I recently started an LLC centered around all things literacy.  In my mind, it's going to change the world! My years of wisdom gained through my 27 years of experience as an educator have to count for something, right? I mean, I have so much to share, so much I've learned, so many mistakes I want to help others avoid. And I'm going to single handedly end illiteracy among 4th and 8th grade students. This should be a piece of cake!

But the truth is, I don't know what the heck I'm doing. Sure, I have a business license, this website, and even a Facebook group. But those things do not a business make! That's the part that's super daunting - the business of running a business! Each day, I wake up with a million ideas of what I should be doing. I should blog more. I should post to my group more. I should share what I do on my personal Facebook page more. I'm neglecting my Facebook page. I didn't meet my 3 posts a day quota. My niche is literacy, so I should focus on content around that topic. I need to be smarter about literacy trends so people see me as an expert and invite me to speak or work with their teachers. And don't get me started on the courses I haven't created yet!

These thoughts feed my nemesis, imposter syndrome. Maybe it's not a real business. Maybe I need to stick to just doing my 9 to 5 (actually, it's 8:10 to 4:10) and leave all of this other stuff to the "professionals". Maybe I'm all over the place because I don't really have anything to offer, I'm just regurgitating things that people already know. Sigh...

Ok, so maybe I DON'T know what I'm doing. But I have to do something. One of my favorite quotes is from Helen Keller. It was our daily affirmation when I was in elementary school in the Bronx. "I am only one, but still I am one.  I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can." Funny that I still recite this and have made it a part of my life's mantra.  So what's my something? For now, I will be consistent in posting to my Facebook group. I will write authentically about whatever topic feels right. And I will trust that those who are supposed to be helped by my business will find me when they need me most.

Recently, I listened to a podcast that talked about the work of Beverley Jennings, a PhD candidate from England whose research focuses on vocabulary and high stakes testing. In her research, she is working to uncover the best vocabulary words upper grade students should be exposed to in order to pass a standardized English language exam. 

The podcast was eye opening and affirming all at the same time.  Eye opening because I'm surprised to hear that other countries struggle with the same educational dilemmas that we do in the United States.  Affirming because it gave voice to something I've noticed about many of the common assessments we give - the vocabulary our students encounter in the daily material we teach is not the same as the vocabulary they encounter on many English Language Arts assessments.

Jenning's research sought to answer two questions:

1.  What type of vocabulary is typical of the exam tests?
2. In what types of reading material is the vocabulary that typifies the exam texts most likely to be found? 

She used a method called corpus linguistics to analyze 59 released versions of texts, both fiction and non-fiction, that make up the texts used on the exam. Interestingly, a requirement of the texts is that they include texts from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.  Without going into all of the details (I am a nerd, after all!), Jennings found that the majority of the vocabulary found in these exam texts were "low frequency" words - words that readers would have difficulty encountering enough to develop "stickiness" or embed into their everyday language.

Which brings me to a question that I'll dig into in another blog post - should teachers be exposing students to more classic texts, or should assessments more closely align with the students' current literacy realities? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Jennings, B., Powell, D., Jaworska, S. & Joseph, H. (2024). A Corpus Study of English Language Exam Texts: Vocabulary Difficulty and the Impact on Students' Wider Reading (or Should Students be Reading More Texts by Dead White Men?). Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 67, 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1331