Dyslexia Interventionist Angela Griffith! Episode 100

🎙️ Podcast Episode 100: Unlocking the Power of Structured Literacy with Angela Griffith

Deedee Wills [00:02:33]:

I’m super excited to have Angela Griffith with us. She is an amazing friend, but also the author behind the Daily Alphabet. She has a blog, she has a YouTube channel where she talks about literacy. She’s a national speaker, and she works in schools as an ARI interventionist. And I have to say that really slow because I don’t know what that means.

 

Adam Peterson [00:02:57]:

I don’t either.

 

Deedee Wills [00:02:58]:

In just a second. I cannot wait to find out.

 

Adam Peterson [00:03:00]:

But what else is it? This is episode number 100.

 

Deedee Wills [00:03:07]:

I mean, we were kind of joking that it took many years, many years to get here. However, we’re on a roll. Adam, doing your role, and we’re so excited to have Angela with us for our 100th episode.

 

Adam Peterson [00:03:21]:

Welcome, Angela.

 

Angela Griffith [00:03:22]:

Welcome.

 

Adam Peterson [00:03:22]:

Welcome to the show.

 

Angela Griffith [00:03:23]:

Thank you. Thank you.

 

Adam Peterson [00:03:26]:

Okay. I’m glad Dee said it, because I was gonna say that I didn’t know what Ari stood for either.

 

Deedee Wills [00:03:31]:

Like, what is that?

 

Adam Peterson [00:03:32]:

I just didn’t want to sound like.

 

Deedee Wills [00:03:33]:

The only person that didn’t know. I feel like. I feel like I can figure out the R and the I, but I’m not sure what the A is.

 

Angela Griffith [00:03:41]:

All right, so I’m from Alabama, so AR stands for Alabama Reading Initiative.

 

Adam Peterson [00:03:50]:

So it’s a clever name.

 

Angela Griffith [00:03:52]:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s very tricky, and I also have to say it slowly, but anytime you hear Ari, it’s our reading initiative from the state level.

 

Deedee Wills [00:04:03]:

Okay, so it’s not like, Alaska Reading Initiative?

 

Angela Griffith [00:04:06]:

No. Nope. Alabama.

 

Deedee Wills [00:04:08]:

Okay. I have to tell you, for the I, I was putting interventionist, but that wouldn’t make sense. It would be AL Reading Interventionist. Interventionist. So that would not make sense. So I’m glad that you clarified that. Well, super glad to have you.

 

Angela Griffith [00:04:22]:

Thank you.

 

Adam Peterson [00:04:23]:

Yeah. So is this something new that you’re a part of?

 

Angela Griffith [00:04:27]:

It is. It is. I’ve been a regular interventionist. I didn’t have any fancy initials before the last time I was an interventionist. So this is a new position. Ari is not new, but Ari Interventionist is new.

 

Deedee Wills [00:04:40]:

Okay.

 

Angela Griffith [00:04:41]:

So the goal behind this, our state superintendent of education, he wants more specialized teachers into school districts. So through this position, I’m also being put through CALT training. So CAL is another acronym. It’s C A L, T. And I kept saying caltra. They were like, no, it’s not like salt. It’s calc. And so what that stands for is Certified Academic Language Therapist. So in other words, I’m going through training to be a dyslexia therapist.

 

Adam Peterson [00:05:21]:

Good for you.

 

Deedee Wills [00:05:22]:

Oh, my gosh. That’s amazing. So Angela and I and Adam, we all saw each other in Chicago and. Sorry, I was just. It was a tickle. Now it’s a cough. We saw each other in Chicago, and when Angela and I were kind of talking, she was saying that she was going through this dyslexia training. And I was like, what? And I said, well, are you learning a lot? You know, I was kind of thinking, because Angela is this wealth of knowledge, right? She understands ELA instruction. So I was like, well, I mean, how much more could you possibly know, right? Like, I feel like, you know, sometimes you’re like, your cup is full, right? Like, you know everything. And you were like, oh, no, I am learning so much. So I’d love for us to talk a little bit about maybe some of the aha moments that you’ve had. And then, you know, we’ll talk about anything you want to because we’re here.

 

Adam Peterson [00:06:11]:

Wait, you mean there’s teachers dealing with reading issues right now? What? No, I’m sure teachers want to hear these aha moments for sure.

 

Deedee Wills [00:06:20]:

Yeah, I.

 

Angela Griffith [00:06:22]:

So to get this position, you had to have already gone through letters training? Like, okay, I know a lot about structured literacy. I probably need to learn some more. But I wasn’t sure where I wanted to start. So this program, it gave me a lot of reasons behind why we spell words certain way. Now, I’m still at the very, very beginning. I had a friend. I’ve only been in this position about three months. And she was like, well, do you even know what you’re doing? And I was like, well, yes, they give us training. I know I’m at the beginning and this is a two year journey, so in it for the long haul. But to give you a little bit of a background, my education program, way back when I was in college, it was whole language, so there was no phonics classes. I had no idea about letters and sounds and phonemes. It was all literature circles and books and things like that.

 

Deedee Wills [00:07:20]:

Experience books, Right? We just experienced books.

 

Angela Griffith [00:07:23]:

Books.

 

Deedee Wills [00:07:23]:

Yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:07:23]:

Well, I was this. It’s funny you say that, because I always thought, like, I was this big idiot when it came to stuff because I. I remember going to my interview at My, my first job and one of the questions was, tell us about your experience with phonics instruction. And I was like, I still remember. I, I thought I did not get the job because I didn’t answer that question the way it probably should have been answered. But same thing. My, my student teaching was all about thematic units and, and just sharing stories. Like, we didn’t, we didn’t have a structured phonics time.

 

Angela Griffith [00:07:53]:

The first thing I learned about phonics was it was the week before we were supposed to do student teaching. And they were like, well, you have to go through this week long class because most Alabama public schools want you to do phonics. So we had to go through training by Ari. That was my first time hearing that, where we learned about the five components of reading. I had never heard of phonological awareness and phonics. And for years I mixed those terms up because I’m like, well, it’s all the same.

 

Deedee Wills [00:08:24]:

It’s all kind of like, yeah, right.

 

Angela Griffith [00:08:26]:

Yeah, I was hired finally. And then I closed the door and they gave me a phonics based curriculum. So. Yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:08:34]:

So what did you teach before doing this?

 

Angela Griffith [00:08:37]:

Oh, I’ve done a lot of things. I started off teaching first grade. I did that for several years. Maybe about one, maybe not several, three years. Then I moved to kindergarten for about six years. Then I became a kindergarten and first grade looping teacher.

 

Adam Peterson [00:08:53]:

Oh, gosh.

 

Angela Griffith [00:08:54]:

Was able to keep my students for two years. I really loved it because you could really see the growth of your students. But by the end of year two, we were like a family. They could push my buttons, I could push theirs, they could push each other’s buttons. And it was like, you know, I love y’all. I will see y’all next year in a new grade. Go forth and be great.

 

Adam Peterson [00:09:16]:

I love it because anybody, anybody not watching this, but listen to this. You can’t see it, but Angela’s smile was so big. We were like a family. And then you shifted to. We pushed each other’s buttons.

 

Angela Griffith [00:09:30]:

And so after I looped, I went back to first grade. Then I was a kindergarten, a K2 reading and math interventionist. And then I went back to first grade, and now here I am.

 

Adam Peterson [00:09:41]:

You said three months. Like, you just switched to this at, like the break, like winter break.

 

Angela Griffith [00:09:46]:

Okay, here. I started off as a first grade teacher. And you know how it is when the wheels of state, money, and everything run slowly. So I got into this position right before Christmas.

 

Adam Peterson [00:10:00]:

Very cool. All right. So for people like me that are not reading Specialists, by any means. The word. It’s not my cup of tea. What are. Like Deedee said, what are the moments that you’re hearing in this? Like, oh, my gosh, that’s exactly what we should be doing, or this makes total sense, or why haven’t we another. You know, those aha moments that you’re learning along this journey.

 

Angela Griffith [00:10:20]:

So I feel like some of it is going deeper into, like, sound wall and things like that. When I went through letters, it was right after Covid, so, you know, it was all virtual. And, you know, this is two years of virtual training, and there’s only so much that you can take in behind a screen, you know, and we had an instructor, and she. I believe she had taught maybe middle school. So, you know, that’s kind of different than teaching kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. So she would explain things about the sound wall, and I would read it, but I didn’t quite get it. Then I was fortunate enough to attend a training by Tools for Reading. And this lady had taught kindergarten and first grade and second grade, so all of her examples made sense to me. But going through this training and, you know, they talk a lot about multisensory instruction and things, and, you know, we were kind of taught it’s what you touch, and it is some of that, but it’s also about the position of your mouth when sounds come through and things like that that I didn’t understand. I’m like, well, if they’re in the sand trays, this is multimodal. This is multisensory. And it’s a lot more than that. I learned about. I had a counselor come to me and say that a student was confusing P and B. And she’s like, that’s really weird, because you think they confuse P and Q, they confuse B and D. And for the first time through my training, I was like, wait, I know why. Because when you do, the sound for P is. And when you do, the sound for B is B. And they’re cognate pairs. So when you think about play, fancy name.

 

Deedee Wills [00:12:12]:

Wait a minute. Hold on. You fancy. You fancy cognate pairs. I love that writing it.

 

Adam Peterson [00:12:17]:

I love how you play it off like, oh, I’m so new to this. I’m just going through training. You throw out words like that. Don’t let her fool you.

 

Angela Griffith [00:12:24]:

Anyone I know? I just learned this word so you don’t have to use it anytime. I can. When you think about place and manner of articulation, they’re produced from the same place itself is unvoiced and is voiced. And so my counselor was like, oh, my goodness, I never even thought about that. He is confusing them because you do the same thing to make the sound.

 

Deedee Wills [00:12:54]:

Right, Right, Yeah.

 

Angela Griffith [00:12:55]:

Same way with P and D, you.

 

Deedee Wills [00:12:58]:

Said C like in cat, and D.

 

Angela Griffith [00:13:00]:

As in dog, T as in turtle.

 

Deedee Wills [00:13:02]:

And D. Got it, got it, got it. You know, there has been, you know, we’re all in, like, these different Facebook groups, right?

 

Angela Griffith [00:13:09]:

Yes.

 

Deedee Wills [00:13:09]:

And sometimes we’re in some basis groups.

 

Adam Peterson [00:13:11]:

That are like, you know where you’re going with this?

 

Deedee Wills [00:13:15]:

Yeah, well, they’re, They’re. They’re the. How do I want to say it? They’re like the. The holders of knowledge. Right. So they’re like when. When. I don’t want to say the name of the group, but it is a group that is very much into this moment in time of sor. But it’s. It has a lot of people in there that are scholars and. And there was some talk about mouth positions, and some people are saying mouth positions are important, some people say they’re not. But what I’m hearing you say is that you are getting the information from your training that they are absolute. I mean, I believe that they are important because I know that kind of the lazy mouth position is how we get a little confused on things. Right. It’s just more information, it’s more input. So I’m really glad to hear that you are getting that validation as well, because now I can. I can really stand behind my belief. I’m going to run everything I know.

 

Adam Peterson [00:14:12]:

Bye, Angela. Yeah, well, that’s something, too, that I. I haven’t been through these trainings. I’m not a literacy person, like, specialist in any ways. But, um, I’ve learned after having my daughter go through speech therapy for. I mean, she was three years old, through sixth grade before she graduated speech therapy. And my students that I tutor now, there’s some speech issues and like, mouth position is so important, like, to be able to show kids what their mouth should be doing. That’s a huge part of it.

 

Angela Griffith [00:14:39]:

And then we have to think about students who do have dyslexia. There’s an issue when it comes to phonological processing, so. So they don’t have that information to rely on. That’s why they struggle with decoding and reading. So they do need other inputs. Like you said, Deedee, like the mouth pictures, the feel of the sound in their mouth as they read.

 

Deedee Wills [00:15:01]:

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, from what I’m understanding and kind of my experience, and you can please correct Me, if I’m wrong, you’re gonna be like, you’re wrong, Deedee Wills. But, you know, yes, this is something that we use for students with an identified language based issue. Right. But by teaching this in that tier one instruction, not only does it help the students who have an issue, it also helps those students who don’t. Right. It helps helps them acquire that faster. Right. In a more concrete way.

 

Angela Griffith [00:15:31]:

Yeah, absolutely. There’s a quote I want to read to you that’s piggybacks off of what you said. It’s in our state level dyslexia guide, and it says that the goal of every school should be to provide interventions for all struggling readers.

 

Deedee Wills [00:15:49]:

Oh, she froze. Oh, okay.

 

Angela Griffith [00:15:52]:

Did I freeze?

 

Deedee Wills [00:15:53]:

You froze for just a second, but I want to hear this quote. So.

 

Angela Griffith [00:15:56]:

Okay. The goal of every school should be to provide interventions for all struggling readers that are sufficiently powerful to bring reading skills up to grade level, level standards. If this is accomplished for all struggling readers, then it will be automatically be accomplished for all students with dyslexia. So I like what you said about that. Like, when we do what’s best for one group, we’re really doing what’s best for all of them.

 

Deedee Wills [00:16:23]:

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:16:24]:

Well, I think too, you could even from that. I love that quote. But you could even remove the word struggling. And I think just all readers in general, especially at our level. Right. The primary level, just all kids that are learning to read need that. And it kind of goes back to that, that saying that like intervention, I think interventions get such a negative tone. Like people think my childhood interventions. But we need to remember that interventions just means we’re increasing the intensity or time. Right. Like we’re increasing the time or intensity of that practice. So every child is getting an intervention of some point when they step into a classroom because you’re increasing the time of literacy or math or what it may be. So I love hearing things like that. Like that every reader is being exposed to this.

 

Angela Griffith [00:17:06]:

Absolutely. And that’s what I tell parents is our goal is to be prescriptive. You know, we always say we want our children to be individuals. All of a sudden they get to school and it’s like, we want you to be like everybody else. And it’s like, no, they are still individuals. They still learn differently. So we have to do what’s best for them.

 

Deedee Wills [00:17:26]:

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:17:27]:

So with your new, new position, as you still go through this training and get, get through it, what. What is a day to day look like for interventions where you are at or that you’ll be doing.

 

Angela Griffith [00:17:38]:

So our day, we have school wide interventions. So after arrival, there’s about 30 minutes, and then the entire school goes into school wide intervention. So there’s no specials, there’s no pe. Now, other schools do it differently. You know, they may have intervention for different grade levels. So. So after that, that is when all of the pull outs happen. Small group. Any other pull outs. So with this program that I’m using, normal intervention is about 30 minutes. But my intervention is longer because it’s supposed to be more intense, more specific. So I do 45 minutes. They want us to do an hour. And we were all like, but we work in public school. There’s no way we’re getting away with an hour. I know when I brought this back to my admins, they were like, what? You need multiple hours from multiple groups? Right Now I do 45 minutes with these groups who are in the dyslexia specific intervention. And then I do have a kindergarten group. I still love kindergarten. They cannot do this program. They have to be seven. They have to know all of their letters. But I use phonics first with them.

 

Deedee Wills [00:19:01]:

Okay, and are you finding that your. Your kindergarten students, is 45 minutes a good a chunk of time or is it like, are you playing?

 

Angela Griffith [00:19:12]:

They’re in is not enough for everything that they want them to do. But I have to remind myself. So you have to be seven to do this.

 

Deedee Wills [00:19:24]:

Yeah.

 

Angela Griffith [00:19:24]:

And some of them are not mature. You know, our babies, when they come to first grade, they’re still so immature. And so it takes them a little bit longer. But it’s one of those things as they get used to the routines of the program, because it is a lot. They’ll. We’ll get faster at it. But I had a principal and his quote was always, go slow now to go fast later. So we’re going slow, laying the foundations. These are students that I’ll have next year where we’ll just continue in our program and they’ll be more mature, but they’ll have the background and, you know, to do the program.

 

Adam Peterson [00:20:04]:

So necessary. Great mindset. Great mindset. I used to get so frustrated in kindergarten when people would say, like, but they have to master this. I’m like, but we can’t. It’s not a switch. Like, it takes time to build towards mastery. We’re not, we’re not doing a math topic to do a math topic. We’re doing a math topic to build towards mastery of that. And. And I argued that with so many different people over the years that would try to fly through whatever our math topics were. I’m like, but we haven’t gotten it yet. Like, they haven’t got it. We can’t just move on.

 

Deedee Wills [00:20:32]:

So, Angela, is your whole school following a structured literacy approach in their tier one instruction? So, yes, we are. Okay. Oh, go ahead.

 

Angela Griffith [00:20:45]:

I was just saying, years ago, we. Our entire school went through letters training.

 

Deedee Wills [00:20:50]:

Okay.

 

Angela Griffith [00:20:50]:

And so, of course, you know, we’ve had some students, some teachers leave, but now they’re trying to get the newer teachers, you know, into a schedule to be trained with letters, trained through phonics, first through Brain Springs, you know, still a dyslexia specific intervention. And we finally have a reading curriculum that is based on the science of reading.

 

Deedee Wills [00:21:12]:

Oh, nice, Nice.

 

Adam Peterson [00:21:14]:

So are you. When you said, I work in public schools, I got to take this back there. You’re being trained through this statewide initiative, but you’re still employed by a school district, correct?

 

Angela Griffith [00:21:25]:

Yes. Yes.

 

Adam Peterson [00:21:26]:

Okay. I was making sure I tied that the right way.

 

Deedee Wills [00:21:31]:

One of the. One of the things when I went to Orton Gillingham training that they said was that if we can provide the right type of instruction, some reading disabilities or differences can be kind of mitigated altogether. And so the focus really should be on that tier one instruction right from the very beginning. And thinking about it as prevention versus intervention. So we’re preventing it instead of. Is that sort of in line with what you’re hearing as well?

 

Angela Griffith [00:22:00]:

Yes, I. Being the interventionist, you kind of immediately can suss out, oh, this is a tier one issue. This is not a tier two or a tier three issue. This is a tier one issue. So I have seen that when there’s a lack of tier one instruction that is based on the science of reading based instruction, literacy, that students. The. The gap just grows wider. That’s what happens. The gap grows wider.

 

Deedee Wills [00:22:32]:

And that’s. I mean, that’s really. You know, I always get emotional when I think, when I talk about it, because my sister has dyslexia.

 

Angela Griffith [00:22:41]:

Right.

 

Deedee Wills [00:22:41]:

And so she. She went on to second grade not being able to read, and then had to be retained in second grade. And then somehow, you know, through some miraculous way, my parents got in touch with somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who had a dyslexia coach. And it was through that that she was able to be a successful reader. And now, as a voracious reader, I mean, she still has, you know, dyslexia doesn’t go away. Right. But she’s. But she now is. Is a very. I mean, she reads more than I Do so. Which isn’t saying all that because I don’t read a whole lot anymore, but I don’t know why I’m not. But that is to say, the stigma of being seven because they know. They don’t know like their peers. Now, that’s tough. That stays with them forever. Right.

 

Angela Griffith [00:23:30]:

I love that. I love that story. It. Going back to what you just said, I. I have some students, and my groups were formed in a hurry because, you know, we got thrown in this position and weren’t necessarily able to do all the screeners like we will do next year. But I will tell you what I have noticed because I do have a friend that’s about two years ahead of me in this program. She’s almost done, and she said the more you go through the program, you will be able to start identifying students. Oh, no, this is dyslexia. This is something more than just, you know, how students can be characterized. They’re lazy. They’re not paying attention.

 

Deedee Wills [00:24:09]:

Right. Wiggly.

 

Angela Griffith [00:24:10]:

Yes. And I have seen some students who have been labeled those things, and they have come alive during the program just in the past few weeks because it makes sense to them.

 

Deedee Wills [00:24:26]:

Yeah.

 

Angela Griffith [00:24:27]:

Whereas the regular Tier 1 instruction doesn’t make sense. They struggle with Haggerty because it’s. They have issues with phonological awareness. They struggle, you know, decoding and blending words, but they can manipulate those sound pictures.

 

Deedee Wills [00:24:43]:

Yeah.

 

Angela Griffith [00:24:44]:

And say voice and unvoiced. And they know what it is. And I’ve just been shocked.

 

Deedee Wills [00:24:48]:

Like, oh, wow, this must be the best job. Like, I am really. I mean, I’m very envious at the position that you’re in because you get to have those wow moments. Probably, like the hits just keep coming. Right. Because now, you know, you, like, talk about making a change. I’m.

 

Adam Peterson [00:25:09]:

Yeah.

 

Deedee Wills [00:25:10]:

Getting emotional. I just absolutely. I absolutely love that for you. Who.

 

Angela Griffith [00:25:16]:

Who?

 

Deedee Wills [00:25:17]:

Adam? You and I were talking to somebody, and one of the. Or maybe I made this up. Maybe. Oh, I was recording. I was recording my session for. For. For Chicago anyhow. But what. When somebody was saying was they think about the instruction in Tier 1 and for us, because we already know how to do it, it becomes a little dry. Right. For the teacher. And so that’s how they can fall off of doing it. And I hate the word fidelity, but that’s the only word you can really use with fidelity. But I had heard somebody say, for students, it’s not dry because they’re successful and successes.

 

Adam Peterson [00:25:55]:

So there was Jake. Jake was talking about that.

 

Deedee Wills [00:25:57]:

Jake said that.

 

Adam Peterson [00:25:58]:

Okay.

 

Deedee Wills [00:25:58]:

I’M like, wait a minute, where did I hear this?

 

Adam Peterson [00:26:00]:

Okay, that was perfect. That success is fun. And you all, if you’re listening to this, you’re going to hear that in an upcoming episode. But it was a. That stuck with me. I just told that to my wife today. I was helping Trisha in her classroom, and I mentioned that because one of her students was doing. Not doing as well on something as she expected this time. I said, but have they shown growth? And she goes, yeah, they’re showing. I said, there it is. They’re having fun because they’re being successful.

 

Deedee Wills [00:26:24]:

Yeah. It’s so funny because I knew I said it in my recorded session and then when I said, but I did give credit to Jake, I swear. But after I did that, like, it completely flew out of my head of, like, who said that?

 

Adam Peterson [00:26:35]:

Well, we just ruined it because he. His episode’s coming up, so that’s good.

 

Deedee Wills [00:26:39]:

We’ll just edit this whole part out. Adam, can you just edit this whole part? Just take the big eraser, everything.

 

Adam Peterson [00:26:45]:

I’ll put my. I’ll put my people on it. I’ll put my people on it.

 

Deedee Wills [00:26:48]:

In post.

 

Adam Peterson [00:26:49]:

In post.

 

Angela Griffith [00:26:51]:

Hear the correct quote.

 

Adam Peterson [00:26:53]:

That’s all right.

 

Deedee Wills [00:26:55]:

1. Well, I’m really excited for you because knowing you, you. You’re always, like, ready to learn something new. So this is a way to kind of, you know, just. I was like, sharpen your knife, but I guess what’s not a very good.

 

Angela Griffith [00:27:11]:

Sharpening tools.

 

Adam Peterson [00:27:13]:

Yes, that’s what I meant. Your knife.

 

Deedee Wills [00:27:15]:

Yeah, sharpen your knife and just slash through. I’m very excited for you. What else is happening in the world of, you know, what are you doing? I know you were just in Chicago doing some live conferences, right? What do you have on the horizon? Do you have anything set now? Are you kind of available for the summer for people who are looking for somebody to come in and. Baby, light my fire. Come on.

 

Adam Peterson [00:27:44]:

I like that back.

 

Angela Griffith [00:27:46]:

So I am presenting for the Educator Summit this summer All About Literacy Centers. And as far as this summer, bummer, because as part of this position, I have to do summer school.

 

Adam Peterson [00:28:05]:

Way to bring that up.

 

Deedee Wills [00:28:07]:

You’re coming to my house this summer.

 

Adam Peterson [00:28:12]:

You’re not taking, like, summer training. You’re teaching summer school.

 

Angela Griffith [00:28:15]:

Yes, it is. I think their goal is for those of us in this position to not have a class, like, for summer camp, but to, like, do intervention. So, like, if I still have some of my students who show up, I would still be doing that dyslexia specific intervention. Then for other students, you know, Tier three intervention, kind of. Yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:28:37]:

So for someone in this, again, is me, that someone that’s not trained in this, I guarantee there’s a teacher like me. I’ve got students that I tutor. I’m not in the public school right now, but I tutor five days a week. And other teachers that are listening right now saying, okay, I. I’ve been thinking for a while, there’s something more with student A, B or C. What are some things I know when none of us can diagnose. Right. We are in this as educators, and that comes later. But for people who are new to this and maybe just out of college and listen to this, or teachers getting back in the classroom and thinking, oh, my gosh, that student is one I’ve. I’ve. I’ve thought a lot about in this area of dyslexia. It’s always been in the back of my mind, like, what are the key things that you’re noticing before these kids do actually get diagnosed or that you’re doing with these interventions or anything that teachers should be watching out for?

 

Angela Griffith [00:29:28]:

I have noticed students, because we’ve always heard it, and this has been debunked that students who have dyslexia, they don’t all see things backwards and things like that. But if it’s a consistent deficit of learning the letters, being able to order the letters, and this is with great instruction, like tier one, tier two, even tier three instruction, they’re still unable to learn their letters and sounds and decode and blend simple CVC words.

 

Adam Peterson [00:30:02]:

Okay.

 

Angela Griffith [00:30:03]:

And if they struggle with phonological awareness, I’ve noticed when I have students who just truly struggle with hegerty, like they can’t put the pieces together. And it just seems to. You’re like, well, I know this kid is bright. Oh, yeah, they’re super bright. But it doesn’t show up in their reading ability. It’s like they can’t access the other part because they struggle with that. And I would say, definitely reach out to the people in your building. Bug. The people at the central office. Every district has a curriculum and instruction department, and their emails are public on the website. Email them.

 

Adam Peterson [00:30:45]:

Yeah, good to know. I like that. The consistency piece. Like, they have. They have to show that consistency. And I think that’s. That’s a big one in schools today with a lot of stuff. Right. Like, because there’s so many distractions and kids are dealing with a lot. But when, when they get it, they get it. And if they’re not, then.

 

Angela Griffith [00:31:01]:

Right, yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:31:02]:

The consistency is a big Part, you.

 

Deedee Wills [00:31:04]:

Know, one thing, like, thinking back over. Over my students that I’ve had over the years, I had found that often. Anna Jelly, I’m going to ask you if you’re noticing this, too. So I had noticed that students who were having trouble acquiring letters and sounds were oftentimes my deepest thinkers. And, like, their oral language sometimes was really high. Like, I love the story of. I was reading City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems, and at the end, okay, spoiler alert. The frog dies, right? But it does. It doesn’t explicitly say that. And I. I asked my. Somebody said, what happened to the frog? And. And I was like, what did you think happened to the frog? And. And then this. My one who was, bless his heart, I dragged him through kindergarten. That frog is dead. That frog is dead. And I was like, what makes you think that he’s like, well, because of this and this. I mean, like, was able to really think deeply. And I don’t. I mean, have. Have you. I have heard that when one area of the brain maybe isn’t functioning as I’m doing air quotes, as typical learners, the other area oftentimes is strengthened. Can you tell me, have you felt that way, too? Or is it just something I’m. A story I like to tell about a dead frog? I don’t know.

 

Angela Griffith [00:32:19]:

No, I have noticed that, too. At my school, we always say, oh, those students are street smart because we’re like, if they could. If we let them, they could run the school, tell you about how everything works. But they just struggle accessing letters and sounds and words. But they’re extremely bright and gifted.

 

Deedee Wills [00:32:38]:

And gifted. Yes. Yes. I. I like to. Going back to my sister’s story, I like to tell. You know, I told my sister, like, some of the people who are wildly successful in this world who have dyslexia. I think that’s always something, you know, that. Not that I would have a kindergarten teacher say that to a student that just say, you know, here are some other people who were like you and who had, you know, had to work a little bit differently to learn and, you know, to. To rattle off these very, you know, Charles Schwab, Richard Branson, you know, people who are up there with. With thinking and extremely intelligent, because then it becomes, oh, I just learned differently. It’s not an intelligence issue, which I think is the stigma if we wait till second grade to. To do the work. So kindergarten teachers, first grade teachers.

 

Angela Griffith [00:33:33]:

Yes.

 

Deedee Wills [00:33:34]:

Do this. You know, you could do this. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So listen, Adam, we need to have Angela back because I need to know more.

 

Adam Peterson [00:33:42]:

Well, I know there’s people listening that want to know more too, because I’m thinking of kids that I work with that I’m like, I want, I need, I need help to help them. Like, I think that’s one thing about. I just talked to teachers last week at a conference about this that like, they were, they were thanking me left and right for sharing an idea that I, I assumed a lot of teachers already doing. They’re thinking, I’m like, no, no, no. You don’t think. Like, we’re in this together. We’re here to learn from each other. And that’s what’s so great about the world of, like, this presenting world that we’ve all kind of fallen into and we found our place in as we’ve connected with people like Angela and you and, and all of our friends that I have bounced ideas off so many people and I’ve learned so much from other teachers and specialists that that’s, that’s what, that’s why we started this show. To share ideas.

 

Deedee Wills [00:34:26]:

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes I remember to give credit, sometimes I don’t.

 

Angela Griffith [00:34:32]:

Same plenty of credit in the next couple episodes.

 

Deedee Wills [00:34:35]:

Like, it just happened.

 

Adam Peterson [00:34:36]:

Like, I think I just came up with that. Must have been an epiphany.

 

Deedee Wills [00:34:40]:

I feel like I just heard it a couple of days ago.

 

Angela Griffith [00:34:42]:

I don’t know mine.

 

Deedee Wills [00:34:44]:

Well, I know, I know that people who are listening are going to want to know where they can, you know, just look over your shoulder and know what you’re learning. So you’re sharing that on your blog and YouTube because I’m sure you have nothing but time.

 

Adam Peterson [00:34:57]:

We put your phone number right here.

 

Angela Griffith [00:35:01]:

Text me.

 

Adam Peterson [00:35:03]:

Yeah, no, she is exactly right. Where can people learn more from you or even one to may possibly reach out to you for if they do have questions.

 

Angela Griffith [00:35:11]:

I’m on social media as the daily Alphabet, except for when I take a hiatus and social media is too much for me. Good for you. YouTube, my website, the daily Alphabet dot com. But I do plan to share more on Instagram because it’s like right there.

 

Deedee Wills [00:35:26]:

Yeah, I know, I know.

 

Adam Peterson [00:35:28]:

I, I, It’s a weird world, social media.

 

Deedee Wills [00:35:31]:

It is a very weird. It’s sort of like, you know, you’re like, you need to cross the street. You know, you need to get over there. But then it’s all going and you. How do I get to the other side as fast as I can. Right. Without getting run over?

 

Angela Griffith [00:35:42]:

And then sometimes you’re like, I’m just going to go home I’m not.

 

Adam Peterson [00:35:46]:

That’s a great way to think of it.

 

Deedee Wills [00:35:48]:

I know. That’s sort of been my method as well. It’s like, you know, y’all are on your own.

 

Adam Peterson [00:35:51]:

Just tuck myself in.

 

Deedee Wills [00:35:52]:

Yeah.

 

Adam Peterson [00:35:54]:

Well, yeah, let’s. Let’s get something on the calendar here, near future, to get Angela back. Talk more about this after you’ve gotten more time in your position as well.

 

Angela Griffith [00:36:04]:

Absolutely.

 

Adam Peterson [00:36:06]:

I can’t wait to learn more from you.

 

Deedee Wills [00:36:07]:

Yeah. Oh, 150th episode.

 

Angela Griffith [00:36:10]:

There we go.

 

Deedee Wills [00:36:12]:

That’s ambitious. I mean, what are you doing in seven years, Angela?

 

Angela Griffith [00:36:17]:

I will know a lot more in seven years, that’s for sure.

 

Deedee Wills [00:36:21]:

Well, thank you so much for joining us. I know everybody is probably just loving this episode and hearing everything that you are learning. I guess you know that, Anthony, like, as much as you think you know, there’s always more that you can learn. And I love. I love that for you, and I love it for us and for everybody that you interact with.

 

Angela Griffith [00:36:40]:

Thank you so much for having me.

 

Adam Peterson [00:36:42]:

Thanks for coming.

 

Deedee Wills [00:36:43]:

We adore you. All right, thanks, everybody.

 

Angela Griffith [00:36:45]:

Bye.

 

Deedee Wills [00:36:45]:

Bye.

 

Adam Peterson [00:36:46]:

See ya.