This article looks at the science behind reading, and the need to continue 'basic' reading skills even through secondary education. At its core, the opportunity gap directly impacting literacy skills is by design. Complex ideas are often presented using very sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure. If the confidence is not fostered from early on, those complex concepts will be unattainable for those students who struggle with heightened literacy. The article emphasizes that the research is no longer up for debate about the benefits and necessity of long-term phonemic awareness and decoding skills. Without such skills, those experiencing oppressive and impoverished situations will not be able to properly advocate for themselves and their communities. 

• Use of explicit and systematic instruction; do not make assumptions that all students can decode at the same level. Leaving gray area can be confusing for students and turn them off of wanting to read. Yes, the 'real world' will not always lay things out in a clear or logical way, but it is the job of English educators to create the foundation of confidence to be able to decode all sorts of texts as they move on to instances where those students need to advocate for themselves in various settings. 

• Continue to apply to science of reading, into middle and high school. As reading gets more difficult, there needs to be a continued application of speech sounds and expansion of vocabulary. Political jargon will never be understood if proper reading skills are not fostered throughout all of one's schooling. It is designed to be confusing, even in a democracy, the actual accessibility is so limited and that is one hundred percent on purpose. 

Teacher and instructional coach, Melissa Kruse, interviewed Dr. Linda Haling who is currently the Dean of the College of Education and Health Services at the University of Wisconsin; she was previously a professor in reading assessment and early adolescent literacy learning. They covered a wide variety of teaching practices to address varying levels of reading comprehension and differing abilities in the classroom. Dr. Haling also touches on the hurdle that secondary teachers face in having to help students deconstruct their predetermined reader identity. By the time someone is in middle school, and definitely high school, a child has most likely already been told by the system what kind of reader they are before they even had a chance to explore reading in ways that interest them. 

• Do not force students to read aloud; prepare them for what section they will need to read if absolutely necessary, or ideally work on a volunteer basis. This gives students the ability to read if they feel comfortable and desire to, but does not make students who do not feel the same sentiment uncomfortable or anxious about reading. This will foster a negative attitude about not only your class which hinders a safe space for learning, but potentially reading as whole due to the anxiety that could be attached and stay with the student. 

• Scaffolding themes as a class to connect classic texts to contemporary experiences and current events can increase interest in novels that may not be accessible to children who do not see themselves in any of the characters or events. Using mentor texts that are more current and diverse that use the themes that were detected as a class can provide students who do not identify with the original text an opportunity to engage with the lesson in a meaningful way. Making modern day connections gives students the skillset of analysis, so I could even see myself presenting the diverse mentor texts first where the themes are easy to see and can be applied to the students lives, and then guide them through spotting such themes in the required curriculum text. Building up their confidence with a more accessible text first could help them be more open to taking a deep dive into the less accessible text.

• In a high school setting, there is an over-saturation of annotating, reading guides, graphic organizers, et cetra. A student having to disrupt their reading to attempt to read a text through the lens of their teacher can lower confidence in their skills as a reader. There are other ways to ensure your students are comprehending the text, and this will often come from discussion. As an English major, I recognize that the student sitting before me who has varying interests from that of my own is not going to pull the same material and significance from a text that I did, or a teaching guide did. For that reason, I will likely pull more nuanced things from the text because that is what I paid money to learn to do! Forcing a child to read something through your perspective and expecting them to have the same takeaway as you in unrealistic. This could be handled in an alternate route where each student brings in lists of moments they found interesting, connections the made to their lives or the world around them, characters they liked/disliked, et cetra. For example, teenagers love to roast anything and everything, so there could be lots of activities where they make fun of different characters, relationships, things people said or really anything that gets them engaged in the text. Being able to take a situation from a book and analyze the relationship with other characters and adequately come up with jokes about the stories is in fact analysis, even if it is not in the traditional sense. Silly and smaller activities to check in on comprehension that hold real meaning while making them learn without even realizing it will always be more meaningful than some packet of reading comprehension questions that they Google the answer to and never think about again. Those smaller, more fun activities, will come in handy for the students recollection when it comes time to write a more formal paper on the topics they were presented. 

Regie Routman expresses the emphasis on how each student that enters a teacher's classroom is a human being that is directly effected by the teaching practices that are prominent in such classroom. When children are labeled as "below grade-level", "underperforming", or "bad readers and writers", it directly impacts their sense of self and will make them nearly impossible to reach and teach on a meaningful level. There is also a great lack of equity in these labels as they are a result of proficiency scores and standardized tests, which are extremely unfair in and of themselves, never mind basing a child's academic success and overall intelligence on them. Essentially, those scores mean nothing other than a number. When you give kids autonomy in the classroom, and really break down power dynamics of what administration wants you to do versus knowing what is best for your kids, equity begins to take hold within the walls of your room. Allowing students to write and workshop pieces that are meaningful to them will empower them to be confident in their skills. When that level of confidence comes into play, they will expand their understanding of language, comprehension, and even reading. An interesting point made during the podcast was that for every data point you have on a child, you should be able to name two to three things about their personal interests. This comes as a result of getting to know your kids through their work, and using meaningful instruction and workshopping to collect data on their strengths and areas that need improvement rather than a test score. 

• Writing workshops help with reading skills. As kids work on their writing and collaborate with other students for peer reviews, etc., they are being forced to read, re-read, and truly comprehend what is being written in order to edit the writing. Freedom of choice/autonomy in reading and writing can truly make kids excited about learning. Writing without limitations can be liberating and empowering, it can also make the power feel shared within the classroom, making the space feel much more equitable. This is an opportunity to work through the stigmatization of other forms of English than that of what is accepted in academia. When you give students the freedom to write in a form that is comfortable to them, using a dialect or home language that is comfortable to them, you are demonstrating that their voice matters and is accepted in whatever capacity they feel most comfortable. To suggest that someone's ideas are null and void because they are in a different language or a dialect that has not been viewed as academic, invalidates a person's identity as well as lowers their confidence in their own intelligence. 

• Getting to know the students sitting before you in a classroom is the first thing that needs to take place before you can truly permeate a child's walls they put up out of fear of being wrong or struggling in front of their peers. 

Linda Diamond, founder and former president of CORE and author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook interviewed Jasmine Lane who was a first generation college student and an English teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She discusses how standards cannot be lowered for students who have more difficult backgrounds, they deserve a positive teacher role model who sees the potential that they hold despite the cards that life has dealt them. Lane also discusses how school breeds people who are "functionally literate" where they know enough to graduate and scrape by, but have access to limited opportunities and are more likely to be individuals who face incarceration. Lane even goes on to cite her background as an African American and that she comes from a lineage that experienced slavery. One of the main things that was to be kept from the people facing enslavement was knowledge because when you give people the tools of literacy, they can begin to think and advocate for themselves as they have the skills critical to independence. To give someone access to what we have determined is the privilege of literacy, is to give them freedom.

• The work needs to be put in on meeting students where they are in their differing abilities before a single student ever sits at a desk in your classroom. Of course, there is so much learning that comes with experience and every group of students needs something different, but when you are conscious of that necessity before you ever have a group of students and you have pedagogies you can look to when you are presented all sorts of students, it helps those students in the interim of your learning curve not fall to the wayside. 

• Do not bring your ego into the classroom! Science is consistently changing, and that means that evidence based practices are constantly evolving. Allowing your ego to get in the way of changing your ways will only hurt your students. As an educator, you should be continuing to foster learning in your own life as well. Using practices that are no longer seen as ideal teaching and learning strategies can be a detriment to a student's future as literacy is the foundation to so many facets of life.

• Lane discusses how there was "nothing significant" about her. She did not grow up with money, going to fancy schools, anything like that. But, she did have teachers who believed in her. There were not those labels put on her by those teachers, they a fostered a safe space for her to gain her voice and love to learn. As a result, she grew up to be an activist in the form of an educator to insight that same inspiration in her students. That is all I could hope to do for the students who I have the honor of teaching. 

• It appears that there has been a misunderstanding among the general population, and more than likely a deal of white savior educators, that have mistaken equitable teaching with lowering standards. Every student deserves someone who sees their potential and gently pushes them towards recognizing it in themselves. There is a difference between making reasonable accommodations and allowing a student to become stagnant. When you get to know your students, you will know when they are in need of accommodations versus when they are losing hope in themselves and need someone to root for them and build back up their confidence. 

Brandon Griggs is a young man that goes on to explain how the childhood he experienced was a constant reminder that the world was set up in a way to stifle his intelligence and opportunity as 85% of incarcerated African-Americans are illiterate. He goes on to explain the cyclical nature of crime and poverty, expressing that he was not always the person that could get up on the stage at a TEDx talk. But, his life was turned around when one of his teachers in middle school saw his full potential and wanted him to see it in himself as well. Griggs goes on to explain how this was the first time he had ever felt like someone saw him for him and his potential, rather than labeling him as a result of the situation he grew up in. At the time of the TEDx talk in 2019, he would going on to graduate from high school as well as with an associates degree. Having someone who believed in him truly turned his life around for the better, and he is now working with various organizations, one of which he founded, to work towards addressing hunger in schools as well as internet access to promote learning in impoverished and marginalized communites.

• While Brandon Griggs does not lay out specific pedagogies as he is still a student, he does go on to explain how he has been able to advocate for fellow students in addressing systemic issues within his local school district. Brandon Griggs is proof that through promoting literacy and high expectations for students of all backgrounds, they can gain confidence in their voice to advocate for themselves and their community. The danger of labels is real, and Brandon Griggs was able to find his voice through the one teacher who knew that his home life or communal environment did not define his potential. Due to the fact that Griggs had a teacher fighting for him, he was able to begin fighting for himself. And as a result of him being able to fight for himself, he gained the strength to stand up for those around him facing similar circumstances. Literacy is a strong tool, and it is the first step in dismantling oppressive systems.