Read by Example Newsletter

It’s the first month of the school year. A new ELA curriculum program has been purchased and is being implemented throughout the district. Even though you and your colleagues have developed integrated units of study with authentic performance tasks over the last several years, leadership expects you to use the program as the primary resource. You feel frustrated, even angry. Not just because of all the work you put into developing those units of study.

👋 Hi, it’s Matt. In this essay, I reflect on how I avoided important conversations that could have led to growth. Whether you are a teacher or a positional leader, we have an obligation to our colleagues and our students to be both humble and transparent in our professional interactions.

Hello, Our September writers group is scheduled for this Sunday, September 20th at 6pm CST. Details are below. This writers group is a monthly opportunity for educators like yourself to engage in a professional community. You can connect with other literacy leaders, share your experiences through writing and conversation, and receive feedback plus resources to support your writing practice. The link to register is below.

This article, a follow-up to describing your school’s ideal state and understanding your current reality, explores the felt conflict when a culture attempts to move from the latter toward the former. How much teacher autonomy can a school honor while expecting a commitment to schoolwide excellence?

It’s one thing to describe your shared literacy beliefs, that ideal state of instruction. It’s another thing when that ideal state is confronted with your school’s current reality. In 2011, our elementary school opted for a structured writing program. This was after three years of professional learning focused on the reading-writing connection. We reached agreement on several beliefs over that time period, such as using student journal writing to assess phonemic awareness.

When I was a teacher during that first week with the kids, I often came home and took a short nap on the couch. Getting up extra early due to the excitement of a new school year, co-creating classroom norms with my students, and trying to find the bus roster at the end of the day required enormous cognitive effort. It was a good kind of exhaustion; I just needed to reacclimate to the energy of those initial days. It’s easy to get swept up in this initial excitement.

Recently, a veteran school leader reached out to me through a mutual acquaintance. This educator wants to publish a book about their professional work. Would I be willing to share information from my own publishing experience? Of course! If one person has a question like this, others do too. The rest of this post serves as a guide for educators thinking about publishing a book.

👋Hi, it’s Matt. In this short essay, I discuss the importance of humility, openness, and trust in building a community of readers. If you enjoy this post, please share it with others! A couple of weeks ago, while working at our local independent bookstore, a gentleman asked me what I would recommend to read next. “I’m laid up after shoulder surgery; I’ve read five books in the past three weeks!” A recently retired tradesman, he was reintroduced to reading due to life’s circumstances.

During the 2014 Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball run to the Final Four, I fondly remember Charles Barkley’s halftime commentary during their Elite Eight game. If you prefer not to watch the video below, Barkley’s advice to head coach Bo Ryan was a three-step plan: 1. Get the ball to Mr. Kaminsky. 2. Get the ball to Mr. Kaminsky. 3. Get the ball to Mr. Kaminsky. Frank Kaminsky was the Badgers’ go-to player during March Madness. He was virtually unstoppable.

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash 👋 Hi, it’s Matt. Today, I explore how curriculum programs promise to make teaching easier, even if easier isn't what students are asking for. When one ELA team let student voice data challenge their assumptions, they learned kids don't want convenience; they want purpose, depth, and connection, and no program can manufacture that on its own.