My pleasure! We film tons of stuff at Uncommon, so I’ve always got clips to share.

Hooray and welcome! 🤓

Ahhh, takes me back to my DC reporting days. 😂

The Science of Reading goes to Washington Outtakes from this week's Congressional hearings. Do they portend national action on literacy?

It was fascinating watching.

Especially the calls for a new National Reading Panel.

I wrote up the high points here:

open.substack.com/pub/karenvai...

Thanks for this writeup! I was able to catch a bit of the feed and read the testimonies, but this fleshes out the day nicely.

Adopting tech? Start with the hard questions. Today I read, with both fascination and sadness, Kathryn (Katie) Conrad's post on questions educators should ask AI vendors who come knocking. On one hand, her piece offers a terrific starting point f...

Adopting AI (or anything else) in schools shouldn’t start with fanfare, it should start with hard questions. I’ve been thinking about what responsible skepticism looks like for administrators. #edusky #tlsky

Hearing: The Science of Reading

If you're still here, a link. Grab popcorn? appropriations.house.gov/schedule/hea...

Still a tiny bit of a beltway journalist in me—assuming this is being televised but perhaps not. 😂 I (somewhat) miss being in the audience for this stuff.

Heads up, indeed! If you are free, this looks highly worthwhile.

An image of the poetry resource I created.

I made a resource for this! Hope it helps! stevechiger.com/wp-content/u...

Trying my best. I barely had my arms around this stuff before the social world fragmented. But still around even if quieter—and always ready to talk shop!

Why bother teaching novels, anyway? This week brought fresh thinking on the [unproven-but-likely] shift from novels to excerpts in US English classrooms. I’ll footnote some of that below*, but here’s the tl;dr: please—teach books.

New post: The most important question in English class isn’t just what works—but what it’s all for. On novels, purpose, and teaching the “why” of literacy. www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-bo... #TLSky #EduSky

Why bother teaching novels, anyway? This week brought fresh thinking on the [unproven-but-likely] shift from novels to excerpts in US English classrooms. I’ll footnote some of that below*, but here’s the tl;dr: please—teach books.

New post: The most important question in English class isn’t just what works—but what it’s all for. On novels, purpose, and teaching the “why” of literacy. www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-bo... #TLSky #EduSky

I guess this is a very yes/and take. It's fair to push curric directors like me to question the implications of our choices, and I think it invites useful conversations about our values and the needs of our kids.

3) I'm not sure poetry actually is overrepresented and I don't think we can use NCTE sessions. My guess is that it depends on the teacher. I also contest that some of the (great) curriculum components the piece advocates are for ELA teachers alone, when we all share that responsibility. ...4/4

2) Poetry is writing where structure matters as much as language. From a pedagogical perspective, that is of heightened value in an English classroom. ... 3/4

1) If (like me) you think one of the goals of
English instruction is personal and cultural introspection, poetry has a big role to play. From a humanities persp. it'd be like saying we don't need music or art. That's a values call, I know, but it's where I'll make a stand. ...2/4

Yes -- I appreciate the author's message that we have to make choices based on the time we have, AND that doing it (or anything) poorly is a waste of time. AND I'm with this piece that curriculum needs to make time for things like digital citizenship. That said, three thoughts to gently push back:

Two of my books on a school bookshelf.

There is no better feeling for an author than seeing their book in a school. Standing offer to do a FREE Q&A with any school that does a PLC or book study with either! (One is on 5-12 English pedagogy, the other is a kid-facing chapter book with solve-it-yourself media-lit mysteries.)

…FWIW, I do conceptualize SIFT differently than CRAAP. I suppose SIFT is a structured heuristic, but in application it’s an acronym for thoughtful lateral reading, which does have research to recommend it (and is very much what I practiced as a journalist and now as a reader).

…integrated curricular approaches versus standalone lessons. My gut is we’d want to assess in that context too, rather than generically. It’s easier to assess credibility on, say, climate change if you are learning about climate change…

An interesting post! In my current thinking, a lot of media literacy feels like mindset and process work that need to be iteratively practiced alongside with one’s [ever developing] knowledge base. That’s why I’d personally prefer…

A meme about the dearth of media literacy skills.

All day—Last chance to grab a FREE kindle copy of Gram and Gran Save the Summer: acclaimed solve-it-yourself media literacy mysteries for ages 7-12. Leaving an honest rating or review helps us out! a.co/d/h8F492Q #EduSky #TLSky

Happy to boost this post. I've said it before and I'll say it again: GRAM AND GRAN SAVE THE SUMMER is one of the best #MediaLiteracy books for kids I have ever encountered. This is a perfect chance to check it out for free so you can decide which kid(s) in your life to give it to as a holiday gift!

#TLSky #EdTech #EduSky

Happy Media Literacy Week! To celebrate, @teachergoals.bsky.social has made Gram and Gran FREE on Kindle all week! Not asking for anything in return, but honest ratings/reviews always welcome! We’re a chapter book of solve-it-yourself media literacy mysteries for gr 3-7. Pls share! a.co/d/gKflH5A

Terrific post on the dangers of over-simplification for teachers and students!

LLM Chatbots Are the Inscrutable Unknown Variable in Lesson Plans The cognitive consequences of using LLM Chatbots in class can be subtle and hard to predict

New substack: LLM Chatbots Are the Inscrutable Unknown Variable in Lesson Plans
dtwuva.substack.com/p/llm-chatbo...

📌

If AI is being used extensively in office jobs, then should we be letting students use AI in the classroom?

No - here's why.

With reference to 3 papers that show what you do in a job isn't the template for what you do in the classroom.

substack.nomoremarking.com/p/education-...