Embedded Files
S2-E1: Summer Literacy Symposium-A Day of Learning
Thank you to the following educators/parent advocates that contributed their voices: Dr. Claude Goldenberg, Dr. Nichole Gross, James Feulner, Dr. Jack Rein, Louise Dechovitz-IL Early Literacy Coalition/parent advocate, Erika Smith, Ted Henley, Christine Michalik, Sepideh Noekhah, Elizabeth Cruz, Jessica Handy-IL Early Literacy Coalition, Nikki York, Martin Mireles, Annie Perveneckis, Dalia Merrill, Kellyn Sirach-SLD project & Camp Monarch, Tina Berry, Anne Brewster-president of TRL-Illinois, Dr. Mitchell Brookins
In this episode, educators from Cicero and beyond discuss their insights around the Literacy Symposium that Cicero co-hosted with Amplify. The 4 speakers of the day were Susan Lambert, Claude Goldenberg, Joan Sedita, and the day was closed out by Mitchell Brookins. Each speaker shared their respective expertise with the group of educators that attended the event.
S2-E2: Kickoff Episode: Off & Running
Dr. Ben Zulauf
In this episode, Dr. Zulauf joins the podcast to share why a curriculum adoption was necessary, how the Amplify curriculums can benefit teachers and students, how teachers can plan and get support, what outcomes we will be looking at to determine student progress, and what are the most essentials areas to focus on in our first year of implementation.
S2-E3: District Literacy Coaches: Insight into Amplify
Kurt Anderson & Julie Tauer
In this episode, two of our district literacy coaches share their experiences in helping pilot teachers work through the Amplify/Caminos Curriculum. They will share tips and tricks with all of you.
S2-E4:
Tips and Tricks from Primary Teachers
Jessica Loney, Jill Lozzio, Maria Tsagaris - WP kinder teachers
Tips & Tricks from Intermediate Teachers
Nikki York - 5th Wilson, Kayla King - 4th WP, Krystal Koser - 6th Lincoln, Araselly Gutierrez - 6th Lincoln
In these episodes, a group of primary teachers from Warren Park & intermediate teachers from across the district will share their experience of piloting the Amplify curriculum in the 2022-2023 school year. They will share helpful tips & tricks as well as useful resources.
S2-E5: Let’s Hear it for Some Fellows
2022-2023 Goyen Literacy Foundation Fellows: Moriah Geller, Becky Pallone, Claire Gunner, & Miranda Eldridge
In this episode, 4 talented educators from across the country join us to share their fellowship year at the Goyen Literacy Foundation. They will share some of their reading journey with us, how they implement structured literacy practices into their instruction, how they coped with challenges in their school districts, and how they are still continuing to learn.
Follow them on Twitter to see pictures & videos of their work with students.
S2-E6: CoE SLT Speaks Out on Supporting their School with Implementation
Donata Heppner, Sepideh Noekhah, Elaine Connelly, Nicole Ingratta, and Brenda Lazansky
In this episode, CoE’s School Leadership Team shares some of the ways they are planning on supporting the implementation of our new reading & language arts curriculum as well as how they will keep learning more about it in order to help support the teachers in their building.
S2-E7: Meet our Amplify Coach - Katie Molby
In this episode, we meet Katie Molby, D99’s Amplify coach, as she shares how she is helping to support the implementation of the Amplify curriculum in D99 this year.
S2-E8: Adult Literacy - Why it Matters
Larissa Phillips
In this episode, we meet Larissa Phillips, the founder of The Volunteer Literacy Project in New York & author of the Rex Runs Off! Series, which are decodable books for older kids that are still struggling and need practice with phonics patterns. Larissa tutors adults that are learning to read because they weren’t taught to read in school. She shares the struggles these adults face and what she is trying to do to help them gain literacy to improve their lives.
S2-E9: Implementing Amplify - A perspective from the Aldine School District in Houston
Grace Delgado
In this episode, we meet Grace Delgado from Houston Texas. Grace is the executive director of multilingual services from the Aldine School District. Aldine has about 60,000 students in their campuses and has 47% emergent bilingual students. They have been implementing CKLA, Caminos, and ELA since the 2020 school year. The Aldine School District has similar demographics as well as a dual language program. Grace shares how her district worked through challenges of implementing a new curriculum, how they began using learning labs to grow as professionals, and what successes they are now seeing. The Aldine School District is currently being visited by the Knowledge Matters Campaign Tour to showcase what implementation of high quality curriculum can look like.
S2-E10: Interventionists Share their Perspective on Amplify’s Burst Lessons
Pam Michaels, Jessica Mieczkowski, & Elana Gordon - Cicero SD 99 Reading Interventionists
In this episode, 3 interventionists: Pam and Jess from Goodwin and Elana from Warren Park share their perspective on what the shift has been like moving from planning their own word recognition lessons to a more scripted curriculum from Amplify called Burst lessons. They share what they consider the strengths of the curriculum, areas they have questions or wonderings around, and what information they are looking to learn about next.
S2-E11: Literacy Tips from the Hosts of the Literacy Talks Podcast
Stacy Hurst, Lindsay Kemeny, & Donell Pons
In this episode, we meet the hosts of the Literacy Talk podcast. They shared some insights into how to make change within a district, what resources they found helpful when shifting practice, and how they have made shifts and continue learning in their own practice.
S2-E12: Discovering the SLD Project in Illinois with Kellyn Sirach
In this episode, we meet Kellyn Sirach. Keyllyn is a reading specialist in Champaign,IL. Kellyn is the co-founder of Camp Monarch, a summer camp for students with dyslexia or reading disabilities. Kellyn is currently a board member of the Illinois chapter of The Reading League and Everyone Reading Illinois and is a member of the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition. She is now working as a content specialist for the SLD Project in Illinois. Kellyn will share how these organizations can support educators’ professional learning, how policy around literacy is changing in the state of Illinois, and what resources have been helpful in her journey.
In this episode, we meet another literacy coach from the Aldine School District, Etomita (Emy). Emy has helped Aldine continue to implement CKLA/Caminos on their campuses. Aldine has about 60,000 students in their campuses and has 47% emergent bilingual students. They have been implementing CKLA, Caminos, and ELA since the 2020 school year. The Aldine School District has similar demographics as well as a dual language program. Emy shares how her district worked through challenges of implementing a new curriculum, how they began using learning labs to grow as professionals, and what successes they are now seeing. The Aldine School District is currently being visited by the Knowledge Matters Campaign Tour to showcase what implementation of high quality curriculum can look like. Emy posts a lot of her district’s curriculum work on Twitter/X for others to see. Please follow her to benefit from her postings.
S2-E14: K-5 Teachers' Voices are Amplified
WP Teachers: Maria Tsgaris - Kinder, Maggie Chmiel - 1st, Mary Pikul - 2nd, & Lupe Rodriguez - 5th DL
In this episode, we get to hear from some K-5 teachers about how they are implementing our new Amplify curriculum in their classrooms. They’ll talk about pieces they really like or have learned to like, some parts they are not entirely fond of or need more learning around, topics their students have enjoyed, and where they hope they will be supported further in the future. Enjoy listening to some of your colleagues on their implementation process this school year.
S2-E15: Kindergarten Perspective on Amplify: Setting a Foundation for the Future
Sharon Klepacz - Kinder WP
In this episode, we get to hear from Sharon Klepacz, a veteran kindergarten teacher, about how she has been implementing the new Amplify curriculum into her classroom. She’ll share how the kids are taking on vocabulary, learning to orthographically map phonemes and graphemes, and how they have learned a lot about many interesting topics. She’ll share how parents have been looped in, how she was able to make this shift in her classroom from balanced literacy to structured literacy, and what she hopes to see more of in the future. Enjoy listening to another colleague share their classroom with us as well as the students that will be part of your classrooms soon.
S2-E16: A RoadMap for Future Support & Learning with Dr. Gross
In this episode, we hear from Dr. Gross. Dr. Gross will share how the district plans on continuing to support the implementation of our new curriculum, expand professional learning opportunities for staff, a quick look at early data, and some initial plans for future learning.
S2-E17: Student’s Voice Their Thoughts on Curriculum
In this episode, we hear from some of our 5th and 6th grade students. They will share parts they like, don’t like, and how they see themselves being prepared for the next grade level after having spent almost a year engaged with our new Amplify curriculum.
S2-E18: Diving into Literacy Assessments with Dr. Stephanie Stollar
In this episode, we hear from Dr. Stephanie Stollar. Dr. Stollar will share different types of literacy assessments, how they can be used to dig deeper into our data, how we can use our data to shift our systems that support students, some possible recommendations for a walk to read model and how to support our older struggling students, as well as what types of assessments we may not need in the future.
S2-E19: The Past, Present, & Future of Reading with Emily Hanford
In this episode, we hear from award winning journalist, Emily Hanford. She shares her long standing investigative career in education with us, what drove her to shed light on the education crisis happening in our nation, her hopes for how school districts can make lasting change, & words of encouragement because this work is complicated and needs a united effort.
S2-E20: Building Knowledge about Amplify’s Curriculum with Janise Lane
In this episode, we hear from Janise Lane. Janise is the Regional VP for Partner Success with Amplify. She will share how her role helps to support districts in their implementation process. Janise will lead us through reflecting on our implementation process, how we can continue to improve our practices, and how to find support when needed as well as share our feedback with Amplify.
S2-E21: Columbus East Students Speak Out
In this episode, we hear from some 5th and 6th grade students from Columbus East School. They will share their opinions about the topics they have studied this year, the challenges and successes they have had, and how they feel about meeting the challenge of a rigorous curriculum.
S2-E22: Moving Forward with MTSS
Dr. Jack Rein & Alison Espinoza
In this episode, we hear from Dr. Jack Rein and Alison Espinoza. They will share some of the changes that have taken place in our MTSS department. They will discuss the new assessments we have been using, what changes have been made to interventions, and what to look forward to in the future. There is also a shout out for the Mental Health PD you can attend coming up in June.
S2-E23: The Multilingual Story
Biliteracy Coach Juan Garcia
In this episode, we hear from Juan Garcia, one of our biliteracy coaches. He shares what implementation of Amplify looked like in our dual language classrooms. He shared how our students have grown, what further support our teachers may need, and what types of instruction teachers should continue to refine in the next coming years.
S2-E24: Sherlock Students Share their Knowledge
In this episode, we hear from some 5th and 6th grade students from Sherlock School. They will share their opinions about the topics they have studied this year, the challenges and successes they have had, and how they feel about meeting the challenge of a rigorous curriculum.
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