UnboundEd Blog

Find the latest research, commentary, and resources to empower educators and help all students meet the challenges of higher standards.

Decoding Equitable Phonics Instruction

Tim Shanahan recently posted a blog entry in which he answered a teacher’s question, regarding his “own thinking as well as research referencing the occasional use of decodable texts for small group reading instruction in grades K-2.” Shanahan commented on the research regarding the decodable text part of the request but missed an opportunity to link the text type with …

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3 Things Our ELA Team is Reading Right Now

With the new school year just around the corner (and for some, already beginning), ELA teachers across the country are preparing to usher the next generation further down the path of literacy. To that end, we asked our ELA team to share articles or books that have helped them improve their practice.  Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice …

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The Profound Effects of Language in Both ELA and Math

How do we get students to engage authentically—to genuinely desire to communicate their ideas—in both ELA and math? This is a central question in Dr. Timothy Shanahan’s and Dr. Jeff Zwiers’ keynotes at the summer Standards Institute. United by a desire to improve student outcomes across the country, Shanahan and Zwiers implored participants to examine the role that language, specifically …

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Three Definitions of Equity

We recently sat down with Marc Etienne, Jose Guadarrama, and Norka Padilla to find out how they define equity and what it means in their system and classroom. Marc Etienne – Executive Director for Principal Support and Accountability for Baltimore City Public Schools As the executive director for principal support and accountability for Baltimore City Public Schools, I spend a …

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Interview with Josh Parker

In this episode, Sierah Tyson, the Education Nomad, sits down with Josh Parker of Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior High School in Washington, D.C. to talk about the inextricable link between standards and educational equity.

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