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Writerly Life

Fabulous Friday

Last Friday I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to King of Prussia to hear Dr. Richard Allington speak about “Summer slide”. To say it was a fabulous Friday morning is not nearly enough, what a treat.
Dr. Allington is one of the most practical, straight talking researchers in education. He spends his career researching and proving the effectiveness of practices that should be considered common sense. Give kids books that they want to read, give them time and support to read, and talk to them about their reading. Wouldn’t we all love to be in a place where that could happen everyday…kids could choose from a massive variety of high interest books, have the time to sit and read them, and then have an adult or group of peers to talk to about the book. If some kids were not reading “on level” there would be books that they were able to read and those books would be just as interesting as any other book. No one would be in a “program”, or working on skill and drill practice so that one day they would be able to read the books.
Dr. Allington’s message on Friday left me with a smile on my face and the motivation to keep on the path, we are working to do the right thing for kids and there are quite a few of us out there who know it.