In July of 2023 I had the pleasure of attending the K-2 Phonics Summer Institute with TCRWP. For the last three years or so, the second grade team has been using the Phonics Units of Study and I wanted to explore the curriculum with the experts in order to gain a deeper understanding of their recommended practices in second grade as well as K-2.

Since using this program, one of the things I have struggled with most is time managment. Like much of the TCRWP units, the lessons are wordy and often include a lot of content. One of the most helpful tips that they gave us to manage the time, was to not call on students during the mini lesson. This seems so simple, yet, it goes against what seems natural for me as a teacher. After all, don't we want to hear students voices/thoughts in a whole class setting? Our facilitators maintained, yes, of course you want to hear from your students...during the sharing portion at the end of the lesson. Even then, teachers should tightly control who/what is being shared by previewing what students are discussing ahead of time.

Another facinating tip was that the extensions at the end of each lesson are optional. This came as a surprise to me as some of the extensions do not seem optional - they contain rather important practice and/or concepts. It is suggested that your grade level team should walk through all of the extensions and decide together which ones are most important and which to skip.

Again on the subject of extensions, one facilitator pointed out that TC does offer extension and intervention work. It is included in the Small Group Book. These lessons are not meant for every one, only the students that would benefit from them.

Finally, there was a lot of food for thought around assessment. Below are some bullets I wrote down.

Assessments should be:

• streamlined - get the data and be done

• formal and informal - they are equally important

• engaging and similar to existing work

• both in context and out of context

• standards-based - don't spend time assessing what's not important

The question I left with after the last bullet is: what do we consider not important?

Overall, it was helpful to gather tips from the experts and some validation of some things we already have in place (I gave the Burke's 2nd/3rd team a pat on the back for splitting the 2nd grade curriculum). I have lots of notes to continue sifting through as we move forward with this program!