Empowering Young Readers: the Science of Reading and More, with Sara Frater

In this episode, we are joined by Sara Frater, a second grade teacher from Prairie View Elementary in Otsego, MN. Sara helps us unpack the balance between the science of reading and the art of teaching. She shares her experience integrating components of the science of reading into her classroom while continuing to offer empowering, creative, and tech-rich learning opportunities for her students. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#274 — Empowering Young Readers: The Science of Reading and More, with Sara Frater

29 min
AVID Open Access

Keywords

reading, kids, phonics, learn, sarah, words, science, winston, share, students, paul, classroom, understand, second grade, book, integrated, education, read, strategies, super

Speakers

Sara (48%), Paul (20%), Winston (16%), Rena (14%), Student (1%), Transition (1%)

Sara Frater  0:00  

People think you have to follow these scripted reading programs. But that's not what it is. Discovering joy in learning is the biggest gift you can give to kids. I really love to be able to be creative with kids. That is my absolute favorite thing.

Paul Beckermann  0:18  

The topic for today's podcast is Empowering Young Readers: The Science of Reading and More, with Sara Frater. Unpacking Education is brought to you by avid.org. AVID believes in seeing the potential of every student to learn more about AVID visit their website at avid.org.

Rena Clark  0:38  

Welcome to Unpacking Education, the podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I'm Rena Clark.

Paul Beckermann  0:48  

I'm Paul Beckermann.

Winston Benjamin  0:50  

And I'm Winston Benjamin. We are educators.

Paul Beckermann  0:54  

And we're here to share insights and actionable strategies. 

Student  0:58  

Education is our passport to the future. 

Paul Beckermann  1:04  

Our quote for today is from Eastern Washington University, from their online article, The Impact of Reading Comprehension on Learning. They write, "Literacy is arguably the most important competence to teach. A student who can master reading comprehension will not only have high chances of becoming an avid reader and cultured person, but also be a higher-achieving professional in nearly all areas of knowledge." All right, that was a long one but there's a lot in there. Rena, what do you think in about?

Rena Clark  1:36  

My first response was yes. And as I've shared in other episodes, I really struggled with reading and I think I was the third grader that really, really struggled, and it made everything else more difficult, and I didn't have access to other things. And then as a parent, I just think about how thankful I am that my kids have the luxury of being good readers and have had, it's been relatively easy for them. Because I've seen how when they can read, even reading the text in a Minecraft video game, they have more access to be able to do more things. When they read more, they have a higher vocabulary, which gives them more access to understanding vocabulary. So it just benefits them all around. So I'm thankful for them. And I understand the struggle on a personal level of kind of what it can withhold from you. 

Paul Beckermann  2:31  

For sure. Winston, what are you thinking about?

Winston Benjamin  2:34  

I'm thinking about the access to other areas, like sometimes I deeply know one thing very well. I love, love hip hop. But through my hip hop knowledge, I'm able to really understand the deep end levels of poetry and the ability to understand how metaphor, simile, and things of that nature. So I appreciate that the idea that having the ability to comprehend words helps you in so many different ways. And I like the idea of being a cultured person, because I can have a conversation with anyone from anywhere, just by being able to listen and understand and interpret and make connections and myself. So I think that's an important idea of what comprehension is. So I liked that idea of being a cultured person.

Rena Clark  3:23  

And Winston really is a master of words, so.

Paul Beckermann  3:28  

I love that you love metaphors and similes, Winston, that's like my favorite thing ever. 

Winston Benjamin  3:33  

Well I've said, it took me a long time to validate this use of this doctorate. So again, words of valuable and similar to me, Iuse my context of hip hop to be able to make connections to other people. So that's an important thing.

Paul Beckermann  3:49  

For sure. Well, a connection we're going to make today is with our guest, Sarah Frater. We're really excited to have her on the show today. Sarah is a second grade teacher at Prairie View Elementary School at Otsego, Minnesota. I have personally watched Sarah in action in her classroom and I can tell you she is a wonderful teacher. And I would love to have my kids in her classroom. So welcome, Sarah. We're so glad you're here. Awesome. Do you want to just introduce yourself a little bit to our listeners? Tell them a little bit about who you are what you do. 

Sara Frater  4:23  

Well, like you said, I teach second grade and I have three kids. And that quote, I think is super important because I watched them learn and grow like I have a 14 year old and he loves to play chess, so he'll read about chess or he's really into music. Now. Paul, you'd be very proud. He started his own little band, The Mini Chops or something like that. I don't know. I think for any hobby or anything you want to do to lead a happy life, a lot of things you have to read. So it's just like to go for it and enjoy your life. It's like an essential skill.

Paul Beckermann  5:03  

For sure. And remind me Sarah, how long have you been teaching?

Sara Frater  5:07  

This is my 20th year, I'm getting old.

Paul Beckermann  5:09  

20? Not old, you're getting wiser by the year and your experience is valuable. We love it. And you know what, lately, I don't think science of reading is new, but it's kind of become this renewed hot topic lately. And I know that you've had the opportunity to receive a little bit of training in, I think letters, that particular part of science of reading. So for our listeners who don't really know what that is, how would you explain it? And what is science of reading?

Sara Frater  5:09  

Well, I finished it last spring. And it really opened my eyes to so many new strategies that I can use in the classroom. And basically, it's just putting your word recognition, and your reading comprehension, language comprehension all together. And it's takes each piece of it and you learn how to look at phonemic awareness, and you learn how to look at phonics, and then you learn to look at comprehension. And then it gives you strategies to put it all together. So it taught me a ton, and I changed a lot of what we were doing based on it.

Rena Clark  6:15  

And it really has been around as you said, Paul, for a while. There seems like there's more research on the science of reading than any other area or topic in education. And it's just now coming out. So I'm just curious. You talked a little bit about it. But what aspects of the science of reading have you found to be most impactful for your students or that you're doing with your students in your class?

Sara Frater  6:40  

Well, I think when people think about science of reading, they're thinking it's just like phonics instruction. There is a lot of talk about that. But really, what it changed for us is we use UFLI now that program, but kids are never just sitting. They are, we use UFLI, so they're engaging with the phonics skills like they have to decode, encode, they have to write, they we use little stamps, and they stamp the words. So they're busy, the whole time engaged. But it's not just that it's like when you read a book, they need to have a graphic organizer, or we use sticky notes. And one of my worries, I was telling Paul's wife, Pam, is that people will think it's [that] you have to follow these scripted reading programs. But that's not what it is. It's effective, because kids are engaging with reading. They're doing things while you're, like I don't just read a read aloud anymore, they're we're looking at words. And we came up, my friend Megan and I, we took, like for a second grade and letters, they say you should have both sides of the reading rope. There's this reading rope that has word recognition. And it has language comprehension. So for second grade, our time is supposed to be split, like pretty 50/50. So at the beginning of the year, Megan and I looked up what our flipped lessons would cover and what our whole group lessons would cover. How many times do we hit fluency? How many times do we hit phonemic awareness? How many times are kids reading a book? All of those things, we put a lot of time and effort to make sure we were hitting all of those things in the science of reading. But kids are never just like sitting and listening to me talk over Google Slides. Does that makes sense?

Rena Clark  8:27  

Can I, I'm in sports mode today. I don't know I think I was talking about baseball and spring training starting. But it makes me think like a batter. You have to know the mechanics of batting, the phonics, phonemic awareness, but then you have to understand the whole picture and the art of it and put it all into practice in order to hit the ball. Tell me if I'm out of bounds here. 

Paul Beckermann  8:47  

There's metaphor again. The metaphor is creeping back into the show.

Rena Clark  8:52  

But it just makes me think.

Sara Frater  8:54  

Yeah, it's remembering that they're seven, they can't just say. And so I think part of the reason it works so well is because we're having kids do things with reading the whole time. Yeah. 

Rena Clark  9:09  

And they're getting more, as our analogy goes, at bats. More practice with reading, then they're getting more practice when they're doing that.

Sara Frater  9:16  

And it's like, I'm making sure that we're getting vocabulary and so much. You're making sure that you hit those essential skills that they need to practice just like you would for a coach. But like Megan and I looked at our schedule, and so many days a week we're practicing vocabulary with what we do. And the other thing that we did is we took our reading curriculum and we tried to do it thematically so that like our science is integrated and so then we can get those STEM projects integrated better, because then the vocabulary is easy to understand. It just kind of like all goes together then.

Paul Beckermann  9:58  

I'm so glad that you're integrating science with reading because the science and social studies is kind of getting pushed off to the side. So that's a perfect way to bring it back and do it together.

Sara Frater  10:08  

Yeah, yeah. Some of the things that have worked really good for us, I wrote them down so I wouldn't forget. But we do like the UFLI and we do Making Words by Patricia Cunningham like we stick to some really routine research base things that work. And then like our flipped lessons, we have a little more room, like we'll use si Seesaw where they'll do like a paper word story and then read it to their family on Seesaw. And those are all super routine, research based things every week. But then on Fridays, we make it like a little more fun and do a path where they do like those STEM things that science things that integrate all their learning.

Winston Benjamin  10:51  

So I appreciate that your the way that you're describing it. I see the journey from the beginning being like, Oh, my God, what do we do, to now see the way you're talking about it. You're describing several ways that you're being successful. But as a new person trying to get involved in this, what challenges did you face in the beginning in your implementation of these reading instructions? And how did you address them? You demonstrated your, how are we hitting all of these little areas? How do we make it fun? What are some of the other challenges that you face implementing these strategies?

Sara Frater  11:30  

Well, by no means, we're not experts. I feel like I look back through the book just even for this podcast, and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I could take the class again and learn even more things, you know what I mean? It's overwhelming how much there is to it. Also we have a curriculum and trying to navigate what our curriculum and those expectations are with this research. And it doesn't always go together as perfectly as you want. Another challenge is time. There's just not enough time to navigate it all inside. So I'm making an I tried to look at what we were teaching and how many times we could get these things in. And so we use like, if I'm pulling a group, my kids are doing something super purposeful. But with small groups, when we pull them out, one of the things that we have trouble with is that I'm doing, like phonemic awareness and phonics instruction with these kids who really struggle. But I have like barely any time to read an actual book. It's really hard, because it has to be so structured. And so time intensive, that it's like maybe twice a week, I can buddy them up with a book at their level. But that seems sad to me a little bit. So I just maybe don't know if there's a better way to handle that. Just with time.

Winston Benjamin  12:55  

I appreciate your honesty.

Paul Beckermann  12:57  

And I appreciate the fact that time is putting stress on a lot of these things, because you want to do so many different things, you want to do that joy of reading, you want to do the scripted pieces, all those different elements. And another element that I know that's really important to you is tech integration. You've been a tech Innovator for a long time. How are you finding ways to still incorporate technology into reading instruction? And how's that gone for you?

Sara Frater  13:25  

Well, that that's just made it a lot easier. So we do technology with science of reading every day. So we use Boom Cards for part of the phonics. So there's some made by this lady that are incredible, the kids have to move and sort and do all the things. We use Osmo still, like we made our own Osmo files that match the phonics pattern so the kids are moving and active. We do Seesaw for everything like fluency, word sorts, readers theaters. I still use Nearpod, I pay for that one, but I do that for like close reading and the kids just really like it because you can travel when they like that one. And I still use Lumio, I use those like once a week when we're marking a text sometimes. The either flipped or like all together. We use Epic all the time. And then lately I discovered Curipod. Have you played with that much? 

Paul Beckermann  14:28  

Curipod? 

Rena Clark  14:29  

Yeah, I've been playing with it a lot the last few weeks. 

Sara Frater  14:32  

Yeah, so that's really good for vocabulary skills, because you have to you can like have the kids draw your word. And then they vote on the one that matches it the best. They have loved that. That's been super cool.

Paul Beckermann  14:46  

That's awesome. And there's so many, and now AI is kind of getting integrated into some of this stuff, too. It's going to be interesting to see how that that all changes. So are you using technology in stations, are using it full group, or a little bit of both?

Sara Frater  15:01  

Ah, both. Yeah, because they'll read a book on Epic. And then they have to share how they respond. So sometimes they make a poster. Sometimes they'll do a PicCollage and share it on seesaw with clips or whatever. And then whole group we do those Lumios. And Cam and I took all this sight words from the heart words or high frequency words, whatever you want to call, and we put them in order that phonics skills from our curriculum. And so then Megan made a speed read for fluency that we go through every day, so we all kind of work together to make this work. I work with some really, really great ladies.

Paul Beckermann  15:47  

You have great team. And it's so nice that you kind of divide up the work a little bit because it makes it way more manageable that way. 

Sara Frater  15:54  

Yeah. And like my team is so good, because we're all very new and trying things and we fall down lots, and then we try it again.  

Rena Clark  16:06  

Yeah. And if someone didn't hear the part before, where you said, I'm teaching second graders, if you're just listening to the things that you're you're doing with your students, it kind of leads into the question around what ways you're empowering those second graders in this learning process, especially around reading.

Sara Frater  16:25  

Yeah, so we give lots of choice. And I try to let them share how they're gonna share. We've made a website on Adobe for a little thing. And I had them dressed up like their idioms and then they shared it with their parents. Super cute. They were super proud to share in a different way. I mean, because we share in Seesaw all the time, but to have it, I know you could do the blog, but it was cute to have their own special website, they were so excited. So just doing stuff like that. I think one of the biggest things, though, is I come to the table with my team. And we all are very, like, we're not perfect. We're learning this together. Hey, I learned Curipod, let's try it out together. So the kids see me learning. And I think that, like Cam came and it was a hot mess. And she put me we worked through it. And it's okay. But I think kids seeing an adult kind of struggle is a really powerful thing.

Paul Beckermann  17:24  

Absolutely.

Winston Benjamin  17:25  

So we've talked a lot about the science of reading. But reading is not just about oh, a scientific here's one tool, here's another tool, here's a process. It's more about a passion for learning and the ideas of words, just like I said, I love poetry because it connects to my hip hop. What are some key strategies that you've used to foster lifelong readers in your students so that they could be focused in identifying their passion for reading? Just a way to help us identify some specific strategies.

Sara Frater  18:01  

So I think I kind of, I model lifelong learning, like we talk about being good learners. Because really, when you learn things, that's the prize in life. Like discovering joy in learning is the biggest gift you can give it to kids. Whether it's reading or math or any of it, I am excited to learn, the best people I know have so, let me look at Paul the hobbies he has and things he likes to learn about. That makes people interesting. So we try to invite people in, like my second grade teacher has come to my classroom, her son is saving the rhinos in Africa. Yeah, super cool. And she was my favorite teacher ever, which is why I wanted to be a second grade teacher. But I think just getting kids excited. We try to give them those fun Fridays, where we do the STEM projects, and we do the creation. And we read about what we're creating. And we just like tie it all together. And then kids are really into it. So yeah, I think if I'm excited, they get excited too. And we give them choice with reading. And I have three kids, like I said, and so I tried to, they're young, like Ivy's in fourth grade and I teach second grade. So I can still remember some of their favorite books and I bring them into the classroom and I like hand them to the kids like hey, Ivy really liked this book, I think you'll like this. And that gets them pretty excited too.

Paul Beckermann  19:33  

So have you found some good opportunities to let them read for pleasure?

Sara Frater  19:37  

Yeah, we read for pleasure almost every day. So they still get a book and they can pick on Epic and if I'm not pulling, they groan if I pull their group during that time. It's not the hot time to sit with Mrs. Frater. I'll tell you that.

Paul Beckermann  19:53  

So based on your experiences, Sarah, if we have some teachers who really haven't had an opportunity to dive into science of reading. What's one place that you would start with science of reading? And then a second part of that question, what's your favorite reading strategy or favorite thing to do teaching reading? Two things, I'm going to throw at you.

Sara Frater  20:17  

Oh, I love those Fridays. We work so hard all week. And it's super structured. And we follow the sequences and we do all the things. But I really love to be able to be creative with kids. That is like my absolute favorite thing. And I think that's part of the joy and being a teacher is being able to bring a little bit of your things that make you excited. So Fridays are my favorite. Kids love them super fun. They work really hard to get to the end to make and create and do all the fun things. I think UFLI has been huge, our reading fluency scores are amazing from using that. I mean, they weren't bad before. But this is like 97% growth, like crazy good.

Paul Beckermann  21:07  

So I'm not I'm not sure I know what this is. What's this UFLI thing?

Sara Frater  21:12  

UFLI is like a phonics curriculum. 

Paul Beckermann  21:17  

Okay. Yeah. A reading program. 

Sara Frater  21:19  

Our principal bought it for us to supplement our program that we have.

Paul Beckermann  21:24  

Gotcha. Cool. Yeah. 

Rena Clark  21:27  

All right. Well, speaking of tools to supplement, it's that time for our toolkit. 

Student  21:35  

Check it out, check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? What's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

Rena Clark  21:45  

So what is in our toolkit this week? Okay, Winston? 

Winston Benjamin  21:52  

So, I'm gonna drop in. First of all, I did not know about Scarborough's Reading Rope. I just learned about that earlier. I think for most teachers in the world, and most educators, learn about it. Go check that out and actually look at it because it makes sense of this whole idea of how people learn to read like, really, really straightforward. Also Epic, check that out if you're trying to find readings for different levels. For students, it's an easy way to use that resources set of always having a book in the classroom. So I definitely recommend checking out Epic as well. 

Rena Clark  22:30  

All right, Paul?

Paul Beckermann  22:31  

I am just going to encourage that, first of all, I love how many different tools there integrates in, depending on which one is working best for the need at hand. And I would say keep your eyes out for really how AI is going to change some of this stuff. It can seem a little bit out there, and maybe a little foreign and scary. But it's pretty exciting. There's actually one I'll just call attention to I think it's just in its infancy, but it's called ReadM. And basically, students get sentences on the screen and they read it. And then the AI listens to it and tells them if they're reading each word correctly or not. So if they don't read the word correctly, it blocks it or highlights it, and the other ones that are correct gets underlined. And then if they get them, and then they can go back and they can read try the one that they missed. And when they get it it says Good job. That was fantastic. They give them some kind of a compliment like that. That was first class. So I think that's pretty cool. They can also if they don't know a word they can click on it, it'll read it back to them. So it's just kind of a way to practice. I could totally see that being a station or something like that in a bigger lesson.

Rena Clark  23:44  

It's back to this a lot more opportunities for kids to practice. 

Paul Beckermann  23:48  

Another at bat, right?

Rena Clark  23:49  

Another at bat. So I've been listening to a lot of podcasts recently. But I enjoy the science of reading podcasts. And there's some other ones [sic], some other podcasts that if you're a podcast person listening to this podcast, you might like podcasts now. There's a lot of great ones out there. You can research up and find ones and episodes that work for you and your grade level. And then do you want to add anything, Sarah, to our toolkit?

Sara Frater  24:20  

My kids really like Wonderscope. So Paul, I'm gonna write down and check out that one that you just shared. But Wonderscope is like, you have to read it correctly. And it has these little augmented reality characters. Have you seen it? No. Okay, well, then these little characters come out and it tells a story. And you interact with the character. The kids love it. They're obsessed with it. So it's a very fun little reading on not quite as fancy as yours though, Paul and I'm excited about that.

Paul Beckermann  24:50  

I don't know, yours sounds pretty fun. I think I'm gonna check that one out.

Winston Benjamin  24:54  

I'm definitely down for some augmented reality. So now it's time for an important part of our or segments. It's the one thing.

Transition Music  25:02  

It's time for that one thing. One thing, one thing. It's time for that one thing. It's that one thing.

Winston Benjamin  25:15  

What's the thing that's still rolling around in your mind that you're like, Ooh, I'm still deeply thinking about that. I'm gonna ask Paul and Rena. Rena, what's, what's your one thing that you still thinking about?

Rena Clark  25:27  

I just been thinking about, through reading, how you really can discover the joy of learning. And I've talked about my own struggle. And really, once I could read, everything was better, I was more excited about reading and learning things. And I know there's lots of other ways I learned through video and everything else. But even videos now I like to use AI to get the transcripts because the video takes too long. And reading through it, you just comprehend it differently when you're reading. And I was thinking, old school child of the 80s, Reading Rainbow kid, that even in their theme song was it, it's like, "I can be anything, take a look in a book, The Reading Rainbow," and I just think that really is true.

Paul Beckermann  26:10  

That's a flash from the past.

Winston Benjamin  26:11  

Now I'm literally singing the song from start to finish.

Paul Beckermann  26:17  

I love Reading Rainbow, sit down and watch that with my kids. That is fantastic.

Winston Benjamin  26:22  

Paul, what are you thinking about?

Paul Beckermann  26:25  

That science of reading is not just phonics, it's not just one thing. There's lots of different components. And I just love how Sarah brings so many different things to the table and drawing on your experience as a teacher, the things that have worked, and now integrating those things in new ways in the classroom, picking out different pieces of technology when it works for the need that you have at the moment. I think that's pretty cool.

Winston Benjamin  26:52  

So I'm gonna jump in before I ask you, Sarah, what's your one thing that you're thinking about. And I appreciate something you said that I really appreciate is that a mindset of growth and trying, like you try the the new thing that you learn with everyone else, and then you give your students an opportunity to fail as well as just trying. So I think it's an important mindset to have, because not knowing how to read makes you look stupid, and no child or adult wants to look stupid. So giving them that opportunity to do that try without the judgment is a powerful thing. So I appreciate you setting that foundation as a way to support your students. So what's that one thing that you're still thinking about that you would like us to think about, Sarah?

Sara Frater  27:45  

I guess my team and I feel like in second grade, they go on to third grade, where they read to learn a lot. And so second grade is like our, I have a of a group of really struggling kids, so it just kind of like breaks your heart, you want to do everything you can to get them where they need to be before they go on to third grade. So it's a big, big job. Still lots to learn. That is for sure.

Paul Beckermann  28:12  

We're never done, are we? We're never done learning.

Sara Frater  28:16  

No, that's a beautiful thing, though. 

Paul Beckermann  28:18  

It really is. It really is. And we want to thank you for being with us, Sarah and sharing your experience. We really appreciate it.

Sara Frater  28:26  

I was so nervous. I have all these notes. You guys would laugh at me if you saw this. Like now I feel like okay, you're very nice. Thank you.

Rena Clark  28:38  

A lot to offer, Sarah.

Paul Beckermann  28:40  

Absolutely, so much.

Rena Clark  28:45  

Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education. 

Winston Benjamin  28:47  

We invite you to visit us at AVIDopenaccess.org where you can discover resources to support student agency, equity, and academic tenacity to create a classroom for future-ready learners.

Paul Beckermann  29:02  

We'll be back here next Wednesday for a fresh episode of Unpacking Education.

Rena Clark  29:06  

And remember, Go forth and be awesome.

Winston Benjamin  29:10  

Thank you for all you do.

Paul Beckermann  29:12  

You make a difference.