Bridging Literacy

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Bridging Literacy

Training and Consultation Staff Developer | Literacy Coach | Author of Building the Literacy Block

02/10/2026

Gotta give this a try. ❤️

09/25/2025

Sharing a day in my life as a former elementary teacher now educational consultants/staff developer ❤️

09/23/2025

I am OBSESSED with the brain and learning! 🧠

I got Your Fantastic Elastic Brain my last year in the classroom and my fourth graders loved it! It was a great way to have conversations about growth mindset, the importance of struggle in learning and how we can help our brain remember information.

Now, as a presenter to teachers, I cannot share this book enough. We all need to learn how important our brains are in learning… especially when we crafting our lessons.

And just the other day I was strolling through the book store and found the second book! This one is about what happens to our brains at night…. I seriously can’t get enough.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

Tie this book in with;
• main idea and details
• cause and effect and sequencing structures
• sentence level comprehension
• text features
• author’s craft

09/06/2025

Building comprehension and grammar with a simple 5 minute literacy warm-up in upper elementary.

Full year of Syntax Scramble available in Bridging Literacy for members. The sentences are scaffolded to build complexity all year long.

08/14/2025

Do you have a favorite tool?

04/22/2025

Items added to the Bridging Literacy Community recently:

Not a member? Comment ‘BLC’ to signup and gain access to these and MANY MANY more resources… plus our summer ☀️ bonuses (cancel at anytime).

1. Testing Treat Tags! Print and add the treat on student desks. Comes with 12 options.

2. Reflection posters that also come with bulletin board letters.

3. NEW coaching calls and self-reflection on key literacy components.

4. Prefix mid— added with cards, student practice pages and more!

5. Proficiency rubrics for each grade (3rd-6th) on RI.3

6-8. Graphic organizers for teaching reading informational anchor 3

9. Earth Day poem 🌎

04/19/2025

If your students are forgetting, freezing, or tuning out—this might be why. 👇
 Cognitive load is real—and when we don’t account for it, learning suffers.
 Even the most engaging lesson can fall flat if we overload working memory, skip retrieval practice, or ask kids to passively absorb too much.

In this post, I’m sharing 3 of the most common ways cognitive overload shows up—and simple shifts you can make to support your students better.

Because if the brain can’t hold it… the student can’t learn it. 
Let’s teach in a way the brain can keep up with. 💡
  📌 Save this for your next unit review  💬 Drop a 💡 if you’ve seen one of these signs in your classroom  🎧 More strategies in Episode 001 of Teaching Made Simple (available on Apple and Spotify)

04/18/2025

You’ve heard of the Science of Reading… but have you heard of the Science of Learning?

The Science of Reading is essential. It helps us understand how kids learn to read—and how to teach them with clarity and confidence.

But reading is only one part of the bigger picture.

The Science of Learning pulls together research from psychology, neuroscience, and education to answer a different question:

🧠 How do students process, retain, and apply information—across every subject?

In my first episode of the Teaching Made Simple podcast, I’m breaking down the difference between the two, and why both matter.

Because if we want students to truly thrive, we have to go beyond decoding. We have to teach them how to learn.

💾 Save this for your next team meeting

👯‍♀️ Tag a teacher who’s ready to dig deeper

🎧 Listen to Episode 001 of Teaching Made Simple for the full breakdown!

Comment ‘podcast’ and I’ll send you the link!

02/17/2025

Mentor as Examples 📚

Conducted a training last week on SPICEing up writing instruction. There were so many parts of the session I loved but taking time to explore mentor texts and identify crafts was probably the highlight.

Participants chose a text and used the author’s craft checklist to highlight the crafts that were evident in the texts. These can then be tapped inside of books for students to view as they look at books for inspiration. 💕 (thanks to for sharing this idea).

Consider the power of being able to collaborate and share texts to support your instruction. This can easily be integrated into a PLC or grade level discussion.

Resource is available in the Bridging Literacy Community.

02/11/2025

I lived by the GRR model in my teaching, because it worked by supporting explicit and systematic instruction.
And it seems simple enough, right?

• I Do
• We Do
• Y’all Do (or You All Do… for those who are not from the south)
• You Do

But while it seems simple, you might actually be making some small errors that is preventing students from gaining independence and learning the skill you are teaching.

I’ll share more about the GRR model and how the role of the teacher and student can help shift your perspective!

Be sure to follow!

07/30/2024

It’s happening 🎉 Be sure to subscribe 🎥

Address

Shiremanstown, PA

Website

http://www.bridgingliteracy.com/

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