Shannon and Mary talk with Kelly Butler and Carla Stanford about professional learning that is meaningful. Kelly Butler worked with the Barksdale Reading Institute to bring about systems change in reading instruction in the state of Mississippi over the last twenty years. Kelly and Carla share about a free resource they're working on now called Reading Universe, which is a one-stop shop for teachers and interested stakeholders to learn about best practices in teaching reading.
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Shannon and Mary talk with Kelly Butler and Carla Stanford about professional learning that is meaningful. Kelly Butler worked with the Barksdale Reading Institute to bring about systems change in reading instruction in the state of Mississippi over the last twenty years. Kelly and Carla share about a free resource they're working on now called Reading Universe, which is a one-stop shop for teachers and interested stakeholders to learn about best practices in teaching reading.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE
6.14 Meaningful Professional Learning with Kelly Butler and Carla Stanford
Shannon Betts: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge. Come join the conversation with other curious teachers as they discover teaching strategies and resources to reach all of their learners. I'm Shannon.
Mary Saghafi: And I'm Mary. And together, we bring an honest and experienced point of view to the topics we cover to shed light on best practices.
Whether you're a new teacher seeking guidance, a seasoned pro looking for fresh ideas, or a curious parent, Our community offers something for everyone. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and cozy up in the virtual lounge with us and eavesdrop on our professional conversations.
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Find what works for your students with us in the Reading Teachers Lounge.
Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge. This is 14, and Mary and I have two special friends joining us today. And they are going to share about an exciting project [00:01:00] that they've been working on for teachers, and then also share a little bit more details about something we mentioned a few times in the last two seasons, which is the Mississippi miracle.
So welcome Kelly Butler and Carlos Stanford.
Carla Stanford: Thank you. Good to be here. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Shannon Betts: So why don't y'all each take turns and tell us a little bit about your history with, you know, teaching, reading and your training and then the current role you work on and literacy. You want to go first, Kelly.
Kelly Butler: I will. Thank you. I'm Kelly Butler. I'm based in Mississippi, where I've been part of the Barksdale Reading Institute for more than two decades. But prior to that, I've been working in schools for another two decades. So I'm the oldest person on this call. And have been doing this for a long time, but I like to sort of describe it as having the privilege of having the long view of literacy and how it's evolved over time.[00:02:00]
So, my work has not been confined to Mississippi, but the last 2 decades certainly has has been my background is special education. I have an undergraduate degree in special education. And back in the dark ages, I was certified to teach everything from for K through 8. Any disability you could imagine my student teaching class was an inclusive class and I had literally one of everything.
That was a challenge. I had a spinal bifida child. I had a deaf child had a blind child. I had a learning disabled child. I had a cerebral palsy child and and I was supposed to teach it. Everything to all of them. So I had a baptism of fire. Needless to say, my degree did not prepare me to do any of that.
But I taught I graduated and and my parents were transferred. So I moved to Connecticut. I was in in the south, but moved to Connecticut and a great teaching job in Greenwich public schools teaching learning disabled adolescents. So my teaching career began [00:03:00] at the high school level but took a leave of absence there and did a master's degree in public policy, social policy administration and planning.
And so my real interest in education through these years has been systems change. And I think there's still a lot broken about our system that we're still trying to figure out. So, I frankly would just like to stop and redesign the whole thing, but I'll save that for another day. So, that's my story. I, I came to reading as a specialty really with the Barksdale Reading Institute, and we'll talk about the work of that in just a minute.
So, Carla, how about you?
Carla Stanford: I'm Carla Stanford and I'm happy to be here today. I've been in education almost 30 years. It'll be 30 years this year and I have a special passion for teaching teachers and children how to read and that came about through realizing that If kids are going to be who they were created to be, they need to be able to read in order to like lean into all the gifts and talents that they [00:04:00] have.
And so back in the days of reading first, I had some training. I was a literacy coach and really got pushed into writers and readers workshop. and did a lot of work in that area, had a lot of training in guided reading and how to run workshop models and fast forward a lot of years and I'm doing all this work.
I'm training teachers and I'm running these magical workshops and loving my children in my first grade classroom. And I'm like, wait a minute. I have got kids that do not know how to read, and I can run the most magical, everyone feels really lovely about reading, reading workshop. However, I don't actually know how to teach a child to read.
So that's a really, Hard realization that, you know, I would have to say, you know, [00:05:00] everyone needs at this point as teachers, we have to give ourselves grace. And I started seeking out like, Oh, my goodness, like, what don't I know? I don't even know what I don't know. So I happen to be a runner and I would get up very early in the morning and run with my very dear friend.
And we would talk about this. We would talk about how, how could I not know how to teach these kids how to read? Like I had a few kids that more than likely were dyslexic, but at that time we don't, weren't really talking about dyslexia. And my friend had children. Who had been diagnosed with dyslexia because she had done a lot of advocacy and reaching out and figuring out what to do.
And they were having tutoring and I'm like, wait a minute, what kind of tutoring are they getting? Like, why don't I know what this is? You know, I'm a public school teacher teaching first grade students. So I signed up immediately for an Orton Gillingham class at the local private reading school in the Atlanta area and [00:06:00] took the course.
And it was a amazing course. It was every single Tuesday. All year long, like a college level course, I had to hire babysitters for my children. I taught all day. I drove over here and did that. I was
to be able to find a Orton Gillingham tutor. I was able to like work out all these crazy pieces. My school system had given me money because I was teacher of the year for my school, for my system. They had given me some money. My husband and I had put in, cause it costs a lot. You guys know, Orton Gillingham training costs a lot.
So Jen and I came together and we started a nonprofit to train I spent a lot of time teaching teachers how to teach kids how to read for free. And we were really being advocates to have it during their own time. So for the last 10 years and reap is now 10 years old. I spent [00:07:00] training teachers So that they could have the tools that I didn't have, because you don't know what you don't know.
It's not your fault as a teacher. It's not the kids fault. We just want to reach all readers. And thankfully I made a path to UC Irvine to work on. And through that, Dr. Julie Washington, my professor introduced me to reading universe and said, Hey, I think that you guys would be a great match. And I had the opportunity to now see like, and I know Kelly is going to talk about how reading your universe came to be, but it's like, A wide scale way for teachers to have access to the training that I didn't even know that I didn't have.
I didn't even know what I didn't know. So how would I know to go reach and look for it? And so reading universe is like the perfect match because I feel like it just gives teachers the opportunity and the resources to do that. The research base behind things to go out and do the work with their kids.
So fast, you know, really quick [00:08:00] version of 30 years, but I am so thankful to be a part of this.
Kelly Butler: Tell listeners what REAP stands for.
Carla Stanford: It stands for reading is essential for all people and it is a nonprofit based in Atlanta and we train teachers and the science of reading. And it's a professional development where we go in and we deliver the content we model the lessons we help with lesson plans and what does it look like.
What does it look like in large group? How can you adjust your assessments to make sure you're really considering the science of reading and that your scope and sequences make sense. And so the funding is all through grants. And we also did a project at Georgia college in Millingsville and. I see well, this isn't interesting.
I was talking to my dad about this as you know, we, even as adult children, we talk with our parents about how we're growing and learning. It's like, I'm working with reading universe and, you know, they have this [00:09:00] professional development and it's all about. knowledge for teachers. And he's like, Oh, it's like reap on a national level, like doing all this amazing work for teachers and children.
And so my passion has always been, been like reaching children. And I never want it to be the, because the kids didn't have the resource. And then I don't, you know, always have thought it's not. It's not on the teachers. It's not really supposed to be on them to find the resources either, because they're already like working full time jobs, doing amazing work for their kids.
So there we are. And I love that. We're all like Kelly is not in Atlanta, but we're kind of Atlanta. Seeds of here. I'm
Shannon Betts: Kelly and I connected through Louisiana and you have Louisiana connections too. I do.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, I was, I was just thinking this too. And this common thread throughout our entire podcast has really been this awakening of that.
I don't have enough tools to teach. Children who are non readers to be readers. I learned through [00:10:00] college to teach readers to become better readers. However and so with my special ed background and many of our listeners know this, but I think that another common thread that we always talk about is like, once you know better, you got to really get busy and dig down into how can I make this happen?
And for teachers, you're so Incredibly spot on about the fact that their plates are so full. And so on my career path, I'm also trying so hard to partner with teachers and give those resources rather than having them dig and find them on their own. But I think that this Reading Universe is a free resource and if we can continue to have these big conversations within our own school houses about how we can search for good quality professional development and really good resources that are right at the tip of your fingers then we can really make big drastic changes.
So I love that your dad has said this about REAP as well. It's Reading Universe is REAP on a, on a global scale. The other [00:11:00] piece is too I did the similar training that you did in the Atlanta area with the Atlanta with Orton Gillingham training, and it was so eye opening, like I really can only say that I was gobsmacked when I found out that I had an elementary reading degree, I had a special ed master's degree, and I still didn't know how to teach children to read, and I was so frustrated, and I was really lucky and early in my career, within the first five years, I was trained in Orton Gillingham that I could provide to my students in a public school.
That's a really lovely gift. It came with a heavy cost because our school district was actually getting sued by parents, which is another reason that I am so passionate about making sure that we have good communication and bridges between schools, because we don't need to have animosity in litigation.
We just need to Do the work and we need to put the resources in teachers hands so that we're doing right by the students. So I'm so [00:12:00] excited to start this conversation, but I think that this is such a great cop stone for especially this season that we're talking about the science of reading and how we can just really get down to business.
And do better for our children.
Shannon Betts: And Cal Carla's story is so similar to both of ours and just so many of our listeners. I mean, where we were all received all this years of training and we didn't know how to teach a non reader how to read. And so I appreciate the work that y'all are doing now to make up, to bring about that systems change that you talked about Kelly, because it's so needed.
And if we can and I think that's a really important thing to do. spare the, you know, some of the future teachers or the newer teachers that those years of like shame and heartache, you know, cause I'm still haunted by the kids that kind of got away that I know I could have done better by, you know, but I.
I just did the best I could at the time. Cause I, but I didn't have all the tools at the time. And if we can, you know, reach teachers sooner. And have them start their careers with this knowledge. I mean, just how much [00:13:00] more. You know, Empowered are they going to be.
Kelly Butler: Right, we need to we need to work at the system level to, to make it happen as fast as possible.
When one of this, we learned a lot here in Mississippi and the work that we've been doing over the last couple of decades, but the 20 plus years ago, the Reading Institute was founded in the year 2000, which was the same year, as you all know, of the National Reading Panel Report. And so we really hit the ground running with this.
What was not necessarily new research, but it had been sort of codified and organized in a way that was getting attention. And we think in an important way. And so we really tried to become the engine of the science from the very beginning and took that report. And certainly there has been more research since then, but we have really tried to embed the science reading at every level in the system here in Mississippi from the very beginning.
We recognized that. [00:14:00] Teacher prep was going to be an issue that we we were having to retrain teachers still are having to retrain teachers every year. And so Barksdale has done two studies of our teacher prep programs here in Mississippi to try to figure out what are they teaching and what do we need to do to change that?
So the first study was in 2003. And from that study, we went to the state board and recommended a minimal six hours of reading instruction and pre service, if you can believe that was not even a requirement back then. And so but one of the things that the study revealed was that you could go to any of the eight public institutions.
We weren't working with the private institutions yet, but, and not learn all five components of reading, much less how to teach them. And so we, it was a pretty low bar. That was back in 2005. Those courses are still on the books and we have now added two more for a minimum of 12 hours of reading that's [00:15:00] much more rigorous and based on the science of reading.
So the, the reading universe really grew out of that teacher prep work. I was sitting in the back of a classroom in the Delta in an undergraduate program. I was doing the first evaluation of the programs and. It was just a mishmash of a lesson, and it became clear to me that the teachers and the, and the, the faculty and the teachers teacher candidates.
really were quite confused about what these five components were. I mean, they, they were not, they could name them, but they didn't really know how they fit together. And I drove home across the Mississippi Delta that day and said to myself, I'm going to put this process on a page. I want to create a big picture of what, what all Is involved in teaching reading and and that became the reading universe.
I liken it to the periodic tables, which include all the elements of the physical universe. And I said to myself, there ought to be a way to do this [00:16:00] about for reading. And I got a lot of pushback. The State Department and the faculty pushed back and said, you can't do this. Reading is not a linear process.
It's recursive and you just, it's, you, you just not gonna be able to do it. And I said, well, I think it's important to give teachers a bird's eye view of what the big picture is, and then let's unpack it piece by piece. And that's what the reading universe became. So this taxonomy, what we now call the taxonomy, which is really the periodic tables of reading skills.
Is interactive and it's online and listeners perhaps should go to readinguniverse. org right now and pull up the homepage. You will see a large blue button at the top right hand corner that says taxonomy. And if you click on that, and then you click on expand, you will see. That big picture, the periodic tables of reading skills.
It is not a scope and sequence for teaching kids to read. It is a scope and [00:17:00] sequence for teaching teachers how to teach reading and so you'll see it's framed by the simple view of reading. It's supported by writing. There's a whole writing universe being developed and this taxonomy is interactive. And so you click on whatever skill you need to learn about.
And it will take you. Down a shoot and tell you everything you need to know and give you some resources to do it. So that's where Reading Universe really began. And we were working in schools, K through three classrooms all across Mississippi. And every week we would take a lesson of Reading Universe.
One of those boxes and unpack it and model the instruction teachers would go into their classrooms that week and try it. We'd come back the next week and talk about whether or not it worked and why it did or didn't and then get a new bite of the apple. And so over the course of 38 weeks, which is the length of a school year, we taught reading [00:18:00] universe crash course and everything you need to know about teaching reading.
Shannon Betts: Did y'all do that like district by district?
Kelly Butler: We were in 108 schools across the state with 30 coaches visiting those schools. And so it was not by district. It was, it was by school, but, and based on the lowest performing schools in the state. So those were the 180 lowest performing schools in the state.
Shannon Betts: I'm just fascinated by this because growing up in Louisiana, I mean, it's a horrible joke, but I know y'all had it in Mississippi too. I mean, whether you live in one of those two states, you either say, thank God for Mississippi or thank God for Louisiana, because we were always fighting for 49th or 50th in the percentile of reading achievement.
So When Mississippi ended up scoring lower, us and Louisiana were like, yay, we're not the lowest, you know, and vice versa. And then, you know, flash forward, you know, all these decades later, and to us here in Georgia, it seems like [00:19:00] overnight success that all of a sudden, like, Mississippi was sort of, you know, You know, that y'all were quietly implementing the science of reading over the 2000s, but we didn't really hear about it until the, all of a sudden y'all weren't in, even in the 40s percentile anymore.
Y'all are just rising, rising, rising. And so, I know it seems like overnight success, but it wasn't. And so you're saying you taught it, you just PD direct to teachers and direct to the literacy coaches.
Kelly Butler: Yeah, if you look at our NAEP trajectory, you will see a steady rise beginning in 2000 and it has what they call in statistics a hockey stick at 2014 when the full scale statewide coaching and professional development took hold, and that was because of the literacy based Promotion Act that passed.
With our third grade law but essentially what that third grade law did was take the Barksdale model that we had been vetting in those 180 schools, took it to scale. And you asked [00:20:00] earlier when we were talking before this call about buy in and buy in's important, but we didn't wait for buy in.
Let me tell you how buy in happens. , the Literacy Based Promotion Act got everybody's attention, and I think folks kind of. It was a wake up call and people were school teachers and
Carla Stanford: administrators were saying,
well, experience and
Kelly Butler: so that the law itself. I think while we were all a little concerned about. Third grade retention. In fact, initially, Barksdale was advising the state to be cautious about this third grade law. It turned out to be an important change agent because one, it was the wake up call, but it also made it a requirement that we're going to have to do something differently.
And so the conditions for learning were were pretty ripe [00:21:00] for teachers and administrators that we we got to do something different. What the state did in its wisdom was fund this mandate and provide the coaching. And so we in some measure put a pause on local control. Now Mississippi is a different state in that we are very rural.
We're not terribly populated. We don't have hundreds of districts that There is as other states do we so we're we're different in that way. And we don't have a bargaining teachers union. We have teachers union represented, but it's a right to work state. And so there were some things that there were some hurdles that we didn't have that other states do have.
That's not to say that teacher unions aren't important. I didn't mean to suggest that. But it meant that we were able from this top down to say. This is the PD we're going to use. This is the time frame in which we're going to use it and everybody's going to get it in in a pretty quick order. And [00:22:00] so it wasn't a matter of each district deciding what vendor they were going to use, or when they were going to do it, or who was going to get trained.
The law said everybody's going to get trained and the State Department At the advisement of Barksdale said, we're going to use the same vendor. That way, there's no confusion. People are all singing off the same song sheet. Fortunately, there are many new other vendors now with a point in time. Letters was about the only game in town that was doing this and able to do it virtually.
And we kind of had a hybrid program. But once teachers began to implement these new strategies. Because they were required to do it, and they had a coach showing them how to do it, their kids begin to learn to read. And what do you know, there you have buy in. So I would say, would encourage folks who are trying to, to create change in their schools, to require teachers to do something differently, for a period of time, and see if it works.
And [00:23:00] it's gonna work, because it's the right way to teach reading. So, I wouldn't, I don't know these, I think buying's important, but I don't know that you can wait for it because there's, you know, first grade year is not very long.
Shannon Betts: That is so important and like you said, like the proof is in the pudding. As soon as their kids started to learn to read pretty quickly, the buy in followed.
Kelly Butler: Right. We got traction. Yeah.
Shannon Betts: Yeah. And so then it just sort of, you know, became an avalanche of success. I pulled up the taxonomy on my screen while, while you were talking.
And so I'm seeing, and I did the expand just like you told me to. And so I see that at the top it's purple and it says, so the taxonomy is based on the simple view of reading. Word recognition times language comprehension is reading comprehension and we had an episode last season and that was about the simple view of reading and that multiplier [00:24:00] relationship was new to me like I sort of understood the simple view of reading.
But until I really understood that there was like. that times it's not plus it's times because each of them are dependent on each other for the total
Kelly Butler: exactly and one can diminish the other exactly oh it can diminish the other that's the important part of that multiplication yeah yeah yeah also notice that the taxonomy is color coded so part of what we're trying to do here is make this user friendly so that you know at any point in time where you're standing in the reading universe so if you click on one of those boxes and go down to look at a skill explainer for example it will Keep you within the simple view of reading.
So you'll know you're either in the orange section, which is word recognition, or you're in the blue section, which is comprehend or language comprehension. Or you're in the purple section, which is reading comprehension. So you'll notice at the bottom fluency supports goes all the way across as we know from Scarborough's rope.
That's fluency is that connector [00:25:00] and you'll see then structured literacy. There's a whole section on what is structured literacy and then. The click the long button, which is still in the process. All of a lot of this is still in the process of being loaded, but writing, we, we think we're going to have a one of a kind side around writing that doesn't exist anywhere.
It begins, it will be the entire process from scribbling all the way to ideation and publishing.
Shannon Betts: Yeah, Mary, the first module in writing that they have that's published is handwriting. Mary just taught me all about how important handwriting is because I didn't realize how important it was to literacy.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, our last episode was just about handwriting and I was really lucky. My one of my very first professional developments when I taught kindergarten my first year was a week long training with handwriting without tears. And a week long being really embedded and engrossed in all of the reasons why handwriting is important became such a great foundation for me.
My student teaching was in fourth and fifth grade, and so I didn't really [00:26:00] understand the writing process that happens in kindergarten and what the expectations are. But that was really me getting thrown into direct instruction as well. And I really saw how it can be fun, how it can be an art. It can be something that can be joyful for kids.
But also That it teaches, when you're teaching handwriting, you're really teaching so many executive functions. You're teaching how to listen to directions, how to follow instructions, how to like regulate your body, how to get your body to manipulate things. So I am quite passionate about this. And I do think that it's the resources are a little bit weak because it's definitely an area where teachers were not well trained in their teacher prep programs.
And so I, I find it all fascinating. I think that. The, there's go ahead.
Kelly Butler: Let me interrupt you just a minute before you move from that to tell you there's a resource on the reading universe for letter formation for each letter upper and lower case, you can download them print them laminate them hang them [00:27:00] on your wall.
They have arrows and directions. And some narration to, to help teach them.
Shannon Betts: And if we haven't said this already, it's all free.
Mary Saghafi: Right. Well, and, and as our listeners know, you know, our goal is always to provide really quality resources for our teachers that you can access immediately. And this is definitely one of them.
So I highly, no matter what your position is within a school district. Even if you're a parent, if you really want to understand what is it that the expectations are for reading, this is something that you can look at. You might want to have your, you know, a teacher friend guide you through it. It might be a little bit jargony, but I do think that when I am chatting with my friends who are parents, they are often asking me all these questions.
And I think being able to point them to a resource, would just be so helpful. So, And I think this is great. The color coding is, is excellent. And I think that talking about the system wide changes, that's really where I think we all can [00:28:00] agree. We have to get on the same page. We can't have arguments about whether the science of reading is a new swing of the pendulum or not.
What we need to do is figure out how can we get these non readers to read. And let's focus on this. And I like the idea that in Mississippi. Everyone was using the same common language, the same common programming with letters. And being able to use that in a way, I find that when I first started, I would go to the teacher down the hall and they would say, I loved using this one purple notebook to teach phonics instruction.
Then I would find another friend and they'd be like, Oh no, you don't need to worry about that phonics instruction. Here's what you need to do. You need to get them to. Here's a list that I have of sight words. Get them to take their sight words home and memorize them. And so it was hodgepodge all together.
And everyone had a way of getting their kids to be successful that didn't follow any continuum or curriculum. And I don't think that any teachers had any ill [00:29:00] intentions whatsoever. We just didn't know. And so overcoming this stigma of the frustration of doing something that was incorrect, especially for teachers who want to follow the rules, who want to do the right thing, who want to find success.
We have to reiterate, we got to give grace to one another and to ourselves, especially if you know better, do better and keep talking about that. So this is wonderful. The meaningful professional development and reading universe is incredible. What a great resource.
Carla Stanford: Thank you. I would love to share about how the skill explainers are put together.
And I'm going to start with a personal story. I'm just back when I was on my journey, trying to figure out how to teach kids how to read. I realized I didn't know, but I had so much to learn. I took an Orton Gillingham course, as I mentioned earlier, and I got all the content. Like I got all of the business, right?
Like all the the way we need to [00:30:00] introduce letters and, you know, what magic he does and what a syllable is and syllable types, all this content. However, at the same time I was teaching first grade and I had a phonics kit. And I was having the hardest time figuring out how to connect the what to the how.
I was like, I know I have this knowledge, but I was really having a hard time bridging it to what does it look like with my kids. So just always remember this, that Carla did this. I had a deck of cards. And it had like, The letter name, the keyword picture. Every day, I drilled that jack the exact same way.
A, apple, ah, B, bat, buh, C, cat, kuh. Right? I knew that I needed to do this thing. I knew it was part of what I needed to do, but I didn't understand why. And because I didn't understand [00:31:00] why I was not making the best instructional decisions with a massive curriculum. So I was I'll, this is an analogy I like to use.
I was going to the Chipotle burrito bar and I didn't realize what the protein was every day. I was just getting sour cream. That's all I was giving my kids was the sour cream piece was this deck where I was having them echo. I wasn't understanding the purpose. So, fast forward to what Kelly was talking about how she was in Mississippi and they're training teachers and they're giving them the content.
And they're going in and they're modeling it for teachers. They're asking questions, they're getting to see what it looks like with their kids and lo and behold, kids are learning how to read. So, Reading Universe has all of that, and that is what makes me so excited, can you tell? So, in the skill explainers, we have the, the what to teach.
So, like, all the content, like, all of the [00:32:00] business that you need to know in order to teach a certain skill. So, for instance, if you're going to teach short vowels, we have all of the short vowel information On the how to teach part, like it's called the overview and we give you all of the information that you need.
Then as you're moving through the skill explainer, we actually have videos and show you how to do the work and my favorite part. We have structure. We have a consistent structure so that. The structure stays the same the lesson format stays the same. That allows the teacher to take the content, put it in the structure of the plan.
And really move forward with the structured literacy, systematic, cumulative, direct instruction approach. We're not recreating the wheel every day. It also allows the children, this, this space in their [00:33:00] working memory has like opened up space so their cognitive load isn't bogged down with what does she want me to do?
What is she saying? Because. We are using a structure where they're very familiar with. We always start a lesson with a listening game. Then we're going to warm up with flashcards. Then I'm going to teach you something new. Then we're going to do sound dictation. Then we're going to do word dictation. Then we're going to do phrases and sentences.
We're going to read. And all along the way, we're going to have language like integrated in talking about meaning and use all throughout. So, That is the magic that's happening inside the skill explainers that if you don't have a coach that can come in and give you content and give you the how to, you can go on Reading Universe, which is for free, readinguniverse.
org. You can click on a skill explainer and you can go through and self pace yourself. I think the structure piece is something [00:34:00] that was so meaningful for me as a teacher that on Sunday night, I'm not having to come up with five different lesson plans for the week and teach myself something new and teach my kids something new.
They understand exactly how the lesson is going to work. And all the hard work for me, if I'm learning something new and my children, because they're learning something new is in the meat of learning how to read. And the organization of the taxonomy helps me remember all of this is grounded in science.
All of it. So if I'm doing some phonics work and I'm like, okay, wait a minute. I've got to make sure that fluency is always scooped up because it's really important. There's always fluency is always talked about in the skill explainer of how you can do fluency with read sheets, or you can click on the blue I'm sorry, the green bar, I have to look over at the colors, the green bar at the bottom, and remember, hey, fluency, it's, it's like holding up, it's supporting from underneath.[00:35:00]
So I'm really excited about how this is coming together for teachers, so that it's a resource that You can grow your tools in your toolbox for your classroom and you can jump in where you are ready to learn and grow regardless of your school systems journey or in tandem with your school systems journey.
Like it can be both. And
Shannon Betts: so I have some questions, some comments, and then some questions. So I'll say, I think it's really, Interesting and important that you brought up that y'all model that structured piece, because I think we've all sat in PD sessions where they're really boring and the lecturer says, Well, I'm not really modeling what you should do for students because I'm going to sit here and lecture to you all day.
But I want to get you the information, but then don't do this with the students and it's really hard to kind of receive that PD and then have to like switch it in your mind to like, okay, I'm not going to redeliver this the same way to my students. So I think it's great that y'all are like [00:36:00] practicing what you preach and that this is a structured for the teachers.
To then redeliver to the students in a structured way as well. And I really like what you said too, is that it explicitly connects the, what to the, how to the, why that's so key for the teachers. And so then I think you almost answered my question, which was, so if, if the teacher's not in Mississippi and not getting this, you know, from scratch and like, you know, from starting.
So like if a teacher just wants to open this up and say, you know what, I'm kind of weak on morphology. They could just go to that, that module and, you know, beef up their understanding of morphology.
Carla Stanford: Absolutely. This is really supposed to be where you could methodically go through, or you can dive in, but the taxonomy Kelly's beautiful idea of taking a periodic table and like really laying out the big picture of what, what is what is it that, in, you know, We have to have in order to teach kids how to read.
It's very explicit. [00:37:00] I would encourage everyone to go to the PF version, print it out, make a little place mat. I think that that was Kelly's like original brainchild is like a place mat. That's the kind of teacher I am. You know, print out the things that I don't want to forget. This was new information for me for a very long time.
So having a place to go back to, to ground myself. Hey, wait a minute. It must fit into this simple view. It needs to fit in either word recognition or language comprehension. And then also like all be supporting the end game of reading comprehension, because that's what we're doing. Like we're all trying to build strong readers who comprehend.
And all of these Skills listed in the taxonomy contribute along the way. And just remembering, like, if we ever feel lost, we can come back here and find our way. I know for me [00:38:00] learning about the simple view of reading, learning about the National Reading Panel learning about Scarborough's Reading Road, that was life changing for me.
I was like, What in the world? How did I not know this? But it's that whole leave the guilt at the door, give yourself grace, just enter in where you are. And the good thing about the site is there's a lot of resources where you can Go learn about the big picture. You can listen to a timely talk by Margaret Goldberg, which is fabulous.
I have listened to it many, many times. It has great graphics, but you can also just listen to it in the car. You can listen to it while you're folding clothes or, you know, dusting your hat, whatever you're, you know, whatever I look and listen to when I'm going and just to get that language in my head.
Took a long time. It's not overnight. There's also a great timely talk by Dr. Julie Washington, who I'm a big fan of and love working with. And [00:39:00] she really talks about the role of oral language and language variation when teaching kids who speak African American English. And that's a great one.
There's the the 10 maxims, which is another one. I would probably say print out and tape somewhere where read lions and a whole consulting team that consults with and support reading universe went in and decided the 10 maxims. I think Kelly could probably talk more about how that came to be. I think that's a really great story.
So just there's also other resources to understand the big picture and to read about, wait, I want to dig in a little bit more about what is orthographic mapping or what is you know, this other important piece that I'm thinking about Kelly, do you want to talk about the 10 maxims and how they came to be sure?
Kelly Butler: Let me say before I forget, though, I want folks to know that you will see that this is a prototype right now that's been launched. We are adding content every day, but we [00:40:00] decided we would go ahead and launch with K1 content. First, get it out there, let folks get used to to the taxonomy and, but you will see that there's a lot still being loaded every day.
So right now, most of the content focuses on those K2 K one grade span. Ultimately, the site will be for pre K through sixth grade teachers of reading and writing. And we're hoping that educator preparation faculty and their teacher candidates will also use it. We've been in conversation with a number of programs who see this as a good resource for them, particularly the videos, which demonstrate that modeling.
So it's an important thing to know, just, Stay tuned and be patient because we're adding content. This is a 25 million dollar project and we're only about 10 percent in. So thanks for, for being patient with us. The 10 maxims actually, um, came from Reed Lyon. He was being contacted a lot by the media about what's all this science of reading stuff.
[00:41:00] For listeners who don't know who Reed Lyon is, he was the head of NICHD at the very beginning of Reading First and has been doing reading research for more than 40 years. And I challenged him to put together some basic statements. He said, I'm telling when we when these media people call me, I give them four or five basic things that we know that's incontrovertible that we've known for decades that the research has told us.
And I said, Well, I bet there's more than four or five things. What if we take this nice number 10 and you develop 10 maxims that that teachers can hang their hat on? That's That's been proven over and over by the research. So he presented these 10 maxims at a Barksdale feature that we had called Lunch and Lit, which is still going on.
Our friend, Margaret Goldberg, who we've mentioned earlier is now the facilitator of it. But he presented, this is a Friday forum and I'll just make a plug for that right now, Shannon and Mary, that folks can join [00:42:00] That lunch and lit group on Fridays to talk about research to practice, but he presented these 10 maxims and we took them and put them on the reading universe.
So, if you go to the big picture site, part of the reading universe, you can click down and you can click on the 10 maxims. They are 10 statements that. Or what we know about reading instruction, and they are backed by 35 pages of citations. So they're divided by if you want, if you want to know, okay, what is the research on phonemic awareness?
It'll tell you, so if you've got doubts, or if you're trying to convince your district that this science of reading isn't a fly by night or a swing of the pendulum, this is 50 years of research. That one of the giants in the reading field has put together for us. So we have great gratitude for Rewind.
Shannon Betts: It's beautiful. My favorite grad school professor once talked about the simplicity on the other side of complexity. And that's what this is. I mean, it's like one page. Of exactly what you, you know, the science of reading [00:43:00] kind of distilled into one page, and it seems short, but it's anything. I mean, but it's, it's simple, but it's not simple.
It's that like highest level of simple. Right?
Kelly Butler: Right. It's powerful. There are a couple of features that we ought to mention to before time runs out. One is Carla has been talking about navigating the site and how the skill explainers are structured. We are in the process of developing a navigation tool for new participants and new teachers who don't, who come to the site, not necessarily new teachers, but any teacher who comes to the site and says, all right, what is all the science reading about that will help them kind of walk through and know what highlights to begin with.
So that there's sort of an introductory way, because it's a comprehensive site. There's a lot on there. We hope that the taxonomy kind of brings it into some control for the user. But it will help them kind of walk through the site to know kind of where to begin. We're also developing a [00:44:00] series of PLC guides for professional learning communities.
So that teacher, lead teacher or coach who's tasked with doing in school Professional development can tailor professional development across the year in the same way we did here in Mississippi. So it will be kind of a scope and sequence for a quarter of the year or for the whole year. It will include some pre and post assessment.
So you've got a group of teachers. First grade teachers, for example, sitting in front of you. What do they need to know? What do they know now? And then you can package and tailor your own professional development. One of the beauties of this project is as states are mandating science of reading instruction and as the COVID funds are going away, And we're still faced with learning loss enter reading universe, which is now a free site for you.
So we're hoping that districts we're in conversation with a number of states right now who are interested in using [00:45:00] this as a framework for moving forward with professional development in their, in their states.
[Marker]
Shannon Betts: Hello listeners, it's Shannon here and I want to take a quick moment to tell you about one way I'm committing to my health this year. I've started making green chef meals again and my family and I are loving them. The food is delicious and easy to prepare. There's tons of sauces and spices and other ways to add flavor to the meals.
There are also tons of gluten free options for me each week. I use the app a lot. It makes it easy to make changes to the menu choices and pause a week if needed. The great news is they've given me free boxes to give away, so if you're interested in trying Green Chef, head to the show notes for this episode to get the link.
Or you can visit www. readingteacherslounge. com backslash quicklinks and click on the button for Green Chef. Happy [00:46:00] cooking! Watch our stories on Instagram to see some of the meals I'm making.
Shannon Betts: I think it's important to mention too that it's, it's professional knowledge. This isn't a curriculum. You know, and it's, it's not even like, are the teachers going to, when, when they're on here, are they going to find lesson plans like immediate to use, or is it more just teaching them sort of the routines, but then they still need to like go to the resources in their building to implement
Kelly Butler: great question.
It is. It is everything. It is truly comprehensive. It is going to tell you what the skill is, why it's important to reading. Here's how you teach it. We're going to show you how to teach it with this video. We're going to give you some practice activities for your students. We're going to give you a lesson plan.
We're going to give you a background article if you want to learn more about it. We're going to give you lots of printables like we have a whole series. Of decodable text.
Shannon Betts: Oh, and Carla could [00:47:00] get her deck of cards.
Kelly Butler: That's
Shannon Betts: right.
Kelly Butler: Exactly.
Shannon Betts: But then know how to use them. I would, I would get them. It's not sour cream, but it's protein.
Carla Stanford: Right. I would, I would understand the purpose of the cards. And then I would have the cards and they would have the handwriting if it's just letters. And it also have the option to print the handwriting. I would have the option to. Print the ones with the keyword picture or without in order to do some you know, building of words and a lot of automaticity.
And I will say, I think that the videos are my favorite part. Because if I had had videos when I was learning, it would have been very useful. And I. Understand that seeing it really in real time with kids. It's really important that the, the lesson plans like Kelly was saying, it's a really great resource.
So for instance, in the short vowel skill explainer that has just been recently published, there is A lesson plan for each short [00:48:00] vowel. And then there's also a read sheet that has just words and a read sheet that has phrases and sentences and with all the directions of, you know, what does reading universe mean when they say a read sheet and so the resources are immediately usable and so that lets teachers like, Oh, I can watch, can read the content.
I can watch a video. I can print this plan. I can have the resources for small group. And then I can also have a template of how this lesson plan was put together. And the Y part is part of the template. Like, Okay, I'm going to do the listening game. Why am I doing it? And it's just like very simply explained.
And now I have the resources to build my own plans or connected to the curriculum in my building. Like take the curriculum that I have in my building, look at what this is. And it's a nice way to, to do this crosswalk between the two of [00:49:00] them. And I think the understanding, the, you What to teach, the how to teach and the why to teach is going to be the difference maker for kids.
Kelly Butler: There we've also tried to make it user friendly for teachers. So there are gray scale printables. You don't have to use all your color ink to do this. All of the decodables are downloadable and printable. And we've really tried to make it user user friendly for teachers. There's also a feature in the in the skill explainer called.
That we call essential support. We wanted to make sure that the needs of dyslexic learners, children who speak a dialect, children who are learning English as a second language, that there are additional supports from reading experts in those fields. Who are providing tips for teachers on what if I have an English learner in my, in my class?
What are some special things I need to know about this, in this particular skill? So we've really tried to think about everything here.[00:50:00]
Mary Saghafi: I think this is so helpful. And I think really, if you are one of our listeners, Especially if you are teaching third, fourth, and fifth grade, and you are noticing your assessments are, have some missing gaps, this is exactly the place that you want to go, because you want to use your data to inform what are those missing areas.
And if you don't feel very strong about the phonological awareness piece, for example, going in and really understanding the why of it, or what is it that the student is missing in this area, and how can you add it into your lesson, I feel like this is really like, the essential piece that's missing. And I think that to Carla's point about the sour cream analogy, I think that is just so brilliant because I felt that way when I received my training too.
I couldn't visualize what it was supposed to look like. So having videos that could re explain it to you. We can't build on a foundation for reading where there are holes within the foundation. [00:51:00] You have to plug those holes. So, Even if you are a middle school teacher and you know that you're, you have students who have missing foundational skills, you might not have been trained in it, but this, the like dirty secret, nobody really wants to talk about as many, many, many teachers were not trained in it.
And so this is a resource for all. And I'm, I'm so impressed. I think that you're right. You've thought of so many areas to partner with teachers and to make this not punitive, but a handholding experience, which is. What our teachers need. So much. So this is fantastic. I'm so proud of the work that y'all are doing.
This is incredible,
Kelly Butler: Mary. Thanks for bringing up the issue of assessment because we've also thought about that. There is actually a bar on this taxonomy around assessment, and that's really to explain the different types of assessment. But also in each skill explainer, there is a feature around assessment.
As we know, the word recognition skills we talk about as being finite, so we are looking for mastery of [00:52:00] those skills, and there are quick assessments that teachers can use to determine whether or not their child has mastered those particular skills. It's different, as we know, when we get on the language comprehension sides.
Those are infinite skills but there are also some assessments on that side and, and more, more and more being loaded as we develop that side. It's an important thing.
Shannon Betts: I just clicked on that and I like that you also have like the benchmark norms, just quite at a glance because you do want to know that like what is it for each grade level.
Yeah. I'm listening to you guys. And I'm also looking at my other monitor, like just clicking all around the site, giving myself permission to like, really take a lot of time to dig into it. And there's just so much you just click on a button and more expands. But then at the same time, it's it's explained in a really, you know, there's a little bit of jargon, but it's it's not To where I feel like I'm at a college level class or something.
Kelly Butler: Well, let's talk about that. Cause there's been debate inside the reading [00:53:00] about what language to use. And I've been very adamant that teachers are professionals and they need to know this language. And even we, there was some discussion about whether or not we should call it a taxonomy. And I said, of course we should call it a taxonomy.
That's what it is. Teachers know taxonomy. It's one of the many terms that teachers know from Bloom's taxonomy. And And so while we try to be user friendly and not, um, not give dense writing, we try to make it easy to read, but at the same time elevate the profession by giving the, giving them the tools and the language that, that a profession should know.
Carla Stanford: I was that the when you go in and you read the overview, it's very conversational using the professional, like using the word phoneme for sound and using so we really try to think about it as if You were [00:54:00] standing, if we were all together in a PLC together, you know, how would I explain it? And how would we interact?
And what is the best way to what is the tone that can help teachers take it in while also gaining, as Kelly said, and I completely agree with, This professional language all around reading so that you can join in with other teachers of reading and understand you're, you're using the same language.
We have a lot of conversations around making sure everything's approachable and well explained, and we have a whole glossary. So if you don't know a word, we don't ever want that to be a barrier. We want to have like you literally usually it's underlined and you click on it and then you go straight to the glossary and you can understand.
I remember when I was beginning on this journey and they would use the word phoneme and they would talk about manipulation and [00:55:00] they really blending and segmenting and all these words come at you so quickly when you're doing your phonological and then there's the phonological versus phonemic.
And I just remember feeling like. All of these words are new to me. And so we use them. However, we always explain them and give teachers an opportunity to take them in because we're all at different levels of learning the information and maybe we knew it, but we called it something else. And we try to be very clear about what reading universe is going to call things.
That's a whole conversation we've been having around irregular words. We could probably all name about 10 different, you know, terms that people use for that. And we all think we're talking about the same thing, but it's something different. So we've thought through a lot of that work on which words to use and how to best communicate.
Kelly Butler: Carla mentioned the timely talks a minute [00:56:00] ago. They, we are also in the process of building those. There are three, three or four right now. The vision behind that was really Noel Gunther, who is the vice president for media learning at WTA in Washington and the godfather of reading rockets and AdLib online and all of those.
And he really felt that it was important for, To bring to bear the, the many reading conferences that many teachers don't get to go to that are happening now. There are more and more of them and they're, and they're getting really good. And so what we're trying to do is capture those really good researchers who are presenting at these national conferences and bring them to teachers.
So the three that are posted there now are, are with that in mind that are actual Presentations that that these folks have done at these national conferences. So that's the real purpose of the timely talks, and I would encourage folks to go and look at [00:57:00] Kareem Weaver's little two minute inspirational video.
Folks probably know Kareem's name by now. He's from Oakland. He's a parent, former teacher, former school principal and He is an advisor to Reading Universe, and he did this little promotional video for us, and it's pretty inspiring. He talks about reading as a civil right.
Mary Saghafi: Yes, under the website, it's Why It Matters.
Why It Matters, and it's one of the very first things that you can find right up at the top under big picture. Fantastic.
Kelly Butler: And there's the story of Jim Barksdale on there as well. There's a documentary that we produced to tell the story of, of Mississippi. And many of the folks that I've encountered and all on this call are often.
Involved in this work because of their own experience with dyslexia or a child with dyslexia. Jim Barksdale is my poster child. He struggled as a reader. [00:58:00] And when he came back to Mississippi from his work around the country in telecommunications. He is the former CEO of Netscape. He wanted to make a difference in Mississippi.
So he's been my hero for why this matters. And it's a good story. He's a, he's a gem of a guy that has done a lot for Mississippi. But particularly in lifting us off the bottom.
Shannon Betts: Well, that one's called scaling up for success, correct? Yes. Okay. So we, in our show notes, we're going to link to the overall website, but then because there is so much within the reading universe prototype, we'll also link to some of those specific.
Resources that we mentioned and then also on our social media pictures, you know, sometimes tell a thousand words. So we'll show some pictures of, you know, sort of how to read the taxonomy and some videos about how to access it and things like that.
Kelly Butler: You might also then include the right to read project link [00:59:00] that Margaret's link that folks can sign up for the lunch and lit conversation on Fridays.
Shannon Betts: Yeah, I would recommend it because I just joined based on Kelly's invitation. And it is incredible. Like you're sitting there, like the first one I attended, I looked at the participant list on the zoom, and then I looked at my bookshelf and I started counting how many of the authors of books on my bookshelf were present in the zoom.
And it was like, it was 25 percent of the zoom was authors that I had read and admired. I love being in rooms where I haven't been. least experienced and not smartest person in the room because I just want to learn from the greats and that's a place to do that.
Kelly Butler: So, well, these folks have been so generous with their time.
This is all for free. It's you sign on for free. And, and these folks have presented Just out of the generosity of their spirit. So it's, it's been a fun ride. I welcome newcomers.
Shannon Betts: I [01:00:00] mean, last week I brought in my Chromebook to the kitchen. I was cooking my green chef meal while I was watching and listening and everything was on, you know, no mute, no video and everything.
And I was able to learn and cook my lunch and then sit there and eat my lunch while learning some more. It was great.
Kelly Butler: Well, and they are recorded and, and so folks can tune into them later. There is a discussion part of the session. It's an hour and a half. The last half hour is generally devoted just to discussion.
That is not recorded. So folks are free to sort of explore, ask questions and have discussion. But it's a, it's been a great resource.
Shannon Betts: And where on your website is that invitation link? So I can make sure to find it.
Kelly Butler: That I don't know off the top of my head. Do you know, Carla?
Carla Stanford: The Lunch and Lead invitation is actually on Margaret Goldberg's The Right to Read.
Okay. But it's not,
Kelly Butler: there's not a link on, from Reading Universe on it? When we make that happen.
Carla Stanford: Yeah, we're gonna, we should [01:01:00] be making a list. And as you guys go through our website, you can give us feedback. We would love that.
Kelly Butler: And we
would love feedback on all of it. So listeners, please tune in and and write us and let us know what you need more of.
Shannon Betts: What's the best way to contact you?
Kelly Butler: K Butler, just the letter K Butler, B U T L E R at M S T Reads, R E A D S dot org.
Mary Saghafi: We will link it for sure. It's no problem.
Shannon Betts: Is there anything else? Oh, Mary, go ahead.
Mary Saghafi: Oh, I was just going to say this can also maybe be part of our Patreon community too. If you are open to doing a Q and a session with us, if you want to really like dig into this and talk with us, that might be something.
And then together as a group, we can submit some feedback. That would be a really wonderful way to build our community as well. Do our own professional learning. Together.
Carla Stanford: That would be amazing. Would love to do that. And my email address is [01:02:00] cstanfordatweta. org.
Shannon Betts: Tell me the last few letters again.
Carla Stanford: Cstanfordatweta. org.
Shannon Betts: Dot org.
Carla Stanford: Thank you. Dot org. Yep. So
Shannon Betts: anything else? The
Carla Stanford: last thing I wanted to say about the videos is we have some amazing teachers featured from Atlanta. Oh, great. In the videos, we have teachers from all over, but I thought you guys would find that really exciting. And we're always up for like hearing about schools that you think would be amazing for us to come and to produce video in, to share with The world, because we have teachers from all over the world joining in all 50 states.
And I think it was like 80 different countries. And so we're always looking for places to dive in and show the amazing work because we want to continue to build our how to teach portion. Like, what does it look like with kids? Portion of the [01:03:00] website.
Mary Saghafi: That's amazing. Really cool. I have some recommendations,
Kelly Butler: but it's PBS quality video.
We bring a whole team in and it's a big, it's a big deal. But we are looking for a good teachers to reflect the classrooms all across the country every region and and, and the diversity of our students and our teaching force. So we'd love to hear from you about that.
Shannon Betts: Are you still just mainly looking for K 1 teachers or now because people are looking for all the grades?
Kelly Butler: Right.
Shannon Betts: You said up to grade six?
Kelly Butler: Up to grade six, and we may not get to you right away because we're building as we go, but But it's not too soon to let us know you're out there.
Shannon Betts: Open invitation to the audience. I bet there's some people that want to have their
Kelly Butler: So when Noel Gunther agreed to partner with me on this, he said, what does success look like to you?
And I said, when at least one teacher in every elementary school in the country, discovers Reading Universe [01:04:00] and walks down the hall to another teacher and says, check this out. That will be a success for me. And Carl's right. We've heard from all 50 states and 180 countries. And so there's no stopping us now.
So join us on this ride. We're going to, we're going to get reading right in America.
Shannon Betts: I love it. It reminds me that same graduate school professor that I quoted, he was telling me about the Cuban literacy initiative, which there's not much Castro did that was right. But that, that was one thing that was pretty amazing and how they, you know, taught the trainers and the trainers went out to every place in Cuba and taught each person.
And then they taught the household and then they taught the community. And then eventually Cuba, I think still has literacy rate in the nineties. Yeah,
Mary Saghafi: I'm so encouraged by the work that you all are putting forth and so thank you so much for your time and sharing it. And I think the action point to our [01:05:00] listeners is if you found this helpful, please make sure you share this episode with other people so that we can spread this word even more.
Shannon Betts: We appreciate the work y'all are doing and thank you for sharing your time with us and your audience, and our audience.
Kelly Butler: Thank you so much for lifting this up. We appreciate it.
Shannon Betts: Yes, thanks for having us. It's also been really
Carla Stanford: fun.
Shannon Betts: We try to make the Reading Teacher's Lunch fun. We like to talk to colleagues that we wish we had, you know, worked with in our own buildings.
Mary Saghafi: And the coffee was great. Excellent. So glad. You must have made it yourself. It's lovely, isn't
it?