One response to “The Knowledge Matters School Tour: A Visit to Seven Schools Adopting High-Quality English Language Arts Curricula”

  1. Hello, Barbara-

    Thank you for introducing me to Knowledge Matters Schools, and reviewing for us reactions from (previously unconvinced!) educators.

    Staying patient with schools — teachers and administrators, parents and Boards, varied stakeholders — is paramount during the time and energy it takes to have teachers et al say “‘ I had to see the whole picture.'”

    In education for 30 yeas, 26 of these years in a public high school teaching English/ELA, I have worked with focus and energy to cultivate literacy that is inquiry/broad-based knowledge, diction and varied syntax-rich to build student confidence.

    The amazement I come away with time after time relates to resistance from — not students — but from adults.

    It is the adults who are reluctant to dig down and to think, read, inquire, read again. Students are surprisingly open.

    This may indeed not be news to you, as you travel from district to district, interviewing and leading teachers and admins.!!!

    Simply put, I affirm all that you say within your CenterPoint paper, and am working alongside you and CenterPoint for increasing critical reading/inquiry and confidence building for today’s students — and today’s teachers and districts.

    Sincerely yours,

    Melissa Taylor Bahrs MA,BA
    Teacher Leader, NSTOY- Princeton Chap.
    with
    NJEA Review Vol.September, 2015

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