From the Research to the Classroom
There are so many great ways to learn, right at our fingertips - professional journals, books, webinars, workshops, and podcasts, to name a few. We find that one often leads to another and can very easily take us down a rabbit hole of new learning. And, that is wonderful, because it gives us the opportunity to truly be a critical consumers of information.
Recently we have enjoyed the podcast series, To the Classroom, by Jennifer Serravallo. In this podcast, Jennifer interviews leading literacy researchers and scholars about their work. We encourage you to check it out, and maybe start with Episode 9 featuring author and literacy professor, Dr. Rachael Gabriel. In this episode Dr. Gabriel shares what research shows makes the biggest difference in supporting early literacy growth.
While the whole 31 minute episode is notable, a few key statements that stood out to us were:
- 13:45 - It is really important that students have time reading and writing and talking about text.
- 14:25 - If the teacher has created conditions of learning that they don't have to manage at all moments . . . That is great!
- 16:00 - Kids don't come in knowing exactly the same thing, and needing exactly the same thing, and moving at the same pace.
- 16:18 - Instructional materials are only as good as they are flexible.
- 18:00 - Materials are a variable - they cause variation but not significant variation. Main moderator of that is how the teacher uses them!
- 21:30 - We don’t have to be sitting at our desks holding books to be developing literacy.
Check it out!