Many people think they’re working on executive functioning, but aren’t ACTUALLY working on executive functioning. If you have students who have access to planners, visuals, lists, and other organizing tools, but still seem unorganized, this may be the case for your students. Especially if you have students who flat out refuse to use organizers, or…
Category: Literacy
EP 266: Five External Signs of Executive Dysfunction That Show Up At School
“Demand avoidance”, poor generalization, prompt-dependence, and social skills challenges seem like isolated issues. But often they’re not. Many times they’re tied to executive functioning challenges. That’s why when I describe “executive dysfunction”, I cluster it into five broad areas: Attention, Learning Challenges, Behavioral Issues, Organization, and Social Skills Usually, this is the point that the…
EP 236: Building the Literacy Skills Needed for Technology and Life (featuring Tom Parton)
“We don’t need to work on decoding because students have access to assistive technology and accommodations.” “We don’t work on word-decoding in high school.” “Working on reading in high school is too little too late.” If you’ve ever heard any of these arguments, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, beliefs like these do students a huge disservice. …
EP 235: Engaging Families and the Role of Tech in Addressing Book Deserts (featuring Cassandra Williams)
In this episode, I reflect on my conversation with my colleague Cassandra Williams as we discuss book and resource deserts, as well as how to engage with school communities. In the interview clip I share, Cassandra shares a story of how one of her colleagues found a surprising way to increase attendance at parent-teacher conferences…
EP 224: Orthographic Mapping & Effective Spelling Instruction (with Dr. Molly Ness)
In this episode, we’re joined by literacy expert Dr. Molly Ness, author of Making Words Stick, to unpack the science behind orthographic mapping and what truly effective spelling instruction looks like. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering whether “irregular” words really exist—or how to teach spelling in a way that actually transfers to reading and…
EP 213: SEEing to Lead: Collaborating for Better Literacy (with Karen Dudek-Brannan)
This week, I’m sharing an interview I did with another host on the BE podcast network because I think it’s something you’ll really enjoy. The episode is going live in the De Facto Leaders podcast feed. Dr. Chris Jones has been an educator in Massachusetts for 22 years. His experience in the classroom ranged from…
EP 206: FAQs: What if my district is still promoting three-cueing?
For episode 206 of De Facto Leaders, I share a Q & A session where I discuss Reading Recovery and cueing strategies for decoding, and I make some recommendations for additional information that will give you more information on this topic. I also share what you can do if you’re in a district that uses…