NAEP: What you’ve always wanted to know, with Chester Finn, Jr.
Transcripts and additional resources:
Meet Our Guest(s):
Chester Finn, Jr.
Scholar, educator and public servant Chester Finn, Jr. has devoted his career to improving education in the United States. A native of Ohio, he holds an undergraduate degree in U.S. history, a master’s degree in social studies teaching, and a doctorate in education policy, all from Harvard University. He is now distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at Fordham University, and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Finn was Fordham’s president from 1997 to 2014, after many earlier roles in education, academia, and government. From 1999 until 2002, he was the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and at Hudson Institute.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Susan is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Susan is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Quotes
“For this to work, we need both great teachers and great curricula.”
“The single most important thing NAEP cannot do [is that] it cannot in any definitive way explain why scores are what they are or are rising or falling.”
Featured Episodes
Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition Community Showcase
Bring the world to students with knowledge! The Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition literacy curriculum intentionally builds background and academic knowledge—along with critical comprehension strategies—that fuel students’ capacity to understand texts, answer questions, and grapple with big ideas.
Explore ideas from educators across the country who are bringing Amplify CKLA Knowledge Domains to life!
Want to showcase your classroom?
We love seeing how you bring learning to life! Share photos to inspire fellow educators.
Kindergarten
In kindergarten, students develop phonemic awareness with storybook characters like Zack and Ann Chang; draw a chart to identify different smells; learn about geography, globes, and maps; and pay homage to classic nursery rhymes by jumping a candlestick.
Domain 1: Star Light, Star Bright: Nursery Rhymes and Fables
To celebrate the end of the Nursery Rhymes and Fables unit, students participated in a Nursery Rhyme Olympics.
Credit: Kelly O’Connor, Huber Street Elementary School, NJ
BONUS: Watch this video to see Nursery Rhyme Olympics in action!
Domain 2: See, Hear, Smell, Taste, Touch: The Five Senses
As a special activity for The Five Senses unit, students explored their sense of taste with a pop-up farmers market.
Credit: Debbie Braaten, Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, OH
BONUS: Hear how Jamie Vannoy, a teacher in Wirt County, WV, plans a braille activity for this unit!
Domain 3: Underdogs and Heroes: Stories
Kindergarteners worked in groups to construct houses using straw, sticks, and bricks to commemorate the reading of “The Three Little Pigs.”
Credit: Manal Abuhouran, Clarendon Elementary School, NJ
Domain 4: See How They Grow: Plants
To apply their learning, students at Superior Elementary planted grass seeds at the beginning of the Plants unit, then cared for and observed the grass daily to ensure it flourished.
Credit: Emma Fynbu, Superior Elementary School, NE
Domain 5: Moo, Cluck, Oink: Farms
To celebrate the Farms unit, students visited a local farm to study the equipment and farm animals!
Credit: Kirsten Tingley, Cumberland Valley School District, PA
Domain 6: Deep Roots: Introduction to Native American Cultures
To showcase their knowledge, students created a gallery walk that displays information about the Lakota Sioux, Wampanoag, and Lenape tribes.
Credit: Dalphne Harrison, Aldine ISD, TX
Domain 7: All Around the World: Geography
To help this class showcase their knowledge, this educator made a velcro set representing different types of geography, mixed them up in a bag, and had students put the animals and plants in the appropriate environment. When they finished sorting them, they got to free play—making the animals friends or taking a trip to a new place!
Credit: Stephanie Abney, Bonneville District 93, ID
Domain 8: Royal Tales: Monarchs (Choice Unit)
To mark the end of the this unit, this class hosted a royal tea party in the cafeteria, complete with cloaks and handmade crowns.
Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR
Domain 8: National Icons: Presidents and American Symbols (Choice Unit)
To close the Presidents and American Symbols domain, hold a sample election in your classroom! Create a voting booth, ballot box, ballot cards, election music, campaign posters, stickers, balloons, and confetti. Before announcing the winner, discuss the importance of voting, the voting process, what a campaign involves, and what to look for in a great leader.
Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA
Domain 9: Our Planet: Taking Care of the Earth (Choice Unit)
In celebration of Earth Day, these young learners worked together to help clean up their school garden. From pulling weeds to clearing out old plants, they showed teamwork, responsibility, and care for their environment. They learned that even small actions can make a big difference and they were proud to put those lessons into practice. As an extra layer, they partnered with fourth-grade students to plant wildflowers in the garden. It was a wonderful opportunity for collaboration and continued learning across grade levels!
Credit: Franklin Elementary School, IA
Domain 9: Our Planet: Taking Care of the Earth (Choice Unit)
In celebration of Earth Day, these young learners worked together to help clean up their school garden. From pulling weeds to clearing out old plants, they showed teamwork, responsibility, and care for their environment. They learned that even small actions can make a big difference and they were proud to put those lessons into practice. As an extra layer, they partnered with fourth-grade students to plant wildflowers in the garden. It was a wonderful opportunity for collaboration and continued learning across grade levels!
Credit: Franklin Elementary School, IA
Domain 9: Rain and Rainbows: Seasons and Weather (Choice Unit)
Teach your students more about seasons and weather: Invite your local meteorologist to visit, like this classroom did!
Credit: Chrystal Wise, Malvern School District, AR
Domain 10: Shaped by Nature: Art and the World Around Us
These kindergarteners transformed their classrooms into art museums to showcase their learning and creativity! Inspired by their Amplify CKLA unit, students explored famous artists and tried their hands at becoming painters, weavers, potters, and sculptors. Families were invited to tour the “museums” to celebrate the students’ hard work and view the masterpieces firsthand.
Credit: Bannach Elementary School, WI
Domain 10: Colonial Towns and Townspeople
As you wrap up this unit, take inspiration from this school: Make shop signs and tables to create your own colonial town!
Credit: Andrea Gatten, Propel Schools, PA
Grade 1
In Grade 1, students sing about a fabulous fox, explore variations on the Cinderella story, write an opinion statement about the worst part of going to the moon, and identify key details about the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
Domain 1: The Moral of the Story: Fables and Tales
To celebrate the Fables and Stories domain, students participated in a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” race while teachers dressed as fable characters.
BONUS: Hear how Brittany planned a Fable Olympics for her Grade 1 students!
Credit: Brittany Sachs, Monon Trail Elementary School, IN
Domain 2: From Nose to Toes: How Your Body Works
To showcase their knowledge of the topic, students participated in a “hospital day.” The classroom was transformed to look like different operating rooms. Stations included blending and segmenting CVC words with Band-Aids, a Tricky Words eye exam, sentence writing, an X-ray light table, food sorting according to the food pyramid, and an operation game!
BONUS: Erin explains how she planned the activity, and shows us snippets of the culminating activity in action.
Credit: Erin Chester, Thompson Crossing Elementary School, IN
Domain 3: Common Threads: Different Lands, Similar Stories
Take inspiration from this classroom and have your students create a Thumbelina floral craft to round out the unit’s celebration of folktales.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 4: Reach for the Stars: Astronomy
A surefire way to ignite your students’ excitement about astronomy is to create a moon phase Oreo chart!
Bonus idea: Have your class send postcards to space through the Club for the Future program.
Credit: Shelby Varchmin, Fred Wild Elementary School, FL
Domain 5: Charting the World: Geography
Using their trusty compasses, these first graders mapped out and trekked their way to some local community sites. They explored, navigated, enjoyed a tasty treat, and learned like true young explorers, having an amazing experience along the way!
Credit: Bessemer Academy, CO
Domain 6: A World of Homes: Animals and Habitats
Students can research an animal and habitat, then express their creativity by creating a diorama of the habitat, making a clay animal, and writing about the animal and habitat!
Credit: Caroline Unger, Herman Rohwer Elementary School, NE
Domain 7: A New Nation: American Independence
Posters beautifully summarize the learning from a unit. Pair students to create and present to their classmates!
Credit: Tracy Hatch Gagnon, Holy Name Parish School, MA
Domain 8: Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tales (Choice Unit)
To wrap up the Fairy Tales unit, sharpen your students’ drama skills by having them act out their favorite stories.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 8: Our Planet: The History of the Earth (Choice Unit)
Students channeled their inner geologist during this unit and dug for rocks.
Credit: Ronda Scott, Dixon Public Schools, IL
Domain 9: From Babylon to the Nile: Early World Civilizations (Choice Unit)
Looking for a culminating activity for this domain? Plan an ancient Egypt day filled with crafts and activities, including pyramid-making, writing in hieroglyphics, trying Egyptian food, and mask-making.
BONUS: Watch this short video about how to make pyramid-making easy in your classroom!
Credit: Camy Stirling, Brevard Academy, NC
Domain 5: Early Americas: Maya, Aztec, and Inca (Choice Unit)
Students can apply their learning about early American civilizations by creating their very own Moctezuma headdresses.
Credit: Emmett J. Hoops, Moriah Central School, NY
Grade 2
In Grade 2, students learn about the crimes of the Cat Bandit, assemble books about ancient Chinese culture, write their own Greek myths, study the science of flight, and explore physics concepts like “lift.”
Domain 1: Fortunes and Feats: Fairy Tales and Tall Tales
To celebrate the end of the Fairy Tales and Tall Tales unit, encourage students to showcase their favorite stories by crafting paper collages and clay figures.
Credit: Jessica Berg, Arlington Public Schools, VA
Domain 2: The Birthplace of Democracy: Ancient Greece
This class had a great time becoming world travelers and celebrating all the knowledge gained throughout the Ancient Greek Civilization domain. The students started their day getting their passports stamped. After entering ancient Greece, they engaged in many Centers. They built the Parthenon and Athena’s throne, wrote facts about Sparta, created locks for Pandora’s box, built a harp for Apollo, and played vocabulary games. In addition to Centers, the students learned that they all qualified for the Olympics and were led by teachers on a victory walk as the entire school cheered for them!
Credit: Terri Hart, Jefferson Parish Public School District, LA
BONUS: Take inspiration from this Louisiana educator and plan a Potato Olympics day with your students! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A_GNbNwBZB4
Domain 3: Legends and Heroes: Greek Myths
Students wrote and shared their very own Greek myths, made props, and dressed in togas to celebrate this unit!
Credit: Chelsey Steinmetz, Cornell Elementary School, WI
Domain 4: Our Planet: Cycles in Nature
To bring the Cycles in Nature unit to life, students learned how to make their own greenhouses and watched lima beans germinate and sprout.
Credit: Amber Taylor, Corbin Primary School, KY
Domain 5: Butterflies, Bees, and Beetles: Insects
These students celebrated all the knowledge they gained by visiting a local Edison beekeeper. They tasted honey, tried on gear, felt beeswax, touched beehives, and held the smoker!
Credit: Catherine San, Woodbrook Elementary School, NJ
Domain 6: A House Divided: The American Civil War
Have your students showcase their knowledge of the American Civil War by creating posters of important historical figures of the time.
Credit: Heather Griffin, Rochester School District, NH
Domain 7: Sounds and Stanzas: Poetry
These Grade 2 students worked in small groups to write and illustrate memory poems, then practiced sharing them with others. To celebrate, they opened a Poetry Café where students enjoyed treats while listening to their classmates present.
Credit: Kristen Capion, Nye Elementary School, PA
Domain 8: Making a Difference: Creating Change (Choice Unit)
To wrap up this unit and showcase their knowledge, students created VIP books about important historical figures!
Credit: Meghan Scheffler, Community Unit School District 300, IL
Domain 8: Journeys to America: Immigration (Choice Unit)
Students created their own passports and participated in an Ellis Island simulation in their classrooms at the end of the Immigration unit!
Credit: Sandra Garcia, Austin Independent School District, TX
Domain 9: Building Blocks: All About Nutrition (Choice Unit)
To showcase their knowledge of nutrition, students created food trucks with one of the body systems and then devised a balanced menu on the side.
Credit: Amy Wethington, Aspen Academy, CO
Domain 9: Early Asian Civilizations: India and China (Choice Unit)
Second-grade teachers worked together to create an amazing dragon at the end of their Early Asian Civilizations unit. Each student created a scale for their grade-level dragon!
Credit: Emma Bridgeforth, Windsor Elementary School, WI
BONUS: This class at Windber Elementary, PA, celebrated this unit by hosting a Chinese New Year dragon parade.
Grade 3
In Grade 3, students write a newspaper story about the invention of the telephone, debate whether Julius Caesar is a hero or traitor, reflect on the stars with astronomy lab notes, and learn the secret to writing an excellent narrative ending.
Domain 1: Timeless Tales: Classic Stories
To immerse themselves in the Classic Stories domain, students hosted a party inspired by classic literary celebrations.
Credit: Laurie Valente, Secaucus Public School District, NJ
Domain 2: Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Animal Classification
A great way to shift perspective and get students to apply their knowledge? Transform your classroom into a vibrant “rainforest café” that showcases students’ published writing. Each student can create an informational piece about a specific vertebrate, learning how to introduce a topic, group related information, and support it with facts and details. They then turn their writing, complete with text features, into restaurant-style menus! Dressed as rainforest and safari guides, students can present their work to other students and staff, answering questions about their animal and its classification.
Credit: Nicole Desmond, Riverside School District 96, IL
BONUS: To celebrate the Light and Sound unit as well as all units about animals in grades K–4, take a cue from Windber Elementary and plan an animal-themed glow show with your students!
Domain 3: Rhythm and Rhyme: Poetry
To wrap up this Amplify CKLA unit, students were welcomed into their own cafés for the day! Students read the poems they wrote to the class, got to order custom drinks made by their barista (teacher), and created a coffee-cup acrostic poem about autumn.
Credit: Wyalusing Area School District, PA
Domain 4: Rise and Fall: Ancient Rome
This third-grade class enjoyed a day-long Saturnalia festival. Students dressed as Roman citizens and enjoyed building mosaic temples, playing Morels, and relaxing by the pool to feast on figs, dates, apricots, and grapes.
Credit: Ann Ingham, Westlawn Elementary School, WI
Domain 5: Our Solar System and Beyond: Astronomy
As a culminating activity for the Astronomy unit, an Oreo moon phase exercise really motivates students to apply their knowledge!
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
Domain 6: Regions and Cultures: Native Americans
Flex your students’ creativity at the end of the Native Americans unit by having them gather natural materials and creating Native American shelters!
Credit: Alisa Byrd Fesmire, Roane County Schools, TN
BONUS: Hear how a teacher in Wisconsin plans a basket-weaving activity for her students during this unit.
Domain 7: Novel Study: Charlotte's Web (Choice Unit)
After reading Charlotte’s Web, these Grade 3 students decorated their classrooms to look like barns and wrote summaries of the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Students also put the story events in chronological order—in the shape of Charlotte’s spider body!
Credit: Wyalusing Area School District, PA
Domain 7: Novel Study: Stella Díaz Has Something to Say (Choice Unit)
After these students completed the novel Stella Díaz Has Something to Say, they wrote their own narratives about a new summer adventure Stella had after the book ended. They created a new character for their stories, too!
Credit: Oshkosh Area School District, WI
Domain 8: From Glow to Echo: Light and Sound (Choice Unit)
To celebrate the Light and Sound unit, your students can make colorful suncatchers and witness the science of light and color in action.
Credit: Stephanie Schuettpelz, Marion Elementary School, WI
BONUS: Watch how another teacher plans a black light party for this unit!
Domain 9: From Blues to Bebop: All That Jazz
It was a “jazzy” afternoon in this third-grade class. They celebrated their Amplify CKLA end-of-unit project and the achievement of meeting their behavior SMART goal of “being focused during independent work time”!
Credit: Sarah Jerina, Sun Prairie, WI
Grade 4
In Grade 4, students engage in a dramatic invention competition judged by Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, and Hedy Lamarr; use writing to investigate the function of a mysterious contraption; become poets; and exercise their reading skills on the classic novel Treasure Island.
Domain 1: My Story, My Voice: Personal Narratives
To celebrate the Personal Narratives domain, students created posters using information about their names.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary School, AL
BONUS: Hear how an educator in New York plans an engaging culminating activity for the Personal Narratives unit!
Domain 2: Knights and Castles: Europe's Middle Ages
Flex your students’ creativity: Have them create their very own shields and write a paragraph describing them!
Credit: Elisabeth Freligh, Spring Hill Elementary School, AK
BONUS: See how students in Minnesota participated in a stained glass art project to celebrate the Middle Ages.
Domain 3: Meaning and Metaphor: Poetry
Empower students to apply their knowledge of this writing discipline with poetry journals.
Credit: Elizabeth Sillies, Three Rivers Local School District, OH
Domain 4: Eureka! Student Inventor
Encourage students to showcase their innovation at an Invention Showcase! Here, they pitched their ideas using the slides they created and the models they made.
Credit: Daniella Cucunato, Merchantville School District, NJ
Domain 5: Our Planet: Geology
Geology offers great opportunities to facilitate hands-on learning! Students can examine rocks and fossils or bust geodes to supplement their lessons.
Credit: Spring Choate, Overton County Schools, TN
Domain 6: Road to Independence: The American Revolution
Work a STEM activity into this Knowledge Domain by inviting students to recreate the Boston Tea Party with craft sticks and items of various weights.
Credit: Maureen Elliott, West Irondequoit CSD, NY
Domain 7: Novel Study: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Choice Unit)
To wrap up their From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler novel study, each class created a collaborative collage of a scene from the book. Each student colored one piece of the collage, and together they formed one big, unique image!
Credit: Glasscock Elementary School, KY
Domain 7: Novel Study: The Season of Styx Malone (Choice Unit)
After wrapping up their novel study of The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon, students took their learning a step further with a creative project titled “What Makes Me Extraordinary.” Through the project, students reflected on a character’s strengths, challenges, and growth, then made meaningful connections to their own lives. Then they presented their projects to the class, sharing what makes both their character and them extraordinary in their own unique ways.
Credit: Broadalbin-Perth Central School District, NY
Domain 8: Adventure on the High Seas: Treasure Island (Choice Unit)
To celebrate the end of the Treasure Island domain collaboratively, students can build their very own map sections and put them together.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL
Domain 9: Inspiration and Ingenuity: American Innovation
These fourth grade superstars learned about inventors in this Amplify CKLA unit and researched a famous STEM inventor. They wrote about their chosen inventor, built an interactive touchpad, recorded themselves reading, and even wrote code to instruct the computer to display a visual and audio component for each paragraph when the audience pressed the touchpad!
Credit: Washington Local School, OH
Grade 5
In Grade 5, students learn about villanelles and Mayan codices, read and perform Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” design a skyscraper and write paragraphs persuading the city council to build it, and solve a scientific mystery involving ancient fossils.
Domain 1: In My Own Words: Personal Narratives
Have your students refine their personal narratives into graphic stories to celebrate the end of this unit.
BONUS: Hear how a teacher plans a name-poster activity for her students to wrap up this domain!
Credit: Anna Barba, Arlington Traditional School, VA
Domain 2: Early Americas: Maya, Aztec, and Inca
To celebrate this unit, have your students create codices and Mayan mythical character sculptures using clay!
Credit: Anita Trolese, TASIS Portugal
Domain 3: Visions in Verse: Poetry
Transform your classroom into a poetry café where students share their work with the rest of the class.
Credit: K.D. Meucci, Bethel Park School District, PA
Domain 4: A Knight's Tale: Don Quixote
These students are an inspiration! To celebrate this unit, they reenacted scenes from The Adventures of Don Quixote by choosing a chapter, summarizing its plot, writing scripts, and acting out their chapter for their classmates. They even chose their own backdrops and props to help embody the characters.
Credit: Riley Montgomery, Hamilton Local School District, OH
BONUS: After reading about the dubbing ceremony in Don Quixote, these brave students at South Allegheny School District took the oath of knighthood. Their teacher lightly tapped each students’ shoulders to symbolize bravery, kindness, honesty, and the promise to help others. From that moment forward, they were recognized as true knights of learning and imagination.
Domain 5: The Deep Blue World: Oceans
This fifth-grade class celebrated the end of this Amplify CKLA unit with an ocean party! The class worked hard on informational papers about specific animals in ocean ecosystems, then celebrated by watching “Finding Nemo,” enjoying ocean-themed snacks, and participating in ocean-themed activities across math, science, and social studies.
Credit: Havel Elementary School, MI
Domain 6: Cultures and Histories: Native Americans
Personal totem poles are a great extension project for the Native Americans unit! Have your students determine their own personal totems, write an explanation of totem poles and why they selected the totem they chose, and use a template to create their own totem pole.
Credit: Kristin Rea, Cicero School District 99, IL
Domain 7: Novel Study: The Phantom Tollbooth (Choice Unit)
These fifth graders really dressed to impress! After finishing The Phantom Tollbooth, they brought idioms to life—proving learning isn’t just a “piece of cake”; it’s a whole lot of fun. From silly to creative, these outfits are the “icing on the cake.”
Credit: Glasscock Elementary School, WI
Domain 7: Novel Study: The Science of Breakable Things (Choice Unit)
This fifth-grade class wrapped up the unit in the most egg-citing way: an egg drop competition inspired by the book! Students put their creativity and problem-solving skills to the test, designing unique ways to protect their eggs. From clever cushioning to innovative structures, the ideas were incredible—and best of all, very few eggs cracked!
Credit: Northeast Elementary School, IA
Domain 8: Arts and Culture: The Renaissance
The arts and the Renaissance go hand in hand, so have your students get creative and create their own Leonardo da Vinci portraits!
Credit: Windber Elementary, PA
Domain 8: Through the Forest: “A Midsummer Night's Dream”
Turn your classroom into a theater for this unit and have your students read the play using character cards and donkey headbands.
Credit: Daphne Long, Steele Elementary, AL
Domain 9: Building Up the World: Global Architecture
Students explored how architecture shapes communities across the world. They then stepped into the role of architects themselves, designing bird feeders and birdhouses inspired by the architects and structures they studied throughout the unit.
Credit: Worthington City School District, OH
Meet Our Guest(s):
Meet our guest: Chester Finn, Jr.
Scholar, educator and public servant Chester Finn, Jr. has devoted his career to improving education in the United States. A native of Ohio, he holds an undergraduate degree in U.S. history, a master’s degree in social studies teaching, and a doctorate in education policy, all from Harvard University. He is now distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at Fordham University, and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Finn was Fordham’s president from 1997 to 2014, after many earlier roles in education, academia, and government. From 1999 until 2002, he was the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and at Hudson Institute.
Meet our host: Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Quotes
“It must be acknowledged that there is more scientific research, or there has been more scientific research, conducted with monolingual English-speaking children, and that additional research related to teaching literacy development for English learners and emergent bilinguals is needed to advance our understanding of their literacy development.”
“We have an underserved area that’s experiencing a massive growth in student population. And so it’s really important to then focus on it. Schools are adjusting, they’re quick, they’re doing the best they can, but we need to be having these conversations around research [and] best practices so that we can set schools up for success and students up for success.”
“I just think we have an exciting future in this country. I was in a classroom last week, I saw some of their writing. I saw them speaking, heard them speaking in two languages fluently, easily, excitedly. I just got very excited. These kids are going to be our doctors and our teachers and our engineers and they’re bilingual or multilingual.”
“Their language is an asset, whatever language it is and however much it is.”
Navigating the noise, with Claude Goldenberg
Transcripts and additional resources:
Meet Our Guest(s):
Claude Goldenberg
Claude Goldenberg is the Nomellini & Olivier Professor of Education, emeritus, Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He received his A.B. in history from Princeton University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Education at UCLA. He has taught junior high school in San Antonio, TX, and first grade in a bilingual elementary school in Los Angeles. A native of Argentina, his areas of research centered on promoting academic achievement among language minority students, particularly those from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. He currently works on promoting research, policy, and practices to enhance literacy and academic development among students not yet proficient in English.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Susan is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Susan is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Quotes
"You can think of literacy as a structure, as something that gets constructed in your mind."
Featured Episodes
Special interlude #1: Why the Science of Reading isn’t just about reading
Meet Our Guest(s):
Natalie Wexler
Natalie Wexler is an education writer and the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It (Avery 2019). She is also the co-author, with Judith C. Hochman, of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades (Jossey-Bass, 2017), and a senior contributor to the education channel on Forbes.com.
Natalie’s articles and essays on education and other topics have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, the MIT Technology Review, The American Scholar, and other publications. She has spoken on education before a wide variety of groups and appeared on a number of TV and radio shows, including Morning Joe and NPR’s On Point and 1A.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a masters’ degree in history from the University of Sussex (UK), and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has also worked as a reporter, a Supreme Court law clerk, a lawyer, and a legal historian.
Meet Our Host: Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the chief academic officer of elementary humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career, including classroom teacher, building administrator, and district-level leader, has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Susan is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories. Her professional quarantine accomplishments include the production of knowledge-based learning modules for kindergarten through grade-two students, available through Amplify’s free resources website and Wide Open Schools.
Quotes
“Here's the catch about writing: It's hugely important. It can help cement knowledge and long-term memory, and deepen knowledge.”
“Even if you as a teacher have doubts about the curriculum. It's really important to give it your best shot and approach it with enthusiasm.”
Featured Episodes
Love at the center of literacy, with Dr. Nyshawana Francis-Thompson
Transcripts and additional resources:
Meet Our Guest(s):
Dr. Nyshawana Francis-Thompson
Dr. Nyshawana Francis-Thompson is an education leader who advocates for students with diverse academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs. She is Deputy Chief of Curriculum and Instruction in Philadelphia, where she leads the Curriculum Equity Initiative. She previously led the development of an instructional guide for supporting students with disabilities. Her dissertation on Multi-Tiered System of Supports implementation has a focus on evidence-based reading interventions. She approaches the Science of Reading conversation from an equity lens, focused on all students having access to culturally and linguistically inclusive instruction.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Susan is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Susan is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Quotes
“I have never met a student that did not want to learn how to read or a family that did not understand the importance of their children knowing how to read.”
“We have to listen to our young people in order to be able to move with that sense of urgency.”
"Liberation is connected to our students being literate… In order for our students to truly be free, we [need to] understand the power that reading has in their future.”
“We have to remember who we are serving and why we are serving them.”
“A lot of times when you’re in a large system and you’re leading a large system, it can become very robotic, like a machine. You do this, you get this, you do this, you get this. But there’s a human aspect that if you have not considered that human aspect, you could very well end up in the same place that you’re trying to move away from.”
“And while it’s a five-year strategic plan, we do have a sense of urgency and I’m sure within that there are gonna be benchmarks and hundred-day plans and smaller plans to make sure that we are actually doubling down again on the things that truly matter, that are gonna lead, outcomes for our students here in the school district.”
“If we’re only in the business of educating some students, then what are we really doing? It’s important to look at the students that are not benefitting and really identifying the things that work for that population of students rather than continuing with practices that aren’t meeting the needs of the students we’re serving.”
