And I asked her, how are you feeling? Are you are you good? Are you ready to use, you know, use these skills in your classroom? And she dropped me with but the reading we do with you isn't real reading.
Oh.
We've been working together for 2 years.
2 years.
And I was like, What? Hi, and welcome to the Smarter Literacy podcast from Ascend's murder intervention, where our mission is to simplify effective literacy instruction to make teaching literacy ease year and more accessible for everyone.
We are hosts, Lindsey, and Corey.
And in today's episode, we will be sharing about our journey working to overcome some of the roadblocks that so many of us face while teaching literacy so that you can get to know us a little bit better and understand our backstory a bit more.
And we also wanna share how we overcame so much of the overwhelm that we faced while trying to teach literacy as we got started and through the journey as a whole.
So We've got 3 goals for you for today's episode.
So first, we wanted to just open up a conversation about the 4 biggest challenges we faced during our literacy journey.
We also want you to know that if you faced any of these challenges, you're not alone.
Sometimes this journey can feel a little bit lonely, and so we want you to know that if you've faced any of this, you are certainly not alone in that journey.
And then our final goal is to share the one thing that you can do in your instruction that should help you reduce some of the overwhelm that you may be feeling if you're feeling overwhelmed.
And, hey, if you're not, that's great too.
We'd just love to share where we're at in our journey with you, and, hopefully, some of it will resonate.
Yeah.
So how do we think we should just dive right in? Yeah.
So, Corey, when you first started teaching literacy, what were some additional challenges or roadblocks that you faced? Yeah.
That's such a great question.
And I think for me, it was especially challenging because my background is not in teaching.
And so getting into the literacy space, I think one of the initial challenges that I faced was one just knowing how do students learn really anything at all.
Um, my background was in more of the cognitive neuroscience space, so I did a lot of research And so while I had worked on the research side of, you know, what does a student's learning trajectory look like and done a lot of the assessments and that kind of thing, um, I didn't necessarily have an understanding of just teaching science as a whole, or how do you engage students or literally anything.
And so I think it was a big challenge one overcoming that, but also getting into literacy, I mean, how about you? When I first started as a literacy specialist, it wasn't coming from where research background and having worked as a psychometrist, which is basically just doing test administration for neuropsychologist.
I knew about kids, and I knew about working with kids, but nothing about literacy.
And so I was fortunate enough to be sent to an Orton Gillingham training right off the bat, where I was able to learn a lot of things, but, oh my gosh, after that training, I was so overwhelmed with, like, what is a syllable type and what is a phonogram and what is a graph what are these words, like, all the vocabulary? Oh my gosh.
And so the idea of sitting down with students and then having to help them progress through this process just felt really overwhelming.
And so and I didn't wanna do it wrong either.
You know, like, I love these kids, and I wanted them to get what they needed.
And so I really felt like, okay.
I need to do additional research, and I need to Google all of the things.
And I didn't know, you know, where do I start? And I know I know all these terms, but I just don't really know what to do with them.
And so I think that was my biggest road talk when I started.
Yeah.
I mean, everything you just said resonated so much.
I mean, my background's a little bit different.
I did start out writing education.
I got a master's in literacy and, um, got my 1st year teaching, but I actually started off as an English teacher, so a 7th grade English teacher.
And I was happy there, but I always knew that my I wanted to go back to literacy.
And so finally, I I did.
I jumped back into being a literacy specialist in a secondary school, and I was ready to go.
Thought I was so prepared.
And since I had been teaching English for a while, my school sent me to an Orangailing ham training.
And it was like a 1 week training.
You you just go right in every single day for the whole day, and I left that training feeling so overwhelmed.
To the point where I'm just like, how do any of us read? Like, I was reading even possible.
So I totally get what you're saying.
And, you know, then I was going back to my classroom and just being like, do I actually know what I'm doing? Like, I thought I did.
I mean, I have a master's in this.
Like, I thought I was really confident.
I was ready.
And now I'm looking at my kids.
I'm like, am I a teacher? Like, I just I felt the overwhelm so much that I just felt like I was drowning.
The whole time, you know, and that was not a good feeling to have.
So and exactly what you said.
Like, just all that, even just the jargon of it being like, okay.
How do I do this? How how do I do it? How do I make sure that my kids are getting what they need? You know? Because you don't you wanna do a good job.
Like, you you go into teaching and working with kids because that's what you love.
So Yeah.
Absolutely.
And I think, you know, for me too, it was just alright.
Like, I have these students that I'm gonna be working with you you know, groups of students or individual students I was working as a literacy interventionist.
And I didn't even necessarily know how to put a lesson plan together.
So after having come out of that, I knew, like, these are all the things that you're supposed to teach, but I really felt like, oh, it needs to be individual for every group or every student.
And so it was just chaos, I think, for me in the beginning, because I was trying to build everything from scratch.
Yep.
And I I just didn't have the bandwidth either because the day was just not long enough to be able Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
There's never enough time and you do.
You feel like you have to do all these things at once, but also differentiate for each individual kid, let alone, like, groups or, you know, a whole class.
And there isn't the time.
And, also, when you do get the time, it's generally at the end of the day, and you're already burned out.
And all you can focus on is, like, getting food and cure system and going to bed.
That's exactly.
Yeah.
It was nice.
It was weekend.
So it was that kind of thing.
And so Yeah.
I mean, I think that that was just I think that's just a big challenge.
It's just becoming familiar with what is, you know, the science behind evidence based practice and, you know, keeping up to date with it and things like that, I think, are just a big challenge.
And so I think, you know, in terms of the initial challenge, I think it was really just familiarizing myself with with the research and then and then what that was gonna look like.
Yeah.
So now that we've kinda talked about those initial, um, challenges in roadblocks, What helped you to overcome those initial challenges? Yeah.
That's such a great question.
And so I think, you know, one of the biggest things that helped me was that fortunately it was given the opportunity to get access to a systematic phonics based program.
And so that started to tie some of the pieces together for me a little bit more because then it was like, okay.
Well, now at least you have a lesson plan and you know what you're supposed to do first and what you're supposed to do next.
And so I was able to start working through and following that.
So at least it gave me some sense of, okay.
I know what I'm doing or I'm following the book.
And so because I'm doing that, I can take some of the pressure off of myself a little bit and just follow the script.
And so I think that helped to overcome that first challenge, for sure, of the overwhelm.
I could start to see, oh, I see how they were talking about you know, phonograms or the specific sounds, and now we're doing the flashcards where we talk about the sounds and we look at the letters.
And so we can really start to think about how everything comes together from that sense.
And so I think having a curriculum or having a road map, if you will, was helpful in knowing this is what I'm gonna teach first, and this is what I'm gonna teach next.
So having not only a lesson plan, but also a scope and sequence of this is the order in which I'm gonna start teaching those things.
Yes.
How about you? Did you have a curriculum, or what did you do when you first got in? Yeah.
I actually loved the use they said there of road map, um, because that is truly, I feel like, what saved me from just, like, losing my mind.
I I did same as you kind of just you know, in the beginning, there was a a basic structured curriculum that I had available to me and that I was using with my students.
And again, it just gave me a place to start.
It gave me a place to go.
I could see how all that training that I got in Orton Gillingham, like, made sense.
And I was able to use it with my students, and I literally felt like I could breathe again.
And that was the biggest step for me was being able to breathe.
Just so I can move forward.
You know? Yeah.
For sure.
For sure.
I yeah.
It was such a, like, oh my gosh.
Okay.
Excellent.
We can move forward now.
But I think for me and I don't know if you felt this way at all, but one of the things that I noticed, once I had a curriculum in place was that that sort of created some of its own challenges too.
So where I was like, okay, great.
Having a curriculum has now, um, helped me overcome that first challenge of not knowing where to start and things like that.
Started to notice, you know, that maybe the curriculum wasn't always meeting the needs of all of my students.
And so that started to create some some difficulty for me.
So I don't know if that if you noticed that at all or 100%.
And that's where, like, you know, again, even though I was breathing, I felt like for the first time, that's what it felt like.
Um, once I started getting used to it and, like, I was seeing my kids, I was like, um, there's still I still have some problems.
And how do I address this? You know, it it wasn't a complete program.
Like, it wasn't I didn't have all the puzzle pieces that I needed for it to work.
And for for me to be happy and satisfied with the instruction that I was giving, my students, to know that they were getting the best from me.
And that's that's something that I'd then start to just really struggle with.
Yeah.
And I think I noticed some of that too where I'd have groups of students, and I'd be like, I feel like this is landing for some of you.
But not all of you.
And it's like, okay.
So what do I do for, like, that handful of kids that it's not working for? And I just felt at a loss with that.
And I felt like, okay.
Like, we just keep going.
Like, we're just gonna keep going through the scope and sequence, and then it's gonna click, or or, you know, any number of things.
But I think if I just follow the program, this will land, even though deep down, I sort of knew that it wasn't landing.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And I think I even remember being kinda told, well, just Like, just keep going.
Like, it will work out eventually and being like, okay.
Like, I I'm just gonna trust that that's true, but, yeah, like you said deep down inside, you're like, oh, I don't really know if this is true.
Like, I feel like I should be doing more.
And especially for me going from, you know, some great English teacher where I had a 120 kids and, like, you know, you're you're teaching to a class, but this time, I was working with small groups or even one on one.
And I'm like, there is no room for error.
Like, I need to make sure all my kids are succeeding because there's you know, I only have a few of them, and I, like, I need to really be putting my all.
So that was another part where I was just like, no.
I something's gotta change.
Yeah.
For sure.
For sure.
And I think think you can just be stressful as an educator to feel like we'd go into this field because we want to make a difference for all the kids, and we want to, as we say, create those light bulb moments.
And so when you see on the one hand that, you know, some of the light bulbs are going on and you're like, yes.
That's beautiful.
That's amazing.
You see that they're not all turning on.
You're like, oh my gosh.
Like, what do I yeah.
What do I do? Yep.
I mean, at least for me, from there, that really started to turn it into kind of more of a data conversation of like, okay.
Coming back to research.
Again, that's my background.
The right is research.
I think it really came back to, like, let's take a look at the data and let's start to analyze what's going on here.
And so as we think about curricula and as we start to think about, you know, is this working, or is this not, or do I have some students that it's not working for us effectively? Um, that was really my next step was to was to turn in to look at the data.
And I think what I started to recognize too was that while I had some data available to me, I don't think I had the right data at that time to help guide the instruction, and so I think that was that became another challenge Yes.
For me.
So so segueing into, you know, what's another challenge.
I would say really thinking about how the data is driving instruction, but not necessarily having the data that I needed.
And so I don't know if if that's something that you've seen at all, like, as you started to think about your curriculum and think about how you could kind of optimize that at all.
Like Yeah.
As I mentioned before, like, I kind of felt like, again, I was just missing puzzle pieces.
I didn't have the full picture.
So it and it really did come down a little bit to the data.
You know, we had some standardized testing, and there there were some formal testing we did.
And while it wasn't bad data, it wasn't lined up with the curriculum that I currently had.
The the 2 just didn't weren't speaking to each other at felt like, you know, in all the right ways.
So I felt like I had all these gaps.
And that's where I really struggled because I'm like, okay.
Well, I have this data and pretty generalized.
Um, and I need more specific data, I think, to really drive this instruction, to really help me with those kids, like we were talking about, who the light bulbs just weren't going off for.
It was really, really important for me for those kids to see a success.
Because I did not want to let them down.
So, yeah, um, so how did having the data drive instruction and help solve your issue? Yeah.
So I think it does what comes back to really thinking about that data and you know, at the time when we were collecting data, it was really focused on word recognition skills.
So it was really focused on those foundational skills.
And so we were able to see, you know, what patterns do the students know and what words can they read and what words can they spell.
And that was kind of the end of it.
And I think I think the challenge with that is while that was helpful in terms of knowing, you know, where we're gonna start the progression from a systematic phonics based program.
It wasn't giving a full picture because I think what ultimately I started to realize was that some students weren't able to close the gap, or they weren't really picking up on the skills because they were struggling in other areas.
So maybe they were struggling with vocabulary, or they were struggling with uh, comprehension, or maybe they had all the pieces, but the fluency, the automaticity just wasn't there.
And I was like, oh my gosh.
They have all of these other pieces, but it's not quite coming together.
And so just having that one piece of data wasn't enough for me to see how I could really optimize that instruction.
And so what we started to do is, alright, let's actually take a look at the data that we are collecting and figure out, are these assessments working? Are they giving us the answers that we're looking for or not? And so by simply adding in some additional assessments to get a better look at that language comprehension, that really helped significantly in being able to say, oh, maybe some of these students aren't making growth from the systematic phonics based program that I'm using because they at actually need more support in vocabulary or comprehension or both.
They need all of the pieces, and they need to see how it connects.
And so it's not that they didn't need word recognition.
It's just that they also needed that other piece, which I was just completely leaving out I don't know if that's what if you've no.
There yeah.
Honestly, so it became a discussion.
So there were 2 other secondary literacy specialists in in the school I was working in, and it became a a discussion between the three of us because we were all seeing the same thing.
And exactly like you said, we we were noticing, you know, we needed almost different data to, like, kinda tell us where where are our kids struggling.
And as my one coworker, like, to say, you know, especially in the secondary level, our kids They're almost like Swiss cheese.
Right? Like, they have different gaps.
Like, no two piece of Swiss cheese, like, looks the same.
And so filling one gap for one kid isn't gonna look like the same for filling the gap for the other kid.
So we needed more data and extends the data to show us where are the gaps for each student.
So that way we could look at what do we need to work on? And that really was a big change in point.
Yeah.
For sure.
And so I think it's hard to because I also know that, you know, in terms of a challenge, within a challenge, I know there's always issue with, I don't have a ton of time with my students and that kind of thing.
And so I think While it's so important to have the correct data, we also need to make sure that we're able to do that in a way that is as efficient as possible so that we're not, you know, using a lot of our students' time and so really thinking about that.
But I think going back through the challenges, yeah, it started with understanding the research and understanding everything that needed to be included.
And, like, how do I teach kids? And then it moved into, like, okay.
Do you have a system in place? And so once I got a curriculum, I was like, okay.
Yes.
I finally can actually take my 30 minutes, um, that I have with my students or, you know, the time frame that I had and use that time effectively, then it came to, like, oh, no.
Now I've been using this curriculum and I see it's not working.
Yeah.
Working for everybody.
And so I need to have the data to be able to drive that.
Oh, no.
We don't have the right data, um, to drive the instruction.
And so as we thought about the data, we really did wanna think about how do we make sure that we're also doing this in a way that is quick, and snappy so that Yeah.
Exactly.
And, yeah, and like you said, it's always just like, you find one solution.
You find another problem.
You just like, you're like, okay.
Now what? Now what? That's exactly it.
I mean, you think you know, to and I love data.
And, again, I come from a research background, and so I think it's so important to be able to look at so that you can just see, hey.
What's working and what's not? And in the beginning, when I looked at that data, I think I internalized a lot of that of what does it say about me.
And so I think that's something to consider as well as just leaving that out.
Oh, that teacher, Gil.
Yeah.
Where you you're yes.
Exactly.
Look at those numbers.
And you're like, oh, no.
Look at me.
I'm failing.
Yep.
Or and you just internalize so much of it.
And You do.
You have to let that go and just move forward.
Yes.
Yes.
I mean, and honestly, you know, as I think about it, and, again, data is super important.
I really feel that deep down to my core, but I also wanna be clear it doesn't solve everything.
No.
No.
You wish it could.
You wish, like, it would just give you a magic answer, and it's like, alright.
I just have to do this and this and everything will be fine.
Yeah.
But wait.
That's not true.
And, I mean, and I noticed that too because once we did start to dial in on the data a little bit more and I started to say, okay.
This kiddo needs some vocabulary work, and this kiddo needs extra reading comprehension support.
And this one needs more support with phonological awareness, and I really did start to dial in on that.
I felt like my instruction was so much better.
And I would look at the data, and I'd be like, amazing.
Beautiful.
Everything is trending in the right direction.
Everything looks great.
But I ended up having kind of a jaw dropping moment when one of the students that I was working with in one of my groups had beautiful data.
Our data was all going in the right direction.
Everything was looking good.
I was getting ready to graduate her out of the intervention services.
And I asked her, how are you feeling? Are you are you good? Are you ready to use, you know, use these skills in your classroom? And she dropped me with but the reading we do with you isn't real reading.
Oh.
We've been working together for 2 years.
2 years.
And I was like, What? I was like, woah.
Hold on.
We were talking about words.
We were talking about, you know, using a vocabulary framework for the words that we saw in our decoding practice.
We were breaking words into syllables and sounds.
She did not make the connection at all.
She wasn't connecting those things, and she wasn't using it outside of our work together at all in any of her classes.
And so what we saw she came back to me a couple years later for an update and all of her growth was gone.
Like, she was not in the average range anymore, and I think ultimately it comes down to that generalization and being able to apply those strategies in your classes because otherwise, you're just not getting the repetition that you need with those skills.
Absolutely.
Have you seen anything? Oh my gosh.
Yes.
I had a similar, um, experience Uh, so I I happened to this 1 school year.
I had a student, and he was one on one with me, and I had him, like, period 3.
And he was doing so great in my class, and we were we were really working through all of our lessons.
I could see the growth.
The data was Beautiful.
Um, every other day, I would push into his English classroom, which happened to be the period after that I had him.
So I remember one day we both went to his English class and you know, we had a great session in my classroom.
And, you know, some of the questions that were being asked in class, I'm like, oh, great.
He's gonna be able to do this.
We were just working on this.
He had no clue.
And he even raised his hand.
He was like, How do I do this? What do I do? I'm just like, woah.
What? Like, what do you mean? Like, what do you mean? You can't, like, read this.
What do you mean? Like, you don't know what this is asking? Like, this is literally what we've just been working on, and it kinda, you know, came down to a conversation where I kinda, like, you know, had to pull on the side and be like, what we were just working on in class, what you're doing with me, you know, that's like something I want you working on in English and social studies.
Anyway, Oh, he's like, I didn't know.
He's like, I thought that was just for your class.
And I was like, oh my god.
Oh, no.
Okay.
So again, yeah, kind of the same thing where it's like, I just assumed that my student was taking these lessons.
Again, he was doing great from what I was seeing and from what my data was telling me.
And I just thought he was automatically gonna do that in all of his classes and he wasn't because he did not make the connection.
He, like, your student said, you know, it's not real reading.
And so he saw it as this very individual class.
And maybe it's because he's like, you know, Well, I don't bring social studies to English, and I don't bring English to music.
So I don't bring, you know, reading to anywhere else.
And I'm like, no.
It is everything.
And so that was a big eye opener for me.
And, you know, it wasn't just that student, but, like, I checked in with all my students, being like, hey, guys.
You know, you should really be practicing this, not just like when you're reading your, you know, independent books or or, you know, the what we're doing in here, you should be doing this, like, social days.
And some of my kids were like, yeah.
Okay.
And then some of my kids were like, like, they were just dumbfounded.
Like, what? I've never considered.
Oh, so you that's when they, like, you it hits you as a teacher.
Like, oh my gosh.
Okay.
Like, I didn't realize this was gonna be a problem.
It turned out to be, like, one of the biggest problems.
Right? Yeah.
So Yeah.
I mean, and I think to me, I think that was just kind of the, like, are you kidding it? Again, I just felt like, okay.
I already overcame the challenge of not knowing what I was doing.
Right? So we we got past that.
And then we got into, okay, the curriculum's not working for everyone.
So let's go ahead and use our data Yep.
To drive the instruction.
And then you're like, okay.
Great.
My data's driving my instruction and then the kids are not applying the thing that you spent multiple years working through it.
Yeah.
So I think it's just gonna be aware of some of those.
And it's just as, like, when you're like, I'm a great teacher.
You're finally feeling that success.
You're finally feeling the winds, and then the kid just drops an and you're like, oh, no.
Okay.
I gotta rethink things again.
Yeah.
Now we gotta go back to the back to the beginning of this process again and really think through that.
But I think, you know, and it's it's interesting too, and you're gonna be at different parts of the journey at different parts of your career and just, you know, things change.
And so think realizing that some of these challenges may, you know, continue to resurface themselves at times.
And maybe you haven't faced any of these just yet and, like, That's great too.
That's beautiful.
Yes.
If if you have never faced these challenges, we applaud you and we that is wonderful.
That is wonderful.
But if you have we're with you.
Yes.
Again, you are not alone.
Yeah.
We've been there.
We we see it.
So to keep this actionable, what do you do to get past these challenges, Corey? Yeah.
That's such a really a really great question because while we can all, I think empathize and be like, yes.
I get that.
I understand that where I've been there.
Yep.
Before, we also wanna figure out, like, what do we do to not get stuck in this trap of like, oh, I'm a great teacher.
Oh, no.
I'm not a great teacher, and we don't wanna get stuck in that cycle.
Yep.
Um, and so, you know, in terms of actionable strategies, which we are all about here, and you sound smarter in our venture, we try to turn everything into a framework, but really what we wanna do is we wanna identify where are you at in this process.
So when we think about these challenges that might pop up, they're popping up at different points in your educational journey or in your literacy journey.
And so we really just need to identify where are you at? And so we've broken this down into 4 phases.
And so the 1st phase is familiarized.
Yes.
And so when you're first getting started or when you're jumping into a new role, so, like, when you transitioned from the education classroom into intervention and that looks different.
Yep.
Or again, as as research continues to come out and change, you may need to familiarize yourself and you're in this familiarized phase.
And so that's the first phase.
And so you really need to think about, am I in that phase right now? Like, am I in a place where I'm in a learning space? I'm just learning these new skills? I'm going to new training.
Mhmm.
Um, you know, I know there's a lot of different trainings and programs out there and things like that.
You might be one to think of that.
And even just new curriculum, like being a teacher in the school system, I know how often curriculum changes.
And without, you know, really teacher consent, sometimes it just kinda thrust upon you and you have to familiar set familiarize yourself all over again.
And it's It's tiring, but it is step 1.
Right? Step 1.
Yeah.
And that's the 1st phase.
And so if you're there, we want you to be able to identify.
This is where I'm at.
Yeah.
Now if you feel like, you know what? Like, I have familiarized myself.
I'm I'm pretty clear on what this looks like.
You may be in the systematize phase.
And so systematize is where you really start to put those systems in place so that you have a clear lesson plan, you have a clear scope and sequence, you are addressing those skills, then you know to be uh, necessary from all of that familiarizing that you've done from the research.
So really thinking about phonological awareness and phonics and vocabulary fluency comprehension and really thinking about how that fits together.
Yep.
And so you might just be creating your system.
So that you know, alright, when I come to work with my students, this is what I'm doing, and this is what my system looks like.
This is when I progress monitor, this is when I do each of these different pieces, or this is how I pull groups together, or this is how I have routines around specific skills that I'm teaching.
And I would say in this phase, like, give yourself grace because it can take a little while to, like, get that system in a good place.
And, you know, if there's a learning curve, every single time or, you know, even if you're just changing up a little or something, maybe one year you're you're really just getting familiar with your system.
And next year, you know what worked and what didn't work and you can change it up.
And even the year after that, you're changing it up more.
So Give yourself grace if every day does not feel like a win.
And if you feel like this didn't work, that's okay.
That's okay.
That's a learning moment.
That's what you tell our students that do.
That was a learning moment.
It's all good.
Yep.
It's all good.
And I will even say, I remember when I switched from, uh, the curriculum I have been using to a curriculum, I knew that was gonna be better, but it was gonna take time for me to learn.
And I I even just came out and told my students, like, guys, Just gonna have to bear with me.
I'm learning something new here.
And they're like, no problem.
We got you.
Whatever you need, let us know.
And I was like, thanks, guys.
I really appreciate the support.
That's amazing.
Kids are the best.
They are.
That's why we that's why we stay in this profession.
It is.
Yeah.
And they they they honestly helped me learn the system because I was like, you know what? I wanna try it this way.
Can you can you let's do it this way.
Like, okay.
Let's do it.
And I I even asked them, like, well, what do you do think about And they would actually give me some really great feedback sometime.
Like, oh, yeah.
That I really liked how that worked, or, you know, I really liked how we did it this way instead of this way.
It was really cool.
That's a great point.
Your students can definitely help you as you're creating those systems and just invite them in.
And I think that's a really beautiful face to feel like.
You know what? I don't have all of this figured out, and it gives them the grace too to realize if they don't have everything figured out that they're in a safe space.
So Exactly.
I love that.
I love the idea of having your students help you out with with that part of the phase for sure.
Once you've worked through that familiarized, that phase 1, that systematized, that phase 2, then you can start to move into optimize, which is that next phase, that 3rd phase.
And optimizing is where you take your systems that are working for And I know we've said curriculum.
It doesn't have to be a curriculum, but whatever system that you're using that's working for you, and you start to optimize that system so that you can start to think about how do I differentiate this to meet different student needs? How can I differentiate this? So that if I need to spend a little bit more time on some of those, like, language comprehension skills or that kind of thing that I can incorporate that in, basically, how do I take my framework and just differentiate within that framework? So I'm not reinventing the wheel every time.
If I've got students who have different needs, yep, not creating a whole new curriculum.
I'm not creating a whole new lesson plan, but I can use the system and the lesson plans that I have to start to kind of tweak and adjust.
Yeah.
And when you are getting to this phase, you you are starting to trust yourself more.
Like, this is where, like, I knew my students.
I knew what the data was telling me, and I knew my system.
And I would.
I'd be like, you know what? This student needs more funds work.
This student needs more comprehension work or, you know, even that that language comprehension piece, um, that I just needed to spend more time there.
It didn't mean that I ignored the other pieces, but I just really focused it on whatever that student needed in that moment.
And it you you start to know and you start to feel that rightness kind of come through.
Yep.
Absolutely.
And so if you're in this phase, you may be at a point where you're feeling really comfortable with your data and what your data is telling you, or you might still be thinking, you know, I have systems in place, but I wanna start looking at the data a little bit more.
And so that might be, um, you're you're transitioning into that optimized phase where you're really gonna figure out how do I take what I have and just make it really work for me and my students and my situation because even though there's a lot of, you know, best practices and things like that, you know, your students best and and you, you know, again, I come from a research background.
I love research.
Do not get me wrong, but we are not in a research lab when we're working with our kids.
And so sometimes some of the things that we may have seen or heard that that would work well, maybe you're just noticing that's not working for your students.
And that's where when you're in this optimized phase, you're starting to recognize, how is that different from my setting and my situation, the population of kids that I'm working with? Yeah.
Because we know kids are they're not cookie cutter.
Right? They're all different and they learn differently too.
And just being able to really respond to the kid that's in front of you is is important.
And, again, it's gonna take some time to get there.
But, yeah, realizing, like you said, that our kids may look different than what the research is kinda showing, and that's okay.
Like, it's okay to be different.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And that's where, again, you'll use your data and kinda what is the data that I'm collecting.
It's just telling me what I what I need.
And so we're not necessarily just flying all really nilly, but we're using we're using our own observations.
We're using our data to help drive our instructions.
And so that is where we are at that phase 3 in this journey.
And then the final phase, phase 4 is where we start to get into that generalization phase where we can make sure that our students know not only that we're teaching those right concepts and that we have everything organized and we feel good about it, but also that they are seeing? What does that look like in science? What does that look like in social studies? How do we have that conversation? And so that might be where you are.
And I know I've, you know, talked with a lot of educators who feel like I need to go back to familiarize because my students aren't as automatic or efficient as they should be, and so I'm missing something.
I'm missing a piece to the puzzle.
And it's like, you know what? It may not be that you're missing a piece to the puzzle.
It may be that you're just ready for the next step.
You're ready to get into authentic literature.
Like, let's actually get into some chapter book.
So let's get into some reading that you're you're actually excited about because sometimes what you'll see is that students who maybe their decoding still felt a little halted or their comprehension was like, oh gosh, they're just not really getting this.
They just had no interest in that particular movie.
Yeah.
We we all know, like, some of the stuff that we use, like, some of the materials.
We're not interested in either.
We can't blame the kids.
You know, like, I've had definitely stuff in the past where I'm like, oh, okay.
Yeah.
This was very handy for a fluency check, but it was not an interesting story.
It's so true.
It's so true.
And so I think just recognizing that you may be there.
Yeah.
So if especially if things are starting to feel a little stale or stagnant, that might be where you're at, especially if you've been at this for, you know, a while and you're feeling like, yeah.
Like you said, I mean, I know the data.
I know what this is telling me.
I know what I need to do.
We've we're, you know, made sure that the kids are getting exactly what they need we need to get them to that last phase, that generalization.
And, essentially, what happens is if we don't get them there, all the results, all of the data, the positive growth that we've made, we need to be concerned about that because what that means is if they're not using it, they're not a applying it.
Like I said, they're not getting the repetition that they need to make it a habit.
It's not automatic for them.
They will lose it.
Yeah.
Or, like, at least it will regress.
Yeah.
So and We've all seen that, I think.
You know? Um, and that's that's the hard part.
And I don't know about you, but when I'm kind of in this stage, for me, I almost start with hooking my kids in by, like, really getting them interested.
What are their interests? Yes.
And then finding authentic literature pieces.
It doesn't have to be just books.
Like, we can look at, like, comics too.
We can look at, like, new stories, you know, anything that can really get them using those literacy skills.
Topics.
Yeah.
That they're interested in.
So yeah.
And then, you know, having that conversation of, like, yeah, we're also using these skills and these strategies when you're in social space class, when you're in English class, when you're, you know, even out with mom and dad and you're reading a menu or, you know, anything that's, like, words coming their way or even, like, they're listening towards or taking in information, you know, getting them to realize, oh, this is what I learned and this is why.
Right? That's so great too because that will also create a lot of buy in for you.
And when you get the buy in and students want to learn, it will change your trajectory entirely as well.
Like, a huge game changer.
100%.
So, you know, the idea here is that when we can focus on 1 of these phases and we can realize, am I in phase 1 familiarize? Mhmm.
Am I in phase 2 systematize? Am I in phase 3, optimize, or am I in phase 4, generalize We can focus on what the specific things that we need to do in each of those phase are instead of trying to focus on everything.
Think a lot of the overwhelm comes when you're feeling like, oh, I need to keep up with all of the research and I need to constantly be re tweaking my systems or learning a new curriculum.
And I need to be looking at data and analyzing that, and I need to be, you know, focusing on authentic literature.
And how do I pull that in? And we're trying to do everything at months.
Yeah.
Instead of just focusing on the one thing right now, the one place that you are in your journey and just honoring that and just saying here's where I am right now, and I'm gonna focus on this.
And when I actually learned that, like, it's okay to be in, like, one step or 1 phase and just focus on that, that I really think is what made my teaching life way better.
I could just do the one thing I need to do.
Do it right.
And then when I was ready, I could move on to the next rate thing.
And that's was a game changer for me because the overwhelm, I mean, I remember those 1st that 1st year, even, like, into the 2nd year, you know, of that overwhelm just taking over.
And I would be completely burnt out just so much so that I would go home.
I would eat food and then basically just crash for this tonight because I did not have enough mental energy or physical energy to be able to do anything else.
And that was affecting me not just as a teacher, but, like, as a person.
Yeah.
For sure.
And I think it's hard too because that's when you start to be like, am I not good at this? That's where you start all those questions start to come in of, like, Is this supposed to be this hard? Yeah.
Um, and I think too, you can again cycle back through some of those phases and you're like, oh my gosh, we're here again.
Um, but but I think just honoring that and and recognizing, you know, I know we were talking about, you know, outside of outside of this, we were talking about conferences and, you know, conferences being a really beautiful thing.
But keep in mind, if, for example, you've recognized that you are in an optimized phase, and that you go to a conference, just make sure that you kind of hold yourself in the, okay, but I'm in an optimized phase.
So I wanna just kind of take all of this information that I'm hearing, let it wash over me.
And if there's some little tidbit that I can take away that will help me optimize my instruction right now, that's where I'm gonna focus so that you don't go back and start reworking all of your systems and reworking everything.
So they think that's where you start to get that burnout.
Absolutely.
And even on, like, the flip side, so, like, let's say you're in the familiarized stage.
Even if you're like, especially if you're brand new to teaching or like me, you switched roles, um, and you go to a conference or a training and so much information is thrown at you at once.
Remember, take a deep breath and realize you can't do all of that at once.
Right? You're gonna take what you need, and you're going to learn that, do that, and then you can move on.
But don't feel like you have to do everything that everyone is saying because, again, with a conference or a training, they're trying to they're really talking about all these phases because their audience is everyone.
Yeah.
Everyone's.
Yeah.
So, um, so you have to realize you can't be all those phases at once because it it's impossible.
And don't don't do that to yourself or your brain.
Yeah.
Yep.
And I think you can look forward a little bit to say, like, alright.
So the next part of my journey, for example, if you're in the familiarized phase, is that I'm going to be moving into systematizing.
So I'm going to be thinking about how I start to create systems and things like that.
So if you do go to a conference or something like that, you can try and take away information where you start to think about.
Okay.
How am I gonna start to create systems and and things like that? And, of course, I'm getting ahead of myself.
We'll get to this in all of our future podcast episodes, but I think, again, your one takeaway for today is start to identify where you are in in this process, so which phase that you're in.
And if you need help identifying where you are in the process, you can download our SOAR blueprint, which will help you know which phase you're in so that you can keep coming back to that and just honoring that.
And reminding yourself if you start to step into overwhelm about where you are in the process and what your focus needs to be for that particular phase.
Yeah.
And, Craig, can you even tell, um, our listeners where they can find our SAR blueprint? Yeah.
Absolutely.
So if you are listening, we will have a link in our show notes.
So definitely take a look there.
You can also find it at smarterintervention.
comforward/sore, s o r dash blueprint.
Awesome.
Awesome.
So, yeah, so again, we're we're this this episode was just to kinda familiarize ourselves with what we are gonna be talking about, those 4 phases, and just to kinda start this conversation.
But in our next episodes, We'll be sharing more about what you can do in each of those phases to continue moving forward through your literacy journey.
So you can continue to feel effective and they'll hopefully, we help with that overwhelm.
Right? So you're not feeling overwhelmed or that you are a bad teacher because we have so many of us have been there where we're we're just I I mean, at one point, I was like, I just I'm a horrible teacher.
No.
And, certainly, you're not.
You're here listening to a podcast.
Most, certainly, you are not.
You are a fabulous instructor.
Um, you know, whatever your background is, again, whether you are in the classroom, whether you are an interventionist, a special educator, whatever your role is, you're doing amazing work for these kids.
And so, again, that one thing, you know, we had 3 goals for you just, again, so that you could know about the challenges, know that you're not alone in the final goal being.
What's the one thing that you can take away? And so the one thing is just figure out which step which phase? Yep.
You're in.
These are common roadblocks.
That we face common challenges that we face in a space.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Perfect.
Well, with that, yeah, we'll see you next time.
Absolutely.
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