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Reading Inspires is Reading Is Fundamental’s new podcast celebrating the power of books and the joy of reading. Each episode invites educators, librarians, families, authors, illustrators, and all who champion children’s literacy to explore one big question: What does reading inspire for you? Through engaging conversations and storytelling, Reading Inspires bridges the gap between research and real-world practice—showing what literacy looks and feels like in classrooms, libraries, and homes. Grounded in evidence yet open-ended in approach, this is a space for curiosity and connection. Whether you’re an educator seeking fresh ideas, a parent hoping to spark a love of reading, or simply a lifelong bookworm, you’ll find inspiration, practical insights, and stories that remind us all why reading matters—and how it changes lives.
Welcome to Reading Inspires by Reading Is Fundamental.
I'm your host, Dr. Erin Bailey.
This podcast celebrates the power of books and the joy of reading.
In each episode, we talk with educators, librarians, families, authors, and literacy champions to explore one big question: What does reading inspire for you?
Through stories, research, and real-world experiences from classrooms, libraries, and homes, we explore what literacy looks like and why it matters.
Whether you're nurturing young readers, shaping learning spaces, or simply love a good book, we're glad you're here.
Be sure to subscribe to get the latest episode.
Let's get inspired.
Erin Bailey: Welcome, everyone.
Today we are joined by Doctors Chase Young from Sam Houston State University, Seth Parsons and Allison Ward Parsons, both from George Mason University, and they
are here to talk about their book, which I have right here, Artfully Teaching Reading with Project-Based Learning and the Future of Engaging Literacy Instruction.
I will be sure to link it for everyone below.
But welcome, thanks for joining us
Dr. Chase Young: Thank you.
So good to be here, Ranen.
Thank you for having us
Seth Parsons: Yes, thank you
Erin Bailey: love for each of you to start with just a brief intro about yourself, share how your experiences in literacy education and teacher prep shaped your passion for reimagining literacy instruction.
So I'll start with you, Chase, and then we can pass the baton
Dr. Chase Young: Sure.
Okay.
I'm Chase, and let's see, it all began when I was younger, and I wasn't a very good reader.
I was kind of a struggling reader, reluctant reader.
Then I became a teacher and realized I wasn't a very good literacy teacher either.
So I continued to learn, go to school, go to professional development, and try to figure out how I can help my kids become better readers.
And I think one of the things I learned along the way is motivation and engagement goes a really long way along with just knowing how to teach the foundational skills of reading and help kids become better readers.
So formerly, I was an elementary school teacher, and now I teach teachers how to teach kids how to read
Erin Bailey: Amazing.
I also used to teach teachers how to teach kids to read, and like, I mean, your experience, I found that some of the best reading teachers are those who struggled to learn to read themselves.
The empathy is there, and then they had to learn, to your point, how to motivate and engage themselves, and then they're excellent at doing that with their students
Dr. Chase Young: So that's how it happened.
I love it.
thanks for that
Erin Bailey: I'll hand it over to you, Seth
Seth Parsons: Sure.
So my experience sounds very similar to what Chase just described.
In my very first year teaching, I applied to and entered a reading specialist master's program because it didn't take me long in the classroom to realize that I was not adequately prepared to meet all my students' needs and to teach them all how to read.
And then when I got into my master's program, I really fell in love and just became really curious and committed to enhancing literacy teaching and learning
Erin Bailey: Yeah, same.
I started off in special education, and then I was kind of at a crossroads.
Like, do I wanna do, continue special education, like very broadly, or do I wanna do a master's in reading instruction?
And so I went to my principal at the time, and she was like, "Do reading instruction. We need that so much."
And I, I also fell in love, so very similar.
How about you, Allison?
Allison Ward Parsons: So I might be the odd one out.
Won't be the first time.
But I've always loved reading.
I was the kid under the covers with the flashlight from, like, age five on.
I've always loved to read.
And I also taught kindergarten and, like the others, noticed really quickly that I did not know how to teach reading, which broke my heart because I loved it and I wanted my kids to love it, too.
I taught in a Title I school, and I learned very quickly that not only did I not know what I was doing, if I didn't come up with something really good, really fast, my kids would crawl away and go off and do other things.
And so I leaned really hard into my theater background to pull together what I hoped was fun and also effective.
And I made really good friends with the first-grade teacher next door, who was teaching her kids phonics at a time when phonics really wasn't taught very specifically.
And I learned so much from my first-grade colleagues to make sure that I knew what to do for my kindergartners.
And then, you know, grad school and all the rest of it, so yeah, here we are.
Erin Bailey: I love that you leaned into your theater background, 'cause one of my favorite classes in undergrad I studied education in undergrad, was Theater for Educators, and my instructor just brought it to life for me.
I loved it, and I also appreciate the way you described the kindergarten teacher was teaching phonics and no one else was, because I hear that so much.
It's like there were these teachers who were off in the corners teaching phonics when no one else was.
And now everyone teaches phonics, which… But they don't always do it very engaging.
So I think that brings us perfectly to the topic of your book.
So I have to ask, why this book?
Why now?
What inspired the three of you to come together and write Artfully Teaching Reading with Project Based Learning, and why does this feel like an important moment in education to bring, I'm gonna say bring back the creativity and project-based learning
into literacy conversations?
Dr. Chase Young: Well, why this book?
Why now?
Why not?
But really, it's much needed right now.
We have got that content down.
Our re- the research is out there.
People are really starting to, you know, be able to understand the concepts of teaching kids how to read, the foundational skills, and helping them develop into better readers.
But I think what we've done is we've lost kids along the way because we forgot that they were humans, that they're active, that they crave you know, excitement, activity, movement.
That's where their joy comes from.
Like, they, we you know, I observe classrooms quite a bit, and I have my own kids that that are in school, and that spark isn't there.
It really isn't.
And I'm not saying that's true everywhere you go, but unfortunately… And it's not the teacher's fault at all.
I mean, we have all these standards and requirements coming from above and from behind us and from every side of us, which is squeezing out these, the motivation, the movement, the activity the authentic learning that kids love so much.
And honestly, it's making kids not like school all that much.
And that's really sad.
I hate to think about kids going to school and believing that it's… I don't wanna sound extreme, but sometimes I think it's ruining it's stealing from their childhood.
Going to school every day for eight hours a day, being bored, being yelled at having to sit for eight hours straight, I don't think that's right.
It's just not something we should do.
So, so kind of what the idea was with Seth and Allison is to take all of those, that amazing research, what we know works in reading instruction, and bring in the creative and the
authentic and the aesthetic aspects of reading curriculum and create lessons and approaches, activities, projects that kids are gonna love, that they're gonna want to participate in.
They're gonna want to learn.
They're gonna use what they learn, and it's gonna be in a way that's, has more movement, more engagement, and I think that's what's missing in instruction.
So that is primarily why we wrote this book, not only to give you ideas, but to inspire you to create your own and make your classroom a more actively engaged one.
Erin Bailey: Yeah I, gosh, I've been thinking about this topic so much lately, and I feel like we have known the research for so long.
It seems like with the science of reading movement, we're in kind of a literacy reform era if I can.
But I think what's happening, to your point, is, like, the art of teaching in, in, you know, trying to get the science of teaching down, we're losing the art of teaching a little bit.
I feel like we're being a little bit too prescriptive with teachers, and then they're afraid maybe to try things outside the box.
And that's what I appreciate about the way you wrote your book is that it does give the background and how this is research-backed, but it's almost like it gives teachers permission or maybe even an invitation
to be a little bit more creative with their instruction, but also to show their supervisors, their administrators like, "Hey, what I'm doing is creative, it's artful, it's playful, but it's also research-backed."
Dr. Chase Young: Mm-hmm.
Amen.
Amen to all of that.
That's well said.
Erin Bailey: So let's think about this word that you use a lot.
I know, Chase, you've s- said it in webinars before, but this idea of synergistic teaching and project-based learning.
So Seth, how do you define those two terms, especially for those who might not be familiar in the context of elementary literacy instruction, and what does it look like in a classroom?
Seth Parsons: S- sure.
So synergistic instruction really starts with the students.
We- we're dealing in a human endeavor, you know.
We children vary widely from classroom to classroom, from context to context.
So starting with the children before us and what knowledge, skills, and strategies those students need to advance their reading.
So that's our starting place.
But then we pull from what we already know about evidence-based approaches to teaching reading.
So really tapping into that research on research-based practice, but not just research pra- practice in learning to read.
We're also looking at research-based practices and principles of motivation and engagement.
I, I was so struck by the science of reading movement and how it really leveraged research.
You know, it was putting research at the center, but what I didn't see at all was any attention to motivation and engagement, but there's tons of research on motivation and engagement too.
So, a slight plug, I I wrote a article with Joy Erickson that was in Phi Delta Kappa Magazine titled Where Is Motivation in the Science of Reading?
But that was my response to we know a lot about how to motivate humans, how to motivate children, what motivating and engaging instruction looks like, but we're not paying attention to that research.
We're just paying attention to the research on reading acquisition.
So synergistic instruction brings together all of that the specific children we're working with, and then research coming not just from reading acquisition, but also motivational principles as well.
And project-based instruction really embodies that synergy because the kids are doing doing literacy.
So one of the key defining features of project-based instruction is that there's some sort of product.
The kids are creating something, they're completing something, so they're moving towards some end goal.
And then within that, the more we can pull in student choice to really capitalize on their autonomy and their ability to be autonomous individuals
in the classroom, and collaboration, building on learning and literacy as social activities And lastly, I wanna really highlight authenticity.
Far too often in school, especially in the current context what kids are doing in the name of reading and writing are school-based activities.
They don't look like anything anyone would do as a literate act outside of school.
But the more we can move towards real-world uses of reading and writing, the more likely kids are t- able to see what this act is all about.
But if all they know is that, you know, C-H makes the ch sound, that doesn't get-- that's essential knowledge they Absolutely.
have to have, but we can teach that within contexts and projects in which they see the relevance to it beyond simply because they were told to in this particular context
Erin Bailey: Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more as someone who also does research on reading motivation and engagement.
It's not often included in what's considered the body of the science of reading, yet there is empirical research on motivation engagement.
So I couldn't agree more.
I used-- When I taught reading specialists, I used to do an assignment towards the end of the semester where I would pass out two articles, and one I told them, "This is a literacy article.
It's like many of the articles that we've read before in the class." And then another one was a article that I would pull from an accounting journal. And most of
these were teachers who didn't have a background in accounting, and I'd have them read the two articles side by side and then talk about like, "Did you understand it?
What was your process?" And then pull up the science of reading kind of framework and say, "Well, what did you see?" And some of them would say, "The
accounting article, like, I started it, but honestly, when- once you told me it was from an accounting journal, I didn't even care and I didn't read it.
It wasn't relevant to me."
And so therefore, the comprehension was just not there.
But where does that piece fit in kind of these anchors of the science of reading?
I don't think we talk about that enough.
Allison Ward Parsons: And you know what's crazy about that is motivation and engagement are part of the National Reading Panel report, but it's the part that, like writing, doesn't get enough attention
Erin Bailey: Yes.
Seth Parsons: It didn't get a pillar
Erin Bailey: Yeah, it
Allison Ward Parsons: you got to get a pillar.
Erin Bailey: didn't get its own pillar.
Allison Ward Parsons: One of those foundational things.
Erin Bailey: I'd like
Dr. Chase Young: out of killers that day.
They only had five
Allison Ward Parsons: Sorry.
Seth Parsons: something funny
Erin Bailey: I love to add that, like, technology was also in there and teacher prep was in there, but those also didn't get…
Dr. Chase Young: Fresh out of pillars
Allison Ward Parsons: I made my own version with foundation and a roof and some other
Erin Bailey: Oh, there you go.
Allison Ward Parsons: Yeah.
Dr. Chase Young: Be like a birdhouse, you know, out
Allison Ward Parsons: we can put a birdhouse.
Dr. Chase Young: that?
A tree
Erin Bailey: A tree is a good image, yeah.
Love that.
'Cause it keeps growing, c- because we keep learning more, right?
Dr. Chase Young: Right.
That foundational house is missing landscaping
Erin Bailey: Mm-hmm.
So Alison many educators, as I mentioned before, they feel pressure.
They're prioritizing their pacing guides, their assessment schedule, the scripted curricula that are becoming so popular right now.
Why do you feel like project-based learning is still essential for developing strong readers and thinkers and communicators?
Allison Ward Parsons: So I think that's a super important consideration right now because we are in this current scripted age, if you will.
And in my way of thinking, project-based literacy instruction slides right into the pacing guides.
It slides right into the scope and sequence that teachers are required to use.
And the scope and sequence is important because we do want that systematic and explicit instruction, but there's only so many drills you can do.
There's only so many worksheets you can do.
And so in addition to the required curriculum materials that people have to use, our activities slide right into that.
So in addition to the requirements, add in something fun.
We've got this systematic routine that will help teachers, you know, prioritize the learning while they're making it engaging and interesting for students, and frankly, for themselves.
We want our teachers engaged just as much as we want our kids engaged because that's contagious.
When teachers are interested in what they're doing, students are so much more likely to pay attention and remember it.
And so the project-based activities that we've got in the book bring it all together, and it goes back to that synergy.
You know, it's the students and the teachers, and Yes
the curriculum too.
So it, it work- works really well as part of a holistic approach.
Erin Bailey: That's what I loved about this too.
Like, you could fit this into your pacing guide, right?
It's not prescriptive.
You're not saying, like, "Here's the scope and sequence of it." It's like, "Here are some ideas, some activities.
Here's how they're research-based, and you can kind of slide it in where you want." Do you feel like it's also motivating for students to kind of
endure is probably too strong of a word, but go through the direct instruction if they know that there's going to be an engaging game or project at the end?
It's like, to your point, Seth, like, we're gonna learn C-H makes a ch sound, and we're gonna p- you know, practice it a little bit, and at the end we're gonna play a game.
Like, is that motivating for students?
Allison Ward Parsons: a spoonful of sugar, you know
Dr. Chase Young: Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, think about when you go play laser tag.
You gotta sit in that room first and listen to the directions and the rules.
And they all sit there, close their mouths and listen because they're gonna enter a crazy black lit room, running around, shooting all their friends.
It's gonna be great, but they gotta listen to the rules first.
And so am I comparing our instruction to laser tag?
I am
Erin Bailey: I love that.
And
Allison Ward Parsons: But with that
Erin Bailey: Yeah it's a great analogy, and it's true for almost everything in life too, right?
And it's like we don't want to, we don't want it to be one way.
We want students to be able to sit through a five-minute lesson that might include some direct instruction, like to your point, Chase.
You're gonna have to do that in a lot of things in life, and you want to be engaged.
'Cause I also and you use this word in your book, which I greatly appreciate, like we don't want our instruction to be boring.
We also don't want students to think that they're just gonna be entertained all the time.
Seth Parsons: Right
Dr. Chase Young: Right.
That's true.
Not every day should be renewing your driver's license,
Erin Bailey: Yes.
Exactly
Allison Ward Parsons: them to have that, we want them to…
Dr. Chase Young: got to
Oh, I see
Allison Ward Parsons: Yeah.
No, we want students to understand, you know, proper mouth formation.
Where do you form the sound in your mouth?
What's the graphophonemic relationship?
We want all of that.
We want the morphological instruction, But there's no reason why we can't inject some interest to it as well so that there's maybe not a method to the madness, but definitely something to look forward to and a reason to use it
Dr. Chase Young: Yeah.
And Allison, you said you alluded to this, and I say it all the time, if you're bored delivering a lesson, imagine how your students feel.
Erin Bailey: Yeah
Dr. Chase Young: I mean, you're the adult and they're six.
Allison Ward Parsons: Yeah
Dr. Chase Young: The fact that they behave for any amount of time during that lesson is a miracle
Allison Ward Parsons: Right.
Right.
And frankly, I don't know how many people grew up wanting to be teachers so they could read a script.
Erin Bailey: Ooh.
Allison Ward Parsons: Just saying
Dr. Chase Young: I did.
I'm kidding.
Erin Bailey: No, it's it's very true.
I always think teaching, especially if you teach multi- like, if you teach the s- sixth grade ELA, let's say, and you teach a couple different sessions, it's almost like stand-up.
Like, you kinda have the same materials, but based on your audience, it might change slightly and you get better over time.
Like, that last period, woof, they get the good version.
Dr. Chase Young: That's right.
Those dynamic pivots are crucial in artful instruction.
We make those shifts for our students
Erin Bailey: think the other point that you bring, like I like your example, Allison of the mouth positions.
It's kind of the level of enthusiasm the teacher brings to it too.
Because like personally, I love looking at mouth, mouth shapes while saying the, you know, phonemes.
And I would have little mirrors that I would use with my younger students, and just like bring a lot of enthusiasm to it and say things like, "Did you know your chin drops like when you're breaking a syllable?
Like try it, it's so cool." And like it's something that maybe isn't that cool to some people, but when it, when you're passionate about something it's contagious
Allison Ward Parsons: Yes.
Yes.
If we're excited, they're more likely to be excited
Erin Bailey: Exactly.
So let's talk about research.
We talked about how, you know, phonics instruction has been a little bit boring lately maybe.
Let's talk about research-based and joyful.
This is something that Reading is Fundamental is very strong on.
It's bringing the science of reading to the joy of reading.
So Chase, how can educators balance evidence-based literacy instruction with creativity, inquiry, collaboration, and fun?
And can you give some examples maybe?
Dr. Chase Young: Yeah, sure.
So one thing we wanna understand about the book is it's not all just projects, right?
It's more like we have some projects and some are more like m- you know, active lessons, activities.
So they kinda, they're … it's not what you would think of as, like, typical project-based learning, right?
Like, we want this to be understood as what project-based learning might be.
You know, it starts with the research and what they're supposed to be learning.
So, I'll get on with it.
So for example, we have to teach the R-controlled vowel, right?
We have to teach that.
That's, you know, I'm the teacher.
I look at my scope and sequence.
It's the IR R-controlled vowel or the AR, whatever it happens to be.
And I'm like, "Great, cool.
I know my students need to know this.
Research says that they need to know this.
Systematic teaching of phonics is supposedly very important.
Let's do this.
Let's follow that sequence.
Absolutely.
But how can I also make this engaging for my students?
How can I bring in some sort of artful,
playful way to practice and demonstrate my learning?" And you may … I- in the book we use the example of, okay, so let's explicitly teach IR R-controlled vowel.
Let's write it let's chant it, let's let's make, draw it in the air.
Let's hear it, read it, see it, all sorts of things repeatedly.
Delete sounds, add sounds.
But then what are we gonna do with it?
Okay.
Well, let's generate a list.
Oh, and IR R-controlled vowel words are perfect for tongue twisters.
They're really hard to say all in a row.
So we generate all these words that we've been practicing reading, we've been mapping the IR within the word.
We see it.
We're, … And then we just maybe put together some sort of tongue twister.
The girl chirped and the twirling bird worked.
And so it has all these R-controlled vowels, and it's perfect for that.
So now we practice saying it three times.
We're laughing, we're giggling.
We maybe challenge teachers around the building or other folks to try to pronounce it.
We laugh at them.
But r- and maybe we rehearse to the point where we're really good at it and we go to another classroom and we read that out loud.
And to the kids, they're just having a blast.
They're rehearsing tongue twisters and laughing at adults who can't read them so well and taking their show on the road.
But really what's happening is that they're learning R-controlled vowels.
Allison Ward Parsons: Okay.
Dr. Chase Young: And then they're practicing and demonstrating their ability to read them in engaging- And fun ways, dare I say fun, using that F word.
It, it can be fun, right?
So all of that is part of the scope and sequence that the teacher looked at in their curriculum and said, "Okay, I'm gonna do this lesson on IR.
But then I'm gonna take an extra 10 minutes and I'm going to sh- turn these words we've been learning into tongue twisters, and I'm
gonna have one teacher read them, and then I'm gonna go to one classroom and we're all gonna chorally read it together." And that's it.
It's something as simple as that.
Maybe you're reading a story the next day, one of choice to have them share this great learning, or, you know, just reading experience, kick back.
But every time you hear an R-controlled vowel, I want you to go arr, like a pirate.
Just that stuff way back in the day when we were going on a bear hunt, you know?
And we're all swinging our arms, and we're going under rivers and all sorts of stuff, those types of things.
It doesn't have to be monumental.
It just has to be some sort of tiny little tweak to have the kids lean in again, have them make them want to learn again.
And I promise you, I don't know a single text- textbook company that does that well.
Therefore, this is where we invite you, we enlist you, we implore you, we require you to put little spins on the curriculum that you have in order to engage the students.
And a lot of times that comes out in their practice and their demonstration of their learning.
So sure, you may have that lesson that says, "This is exactly how we're going to teach it," but then you can slightly deviate with, "Okay, how are we gonna practice it in an engaging way?
And how am I gonna demonstrate my mastery or my learning in an engaging way?" So there's one example for you
Erin Bailey: I love those.
You have a lot of great examples in the book too.
I love the would you rather.
I actually started playing would you rather with my daughter after reading that chapter.
But it's funny, it … A lot of these examples remind me of my first year teaching, actually, when I tried really hard to make things fun for my students.
And I remember w- you know, we were doing a grammar lesson on, like, plural nouns, and I had them do a rap battle about plural nouns.
And I, I don't know if anybody else has shared this experience, but I feel like sometimes the more … And that this was before my master's in reading instruction, but here I was doing a rap battle of plural nouns.
But, like, the more I learned, it's almost like sometimes my first year teaching I actually knew what I was doing.
I had to, like, unlearn some of the stuff that I learned, if that makes sense.
That maybe that's the book I'm gonna write, like, everything I ac- my first year teaching I actually really knew I was doing,
Dr. Chase Young: what I was
Erin Bailey: go back to that.
Dr. Chase Young: Bringing back the pizzazz of your first year to your 40th year
Erin Bailey: exactly
Dr. Chase Young: It's true though, because we get in and we're like, "Oh, we can make up all these wonderful games and gamify all of our instruction and bring in all this
engagement." And that's what my first year was too, you know, besides learning classroom management and how to teach kids how to read, and how to deal with parents as a 22-year-old.
There was a lot going on, obviously.
But you're absolutely right.
So the rap battles are great ways.
I mean, the, you talked about the would you rather.
Would you rather is a perfect compare and contrast.
In the book, we teach you how to use would you rather to teach CVC and CVCE words.
We also later use would you rather to teach Greek and Latin roots.
I mean, we take what the kids… and you need to do this, teachers, with what are your students like?
I don't know what they're gonna like whenever you listen to this.
I mean, 6-7's over.
I don't know what's happening in the future.
It's coming around.
So this is kind of a timeless thing where you say, "Okay, what's going on now, and how do I engage my students?"
And would you rather is something that my students absolutely love.
And when I go and share these with teachers, they love it too.
And I love that they love it, because then they're gonna share that love with their students, and they're gonna love it, and there's just be so much love.
Erin Bailey: Yes, it's perfect.
But it, y- it, you're right, like you almost get so bogged down with the I need to do this, I need to follow this scope and sequence, I need to do this, and this, that you kind of forget about maybe some of the initial creativity.
And to your point, I think Allison, you said like nobody went into teaching to read a script
Dr. Chase Young: Right.
Unless they were a theater teacher
Erin Bailey: Maybe.
Allison Ward Parsons: So there is that.
There is that.
But then they wouldn't be listening to this, so,
Dr. Chase Young: That's true
Erin Bailey: This is true.
So I do wanna pull on that thread a little bit Allison, because you brought up your theater background earlier.
The word artfully is in the tile, title here.
So what kind of role does creativity, performance, storytelling, and art play in how we keep children motivated?
Allison Ward Parsons: I think it's a critical piece, and I don't think we're seeing enough of it in classrooms right now.
So basically, it comes down to when we give students an opportunity to be creative, it pulls on something in them that gives them ownership over their learning, and it gives them that opportunity to think, "What do I know about this?
What matters to me?" And it showcases their learning and their knowledge for their teachers and for each other in a way that a paper and pencil test may not bring.
And so when we bring in our creativity into these activities and the teachers take them and they adapt them to meet their students' needs, because again, that- that's part of the synergistic teaching, you adapt for your learners.
You know your students by name and by skill, and you take these activities and you tweak them.
Okay, you've shown your creativity as a teacher.
Now students show their creativity too.
It gives them ownership, it motivates them, and it engages them in a way that makes them more likely to seek information, make new connections, and most importantly, transfer that understanding across content areas.
You know, when you're in kindergarten teaching, you know, one of the first things I was taught is make sure your kids learn these things, and you can do it through make sure they can eat it, sing it, paint it, and play it.
Okay, fine, but that still applies to the second graders, the fourth graders, the sixth graders.
When they're having fun
with it, they're thinking about not only what does it mean, but what can I riff on?
How can I take this further?
One of my favorites in here is activity number 13, which is conveniently scary stories, morphology, and vocabulary.
Sorry, scary stories, vocabulary, and morphology.
And I love this one because it's pulling in spooky vocabulary as we attack affix understanding, and we give them a reason to take the affixes off.
So we have the root word, the prefix, the suffix.
But they're dissecting words here.
So it's not just, okay, break apart the word into the chunks you know.
Cool, we can do that, but it's more fun and it's more interesting and more creative to have them dissect the words on the word surgery mat, which
is a graphic organizer where they're dissecting the vocabulary word into the prefix, the root, and the suffix with the meaning and the visual.
So Yeah they're doing an activity that is probably in their required curriculum, but they're not thinking of themself as A word surgeon.
They're not thinking themself as a morphologist who can slice apart and examine the guts of a word.
so much more fun.
That's so much more creative.
I want to do this.
I don't want to just take off the beginning, take off the end, and here's my root, blah, blah, blah.
I want to surgically dissect this word, and all of the other words, and really get into their guts and figure out the meanings.
That makes me more interested in then writing them and putting them into a story because it's not
Dr. Chase Young: scary story,
Erin Bailey: A scary story,
Allison Ward Parsons: yes, because, you know, you have to read them and write them in order to really learn them.
So that's what we're doing in these activities.
But really, we're opening the doors for teachers to be creative themselves.
Erin Bailey: Yes, absolutely.
I, that was the sense that I got from it.
Like, e- even the way you've written the book, it doesn't feel prescriptive, and I think that's what teachers need a break from right now.
It's felt more like an invitation
Allison Ward Parsons: Yes.
Yeah.
It's a hall pass.
Erin Bailey: Yeah, there you go.
I love it.
So maybe each of you can share, like, what is one kind of takeaway that you would hope that educators w- will get from this book, especially if they're feeling overwhelmed or maybe even afraid by these scripted curriculums, mandates?
And I'm not saying those are all terrible either, but what advice would you give?
Dr. Chase Young: One of the things that I want teachers to hear, and it's loosely related to this book, but it's certainly related to everything, is it's not that serious, guys.
It's not that serious.
We are taking this far too seriously.
While it is extremely important that we educate our kids and we help them become literate individuals, we are taking the approach far too serious.
It doesn't have to be boring.
Please, have a good time.
Remember why you signed up for this.
Look at your kids.
Are they smiling?
Are they engaged?
Are they enjoying being in your class?
It is downright criminal to allow the feds, the state, these external pressures, assessments, the standards, curriculum to, to destroy these poor kids.
You are, you're the only one that can save them.
You have to remember that it's not that serious.
And plus, there's, like, a teacher shortage.
What are they gonna do, fire you?
Just,
Erin Bailey: Heaven is…
Dr. Chase Young: kidding.
I'm not…
Erin Bailey: You heard it from Chase, not
Dr. Chase Young: You're… Just have them call me.
But seriously, like, enjoy yourself and let your kids enjoy learning.
Remember that's what it's all about
Seth Parsons: And I, I would build on that and encourage teachers to remember who we're working with.
I think of a lot of times in a lot of these conversations and stuff, we forget that we're dealing with six, seven, and eight-year-olds.
And if you get six, seven, and eight-year-olds outside of a school setting, what do they act like?
Like, they're little goofballs.
They have fun, they laugh, they, they love to be with each other and do social endeavors.
And a- as reading teachers, we, we really have-- we're lucky in the sense that books, stories, writing, these are all fun things to do.
Let's lean into that.
Let's capitalize on the fact that we're dealing with stories and children.
Those are fun, enjoyable things.
Let's capitalize on that and not get overly serious about about the outcomes.
Not that it's not serious.
Kids learning to read is vitally important, but we don't have to do it in such a way it's almost like we're shooting ourselves in the foot-
feet with the students by having this sort of low-level scripted sort of approach to reading, and then we're doing it to teachers as well.
We're talking about a teacher shortage.
This doesn't inspire the next generation of teachers.
I, I've heard way too many teachers say, "I'm thinking of hanging it up." And it's this latest literacy tying of our hands and restricting what we're allowed to do, what we're allowed to say, what we're allowed to teach has really sucked the joy out of it.
And that's a shame because w- we can do a lot better because what we're operating with children and literacy.
Those are fun things
Erin Bailey: I know.
I love that.
Just remembering your audience, they're children
Dr. Chase Young: Yes, they're kids.
They're kids
Allison Ward Parsons: They're kids, and we want them to be lifelong learners, and we want them to be the people who will pick up a book after they finish high school.
And there's this really abysmal statistic of this tiny little percentage of folks who actually read a book when they're done with school.
When the parents aren't reading and the adults aren't reading, how are we gonna expect children to read?
If we're sucking the fun out of it in school, they're not gonna be likely to ask for a book for a gift or pick up a book on their own on a rainy day.
And so for me, that's really important.
You know, I love to read, and I don't want to be the only one in the room who loves to read.
I want to talk about my books.
And so when we have opportunities where we can inject some fun in, we're building that motivation and we're building the next generation of readers, and to me, that's what it's about.
It's that next generation of readers
Erin Bailey: Yeah.
And I think to your point, reading should be a social activity and we don't often promote it as being that, and that's part of the engagement.
Like, I don't wanna be the only person in the room who likes to read.
I wanna talk about the books.
I wanna share the books that I love.
I often say we think that reading just happens between the author, the reader, and the text, but there's actually, like, this larger world and these communities that ha- take place through reading.
And I'll share the example.
Like, I have a reading group.
It's an international reading group.
We've been meeting on Zoom for, like, five years now.
And sometimes we show up and 90% of the time we are not talking about what we read.
Like, we might start talking about it and then get on something else.
But that is actually the power of reading because we started a book club and it created this powerful social connection for us
Dr. Chase Young: Mm-hmm.
Allison Ward Parsons: That's really cool.
Dr. Chase Young: I love that.
I love that.
These are great messages for everyone.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah
Erin Bailey: So if you thought that question was difficult, I'm gonna hit you with the final question, which everyone finds very difficult.
I'm gonna mix it up a little bit.
So I typically ask everyone, what does reading inspire for you?
Although we just came, you know, we just ended teacher appreciation week, and so I've been thinking about this question a lot.
If you wanna answer as what does reading inspire for you, feel free.
But I was also thinking, like, who inspired you to love reading?
Like, instead of, like, what does it inspire, like, who?
So up to you how you wanna answer it, but we can start with you, Seth
Seth Parsons: Sure.
I'll put a big shout out to my mom, Sally Parsons.
I was a reluctant reader.
I didn't struggle to read, but I was not gonna pick up a book.
The second I got home from school, I was outside heading to find my friends to play in the woods, to build a fort, to play basketball, whatever.
But my mom was relentless in putting books Sports Illustrated for Kids subscriptions, outdoor life for kids, and that Geo for kids.
So she just knew the importance of reading, and my grandmother was a fourth-grade teacher as well.
And they whipped out all the stops to put texts in my hands that I would actually read.
I was huge into Little League, loved baseball.
They gave me a Babe Ruth autobiography.
I loved that, and then came the Frank Robinson autobiography.
So, my mom was w- well-intentioned and able to get me to really see value and actually pick something up and read it by my own volition, not being required to.
So thank you, Mom
Dr. Chase Young: Nice well, I guess I can thank a chain reaction of events.
Again, I struggled and I was also very reluctant.
I just didn't see what it was.
I could fake reading all I wanted.
I remember in fifth grade pulling out a passage from The Sign of the Beaver.
I had never read it, but I just looked at one, like, phrase and then wrote this heartwarming connection to it.
My teacher's like, "Oh, this is so amazing." I guess I can thank … So one of the times I was suspended from school in middle school my my mo- my
parents said I had to read a book, and then they put it in my brother's hands to decide what that I might like, 'cause my brother's a big reader.
And and the first book did not really work.
It was a Dean Koontz book, and I didn't understand it.
But then smartly he, my brother, hooked me on, asked me to read the beginning of a book in a very long series.
Turns out I loved that book, and then I had no choice but to read the 30 some odd … It was the Shannara series by Terry Brooks it was a fantasy series.
And so then I got … Then it took me years to, to finish my punishment for being suspended that one time.
So, thank you to my school for kicking me out and my parents for making me read as a punishment, my, my brother for identifying what I might like
Erin Bailey: Love it.
Great Oscar speech too.
Allison Ward Parsons: Well, I'm gonna sound like a big nerd now.
So,
again, the flashlight, the covers, my mom used to always read.
She al- and she still does.
She always had a book in her hand.
And, you know, that's just what we did.
You know, the TV might have been on, but she was reading a book.
I'm like, "All right, cool."
My first grade teacher, Anne Klein, really inspired it.
She didn't she didn't make me read the basal beyond what we had to do for those reading lessons in class, and she let me go to the library whenever I was finished with my work.
And I'll say, as a procrastinating little six-year-old, that was the only thing that got me to finish most of the rest of my classwork.
But being able to go to the library and just sit there and read books all day was kind of my dream as a first grader.
So thanks, Ms. Klein.
Erin Bailey: Aw.
I love it.
Thank you all so much.
I'm feeling really inspired too, especially as a parent with three young children, that you all thanked family members, and I hope, you know, 20 years
from now, 30 years from now, if they're asked what inspired, who inspired you to read or what inspired you to read, that I play a role in that as well.
So, parents are very powerful
Allison Ward Parsons: Yes.
Yeah.
Parents and teachers.
Dr. Chase Young: Awesome.
Mm-hmm.
Erin Bailey: Thank you all.
Thank you so much.
This was wonderful
Dr. Chase Young: Yeah, thanks for having us.
It was a good time
Thank you for listening to Reading Inspires by Reading Is Fundamental.
I hope today's conversation sparked new ideas, meaningful connections, and a renewed love of reading.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, share it with a fellow literacy champion, and join us next time as we continue exploring what reading inspires