try to oversimplify, we're not gonna serve kids.
[00:12:19] Olivia: How do you handle when you're reading this voluminous research and you may disagree with something, yet you're interviewing this person? Sometimes researchers have a notion that kids have to figure out how school's gonna work for them versus us figuring out how school can work for children and that it serves them.
[00:12:41] Jen: Mm-hmm.
[00:12:41] Olivia: Episode three, as I was listening, um, to Dr. Daniel Willingham, I was thinking a lot about his book Outsmart Your Brain, and I was thinking of that. I also want us to figure out, So the kids don't have to outsmart their brain and constantly have obstacles. So as I listen, I'm always thinking as an interviewer of what I agree with, what I don't agree with…
[00:12:41] Jen: Yeah.
[00:13:04] Olivia: … and how you choose to push back. Do you address it? What do you choose to do?
[00:13:07] Jen: Well, I left something in that, that one, right? He was saying that really it doesn't help kids to set them up with any kind of graphic organizer or structural frame before notetaking. Research just doesn't show that that is effective.
[00:13:19] Olivia: That surprised me, yeah.
[00:13:19] Jen: And I was pushing back and I said, well, but there's all this research about the importance of teaching kids about text structure as one of the main strategies to help with comprehension, that kids have to know the structure.
[00:13:28] Jen: So wouldn't it stand to reason that…and he said, no. He was like…he just said: no.
[00:13:33] Olivia: I wondered…
[00:13:34] Jen: And I was like…
[00:13:33] Olivia: I was sitting there and wondered: What’s she thinking, what’s she thinking?
[00:13:37] Jen: I was thinking, I don't agree with you on that, or that's, I'm gonna, I'm gonna look more into that after this, uh, after this interview. But I left it in there because I think, listen, we are in a time of massive disagreement, um, on a, on a very public platform.
[00:13:51] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:13:51] Jen: People are disagreeing loudly. And sometimes, I don't think they're disagreeing respectfully.
[00:13:57] Olivia: I agree.
[00:13:57] Jen: I have strategies for that in my book; by the way, I wanna hand people some strategies from the conversation chapter, the discourse chapter.
[00:13:57] Olivia: Yep!
[00:14:07] Jen: Um, they're not always disagreeing respectfully. They're not always listening to what the person they're disagreeing with is, is really saying. So, um, maybe I'm trying to model what that looks like to listen, to ask questions respectfully, to clarify, and to let disagreements sometimes be; we just see things differently. Also, not for nothing, but he is a well-respected researcher but comes from a particular viewpoint, which is he teaches college.
[00:14:30] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:14:30] Jen: And I'm coming from a very different viewpoint. I spend time with five-year-olds and six-year-olds. And you know, so what he sees and how he understands learning and teaching is from his reading of the research and from his own firsthand experience. And he talks a lot about the firsthand experience. Or he'll say, he said it even in the interview more than once.
[00:14:47] Jen: I don't know what the research says about this, but from my experience, um, and I kinda love that because yeah, shouldn't teachers also say…
[00:14:56] Olivia: Yes!
[00:14:56] Jen: …you know, well, from my own experience, teaching for 20 years first-grade children, um, I know some things, I have an accumulated knowledge. It is research in its own way.
[00:15:06] Jen: And so, um, I think that's valid too.
[00:15:08] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:15:08] Jen: So I, I just hope we all can listen to each other a little bit more and disagree in ways that are respectful. But often, if you really listen, I feel like we're often saying the same thing in a different way.
[00:15:19] Olivia: And I'm also thinking, yes, educators should be able to say, from my experience of teaching for 20 years, and I would push that a step farther to say, I think they should be able to use that as agency and have autonomy over the choices they're making for their children.
[00:16:01] Jen: Mm-hmm.
[00:15:35] Olivia: Um, so I would take that a step even more. One of my favorite moments of episode six is when Dr. Melanie Kuhn was speaking about what she did - her process of closing that gap for fluency in such a small time period. And you say to her: Well, I'm, I'm guessing you used some strategic instruction to be able to do that. And she flat out said, Nope! It was just reading.
[00:16:01] Jen: We just read. I was like, but you gave them feedback, right? Nope. I was like, what?
[00:16:07] Olivia: Nope! And so I'll shift our conversation a little bit. What moments have surprised or challenged or inspired you most so far on your podcasting journey?
[00:16:18] Jen: One of the things that surprised me, um, is that sometimes you hear about summaries of the research or people talking about research based on an abstract. Or what's happening a lot right now with these huge Facebook groups around the Science of Reading or the way things are spreading on Twitter. People will say things like, well, I heard this was true without really backing it up and not having firsthand knowledge.
[00:16:45] Jen: It's like a, a game of telephone. This person said this, and this person said this, and it's filtered down to me, and so here's my interpretation of what this finding is. But when you go back to the actual research, and you read it firsthand, or you speak with the researcher directly, it's almost like it's a different thing.
[00:17:02] Olivia: It's amazing.
[00:17:03] Jen: And another thing is researchers are often the first to say, Well, my study didn't investigate that exactly, so I can't speak to that. Or especially, I was talking about HyeJin Hwang. I asked a question just to slightly afield of what the particular study was.
[00:17:18] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:17:18] Jen: And she wouldn't answer it. She's like; I can't say because that wasn't part of the study. Right?
[00:17:23] Olivia: That’s fascinating. Yeah.
[00:17:23] Jen: So sometimes people make these leaps about what works for children or what we should be doing in the classroom, or exactly how the day should run, or based on research where I'm like, you're really interpreting that. That's actually like several layers removed, but I, I just, I think it's so, so powerful to go back to the actual study and speak to the actual researcher. Hear it firsthand.
[00:17:44] Olivia: I agree and I think it would make us all, um, take a step back and be better listeners.
[00:17:50] Jen: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:50] Olivia…if we pause before we react or respond or press Tweet or send or whatever it's on social.
[00:17:57] Jen: Yes, yes! Yeah.
[00:17:57] Olivia: Like, stop your finger and have that moment of like, do I know this is a true fact from research? And I think a lot of it is hearsay. Uh, what other podcasts have inspired you, um, educationally or not? Like most of my podcast listening - I'll put it out there - is not educational podcasts. So what has inspired you with tone or the way you've designed your own?
[00:18:20] Jen: Oh my gosh, I have listened to so many podcasts in so many different formats. I probably love, I don't know, I listen to a lot of interview style podcasts and getting ready for making my own and trying to find the right structure. So like I listen to Triple R Teaching, I listen to Science of Reading: The Podcast.
[00:18:37] Jen: I love like Code Switch, which is more of like a news-type show. Um, that's through NPR and Fresh Air I've, I've listened to forever.
[00:18:46] Olivia: Yes.
[00:18:46] Jen: Before it was even a podcast, back when it was just a, you know, you tune in at four o'clock for Fresh Air. Um, Have You Heard as a great education podcast. And I actually, for a little bit of time, thought I might use that kind of format where I have a co-host, they kind of banter, then they interview, then they banter some more.
[00:19:02] Jen: Nice White Parents was great. So Many White Guys, which is WNYC studios. Oh my God, The Splendid Table. I listened to Colby Sharp's, The Yarn. I'm just b blabbing on here. This American Life. I, I am like a serious podcast listener.
[00:19:17] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:19:17] Jen: Even recently, I listened to this one called Bone Valley, which is like a murder mystery, but it's journalism. So good! There's so much.
[00:19:25] Olivia: Well, I think the whole idea of the podcast is it also, you know, it forces us to sit and really take someone else's ideas and thoughts, and I love listening when I'm driving because I have no other interruptions around me and I just can focus on the road while still really listening and taking in the learning.
[00:19:47] Olivia: So I've always wondered about you as a human, how you juggle what you do. How you somehow produce and publish books, it seems like, every month, every week…
[00:19:57] Jen: I know…
[00:19:57] Olivia: …like there, there was a time where you just had new pieces coming out and coming out. How in the world do you stay up to date with ever-evolving educational research?
[00:20:08] Jen: Well, podcasts are helpful. I have dogs. I walk the dogs a lot. So I listen to podcasts while I'm walking the dogs. And when I'm commuting, same as you, I'd, I'd rather listen. I get, you know, motion sickness even on a plane. So I'd rather listen than read, um, when I'm driving, when I'm on a train. So I just listen a lot.
[00:20:27] Jen: Um, I follow researchers on social media…
[00:20:32] Olivia: Mm-hmm…
[00:20:32] Jen: …that I find share some of the most important big studies. And what I mean by that is like I look at meta-analysis or systematic reviews, which is basically a qualitative meta-analysis. I'll spend time reading those firsthand. And then, like, like I said, this podcast is forcing me to read, um, you know, original research to prepare for the interviews, which I, I think is just, it's really good.
[00:20:55] Jen: It's really good all around.
[00:20:56] Olivia: It is good. It is good. I feel like the same with Schoolutions. I've read so many professional books, or I also reread people's books, and that's what I've appreciated too. Going back and looking at their writing with a whole different lens of questions to ask, as well as quotes to use that could illuminate and lift those questions.
[00:21:17] Olivia: It's been quite a journey. So you recently, um, republished or re-released Reading Strategies in a 2.0 version. Why did you choose to revise it outside of there being a lot of new research? And that could be the one and only catalyst because it's a big one. And then how would you describe that the revisions represent the best practices in literacy education in your mind right now?
[00:21:42] Jen: Well, first I wanna just say that this is, um, I wouldn't call it a second edition. I wouldn't call it a re-release. I called it 2.0 because it is so dramatically changed from the first edition that it really feels like a new book.
[00:21:56] Olivia: Ah. Okay.
[00:21:56] Jen: So what's the same is it's just as friendly in terms of format and organization and colors. What's different is a lot. So there are over, uh, 100 new strategies. So a third of the strategies are completely new. Another 150 have been significantly revised. Part of the revision was due to two big things. One is the quantity of research that I reviewed (over 700 studies cited across the book), and the second was a reorganization of how each chapter goes.
[00:22:26] Jen: So those familiar with the first edition know that I tagged each strategy with, uh, text levels, but I found for a number of reasons that was not as helpful as I thought it would be. Um, one being that when you have a student reading, like a Magic Treehouse chapter book, for example, and you turn to the chapter on plot, there might be 10 different ideas that would be appropriate based on just the text, but it's not the text that we're teaching, we're teaching the reader.
[00:22:53] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:22:53] Jen: So what I really needed to do was to align the strategies to skill progressions. So in the, the process of, of creating these skill progressions, aligning existing strategies I had to the progressions, and then filling in places where there weren't any strategies for certain moves on the skill progression, I just ended up with so much new content.
[00:23:14] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:23:15] Jen: Then, I went and rewrote the introduction chapter, all of the introductions to each of the 13 goal chapters (that's another a hundred pages of new content), and then I had to redo the charts because the strategies were so changed. So over 200 of the charts are brand new, and I worked with some amazing illustrators.
[00:23:31] Jen: So it's so, so, so much new stuff. Um, And I wouldn't have done it unless I felt like I had enough new ideas in terms of how to organize it, how to make it more user-friendly and new ideas from current research of how to, um, how to offer strategies to kids that are super helpful, high impact, save time for everybody and really work.
[00:23:52] Olivia: And you know, duly noted that Reading Strategies 2.0, it's not a re-release; it’s a re-envision in a way. And what I appreciate so much, just with the beginning pages of the book, the graphics are spectacular, and you are not aligning with one approach to teaching reading necessarily. I appreciate the graphic that shows the comparison between all of the different reading approaches that are being touted and pushed.
[00:24:25] Olivia: And then as adults, as educators, we can see, you know, what's going to work best based on the demands of school districts that we're living with in the moment. And it's that notion of compliance versus proficiency. Right?
[00:24:38] Jen: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[00:24:38] Olivia: Like, how can I be proficient as an educator, um, and use Reading Strategies 2.0to meet the needs of my children because I understand and compare and contrast the different ways of working with kids? So I appreciate that a lot.
[00:24:54] Jen: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:24:55] Olivia: Yeah. Uh, so let's wrap our conversation around call to action. Um, you know how, outside of listening to your podcast, which has been extraordinary, what do you think we can do to digest and apply current research to our classroom practices?
[00:25:14] Jen: Yeah, I think you need a combination of some reading of firsthand or listening to researchers describe their reading or attending conferences where researchers are speaking. Um, together with a collaborative community of learners in your school who evaluate whether the practices that are found in the research actually do work with your population of students.
[00:25:38] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:25:38] Jen: One thing that's really important, I think, um, to be aware of as we're approaching research is that sometimes the studies are done with a very particular population of students. For example, the researchers are at a university, so they recruit the children of the university professors. That they have access to.
[00:25:54] Jen: Right? Or the research was done in a laboratory setting, working with kids one-on-one. But the finding hasn't been replicated. It works, you know, in that situation, but it hasn't been replicated in a class with 25 first graders with diverse needs. Right? So, and I think being scientific means being a little bit skeptical always and saying, does it work here?
[00:26:17] Jen: Is this really? So I think there's a lot of exciting possibility to explore the findings with colleagues, to learn together, to teach in front of each other, to discuss what you're seeing in your classroom with your students as compared to what the research says. Um, What other questions you still have?
[00:26:36] Jen: My episode on Monday is with a researcher who researches research use in classrooms…
[00:26:41] Olivia: Holy cow.
[00:26:42] Jen: Right? Talk about meta…and he's like, reach out. Reach out to your local university : professor. He's like; it shouldn't just be the researchers driving the questions. It should be teachers.
[00:26:50] Olivia: Yeah.
[00:26:50] Jen: We need better research teacher partnerships where teachers tell us: Here's the problem of practice. Here's what I'm looking to try to figure out. Here's what I'd love to see studied. He honors the research that teachers do. I don't wanna give away the whole episode, but he honors the research that teachers do and says but teachers don't have the statistical analysis capabilities that researchers have.
[00:27:12] Jen: So if you can partner with us, we can help you evaluate the things that you're trying in your classroom just to have better outcomes for all. So I think, you know, there's the research, there's a consumption of research, there's a collaboration with colleagues, and then there's the potential to collaborate with researchers and have it not just be unidirectional like researcher tells classroom teacher what to do, but bidirectional, where classroom teachers can help inform what the next questions are that are studied in research.
[00:27:38] Olivia: So your podcast, um, it's speaking to a number of different topics, and you're interviewing lots of different researchers. What's the best way for listeners to get in touch with you? If there's a teacher out there that says, Hey, I have ideas. I'd love to hear more research. about this, how can we reach you best?
[00:27:56] Jen: So I would encourage everyone to go to my website. It's jenniferserravallo.com, and there's a contact form there. You can find out more about the podcast, the consulting group, the books. There's tons of free resources, printables, downloadables, all there. Um, you can also reach out to me on social media.
[00:28:12] Jen: I'm quite active in my Literacy Strategies, Facebook Community on Facebook, Twitter, you can tweet at me, but I also, I'm trying to engage more on Instagram, so any of those platforms, you can feel free to direct message me, I answer all my messages, um, or email me or reach out to me through my website.
[00:28:28] Olivia: You are incredibly responsive and I cannot believe that I get to utter the words that I share something in common with Jennifer Serravallo, that we are both podcast hosts, and that I had the privilege of interviewing you as a guest today. So, thank you so much for the work you do to benefit children, and um, I'm just so honored to have had you as a guest, Jen.
[00:28:52] Jen: Thank you, Olivia. I love this conversation. Thanks again for inviting me.
[00:28:57] Olivia: Schoolutions is a podcast created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Special thanks to my guest, Jennifer Serravallo. Thanks to my older son Benjamin, who created the music that's playing in the background. If you like Schoolutions, please share, rate, review, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @schoolutionspodcast. If you want to reach out, leave me a SpeakPipe voice memo at my website: www.oliviawahl.com/podcast or via email @schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Don't forget to talk about us nicely on social media, and please keep listening. Let's continue finding inspiration together.