Do you have yeast bread kid?

It’s the holiday season, and for those of you who know me, you know I love to bake. I love to bake breads and pastries. This is probably a great metaphor for my life. I am not drawn to easy things. I like baking pastries, custards, breads because they take time, and an awareness of texture and timing that not everyone possesses. I hate making cookies. I stink at it. My husband loves cookies, but they never turn out quite as wonderfully as my yeast breads, custards, and pastries.

Here’s the thing, you wouldn’t ask just anyone to bake you a loaf of sandwich bread or a cheese Danish. We know that artisan bakers make the best breads, but a sandwich loaf churned out by a bigger conglomerate, as long as they’re well trained in the act of bread making would turn out ok.

I was reading through the latest legislation and I was struck by this line, "Every classroom needs a great teacher." Great teachers come in all forms. As a parent, you have to know what kind of kid you have, because this informs what kind of great teacher you need. As an educator, being a great teacher evolves.

Do you have a cookie kid? A kid who will learn in the hands of all good teachers, succeed easily, even in adverse conditions, and do well enough or even thrive without intervention from you. If so, count your blessings. Cookie kids make up about 60% of the kids I’ve seen in our basic public school classrooms. I was a cookie kid. School was incredibly easy for me. A standard baker will work for this kid.

Do you have a quick bread kid? A quick bread kid is a little trickier. Perhaps your child struggles some with attention, has little hiccups in learning (needs lots of repetition, but can usually get it with a few days of help at home from you), but in the hands of a great teacher, he does really well. Quick bread kids need some explicit instruction especially early on or as the text becomes more figurative, but these kids usually overcome challenges and rise to the occasion. This kid needs at least a factory-prepared bread baker who knows the importance of using the right leavening agent and the correct type of flour. (Translation: A teacher who has been trained in and is utilizing a multi-sensory whole-group explicit phonics curriculum like Wilson Fundations or Just Words)

Do you have a yeast bread kid? If you read my blog, I’m guessing you either have or teach these kids… These kids struggle in various areas of language-based learning. They were slow to talk, had articulation issues, struggle pronouncing multi-syllabic words, had difficulty learning their ABCs, couldn’t rhyme, still don’t love books, and can’t spell to save their lives. These kids are often shining stars in some other domain. Your child might be incredibly creative, great with numbers, a three-dimensional thinker…. This kid needs an artisan baker. (Translation: A teacher who has been trained in an Orton-Gillingham based instruction model including a minimum of 40 hours, AND has completed a supervised practicum of some sort with a master trainer.)

If you can’t afford to schedule an educational psychological evaluation (more on this in my next entry), I can tell you what it’s probably going to say in the recommendations section for these yeasty kids:

Johnny would benefit from multisensory, explicit instruction (specifically Orton-Gillingham based instruction) for phonics, reading, and spelling in a small group environment.

Johnny may benefit from private tutoring with an Orton-Gillingham trained tutor at a minimum of twice weekly to close gaps in reading and spelling achievement.

I worry about my yeast bread kids in the presence of the new teacher evaluation system in Georgia. The artisan bakers may begin to shy away from my kids in the presence of testing-based teacher review and merit pay. For example, students enrolled in co-taught environments count towards both teachers’ scores. Yes, I realize scores aren't everything, but I think they're the most concrete thing.

To be blunt, my kids don’t test well. Once they’re able to read the test, they still struggle with the limitations of a standardized test. Don’t get me started on how much they struggle with computer-based testing. I’m giving Georgia another year before I publicly blog about the new test. My kids are out of the box thinkers. Paper and pencil single answer, mass-produced tests are not their jam. Everybody just has to breathe into that. It doesn’t mean these kids aren’t making progress, but you need an artisan baker in order to make and measure that progress in a meaningful way. In exchange, that poor artisan baker has to work in a bakery that values the time it takes to get quality yeast bread to rise.

I should note, there is a special, exceptional yeasted bread… the French laminated pastry (think croissants, Danish, kouign amann). These kids are the ones who despite great small-group Orton instruction with an artisan baker, it’s still just not enough. These kids are the French pastries. To be honest, I’ve only seen a select few of these kids, and they are truly exceptional in the most magnificent meaning of the word. They need a master baker to work with them individually for several years to see long-standing gains.

This is where teacher and administrator training are essential. I didn’t just wake up one day and throw yeast in a bowl and pray for the best (well, to be honest, I may have, but it didn’t turn out well). I devoured baking books, read blogs, tried, failed, and tried again. I asked more knowledgeable bakers for help and guidance when things went sideways.

The great teachers seek out training and mentors. The great administrators allow their teachers to use multi-sensory strategies in the classroom and encourage teachers to organize the day to allow for small-group teaching blocks.

Keep asking questions about the level of training of your teachers. Converting a struggling reader to a successful student is not like baking cookies. These kids need time, encouragement, repetition, more time, and more encouragement, and more repetition. They will continue to need teachers throughout their educational careers to provide more leavening and more structure to ensure they rise to their full potential. Some days will be better than others. Some teachers will “get” your child, some won’t. As parents and educators, we work to know who these kids are and to advocate for them, even on the days when your cookies and French pastries all act like fruitcakes.