How many times have you heard someone (or yourself) say, "but the research says [insert an excerpt from an article here]" to validate an approach or strategy?

We get this, it's entirely well-intentioned and honestly good in many ways BUT there's a better way to validate our approach and strategy in our literacy instruction.

Instead of using "the research says…" we should be using our own experiences, our own students, and our data to be driving us. Keep reading to learn more.

We’ve been at this for a while now! We’ve worked with hundreds of struggling students in a variety of different settings and one of the most important things we’ve learned is that students DO NOT struggle with reading for the same reasons!

And this is SO important to recognize, because if we don’t recognize this, then we try to support struggling readers using all the same strategies, and the bottom line is that just doesn’t work. For many reasons, but most importantly because in order to support ALL struggling readers, we need to know WHY they’re struggling to read!

Have you ever felt dismissed, talked over, or doubted in your intervention? When I walked out of the school after my first IEP meeting, I had this awful feeling of defeat knowing that I wasn’t taken seriously, but worse, I wasn’t able to advocate for my student they way I wanted to and knew I could. Keep reading to learn about the key to advocating for your students in IEP meetings.

As educators we are capable of changing the world - one of the best ways we can continue doing this is by leveling the playing field for our students, so every child can be as successful as they can be. In order to level the playing field, we must have clarity around our students’ strengths and difficulties and we must make sure that we’re able to understand this in an equitable way. Educational equity is absolutely crucial because it gives equal opportunities to children. Data-tracking can help set us up for educational equity - keep reading to learn more about educational equity and how data-tracking can help us make our classrooms more equitable for all of our students.

As literacy interventionists, we are told all the time about the importance of “research-based” intervention but no one tells us that this should include our own research! Click through to read more.

When we are trying to determine which areas we should focus on with our students we are using our data to provide a guide, a roadmap.

But one of the biggest mistakes we see (we know because we’ve been there) is that we aren’t using data to drive decisions because of two big blocks.

Assuming a program, even an evidence-based program, works for all students without tracking your own data and adjusting as needed, puts students at risk to continue falling through the cracks. Click the image above to read more about a common belief that may be holding you back in your intervention.

While 2020 was an interesting year to say the least, we were glad to have learned so many lessons. One of which, was how to stay organized in a completely digital space. We transitioned lessons to a completely digital format, student interaction, you name it! And with all the changes, we realized Tracking data digitally was another great way to communicate students’ growth and what was happening in our sessions with our students’ parents and with our colleagues. Today, we wanted to walk you through how we track our literacy data in a digital format!

One of the biggest mistakes we see in intervention is when interventionists take all of this time to collect wonderful data, but then not effectively sharing it with those who have a vested interest in the results - click here to read more about how you can EASILY share your results and grab a FREE resource that will help you do so!

We are back again with the next step in Data Tracking! This week we are talking all about analyzing your data. Now, we know that the word analyze brings about a heavy weight - but hear us out. Analyzing your data doesn’t have to be hard. One of the biggest mistakes we see is when well-meaning interventionists and SLPs rely on evidence/research based programs without analyzing their own data to make sure that students are actually making growth.

We know that data and data-driven instruction are CRITICAL to effective intervention so a few weeks ago we asked if you all would be interested in a free training around the subject of taking and using data in your lessons. The response was an overwhelming yes. That’s where “Data-Tracking December” was born. All month long, we will be releasing our data-tracking trainings and want to invite you to take this information (and a free resource - stay tuned next week!) and implement it in your sessions so that you can easily get students the results you have always wanted for them.

It’s Data-Tracking December! All month long we will have blogs and video trainings for you related to the 4 biggest mistakes we’ve made in data-tracking. If you are looking for a way to better track your intervention data or you’re hoping to understand how to use that information more effectively to drive your instruction, then stay tuned because these next four weeks will deliver exactly what you are looking for.

Today we’re jumping right into one of our favorite things to talk about!

Literacy Intervention Data!!!

We’re fun at parties (well at least back when there used to be parties), trust us…

We know that diagnostic prescriptive instruction following a systematic and structured approach is the most effective way to get students to grade-level and beyond, but how exactly can we provide truly diagnostic and prescriptive instruction?

Here’s the deal, structured and systematic literacy intervention will get your students 90% of the way there. The true magic lies in the last 10%.