Greetings!
We hope you all had a good February break. February is a short month and we have a short edition of our Brookline Literacy Coalition Newsletter!
- Please register and attend our next virtual event this Sunday, March 5 at 8 pm: a conversation with Gary Shiffman, Brookline High School teacher and Social Studies Coordinator. The topic will be the relationship between literacy and social studies education at all grade levels.
- There are several very special events are coming up:
- The Right to Read film and panel discussion with Emily Hanford at the Coolidge Corner Theater
April 2 at 2 pm
- A BLC Zoom discussion with Kareem Weaver, educator, literacy advocate, and founder of Fulcrum, an organization that partners with stakeholders to improve reading results for students.
April 30 at 7 pm
- A presentation and discussion on Zoom with Dr. Tiffany Hogan about language and reading development and implementing new practices in schools
May 21 at 7 pm
- And finally, we wanted to share a couple of valuable resources.
Literacy: What’s Social Studies got to do with it?
Please join us this Sunday, March, 5 from 8-9 pm for a discussion about the relationships and interactions between literacy and social studies. We will be joined by Gary Shiffman, a Brookline resident, parent of two Brookline High School graduates, Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator at Brookline High School, and co-creator of “The 4 Question Method”, an approach to planning and teaching history courses. Gary and his co-author, Jon Bassett, have outlined this method in the book From Story to Judgement: The 4 Question Method for Teaching and Learning Social Studies, and they work with teachers and schools at multiple grade levels on writing and revising curriculum, and on developing effective and engaging ways of teaching history.
We will discuss the relationship of social studies content knowledge to both reading comprehension and writing; concerns about limited time spent on social studies in K-5; the possibilities of integrating Social Studies and English Language Arts; and how robust social studies education can foster students’ literacy skills.
We like this simple figure that shows background knowledge as one of the strands of reading comprehension.
Source: Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook for research in early literacy (pp. 97–110). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Register here to explore this important topic with our experienced and knowledgeable guest. We hope to see you there!
Coming Up!
Please save the date! The Coolidge Corner Theater will be showing the film The Right to Read on Sunday, April 2 at 2 pm. This film tells the stories of a NAACP activist, a teacher, and two families, as they work to ensure that all children gain the ability to read. The Coolidge will host an in-person panel discussion immediately after the film, featuring education reporter Emily Hanford along with several Massachusetts guests who will share their thoughts and experiences.
Later that month, on April 30th, Kareem Weaver, the NAACP activist featured in the film, will join the Brookline Literacy Coalition on Zoom to share his deep experience with this issue. We will discuss what needs to change and what each of us can do to support children and families and work toward improving the way children are taught to read in our schools.
As we mentioned in our newsletter earlier this month, we are looking forward to having Dr. Tiffany Hogan, professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions and a speech-language pathologist join us for a virtual presentation in May. Dr. Hogan studies reading, language, and speech development and disorders and also works in the important field of implementation science. Please see below for two closely related podcast recommendations.
Resources
We recommend this accessible article on how to promote reading comprehension by a leading researcher Dr. Hugh Catts.
We also recommend two recent podcasts that connect to the above upcoming events.
- Dr. Tiffany Hogan had an interesting conversation on her podcast with education reporter Sarah Carr about inequities in education. Sarah Carr has been reporting about education for 20 years and is the author of the article in The Washington Post, “How dyslexia became a social justice issue for Black parents”, and the article in the Hechinger Report, “How Black activists in Northern Virginia transformed the way children learn to read”.
- Also, Dr. Hogan and Emily Hanford were both guests on this recent podcast where they shared important information and insights about reading, language development, and bridging the gap between research and practice.
Please reach out to us with any thoughts and questions.