WARNING
Some Roadmap trainings are not true to the book.
Are you using the REAL Roadmap program?
It is good that teachers and schools want to use The Roadmap to Literacy (Langley and Militzer-kopperl, 2018). Roadmap was designed to get up to 95% of Waldorf students reading and spelling at grade level by the end of third grade. Roadmap aligns with Rudolf Steiner's indications better than anything on the market.
however, some Roadmap trainings do not align with the book. This page helps teachers and schools adopt the real Roadmap program.
Can you separate Roadmap from Roadcrap?
Thumbnail for Is this Practice Roadmap or Roadcrap?
Go through this flip deck and see if you can determine which practices and ideas are Roadmap and which are not.
Note: The term roadcrap refers to beliefs and practices that undermine the efficacy of The Roadmap to Literacy.
The Seven Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy
Illustration for The 7 Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy
Here are the seven core tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy. They are seven principles that should be respected if a school or teacher claims to be using The Roadmap to Literacy.
Click here to read "The Seven Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy."
Where Does Roadcrap Come From?
Practices that undermine The Roadmap to Literacy come from Waldorf Inspirations. They are the creation of my co-author Janet Langley and her colleague Patti Connolly.
Janet Langley and I (Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl) are the co-authors of The Roadmap to Literacy. Patti Connolly participated in a study group convened to write a book about Waldorf literacy, but she decided against writing the book. Ms. Langley asked to put Ms. Connolly's name on the front cover (see left--copy of original cover).
Ms. Langley then pulled a bait and switch regarding content and author. Ms. Langley and Ms. Connolly created workshops that were allegedly for/based on The Roadmap to Literacy. they presented Ms. Connolly as a representative of the book. In these workshops, Ms. Langley and Ms. Connolly changed the core tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy. they included practices that undermine the book and omitted practices that are necessary to get up to 95% of students reading and spelling at grade level.
Click here to learn the truth about Patti Connolly and The Roadmap to Literacy, as on file with Federal Copyright.
Resources for the real Roadmap program
I (Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl) have done several things to help teachers, homeschool parents, and schools adopt the real Roadmap program.
I have written a new edition: the Roadmap to Literacy: Renewal of Literacy® Edition (Militzer-Kopperl, 2022). It addresses the #1 thing teachers are doing wrong when they use The Roadmap to Literacy so we can get up to 95% of Waldorf students reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
Click here to read the preface of The Roadmap to Literacy: Renewal of Literacy® Edition.
The first chapter is included in Preview the Books.
I (Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl) have created an online school called Renewal of Literacy®. It features on-demand courses to support The Roadmap to Literacy Books, including "Unlocking The Roadmap to Literacy." This course helps teachers get up and running when they use The Roadmap to Literacy (either edition).
Click here to learn more about "Unlocking The Roadmap to Literacy." Click here to see full course offerings.
I (Jennifer Militer-Kopperl) have created a bundle of three courses for the literacy capacities (sensory-cognitive functions). These are the capacities that Rudolf Steiner said Waldorf teachers should train. Providing direct instruction in these three capacities is key to getting up to 95% of students reading and spelling at grade level. Click here to read my article in Waldorf Today. It discusses Steiner's forgotten literacy capacity: symbol imagery.
Click here to learn more about "The Keys to Literacy Capacities." Click here to see full course offerings.
Are your students behind?
Illustration What to do if you adopted a pseudo-Roadmap program
I (Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl) created a free online, on-demand course for teachers who need to get their students caught up post-pandemic. The course works equally well for teachers whose students are behind because they received faulty and/or inadequate information on how to use The Roadmap to Literacy.
Click here for more information about "Renewal of Literacy: Ways to Get Students Caught up in Reading and Spelling."
Polemic
Illustration for Academic Rickets article
Janet Langley and Patti Connolly advertise their workshops for/based on the book Ms. Langley and I (Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl) co-authored by claiming that their workshops enliven literacy instruction. I hope they are wrong: Enlivening literacy instruction is a big reason why Waldorf reading instruction fails a high percentage of students. Rudolf Steiner, creator of Waldorf education, specifically warned Waldorf teachers about this error.
The Roadmap to Literacy was written not to enliven Waldorf education, but to bring balance to it by including the opposite pole. The balance that Ms. Langley and Ms. Connolly disturbed is what enables teachers who use Roadmap to get up to 95% of students reading and spelling by the end of third grade.
Click here to read the article "Academic Rickets: Why Education Should be Balanced, Not Enlivened."
Please pass this material on to your friends and colleagues.
Help me eradicate academic rickets.
Let's get up to 95% of Waldorf students reading and spelling at grade level with The Roadmap to Literacy!
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