Last spring, so many of us had to make an abrupt switch to online learning. It was expected that this transition be seamless, and for so many, it was quite the opposite of that. Let’s be honest, it was hard. We weren’t sure how we were going to make online learning effective, how to transition all materials to be used virtually, and the hardest part… we weren’t able to see our students in person anymore. It was tough. But, over time we were able to adapt. We came up with ways to transition materials to an online format and continued to hold our connections with our students even though we weren’t with them. We were finally starting to feel comfortable when everything changed again…

Today, we’re taking a bit of a detour away from our typical content. We find this topic SO IMPORTANT that we wanted to take this week of reflection a bit further. Because we just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the States we decided to take this time to reflect with each of you.

Working in the education field can be tough.

Rewarding and incredible, but also tough.

This is a bold claim - we understand. But here’s the thing we’ve noticed after years of intervention work and years of working with hundreds of literacy interventionists.

The culture of literacy intervention has built up this idea that we have to be perfect to get started. This idea that if we don’t do everything just so …. our students will suffer. It’s led to this idea that there is a “perfect way” to implement effective literacy intervention.

We know that we have a massive reading gap for so many students…

Knowing what we know - we keep questioning -

Why do we have so many struggling students when the research is clear on what evidence-based practices MUST look like to support our struggling readers?

Ultimately, there are a LOT of potential answers and factors at play when we consider this question but for us, it really comes down to 3 major categories. And…because we always teach our students to use graphic organization strategies to make sense of and organize information, we felt compelled to do the same!

Understand the struggles of that one troublesome student in your class. Discover how Executive Functioning (EF) challenges manifest as disruptive behaviors and learn how to support students with EF difficulties. Reach out for guidance and celebrate the end of another school year!