Category: Updates

If educators could create the ideal classroom, they’d give themselves more room and it would be more open and flexible and include collaborative spaces. According to a recent survey, those bigger spaces enable group work, discussions and independent learning, while smaller rooms are more likely to lead to distractions that deter learning.  READ MORE

“Balanced literacy.” It means different things to different people. On the importance of explicit, systematic phonics instruction, I agree with Emily Hanford’s arguments in her recent article. I also believe that part of the reason we are still having this debate of phonics versus whole language versus balanced literacy is a matter of definitions. Phonics instruction that is all worksheets all the time and those little decodable books is boring. All picture books all the time is great fun, but students are being shortchanged without the phonics piece.  READ MORE

Our children aren’t being taught to read in ways that line up with what scientists have discovered about how people actually learn. It’s a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, more than six in 10 fourth graders aren’t proficient readers. It has been this way since testing began. A third of kids can’t read at a basic level. How do we know that a big part of the problem is how children are being taught? Because reading researchers have done studies in classrooms and clinics, and they’ve shown over and over that virtually all kids can learn to read — if they’re taught with approaches that use what scientists have discovered about how the brain does the work of reading. But many teachers don’t know this science.  READ MORE

Patrice Bain, a contributor for EdSurge, writes: “Sometimes the details former students recall from class is nothing short of amazing. A few years ago I had a student named Abby in my history class, who had always been in self-contained special education classrooms. Her teacher wanted her in my class for socialization purposes, and she did well. A year later, Abby began stopping by my class to deliver notes from the office a few times a week and I was always delighted to see her.”  READ MORE

Jill Barshay, a contributor for The Hechinger Report, writes: “In September 2018, I wrote about the so-called “Trump effect” on bullying in schools, citing a study that found higher bullying rates in GOP districts after the 2016 presidential election. But that piece raised an important question: what should schools do to address and prevent bullying? The scientific evidence on what works is complicated. There’s a whole cottage industry of consultants selling anti-bullying programs to schools but academic researchers say there is no proof they work. There are some small studies with positive results. But when reputable researchers study efforts to expand these strategies across schools among many students and compare bullying rates with those at schools that didn’t receive the intervention, there tends not to be a difference.”  READ MORE

Families, educators, and community members are encouraged to join the conversation with Superintendent Reykdal at a series of forums in four Washington communities. Click here to view a video describing the forums.

• November 19, 6:00–7:30 p.m., The Lincoln Center, Port Angeles, WA
• November 20, 6:00–7:30 p.m., Options High School, Bellingham, WA
• November 28, 6:00–7:30 p.m., Skyview High School, Vancouver, WA
• November 29, 6:00–7:30 p.m., Yakima Valley Technical Skills Center (YV-TECH), Yakima, WA 

A program that trains community volunteers to provide additional one-on-one literacy support in the early grades is having a positive impact on reading achievement in schools serving low-income students, according to a new five-year study. Conducted by researchers with Denver-based Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, the evaluation of Reading Partners shows that the almost 700 students who received the twice-weekly, 45-minute tutoring sessions moved from the 15th to the 21st percentile and had significantly higher spring reading scores than the sample of about 850 similar students who did not participate.  READ MORE

Back in September, teacher Mary Gilreath’s first-grade class was asked to wear blue for Peace Day. An adult worried the girls might not own blue shirts, and Gilreath saw an opportunity for her Boulder classroom. She shared the story with her students. “What do you all think about that?” Gilreath asks them. “Maybe it’s because girls mostly wear dresses?” a girl wonders. “Oh, is that true?” Gilreath replies. “What do you all think?” The first graders erupt in a chorus of “No!” Gilreath goes out of her way to address gender identity in her classroom.  READ MORE

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has published the Trauma-Informed Classrooms Technical Assistance Bulletin.

The impact of students’ life experiences on their behavior has garnered increasing attention as schools strive to develop more supportive academic environments that address the needs of at-risk youth and facilitate continued academic engagement. Few events outside the classroom have as profound an impact on multiple domains of student development as traumatic life experiences. Traumatic events can include domestic violence, abuse and neglect, school violence, loss of loved ones, and community violence, just to name a few. The range of student responses to trauma can vary from yelling to isolation. Students who have experienced trauma often have a distorted perception of the world and sense of not being safe. Creating an environment that fosters resilience and offers support to students who may experience a traumatic life event can potentially prevent unwanted disruptive behaviors in the classroom.

This technical assistance bulletin provides a basic understanding of the impact of trauma and adverse life experiences, how those experiences can impact behavior in the classroom, learning how to recognize trauma, and strategies for creating trauma-informed classrooms.
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