See The Bigger Picture: How to Protect User Data—Infographic
In today’s digital landscape, protecting user data is critical to maintaining trust and preventing breaches. Implementing data protection strategies like securing networks, using encryption, and limiting access to sensitive information ensures a robust defense against cyber threats. Regularly updating software and enabling two-factor authentication also strengthens data security. Transparency with users about how their data is collected, stored, and used fosters confidence and compliance with regulations like GDPR. Safeguard personal and organizational data by following these actionable practices and creating a culture of security. Every small step counts in keeping sensitive information safe from unauthorized access.
Nearly 20,000 more homeless students were enrolled by the first Wednesday in October, known as Census Day, during the 2024-25 school year. This increase represents a 9.3% change from the previous school year, and it means the homeless student population in the state has surged 37% in the last decade.
Schools say the spike in homelessness is due both to families’ worsening financial troubles and improved identification efforts. Covid-era funding, refined data tracking, and improved training and protocol have resulted in schools being more likely to properly identify homeless students than in the past.
“It’s a combination of a perfect storm where you have all of these elements coming into play, which then speaks to that increase. The data is highlighting the need to continue these supports,” said Alejandra Chamberlain, youth services director for the Contra Costa County Office of Education.
Families are increasingly financially strained
Coachella Valley Unified School District’s homeless student enrollment tripled, a reflection of the economic struggles their families are experiencing, said Karina Vega, a district support counselor.
Increased fear of immigration enforcement is contributing to homelessness in the area. Vega shared how a student’s mother could no longer afford to pay rent after her husband was deported; another family lives in their car, and they travel each weekend across the Mexican border to spend time with a deported parent; others are constantly moving to stay off the radar of immigration officials because they fear being deported.
Many of her students live in inadequate housing. Electricity may need to be wired from one trailer to the next, water may have been shut off, or multiple families live in a small space due to financial hardship.
“We’ve seen more families than we’ve probably ever seen” experiencing homelessness, Vega said.
But she noted that students were identified at a greater rate after more school personnel learned that homelessness does not only mean someone is on the streets.
“The reality is, a lot of us that work for the school district grew up in the valley and some of these things that we see are typical, like trailer parks and inadequate housing,” Vega said.
This is where the (Riverside) county’s training on identifying all types of homelessness, an effort they have championed down to the school sites, has made a significant difference, she added.
In Mendocino County, many families who once held jobs in the waning marijuana industry are now struggling to make ends meet, said Blythe Post, coordinator of foster youth and homeless services at the Mendocino County Office of Education.
Their rural 89,000-person county is vast, but there are few affordable housing options to choose from, she said, pushing more and more of their students and families into homelessness.
But increased homelessness is only one part of the problem.
‘I anticipate we will see a huge drop’
Although the official number of homeless students continues to rise, liaisons believe the actual numbers are far higher.
Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, every public school district, county office of education and charter school is required to hire a local liaison to ensure that homeless youth are identified and have the educational services they need to succeed academically. This federal law is also the reason that schools have counts of homeless students at all.
This law may be at risk under the Trump administration if the U.S. Department of Education is shuttered or its funding is lumped into a block grant as stated in Trump’s budget proposal.
“There’s going to be more kids to count and fewer people to count them, and then fewer services,” said Margaret Olmos, director of the National Center for Youth Law’s Compassionate Education Systems.
Liaisons say accurate counts are difficult to reach for a host of reasons. The information is self-reported, and some families are reluctant to share their housing status with school personnel. It’s rare that a school liaison only serves homeless students. Most have divided attention because they are supporting foster students and low-income students. In smaller districts, they may be the support liaison for all students.
“There’s going to be more kids to count and fewer people to count them, and then fewer services,”
Margaret Olmos, National Center for Youth Law
In some ways, schools have been here before. During the 2022-23 school year, for example, the rate of homeless students enrolled in California schools rose 9% while overall student enrollment dipped.
Then, as now, families were confronting skyrocketing housing and cost-of-living expenses. The rolling impact of expiring eviction moratoriums put in place during the pandemic and the loss of housing due to disasters, including fires and floods, have further exacerbated the issue. And, similarly, liaisons attributed much of the increase to families being squeezed financially as identification practices were simultaneously improved.
But while the situation might appear familiar, liaisons say they are at a crossroads — and many do not think the odds are in their favor.
Liaisons said a 2021 state law requiring that schools include a housing questionnaire in enrollment packets has supported identification efforts. But many say what made the single, greatest difference is the one-time funding they received from the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan – Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) federal grant. The total amounted to $98.76 million for California, which was spread to 92.1% of districts over several years.
“ARP-HCY was the first time you saw school districts and counties be incentivized to find and care and count — and they did,” Olmos said.
How districts and counties applied the funds varied widely. Liaisons said it depended on their school community’s needs. Some booked short-term motel stays for students whose families were being evicted or were on homeless shelter waiting lists or provided transportation to and from school. Other liaisons hired staff to improve data tracking or who spoke students’ native languages. Still, others established after-school care, provided baby supplies for students’ younger siblings, or purchased washers and dryers to provide free laundry services for families.
Some districts opted to focus a portion of funds on improving data tracking practices.
Mendocino County’s Round Valley Unified went from one homeless student to 199 in just one school year — one of the greatest surges in the state. That increase was a reflection of more data training and tightened protocols, Post said.
“When I see those jumps in numbers … that tells me that there’s a problem with identification or communication between who’s inputting the records and who’s submitting those data reports,” Post said.
What comes next?
There are no plans by either the federal or state government to replenish the one-time federal funds at anywhere near the same levels, which has left some liaisons to cut services and staff and lament a near future with lowered capacity to count and serve homeless students.
Map: Most California districts identified more homeless students this year
Use the map to view the change in the homeless student population by district from the 2023–24 to 2024–25 school year.
“There’s going to be a number of families that just fall under the radar,” Post said. “I anticipate we will see a huge drop in McKinney-Vento numbers; those families will just not be served or identified.”
Some districts do rely on funds from the federal McKinney-Vento law, but educators say the 1987 act was never adequately funded by the state or federal government. Funding cycles are every three years, and it’s a competitive grant that reaches few districts. California received less than $15 million in this funding for the 2022-23 school year, for example, which went to just 6% of the state’s school districts, according to an analysis by SchoolHouse Connection and the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions program.
The state has released billions of dollars in recent years to address general homelessness. But funds aimed at youth are often targeted to those over the age of 18, including $56 million in new grants announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
Liaisons have also long highlighted that few of those dollars ultimately reach students who are living doubled-up — where more than one family lives in a single home due to financial crises — which is how the majority of homeless students in the state and nationwide live. Doubling-up is identified as homelessness under the McKinney-Vento act, but not under other federal definitions of homelessness.
And while schools receive extra funding for homeless students from the state through the state’s Local Control Funding Formula, or LCFF, this stream is often limited in how it can be spent and is shared among several vulnerable student groups with differing needs.
“There is a part of really acknowledging to the community that other special populations receive state funding to be able to carry out the responsibilities and to dedicate staff to do that work” while homeless students rely on the limited federal dollars, said Chamberlain, who is also one of three leads for the state’s Homeless Education Technical Assistance Center network.
Advocates have pushed for the state to, at a minimum, match the McKinney-Vento dollars California receives, but that amount has yet to make it into the state budget.
Despite the increases, liaisons and advocates are clear that the rising numbers alongside decreasing dedicated funding puts kids at risk.
“If we cannot identify these kids early and serve them and ensure they go on to a choice-filled adulthood, they’re so much more likely to end up experiencing homelessness as an adult,” Olmos said.
EdSource reporter Emma Gallegos contributed to this story.
Although the rise in transitional kindergarten (TK) enrollment in 2024–25 helped temper the overall decline, K–12 enrollment continues its downward trend.
Enrollment saw its greatest decline in regions of the state with higher housing prices, notably Los Angeles County and Orange County. There is growth in more affordable areas of the state, such as the San Joaquin Valley and Northern California, including the Sacramento area.
Even as TK is set to become a real grade, just like any other K-12 grade, there are myriad challenges looming on the horizon, from finding qualified teachers amid a dire staffing shortage to how to ensure quality instruction and suitable facilities.
Courtesy of California State University, Bakersfield
Vernon B. Harper Jr. is scratching the word “interim” from his nameplate at California State University, Bakersfield.
Harper, who has served as the university’s interim president since the end of 2023, was named CSUB’s permanent president on Wednesday, the second day of a Cal State board of trustees meeting dominated by discussions about the financial pressures facing the university system. The system is projecting a $400 million to $800 million budget gap in 2025-26 as state leaders signal their intention to reduce funding for CSU.
CSU Bakersfield has been able to prevent students from feeling the effects of a reduced budget, Harper said, buoyed by growing enrollment this school year. His focus is on making what he calls a “pivot towards the community” — expanding programs to boost the number of Kern County high school graduates and community college transfer students who enroll at CSUB. The Central Valley is growing rapidly but has lower college attainment than the rest of the state.
Harper envisions the university taking a more active role alongside local K-12 schools to increase the number of students who meet A-G requirements, the coursework that makes students eligible to start college at a Cal State or University of California campus. Only 36% of Kern County high school graduates completed such coursework in the 2022-23 school year, according tostate education data, compared with 52% of high school graduates statewide.
“That’s the real transition that the institution is making. It is to accept those problems as our own,” Harper said. “We’re partnering with our K-12 providers and making sure that we’re doing absolutely everything we can to raise that statistic. We’re not just going to sit back passively and watch our community go in a direction that we don’t want it to go.”
One example of the work Harper hopes to get done: CSUB’s teacher education program is forming a task force with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office and the Kern High School Districtin a bid to increase the number of students who are A-G qualified, he said.
The campus is also experimenting with ways to get local students thinking about college even before they leave middle school. It recently started a pilot program with four middle schools and four high schools in which students as young as 12 will receive notices that they are guaranteed admission to CSUB so long as they meet A-Grequirements.
“We’ve seen that with young people, especially in under-resourced populations, their vision is truncated by their circumstance,” Harper said. “Whatever we can do, we have a responsibility to do, to extend that vision as far as it can go.”
The past decade has seen rising graduation rates at CSUB. Among first-time, full-time freshmen who entered Cal State Bakersfield in 2017, 49% graduated in six years, an almost 10 percentage-point increase from 2007. But the school has not caught up to some of its Cal State peers. Systemwide, the six-year graduation rate for the same group of students in the fall 2017 cohort was roughly 62%.
Harper said that the intervention that seems to have the most impact on improving graduation rates is pairing students with an academic adviser who works with them throughout their time at CSUB, guiding them through unforeseen challenges, like switching into a course that fits the student’s work schedule.
“As much as we can invest in that activity, the more positive outcomes that we (see),” he said.
The university is also experiencing some of the same longstanding graduation equity gaps that exist across California higher education. The six-year graduation rate among Black students who entered CSUB as freshmen in the fall 2017 cohort was 40%, lagging Asian, Latino and white students.
Harper has backed several CSUB initiatives to attract and retain Black students. Harper said that community college students at Bakersfield College who participate in the Umoja program, which includes courses on African American culture as well as mentorship and academic counseling, will find they can continue receiving similar support now that CSUB has its own Umoja program for transfers. The campus plans to open a Black Students Success Center in the spring and has already hired a group of faculty members whose work is focused on minoritized communities, Harper said.
Harper’s tenure as CSUB’s permanent president begins at a moment when the California State University system is raising financial alarm bells.
Cal State leaders are anticipating that a $164 million increase in revenue from tuition hikes will not be enough to alleviate other stresses on its budget. The system expects that state general fund revenue will drop nearly $400 million, according to a September budget presentation, and that $250 million in compact funding will be delayed. The university system also faces rising projected costs, including for basics it can’t avoid like increased health care premiums and utilities expenses.
Speaking at a Sep. 24 meeting, trustee DiegoArambula said the university system has “almost been too effective at making these cuts year over year over year” without explaining to legislators the impact those budget reductions are already having on students.
“We are doing everything we can to make them as far away from students, but a hiring freeze is a hiring freeze, and that does impact students if we’re not bringing someone into a role that we know is important,” Arambula said. “It’s impacting our staff, who are taking on more to try and still meet the needs of the students who are here.”
CSUB officials last spring said they planned to cut the school’s 2024-25 net operating budget by about 7%, citing a decline in enrollment and increased salary and benefits costs. The school had less than a month of funding in its rainy day fund in 2022-23, slightly less than the net operating budget across the CSU system at that point.
But Harper said enrollment this year is up between 4% and 5%, driving tuition growth that is alleviating some budget pressure. The campus also has made temporary cuts to areas that aren’t student-facing, he said, such as professional development.
“We’ve been able to really, really shield any negative effects on students,” Harper said.
Harper succeeds Lynnette Zelezny as president. He was previously Cal State Bakersfield’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. He will receive a salary of $429,981 and a $50,000 housing allowance.
Harper was first hired at CSUB in 2016. Prior to his arrival at Cal State Bakersfield, he worked at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Wilkes University of Pennsylvania and the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in rhetoric from West Chester University and a doctorate in human communication from Howard University. He served eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Bullying against California’s Asian American and Pacific Islander youth remains stubbornly high — affecting nearly 1 in 5 ninth and 11th graders, just above the statewide rate for all students.
But we’re missing a big part of the problem if we continue to lump all Asian American students into a catch-all group. We’re not seeing which ethnic subgroups are most vulnerable. And what we can’t see, we can’t solve.
We recently disaggregated statewide bullying data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, collected annually between 2015 and 2021, to see what might be hiding in plain sight within our state’s 10 Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups. What we saw in the data was troubling.
Nearly 1 in 3 Cambodian ninth and 11th graders were bullied based on their identity including race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. This is 1.5 times the overall Asian American and Pacific Islander rate. Hmong, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Laotian youth experience similarly higher rates. If we aggregated these groups into a catch-all group, their elevated risks would disappear from sight.
In another concerning trend for each of these ethnic groups, bullying rates initially declined between 2019 and 2020, but rebounded by 2021, often exceeding pre-pandemic levels. However, we don’t see this pattern for Asian American and Pacific Islander students as a whole. These rebounds are all the more critical to address because they may exacerbate the educational impacts of the pandemic. Research shows that bullying can erode academic achievement, increase absences and reduce mental health.
There is some good news in the data. We saw reductions in bullying if students had supportive adults and stronger connections at school. We also discovered several school districts that provided resources specifically tailored to Asian American and Pacific Islander students and their families. For example, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Guide addresses anti-Asian racism and offers lesson plans and curriculum that uplifts the experiences and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the state.
Based on our work, we recommend two starting points for schools and districts aiming to prevent and address bullying.
First, schools serving Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth must figure out what is happening in these groups. If the statewide findings mirror local trends, then schools and districts should assess what kinds of anti-bullying resources are being channeled to these youth. Resources could include specific materials and outreach strategies tailored — culturally and linguistically — to students and families from specific Asian American and Pacific Islander groups.
Second, schools need to assess how they are creating inclusive and welcoming environments where students can form strong connections with supportive adults. Enhancing the school climate benefits not only Asian American students, but all students.
We know that schools are continually asked to do more with less. So we recommend that schools take stock of what they are already doing to build stronger connections rather than create something new requiring an entirely new set of resources.
Many schools strengthen teacher-student connections through existing schoolwide programs, like Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports alongside curricula to support social and emotional well-being. Figuring out where there’s room for improvement within those existing programs is a step in the right direction. Schools should also evaluate how effective they are in intentionally building more positive connections for Asian American and Pacific Islander students.
Making schools more inclusive so that bullying is an exception, and not the norm, will require dismantling monolithic assumptions we hold of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth, digging deeper into subgroup data, and devising ways to deepen meaningful connections with our students. Such an approach will also help ensure we more fully recognize the diversity and humanity of these young people across our state.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Bullying against California’s Asian American and Pacific Islander youth remains stubbornly high — affecting nearly 1 in 5 ninth and 11th graders, just above the statewide rate for all students.
But we’re missing a big part of the problem if we continue to lump all Asian American students into a catch-all group. We’re not seeing which ethnic subgroups are most vulnerable. And what we can’t see, we can’t solve.
We recently disaggregated statewide bullying data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, collected annually between 2015 and 2021, to see what might be hiding in plain sight within our state’s 10 Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups. What we saw in the data was troubling.
Nearly 1 in 3 Cambodian ninth and 11th graders were bullied based on their identity including race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. This is 1.5 times the overall Asian American and Pacific Islander rate. Hmong, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Laotian youth experience similarly higher rates. If we aggregated these groups into a catch-all group, their elevated risks would disappear from sight.
In another concerning trend for each of these ethnic groups, bullying rates initially declined between 2019 and 2020, but rebounded by 2021, often exceeding pre-pandemic levels. However, we don’t see this pattern for Asian American and Pacific Islander students as a whole. These rebounds are all the more critical to address because they may exacerbate the educational impacts of the pandemic. Research shows that bullying can erode academic achievement, increase absences and reduce mental health.
There is some good news in the data. We saw reductions in bullying if students had supportive adults and stronger connections at school. We also discovered several school districts that provided resources specifically tailored to Asian American and Pacific Islander students and their families. For example, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Guide addresses anti-Asian racism and offers lesson plans and curriculum that uplifts the experiences and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the state.
Based on our work, we recommend two starting points for schools and districts aiming to prevent and address bullying.
First, schools serving Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth must figure out what is happening in these groups. If the statewide findings mirror local trends, then schools and districts should assess what kinds of anti-bullying resources are being channeled to these youth. Resources could include specific materials and outreach strategies tailored — culturally and linguistically — to students and families from specific Asian American and Pacific Islander groups.
Second, schools need to assess how they are creating inclusive and welcoming environments where students can form strong connections with supportive adults. Enhancing the school climate benefits not only Asian American students, but all students.
We know that schools are continually asked to do more with less. So we recommend that schools take stock of what they are already doing to build stronger connections rather than create something new requiring an entirely new set of resources.
Many schools strengthen teacher-student connections through existing schoolwide programs, like Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports alongside curricula to support social and emotional well-being. Figuring out where there’s room for improvement within those existing programs is a step in the right direction. Schools should also evaluate how effective they are in intentionally building more positive connections for Asian American and Pacific Islander students.
Making schools more inclusive so that bullying is an exception, and not the norm, will require dismantling monolithic assumptions we hold of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth, digging deeper into subgroup data, and devising ways to deepen meaningful connections with our students. Such an approach will also help ensure we more fully recognize the diversity and humanity of these young people across our state.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
In a few weeks I’ll be in Miami with my colleague Hannah Solomon talking about techniques to Check for Understanding (There’s still room to join us: info and registration here).
One of the things we’ll talk about is the power of Active Observation–the idea that building systems to harvest data and observations about student thinking during independent work is one of a teacher’s most powerful tools.
Here’s a great example of what that looks like and one reason why it can be so powerful, courtesy of Laura Brettle, a Year 6 (5th grade) teacher at Manor Way Primary in Halesowen, England.
Laura starts by giving her students the task of describing the relationship between two fractions, which are equivalent.
They’ve got two minutes to answer in a “silent solo stop and jot.” Here Laura is cue-ing a familiar routine. Whenever students think in writing it’s called a stop and jot. Having a name for it reminds them that it’s a familiar routine and familiarity is important- when a procedure is familiar to the point of routine, students can complete the task with no additional load on working memory. All their thinking is on the math, rather than the logistics of what Laura has asked them to do.
But Laura has some great routines here too! As her students write she circulates and takes careful notes on her clipboard. She’s able to spot students who need a bit of prompting and to take note of students whose work is exemplary. Because she has notes on what many of her students think, she’ll be able to start the discussion intentionally.
“During the active observation,” my colleague Alonte Johnson-James noted when we watched the video with our team, “Laura monitors student thinking/writing in her first lap. As she launches into the second lap she begins to drop in feedback. First, to push a student to make their answer better and more precise. Additionally, she challenges students who might have finished early to push their thinking to identify additional equivalent fractions. She also recognizes where students struggle and uses intentional, appreciative Cold Calls of Shea and Joanna to explain how and why 5/6 and 10/12 are equivalent.”
And of course she does that in the most appreciative of ways.
First she asks students to track Shea: “Shea, you mentioned the word equal.” In doing so she’s let Shea know that the Cold Call is a result of her good work– she’s done well and this is her reward. And she also tells Shea what part of her answer she wants her to talk about. It’s a great way to honor students and make them feel seen for their hard work and to make Cold Call fell like an honor.
But you can see that Laura’s notes were really comprehensive. She also credits Finn for using the word double in his answer too.
Side note for one of my favorite moves–she magnifies the positive peer to peer symbol of the hand gestures students give to show they agree–“I can see people appreciating…” this helps Shea to see how much her peers approve of her good work!
Next Laura goes to Joanna. “What I liked about your answer is that you showed the calculation…. we know it’s double but what calculation did you use?”
Another super-positive Cold Call that makes a student feel honored for her work. And a very efficient discussion of the problem in which Jen has let students discuss the key points but avoided wasting any time.
We often refer to this as “hunting not fishing”: while students work, Laura “hunts” for useful answers and tracks them. When she calls on students she can be ultra-strategic and efficient, rather than calling on students and “fishing” for a good answer: that is, merely hoping that they’ll have something on-point to say.
Her simple but beautifully implemented systems for gathering data during independent work allow her to work efficiently and honor the best of student thinking.
If you’re as inspired by Laura’s work as we are (Thank you, Laura!!) please come join us in Miami to study this and other techniques for getting the most out of your classroom!
One of the themes of the book is bringing the text back into the center of the classroom. When we read together, from a book, during class, often aloud, we can bring the text to life and make the story compelling, we can socialize students to sustain their attention in text, we can practice fluency if students read, and model it if we read to them.
Check out these beautiful moments of Pritesh Raichura’s science class reading aloud—excerpted from the outstanding Step Lab documentary Great Teaching Unpacked for example.
Or this montage—from the book—of Spencer Davis, Will Beller, Emily DiMatteo, Jo Facer and Rob De Leon reading aloud with their classes.
Read Aloud, then, is a literacy tool that shouldn’t be overlooked, even among older students, we note in The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading.
Some other key benefits of doing what we see Spencer, Will, Emily, Jo and Rob doing.
Read Aloud can be an opportunity to share in, relish, and savor the beauty of books—one of the most joyful parts of the students’ and teachers’ day. It is also more critical to building fluency and preparing students to comprehend rich, complex texts than we originally understood.
A good Read Aloud allows students to access a text well beyond what they can read on their own, enabling them to familiarize themselves with more complex vocabulary, rhythm, and patterns of syntax.
Read Aloud also has the benefit of speed. A teacher reading a book aloud to students can cover more ground, more quickly, than the students themselves could if they were reading on their own, especially if the text is complex and challenging. In that case, the rate of exposure to key ideas, background knowledge, rare words, and technical vocabulary is accelerated.
Teacher Read Aloud also provides a model of fluent expressive reading for students. It helps students hear what language sounds like when read aloud with mastery and develop a mental model.
Developing such a mental model, will not only inform how students read aloud but also how they read silently. One of the core outcomes we seek as reading teachers is a sort of cognitive afterimage in our students when they read silently. We want their internal reading voice to be characterized by expression and prosody that bring the book to life during independent reading, thus enhancing meaning and perhaps pleasure.
Some details that we love about the clips in the montage.
90/110: Good read aloud is of done at 90% of your natural pace—providing students a bit more room to hear and process the words and information clearly but not so slow as to lose the story—and 110% expression—to build that mental model of expressive meaning making. You can hear that for sure in all of the clips
Check for Attention: We want students locked in and listening and often reading aloud themselves. So it’s important that they have texts out and are following along. Quick call and response checks that they are with you can help. Spencer, for example, pauses to say “We were specifically told….” And students respond “not to go past,” proving they are locked in. Rob does something similar
Circulate as you read: This lets you get near to students to observe them more closely and interact with them subtly if they need direction. It also somehow makes the reading a bit more dynamic.
Feed knowledge: Emily very quickly explains that the phrase “in league” means “teamed up with.” Jo asks students to clarify who ‘her father’ was in Othello’s soliloquy.
Shape Attention. It’s often helpful to give students something to “look for” such as “be on the look out for ways in which Squealer is scapegoating Snowball.”
We’ll spend two days “close reading” dozens more videos of teachers in action at the Reading workshop in Denver. Come join us! Details here: https://teachlikeachampion.org/readingreconsidered/mar2025
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