Frankly Freddy Blog
TextProject president and CEO Elfrieda H. (Freddy) Hiebert blogs about important issues in reading research and practice.Frankly Freddy entries (published from 2005 to 2014) have been sorted into five topics of literacy learning and instruction. Click here to download the ebook!
ILA Webinar Q & A Highlights: Knowledge Building as the Foundation for Literacy Learning
June 20, 2024
In these clips from the Q & A session of a webinar for the International Literacy, Cervetti and Hiebert emphasize the importance of integrating content area learning with ELA, cautioning against replacing experiential learning with superficial knowledge in ELA curricula. They advocate for diverse text sets to build depth in students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary, and to foster meaningful engagement and ownership in their learning.
Reclaiming Our Field: Three Highlights from Research & Practice
June 19, 2024
Slides from Freddy’s recent presentation to Wisconsin Teacher Educators. Download presentation slides as PDF file Related Research Articles Enhancing Opportunities for Decoding and Knowledge Building through Beginning TextsCitation: Hiebert, Elfrieda HRead More »Reclaiming Our Field: Three Highlights from Research & Practice
The Usefulness of Semantic Maps in Navigating Knowledge
May 22, 2024
One learning technique has proven effective in supporting students in organizing and remembering knowledge: semantic maps. Whether the technique is called a semantic, concept, or mind map, the distinguishing feature is that words, phrases, or sentences that represent concepts are presented in a diagram-like scheme.
ILA Webinar: Knowledge Building as the Foundation of Literacy Learning
May 14, 2024
In this session, speakers Gina N. Cervetti and Elfrieda (Freddy) H. Hiebert will discuss the importance of knowledge building in the literacy instruction classroom and draw direct connections to both students’ academic success and their social-emotional well-being through developing other critical skills essential for personal growth.
“I just have to keep answering the questions I think are important”: Dr. Elfrieda (Freddy) Hiebert on the Getting Smarter podcast
May 9, 2024
My hope is that when a plaque gets put up for me some day, that people will see this unusual name and say: ‘She was committed to the kids, and to their teachers.’ And I review that commitment every single morning and every night… I just have to keep answering the questions I think are important.
TextProject celebrates Children’s Book Week May 2 – 6!
May 6, 2024
“Knowledge building as the foundation of literacy learning” is our focus this May at TextProject, and what better way to kick it off than by celebrating Children’s Book Week! After all, books are how we find out about the wider world around us. The theRead More »TextProject celebrates Children’s Book Week May 2 – 6!
AERA 2024: Considering Decodable Texts
April 16, 2024
Slides from Elfrieda H. (Freddy) Hieberts presentation at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association
Fostering Hope with Children’s Literature
February 5, 2024
Today, in a world of instantaneous communication, children and young people can be confronted with images and information that are troubling and hard to understand. “Fostering Hope with Children’s Literature” is an essay that draws on scholarship about how literature can give children and young people insight into how people have found unexpected sources of strength and resilience in challenging times.
Webinar: How Words and Literature Support Hope in Classrooms
February 1, 2024
In this presentation, Elfrieda H. (Freddy) Hiebert builds on her research on vocabulary and the article “Fostering Hope with Children’s Literature” (The Reading Teacher, 2022), in describing how literature for children and adolescents can create a community of hope in classrooms.
Podcast: Valuable Words About Vocabulary
January 29, 2024
Freddy talks with the hosts of Literacy Talks about how small changes in teaching vocabulary and text complexity can lead to big differences in students’ literacy growth.