Reading Realities

Everyone Sees Themselves as a Reader in My Class feat. Danielle Honsberger

• Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Danielle Honsberger, a grade one teacher and former literacy coach based in Prince Edward Island, Canada, (our first international guest) joins host Rose Else-Mitchell to discuss her journey from classroom teacher to literacy coach and back to the classroom again. 

Danielle shares a pivotal moment when she reexamined familiar assessment data and realized that a single score wasn't telling the whole story of how students were learning to read. Rose and Danielle discuss the shift from guided reading to small-group instruction with decodable texts, the importance of explicit teaching, and how a strong scope and sequence can support highly responsive instruction.

References and Resources:

Credits:

  • Guest: Danielle Honsberger, Grade One Teacher and Former Literacy Coach based in Prince Edward Island, Canada
  • Host: Rose Else-Mitchell, Executive Director of the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz
  • Produced by the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz, Rose Else-Mitchell, and Onalee Smith
  • Original music and audio editing by Ross Gentry

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Keywords: science of reading, structured literacy, first grade reading instruction, literacy coaching, reading assessment, decodable texts, small group instruction, phonics instruction, early literacy, reading intervention, student confidence, reader identity, explicit instruction, literacy leadership, foundational skills, primary literacy, assessment and instruction, reading development

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Danielle Honsberger

We're not just teaching skills, but we're helping shape how they see themselves as learners. And over the years, it has become really clear to me that teaching is a privilege, and literacy is at the heart of it.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Welcome to Reading Realities, a podcast about what it really takes to change how we teach reading. Each episode, I talk with an educator about the instructional and mindset shifts they're making. Because the truth is, changing reading instruction isn't simple, can be challenging, can be messy, and no one should have to figure it out alone. I'm your host, Rose Else Mitchell, Executive Director of the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz. I've spent my career in education, as a teacher, a learning and product designer, and working alongside schools and systems as they navigate change. Today I'm joined by Danielle Honsberger, a first grade teacher and a [former] literacy coach based in Prince Edward Island in Canada. Danielle's our first international guest. Danielle shares her journey from supporting teachers as a literacy coach to returning to a grade one classroom. We talk about what it looks like to teach foundational reading skills in a way that's both explicit, systematic, and deeply responsive to each young learner. Let's get started.

Rose Else-Mitchell

I'm here today with Danielle Honsberger. Thank you for being here.

Danielle Honsberger

It's a pleasure to be here.

Rose Else-Mitchell

You're at school today, so we might hear the bells.

Danielle Honsberger

I am. I am. The students are just coming in from recess right now to have their lunch. So yes, you may hear some bells. Well, one of the things I'm most excited about is uh something that a lot of people who've left the classroom think about, which is after doing all kinds of things, whether it might be leadership, being a principal, being in a district or a board office as you were, but a lot of people who were drawn to teaching are drawn to going back to the classroom. And maybe you could just tell us a little bit about how you ended back in the classroom and um what took you there. Absolutely. So I am truly honored to be here, Rose. As you mentioned, I've been a primary teacher for nearly 20 years, mostly in a grade one classroom. And I also had the opportunity to work as a literacy coach with the Department of Education. And I was fortunate enough to support teachers across the province. And honestly, I've been wanting to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. I remember picking up a grade three biography I wrote, and it said, When I grow up, I'm going to be a teacher. Not I want to be a teacher, I'm going to be a teacher. So my passion for primary literacy really comes from my own experiences as a student. So even though I had great teachers, I often was left feeling academically frustrated at times. And that has really shaped how I approach my own teaching. Because when you understand that feeling, it changes how you support your students. Early on, I realized teaching is such a privilege. And especially in the primary years, we're not just teaching skills, but we're helping shape how they see themselves as learners. As I entered into my coaching position, it was the biggest shift in my practice was about to occur. And it was structured literacy. And I wanted to learn more about this so that I could support teachers through this. So I had a chance to support teachers with foundations using decodable texts and really focusing on explicit skill-based instruction. What I was seeing really I was missing my students, and I wanted a chance to really get back into my own environment and give what I've learned back to them. So being back in my classroom, I've seen how powerful this approach can be. And when you really meet each child where they're at, you start to see their skills and their confidence grow. And to me, when I looked at education and going into the teaching career, really my end goal was helping my students see themselves as capable, but as lifelong learners.

Rose Else-Mitchell

I love that self-determination that you had. How old were you when you said I will be a teacher?

Danielle Honsberger

Grade three.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah.

Danielle Honsberger

I just I knew it. I I knew it.

Rose Else-Mitchell

So you weren't always a teacher who used structured literacy. You weren't trained that way initially, right?

Danielle Honsberger

Right. We never had a structured phonics program, and now we do. And it's made the world of a difference. The shift wasn't easy, and there were significant moments throughout my career where I knew it was time to make that shift. But the biggest shift really happened during my time as a literacy coach. My colleagues and I, we were planning professional learning development for our grade one teachers, and it was called using data to develop skilled readers. And it actually brought me back to something that used to frustrate me in my own classroom. So those moments when I'd sit down with a student, I'd pull out a benchmark text, and their accuracy would come in at 90% or below. And I remember feeling so deflated. I was putting everything I had into teaching my young readers. So why wasn't it showing up in the data? And I feel like that was a frustration for many. And as we planned the PD, we decided to look at benchmark assessments through a different lens. So we looked more through a critical lens. And since it was early in the year when we were planning the PD, it was October, um, around October. So we chose a level text we might expect our students to be reading.

Rose Else-Mitchell

In what grade were the students?

Danielle Honsberger

Grade one. So it was the loose tooth. And we really dug into the reading record that came out at 90%. And instead of focusing on the MSV and the accuracy, we put that aside and looked closely at each error. And through the process, we asked ourselves, are these skills that have been explicitly taught to our students in front of us? And at that point in the year, our teachers are following a scope and sequence for foundations. So they would be unit three. So they've learned CVC and they were getting to know digraphs. So when we pulled the reading record and we started to really zoom in on those errors, it was even though it was 90%, they were doing some really amazing things. So for an example, one of the words was loose and the student read loss. Well, they're attending to the beginning, the middle, and the end. They, from what they've been taught, who makes oh oct was off.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Right.

Danielle Honsberger

So, right? So really that was an amazing attempt. They're they're applying the skills that we taught them. And oh, well, that's a Val team that doesn't come till much later in the year.

Rose Else-Mitchell

And a magic E.

Danielle Honsberger

Right, and the magic E. And so then we looked at, they said toss for tooth. Well, they were getting the T. They even got the diagraph at the end, which is a huge celebration. But they were doing some pretty amazing things. They were getting was, which was a kindergarten trick word. Um like that's a huge celebration. They even self-corrected later in the text for loss, they self-corrected it and said loose, which is showing their reading for meaning. So even though the text was came out really hard, we really celebrated that wow, they are applying the skills that we have taught. So for me, that was the biggest aha moment. I had to sit back and really think about how I was analyzing my reading data and in turn how I was teaching reading.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Right. And the relationship between assessment and instruction.

Danielle Honsberger

Absolutely.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah, because ultimately what you're hoping for is that it's becoming more fluent and that that is that that's evident. And that's a very different kind of assessment than absolutely. Tell us a little bit about how you pair structured literacy with other kinds of reading development, especially in primary years. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about how structured literacy sits within the greater reading block.

Danielle Honsberger

Our reading block has shifted quite a bit. So I've moved from traditional guided reading to my small group reading. And to be honest, that shift was probably one of the scariest for me. But now that I have made that shift, it's really not that scary.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Right.

Danielle Honsberger

Right?

Rose Else-Mitchell

So we always 2020 hindsight. So talk a little bit about why that was scary. I have some hypotheses that I've heard from others, but I'd like to know what was personally scary for you. Like what did you feel you had to let go of?

Danielle Honsberger

Control and the, you know, we I think we've had it ingrained in our minds that I have to get this reader to this point by the end of the year. And we really raced through I raced through it. And to me, guided reading was safe. I knew how to do it. I've been doing it for years, and I was comfortable with that. And I think shifting to small group, it's you really need to know your readers and you need to know them well. And you need to know what phonic skill are they needing the most support in right now. And I use a lot of data to help determine my grouping of students. But for them to be able to practice explicitly taught skills in a connected text is amazing. And I think with guided reading, I would pull a level book off the shelf, I would read with my students, then we would talk about the book, and then it was done. And with small group, it's it's completely different. You're working on accuracy. You know, are they able to tap and blend and decode the skills that have been taught? And can they do it accurately? It's different for every child because what you're looking for is yes, they can accurately decode the words. Now are they beginning to do it with less effort and at more ease? And then comes fluency and expression. So it's not a one

Rose Else-Mitchell

and meaning making.

Danielle Honsberger

And meaning, absolutely.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah, exactly.

Danielle Honsberger

So it's not a one and done anymore.

Rose Else-Mitchell

That that um that idea of effortfulness that decoding takes, I think that's something that leveled readers allowed us to overlook, right? In a way we didn't want it to be hard, right? And it is hard because our brains are not not designed for reading.

Danielle Honsberger

Absolutely.

Rose Else-Mitchell

It sounds like decodable text was a big change when you move from leveled readers. And I think you shared the story about trying a leveled text after um as a teaching tool after using decodables. Can you share what happened?

Danielle Honsberger

So I feel like it kinda went full circle for me because when I was planning the PD and we were actually looking at a leveled benchmark assessment, and we were looking at the reading record, and we were really zooming in on the errors, and that was my aha moment. It was in June. I decided to, I thought, well, you know what? I'm going to read this leveled book. So I pulled the level book out. And it's a book that I would have read in the past, and it was kind of where the student in the past would be expected to be. So a level I, that I'm gonna get them to that level I and we're gonna get there. And and to be honest, I was a little nervous. Um, but I was like, come on, let's read this. So in the past, it would haunt me because I would remember feeling so helpless and frustrated because the students were trying to solve the words, or they were looking at the picture or guessing, or they would stare at me and just want me to give it to them. This was a different experience. Altogether, I was blown away. They were reading the book, they actually owned the book. I said to the child after I'm like, You owned that. They were reading it, they were decoding, they were, it was fluent, it was phrased, the intonation was great, they were self-correcting, they were doing amazing things. It clicked there for me because after I was done and I was talking to a colleague about it, we often compare decodables as and and a lot of people have compared it to this. I know Wiley Blevins and other people, but it's like riding a two-wheeler bike. That's our goal. And sometimes you have training wheels on for a bit longer than others. I felt like this child was riding off into the sunset on his two-wheeler, and he did not need the training wheels anymore. And I thought to myself, I'm like, whoa, this works. Not only are we teaching students to be skilled readers, we're teaching them to be confident readers. I witnessed, and I couldn't wait to share it with the grade two team.

Rose Else-Mitchell

I can see the joy in your face as you're talking about that. So if we were joined today by a new teacher who was coming to the school and who was pretty new to teaching phonics, what would be that first little step that you would suggest they do?

Danielle Honsberger

That's a tricky question. Ask for help. It's I think one of the things that really sticks with me is I feel like I was able to make this shift because I was not alone. And I feel very fortunate. I had support, I had guidance, we asked questions, I had colleagues that we bounced ideas off of, and we just did it together. So find someone to join the journey with you so you're not feeling alone and you're not alone. Reach out to anyone, your coach, uh teacher that has been doing it maybe a year before you, or maybe 20 years before you, but find someone to help support you along the way because it can be overwhelming. But when you see, like I think of my literacy instruction, I really think of it as a puzzle. So my phonics piece, my small group, my um meaningful assessments, I see it all connected as a piece. And when it's connected, you really see the big picture. But when it's not connected, you don't see the picture. So it's and when you start to see it all come together in your students in front of you, you can't imagine doing it any other way. And I'm to that I'm at that point right now where I really can't imagine doing it any other way.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah, yeah. That's that's a great analogy. The other thing I think about, I just finished a puzzle recently, actually. You know that habit that you have where you're trying to get the big picture and you go back to whatever it is that you're trying to match. And that's the model, that's the anchor.

Danielle Honsberger

Yeah.

Rose Else-Mitchell

And then sometimes you have to walk away too, right? It's just like it's too much, the details too much, it's too overwhelming. So I really like that.

Danielle Honsberger

And and for me too, sometimes you have to let go of the guilt. I found I really had to look at how I was teaching and let go of some of that guilt. And now know better, do better, and now I'm moving forward. And a lot of it came with assessment, to be honest. That to me, that was kind of assessment was a hard part for me. And it's probably one that I I'm always refining my practice, but that would be one that I'm always fine-tuning, assessment. And really letting go of that guilt now is so rewarding because now I'm looking at the triangulation of data and I'm looking at okay all of these amazing pieces of data that I'm collecting to see exactly where my kids are and where their next steps are. And it's such a big picture.

Rose Else-Mitchell

So you've described a lot of the things that you do to prepare and to be a really responsive teacher. So if I were to come into your classroom today, which would be fun, but PEI is not so close to uh upstate New York, but what would successful reading look like in your classroom today? You've described kids, you know, really owning a owning a text and really blending and seeing those those sound spellings in action. But on a broader level, what does it really mean to be a reader in your classroom?

Danielle Honsberger

Everyone is a reader. It doesn't matter what skill they're working on, and to me, that is what matters. Everyone in my classroom sees themselves as a reader, not only a reader, but a reader and writer, because they're applying only these amazing skills also to their writing. But everyone sees themselves as a reader and they're confident. And I hope I'm shaping them into being lifelong learners. So it doesn't matter what skill level they're at, it's how they perceive themselves.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Oh, I really wish they could join our podcast. Um, we didn't really talk about your training um before you became a teacher, but I'm interested with all of the lifelong learning that you've done as a professional. What do you understand now about reading and reading development that you didn't 20 years ago?

Danielle Honsberger

I think when I first started my career, and I had it in my head of I'm gonna teach these kids this meaning structure, visual, because that's what he knew. And that's great. That's okay. That's what I was taught. Meaning, structural, visual, they're going to read these books and they're gonna be the office readers. And I think now I see it differently and I really focus on text. I don't move as quickly as I did before, as I mentioned before. A child may be on a working on diagraphs, they might need two weeks to work on diagraphs. And that's okay. That's the time I'm gonna give them. It's not a race anymore to get to that level I. And that's what I love because I feel like I was pushing them all to get to that level, even if they weren't ready for it. Yes.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Because when people debate, you know, the false division between, you know, reading books and structured literacy, which I think we all know is a false, you know, a false binary. They'll often say that the whole notion of leveled reading and all of that, and kids having a sense of themselves as readers, that that was so central to that model and that it was individualized. And in fact, one of the challenges with structured literacy is this scope and sequence that you're marching kids through and it's the opposite of individualized. So I think it's fascinating that you've turned that upside down and you're saying, actually, no, this rigorous scope and sequence, which is about how we learn to read, is the same and yet incredibly individualized.

Danielle Honsberger

It is. It's very individualized. It really is. And yeah, it's I couldn't imagine right now doing it any other way.

Rose Else-Mitchell

What is one belief or practice that you would never give up?

Danielle Honsberger

I think I kind of honestly, I feel like I I wouldn't give any of it up. So it's hard to say just one because as I mentioned earlier, I see it as a puzzle. And I don't think it's a combination of all those practices that allow students to build skills, yeah, gain confidence, and truly see themselves as a reader. So if I take one away or I take three pieces of my puzzle away and I just keep this one, I'm not gonna get the same picture.

Rose Else-Mitchell

And not integrated, right? I think one of the things that is no you've made this connection between just even decoding one word to the self-concept that kids have as seeing themselves as readers. It can be as small as that. What would you say to other teachers who haven't made this shift?

Danielle Honsberger

You can do it. And if you take the smallest step, you are moving in the right direction. And it's it doesn't happen overnight, but it's a lot of learning and they need to be committed and keep learning. And in the end, it's going to be worth it. They just need to be, again, kind to themselves. They need to be patient, they need to trust the process. And I think that can be really hard to trust the process at times, especially a new teacher. Yeah. And it's also hard for a veteran teacher. They've been teaching a certain way for so long. And it doesn't mean it was the wrong way. Taking the time to dive into that, they'll see a change in their students.

Rose Else-Mitchell

It's great. So we'll finish on um a question which is what are you reading right now yourself? We love a personal recommendation. It doesn't have to be a professional book.

Danielle Honsberger

But right now I'm reading Finding Focus.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Cool.

Danielle Honsberger

Yeah. Which is which is I'm really enjoying it. And I think right now we live in such a busy world, and I'm a mom of two teenagers. I have a husband, I have a dog, I have 19, five, and six-year-olds in front of me. It's busy, and I feel like I need to slow down and really focus on what truly matters. And I'm doing that personally.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Well, I think that's a great place to end. Thank you so much, Danielle, for sharing yourself, your practice, and your learning. It's been a really lovely conversation.

Danielle Honsberger

Been a pleasure. Thank you, Rose.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Reading Realities. And thank you, Danielle, for a thoughtful conversation. What stands out to me is the way Danielle brings assessment and instruction together into a direct relationship. I was struck by her description of structured literacy in the primary grades, not as rigid or limiting, but as something that actually makes instruction more responsive and more individualized. When a teacher knows exactly what a student has been taught and what they're ready for next, it becomes possible to meet each student where they are without lowering expectations or slowing anyone down. But perhaps most powerful is Danielle's focus on identity. That even a very small moment, tapping out a word, successfully decoding a sentence, reading your first decodable book, can shape how a young child sees themselves as a reader.

Rose Else-Mitchell

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next, and share it with a colleague or an educator in your life who's part of this work too. As we continue building this community, it would mean a lot if you could take a moment to rate and review the show. It helps us reach more educators doing this important work every day. If you'd like to reach out, learn more about our work with educators or systems, or be part of a future conversation with me on reading realities, you can contact us at science of reading [at] newpaltz.edu, which is also in the show notes. We'll be back with more conversations from educators learning, reflecting, and refining their practice. Thanks for listening.