Episode 3: The Power of Literacy

November is Family Literacy Month, and our guests Stephanie Byars, the Director of District and School Support at the Shasta County Office of Education, and Heather Armelino, Superintendent of the Enterprise Elementary School District and Chair of Reach Higher Shasta Early Literacy Committee, share insights into local reading initiatives, challenges, and successes. They delve into the science of reading, the value of reading with kids, the importance of reducing screen time, leading by example, and more. They're aiming for a future where all Shasta County  graduates are skilled readers who are well equipped to follow the college and/or career path they choose.

Transcript

  Welcome to Inspire Shasta, where we hope to inspire change through personal narratives. Join us while we dive into impactful stories that showcase the resilience of youth and the tireless dedication of allies and advocates. 

This podcast is a space where personal experiences shape a collective narrative, fostering empathy, understanding, and a call to action for positive change in our community.

Welcome to Inspire Shasta. In  honor of November being Family Literacy Month, We have the pleasure of hosting two fantastic guests, Stephanie Byars and Heather Armelino. Stephanie is the director of district and school support and educational support services for the Shasta County office of education.

She's also involved in the SCOE's literacy board initiative, which was launched by the Shasta County board of education to improve literacy for all students in Shasta County.  

And we're thrilled to welcome Heather Armelino, Superintendent of Enterprise Elementary School District and Chair of Reach Higher Shasta Early Literacy Committee.

This committee leads important work like universal screening tools for kindergarten students and organizing community literacy events including Shasta Reads. Welcome both of you. Thank you. Good to be here. 

Yeah. So before we get started, we always love to dive into a welcome question. And so our welcome question is always, if you could go back to any grade in school for a day, what would, which one would it be and why?

And we'll start with you, Stephanie, first. 

Okay. The first thing that popped into my head immediately was kindergarten in Mrs. Dragon's class because she made us all feel loved the second we walked in the door.  And she would play piano and sing with us every day. And fun fact, this really ages me, but if you remember back in the 70s, if you're old enough, in a group called the Captain and Tennille sang the song, Love Will Keep Us Together.

Sue Dragon was the sister of the Captain. 

No way. 

So she had an amazing voice. So I was, anyways, I would go back and spend the day with her any day. I'd like to come with you. 

That sounds fun. Yeah.  

And 

how about you, Heather? I would go back to sixth grade. We had a teacher who was very empowering.

So one of the things that she let a group of us do was write our own play. And we ultimately ended up performing it for the whole school. But she just was able to, nurture any spark of creativity in students. And that just You know, it made everybody feel like they were capable of all kinds of things.

So that would be fun to go back to sixth grade.  

She saw what was special in you and promoted it. Yeah. Love that. To help our listeners just get to know each of you a little bit better. Could you share a little bit about how your work connects to the literacy efforts in Shasta County?  How about you, Heather?

Okay. Certainly as a school superintendent, that is my primary focus, is helping ensure that our students are literate competent readers, and particularly in primary grades. Along with that, as being part of Reach Higher Shasta in the Early Literacy Committee, we are focusing our efforts on ultimately improving the number of students who are reading at grade level by the end of third grade, and backing that up into getting ready for kindergarten and those first couple of grades, and making sure they have a strong foundation in reading. 

Thank you. How about you Stephanie?  

Okay. I work for SCOE and I am the director of literacy support for schools and districts. And so  basically, we do everything we can to support our schools and districts and teachers by providing professional development in the science of reading. We have We'd support district leaders with new initiatives such as our K 2 Reading Difficulties Risk Screener that's coming up starting next year. 

We also offer instructional coaching and asynchronous professional development and just partner with our regional partners to just help support literacy and improving that not only by third grade but all the way across, all the way up. 

P K 12. Yeah.  

That's amazing. So Stephanie, to ask you a few more questions about the work you do, could you explain the types of supports SCOE provides to districts for literacy development and how that connects to the broader goal of the board initiative focused on literacy? 

Sure. I jumped into that a little earlier, but one of the main things that we're working on now is really building.

Capacity with our teachers and paraeducators and that means building their knowledge in the science of reading and how they can apply that in their classrooms and for administrators to help build systems that align with the science of reading and there's a lot of districts that are doing great work with that and we're partnering with them and Heather and her team as well. 

So that is a 10 module course that we provide. We have cohorts from that are multiple cohorts of TK through fifth grade teachers. And we offer that a couple of different times. During the day and a couple different days of the week so that we can meet the needs of our schools and the different times that they have their staff available.

We provide it for our sixth through twelfth grade teachers regionally, and also with a cohort through the Shasta Union High School District, as well as a cohort with our paraeducators, because those are the folks that are on the front lines with our kiddos, working oftentimes with the greatest need.

So we do a lot of training there. We do coaching, we facilitate some one on one tutoring through an online platform called Ignite, that we're working with this company to provide those extra supports for our students who have ex exceptional intensive needs. And we work with Reach Higher Shasta Literacy, helping to come with, to together with Common Assessments so that we can all, reach the same goal, really. 

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you're really coming alongside the educators that are in the work, in the classrooms doing the work so that way you can help provide them with the tools to be able to support the students. 

Yes, that is the goal. And we'd like to even come alongside them even more. We're just, we have so many that we've been working with.

We haven't been able to get in as much with each classroom, but that's luckily where my lens is really helpful because I was in the classroom from nearly 30 years and I taught K through six, but most of my teaching was in K through three. I have a lot of knowledge and background in that area.

So I love to get in the classroom and help teachers, especially our new teachers. Yeah.  

That's 

awesome. 

Yeah. I bet the teachers really see that as a value because you're coming in as someone that was in the classroom that understands the day to day in and outs of being a classroom teacher and so I'm sure that allows them to be able to receive the training in a different way. 

Yeah, I think so. I think just being just having the experience and being able to connect with them and teaching through all the way through the, our times when we were out during the pandemic and going through that things have shifted quite a bit. And I have that experience for doing that.

And especially when I come in and model something, then they're like, Oh, okay. Now, We believe her.  

What strategies are being employed to engage the broader community in supporting literacy development?  

Within SCOE, one of the things that has happened here from our subcommittee is they provided funding to purchase a small library of books that were written by Native American authors that we're putting into our library.

All of our school libraries for our students, and we're also, they're also looking at expanding that to other student groups so that we can have our students who are in our schools can see themselves in the books that they have opportunities to read and that's just within the school system, but we're also reaching out in other ways through community events, such as we just had Shasta Reads last week, where volunteers from the community can go into the classroom and we support that.

Several of us went in and read in the classroom and, other events like film screenings that we had in January, we had the right to read with the film's star and national literacy expert, Kareem Weaver, and we're looking for some other film screenings potentially happening this spring to just really bring awareness of the importance of literacy to our community. 

That's amazing. So Heather, now to tap into your area of expertise from your perspective as a district superintendent. How have you seen the literacy efforts of Reach Out Shasta help with literacy in Shasta County?  

There's a big component of just awareness, whether that's in the community or within our school sites.

Currently, the only  common measure we have isn't until third grade when state testing begins. And then as a county and a state, we can and then we have a lot of different surveys that we do to gauge how well our kids are doing. But prior to that, we don't have anything like that.

So everybody measures that according to whatever assessments they use as a district.  And that's a little bit of a late start to really know whether you're on the right track or not. So one of the big efforts is, has been to collect data. So from kindergarten, first and second grade to know how well we're on track, where we need to make adjustments.

So for instance, our kindergartners are pretty strong. And then we see that tapers off a little in first grade. So what's happening there that we need to address. And that's where, having partners like SCOE to,  Bring the access to really good quality professional development for every district because that's more of a challenge if you're a smaller district so that everybody has the skills and the tools to have the most effective reading instruction for students early on before they really have a bigger and bigger gap.

We don't want to wait too long. And then certainly with just having events that bring people together around the importance and the joy of reading is super important to keep everybody focused on the right things. 

Yeah. I love that answer. 

Yeah. I would assume that data.

having it for the PK to the second graders would really help with the early intervention strategies. And without that, we're behind the ball when we're, when that's being addressed third grade as early as, or as late as third grade. 

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We want to be able to adjust  more quickly.

Is it, are we focusing on the right components? Is there enough practice? Do they have the best materials? And and we can keep monitoring that data, then we know where we need to shift. 

Yeah.  

Yeah, more preventative. 

I love that approach, yeah. What successes and challenges have the Enterprise Elementary School District faced in improving literacy rates?

Right now, we're celebrating the fact that we're on the right trajectory, right? There's growth happening, but we want to accelerate that growth not only for all of the students in our community some of the things that we have done are to address, the challenges of literacy rates, are hiring literacy coaches.

We have one at every school site. We also have some at the district level to provide, more in depth professional development and particularly to support new teachers. 

Yeah. 

We, we have a lot of interns and people who aren't even finished with their program. That's something that's relatively new, and they need extra support.

So we want to make sure they have the best support. We've had to not only provide support with understanding how to use curriculum, but our curriculum isn't always as aligned as we would like it to be with the science of reading. So we've had to add other pieces and helping, teachers to know how to use those tools and when to use them  can get very complex.

So as a district, we developed our own roadmap to reading so that each grade level understood, how how to group, when to group, how much time to spend on different components and what materials we had available. The challenges are I think one challenge is teachers coming out of teaching programs aren't always well prepared in reading instruction.

And so we just have to recognize that and make sure that we're doing our part to bring them to up to speed on best practices there.  For students, attendance has certainly been a big factor. If they aren't at school, they're not learning. We are constantly encouraging families to bring students to school.

Also, the social emotional component. Some of our students are just coming to school with tremendous challenges. And that absolutely interferes with their ability to learn. And we have to have, that. Wrap around the whole child because we can mitigate those factors when we have warm and welcoming environments and along with that, we want to have good quality instruction because that can overcome so many of those challenges and maintain high expectations because we believe all of our kids can achieve at high levels.

Yeah.  Yeah.  

Learning the joy of reading, I think.  in the long run will help a lot of students that become like, dysregulated or have a lot of stuff that's going on outside of school. Cause it's something that they can tap into. It's a world that they could open a book and  be part of that book's world for a little while.

And so I really love that you guys are making that foundational work in your district. It's really important.  

And I love to hear that both, it feels like both of your programs are like throwing out a lifeline to these teachers and making sure that they're really equipped. And I just love that because I feel like I've, seen schools before where they're like, all right, and here you go and have fun and, make amazing students.

But you guys are really providing them with the professional development. I think that's really amazing. So Stephanie, question to you. What are some long term consequences for students who struggle with reading? And how can families work on building a love for reading early in life?  

Nearly every aspect of life is impacted by your literacy.

Yeah. 

And starting out early on, that if you're not successful, you're struggling. Heather talked about social emotional component we almost immediately start seeing behavior issues when it comes time to read and write. If you are struggling at it, that's usually number one and then as it goes down the road, the gap just gets wider and wider if we're not able to intervene and support them.

And then it leads to things like substance use, dropping out of school, poverty, incarceration, really all of the social issues that we deal with, that we see in our community can be tied back to low literacy in some form or another. And of course we want kids to love to read, but at this point, I would love for them to love to read.

I just want them to know how to read because I want them to be able to read their prescription bottles in their tax forms and a job. application and fill out a resume, basic things. Everything is tied to that their whole life really. So I like to say whatever the question or the problem, the answer is literacy. 

So what are some ways that families can help build that in  their early ages and their children?  

I think first and foremost is just building a relationship. Demonstrating that love themselves because kids always want to be with like their parents and do what their parents are doing, right?

If they see them, reading a book and talking about stories and going to story time and really valuing.  Literacy and pointing out and learning and just learning about places and things and all just a general level of learning Demonstrating that and then I would also just like to say You know limiting screen time limiting those tablets and those phones and those tvs and all of that and you hear the slogan talk read sing it works And it starts Early, and it continues, and we just, those young years are so impressionable and if they don't ever see their parents pick up a book, why would they?

Yeah. They think that belongs at school. Yeah. Not in regular life. 

Yeah. 



That's so true. 

Talk, read, sing. I think that simplifies it, right? It takes out all of like, how do we do this? If maybe you're a parent and reading is, you don't have a love for reading. What is a way that you can build your child's foundation for that?

And when you put it as simple as talk, read, sing, I think it just  makes it more attainable. 

And something we have to remember, too, is that if we have low literacy rates with our children than we inherently have low literacy rates with our adults. And as a teacher, and I'm sure Heather's had the same contact with a lot of families, that are not confident, proficient readers.

And so that's a struggle for them. So that's where I say let's go to story time at the public library, find opportunities, whether, free opportunities within the community where literacy is celebrated. And and get support that way. Or, looking at some of the adult literacy programs offered through our public library.

Because it can't be hard for families if that didn't, generations have not promoted literacy. 

Yeah, because what you know is your environment. So if that's not being included in your environment as a child, then you're likely going to do the same thing when you have children.  Heather, Reach Higher Shasta collaborates with various organizations, including First 5 and Shasta Public Libraries.

Can you share with us other organizations that Reach Higher Shasta partners with and how these collaborations strengthen literacy efforts within not only your school district, but the community or the county?  

We also partner with Shasta College, Simpson College Shasta Community Health, we have some business owners that participate.

When we think about our higher education partners, that's been really crucial with how are we preparing  the next generation of teachers in particular,  how they can help us provide training, particularly with our paraprofessionals who are often working closely with students. The shafts community health piece, I think similar to what Stephanie was saying, there are so many other ways that literacy impacts our overall health, whether it's our mental wellbeing or even our physical health.

So they, they go hand in hand. Along with things like Shasta Reads, and in the spring we, we do Read Across America, we've also put out little free libraries, which you may have seen  all across town. I think we have one. Yeah. Yeah. So that there is increased access to those books, and then in summertime making sure that we provide lots of communication and opportunities for families to either participate in story time or get access to books when their students aren't at school.

Yeah, 

because that gap, that summertime, 

I 

can't 

think of what they call it right now. Summer slide. Summer slide. We're turning it into summer climb. Oh, I love it. Just reframing it makes all the difference, doesn't it? 

Sorry. I just got so caught up in thinking about all the times that I've walked across a little library and been like, yes, I get to look for, and I've, yeah, I've also seen kids in my neighborhood. We have one on. Our walking path and kids are like standing on this rock like looking through all these books, and it's just it's sweet to see their love for that. 

So Stephanie, how can community members who are not educators or parents get involved in supporting literacy efforts like the board initiative?  

I think just going back to that, I, concept of awareness and learning more, there's lots of resources out there available just learning how we know the best ways and the best strategies for teaching reading.

So when you go potentially to volunteer in a classroom or through a program to read that you're really fostering that decoding and reading of the words as opposed to guessing what the word is by looking at the picture, because many of us were taught that way and we now know that's not efficient. Learning through there's tons online, Watching videos, listening to podcasts, or coming to maybe one of our films that we have coming up in the community, and learning about our call to action.

We're actually working on right now Putting together a volunteer reading volunteer program. We're piloting that. We lost a lot of those community connections from the pandemic. And so we're trying to build that back up again where we can get some, a lot of our folks are retired and have a little time to donate to our community and to our kids.

And not only does it help reading, but it really boosts boost students social emotional status, just having a relationship with another adult. Yeah. And reading. And just participating in the events that we have locally like Shasta Reads or, any of our community events. 

Yeah. 

This summer I, in one of my other hats that I wear, we brought the RX prescription pets to one of our summer sites to do reading with students. And It was great because we worked with Happy Valley and they gave us the student's reading level. Then we gave it to the volunteers and they were able to, work with students on that.

But their volunteers, a lot of them are retired, but they have a dog that's trained and, as soon as they would come in, the kids are like, Yes! I get to go read now! And it was just such a, something that they could tangibly do to make a difference in their community. It was amazing.

Yeah, we were fortunate enough, my kids went to Turtle Bay and they had a teacher, Ms. Brovathen, and she also did that. She had an animal that she was able to bring in, and it changed the perspective of reading for many students, even, especially the ones that would say that they didn't like to read, and sometimes that is because it's difficult for you, and sometimes it's for other reasons but It changed that environment to where they ended up loving that time and it was related to reading.

So maybe they came because they wanted to be around the animal, but at the end of the day they look forward to it every single week, which I think was really amazing. I love to see programs like that.  

So maybe that's a homework to our listeners. Yeah. Think about something that you can do to pair with reading and figure out how to help that.

help with students in your community through that. 

Yeah. Make it a positive association.  Heather, what are you most proud of in terms of the progress Reach Higher Shasta has made in approving literacy outcomes for students?  

I would have to say absolutely being able to collect that data in those early grade levels that had to be on a voluntary basis.

And I'm excited that we had so many districts who are willing to participate so that we can actually. Look at what the truth is and where we need to do more, and to do it sooner. Yeah, because 

without that acknowledgement, where would, you wouldn't be where you're at today. 

Yeah.  

And then another question about success is, Stephanie how have you,  what are some successes that you've seen so far in your work with literacy, and just what are the long term goals of your program?

Okay. 

I would say some of the successes are just watching teachers and Seeing their excitement when they learn more and they now say as we know better we do better right and has and as their instruction changes and Improves to meet the needs of their students and the systems within their own school sites.

Yeah, because it's a collaborative effort It's not just the teacher. It takes everybody involved on the school site But you know doing that training that professional development I would say just getting the numbers of people trained because it's really just getting started with we have a lot of programs that tell us how to do things, but what's really missing is the why in the background and understanding how to do that.

As of last year, we had about 87 Shasta County teachers and para educators across TK through 12 trained in getting reading right. And we currently have over 150 enrolled this year. So it's just a first step in getting that background knowledge. And then as we get these K 2 screeners coming, and it's just developing systems that really work best with explicit systematic instruction for our students.

And when teachers come back and share, oh my gosh, they're so excited, the growth that their kids, that they're seeing with all their kids.  versus what was happening previously based on just, it wasn't their fault. They just weren't taught. Heather said, a lot of them are coming out  from their programs without enough knowledge to effectively teach reading.

And so that's what we're doing. We're trying to support them and support those who've been around for a while, just like myself, who was taught a long time ago, a whole different method that we now know is not the most effective. I've been on my own journey and learning. And so that's what's propelled me to be in the position I am today. 

Yeah, I'm just really impressed by this work because I think that none of it happens without looking at what's not working. And then addressing that and doing it intentionally, right? I've sat here and listened to the stuff that you guys have shared today, and it's a community effort. There are federally recognized health care programs, there's districts teaching districts Shas County Office of Education partnering with districts and teachers and including paraprofessionals.

Yeah. In the training is really important because they are doing some more of that individualized work with the students because there's, one teacher in a classroom of 28, which is challenging. And it sounds like you guys are really covering a multitude of basis in order for this to make change, which I applaud you for.

I think it's great. And I thank you as a mother of children that live in Shasta County. Heather, looking ahead, what are your priorities and goals for continuing to enhance the work that you've already done in literacy in Shasta County?  

First of all I am confident that this is, More than possible.

So I'm very optimistic about what's ahead and the next few years in the immediate future I am hoping that as a county we will agree on using the same tool for the reading difficulty screener that's going to be required in K 2 as of next year, because if we can all use the same tool and be speaking the same language, it's going to be that much easier for us to diagnose where we need to, dive in a little bit deeper and address problems.

And then that leads us right into the professional development piece, which is I would say the goal there is to ensure that every teacher has had the opportunity to be equipped and have a good, solid understanding of how to deliver that instruction effectively, because, and they can all do it.  

new and old teachers, right?

You might've been like you shared, Stephanie your experience in the classroom stuff has changed, right? And so you've had to relearn in your own education journey. And so it's your veteran teachers feeling comfortable to relearn, right? Cause we get really comfortable with what we're used to.

And then bringing the supports in for our new teachers. is really vital as well. 

Yeah, and change is hard. Right? Change can be hard. It can be hard to look in the mirror and say, wow,  what I was taught to do, the curriculum I was given, everything, I was working really hard but now I know, now research shows that's not the most effective.

So I have to change. It's continuous improvement. And that can be hard. It's Because, like you said, we like to go to the comfort zone. So it stretches a lot of us and, it just, it takes time and we're working really hard to just come alongside and like Heather said, train every, make sure, every child deserves to be in a class with a teacher who understands and can effectively teach reading.

Every child deserves that. It shouldn't just be luck of the draw of whose class you get. Yeah. 

Yeah. And our children will become.  adults in this community, right? And so this is a generational change.  

That's our goal until all kids read. Yeah.  

Yeah. So these next, these last few questions are for both of you.

But what are some fun and engaging ways to make reading enjoyable for children and how can we foster a love for reading that lasts a lifetime? As we talked about going into thinking generationally.  

I think it starts really early. And Stephanie talked about that a little bit, but having books in your home, reading to your children, modeling that making it a daily habit, pointing it out in your environment, all around you.

I also feel like  tracking progress is a huge motivator for students. So even if that's a sticker chart, every time they finish a book and you're working toward whatever special activity your child really enjoys. And talking about what you're reading and just being enthusiastic about reading. 

Yeah, I think the sharing, right? If you can provide, maybe if you're a parent that has their own challenges with reading, but if you can encourage your child to share with you what they're reading that helps create that conversation.  

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. Yeah. And just listening to your children, listen to them, read.

If that's difficult for you, then,  and also we have, we're lucky as well. If it's a struggle for families, we have audio books you can sit together and go through. There's a lot of free resources for that, for families who may struggle with that as well. And like I said, just really celebrating, I said, those goals, helping kids set goals Just like all of us, we're all motivated by goals in different ways, right?

And so our kids, they love to see when they, when they check that box or get that star or when they, especially when they clearly know an area that they're targeting and then they get it, like the excitement, it's my favorite.  

Along the lines of ways that parents can help their children read when maybe it's not something that they feel is their strength.

What advice do you give to those parents who are feeling overwhelmed and discouraged maybe about their own reading or their child's reading? And what resources, and you've mentioned a couple, but what are some resources? If I'm a parent listening to this today and I Reading is not my strength and it's not something that I have a love for, but I want to change that narrative in my home.

What are some things that they can walk away with today and maybe add to their reading toolbox?  

Depending on the age of the child, I, my first thing would be Have  you know develop that relationship with your child's teacher? And if you're overwhelmed or you're concerned like bring up those concerns early And what are you seeing and just help because every teacher I know Loves nothing more than to support their families and help their kids.

Yeah, 

so that's where I would start It is within the classroom, setting, check with your teacher because they would hopefully know. And, if maybe you happen to have one of those intern teachers that's new, most of them are really willing to say, I'm not 100 percent sure, but let me go find out. 

And they'll ask a coach and they will hopefully be networking within the school system because schools are set up to support children. That's what we do. And I'll let Heather talk about that. But, there are systems in place. We're all concerned when a kid starts to struggle. Yeah. Yeah. 

My background is in special education, so I spent many years working with students, particularly who were struggling in reading. This is something that's close to my heart, for sure.  And I think sometimes when a student is struggling at home and parents are feeling frustrated by that,  you,  at home, you want it to be.

a safe and happy time. Sometimes just reading something that is a little bit easier and more comfortable and not to be afraid to re read the same story as many times as that child is willing to do it because that really builds confidence. And to get to a place where a child loves to read if they're struggling  none of us like to do things we're not good at.

So becoming competent will lead to the joy, so that we need to just accept where they are and as the parent, don't feel like you're the one that has to push them to that. frustration point. But definitely you want to partner with your school and tap into the experts there so that they can be the ones to push the student beyond what they're, to that next step.

Lots of places now have free online tutoring as well. Sessions, you can do that through the public library. Lots of school sites have that as well. You mentioned reading to a pet. Sometimes that takes a lot of pressure off. Of students partner reading with, you read a page, I'll read a page, so that they feel supported.

That connection and time they're spending with their child is equally important. To keep our eye on the long term goal there. I, another thing I think kids really love to do is just to record themselves reading. You can put your phone out there and then they listen to themselves. And they, they love that.

It's, a free thing that they can do. And then I know you mentioned this earlier, but just to go back to the screen time I think it's so much bigger than we think it is to read requires focus and sustained attention and screens do the opposite. It, and it makes, has made it more difficult for our children to be able to. 

have that kind of focus. So we just, we don't have to say never, but we do need to ensure that we're doing that in moderation so that we don't interfere with their brain, being able to develop all of those important attention skills as well. 

Yeah.  

And agreed. And I think we're also seeing that  When kids spend more time with screens than they do communicating and talking, then they have some delayed speech development and their language development, and then they have not been learned, they haven't learned how to, handle little problems interactively  with either other children or adults, and then we see reactive behavior.

Behaviors that they see on screen and it's just like Heather said, it is so much bigger  of a problem than I think people realize, so instead of turning that DVD on in the car, put an audio book in, and listen to a story. It's as simple as that, I think, in some ways. 

And I think parents having an awareness of their own use of screen time because as we talked about with modeling we're not doing, and I'm gonna as a parent myself, not a great job at modeling. 

screen time and when it's appropriate and when it's not, and other ways to spend our time other than, staring at our phones, even if we are re sometimes parents are reading an article or they're actually using it for that, but that's not necessarily communicated within the home. 

Yeah. Kids don't know.

And the premise of, from the science of reading is that we learn to read from speech. We learn from speech to print, so if we're suffering from some language deficits because we haven't been talking to, we haven't been talked to  all the time before we get to school, it's inherently going to cause issues and problems when they get to school.

Yeah.  I know, it's like a lightbulb moment, huh? 

Yeah. Yeah. That's a big difference, is with traditional, like we were talking, you may hear of like the reading wars of how we teach reading, but whole language, which is how I learned to read, and a lot of us, if you learned to read from the Dick and Jane series, that's what you learned as well the idea is that we can learn our brain processes words as a whole word,  and we now know  from science.

That is not true. We learn our brain processes and we learn those words based on the sounds we hear and we attach that sound symbol correspondence. It's a very complex process that happens really fast, but we have to teach it explicitly for kids. And so if they're suffering from language deficits and speech problems, it carries through to reading.

So screen time is a big one.  

Would you say earlier, listen? 

Oh, that's it. It comes, I think from first five, it's talk, read, sing,  yeah.  

Tonight I am not going to scroll on Instagram and I'm going to pick up a book. I'm now inspired. And finally at SCOE, one of our core values focuses on being hopeful and helpful.

And so I'm going to give both of you a question. You can pick either one. But.  What is your hope for the next generation? Or, who is someone that was helpful to you in your journey? 

Or both.  Or both. 

It's a hard one to answer. 

There's a lot. But,  my hope, and I think this is attainable because, it's just a wish if we don't have a plan. But, my hope for our students is that they all walk into a classroom and are greeted with love. and acceptance and by a teacher who knows how to teach reading following the science of reading. 

Yeah. I literally just got chills. 

Yeah. Yeah.  My hope is that by the time all of the students of Shasta County graduate from school, they are prepared to have a good life in our community and in turn make our community a stronger place. And that doesn't happen without literacy skills and without our kids having a sense of,  Ownership over their lives and their decisions and You know in my district our vision is empower every child every day and that's really I mean I carry that around with me every day because that's really what all of us are doing is Empowering them so that they make our community a better place and that their lives are things something that they can be proud of and happy in  

Because without literacy, their choices are limited for what they have in life, right?

But with literacy they can make choices between the college and career path that they choose  

Yeah open doors  

No ceilings  

Thank you both so much for joining us today and sharing the impactful work that you're doing in shasta county we hope our listeners will be inspired by the ways  That you're doing  educators and families and the students of Shasta County and ways that they can support also support literacy within their own home and the community. 

And to all of our listeners, remember that November is National Family Literacy Month, so it's a perfect time to encourage a love for reading in your families. But until next time, thank you for listening to Inspire Shasta. 

The views and thoughts and opinions shared in Inspire Shasta Podcast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Shasta Foundation.  

Any content provided by our guests reflects their opinions and is not intended to align with any religious, ethnic group, school, organization, company, individual, or entity.