More Structure, More Freedom: Rebuilding First Grade Literacy feat. Holly Price

What do you do when the way you’ve been teaching reading for years just isn’t working?In this episode of Reading Realities, host Rose Else-Mitchell speaks with Holly Price, a veteran first grade teacher with more than 25 years in the classroom, about how she rethought her long-held beliefs about what teaching reading looked like.Holly shares her journey from enthusiastic trips to New York to learn about the workshop model to the gradual and uncomfortable realization that what she had learned wasn’t actually helping students read. Working across general education, special education, and intervention settings gave Holly a wide lens on a range of student needs—but it was when she saw her students’ writing through the eyes of her principal, she understood change was needed to serve students better. Holly reflects on what it felt like to let go of old routines and embrace instruction in foundational skills and rebuild her literacy block with an explicit teaching of language comprehension, writing, and content knowledge.References and Resources:5 Shifts I Made in my Phonemic Awareness Instruction by Holly PriceTinkering with Writing Instruction: How I Got 86% of my 1st Graders Writing Solid Topic Sentences by Holly PriceRock Your Literacy Block by Lindsay KemenyPowerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning by Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. and Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S.Sold a Story podcast hosted by Emily Hanford Science of Reading Center at SUNY New PaltzCredits:Guest: Holly Price, First Grade Teacher and Goyen Literacy Fellow based in Vacaville, CAHost: Rose Else-Mitchell, Executive Director of the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New PaltzProduced by the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz, Rose Else-Mitchell, and Onalee SmithOriginal music and audio editing by Ross Gentry***Keywords: science of reading, structured literacy, first grade reading instruction, balanced literacy, phonics instruction, phonemic awareness, literacy intervention, teacher professional learning, reading comprehension, writing instruction, literacy coaching, classroom transformation, explicit instruction, early literacy development, teaching first grade***Get in Touch:Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Interested in being on a future episode of Reading Realities? Contact us at [email protected]. If this episode resonated with you, please:Follow Reading RealitiesLeave a rating and reviewShare with a colleague or educator in your networkVisit our website to learn more.