Episode 45: Laura Robb-Vocabulary is Comprehension

Today I am talking with Laura Robb. She is a teacher, speaker, author, and coach.

She has taught for over 43 years and continues to teach each year in middle grades classrooms.

She has published 18 books primarily focused on reading, writing, and comprehension.

You will often find her speaking across the country and working with classroom teachers to learn how to address the needs of kids in reading, writing and text comprehension.

Laura is concerned about teachers who are “stressed out” with attempts to measure classroom success by using standardized, high stakes tests. The money and time that is spent on these tests could be better spent on training teachers to use better instructional practices.

Laura says, “One of the joys of teaching is that every child is unique.”

Our talk is primarily focused on one of her most recent works, “Vocabulary is Comprehension: Getting to the Root of Text Complexity”.

This work is filled with understandable lessons on how to connect vocabulary building and development with complex text comprehension.

Any teacher could easily take this book read sections and immediately begin to use its lessons in her plans for the week.

Some instructional works are cumbersome with their own language and information. The teacher would need a translator first before even getting close to thinking about using the information…not this book! It is easy to understand and use!

Take a look at her Big 10 and then turn to any of the lessons associated with them and you will be able to start making a difference in a child’s understanding of the text and content.

I strongly encourage you to take this information to heart and to use her book to help change your lessons to help the kids “get it!”

By the way…also, check out her foundation. She and her son are focused on getting books into the hands of children with none.

Enjoy!!!

www.LRobb.com

www.e2efoundation.org

Vocabulary is Comprehension

www.teacher.scholastic.com/products/classroombooks/laurarobb

www.twitter.com/LRobbTeacher

www.facebook.com/laura.robb.372

www.middleweb.com

Length: 1:00:19

Episode 17: The ACT with Carl Forbes

Carl has been working at The ACT now for the last eight years and is assigned to both secondary and post-secondary schools.

He helps secondary schools understand what their data is telling them and how to respond.

With post-secondary schools he assists them in looking at the student data with a focus on what admissions and scholarship decisions could be made from that data.

We discuss everything from understanding about the organization known as ACT, what the organization offers besides the college entrance test, what the ACT test scores mean, and what the fundamental differences are between the ACT and the SAT.

Carl states, “The ACT is focused on college and career readiness but also work preparedness.”

He explains the ACT standards and benchmarks and what they mean to an educator, parent, and a student taking the test. As Carl recalls, These components help “you understand what the scores on the ACT tell you about what you are ready to do.”

He also shared that there are ACT apps that students can use with their Smart phones and tablets.

We had an awesome conversation!

I think that you will learn so much whether a teacher, administrator, student, or parent you will want to listen again and then share this podcast with others. You will also want to take time to explore the ACT on the web.

www.act.org