by Jan and Kari | Oct 3, 2021 | Blog, Literacy Leadership, Video
In a fast-paced and over-scheduled life, finding any margin between the activities that begin when your alarm goes off in the morning and end when you lay your head back down on the pillow at night can feel almost impossible!If you’re like us, you probably wish you...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 25, 2021 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
What prevents us from making the changes we want to make in our lives?Whether in our personal or professional roles, we all have visions of reaching for our better selves. Whether we want to eat better, keep a tidier house, get in shape, read more. . .the list goes...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 19, 2021 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
Did you ever really surprise yourself?This summer Kari did. She did it by water skiing 70 days in a row!She didn’t originally plan to go for 70 days.In fact she still has a hard time believing she did it.If you had said to her in July, “Kari, you should ski 70 days in...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 11, 2021 | Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
Who doesn’t want to make their work easier? Our ancestors certainly did. If necessity is the mother of invention, then the need to lift heavy objects led to the invention of the lever. A lever is–as you well know–a simple machine that makes work a lot...
by Jan and Kari | Sep 3, 2021 | Beyond the Book, Blog, Literacy Leadership, Video
Whether it’s broccoli in the teeth, frosting on the chin, a shirt inside-out, it often takes someone else – with honesty and caring – to help us notice what we haven’t yet seen for ourselves. As we dig deeper and deeper into the wide body of research that...
by Jan and Kari | Aug 22, 2021 | Blog, Knowledge Building, Language Comprehension, Strategy Instruction, Video, Vocabulary
All children love to become experts! Whether learning about ancient Egypt in order to understand the latest Rick Riordon title or building knowledge about the spread of germs in a global pandemic, knowledge building is a critical aspect of reading comprehension. In...
by Jan and Kari | Aug 16, 2021 | Blog, Knowledge Building, Language Comprehension, Strategy Instruction, Video, Vocabulary
Have you noticed? Kids love to talk. Babies come into this world naturally wired for language development. They are ready to soak up new words through exposure, modeling, and feedback. From our first breath to our last, we humans are wired to be language...
by Jan and Kari | Aug 14, 2021 | Beyond the Book, Blog, General, Literacy Leadership, Video
In our experience, putting up walls is easier than building bridges . . . Just not nearly as helpful. A while back, Marnie Ginsburg of Reading Simplified called us “bridge builders,” referring to the way our work seeks to connect reading communities that are often...
by Jan and Kari | Aug 8, 2021 | Blog, Literacy Leadership, Video
Change can be challenging.Especially when you are shifting long-held beliefs and practices. Sometimes regret gets in our way. Sometimes overwhelm. Sometimes fear.And while it is good to acknowledge and make space to process these feelings, camping out with any one of...
