Brittney’s passion for reading development shines through her commitment to early literacy. Under a four-year plan she devised, Brittney’s district adopted a new curriculum and system of professional development that embraced the Science of Reading and celebrated its impact on their students.
What does the Science of Reading mean to you?
I believe the Science of Reading is about hope. Knowing 95% of students are cognitively able to read at grade level with the right explicit instruction was empowering for me and the teachers I support. Every child should know the joy and success of reading.
What tools/curriculum do you use to implement the Science of Reading? How did Amplify help?
We are an Amplify district and super proud to be an Amplify district. Last year, we started with Amplify CKLA Skills adoption because that’s where we had the biggest gap in terms of our instructional resources and supporting our students. Then we added on Knowledge for K–2 this year, integrated it for grades 3–5, and started using Amplify Reading.
We started using mCLASS® with DIBELS® 8th Edition with all of our K–3 students. After last year, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers caught wind of these awesome things that the lower elementary teachers had access to that they didn’t, so we expanded mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition to K–5 this year. We love the high-quality resources and programs that Amplify has to offer and we have seen some tremendous results early on and had some wonderful success. They’re supporting us in our vision, which is wonderful.
What advice do you have for teachers starting with the Science of Reading?
Just get started. Don’t feel overwhelmed by what you don’t know. We have seen tremendous success and tremendous results, but there’s still a lot of work left for us to do. I would say decide the thing that you want to focus on, pick something that you want to understand better, that you want to learn more about, and commit yourself. In the education world, we are almost paralyzed by the sheer amount of things that need to be done. There’s this sense of immediacy and urgency, that you have to balance with your reality.
Make sure that teachers feel supported because teachers go through a grieving process once they learn more. They feel guilt and sadness about some of the students they have taught in the past. Stay committed to growing and developing because science is going to change and you have to evolve and move with the science.
