Every field has its pet peeves. Literacy has plenty of mine. After years in classrooms, research labs, and PD sessions with teachers across the country, here's what still drives me up the wall — and what I hope every educator hears instead.
1When engagement is treated like a bonus instead of a necessity.
Nothing frustrates me more than hearing someone dismiss engagement as fluff. Engagement isn't the opposite of rigorous instruction — it's what makes rigorous instruction sustainable. Kids learn more when they care. Shocking.
2Fluency instruction that begins and ends with a timer.
Reading faster isn't the goal. Reading better is. If the only thing students ever hear after reading is "you got 87 words per minute," we've reduced one of reading's most expressive skills to a stopwatch. Performance. Expression. Meaning. That's fluency.
3Teaching reading as if every lesson exists in isolation.
On Monday we're phonics people. Tuesday we're vocabulary people. Wednesday we're comprehension people. Students don't experience reading in pieces. Neither should we.
4Calling something "research-based" because someone once found a study that agreed with it.
Google is not a literature review. One study doesn't overturn decades of evidence. And "research-based" isn't a synonym for "I like this idea."
5Classrooms that leave no room for laughter.
If students spend six hours a day in school and never laugh, we're doing something wrong. Learning should feel joyful, and kids should love it. This is the hill I'm willing to die on. Don't tell me all kids are motivated by progress. They are not.
6Adults who worry more about the program than the child.
I've watched educators defend curricula like sports fans defend their favorite team. Programs don't teach children. Teachers do. The best teachers adapt.
7Confusing compliance with learning.
Quiet classrooms aren't automatically productive. Busy worksheets aren't automatically meaningful. Students can look engaged without learning. They can also look messy while learning a tremendous amount.
8Thinking every struggling reader needs less challenge.
Support isn't the same thing as simplification. Many struggling readers don't need fewer opportunities to think. They need better support while doing the thinking. Slow down. Scaffold. Don't shrink the task.
9Adults who make reading feel like medicine.
"Read twenty minutes." "Fill out the log." "Take the quiz." No wonder some kids think reading is punishment. Books should solve mysteries, start conversations, create worlds, inspire projects, and make kids laugh. Reading should feel alive.
10Forgetting why we became teachers.
This one gets me every time. Look at your students. Are they smiling? Are they curious? Are they proud of what they're creating? Are they becoming readers?
Because one day they won't remember your anchor charts. They won't remember your pacing guide. They will remember how your classroom made them feel — and sometimes, that's what turns children into lifelong readers.
Want your whole staff thinking this way?
This is exactly the mindset shift LiTerrific Professional Development brings to schools and districts — Science of Reading instruction, taught artfully. Virtual, on-site, or ongoing coaching.
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