In this episode, we're exploring an essential skill foundational to school and life – the science of reading. Although we could easily dedicate an entire year to this topic, today's discussion is tailored to the most pertinent aspects for our learners in Lake Oswego. We're thrilled to have Kelly Troike, our esteemed Elementary Literacy TOSA (Teacher on Special Assignment), who has been instrumental in teaching thousands of students to read. We're joined by Aria Hoch, a dedicated student member of the LO Reads steering committee, who will share insights and highlights of this inspiring community initiative.
LOSD Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy
Dr. Jennifer Schiele, Superintendent, LOSD
Mary Kay Larson, Executive Director of Communications, LOSD
Kelly Troike, Literacy Coach and Teacher on Special Assignment and Literacy, LOSD
Aria Hoch, student, Lake Oswego High School, and LO Reads Steering Committee
Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego, a podcast providing educational insights for an engaged community. Lake Oswego School District Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Shealy will discuss what's important to our learning community. She'll be joined by experts examining various topics, answering important questions, and sharing upcoming events and activities you won't want to miss.
And now, it's your host. Lake Oswego School District Executive Director of Communications, Mary Kay Larsson. Welcome everyone to Learning in Lake Oswego, a podcast for an engaged community. I'm your host, Mary Kay Larsson, here with our amazing superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Schiele. On today's show, we are diving into reading.
We're going to be talking about learning to read and reading to learn. Hi everyone. Thanks again for joining us. Have you ever wondered about the magical process that unfolds when you pick up a book? Your eyes scan the words and suddenly you're transported into a different world. Well that magic has a name and it's grounded in science.
From decoding written symbols to comprehending complex sentences, the science of reading is a captivating blend of linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience. Let's dive in. Chapter one, page one, learning to read. Helping us with this conversation is one of our literacy experts in the district. Her name is Kelly Troicke.
Many of you may know her because she has taught, this is not a hyperbole, thousands of our children to learn to read. And she actually has a new role for the past couple of years where she is sharing her expertise and her mastery. In helping support all of our teachers and learning specialists in teaching children how to read.
So Kelly's on the show with us today. We also have a student, Aria Hoke, who will be hearing from almost a great juxtaposition of talking about students learning to read and then seeing what that could result in as they get older. I'm going to turn it back to you, Jen. Thank you, Mary Kay. We're so fortunate, as she said, to have Kelly Troicke in our school district.
As a teacher on special assignment and instructional coach, Kelly is a celebrated, and I mean celebrated, master educator, sharing her expertise with all of our other teachers. And part of her work involves mentoring, especially elementary school educators. Before we start talking, Kelly, about reading, can you share a little bit about your journey?
How long have you been in the education? And then how long have you been in Lake Oswego? Well, thank you, Jen. First of all, thank you, Dr. Shih Li for having me. This is, this system is actually pretty cool out here. Well, literacy learning has always been a passion of mine since I started teaching in 1989.
Yes, you, the big permed hair and the shoulder pads. That was me. So I've been in it for quite some time now, but I do have to begin though, by being completely transparent. I do not claim to be an expert in this or in anything for that matter. Trust me with age comes this revelation that the more I know, the more I know I need to know.
So, you know, in this journey I've been on to do the best that we can do for kids has had its share of validating, Inspiring and even some humbling discoveries, but I'm in it along with the rest of you so but most of my career experience has been in teaching foundational reading to the primary grades.
Since 1989, I've taught kindergarten, first, and second grades collectively for over 20 years. Around 2000, after my husband's job relocated us to Oregon, I joined Lake Oswego School District. Westridge Elementary. And I had this serendipitous opportunity to do some extensive work with their kindergarten and principal, who at that time happened to be piloting the ReadWell curriculum.
So after substituting for two years and working with them in implementing this structured reading program, I came aboard full time. Teaching first and second, following, I spent at least 12 or 13 years in kindergarten after that, before becoming a building reading specialist and intervention teacher.
And then currently this is like, you know, Mary Kay said this is my third year as an instructional coach serving teachers and students across the whole district, you know, in this, in this mission. So it's really seeing literacy learning gain so much momentum and media attention has been just exciting for me and my teacher friends.
I continually learning and grounding ourselves in what we know works for all students to become proficient readers really keeps me challenged to stick around. And we love that because we don't want you to go anywhere, Kelly, and, you know, on behalf of the district and all of the families that you've touched, a sincere thank you for your dedication and many, many years you've been here in Lancaspiego.
So let's explore the science of reading because that's kind of a buzzword right now and it's out there in, as you mentioned, media and we're hearing a lot about it as educators. What exactly does it mean? Well, that's a good question because it has, it really has gained a lot of attention. But first of all, I have to admit, I absolutely love that this brand has stuck, the science of reading.
Because if you really think about it, teachers are scientists and teaching students to read is no joke and it doesn't happen by magic. Trust me. One of my favorite reading researchers and teachers Louisa Motz, says teaching reading is rocket science. It's also established science with proven, specific, practical, instructional strategies that all teachers should be taught and supported in using.
So anyway, so what does this all mean? Well, really the science of reading is just actually this large collection of research that's been done over many years. It comes from multiple fields. Educators, psychologists, neurologists, speech pathologists. And they're all using their research to confirm and Importantly, discount which teaching components and methods are most likely to result in children becoming good readers.
So it's a fancy explanation that implies we are learning, we're sharing, and we're using what works to accelerate literacy growth for So the science analogy can also describe how teachers are putting it all into practice. So they use data, authentic interactions, just like scientists, observations, multiple approaches, to make these calculated decisions and moves for each and every student, because they want to produce this predicted outcome.
They do it in all subjects, but in this case, successful readers. So, they pivot, they change, they improve, they personalize, and we try it again, and we try it again. So, yeah, I think they should absolutely flex as scientists. So how is this approach implemented in our classrooms? In our classrooms here in Lake Oswego.
What does this look like? Well, in my opinion, one of the biggest impacts this research is having in our classrooms is making sure core instruction, not just intervention, is clearly focused on these five, these big five reading pillars. So those include direct and explicit instruction in these components.
The phonological awareness, sometimes referred to as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and of course comprehension. Because, you know, that's our ultimate goal. We want every student to deeply understand what they read and use proficient literacy skills for multiple purposes. I mean, we read to learn new information, entertainment for relaxation, to build health and resiliency, and really, reading is literally a survival tool.
So Well, I actually call these, these components the big five plus, because while deliberately planning and teaching these five overarching components, lots of other skills and subskills fall within them, such as handwriting, spelling, writing composition, language conventions. There's just a lot of components that go into that.
But I think of the other most significant impact it's made was during our language arts adoption process. So when evaluating publishers materials, we looked very carefully and very critically to make sure that they more than adequately addressed each one of these components very well. We literally picked it apart for strong evidence markers.
actually represented the science of reading research piece by piece. It really was a beacon and a high priority for us in the alignment when we were, when the committee recommended HMH into reading. But also in, in order to implement this effectively, we do need informed and skilled teachers. So I think another significant impact is providing teachers with meaningful professional development.
They need those quality materials and, and ongoing support to teach each of these pillars well. Structured literacy or science of reading is not a program, it's not a, it's not a one size fits all approach by any means. It requires deep knowledge of how our language works, how the brain learns to read, and how to intuitively plan for students needs.
How does this differ from previous methods we've been using? Well, while I know that this has gained a lot of attention recently, much of this is not new to those who have us been teaching early reading for many years, especially those who have been supporting striving readers and intervention who may need more intensified explicit instruction or more frequency and smaller groupings.
But I think one of the biggest shifts of this research is that these game changers are being implemented in our core instruction for all students, not just those in intervention. Previously, foundational skills instruction was often just limited to kindergarten or first or second grade, but now it includes direct explicit instruction in a structured sequence of word analysis through fifth grade and beyond.
So students are taught skills. Such as phonics and spelling patterns on a continuum from simple to complex with the goal of being able to read much more difficult and longer words to prepare us for the upper grades. Not only are they analyzing and generalizing spelling patterns, but the word meanings as well.
It's important to recognize that science of reading goes way beyond a phonics only program. It reaches into teaching students syllable types and language structures that work together to break the code in reading complex multi syllable words. So, and also Analyzing those word parts for their origins and meanings can open a whole new world of words.
Like, for instance, scientific and mathematical terminology are rooted in Greek organs, and they share many common patterns when prefixes and suffixes are interchanged with each other. So, this has long lasting and huge implications as we read through middle school and high school. That is a lot to take in, and I appreciate it.
I actually, I'm thinking back from when parents are listening to this, and a lot of times they're going to ask, like, how can I tell if my child is struggling with reading? What's your advice to them on that? Because, you know, they're seeing something different at home than maybe we see at school, and I think as we all No, a parent worries all the time, at least I should speak for myself, this parent worries about my kids all the time, no matter what it is about.
But reading is such a fundamental skill. So what advice do you have for those parents? How can I tell if my child is struggling or not? Oh, yeah. No, I'm one of those parents right along with you. I feel like I have a heightened sense of executive functioning and I see danger around every corner. And honestly, both my children, neither of them, you know, I have two children and neither of them were what we call natural readers.
They, they definitely had moments in their development where they were struggling readers. But so when parents come to me with this question, and they do a lot, I always start with suggesting that they reflect it. First, on their child's language developmental history, how did your child acquire words and sentences?
Was it at a typical rate? Did they learn the names of the alphabet and letters in their names somewhat easily? Or do they have trouble remembering, remembering sounds and letters? Did they maybe have chronic ear infections as a baby or a preschooler that interrupted hearing during the formative years?
Is your child able to play with words and sounds? Can they say just the first sound they hear in a word? Or can they recognize and produce rhyming words? And most importantly, I always look, does your child avoid or resist reading activities at home? Even those snuggly bedtime reading activities, these are all strong indicators that the research is showing us that can indicate that something deeper is going on.
And also, you know, really, research really shows, did anyone in your immediate family have a difficult time learning to read as a child? So we take that into consideration. And then I always tell parents, Please, of course, talk to your child's teacher. Your child's teacher sees them working through these reading skills on a daily basis, and they likely have the knowledge and data and experience to identify if something is not sticking.
or presents more challenging than their grade level goals would expect. We also have quite a bit of information on our website to guide parents if their child does present with persistent reading difficulties. We're pretty proud of our Dyslexia Handbook was created by a team of administrators, specialists, teachers, parents, and even some student consultants to compile a body of information that can be helpful to understand our systems in LOSD and how we can support every student.
It can walk them through the district's commitment to making sure that every student has the access and right to learn to read no matter what. So that brings me to the next question. What support does the school offer to struggling reader? What does that look like? Well, I want to assure parents first that we have a very rigorous screening and assessment process in our district that looks closely at your child's literacy skills and tracks their progress to make sure we pinpoint and identify anyone who may need specific attention or intervention.
We start by using a state approved screening tool. It's called the DIBELS and we use it to look very closely at individual skills that predict reading success. And we also look at these skills three times a year to measure proficiency and then growth of them across nationally established norms. So if something doesn't match up to these goals, we dig deeper and we look closer using more specific diagnostic tools.
We look closely at phonics. Spelling, phonological awareness skills, rapid naming for automaticity, and, and, and another review of family language and developmental history. So we've taken a lot of these things and we use all of this to determine a child's strengths and then pinpoint any areas that may need further attention.
So then we take this data and we develop a plan to strengthen those areas. with more specific and intensified methods. They may be working on a specific skill with a classroom teacher or getting extra repetition to learn it through a different approach, but this is all in addition to their classroom instruction, not in place of.
And we also have reading intervention teachers in each elementary school, very highly trained and skilled, as another layer of support to help every child reach their grade level expectations. So multiple data points. And various prescriptive assessments drive these specific interventions. Yeah, and so one thing I can imagine listeners wondering is it sounds like the school does a lot.
There's a lot of things in place to figure out exactly what. We need to work on with students, but what, what can families do? Like, what do you suggest that they can do at home? Or what practical tips do you have? If your child is struggling with reading, what should they do that doesn't that works with the school and not maybe against the whole method that we're using?
Well, no, definitely. The science of reading also includes research that suggests things that we do at home can really help support your child's reading journey. First of all, prioritize and value reading. I know that sounds obvious, but be sure to allow, no, keep sacred ample reading time. Make time for fun reading, snuggle reading, side by side reading ooh, listen to this interesting article with your child reading.
I know Evening times are hectic for families. I've been there. I get it, but I don't remember one pile of laundry I folded when my kids were young, but I do remember the books that we read together. Second thing is talk with your child. Tons and tons of research is coming out on the value of building a strong vocabulary and helping a child learn to read.
Like I said, I know. Evenings are so busy and you may not have time for that traditional family dinner time table talk to have those rich conversations. So do it in the carpool. Do it while you're running errands in line at Starbucks. I tell parents all the time. Don't resist the urge to toss your child the cell phone when you're at the grocery store or in a restaurant.
These opportunities are golden to use descriptive language and experiment with juicy words. Studies show that children with larger vocabularies Actually do learn to read more easily and have higher levels of phonemic awareness. Don't use simple words with kids. They love to play with elaborate words.
Practice using rich vocabulary with them and paraphrase their meanings. So, for instance, if you come home from work, say something like, Wow, I was ecstatic at work today when I got that new client. I couldn't believe how happy I was. Melding in those wonderful words can really help build your child's foundation.
And then the other thing is, you know, monitor screen time. We learned a lot. But I'm not, I'm not against reading from screens. I do it all the time. They are here to stay. They allow more accessibility to reading. And, and it's also fun to listen to stories being read on apps by different voices. But don't rely completely upon it.
Afterwards, talk to your kids about what they just read via audio. What was the story about? What was your favorite part and why? Who does that character remind you of? Just really engage in those conversations to help their brains connect to every story and connect with you. That's fantastic advice.
Thank you so much. Kelly, you know, as a So, former kindergarten teacher and now a TOSA, you've shifted from teaching students to coaching teachers in literacy. Can you tell us a little bit about the training and support our educators, our teachers, receive to excel in this, in their role as a literacy instructor?
Well, for one, we've actually been on this journey for quite a while. But in recent years, we have learned a lot by working with teachers to fine tune our assessment practices to better address individual student needs of the big five reading components. It's really helping us use the data that we need to get to be prescriptive and systematically plan explicit instruction and differentiate to accelerate progress instead of just relying upon here's a good right fit book that might be good for you.
And, and but also we've also been really fortunate here in LOSD Greatly in part to you, Dr. Shealy, for providing quality training for all teachers. We're three years in already to getting all elementary classroom teachers trained through the letters educator course. So for listeners out there, this is a year long accredited course, highly endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association, that gives us a lot of critical information to be skilled reading teachers.
It includes history of language development, brain research on how children learn to read, and best practices to deliver structured language. Just this other important shift that we're being mindful of is not encouraging students to use unreliable reading habits to accurately decode or solve words. We are teaching all students to read through words, use their phonics and word structure skills they're learning instead of relying upon a cuing system that encourages looking at pictures.
Or guessing at words that might make sense in a sentence. We're practicing even with our youngest readers with purposely selected and connected decodable texts that focus on the phonics skills that they're studying at that point and actually read the words and not encourage memorization or relying upon repetitive and predictable pattern books.
But like science, research and its impact is just really never complete. We have to keep fighting the fight and learning all that we can, and we're just going to adjust as needed until every child reads. I love that. That's exactly our goal. And thank you for bringing up the letters training. I'm so proud of our teachers in this district.
I set out a goal for us of five years, a few years ago, to get everyone trained in letters. And we're actually almost there. I think we have nine teachers left to be trained. And we're going to hit, not only, not only will we hit our goal of five years, I think we're going to be there in three and a half years.
So, I, I'm pretty excited about that. And, and huge kudos go to you as well, because I know you're monitoring all the classrooms and making sure that everyone is finishing those That or that training. So thank you so much, Kelly. We could talk about reading and the science of reading and what we're doing in our classes forever.
And I, I know we don't have time for that here. I do want to make sure that when people are worried, they're struggling at home. They have questions that they do reach out to their teacher. They do reach out to their literacy instructor in their buildings. They do reach out to their principal. Do not sit at home wondering.
What should I do? Please reach out to the school. That is what we're here for. We want to help you. So before we leave, am I forgetting to ask you anything that you think our listeners would want to hear? And what would that question be? And then how would you answer that? I just kind of want to circle back around when you ask that question about, you know, what does the school do for our child and just bring it back to the teachers.
I work closely alongside, learning alongside all the teachers and there's just this tremendous commitment to doing right by by your child and giving them the skills and being really intuitive and personalize their instruction and meet their needs. Just stay in contact with your child's teacher and build a strong relationship with the school because they really are partners in this journey alongside you.
Yes, and I want to reiterate partners. The schools need parents to partner with them for the best education for their child. We really truly believe that and we want to make sure that, that parents hear that we are here for them and their child. So Kelly, thank you so much. Your contribution is remarkable.
I am just in awe of you every time I talk to you. You share your talents and with so many of our teachers benefiting every student in our district. So thank you very, very, very much. It was such a pleasure having you on the show today. Oh, thank you, and I can't wait to hear more. The podcasts are coming out.
This has been a really exciting add on to LOSD. Thank you, Kelly. I will echo that parent partnership. I must give a shout out to Mrs. Urbanski, Mrs. Orr, and Mrs. Graver. They're still teachers in our district, and they all teamed up and helped My children learn how to read. I know in the primary years I, I might've appeared calm and cool and collected, but underneath I was extremely anxious in.
Wondering how are my children going to learn? It was a partnership between all of us and my kids now are great readers and very grateful to all of the educators out there who take on, and I'm going to say all of the scientists out there teaching our children how to read and, and thriving in school and in life.
So with that we, thank you Kelly and everybody, we are going to turn over to Where's Jen? Keeping with our reading theme, we are spotlighting the Lake Oswego Reads program. The Lake Oswego Reads program fosters dialogue and community connections and this year's novel is Honor. By Thrifty Omaar chosen collaboratively by the city, the library and LO Reed Steering Committee.
Its themes are bound to spark meaningful conversations and strengthen our community bonds. Joining us I'm so lucky to have today is Aria Hoke, a student member of the Lo Reed Steering Committee. Welcome Aria. Hi. Thank you so much for having me on learning in Lake Oswego. Absolutely. It's our pleasure.
Aria. I have been dying to know, and I know that others feel the same way. How. Does the committee pick the book? It's definitely not the easiest process. Everyone in the program loves the books so much because our director, Nancy, she does a wonderful job of picking new, fresh, inclusive books. And we basically go through a plot summary of each of them and whatever one.
calls to you, you pick maybe three or four, you read through them, and then we have monthly meetings where we vote on which one should pass the next round, which ones maybe don't make the cut, and we just keep selecting and cutting down and whittling until we have one book. Wow, that is just fascinating and so lucky to get to one with So many diverse readers trying to, to vote, if you will.
So what, you know, why do you enjoy participating in this particular program? LO reads? Well, I feel like it allows me as a student to have such a voice in, in what I'm reading. I remember sophomore year, we had a book, how much of these hills is gold that we chose. That was the year. And it actually got incorporated into my years.
English curriculum and I remember reading it in my sophomore English and being like I can really identify with this book it was about the Chinese immigrant experience and yet at the same time it was combined with transgender identity and Historical fiction and it was so many of these communities and groups that you don't really see in your English classes and so I thought It made me more engaged in my classes because I could say, Hey, I identify with this book, I chose this book, and I'm happy to see that my classmates are enjoying it as well.
I mean, I'd have people coming up to me being like, Have you read the sophomore honors English book? I really like that. And I'd be like, I'm really glad that you enjoy it because I, I felt like I had a hand in that and, and that made me feel really proud of where our English curriculum was going in my high school.
That's fantastic. I love having Student Voice be involved in everything we do in school, so I'm really happy to hear that that's how it felt for you and your experience in school. It's a month long event featuring daily activities. What, what are some of the things you're really looking forward to? Where will you be?
Like, not where's Jen, but where's Aria going to be that month? Okay, each year I'm most excited for, and this might be a little bit self serving or, you know but, I am most excited for the student panels because I get to host those. It's like a student directed panel. We get students from across the district to participate.
They all read the book and then we all get together and it's kind of like a Socratic seminar. We talk about the major themes of each novel and what we like about it, how it applies in our lives. And it gets live streamed, and I think people can sit in on it, it just happens at the library each, each time we host these events.
I'm not sure about the exact date this year, but I'm sure that it'll be published in the newspaper, or Nancy will send it out. But, it's really great, because it gets students who aren't in. directly in the L. O. Reads program involved. They love it. I love it. I have parents who have come to me saying that they watched the live streams and one time a parent said that it made them cry because it was really vulnerable testimony about this book and so the parent had just been like, yeah, I was crying the entire time I was watching that because it was just so wonderful to see young voices.
Speaking up and talking about their own experiences. I love that. We need to make sure we get those dates out in our newsletters so people can watch that. And because you mentioned Socratic Seminar, I think it's going to be important because a lot of listeners might not know what that is. So can you please tell us what a Socratic Seminar is?
And I know you do those a lot in your English classes and people are unaware of that. Yeah, our English classes love Socratic seminars, and I think that's just a testimony to how good and advanced our English curriculum is, but Socratic seminars are basically just group discussions where it's free flowing, and the teacher isn't, it only supervises.
They don't, they don't really participate in it. It's usually the children are leading it, and you exchange ideas, you discuss theme and meaning and English and the structure and the syntax of books, and you kind of dissect it all together. It's super great for participation and just promoting like active recall about your book and making, you know, interneuron connections and between synthesis between what you've read before, what you're reading now all of that comes together in a Socratic Seminar.
And I know that some people don't like it because it's a little bit anxiety inducing, but it does push people out of their boundaries and gets them confident enough to speak up in class and be like, this is my idea, which I really love. That's great. I love that. Just real quick. Do you read physical books still?
Like you like to touch the pages or are you a digital reader like on a Kindle or your iPad? I think in this day and age it's important to have both. I love physical books. Like I love going to Powell's or Even just the LO library and just scouring for physical books because the feeling of having that and finishing that is super satisfying.
But I also do understand the value of like an e reader, so sometimes I download books on my phone so that when I'm on the go, like maybe I'm on like a bus or a trip, and I can't necessarily pack a book, I'll have like ten in my library that I'll just read through, which I know people don't like sometimes, but I like, I like doing both.
That's fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Thanks so much for being here with us today. Our listeners, please make sure to get your copy of the novel and read it before the events begin. So you feel prepared to have those discussions. I'm really excited to hear Thrity Umrigar, the author of Honor speak at Lake Ridge High School on.
April 25th. That event is absolutely free for everyone who's interested in coming. Tickets are required though, and they'll be available at the Lake Oswego Library starting on March 4th. So March 4th, get your tickets for the April 25th event. I will say that I am also a big fan of the Ella Reads program.
I have enjoyed all the books over the years. Although, I have this weird habit of not reading them at the same time as the rest of the community, so I don't always get to participate in the events, but this year it is my goal to get it read so I can be part of those discussions. We're wrapping up this episode, but next time on Learning in Lake Oswego, we are going to be talking about athletics and inclusivity.
Focusing on our Special Olympics Unified Sports Program. It promises to be a very inspiring conversation. Looking forward to it. Until then, thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. Thank you, everyone. We hope you found this episode informative and helpful. While our discussions are general, we understand each family's experience is unique.
If you have specific questions about your child, please contact your school principal. To learn more about the topics we discussed, Ask a question or share ideas for future episodes, please visit LOSDSchools. org. And remember to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for engaging with Learning in Lake Oswego.
We appreciate your support and look forward to having you with us for our next episode.