Thread by @karenvaites

This piece by @mandy_mclaren has everything. 💥

Superintendent @JCPSSuper saying reading instruction will change while district literacy folks say #SoldAStory is “misinformation.” 👀

Phonics-advocate teachers shut down.

A likely phonics patch. 🤦🏼‍♀️

🧵

courier-journal.com/story/news/edu…

Here’s @JCPSSuper saying that @mandy_mclaren’s earlier reporting caused “a lot of reflection” about how reading is taught, and phonics instructional time will dramatically increase…

👉 To 20 minutes/day.

(Your daily reminder that all this fuss is about ~30 min/day in K-1!) 🤦🏼‍♀️

But there’s tension!

Here’s the district literacy leader dismissing @ehanford @CLPeak’s reporting, and the broader Science of Reading movement.

Think she knows about the 190,000 educators flocking to SOR FB groups for more info? 🤔

Maybe @JCPSSuper can tell her.

Of course we had teachers who had been trying to encourage improvements getting shot down by district leaders!

AND…

Wait for it…

We have @JCPSSuper basically broadcasting his plans to Phonics Patch to the world!

He’s keeping Guided Reading, y’all, BC he thinks it works.

Why not? No one is telling him otherwise.

Which pretty much proves my soapbox point about the issues with a narrow SOR discourse.

Dear @JCPSSuper, you seem well-intentioned, and I beg you to please, please read this.

You are right that small groups can work, but not the way you are doing them right now. I promise.

Science of Reading discourse has been too slow to get to this…

eduvaites.org/2019/11/02/lev…

But once you get into the weeds, you quickly get to the two other big issues with Balanced Literacy:

– lack of exposure to grade level texts, and no evidence base for it (per above)

– lack of knowledge-building, which hurts comprehension

More here:

eduvaites.org/2020/02/14/the…

Huge props to @mandy_mclaren for this excellent reporting.

I am now a proud @courierjournal subscriber, it was worth the $1 for the article above, and now I can read the rest of Between the Lines, which has been on my To Do list for weeks.

Earns raves. Find it here:

https://twitter.com/mandy_mclaren/status/1587167178515779588

And for anyone who wants to understand the Phonics Patch risk, and why I am concerned that is is becoming the de facto response to the SOR movement, see these remarks:

Friends don’t let friends phonics patch, y’all.

🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹