Episode 32: Zooming In on Literacy with Jan Rhein

How to reach Jan Rhein:

jan.rhein@reading.k12.ma.us

Transcript:

(transcribed by kayla.r.fainer@gmail.com)

Melissa Milner  00:09

Hi, this is Melissa Milner. Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. The goal of this weekly podcast is to help you explore your passions and learn from others in education and beyond to better your teaching. The Teacher As... podcast will highlight innovative practices and uncommon parallels in education. 

Hi, Jan. How are you? 

Jan Rhein  00:30

Hi, Melissa. I'm fine. How are you? 

Melissa Milner  00:32

I'm great. I'm so excited to have you on The Teacher As... 

Jan Rhein  00:37

Thank you. I'm excited, too. 

Melissa Milner  00:40

So Jan's an old friend. We've been working together for a while. We worked together in third grade. Jan's actually the reason I got hired at Birch Meadow. So go Jan. What do you want The Teacher As... listeners to know about you? 

Jan Rhein  00:54

First and foremost, I am a literacy coach slash literacy specialist at Birch Meadow School in Reading. This is my second year with that job. Previous to that, I was a third grade teacher for, I think, about 10 or 11 years. And then I was a second grade teacher before that, all at Birch Meadow. But I came to that in kind of roundabout way. 

I was actually a music teacher before I had my own children. And I taught for the Triton Regional School District in Salisbury. I taught general education music and chorus. I really loved it. But as much as I loved it, there was just something that just kept pulling me towards being all the time in the classroom with a group of kids that I could just really get to know. When I was in Salisbury, I saw over 800 students a week. 

Melissa Milner  01:57

Wow. 

Jan Rhein  01:58

It was a lot of kids. It was seven periods a day, five days a week. It was just-- as much as I loved it, I felt like I was missing the connection that I was really looking for with students. And so after I had my daughter and I was staying home, I went back and got my Master's in reading and language development and then started back at school after about a 12 year hiatus to raise my kids. 

Speaking of my daughters, I have two daughters, one who's graduated from college and is looking to go back to school for her Master's. And my youngest is a freshman in college in Boston at a Emmanuel and is looking at possibly being a biochem major. She's really kind of found her passion in the sciences. And my oldest was an anthropology and archaeology major and is looking to go back to school to get her Master's in psychology. 

I also have a home based bakery that I started in March during the lockdown. I've been wanting to do it for many years. Baking is always a passion of mine. And that kind of pushed me to start doing it. And it's something that kind of just gives me a creative outlet, something to think about aside from always obsessing about school.

Melissa Milner  02:14

I don't know what you mean. Does the baking help you with the work that you do? Or are there other passions, like for reading or whatever, that help you with your work? 

Jan Rhein  03:38

So baking-- it's kind of strange. When I'm baking, it's like a meditation almost in a way. It's just really calming for me. I like the process of it. I like the exactness of it, the science that's involved in it. And then I like the creative part of it, which is decorating, cake decorating, that kind of thing. 

So when I'm baking, it also gives me kind of a calm time to think about other things. Aside from that, something that's a passion of mine that helps with my work is kids and helping kids to succeed. 

And another is reading. I've just always loved reading. I started really loving reading when I was in the third grade, actually in the same town that I teach in now. 

And in the third grade, I ended the year with perfect attendance. I was never absent. And as a gift to me, my third grade teacher who taught in Reading for many years, Diane Kasarjian gave me a Nancy Drew book. And that kicked off my love of reading. And it's just been a passion of mine ever since. 

Melissa Milner  04:52

Awesome. You are a literacy specialist. You've been doing that for two years. It probably looks different in COVID. What's a typical day for you as a literacy specialist?

Jan Rhein  05:03

Well, this year a typical day looks very different than last year a typical day. So this year because of COVID, and because we still have kids that are remote, and we have kids that are just newly entering hybrid, I am not working yet with kids as much as I did last year. It's been some virtual assessing, working a lot with teachers, pushing into classrooms when kids are in person, working with kids during the readers workshop, and working with teachers on the readers workshop as well, plus coming up with creating in Reading professional developments.

Melissa Milner  05:49

Last year, I know you did LLI work. But you also still did a lot of mentoring new teachers and getting people on board with the workshop model that maybe are new to it and so on. So what is your focus? What are the goals you hope to reach each year as a literacy specialist? 

Jan Rhein  06:08

One goal that I have in my head, that I had in my head all last year and something I'm continuing to work on this year, is helping teachers to understand how they can assist their students and help their students reach grade level expectations within the classroom and within the readers workshop, while at the same time avoiding pull outs as much as possible. Recognizing that when kids struggle, there's so much that we can be doing for them in the context of the classroom, in readers workshop, during strategy groups, during conferring, even during partner reading. 

There's so much we can be doing that doesn't require a pull out. And oftentimes, teachers tend to panic a little bit when they see kids that are really struggling. And the first thing that some teachers and also some parents think is they need to be pulled out. They need to go see the literacy specialist. 

And as much as I love working with kids, I also recognize that the more that we can keep kids in the room, the better. One goal of mine is to help teachers understand what those expectations are for kids and how they can best assist them within the classroom itself. 

Melissa Milner  07:34

Right. So like starting with being able to successfully perform the running record and then taking that running record and deciding, so now what do I do with instruction. So do you walk teachers through that kind of training? 

Jan Rhein  07:48

I do. And I've done some professional developments on taking running records and benchmark assessments and analyzing running records. And then once we have that information, the analysis, where do we go from there? What's the next step? How can we assess progress, make sure that we're reaching the kids that we need to reach? 

Melissa Milner  08:10

Do you have recommendations for people who are listening as far as-- I mean, I know we use Jennifer Serravallo's strategy book a lot. But there's probably a lot of resources you could recommend. What do you think is useful in a reading workshop? 

Jan Rhein  08:25

Well, I think, first and foremost, as diversified as you can make your classroom library, a big diversified classroom library, not just by level of difficulty but also by subject, by topic, by-- you want your books to represent people from around the world, different cultures. You want kids to be able to see themselves reflected in books and to be able to learn about other people through books. 

Jennifer Serravello's strategy book is excellent. It will help teachers plan their small group instruction, strategy group instruction, and work with kids when they're just working with kids one on one. The Fountas and Pinnell Continuum. 

Melissa Milner  09:10

The big heavy book. 

Jan Rhein  09:13

The Bible. Yeah, the big heavy book. That, I think, is an indispensable resource. 

Melissa Milner  09:19

Can you walk people through that? Because I remember when we first got that, I was like, okay, this is overwhelming. I want to just take a picture of this page. Can you walk through how to really access that and use it on a daily basis? 

Jan Rhein  09:32

Yeah, it is an overwhelming book. I mean, if anyone's ever used it, it's enormous. I think that to begin with, one of the things that you can use that book for is to kind of inform yourself as a teacher of what you're looking for, what you're noticing, and what to expect in books at different levels. 

So if you were, say, a third grade teacher, you might just, in the beginning when you first get a hold of that book, maybe you just spend the first year really informing yourself and learning about the expectations within the books that are going to be at your grade level, say your level P and a couple levels lower, up through your level P and a couple levels higher. 

Melissa Milner  10:19

Right. That's huge. Because then that helps you with teaching points. That helps you even like what to talk about when you're doing read aloud. If there's a student that is struggling with accuracy and fluency-- their comprehension is great. But their accuracy and fluency are low. Do you attack accuracy? Do you attack fluency? Do you attack them at the same time? How do you do that in the classroom? 

Jan Rhein  10:43

So everyone feels a little bit differently about this.

Melissa Milner  10:47

We've talked about this many times.

Jan Rhein  10:50

My feeling about it is that you go after accuracy first. You figure out-- this is one of the things that I think takes some experience with teaching reading, is you do your assessing. You notice things. You take your running records, you analyze them, and you figure out, where is the student struggling and what areas. 

Some kids have a hard time reading through the whole word. Some kids have a hard time with vowel teams. Some kids can't blend. It depends on every child is different. And their strengths and weaknesses are different. 

But for me, noticing where the child is struggling with accuracy and helping that, and improving their word attack skills, or even if it's not word attack, it might be that a lot of kids omit words off the page. They don't notice small words, for example. They tend to skip words. Improving accuracy, fluency will follow. It will improve.

Melissa Milner  11:57

Absolutely. I don't mean to be controversial, but I absolutely agree with you. Yeah, we've had that conversation before, because it's really interesting. Because with fluency comes comprehension. 

But we've had students every year that their comprehension is fantastic, because they're reading for meaning. But that's slowing them down. They're rereading a lot, because they're going for meaning. And it's like, I'm much happier to have a student going for meaning. 

Jan Rhein  12:25

Yeah. I would much rather have a high self correction rate than high fluency. So I was reading with a child just the other day actually who was reading about 28 words per minute, but was able to discuss that book at the end left and right. 

Melissa Milner  12:43

That's awesome. 

Jan Rhein  12:44

So her fluency definitely needs to improve. However, at this point in time, it was not affecting her comprehension. And why do we read? We read to make meaning.

Melissa Milner  12:55

Exactly. It's such a balance. We hope that we can have readers come out of our school that can read out loud and can read performance and things like that. So it's just a balance. I want to go back to the classroom library for a minute. 

At Birch Meadow, we used to do everybody in the class read the same book. And they had the packets with the chapter questions. That might have been California actually, the packets. 

Jan Rhein  13:24

No, they appeared at our school once upon a time as well. 

Melissa Milner  13:28

Oh, okay. So the district did away with that. Then they were guided reading. And now it's more headed towards guided reading for students who need it, but more into strategy groups. 

So I know the answer to this, but I think it should be clear, you're the person to answer this question the best. What's the difference between guided reading and strategy groups? Why should there be both? Or should there not be both? 

Jan Rhein  13:53

At Birch Meadow, we use the workshop model during reading. I believe that guided reading has a place within the workshop model. The difference to me between guided reading and strategy groups is during guided reading, everyone is reading the same book. Everyone is on the same level. 

You have kids around the table that are all reading, for example, a level. And they're all sitting with the same book. And they're all reading the same pages of the same book at the same time. Not round robin reading, but you're having them read chapter three, for example, and then discuss it together. 

Strategy group instruction can be kids that are reading at the same level or kids that are reading at different levels. You could have a group of five kids where two of them are reading an M, one's a K, and one's a P. But they are all working to improve the same skills, possibly using the same strategy or groups of strategy. 

So I may call a group of kids to the table because I know that a skill that is low for them, for example, is paying attention to end marks, pausing when they come to the end of a sentence. And I might have a few different strategies to teach them and to have them practice. Because they're all working on the same skills and strategies at that time, they'll all be in a group together. They don't have to be reading the same book, and they don't have to be at the same guided reading level. 

However, I will throw in there, too, is that the way I look at all groups within the workshop model, whether technically you would consider it a guided reading group or technically it would be considered a strategy group, I don't really think of them too much that way. 

I think when I'm working with kids for myself as just guiding readers, so turning that guided reading around a little bit. And just right now, what am I doing at my teacher table with this group? I'm guiding readers. And whether they're all working at the same level or not or on the same skill or strategy or not, it doesn't matter. 

Melissa Milner  16:14

Right. And it makes it more flexible, too, because it's what they need at that moment. Absolutely. Very well explained, Miss Rhein.

Jan Rhein  16:26

Thank you, Miss Milner.

Melissa Milner  16:29

So what is your proudest moment in your work so far?

Jan Rhein  16:33

I guess I would say proudest moments. I've had a lot of moments where I've just been really happy with how things have gone. And I've had a lot of moments where I have just been really frustrated with myself with how things have gone. 

The thing that I'm most proud of is that when I run into kids that are in high school or now in college that I had in third grade, they almost without fail, boys and girls, will bring up a book or books that we read together as a whole class, in other words was a read aloud. And they will start reminiscing with me about that and tell me oftentimes that that is where they developed their love of reading. 

And so when I think back on my favorite times of teaching ever, it was always reading with kids, always. And so I guess what I'm most proud of is that for some of those kids, I had some small part in making them into lifelong readers. 

Melissa Milner  17:44

Yes. Awesome. So right now, in your work, what are you zooming in on?

[ZOOMING IN SOUNDBITE]

Jan Rhein  17:53

Right now I'm going a little bit back and forth about what I'm zooming in on. I could actually give you three things I'm zooming in on.

Melissa Milner  18:01

Awesome. 

Jan Rhein  18:02

Because my job is kind of split between being a specialist, in other words, working with kids, and being a coach, so working with teachers, I kind of go back and forth on things that I'm zooming in on. And oftentimes there are multiple things at the same time. 

One thing that I'm zooming in on right now is taking a look at what teachers at Birch Meadow need right now. What's the feedback that I'm getting from them? And what am I noticing when I'm going into classrooms? What do I feel like I could do? Or how could I help support the teachers at Birch Meadow with their literacy instruction? So that's one thing I'm zooming in on. 

Another thing that I'm zooming in on is working with kids who are finally getting, some of them, the opportunity to come back to school, who I may have worked with last year or that some teachers may have had questions or concerns about, we left off with that in person teaching and working with kids in the middle of March. 

And so I'm getting caught up with those kids as they phase back in, talking to them about books that they might be currently reading or what they did with literacy over the summer, very casual conversations. And then doing some assessing where it's appropriate, and sometimes just sitting and listening to kids read, and kind of getting an idea of how this shutdown affected kids and their literacy development. 

Melissa Milner  19:35

Right. That's huge. It's really difficult for me to tell. It's even hard-- like I'm pretty sure this child is not in a just-right book. I have them read for me, and they seem okay. But I want to see them every day. I want to see them go into a corner and be engrossed in the book, and then I know. I have to send them off to go read because I have another strategy group. And I can't see what they're doing.

Jan Rhein  19:59

Yeah. I have to say, I just-- from going into classrooms to kind of being on the other side of it right now, not being a classroom teacher, I feel like whether they're gen ed teachers, special ed teachers, or specialists working with kids right now, whether virtually or in person, I feel like you all are just the unsung heroes of the world. 

I pop into rooms. I listen to teachers talk about kids that they haven't had a chance to see at all in person this year. And the knowledge base that they have about their kids and the understanding that they have with their kids, it's just-- I'm just in awe of all of them. 

Melissa Milner  20:39

Yeah, they know I'm on their side. And they know they're supported and that Tricia and I are going to support them. And that, I feel great about. But it's tough. It's my 30th year of teaching, and I've been doing it a certain way. And now it's like, I can't be in the room with the kids. How do I make it just the same? And it can't be just the same. 

I have to tweak things and make it work for a different environment. And that's okay. That's okay. I just have to give myself grace. Because it's hard to do this work remotely. I've seen you coach and mentor, and you do an amazing job walking people through what the priorities are, and how to balance literacy, and literacy instruction, and the importance of the read aloud, which you and I have always been on the same page about. Here's another fun question. What's your favorite movie, and why? 

Jan Rhein  21:35

So I've listened to enough of your podcasts that I knew you were going to ask me this question. I am going to be honest and tell you, I am not a movie person. So to be honest, when someone in my family says, let's watch a movie tonight, or would someone like to go to the movies, I get like a feeling of dread. I just-- I don't know what it is. 

But I can tell you-- and then I'm going to take your question in another direction. But I can tell you that of the movies that I've watched, I love Disney movies. Because I do have a thing about Disney. 

Melissa Milner  22:16

Shocker. 

Jan Rhein  22:17

Yeah, I love Disney movies. I love, especially, the older animated movies like Lady and the Tramp, some of the classics. I love the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And then it just kind of goes haywire for me. 

And this is going to seem very strange and out there, but one of my favorite movies is National Treasure with Nicolas Cage. And so I could watch that movie again and again. I just-- it's funny, and I like the history, as fake as the history, much of the history will be. I still enjoy it. So that's one of my other movies. 

But I'm going to take that question in a different direction, because I'm not really like a movie person. But I am a book person. 

Melissa Milner  23:04

Right. 

Jan Rhein  23:04

And so if you had asked me about my favorite books or authors, I would say that my favorite children's book authors are probably Kate DiCamillo, who I absolutely love. I love Chris Van Allsburg. And one of my other favorites, and he's a little bit more obscure, is Bill Pete. And I love all of them. 

Because in children's books, I love dialogue and I love character development. I don't need to hear about the setting. I can bump with the setting on my own, in my own mind, my own imagination. But give me some good character development and some wonderful dialogue, and I'm hooked. So that's what I would say is probably over movies, it's my love of books. 

Melissa Milner  23:58

I love it. All right. So let's say people liked what they heard today, and they want to get a little more information about how to be better reading teachers, how to balance their literacy program so that it's working well for their students. How could they reach you? 

Jan Rhein  24:13

They could email me at my Reading email address. 

Melissa Milner  24:16

I can put it on the episode podcast page. 

Jan Rhein  24:19

Yeah. And I'd be happy to get into a conversation with people about reading, and kids, and reading development. 

Melissa Milner  24:27

Great. And on another note, if they live in the Massachusetts area, should you give them information about your bakery?

Jan Rhein  24:40

Actually, they could follow me on Instagram. And my Instagram is @dough.re.mi.bakery. 

Melissa Milner  24:58

Thank you, Jan, so much for taking the time out to talk to me. 

Jan Rhein  25:01

Oh, thank you so much, Melissa. It was my pleasure. 

Melissa Milner  25:04

If you enjoyed this episode, and have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button for The Teacher As... podcast so you can get future episodes. I would love for you to leave a review and a rating, as well, if you have time. For my blog, transcripts of this episode and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner. And I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. 

I am sending a special thanks to Linda and Lester Fleishman, my mom and dad, for being so supportive. They are the voices you hear in the Zooming In soundbite. And my dad composed and performed the background music you are listening to right now. My intro music was "Upbeat Party" by Scott Holmes. 

So what are you zooming in on? I would love to hear from you. My hope is that we all share what we are doing in the classroom in order to teach, remind, affirm and inspire each other. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap!