Episode 901: Leading Adolescent Literacy: Basic Literacy Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers

Ashley Mengwasser:

Basic literacy, content literacy, disciplinary literacy. What may sound like a game of three terms teachers should know to sound smart are actually three distinct buildable abilities teachers must continually assess and develop in their 4th through 8th graders in order to lead adolescent literacy. We're building your knowledge of each across a three episode miniseries as Season 9 emerges. Are you with me? Part one of Leading Adolescent Literacy starts now.

Hello, educators. Welcome to Classroom Conversations, a Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting Partnership podcast. Season 9 has arrived and we're still the platform for Georgia's teachers offering a place for you to share and learn. I'm host Ashley Mengwasser, merely a mouthpiece of the Mission, capital M, which is to help Georgia educators mold and enhance their classroom instruction for improved academic outcomes. Do you smell that? The scent of promise? Oh, yeah. A new podcast season, a new school year. A lot is fresh on the education landscape.

For instance, let's set our sights on the statewide push to support and improve literacy here in Georgia. What a time to be a teacher as Georgia House Bill 1193, the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026, was signed into law at the end of last school year. One part of the law requires literacy coaches in every K-3 elementary school in the state. And although it focuses on the early years of teaching reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, not admittedly on adolescent literacy, still the new literacy law is an illuminating snapshot of our time, one that gestures beyond those early elementary grades as well. Because literacy is a continuum built first on basic literacy skills. After that, what is the approach for adolescent literacy in Grades 4 through 8? What happens when kids reach middle school as preteens or teens without basic reading skills? Bridging that gap is where we'll begin our introduction to adolescent literacy today with basic literacy supporting struggling readers and writers.

My guest from literacy exemplar, Marietta City Schools, is a proven literacy leader herself. Mary Hannah Gaddis serves as her school system's Director of Structured Literacy. Marietta City Schools has had literacy coaches since 2021, if that tells you anything. Welcome officially to the Classroom Conversations podcast.

Mary Hannah, hi.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Thanks for having me.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Oh my gosh. First guest of the season, you are setting the tone. How does that feel, first guest of Season 9?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

It's very exciting.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I'm excited as well. Would you please start by describing your day to day as the VIP that you are, the Director of Structured literacy at MCS?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Okay. I don't know that I'm a VIP but I am the director of structured literacy for Marietta City Schools, kindergarten now to 12th grade. We've always been K-12 but my work has extended up every year, it grows and grows and I'm excited about that. I mainly support the literacy efforts that relate to professional learning, making sure our teachers are up-to-date on the current research and understanding what it looks like in practice.

Ashley Mengwasser:

And so structured literacy as a term is how we teach the science of reading, that's the research you're talking about.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yes, very good.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I'm so glad I figured that out as a non-educator. I love that your name is Mary Hannah from Marietta. It's a perfect fit. Why did you make Marietta City Schools your landing place for a while?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

It does have a ring to it. Thanks.

Ashley Mengwasser:

It does.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I started my teaching career in South Georgia over 15 years ago and got married and moved up here and worked in a rural district nearby. And while I was there, I was fortunate enough to engage in LETRStraining so that's language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling, which is just deep professional knowledge that just changed everything for me. I actually saw Dr. Grant Rivera out in public in Marietta once and...

Ashley Mengwasser:

He's amazing. He's been a guest here.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

He's the greatest. And he said, "What do you do?" And I was talking to him and he said, "Well, we're doing that in Marietta." I was like, "Well, I live in Marietta. I want to come work there." And so a couple of years later, I was able to apply for a position and move over here when I was in a coaching role, coaching teachers on the science of reading. And since the rollout has expanded, Marietta City hired a Director of Literacy and here I am.

Ashley Mengwasser:

And here she is. Congratulations on your professional ascent. And we were losing ourselves before we started recording because we just had a profound realization, which is what? Mary Hannah, tell them.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Ashley and my husband know each other from the past.

Ashley Mengwasser:

We do. A beautiful part of the past, actually. He and I, Daniel, your wonderful husband who's one of the kindest humans on the earth, he and I went to high school together at Buford City Schools. I'm just so just positively chuffed to know his wife and you were just lovely and I'm so happy for him as well. Back to Marietta City Schools, since that is why we're here, although I could ask you questions about Daniel all day. But the logo is key to this literacy identity, pun intended. Describe it for me, the Marietta City Schools logo. We've got a couple of elements in there, there's a book with a key on top. To me, it really screams literacy. Don't you think?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yeah. Literacy is core to all of the work that we do. Everyone, our amazing school board, our incredible central office staff and cabinet, down to our teachers and every person I would say understands that literacy is at the heart of the work that we're doing. I've said to our new teachers before that I think if you gave a quiz to anyone who is employed by Marietta City Schools, they would say our priorities are safety and literacy. We're all learners.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I love that.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Even that rhymes. I also just like... Maybe I'm digging too deep but I love the notion that you're giving learners the key to future learning through literacy, the key over the book. Whoever came up with that, tell them well done.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Okay. I think it's so old. I'm going back to it. I can't wait to go back and tell everybody.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I'm so curious the origin story there. But since you are living and breathing literacy achievement in your district, do you find that your profession alters your personal life? Does it seep outside of the city when you're working?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

It's the chicken and the egg conversation, which came first? My love for literacy or my job that has now made me a passionate person about literacy? I don't know, but 100% it seeps out. I have asked my children recently why they roll their eyes every time we're in the car learning a new word when I quiz them. I'm like, "This is exciting information. Morphology is exciting." And they don't seem to think that. But yeah, I love literacy all day long.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Do you have, like a lot of literacy lovers have, that staple item in your wardrobe or accessories that just is literacy related? There's got to be something.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I do have a new bag that I'm very, very excited about. It is a bright yellow bag, and it's a Date Due slip from the library, which young teachers don't understand but teachers my age will.

Ashley Mengwasser:

The good old days, yes.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yeah, card catalog.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I knew there would be something there if I just inquired. Yeah. But when you leave central office, your work is not done. You're out here in these streets hustling and even in the car with your kids and I respect that. But our series, our miniseries that we're starting Season 9 is about adolescent literacy, two words. Mary Hannah, what do you want our listeners to understand when they hear the term adolescent literacy?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I think what I would say is that it's such common sense, birth-to-five is so important and kindergarten to 3rd grade is so important. And that's where we started, that foundational literacy. But we would be foolish to think that our adolescent learners are also where they need to be and have this foundation onto which they're just showing up ready to have their middle and high school teachers expanding that knowledge. In Marietta, we realized that this work was having an amazing impact on the foundational years, yet we still had learners who weren't where they needed to be. And that didn't sit well with us that... I mean, it's on us to make sure they have what they need. And so adolescent learners are still learners, they're all children, they're all students who deserve the right to read.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Exactly. Under adolescent literacy, we have some more definitions and terms. Talk to us about Joan Sedita's framework.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Joan Sedita from Keys to Literacy is an amazing expert in adolescent literacy. And they're hard to find, experts in adolescent literacy to be honest. But a lot of the work there is on how you use the student's entire school day to give them what they need literacy-wise, it's foolish to assume that 45 minutes in an ELA class or 30 minutes of intervention is going to get them where they need to be.

Ashley Mengwasser:

How do basic content and disciplinary literacy work? Those buildable skills I mentioned, could you help us understand those three?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yes. Basic literacy I think is what we've done, foundational literacy across all of the early grades, yet you still have adolescent learners showing up who need those remedial skills taught to them. And then content literacy is instructional strategies and routines for literacy and language that fit into every content, no matter if it's the math classroom or the science classroom. And then those consistent strategies are so important for all learners, but especially learners who are furthest from mastery.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Equal opportunity skills.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Yeah.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

That's right. And then disciplinary literacy are those skills that are specific to certain content areas. In science, those teachers helping students understand how the structure of a lab report works or how a historical document works in social studies.

Ashley Mengwasser:

The more specialized skills by subject area. I gotcha. Okay, great. And the reality is, I'm told, that literacy success is actually a shared responsibility. Why is this?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

What I said earlier about a student can't get everything that's required in their literacy diet in one 45-minute segment or one hour class period. The responsibility is not just on the English language arts teacher and the intervention teacher, if that's needed, but that consistency of literacy practice across the student's entire day is what's going to lead to the language and literacy brain being what it needs to be for those learners. And just think about what an experience if every period out of the student's day is following some consistent routines that are grounded in research and brain science to help our students.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Every educator that student has then shares a piece of that responsibility.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser:

That's a beautiful thing, it's like a patchwork quilt. And I shared at the top that Marietta City Schools has built a really strong foundation in early literacy. I just want to share a few data points because you guys are doing it well. Okay. 3rd grade reading scores are up 17 points from 2022 to 2025, the share of MCS students reading at or above grade level has climbed 11 percentage points, English learner students gained 30.8% in their Lexile performance between their 2nd and 3rd grade in a single year. That's incredible. What led your team to expand this awesome work that you're doing in K-3 on into adolescents, 4-8?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

We expanded the work because we saw the proof was in the pudding, our students were learning. The work was... It's a lot of hard work. In elementary, we completely changed everything we thought about how you were supposed to teach reading. We completely shifted all of that and it was hard work but we saw it was working. And we thought, "Well, why stop?" The teachers and students in upper grades also deserve this opportunity and so we expanded. K-3 isn't enough, the language brain begins developing in 3rd trimester. There's actually some research that talks about neural purging and how those pathways, if they're not fostered, will actually diminish or be purged. And so in Marietta, we built an ecosystem with our birthing hospitals and preschools and early childhood centers all the way through 3rd grade. And then the reading brain is still developing and can be developed by teachers in 4th all the way up through 12th grade.

Ashley Mengwasser:

The work must continue.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Must continue.

Ashley Mengwasser:

And students are at different places in that literacy continuum, right?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Any realizations, though, about the needs of the older students as you get into 4th grade and beyond that may be different from K-3?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yeah. When we were deciding to move up to middle school to expand the work up, moving from 4th to 5th wasn't that big of a stretch. They're in the same building as our K-3 teachers so they knew we were talking about the science of reading and structured literacy, but moving into new buildings with older students and teachers who teach certain disciplines and contents was a challenge. We did follow the research. We reached out to nearly everyone we could think of in secondary literacy and we learned that of course those students, the reading brain is developed the same no matter how old the student is but what you do with them in the classroom looks a bit different. And one of the biggest realizations was that we needed to train every single teacher in every single content area, not just the intervention teachers or the English language arts teachers. We trained every teacher from the physical education teacher, the music teacher, the chorus teacher, science, social studies, special education. Everyone was involved on the ground floor so that we could ensure that those content literacy skills looked the same across the student's day.

And once we taught our secondary teachers about the science of reading, we had tier one teachers, regular content teachers who became very passionate about how they would meet these deficit skills or remediate these deficit skills of students yet also teach their content. And so it was a big shift for us to, in our professional development, help them realize, well, we were not asking you to become a reading teacher. The students who need that work are going to get it in another portion of their day, but you can support it in your classroom, but really not as a way to teach them reading in your class but to teach your content through literacy.

Ashley Mengwasser:

To undergird the content, right?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Very smart. Well, of course we want to know details on the how as we take some notes here. How did you scale this new literacy system from K-3 into 4-8 while keeping the focus on the students, the adolescents who still need basic reading and writing supports?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

We've always met the needs or tried to meet the needs of our students who were furthest from mastery, we've had intervention blocks for a long time. Really specifically what that looks like in our 6th to 8th grade schools, we have Reading Connections is what we call it and it's a segment of the day where the students outside of their core content areas, they can get what they need. They can take an elective or they can be in reading connections where the teachers are using some research and evidence-based interventions to meet their needs. And we've been doing that for a long time. We have shifted in what resources we're using a bit but we've always been doing that. Yet we realized all students, we weren't pleased with any of our students, the percentage of them reading on grade level or above. And this work has actually helped us increase... It has grown every group, every quintile of students. The students who were advanced are also growing in the same way the students who are below are growing.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Everybody is benefiting, right?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Okay, let's drill down into the nuts and bolts of the how you've made the shift into 4-8. Let's talk first about assessment and identification. What can you tell us about that? How did you identify these students who needed this extra basic literacy support?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

We've also been really fortunate in Marietta City Schools to partner with some outside funders who have helped support our work. And with our 6th to 8th grade work, the Goizueta Foundation was able to give us some funding that we used to consult with outside experts, and the AIM Institute in Philadelphia helped us understand that there were very few assessments already normed for that age group of students. We had some literacy diagnostic assessments that we were using in elementary but we knew while they could give us some information on middle schoolers, we knew that we wanted to do it right so we went out on a search to find assessments that were normed. And through one of our partnerships, we were able to learn about the CUBED assessments from Language Dynamics Group.

And what we did is we developed an assessment plan where every single student, 6th to 8th grade, is given a fluency assessment by their english language arts teacher. And we felt that was important for the reading teachers to see how their students sounded when they read and were they prosodic? Did they understand what they were reading? We put that in place for all students. And then for students who didn't meet that benchmark, then we used the Language Dynamics CUBED Decoding Inventory to understand where students may struggle with word recognition skills and then it drills down even further. And so that was one of the first things we did was institute this literacy suite for all of our middle schoolers.

Ashley Mengwasser:

All right. Would you consider that the beginning of the intervention structure? What other intervention structures did you use in 4-8?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Yeah, I think that's so valuable for a lot of reasons. One, because the buzzwords in structured literacy land are being diagnostic and prescriptive. Of course, we're doing that. But it was really instrumental in helping our teachers see the students who were in front of them because sometimes you can't tell from talking to a student, sometimes you need to have them read aloud to you.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Good point.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

And that's not a common practice in middle school. Sometimes you need to have middle schoolers read, decode some words to you. And it was really eye-opening because we used that data then to show all of our content teachers, the students who were sitting in front of them that they have a deep love for, but for them to see exactly who's in their room and what their needs are. And then our facilitators are able to help the teachers see, okay, now here's what you're going to do to help.

Ashley Mengwasser:

How did you handle staffing and scheduling?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Our board is very supportive of this work. And one of the first things they did that was a replication of our elementary work is we did give our middle schools one or two additional reading teachers, those teachers who could work in those Reading Connection segments, teachers who were qualified and trained to meet the remedial needs of students. And so that was helpful knowing that we had this data that showed the needs of our students but we did have people trained who could meet their needs from an intervention standpoint.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Yes. What about professional learning? I know this is a little scary because you said all my teachers in 4th through 8th grade are not language arts teachers so they're thinking, "Wait, am I going to have to teach reading?" You're saying no, that's not what you're having to do. But how did you prepare them with some PL that would equip them for this?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

The professional learning has been maybe the largest lever of all of this. Some things I think we've done that were interesting is that we were able to use some extra funding to ensure that all of the professional learning was job embedded. And not just on the teacher's planning period where here she comes for 45 minutes and hears someone deliver some information, but deep understanding we realize takes a long time. And so we were able to pay for our teachers to have full days of substitutes where they were asked to engage with some content from the AIM Institute, they have some online modules that are specific for secondary learners and teachers with boots on the ground facilitation.

Our board also, in addition to giving us reading specialists, they gave us funding for reading facilitators. We called them Science of Reading Facilitators at first, they guided the teachers through the professional learning. And having someone there to answer the specific questions about, "Wait a minute, I'm a social studies teacher. Are you really saying that I need to be clapping syllables out in my vocabulary routine?" Having the facilitator say, no, that's not what you have to do. This is the brain research that tells you how you would learn a new word but you have to take what you know about your students and their content and to design your instruction in a way that is going to help all students reach it.

Ashley Mengwasser:

What leadership decisions had to be made to get ready for 4-8?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I have an elementary background and not much turns off a secondary teacher more than you first admitting even if they know, they smell, they know.

Ashley Mengwasser:

They know who you are. Yeah, the young kids are on you. Yes.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

They know. They know. They know you're elementary and they're very pleasant and that's not an initial full turnoff, but they are very turned off when you show them elementary content or give an elementary example and say, "Oh yeah, you just scale it to your kids." That's not the way to do it.

Ashley Mengwasser:

That's not going to work.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

No. And so what we were very careful to do is make sure that all of our professional learning was grounded in examples used with actual adolescents.

Ashley Mengwasser:

A secondary student.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Actual adolescents, turns out that makes sense. And then all of our examples, our facilitators are so careful to make sure that we have examples from every content area.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Hindsight, as they say, it's 2020, Mary Hannah. Some school and district leaders who are listening are just beginning their adolescent literacy journey today. Could you share some lessons that you wish you had known from the start? Does anything come to mind?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

One of the things that comes to mind is just, I don't know that I have suggestions of how to get past this, but the magnitude of the work and the urgency of the work has... I don't want to paint the picture that it's been easy. It's a lot. That's a lot of teachers, every staff member of every content down to the behavior interventionist is being asked to engage in this work. And so I think we did a good job of this but I can't state the importance enough of ensuring you make it applicable to the content or discipline in which they teach. And you're not asking them to become reading teachers, you're just asking them to use these instructional routines and strategies backed by the evidence and research as a vehicle for their content. I think if a district isn't careful about setting that stage, then you could really turn off the middle and high school teachers.

Ashley Mengwasser:

That's definitely a challenge. Are there any other challenges or successes from the journey you'd like to share?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Again, I just keep going back to the magnitude. There are so many parts to it that you just need to have right. And it doesn't have to be perfect but you do have to have a plan for assessment and staffing and instructional resources that align with the research. I think you asked what would I tell leadership? And I cannot say this loud enough, leadership from the top matters so much. The vision set by our superintendent and board and cabinet members is just... Like I said, we would all pass a test. We care about literacy in Marietta City Schools and setting that vision and tone from the beginning is just paramount.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I'm telling you, that logo made it very clear to me. Well done on the logo design. All right. I'm sure you've picked up some expressions along the way that help drive this change and motivate our teachers across content areas. Help me, leave us with these mantras, affirmations that could motivate and encourage along the way. Is there a sustaining wisdom or a phrase that you use in working with these secondary teachers that really helps boost the success here?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I don't really have a mantra. I think it's so important to every teacher in the game because they love students and I think as much as you can frame that this is for the students and this is life changing. I did not come up with this quote, I love when people say, "This work is harmful for none but essential for some."

Ashley Mengwasser:

That's powerful. I'm going to let that sit there for a second. Thank you for joining us, Mary Hannah.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

Thanks for having me.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Did you have a good time?

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I did have a great time.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Please send my best regards to your husband, Daniel.

Mary Hannah Gaddis:

I will.

Ashley Mengwasser:

You were awesome. You're a sunflower following the light of literacy and sharing it. Thank you so much.

To all of our listeners, when adolescents struggle after the 3rd grade, shoring up basic literacy skills is so crucial to free the mental space that's spent reading words and actually launch them into the land of textual understanding where all future knowledge is gained. You're a great teacher, remember that.

Stick with us. This three-part immersion into adolescent literacy is just getting started and part two continues with content literacy and more from Marietta's Mary Hannah.

I'm Ashley. Goodbye for now.