Samantha 0:00
Welcome to the Creating Joyful Readers Podcast. I’m so happy you’re here. This podcast has been on my heart for a few years, and I’m so excited to finally be able to bring it to you now. I’ve been working hard to plan episodes and create content that I know is going to help you nurture a love of reading with your students. I have so much to share, and I’m confident that these episodes are going to be both helpful and relevant to your practice.

Samantha 0:27
I’m your host, Samantha, and I’m so excited to lead you on this joyful reading journey. When I was little I loved books. I called my favorite series little monster and read it every night with my mom. I didn’t know until later when I started reading the same books with my daughter that the series is actually called Little Critter. But isn’t that the beauty of books? When they’re in your hands they’re yours to create meaning. This love of literacy followed me throughout my education. In eighth grade, I discovered that books could move you to tears thanks to Catherine Patterson’s Bridge to Terabithia, I still don’t think I fully gotten over that experience. My love of books and learning led me to a bachelor’s degree in education from Temple University, and a master’s degree from Cabrini university. When I began teaching, I remember thinking how lucky I was to be able to teach and learn about so many fascinating things each and every day. I spent 15 years as a classroom teacher. Eight of those years were at an alternative high school in Philadelphia. And I also taught for an additional seven years at a public high school in rural Maryland. Both of these diverse experiences broaden my view of teaching and learning and I’m still grateful for the time I spent in the classroom.

Samantha 2:13
In 2022, I left the traditional classroom setting to stay home with my young daughter and support teachers through my business Samantha in secondary. As I dove deeper into this work, I realized that secondary teachers were sorely lacking professional support that includes up to date literacy research, effective reading strategies at the secondary level, and guidance on novels that were written in this century. Now that my daughter is headed to school full time this fall, I’m ready to leverage my platform to support teachers in a bigger way. My goal is to continue to make high quality resources for secondary English language arts teachers, and create valuable content that will help educators stay up to date on all things literacy. This podcast is going to help reach that goal.

Samantha 2:54
The thing that is weighed most heavily on my heart throughout my teaching career was the fact that we have a serious literacy problem in this country. The sobering realization that too many students are unable to read followed me no matter what setting I was teaching. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress and their 2022 report card in reading, two thirds of America’s fourth and eighth graders are not proficient in reading. Two Thirds. For marginalized students, the numbers are much worse. Just 17% of black students, 21% of Latino students, 11% of students with disabilities, and 10% of multilingual learners can read proficiently by fourth grade. If you want to read the study in its entirety, you can visit Nations report card.gov. As a young teacher, I remember feeling so helpless. When I met my first 20 year old student who was reading on first grade level, I was floored. This was a sweet, well mannered, funny young man who could speak articulately in casual conversation but could not read. I couldn’t fathom a world in which he went to school every day and somehow ended up at 20 years old and still unable to read. Sadly, I’ve met too many students just like him across my career. No matter where I taught, the fact remains the same. Too many students in my classroom could not read.

Samantha 4:13
I also found that the students who could read, didn’t want to. I began to feel like my full time job was now convincing students that reading was worth their time. I began to research and try everything I could to figure out how to solve these problems. How could I remediate reading instruction for students who couldn’t read at the same time? How could I entice students who just plain wouldn’t? To think these issues existed separately would have been a mistake. Classrooms are full of diverse learners and lessons always need to serve multiple purposes.

Samantha 4:44
There are so many questions when it comes to this issue. People rightfully want to know how this happened, and of course, how to fix it. Don’t kids go to school every day? Shouldn’t they be learning to read? Unfortunately, the issue is so much bigger than that. Anyone who has spent time in a school recently can tell you that some classrooms do not lend themselves to learning. As a teacher who taught through the pandemic, I can tell you that yes, student behavior has become more difficult in recent years. It became very clear to me very quickly that leveraging student buy in and creating a classroom culture in which everyone is responsible for the learning is more crucial than ever. In my opinion, fixing this issue starts here – we have to get students to see the inherent value of literacy. That’s where we start. If they don’t care, it doesn’t matter how many tried and true strategies we use, their ears will remain closed until their hearts are open.

Samantha 5:37
Keeping my goal in mind, and through trial and error, I started to find things that worked. Small successes that would propel me past the doom and gloom that was fretting over the broken system. Teaching can sometimes feel hopeless. There are fires everywhere, you only have one extinguisher, and that extinguisher is sometimes broken – it can be a lot. Connecting with other teachers and figuring out what worked for them was one way I started to feel like I could be successful. Then sharing what I learned helped me feel like I was contributing to the solution. Creating this podcast for you now helps me bring the strategies I’ve learned to more educators. I hope to be the source of information and inspiration for you that I desperately needed when I was teaching.

Samantha 6:20
Creating joyful readers will be coming to you every Monday on the podcast platform of your choice. Most of the episodes will be short, actionable, and led by me, but I’ll have a surprise guest or two now and then. Listen in the car, on your planning, while you’re folding the laundry, or whatever you need a little bit of inspiration with a side of fresh ideas. Books are truly magical. And if we can get students to buy in, we’re going to create a better world one reader at a time. Follow me on Instagram or Facebook at Samantha in secondary for more tips, book recommendations and to connect with other educators who are on this joyful journey. Until next time, happy reading.