School Hack #1: Academic Language

I do private tutoring and work with families whose kids are struggling in school. Most often I end up working with middle school aged girls. These girls have done really well in school until they hit about year four. They’re generally very bright, good readers and have had excellent marks on their report cards. Then, …

Who are you?

I once worked in a small elementary school where we as a staff valued “looping”. We would make attempts to match students with the right teacher (as schools always do) and then we would try to keep them (assuming that it actually ended up being a good match) with that teacher the following year. I …

You can’t do it for them

I’m very lucky to be stepmom to two gorgeous young adults. The thing about parenting young adults is that it’s fraught with worry and anxiety. You’re NOT worried about them falling off the kitchen counter and splitting their heads open or getting lost in the grocery store. You’re not worried about them breaking a leg …

Carving out Moments for Reading

Making books the Therapy, not the Trauma Pure Engagement I’ve used this photo with the permission of my fabulous friend Emma, who’s girls are avid readers. The reason I love it is that they are so engrossed in the task of reading. This was after a trip to the bookstore so they were very excited …

Sabre Toothed Tiger or Cuddly Teddy?

I worked with A on a weekly volunteer basis. She and two others came out of their classroom to settle into school on Monday mornings and participate in intentional reading instruction with me. One morning, D, an educational assistant, (who I had assumed was her grandmother) was working with other students in the library at …

Miss Youngberg, How do bees lay honey?

C was in my most difficult grade one/two class ever. The group had quite a few students who struggled with language skills. Many spoke a language other than English at home or came from disadvantaged backgrounds where they did not have many rich language and background information building experiences to draw upon. Because of this, …

Why Girls don’t ‘Read their way’ into Technical Fields

Last night we had some good friends over for dinner. To my poor husband’s chagrin, the discussion turned to education and reading, as it usually does when I’m around. They told me about their daughter. She reads well at year 4. She’s really into science and finding out the way things work, and she’s got …

The right books in the hands of the right kids

There are multiple marvellous modes of reading and heaps of purposes for reading. Once children start to see these purposes, they get a better sense of why they would want to learn how to read. They also then start reading with more purpose and engagement. I was once delivering a workshop for a group of …

He HAAAATES Reading

I was once in a consulting role where schools could call me in for professional development that was directly embedded in the classroom. One year, after the March report cards (second last of the year) went out, a principal looked at her grade one reading marks and realized that her teachers were reporting that over …

Magic!

I’ve always said that when I die, I don’t want to know the meaning of life… I want to know what happens in the brain of a child when they finally “get it”. When it all finally clicks and they’re suddenly reading. Now, when I say “get it”, I do NOT mean they finally sound …