If you’re in the education business, especially if you’re in the United States, and especially if you’re in the Midwest region, chances are you’ve heard of Kristina Smekens of Smekens Education.
For those of you who haven’t, let me be the first to say: You are missing out!
Smekens Education has a wide range of literacy-based workshop topics and materials ranging from building an effective year-long writing plan to standardized test prep. As the lead consultant, Kristina’s knowledge and love of teaching and learning clearly show through.
Every summer, Smekens Education hosts a Literacy Retreat, a two-day literacy conference filled with updated best practices, ready-to-go lesson ideas, prizes, and lots of energy. This summer was a little different, but no less incredible.
In the summer of 2021, Kristina unveiled the Reading Comprehension Playbook, a yearlong spiral plan of reading comprehension lessons based on grade-level standards.
Flipping through the Playbook, I found myself in awe. The amount of energy, effort, and research that clearly went into its development are unparalleled – and Kristina made one for every grade level through 12th grade!
Kristina herself is a fabulous human being. With some other professional development workshops, the presenter holds themselves apart from the audience, displaying a “sage on the stage” personality. In contrast, Kristina knows what it’s like to be in the trenches. She speaks to the everyday educator who’s tired, frustrated, and feeling alone.
Kristina reaches out a metaphorical hand from her stage and leans in with a grin.
“Come on,” is the message of her workshops. “Yes, it’s tiring; yes, it’s frustrating, but it’s WORTH IT! You can do it; you can make a difference. Let me give you some strategies to help.”
In the next few days, I plan to update portions of this website with the purpose of several grammar concepts. These are not my realizations. This past summer, Kristina graciously gave me permission to reference some of her work on my site.
I think it’s important for students to know the purpose of their learning. In fact, that may be the single most important change I’ve made in my teaching: explicitly connecting concepts to students’ interests.
These purposes don’t directly connect to the lives of middle schoolers. None of the grammar concepts will help students make a better TikTok video or become a YouTube star. But by telling seventh graders that the purpose of phrases within sentences is to add information, now students have something to connect this otherwise-obscure-sounding grammar concept to.
Thank you very much to the Smekens Education team for always putting out such useful, relevant content. And a special thank you to Kristina Smekens for allowing me to borrow some of your work and words.
For those interested in learning more, the Smekens Education resource I’ll be referencing can be purchased here. I highly recommend it – there’s far more inside than I cover here on my site.
If you’re interested in Smekens Education, check out their website here. There are several excellent on-demand workshops, and WebPD is well worth the investment.
Happy writing!
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