A huge part of my mission as an author and literacy advocate is connecting directly with readers—hearing your stories, learning about your challenges, and sharing practical strategies to help families raise strong, confident readers.
That’s why I’m so excited about my national virtual book club tour in celebration of the newly revised paperback edition of my book, Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child.
This tour is about making the book’s messages—and me—accessible to communities everywhere. I know not every school, district, library, or nonprofit has the budget to bring me in as a keynote speaker or host a large in-person event. A virtual book club makes it possible to gather your people, dive into the ideas together, and still have me right there in the room with you—live, interactive, and affordable.
Why Host a Virtual Book Club?
When you host a session, you’re giving your constituency—families, staff, or volunteers—tools they can use immediately. You’re helping them access simple, evidence-based strategies for preparing kids to thrive as readers. You’re also amplifying your organization’s impact by positioning your literacy work as essential for school readiness, educational equity, and family well-being.
Here’s how it works:
- We start with a quick planning call to discuss your goals and customize your experience.
- You receive 25 paperback copies of Reading for Our Lives, plus a plug-and-play host kit with run-of-show, discussion guide, and promo assets.
- We come together for a 60-minute live virtual Q&A—not a lecture—where I answer candid questions and tailor my advice to your community’s context.
Parents and staff get the book ahead of time, so they can arrive informed and armed with questions to help them adapt it to their specific needs. This helps them leave empowered with concrete next steps. The outcomes we aim for are lasting: stronger confidence, usable literacy routines, and momentum that extends well beyond one event.
What Hosts Are Saying
After hosting a virtual book club, Claire Hagan Alvarado of Literacy First said, “The feedback was great. People really enjoyed the conversation. It felt really personable and … really challenged our group to extend our impact.”
And Jill Gonzalez of the Women’s Storybook Project of Texas shared, “The book club experience was fantastic. Having the author with us made such a difference. It is different when you get to speak to the person who wrote the words, when you get to have the perspective of the expert.”
An Invitation
I wrote Reading for Our Lives because I believe every child deserves a strong start with words, stories, letters, and language. And while the literacy crisis and achievement gaps can feel daunting, the solutions start close to home—with parents, caregivers, and communities taking small, daily actions that add up to big change.
If you’re ready to elevate your impact and help equip caregivers to help kids thrive as readers, I’d love to explore joining your group for a virtual book club. Together, we can turn insights into action and build the momentum every child deserves.
The Reading for Our Lives Campaign launched in Milwaukee last month—not with a lecture about my book, but with an invitation for reflection and action.
Guests at the campaign launch explored the roots of our community’s literacy challenges, potential solutions, and their own roles in creating change.
My favorite prompt posed a powerful question to the group:
If you had $1 million to help more Milwaukee children learn to read, where would you invest it?
Participants had to choose just one option:
- High-quality teacher training
- Literacy coaches in every district
- Parent coaching or home-visiting programs
- One-on-one tutoring
- Literacy training for all family-facing professionals
- Free books for every child, every year
Each option had merit, but each reflected a different theory of change—who benefits, how to deliver support, and when results appear.
If I were choosing, I’d be tempted to fund a team of exceptional tutors. Strong one-on-one instruction can improve reading prospects dramatically. But tutoring is a rescue mission—helping children already behind, not preventing reading failure in the first place.
At the event, the clear favorite was parent coaching and home-visiting programs—a recognition that reading success begins long before kindergarten. Teacher training and professional literacy development followed.
I loved seeing that focus on prevention—on reaching parents of babies and toddlers who can shape the brain architecture and language foundation that reading depends on. When we act early, we reduce the need for costly remediation later and free up resources for the few who still need intensive support.
That’s the heart of this campaign: to shift attention and resources to seeding literacy success from birth. Every dollar invested early multiplies in impact, strengthening families, schools, and our nation’s future.
As Dan Heath writes in Upstream, “We celebrate the response, the recovery, the rescue. But we’re capable of greater things: less Undo and more Outdo.”Join us in investing early—for lasting change. Your gift helps more families lay the foundation for lifelong reading success.
Children encounter thousands of unique words in elementary school reading programs each year. But here’s the catch: unless they can recognize most words instantly—without sounding them out—they’ll exhaust their mental energy on matching sounds to letters and have little left for actually understanding what they read.
So how do kids develop rapid word recognition skills and become more fluent readers—and how can parents help?
How Children Actually Learn Words
Contrary to popular belief, children don’t learn words by visually memorizing them. Instead, they build word knowledge through varied experiences with different features of words: spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. Research suggests it takes one to six meaningful encounters with a word for children to truly master it.
Notice I say “experiences,” not just “exposures.” Simply seeing a word in passing isn’t enough. Children need to actively pay attention to the word, notice the letters within it, think about the sounds that make it up, and understand what it means.
The TALK Method for Everyday Vocabulary Building
Parents can easily build their child’s word knowledge in everyday life using the TALK method.
This is a framework I crafted to help parents incorporate more brain-building interactions into days with small kids and increase the quality of interactions. (You can learn more about it and get other science-based tips in my book, Reading for Our Lives.)
The TALK Method encourages parents—and all early caregivers—to use four simple tools to create rich language- and brain-building interactions with kids:
- Taking turns
- Asking questions
- Labeling and pointing
- Keeping the conversation going
The key to using the TALK Method as a reading fluency strategy is listening to children to discover which words spark their interest, then seizing those natural teaching moments. When kids show curiosity about a word, half the battle—capturing their attention—is already won.
Taking Turns: A Real Example
I’ll give you an example. I dropped into a chair in my daughter’s room the other day, sighed heavily, and declared that I was weary.
“What’s that mean?” she asked.
“Extremely tired,” I replied.
She nodded, then said she thought it meant something else. She put on a frightened face, darting her eyes side to side like she was watching for the boogeyman. (She has a flair for the dramatic.)
“Ohhh,” I laughed, “that’s wary—when you’re on guard, scanning for danger. I said weary. W-E-A-R-Y. It’s like wary but with an ‘e’ before the ‘a.’”
In that brief exchange, we hit all three essential elements of word learning:
- Sound: We both pronounced the word, and I clarified the vowel sound difference.
- Spelling: I spelled out W-E-A-R-Y, emphasizing the letter difference between “weary” and “wary.”
- Meaning: We explored both her misunderstanding and my clarification.
Asking Questions to Deepen Learning
To strengthen word knowledge further, ask questions about meaning:
- “What are some words similar to this one?”
- “What are some words that are opposite to this one?”
You can also prompt sound analysis:
- “How many sounds do you hear in the word weary?”
- “Can you break out each sound?”
- “Can you blend them back together?”
Labeling and Pointing: Don’t Forget the Visual
While verbal discussion is crucial, also tie words to what children see in print. Look at the word while asking children to segment it or compare it to similar words. Point to words in meaningful contexts—in stories, on shopping lists, signs, billboards, or everyday items in your environment.
And don’t forget that you can create the text you want to talk about as well. The weary discussion might have made a greater impression if I’d written the word down so she could see it while saying it. But I’m sure she saw it in her mind’s eye.
Keeping the Conversation Going
Expand, extend, and ask for clarification. Do whatever helps the word stick in your child’s memory.
Tell a story about the word. (Did you misuse it when you were younger? Do you remember how you learned the word?) Recount its history. Share tidbits about word origins. (Is it a word that’s close to French and came into the language after the Norman conquest of England? A word that’s been adapted from technology or business uses?)
Subscribing to word-of-the-day emails or apps is a great way to pick up some fun knowledge to share.
Match Your Approach to Your Child’s Reading Phase
Your child’s reading development phase determines which activities will be most effective:
For kids who don’t know or are just learning the ABCs (called pre-alphabetic and partial alphabetic readers):
- Build vocabulary: Use rich, varied words in conversation and explain their meanings.
- Play with sounds: Try rhyming games, clapping out syllables, and identifying beginning sounds in words.
- Teach letters systematically: Practice one letter at a time—for example, tell your child, “A says /a/ like in apple” and trace the letter shape with your finger.
For children who know letter names, shapes, and common sounds (called alphabetic readers):
- Introduce new words: Continue expanding vocabulary through conversation and reading together.
- Practice sound segmentation: Help your child break words into individual sounds. (For example, ask, “What sounds do you hear in cat?” Learn more in my post about sound awareness.)
- Connect sounds to letters: Show how the sounds they hear match the letters they see.
- Read words in context: Point out target words when reading stories, signs, or everyday text together.
Growing with Your Child
These vocabulary conversations evolve as children mature. My eighth-grader and I still actively discuss words—our chats have just become more sophisticated as her vocabulary grows.
During one car ride, she puzzled over two uses of “blunt” in her novel—one describing a person, the other a dull object. She was fascinated that a single word could carry such different meanings.
Another time, driving through our always-under-construction neighborhood, I complained that “No Thru Traffic” signs were used too liberally.
“What does that mean?” she asked, referring to my new-to-her use of liberally.
“Too much,” I replied.
“Why does it mean that?” she followed up, thinking about the ways the words liberal and conservative are used in political contexts.
“Oh,” she went on, answering her own question, “like the opposite of conservatively. If they used the signs conservatively, they would be conserving them, not using so many.”
Exactly!
Why These Quick Conversations Matter
Research confirms that fluent readers must connect three elements about words: sound, spelling, and meaning. Rather than memorizing words by sight alone, children build deeper word knowledge when they pronounce words, understand their letter sequences, and explore their meanings in context.
When children first learn to read, they painstakingly sound out every letter. But with experience, familiar words become instantly recognizable. That automatic recognition frees mental energy for comprehension—the very purpose of reading.
This automaticity is crucial. When children don’t waste mental energy sounding out individual words (“decoding”), they can focus their brainpower on understanding whole passages.
Studies confirm that good readers in elementary school acquire new words at a rate up to four times faster than struggling readers. Your vocabulary conversations aren’t just helping your child learn individual words. They’re also building the foundation for accelerated vocabulary growth throughout their academic years.
Research shows that skilled readers don’t just know more words—they recognize them faster. High-ability readers process words in about 746 milliseconds compared to 871 milliseconds for lower-ability readers. That split-second difference adds up, giving skilled readers an edge in comprehension and confidence.
Parents’ goal should be to help our kids’ vocabulary grow until they can instantly recognize nearly anything we put in front of them. See every opportunity to talk with kids about words as a chance to build the automatic word recognition that makes reading effortless and enjoyable.
Without this foundation, children tire themselves out decoding and lose energy for understanding—the ultimate prize.
At a recent “Science Café” at the YWCA Southeast Wisconsin’s OECI Office in Milwaukee, I skipped the stats and studies. These gatherings aim to spark dialogue on science or medicine, but I opened my discussion of the science of reading with stories—my own path to reading, and an invitation for parents to reflect on theirs.
Why? Because what truly motivates parents to act on behalf of their children isn’t data—it’s feelings. The strong desire to nurture a bright reading future for our kids often stems from our own reading experiences, whether joyful or painful.
All Reading Memories Matter
Many writers get nostalgic about their love of books—cherished stories, favorite authors, endless hours in libraries. I’m no exception. In my book, Reading for Our Lives, I share how reading shaped me so deeply that, like my parents before me, I named my daughter after an author.
But not every reading memory is so fond. Many parents recall the sting of stumbling through a passage in class, the ache of leaving book fairs empty-handed, or the frustration of staring at words that just wouldn’t make sense.
But the good news is: Whatever your story, it can fuel your child’s in a good direction.
Take a moment to remember: Was reading easy for you? Hard? What emotions surface—joy, shame, pride, isolation, excitement? Then ask yourself: What feelings do I want my child to carry into their future? Twenty years from now, how do I hope they’ll describe their journey?
With those answers in mind, you can begin shaping experiences that move them in that direction—choosing the books, planning the library visits, weaving conversation into daily life. You don’t control every step of their journey, but you have more influence than you may realize. Small, intentional choices add up to lasting impact.
If reading was hard for you, that struggle can spark vigilance—watching closely for difficulties, seeking resources early, and ensuring your child gets help you may not have had. This matters, especially since challenges like dyslexia can run in families.
And if you loved reading, you can pass on that joy—recreating the warmth of shared stories and library visits—while remembering your child’s journey will look different, shaped by new times, new tools, and their own personality.
The Gift of Struggle
Every reader—child or adult—faces challenges along the way. What matters is how we frame those moments.
Struggle, effort, and frustration are not detours in your child’s literacy journey. They’re the very path to growth. And when those moments come, your own reading story becomes a powerful tool for connection and encouragement.
Pam Allyn, a longtime educator and literacy advocate, put it this way in a podcast: “I make time every day to struggle as a reader, and that’s because I’m a confident reader.” Her insight reveals that reading confidence isn’t the absence of struggle, but the willingness to face it.
That’s why your reading history matters. When your child stumbles through a passage or grows frustrated with a new book, share more than your love of reading or your hopes for your child. Share your own confusion, your persistence, and your eventual breakthroughs. By revealing both your reading struggles and your growth, you model resilience. You show that difficulty isn’t shameful—it’s simply part of every reader’s journey.
And when you acknowledge and honor your child’s feelings—frustration, fear, excitement—you validate their experience and give them courage to continue. In doing so, you help them see effort not as a barrier, but as a bridge to strength.
What Research Tells Us
Studies confirm what experience suggests: parents’ literacy histories shape how they support their children. For some, early reading struggles spark determination. For others, those struggles erode confidence, leaving them unsure of how to help.
How parents feel about reading also matters. If you see it as entertainment, you may focus on joy and fun. If you view it as a skill, you may emphasize practice and progress. If you see it as an opportunity, you may seek out schools, libraries, and enrichment programs. Each approach is shaped by personal history and perspective.
The key is awareness. Reflect on your own story:
- Your early childcare or preschool experiences
- Your formal education from kindergarten onward
- Your family’s literacy traditions
- Any mismatch between your school’s approach to literacy and your home environment
All of these threads weave together into your current outlook and, consciously or not, influence how you guide your child.
I know this firsthand. My own love of literature, being named after an author, and later naming my daughter after one all contributed to the intensity I brought to raising her as a reader. My history shaped my priorities.
The question, then, is not whether your literacy story influences you—it does. The question is: Will you let it guide you unconsciously, or will you use it intentionally? The more aware you are, the more you can choose to replicate positive experiences, rewrite negative ones, and create a reading journey for your child that builds both skill and joy.
Your reading story, with all its triumphs and struggles, is a gift ready to be unpacked and shared.
Get Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives
Don’t let visions of the “perfect” read-aloud get in the way of the joys of actual read-alouds.
That thought echoed in my mind during a Reading for Our Lives virtual book club with the staff and volunteers from Women’s Storybook Project in Austin, Texas. This remarkable organization records incarcerated moms reading books aloud, then delivers the books and recordings to their children. Hearing their mothers’ voices creates a vital thread of connection—a bridge across the physical and emotional distance of incarceration.
During the gathering, I was deeply moved by how many hands, hearts, and minds collaborate to make this mission possible. So much effort, fundraising, organization, and leadership is required to deliver a semblance of the read-aloud experience that many parents take for granted.
I was honored to share my raise-a-reader journey with the team’s staff and volunteers and answer their questions about Reading for Our Lives. The goal: To share practical tips, research insights, and solutions to common read-aloud challenges, empowering them to better support the moms they record and the caregivers who share the books and recordings with the kids. Through their efforts, caregivers create reading rituals that offer comfort and consistency by delivering their moms’ voices to children whose mothers can’t be with them physically. At the same time they foster back-and-forth conversation as they share the stories.
Sadly, the deep love and effort I witnessed at Women’s Storybook Project stands in stark contrast to broader trends. New research from HarperCollins UK reported that today’s parents are falling out of love with reading aloud. Just 41% of kids under 4 years old are read to regularly, down from 64% in 2012. And only 40% of parents say reading aloud is fun for them—let alone for the kids. That’s a serious problem, because research shows that frequent parent read-alouds impact how much kids read on their own later, as well as how well the kids learn to read and how much they enjoy it.
And yet, even as many families pull back from reading aloud, others are doing everything they can to hold on to it. When you see the lengths some parents go to connect through books while behind bars, it puts things in perspective. The care. The effort. The vulnerability. Suddenly, the typical excuses for skipping story time lose steam. Our parental fatigue (though real) feels lighter, busy schedules seem less daunting, and waiting for the perfect moment feels a little indulgent in this context. Moms in the Women’s Storybook Project read to counteract some of the emotional insecurity, stigma, social isolation, and other devastating effects of family separation.
In the book club, we explored everything from how to engage middle schoolers who’ve lost interest in books to reading with babies and multilingual learners. The questions reflected the real-life complexity—and beauty—of supporting literacy in all kinds of families. Addressing these questions reminded me vividly that we truly need one another. We rely on a community of support to cultivate the literacy and language skills that all our children need to thrive.
Too often, parenting media paints an idyllic picture of family literacy—cozy bedtime stories, peaceful children on laps, fireplaces crackling in the background. But that image simply isn’t the reality for many families, for many reasons. I’m a sleepyhead who gladly delegated bedtime stories to my husband, choosing other moments in the day to share books with our daughter. If I’m honest, I spent more time thinking about writing about raising readers than actually reading with my daughter when she was little. Good intentions, faulty follow-through. Too often, I waited for the “perfect” book or “right” moment, missing the ample opportunities already within reach.
My book club conversation with the Women’s Storybook Project reinforced for me the importance of embracing the imperfect, yet deeply meaningful work of nurturing literacy.
Let the organization’s stories remind you: the perfect moment may never come, but with intent you can make the time to read anyway. It’s not too late, too little, or too hard. Anytime you can share builds your child’s brain and your family bond.
Recently, I had the joy of chatting with Joe Donahue on WAMC/NPR’s beloved show The Roundtable. Joe has a real gift for asking thoughtful questions and creating space for meaningful conversation—our interview felt less like a media hit and more like a cozy chat over coffee.
If you haven’t listened to The Roundtable before, I highly recommend it. The show regularly dives into the kinds of big, important topics that matter deeply to families, educators, and communities. In our conversation, we unpacked one of my life’s biggest passions: giving parents the tools and confidence to raise strong readers from the very beginning.
Here are some of the key ideas I shared during our talk…
When my daughter was born, I couldn’t stop thinking about the headlines. Again and again, I read stories about America’s low reading achievement—especially among black children and children from low-income families. It didn’t sit right with me. Not because I doubted the data, but because I knew it wasn’t the children who were the problem. So I did what I do best: I dug in. As a journalist, I went in search of answers. As a mother, I was desperate for solutions. What I found changed the course of my parenting—and eventually my career.
Reading doesn’t begin in kindergarten. It begins at birth.
We often talk about learning to read as something that starts when children enter school. But the truth is, the groundwork is laid much earlier—long before that first day of kindergarten. Reading is built on a foundation of talking, playing, pointing, and listening that begins in infancy. In fact, studies show that the number of back-and-forth conversations children experience between 18 and 24 months strongly predicts their vocabulary skills years later.
So yes, bedtime reading is wonderful. But literacy-building doesn’t end there—and it doesn’t require a book in hand. Every diaper change, every grocery store trip, every cuddle on the couch is an opportunity to build your child’s brain. The secret? Your words.
You’re not “just” a parent—you’re your child’s first and most important literacy teacher.
Here’s something I want every parent to hear and believe: You are a literacy leader. From the start. Not later. Not when your child enters school. Right now.
You don’t need a teaching degree to prepare your child to read. You need attention, intention, and love. Gentle teaching—through play, conversation, and shared routines—makes all the difference.
Say the names of foods as you cook. Point out letters on the cereal box. Narrate your day like you’re hosting a podcast just for your baby. When your toddler babbles or your preschooler asks “why” for the hundredth time, lean in. You’re not just surviving the moment—you’re building vocabulary, background knowledge, and brain architecture that supports reading down the road.
Let’s take the pressure off and make learning light.
When people hear the word “instruction,” they often picture a desk, a workbook, and a whiteboard. But for young children, the best teaching doesn’t look like school—it looks like you.
It’s silly voices during storytime. It’s clapping out syllables while dancing in the kitchen. It’s pointing out that “S” curves like a snake or that “M” has mountains. It’s tuning into the sounds around you—truck beeps, dog barks, rhyming songs—and helping your child hear and play with language.
I call this the TALK method:
Take turns
Ask questions
Label and point
Keep the conversation going
It’s a simple way to remember that the best learning happens through warm, responsive interaction. Not drills. Not flashcards. Just life, spoken out loud.
Start now. And if you’re concerned, speak up.
Some parents worry: What if my child isn’t where they should be?
My advice: trust your instincts. Write down your observations. Check developmental milestones (the CDC’s free tracker is a great tool). Bring up concerns at doctor visits. The earlier we notice challenges—especially with language or sound awareness—the earlier we can get support.
Don’t wait until a report card or a reading score makes the problem “official.” Start paying attention now. Ask questions. Be proactive. (See How to Assess Your Child’s Development & When to Seek Help for more tips.)
Because here’s the thing: reading skills are harder to build later. Research shows that kids who start kindergarten behind in vocabulary and letter knowledge have a tough road ahead. But the good news? The building blocks are simple, doable, and already within your reach.
You’re not late. You’re right on time.
So let’s raise readers together—not with stress and pressure, but with storytime, sidewalk signs, silly songs, and a whole lot of heart.
Looking for a rewarding, flexible side hustle that fits into your child’s school schedule? Substitute teaching might be the opportunity for you.
Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent looking to re-enter the workforce, a part-time worker in need of supplemental income, or in between jobs, subbing can provide extra income while allowing you to support your local schools.
“I like the flexibility and I like that it fits into the hours of school for my kids, so I can take them to their after-school activities,” said Elke, a mom I know who substitutes in her children’s schools. “I think it’s a great side hustle for moms. I’m surprised more moms don’t do it.”
Here’s a primer on some basics to know about becoming a substitute teacher and why it can be a great part-time job for parents.
Why Become a Substitute Teacher?
Substitute teaching offers a nice combination of flexibility, purpose, and income. Unlike many jobs, subbing generally allows you to set your own schedule and working location.
The districts I know about let substitutes choose when and where they work, making it easy to align with your child’s school schedule, your commute preferences, and your other obligations.
Substitutes can generally choose the days they want to work and say yes or no to specific assignments. In many districts, subs can see available assignments online or in an app each day and choose one that fits their preferences—or opt not to work that day.
Only want to work in your own child’s school, on campuses that are within five minutes of your home, or in certain grades? That should be an option in most cases, although some districts do require subs to work a certain number of days or be available to work in all schools. (In San Francisco, for example, subs are supposed to work at least five days during their first semester.)
Many parents opt to substitute outside their kids’ schools or districts, too. Besides opening up more work, this can give you great perspective and a valuable chance to compare your child’s school with others. One parent on X described substituting in a “no phones” school and seeing how much kids benefitted, compared to her own kids’ school, where phones were everywhere.
Subbing is a meaningful job—you’re helping maintain continuity in students’ education and a positive environment while teachers are away. It’s also a great way to dip your toes in if you’re interested in pursuing a teaching career down the line.
Benefits of Substitute Teaching as a Side Hustle
- Flexible Schedule: Work only on the days you’re available.
- Same Hours as Your Child’s School Day: Depending on where you sub and the age of your kid(s), you shouldn’t need childcare to take this gig. You may just need to arrange drop-off or pick-up for your child, unless you only take sub jobs at their school.
- Opportunity to Get Involved: Be present in your child’s school and community. It’s like volunteering, but you get paid! “It’s a good way to get to know who your kid is friends with and see what’s going on at their school,” Elke said.
- Make a Difference: The school years are crucial in children’s lives and in shaping the next generation. Your contribution to educating, supporting, and protecting them is vital.
- No Work to Take Home: Unlike full-time teachers, substitutes typically don’t have to do grading or lesson planning after hours.
- Extra Income: Earn money without the commitment of a full-time job.
How to Become a Substitute Teacher
To see if your district is hiring, visit the district’s website and look for a “Careers,” “Employment,” or “Human Resources” section. Many districts also post openings for substitute teachers on job boards like Indeed or EdJoin (used heavily in California). You can also call your district’s HR department or main office.
All states and school districts have their own requirements for substitute teachers, but here are some common expectations:
- Education: You may or may not need a college degree to substitute. For example, applicants in California at the time of writing must either (a) have a bachelor’s degree or (b) be enrolled in college and demonstrate mastery of reading, writing, and math basics. They can demonstrate mastery through coursework, SAT scores, or by passing the California Basic Educational Skills Test. Some states may also require college credits in education or a related field.
- Certification: You may need a substitute teacher permit or license from your state, which may involve a short training program or exam.
- Background Check: You’ll need to pass a criminal background check and likely a fingerprinting process.
- Health Requirements: There may be health-related requirements to work in the schools. For example you may need to show a negative TB test or a waiver from a healthcare provider.
- References or Letters of Recommendation: Some districts require these, along with an online job application.
Check your local school district’s website or state educational department to learn about specific requirements in your area.
How Much Do Substitute Teachers Earn?
Pay rates for substitutes vary by location and school district. In my California school district, substitute teachers earn $250 per day, while in nearby San Francisco they get upwards of $325 a day.
Some districts offer higher pay for long-term assignments or for those with teaching certifications. In my district, subs get an extra $30 per day after 30 days in a classroom, while San Francisco offers almost $40 extra per day after 10 days in a class. There may also be bonuses for teachers who work more than a certain number of days in a semester.
Subbing can provide a nice stream of supplemental income on your terms, and the flexibility means it may even be possible to balance it with other part-time work or higher education.
What’s a Typical Day Like as a Substitute?
As a substitute teacher, your day will depend on the school and grade level you’re assigned to.
In some cases, you’ll follow a lesson plan left by the regular teacher. Other times, you’ll just supervise as kids log into Google classroom or other digital platforms to find their work for the day. You may even need to get creative sometimes, if you get limited direction from the teacher.
Some days will be easy—students will be engaged and cooperative. Other days may be more challenging, requiring patience and resourcefulness to manage distractible kids. This is where parents may have an edge. After all, you’ve been managing your own kids at home for years!
Here’s a rough outline of what to expect:
- Morning: Arrive early, check in at the office, and review lesson plans.
- Classroom Time: Supervise work or teach lessons, assist students, and maintain a safe, positive classroom environment.
- Breaks and Lunch: Bring a lunch to eat in the teacher’s lounge or common area, and use your break time to plan for the afternoon.
- Afternoon: Continue teaching, guide students through activities, and leave notes for the returning teacher. Unlike regular teachers, a substitute’s day ends when the school day is over, and you more or less get to go home when the kids do!
How Are Substitute Teachers Evaluated?
Substitute teachers are mostly evaluated informally, and that starts when you walk in the door. Office staff, teachers, aides, and administrators will notice if you’re friendly, professional, and on time.
People also notice how you manage the classroom, follow instructions, and interact with the class, advises a staffing agency. If you’re shouting across the room or your class gets wild enough to disrupt others, it may get back to the principal. Even how you act during lunch or in the hallway matters. Students also impact how you’re perceived—kids will talk about their day to their regular teacher and parents, and their feedback often gets passed along.
Principals may not be watching you directly, but they hear what’s going on from everyone else. Some districts also have systems to collect formal feedback or evaluations of substitutes. Don’t stress too much, though—simply treating kids and adults courteously and being responsible can go a long way to making a good impression. So be friendly, come prepared, follow the rules, stay flexible, and show that you can keep your cool even if things don’t go as expected.
Tips for Success as a Substitute Teacher
- Be Flexible: Be open to different grade levels and subjects—variety keeps things interesting! Most of all, respond to the circumstances. If your class is unruly or disengaged, be ready to change your plan and shake it up.
- Arrive Early: Give yourself time to review lesson plans and get settled. It’s also nice to have time to use the bathroom or get a drink of water before the students arrive.
- Prepare a Backup Plan: Have a few educational activities in case the teacher’s lesson plans are unclear, incomplete, or nonexistent. It’s worthwhile to have some enriching, fun ideas up your sleeve. Just avoid hot-button issues or sensitive topics. You can even use a little time to pay it forward to the main teacher. Principal Zac Bauermaster suggests subs take time “off script” to have kids write their teacher notes of appreciation.
- Stay Calm and Confident: Classroom management can be tough, but maintaining a firm yet friendly attitude helps. Remember, it’s just one day and sticking to a lesson plan is not a life-or-death requirement. Whatever grade you’re in, they’re still kids. Keep your cool and model grown-up behavior. Elke offered up some veteran mom wisdom that’s served her as a sub: “Keeping a level head and being respectful even when they’re not is really helpful.”
- Bring Your Sense of Humor: Kids can give substitute teachers a hard time. (Maybe you even did that when you were little!) Meanwhile, busy school staff may provide little information or support. And subs also have to face the unexpected, like last-minute changes. If you bring a sense of humor, it can help you roll with the punches. You’ll also have more fun. With a little luck, the kids will catch the mood, too!
- Build Relationships: Be friendly and get to know school staff and administrators when possible. (Just keep in mind they’re juggling a lot.) As you get to know them, they’ll be more likely to call you for future jobs and you’ll know who to ask for help when you sub.
- Embrace the Unexpected: Every day as a sub is different … much like parenting. Enjoy the adventure!
Preparing to Substitute Teach
Some districts provide short training sessions to familiarize substitute teachers with classroom management techniques and school policies.
Many don’t, however, so you may want to do a bit of prepping on your own. There are lots of online resources and social media accounts dedicated to sharing tricks of the teaching trade—although years of parenting may well be some of the best preparation, too.
Elke shared that her school district didn’t provide any training, so she just channeled her own school years alongside her parenting experience.
“I felt silly the first time I did it and I was standing in front of the classroom,” she recalled. “I thought, ok, I’m just going to act like a teacher!” It worked out, and she’s now a frequent sub in her children’s middle and high schools.
Is Substitute Teaching Right for You?
If you enjoy working with kids, have some patience, and can handle a bit of unpredictability, substitute teaching may be a fantastic side hustle.
“You need to be somebody who is independent and can figure it out on your own,” Elke advised. “It requires you to think on your toes and be flexible.”
Sounds a lot like being a parent to me!
If you’re up for it, substituting may be a great side gig to earn extra money while getting involved in your child’s school community. Plus, it offers the satisfaction of knowing you’re making a difference in students’ lives. Check with your local school district to see how you can get started.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the value of awards and recognition. I’ve unexpectedly received a few honors recently, and each time I felt like the experience was about something much bigger than me. While the recognition was validating, I also sensed that I was a focal point. The awards gave me a chance to serve, for a moment, as a symbol of something much larger and more profound—a movement that I had the honor of representing in that time and space.
It got me thinking that any given award is less about the individual recipient and more about the issue they’re being honored for. More specifically, they’re about mobilizing the power of gathering and celebrating the communities and relationships that fuel meaningful work on that issue.
The Power of Gathering
One of the most rewarding aspects of receiving these awards has been the opportunity to be in a room with like-minded people who are all working toward a shared goal. I was reminded of this when I participated in the 30th-anniversary celebration of Literacy First, a high-impact tutoring program in Austin, Texas, that I deeply admire.
They chose to mark their milestone with a book-club discussion that brought together board members, staff, tutors, and partners. It was an honor to celebrate their incredible work—a chance to publicly acknowledge what I’ve known privately for years: they are an exemplary organization, changing lives through literacy.
That gathering provided a special kind of platform. I could have written a social media post or praised their efforts in other settings (and I have), but there was something uniquely powerful about being in a shared space, albeit virtual. A unique potency in collectively celebrating their impact.
Unexpected Connections
Closer to home, I recently received a Community Service Award from St. Francis Children’s Center in Milwaukee. The award was presented at a gala that brought together people from my local community, many of whom were new to my work. Being on stage gave me the opportunity to introduce my mission to fresh eyes, but it also led to some reconnections.
A woman I hadn’t seen in more than a year, when we’d shared bleachers at a middle school basketball game, was at the event. She congratulated me, and in our brief conversation, I learned she now serves on the board of a mentoring organization in the community—one I would soon be partnering with. That chance encounter, made possible by the gathering, renewed our acquaintance and kindled collaboration potential.
This is what I love about in-person gatherings: the unexpected touchpoints, the little moments of reconnection that strengthen the fabric of our communities.
A Platform to Honor Others
Awards also offer a nudge to reflect—on my own work and on those who have shaped it—and me. At the St. Francis Children’s Center event, I dedicated the award to my mother. She has been my biggest cheerleader from day one, alongside my father before he passed. More than that, she laid the foundation for my love of language and literacy.
She filled my childhood with words—thousands upon thousands of them. She enrolled me in early childhood programs, schools, and summer activities, each one helping to shape who I am today. Being recognized on that stage gave me the perfect moment to acknowledge her role in my journey.
Lately, when receiving public recognition, I’ve begun paying tribute to my namesake, Maya Angelou. I sometimes recite a few lines of her poetry as a nod to her enduring impact. Anytime I take a stage, it’s my honor to bring her with me.
The Joy of Celebration
Ever since the pandemic, I haven’t attended nearly as many events as I used to. This season of recognition has reminded me how energizing it is to gather in person. The handshakes, the quick “how are you?” check-ins, the introductions that lead to new partnerships—it all matters.
These moments don’t have to be long or formal. Sometimes, the most meaningful connections happen in those brief exchanges between speeches or in line at the coat check. Or maybe that’s just the introvert in me that prefers one-on-one interactions over holding forth in a crowd.
Awards as an Exclamation Mark
In the midst of my own personal awards season, I fell down the rabbit hole of “Mark Twain Prize for American Humor” clips on YouTube. My descent started with one Kevin Hart tribute video, then spiraled into watching segments of ceremonies honoring Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and others.
What struck me was the sheer joy of these gatherings—the way colleagues and friends came together, not just to recognize talent, but to express, out loud, what they love about someone’s contributions to the world.
That’s the heart of it, isn’t it? Whether it’s a community award, a literacy celebration, or a night at the Kennedy Center, recognition serves as a rare and precious moment to pause and say, This matters. You matter. We’re with you.
For those of us doing mission-driven work, so much of what we do happens in solitude. We put in thousands of hours, refining, creating, advocating, pushing forward, often without immediate validation. Awards aren’t the reason we do the work—but they are a beautiful punctuation mark, a moment to step back and acknowledge the impact.
So, here’s to more celebrations, more gatherings, and more moments to publicly thank all the people who make the award-winners’ work possible.
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives
I had an incredible time at the Beyond School Hours National Education Conference in Orlando, where I accepted the 2025 Champion of Children Award from Foundations Inc. Trading Wisconsin’s 10-degree chill for Florida’s sun was lovely, but the true warmth came from spending time among 2,000 passionate educators and advocates. It was a wonderful group dedicated to helping youth feel seen, safe, and inspired through afterschool and out-of-school programming.
It was humbling and motivating to be recognized alongside iconic past recipients like Dolly Parton, Geoffrey Canada, and Barbara Bush, leaders I’ve admired for their transformative contributions to children’s literacy. But the conference’s true heart was its educators and program leaders—unsung champions whose daily efforts create life-changing opportunities for kids.
The conference reinforced my core belief: literacy isn’t just a school issue—it’s a community issue that requires all of us to act. Parents, educators, and community leaders all have a role in building strong readers, from nurturing oral language before kindergarten to fueling curiosity through out-of-school programs.
I appreciate every member of the Foundations team. They all went out of their way to welcome me, celebrate my work, and help elevate it by introducing me to prospective partners at organizations and foundations across the country.
I’m also grateful for the organization’s generous donation to Reach Out and Read Wisconsin, a program that brings books into pediatric care and encourages family read-alouds from birth. It’s among my favorite nonprofits and is exactly the kind of community-based early literacy intervention we need more of.
In my acceptance speech, I shared my personal journey, from championing my daughter Zora’s (named after novelist Zora Neale Hurston) literacy to advocating for every family seeking clear, practical guidance to raise strong readers. I honored my namesake, Maya Angelou, whose iconic poem reminds us:
“I rise… Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
We rise, in part, through reading. And when some of us struggle to read, we all have a responsibility to address it. We must support:
- Parents to build oral language skills and print awareness from birth.
- Teachers who deliver high-quality instruction and intervention.
- Out-of-school programs that fuel curiosity and knowledge.
- Communities that nurture learning through conversation, play, and exploration.
I urged attendees to turn every touchpoint with children into opportunities for learning, including summer camps, afterschool initiatives, and community events. I challenged them to empower parents as children’s first teachers, by offering them practical tools and quick wins.
When I wrote my book, I titled it Reading for Our Lives because this is urgent. We don’t read for test scores—we read to thrive. We read for our health, our well-being, our livelihoods, and our shared future.
The journey continues, and I’m more energized than ever to spread the joy and urgency of early literacy.
Thank you, Foundations, for this honor and for creating spaces where education champions connect and strengthen our collective impact.
Together, let’s ensure that every child reads—and rises.
If you’d like to learn more about Foundations Inc.’s important work, visit www.foundationsinc.org.
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Zora Neale Hurston
To best usher your child towards literacy from birth onwards, it’s helpful to know what they can and should understand and do at different stages.
Let’s start by setting realistic expectations. Your baby cannot read. It’s not even something you should aspire to, let alone try to teach, despite the bogus claims of some products and the wishful thinking of the parents who buy them. The path to reading unfolds over the course of years, not months, and trying to shortcut the process can misdirect you from providing the critical early support and guidance that’s shown to predict later reading achievement and school success.
Reading is making sense of print at a glance. More specifically, learning to read is learning to recognize in writing words, ideas, and concepts that we already understand in spoken language. So there are two hurdles standing between babies and reading comprehension—sufficient oral language experience and knowledge of the alphabetic code.
Children must have enough back-and-forth conversation with parents, caregivers, and others to build the vocabulary, verbal reasoning, and knowledge of the world they need to make sense of words and sentences. Plus, they need direct explicit instruction in how written language works. That is, how letters and combinations of letters represent speech sounds in print. And both facets of reading—oral language and written language—take time to develop.
The parents’ job in the beginning is not to teach reading but to nurture its long-term development through active attention, book sharing, and caring conversation. Think of these as your own ABCs. Do them thoughtfully and consistently from the start, and you’ll create a rich early-language environment in which your child’s reading can bloom. No flash cards, computer screens, or baby “curriculum” required.
How to Use Language Milestones & Literacy Targets
Below, you’ll find a chronology of milestones and targets to help you anticipate the language experience, alphabetic knowledge, print awareness, and speech-sound insight that your child should accumulate as they grow into reading. By the end of this quick tour, you’ll better understand how your child grows from cooer and babbler to full-fledged reader and communicator.
Many linguists believe that modern human speech abilities, including vowel and consonant sound production, may have emerged roughly 200,000 or more years ago with the development of the larynx (aka voice box). That span has given our brains ample time to evolve the wiring that enables even very young children to produce and understand speech in their native language with ease.
Today, children’s oral language development is thought to proceed along a straightforward and predictable path with observable milestones (e.g., first coos, babbles, and spoken words). I will list some language developmental markers that align with norms published by organizations including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control. The time frames I list correspond roughly to when most monolingual children have reached the milestones, according to analysis of parent surveys, clinical and observational data, intervention and longitudinal studies, and other research.
I’ll also list select targets related to written language skills. Reading, in contrast to oral language, doesn’t develop effortlessly. Rather, it’s a complex learned ability that emerged much more recently in human evolution. Reading requires the “recycling” of brain networks that originally evolved for other purposes (auditory, visual, semantic processing, and executive function). There’s incredible variation in how long it takes people to develop the oral language foundation and absorb the written language instruction they need to learn to read well—and far too many never get there.
For this reason, I use the word target to describe the print-focused skills. These written-language achievements and book behaviors represent the age when kids “should” have the skills or knowledge in order to meet grade-level expectations down the road—not when most kids actually do achieve these skills. In fact, most kids aren’t currently meeting the targets, because there’s such poor communication and infrastructure linking early care to elementary school and beyond. As a society, we’ve raised the bar for kindergarten readiness without properly supporting families and early caregivers in preparing kids to clear it.
Keep in mind that your family’s mileage along the road to reading will vary. The chronology that follows isn’t a standardized, validated screening tool nor a curriculum guide. It merely overviews what kids need to know and do over time where language and literacy are concerned. It’s not meant to trigger a guilt trip about what you did or didn’t know or do at any given point in time.
If your child is older, scan the list to reflect on all that they’ve learned or where they might need support. Then read ahead to see what’s still coming. Get on board with doing what you can now to move forward from where your child is, and to help them learn and accomplish what they need next for school and life.
You can also visit readingforourlives.com/milestones for more in-depth information on the language and literacy signposts described, the research underpinning them, and ideas on what to do if you are concerned about your child’s development.
Language Milestones & Literacy Targets By Age
May the following lists remind you of the range of skills and experiences kids need—and give you the patience and perspective to be a loving guide.
- Language Milestones & Literacy Targets for Babies
- Language Milestones & Literacy Targets for Toddlers & Preschoolers
- Language Milestones & Literacy Targets for Kindergarten & Early Elementary Students
Keep in mind, the ultimate level of reading we’re aiming for is a moving target. The sophistication your child will need to thrive will depend on the individual goals they pursue in higher education, the demands of the workplaces they enter, and the invention of new technologies and media that we can’t even imagine today.
The term literacy itself changes over time. From the dawn of tablets (stone, that is) millennia ago to the global proliferation of the electronic variety today, social and technological change has altered the very definition of the word. As parents, we need to be aware of literacy’s dynamism as modes of communication change.
I think of how my daughter’s second-grade year was dramatically altered by quarantine and an influx of digital technology. A kid who’d had limited screen time suddenly spent hours online daily and became adept at classroom tech, videoconferencing, and ebook procurement—because she had to. The terms of engagement with her school, teacher, and classmates had transformed in an instant. A pandemic raised educational stakes by activating new approaches to technology, communication, and learning.
The need to leverage skilled reading to meet contemporary needs endures. And the best readers, whether 8 or 80, will be defined by their ability to identify the vast majority of words in any text they encounter and construct meaning from them, individually and collectively.
As each age and stage illustrates, this level of comprehension is built on the foundation of a stimulated brain, a robust vocabulary, wide-ranging exposure to writing, and explicit instruction in the alphabetic code. To read well may take a lifetime, but it all starts from day one with the language- and literacy-building experiences parents create.
Edited and reprinted with permission from Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Copyright © 2022 by Maya Payne Smart.
Get Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six
Learn how to foster your child’s pre-reading and reading skills easily, affordably, and playfully in the time you’re already spending together.
Get Reading for Our Lives