Beyond the Book . . .

 Because our understandings continue to expand.

Dear Literacy Educator: A Message from Jan and Kari

Sometime we get questions from literacy educators wondering if Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Literacy Classroom might be right for their particular situation or place on the journey toward more science-aligned literacy practice. We’ve written this letter, just as we wrote the book, with love and honesty about our little book and why we wrote it. The letter is available both as a full length blog post and as a downloadable PDF.

Answers to Some Important Questions about Shifting the Balance

At times we get questions about the content of the book -the approach we’ve taken, the language we’ve chosen and intended audience. In this Question and Answer Resource, we provide clarity to anyone wondering if Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Literacy Classroom might be the right tool at the right time for their particular situation and place on the journey. The Q and A is available both as a blog post and as a printable PDF.

The Six Commitments

The work we invite you into is not purely academic or technical in nature. It can also be emotionally taxing work, especially when it calls on us to reevaluate long-held beliefs or practices. As you commit to take an honest second look at practices in your system, school, or classroom – in order to spot misunderstandings, misinformation, and missed opportunities – we hope you will find grace for yourself. To that end, we share with you the commitments we crafted for ourselves as we stepped into this vulnerable work.

5 Walls and 5 Bridges

Our goal is to create momentum, one conversation and one changed practice at a time. If you’re working to build momentum but running into barriers as people with diverse approaches struggle to hear and understand each other, we invite you to download this tool. In this one-pager we share the five walls we’re trying hard to avoid in our work, and the five bridges we’re working to build.