Sundays with Sarah 

Systemwide change and structured literacy don’t happen in silos. This post explores mentorship, partnerships, and how teams build sustainable educational change together.

For years, reading instruction relied on leveled texts and “just-right” books. Now teachers are being asked to teach everyone a grade-level, complex text, and that shift feels hard. Not because students aren’t capable, but because past approaches conditioned us to expect struggle. When we keep the text and change the pathway in, through knowledge, vocabulary, modeling, scaffolds, and writing, students rise. And once belief enters the room, everything changes.

Discover how one district leader transformed middle and high school literacy by implementing evidence-based reading instruction, dedicated reading classes, and teacher coaching. Learn the challenges, strategies, and real results of bringing the Science of Reading to adolescents.