We want our students to read and write well. We want them to think creatively and to value their ideas.

Learning, no matter the subject, can be an awesome journey. The path can be filled with wondrous sights to delight the intellect and warm the heart .

But the opposite can also be true.

The opposite of an awesome journey would be an arduous one. The opposite of a path with wondrous sights to delight the intellect and warm the heart is one filled with brambles and thorns that discourage and weaken. On this journey, this path, learning is thwarted, the heart is discouraged, and some form of illiteracy is a common outcome.

Here are some literacy facts to ponder, some fact’s that we desire to change:

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022

54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level

The state with the lowest adult literacy rate is California

In autumn 2020, research carried out by the Department for Education (DfE), the Education Policy Institute and Renaissance Learning found a learning loss of up to 2 months in reading in both primary and secondary pupils, based on STAR assessments of more than 400,000 pupils (DfE, 2021).

In October of 2020, an assessment of 112,000 children’s writing skills by No More Marking suggested that year-7 students were 22 months behind where they should be. (Christodolou, 2020).

Together we can do better! Right?

Learning to read and write and think is a lifelong journey.

We are creatures with an enormous capacity to enjoy and enact language.

Tip Number 1.

Enjoy the journey!

 

Join us ’round the campfire this month as we share tips to inspire happy learning and literacy.

As we look back on 2022, we Blackbirds are considering what is happening at large in the realm of literacy with a heart to help—one student at a time. Looking forward to 2023, the happiest news will be hearing stories of your students—your dear children—pressing happily into their important work, the work of becoming literate.

Read well! Write well! Think well!  =   Happy New Year!*

 

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