Today, I’m just writing to think. To process and grow ideas. This is what we teach kids to do. We also teach them to read in order to think. We don’t teach them what to think, but how to question and grow their own ideas about the things they read. I helped to write the vision of literacy for our school district, shown below. That is the literacy work I strive for every day.
I’ve dedicated my whole career to growing as a teacher, specifically in the area of reading. I’ll be honest, when stories about the “science of reading” started hitting the media, I questioned my professional existence. Had we gotten this wrong? Since returning to work in 2023, my coach team has been immersed in the work of understanding Connecticut’s Right to Read Legislation. We’ve helped to write over 150 pages in the form of a waiver, trying to prove that we do in fact teach kids to read and we do use science and research to guide our practices. This process, tedious as it was, has set me back on track. We are continuously improving and working towards the “purposeful literacy” that Dr. P.L. Thomas describes here.
Over the last week, I have worked with our literacy team to analyze the reading programs mandated by the state of Connecticut as part of their Right to Read Legislation. I went into the process open-minded, looking for what our current approach was missing. What could we add? On the other side of the process, I am now left questioning what students and schools stand to lose if these programs are adopted.
When analyzing the seven programs the state has mandated, what stood out wasn’t the approach to teaching reading. All the pieces were there- phonological awareness, phonics, and plenty of comprehension questions….complete with the answers spelled out for teachers….in case they couldn’t figure them out. What stood out the most was that many of the programs were content-based, meaning each unit or module had a theme. Many of the programs had units that were completely designed around science themes-plants, birds, and ecosystems. Interesting, I thought aloud. Is this to maximize time? Integrate content? A little further exploration found that fiction units were largely based on stories about animals.
Then I started seeing Tweets and information coming out of Florida about what is currently happening in schools there.
I couldn’t help but wonder, are these mandated programs that are being pushed down by our state, and many others, also trying to control what students are exposed to? Is this bigger than how we teach kids to read? If teachers just follow the script and just read the books provided by “the program,” will we succeed in erasing humanity from our schools?
Our fourth grade team is about to teach a reading unit called Power and Perspective. In this unit, students are taught to think about who is telling the story and whose perspective might be missing. They also work to think about who has the power. I’m currently thinking about these questions as they relate to the mandates by the state and the programs being forced upon school districts. What are we afraid of? Is it this:
There is no one program that will guarantee children will learn to read. Rather, it is the professional development, coaching, and systems that we put in place that will poise teachers to center the children in front of them. As our coach team worked our way through the mandated programs, I kept imagining my own children using them. I came to the conclusion that they would be fine. They would learn to read. But what is keeping me up at night is bigger than them learning to read. It is an issue of humanity. I love this quote from James Howe, “The world we are living in now makes the world of the book all that much more important as we consider what we want to say to our children about how to live, about what being human in a community should look like.” This is precisely what I fear we stand to lose.
As I walked through Target with my family today, I tried to explain my sleepless night to my husband. Right in the middle of the bustling aisles, people going about their regular Saturday business, I put my hand on the cart, stopping us all in our tracks, and asked him, “But what can we do?”
I feel paralyzed.
Why aren’t people talking about this? I ask myself.
So I write to think and grow ideas.
To invite others to join in.
Where There's Joy 
Thank you for putting all of this thinking out into the world. We must keep asking the questions – and trying to respond to them. We must keep advocating for the purposeful literacy you share here; the one where we see – “teacher autonomy grounded in serving the individual needs of students.”
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You have long been on of my touchstone in understanding what’s going on with reading in the schools. I trust your judgement and take. Your joy in what you do, even when you’ve been exhausted, is infectious and inspiring. All of this has been alarming. But it’s encouraging how many districts have chosen to do the work of the waiver.
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Thank you for sharing your thinking. You have stopped me in my tracks, too as I ponder your thinking paired with quotes and a political cartoon. As I learn and relearn history and strive to be an antiracist, I wonder more and more about public education in the US. And more and more I get why my grown daughters chose to leave this country to live in Europe. A country where publishers of textbooks create safe, scripted, themed units to sell their product. A place where, without thinking coaches like you, are trying so hard to allow students to read and think so they can “improve themselves and the world”. Keep writing to figure all this out and I will too. No easy answer. But at least we do care for our students so we will continue on the track.
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Thank you for expressing this all so eloquently. It breaks my heart to read what is happening across the US. It makes me grateful that I teach somewhere where (for the most part) this trend has not spread.
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You are so right to bring this to light – – yes, there is legislation on the cusp of revelation here in Georgia, I’m told, and it will be gamechanging. It’s a money grab. A power play. And the children are the losers.
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Oh, Jessica, what a tragedy so many children and teachers are facing in our nation. Thank you for asking these hard questions, and for going about the hard work of submitting the waiver.
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Jessica – I have been collecting books, articles, studies on just this topic. I’m trying to wrap my mind around how reading can be an art and a science without get into a war that distracts us. I have been teaching for 42 years, and I am disheartened to see what is happening. And I keep asking myself, “What can we do? Why aren’t people talking about this?” Thank. you for being a courageous voice.
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This is my second time reading through this post & it is every bit as powerful as the first time. Dang.
I have been thinking of you and your team as the whole Science of Reading movement has taken hold. You have been a true guide for my thinking about reading for a long time & I have wondered how this is affecting you & your schools.
As a high school teacher, I also see many students who are reading far before the level I think they can achieve. And I know that many of my students lack background knowledge to such an extent that they struggle with comprehension. As a result, I’ve been getting a little excited about some of the “high quality curricula” that places are adopting.
Your writing gives me pause.
While I know that something is not working in our literacy instruction, I now know why we need thoughtful leaders to push back against curricula that don’t respond to the students but which pre-determine the content they will receive.
I leave this post with many many questions & I feel the wiser for it. Thank you.
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Like all the educators reading, I appreciate your sharing your experience and thought processes. While I believe in doing whatever necessary to get kids to be able to read well, and I do believe in learning content, the power I feel from your piece is the description of your next 4th grade reading unit- not fiction about animals and readings on sea-life, but studies in power and perspective. And reading beyond the text- whose perspective is missing? Such power, and what we need to be doing with our children.
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I’m glad you pointed me back to this post. I think the “reforms” that are being enacted have a clear agenda, and it’s not just improving reading instruction. The people who are legislating these reading programs feel threatened, not just by the content of some of the books that kids might be able to read, but also by the prospect of those “dangerous minds” that Levar Burton was celebrating. One thing I think we might try doing is sending copies of your waiver documents (or summaries, at least) to state legislators. They need to see what a really thoughtful reading/literacy curriculum looks like. They need to see the contrast with the “programs” that they have endorsed. It also might be important to have the superintendents share the waiver documents among themselves. Not every district has the resources (or talents?) to do what you and other coaches have done, but maybe they can use the document as a design template so they don’t have to accept the cookie cutter programs. Just thinking as I write. Thank you for all that you are doing and for writing this.
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I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. We’re starting to rally some people to see what we can do!
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