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The Story of the International Literacy Educators Coalition (ILEC) · The Reading Instruction Show

• 0:01
  Greetings. This is the Reading Instruction Show.
• 0:04
  As always, I'm your host, Dr. Andy Johnson. Title
• 0:07
  of today's podcast is called The Story of ILEC,
• 0:12
  or the International Literacy Educators Coalition.
• 0:15
  Now, I note this is the ILEC story from my perspective,
• 0:21
  and I realize that others will have slightly
• 0:24
  different stories from there. perspective. So
• 0:28
  part one, chapter one, the madness. The Read
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  Act Minnesota was signed into law in 2023. It
• 0:37
  was part of the larger science of reading movement
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  and it was madness. My goal in 2023 was to stop
• 0:48
  the science of reading madness. But what to do?
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  There have been very few books or academic articles
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  written about madness stopping. So I reached
• 1:00
  out and found there were many others who also
• 1:04
  wanted to stop madness. We each had little voices,
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  but perhaps, perhaps together we might have a
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  big voice. Perhaps together we might shout loud
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  enough for our voices to be heard above. the
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  madness. We would be like the Who's in Whoville,
• 1:27
  living on a clover, shouting up to Horton the
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  Elephant, we are here! And that's what we did.
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  A bunch of us Who's got together, formed the
• 1:39
  International Literacy Educators Coalition, or
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  MILIC, and started shouting, stop the madness,
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  stop the madness! Chapter two, heady early days.
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  Others heard our shouts and jumped aboard our
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  madness stopping train. There were Zoom meetings
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  with breakout rooms, position statements, strongly
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  worded emails, testimony, lots of research, more
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  meetings, webinars. and some incredible articles
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  all used to convince people just how crazy this
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  madness was. And I wanted to believe that we
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  were just an article or two away. If we used
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  enough reason and research, these madness -makers
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  would surely come to understand. We just had
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  to explain to them how very, very wrong they'd
• 2:45
  been and how very, very right we were. Silly
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  me. The madness didn't stop. Instead, it kept
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  popping up all over the place like whack -a -mole.
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  There was an incredibly silly lawsuit against
• 3:02
  Lucy Calkins and every journalist who wanted
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  to be the next Emily Hanford found that repeating
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  untruths about teachers, schools, reading instruction,
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  and public education got them lots of attention.
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  Chapter three to do today. So what do we do now?
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  That continues to be the big question. It would
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  be easy if there were a single answer to the
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  big question. We just find it and do it. But
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  instead, the big question has lots of little
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  answers. Advocacy. Advocacy and activism are
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  essential parts of the process of a change, and
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  some in our group do this very well. Hopefully,
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  advocacy and activism will be an important part
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  of ILAC. But I'm just an old literacy professor.
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  I don't know how to do this. And hopefully someone
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  within the group will pick up the mantle and
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  take charge of this. But we can't advocate our
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  way out of the madness. We must advocate and
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  educate. So education. Our ILEC webinars continue
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  to be our strongest educational platform. Brilliant
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  scholars and researchers have shared their expertise
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  in 60 to 90 minute sessions, and these have been
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  seen by thousands of people all over the world.
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  However, we need to improve the professional
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  quality of these. Now, many of us are teachers.
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  We can teach. This is who most of us are and
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  what most of us do well. Instead of just pointing
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  out what's wrong with the science of reading
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  and their warped interpretation of structured
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  literacy, we need to slowly teach, we need to
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  show what is right. We need to provide teachers
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  with pedagogical tools that they can use regardless
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  of what program, system, or approach they're
• 5:28
  required to use. So we're going to try to do
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  this through a series of teaching hours. The
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  third idea here is we can teach families and
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  caregivers what good literacy instruction looks
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  like and provide them with tools to use at home.
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  And fourth, we can teach and tutor students.
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  Nothing speaks as loud as success. When parents
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  see their kids reading books and finding joy
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  in reading, they become our most powerful advocates.
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  And fourth, here we can teach the public about
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  the process of reading, methods of science, research,
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  how to interpret and evaluate research. But here's
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  the trick. We must go to them. This means we
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  must abandon our big words. We must give up our
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  lovely long sentences that we so admire but are
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  in truth little more than a cumbersome maze of
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  independent and dependent clauses stapled together
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  to form impressions rather than communicate coach
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  and thoughts. And we must come out from behind
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  our complicated statistical analysis and simply
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  state what is. And in doing so, we're not speaking
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  down to our audience, we're speaking with them.
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  Knowledge is useless if it cannot be consumed
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  by the masses. These are all things we can do.
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  How we might do them will be determined by you.
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  Non -profit status. Until we have a larger platform,
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  we'll just be a bunch of little who's shouting
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  up from the clover, stop the madness. We need
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  things like a website, webinar platforms, technical
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  expertise, databases, and other things of which
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  I am not even aware. Unfortunately, this means
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  money. Due in large part to the hard work and
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  expertise of Lynn Shady, our organization recently
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  achieved 501c3 non -profit status. This means
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  people can donate to ILIC and write it off on
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  their taxes. Also, we're eligible for a much
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  larger number of grants. But this means we need
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  somebody to write grants. And of course, we could
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  pay someone to do this. But until that happens,
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  a couple of us will try to bumble our way forward
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  on this. However, if there are any out there
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  with expertise in this area, we would sincerely
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  appreciate your help. So let's look at the way
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  forward. My goal as the executive director of
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  ILIC remains the same as it was in 2023, to stop
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  the madness. And as I see it, the best way forward
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  is to continue moving forward. Toward this end,
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  we are desperately in need of your help until
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  we can raise the funds to hire professional help.
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  We need six things. Number one, Somebody to help
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  with grant writing. We'll start ourselves, but
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  if there's someone with expertise, please contact
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  us. Two, someone with expertise in Google Meetup
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  and other meeting or other meeting platforms.
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  Three, someone to help with the technical aspects
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  of our webinars. Four, help with the technical
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  aspects of podcasts. Five, help editing videos
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  for use on TikTok, Instagram, and other social
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  venues. And six, things we have not thought about.
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  This has been the Reading Instruction Show. This
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  has been the story of ILEC. This has been your
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  host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson.