Teaching happens inside a system (whether we know it or not) and a better understanding the “gears” of the public school system can help us improve instruction in our classrooms.

Travel to Bradford in West Yorkshire with Launa Hall as she visits a diverse primary school where students speak more than 40 languages. As she explores how educators teach children to read English in the U.K., she finds a familiar foundation to support growing readers: decoding.

When it comes to reading comprehension instruction, the text needs to be king (or queen). It should determine the questions to be asked and the stopping points where guidance and teaching can take place. 

The real work of coaching is not choosing a model and sticking to it, but knowing which model the moment requires.

Explain what needs to be taught and how much time to devote to those components. Telling me to teach phonics but not too much, just doesn’t cut it.