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Happy New Year!
Here we are in 2025. Who would have known it would come in with blizzards and snow days! I hope you have been able to remain safe and warm during this crazy weather! Where I live, they say it was between 18-21" with lots of wind! I have never seen anything like it since we have lived here.
I wish for you a new year full of health and happiness! I hope your holiday break provided you with a chance to rest, reflect and refresh. Teaching kindergarten and first grade, I loved January as it felt like a lot of growth was possible. Routines were in place, holidays were behind us, there was more time spent inside- so reading and writing seemed to be a little more on the radar than playing outside and the children seemed happy to see their friends after the holiday. I hope you are seeing (or will soon see) those signs of growth toward mastery. However, if you find yourselves with questions- or want someone to talk over that data or a possible intervention with, check out the options on our Literacy Lifeline down the page. We are here to assist you!
I have important news below to share- a new program manager for ELA has been named, an ELA toolkit is done and ready for use, there is lots of free professional learning opportunities offered across the state, and our website and emails at KSDE are changing in the next few days!
Please share this newsletter widely and let me know if you have questions or need additional support. If you know of someone who wants to sign up to get this newsletter automatically, each time they are pushed out, they can do that by emailing a request to ELitDyslexia@ksde.org (before January 15th, ELitDyslexia@ksde.gov. if sent after January 15th.
Yours in education
Laurie
Dr. Laurie Curtis
KSDE Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Program Manager
Important Updates from KSDE
PLEASE NOTE! All KSDE emails will be changing as of January 15, 2025 as the state agency website will be changing from www.ksde.org to www.ksde.gov. Please note the changes as listed below:
Laurie Curtis (currently is lcurtis@ksde.org) will become Laurie.Curtis@ksde.gov
ELitDyslexia (currently is ELitDyslexia@ksde.org) will become ELitDyslexia@ksde.gov
KSDE English Language Arts Program Manager is Named!
I am excited to announce that Mary Lonker has been named as the English Language Arts Program Manager for the Kansas State Department of Education. She will be joining the agency full time in June. Until that time, Mary will continue in her role as a KSDE Teacher Leader Consultant working alongside the other KSDE teacher leader consultants and KSDE ELA Field Educators.
Mary is in her 30th year of teaching ELA. For over 20 years, she has taught all levels of high school English with 10 years being in an AP Language classroom. She was honored to be the Region One Kansas Teacher of the Year in 2014 and earned her National Board Certification for ELA in both 2006 and again in 2016. She is APSI certified in both AP Language and AP seminar. She is currently teaching middle school English to a very fun group of 8th grade students at Rock Creek Middle School. In 2021 she joined Joann McRell's ELA team as a Teacher Leader Consultant with KSDE and will soon be taking leadership of that very talented team as they provide assistance and support for educators across the state.
To find out more about what that talented team has been doing, see below, as The ELA Newsletter is back!
You can access it below and also sign up to receive it through the KSDE ELA Listserv (information included in Newsletter)!
Information for Promising Practice
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:
Developmental Language Disorder
Continuing with building our understanding across the state on DLD, please see this comprehensive site that provides information in English and Spanish about Developmental Language Disorder to inform teachers and administrators of this disorder, what are the symptoms, causes, treatments and what current research is telling us about this disorder that impacts student reading, writing, speaking and listening.
NIH: Developmental Language Disorder
Kansas Day is on the way! If you are looking for informational text to read and explore as Kansas Day approaches, look at the link below, provided by Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Great resources are found at the website above and information is provided free to all educators-- including the Kansas Kids Connection Magazines. You can get free digital copies of the magazines or request printed materials. Celebrate agriculture as we wish Kansas Happy Birthday on January 29th!
English Language Arts Standards Alignment Toolkit Released!
LINK: English Language Arts Toolkit
To access the toolkit, please click on the link and download.
The English Language Arts Standards Alignment Toolkit has been released. It provides guidance and information to support the School Improvement fundamental of Standards Alignment. Inside this document you will find both the horizontal and vertical alignment documents as well as guidance and examples for deepening understanding of the standards and guidance for examining your curriculum to assure it is aligned with what is expected to be taught at your grade level.
Additional guidance for writing and reading instruction aligned with the standards and tools to examine text complexity to assure that texts used in instruction reflect grade level expectations are included. Make sure to take a look at linked examples and use in your building/ system level work!
Professional learning sessions that use these tools are being delivered throughout the state over the next year! You can see more about that below! Be looking for a location near you and dates that work for your system. There is NO FEE for teachers to attend and they will receive .5 graduate credit per day of participation at no charge. Professional learning information and registration links are found below!
Professional Learning Opportunities
FREE Professional Learning to Support School Improvement
FREE Professional Learning to Support School Improvement
(Not only free...but you even get a half credit of graduate credit!
Coming to a location near you!
Please CHECK DATES AND REGISTER!
Our KSDE ELA and Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Team and other content area teams are very happy to be working on a state-wide collaborative effort with our Kansas Educational Service Center partners to provide ongoing professional learning in support of the new KSDE School Improvement Model.
These collaborative sessions are designed for any K-12 teacher. Registration links are included, so jump in to register as space is limited! Additional dates will be announced soon as we schedule throughout this school year, this summer and next fall!
Structured Literacy:
The What, The How, The Time is NOW! (K-12)
January 13th Greenbush (Girard) Register HERE
January 20th Greenbush (Lawrence) Register HERE
January 23rd ESSDACK (Hutchinson) Register HERE
January 24th Orion (Clearwater) Register HERE
January 31st Southwest Plains (Sublette) Register HERE
For more information or to register see this link: THIS LINK
Data-Driven Success- Unpacking Literacy Assessments for Maximum Impact (K-12)
February 4 Smoky Hill
February 19 Greenbush (Girard)
February 26 Greenbush (Lawrence)
February 28 Orion
March 10 ESSDACK
April 12 SW Plains
For more information and to register see THIS LINK
Cracking the Code: Practical Strategies for Teaching Word Recognition (K-12)
March 4 Smoky Hill (Salina)
March 31 Greenbush (Girard)
April 3 Orion (Clearwater)
April 15 Greenbush (Lawrence)
April 22 Southwest Plains (Sublette)
April 24 ESSDACK
For more information and to register see THIS LINK
For English Language Arts Standards Alignment PD, see these links for dates and locations:
Text Complexity is the New Black (Grades 3-12)
ELA Standards and Mini tests/ Interims- Using Data to Help Drive Instruction (Grades 3-12)
Clear, Intentional, and Effective Writing: The Writing Tenets (3-12)
Are you a reading specialist looking for a professional learning community?
I had a specialist from one of our smaller districts who asked if there exists an opportunity for reading specialists across the state to communicate and network to share ideas and practice. If you are interested in an informal, virtual PLC to support reading specialists across the state, let us know. Our team would be happy to bring others together to share good ideas as you support literacy learning across Kansas!
If interested, please send me an email at lcurtis@ksde.org until January 15th, or Laurie.Curtis@ksde.gov after the 15th!
Reasons to Celebrate!
Please share what you are doing too! If you are aligning your practice with the science of reading and you want to share those amazing evidence-based practices with others, please let me know so we can share the great ideas here! I want to honor and celebrate great things happening in our Kansas classrooms related to literacy learning!
Literacy Lifeline Questions/ Answers
Literacy Lifeline is up and running!
If you have a question about literacy professional practice, or anything else related to improving student literacy learning - the KSDE Early Literacy/ Dyslexia team is here to help! You can ask a question using the linked form below and request it be answered via a Zoom virtual conference/ consulting session, an email, or suggest it as a possible article in this newsletter.
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, please ask them to contact me at ELitDyslexia@ksde.gov to request being added to the Early Literacy/ Dyslexia listserv, or visit the KSDE Dyslexia page and select the purple HERE button and select Newsletter to see the current and past issues.
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