Summer feels different as a teacher. 

You’re not worried about planning lessons for tomorrow, prepping centers at 9 p.m., or managing behavior all day. 

You finally have space to just think.

You don’t need to redo everything this summer. But a few intentional moves can completely change how the beginning of the year feels. I know that even with the best intentions, ‘planning’ can quickly turn back into “stressing.”

That’s why the Literacy Clubs exist: to take the guesswork out of summer prep so you can actually enjoy your break while getting ahead.

The Literacy Clubs give you summer PD, ready-to-use centers and small-group materials, and beginning-of-year organization tools that make literacy instruction feel manageable.

In this blog post, I’ll share a few ways educators can use that time wisely so you can head into the new school year feeling prepared, organized, and confident.

Start with Small Groups

Small groups are where foundational skills are built.

This is where you respond to students’ specific needs by explicitly teaching and providing guided practice with phonological awareness, decoding, language skills, and reading comprehension.

Louisa Moats (2020) wrote, 

“Teaching reading is rocket science.” 

This complexity is why “winging it” rarely works, especially not for struggling readers.

Effective instruction requires a deep understanding of how the brain learns to read, paired with a highly organized plan. By starting the logistical work for thinking through small groups now, you clear the mental space needed to focus on your students’ needs later.

Summer is a great time to:

• Organize materials by skill
• Separate out phonics, fluency, and comprehension resources
• Sketch out your first few weeks of reading instruction

Inside the Literacy Clubs, you can use the ready-to-go small group lessons to map out your first month. Instead of scrambling to plan once school starts, you can preview the instructional strategies, pull resources that align with your goals and curriculum, and feel confident that your instruction reflects evidence-based practices.

Small group materials include:

• Decodable texts on the same topic
• Detailed lesson plans with clear teacher modeling
• Built-in comprehension assessments
• Targeted activities for comprehension, fluency, phonics, and phonemic awareness

Even a little bit of planning now makes a huge difference at the beginning of the year.

Tighten Up Your Centers

We’ve all been there: looking across the room during small groups only to realize the rest of the class has devolved into a free-for-all of glue sticks and chatter. But centers don’t have to be “busy work;” they can be an opportunity to bridge gaps for students not at your table.

Summer is the perfect time to take a breath and reflect honestly on your centers. Ask yourself:

• Is the work I’ve been assigning purposeful and aligned with my goals for my students, or is it just a placeholder until the timer rings?
• Are these centers helping my students become independent, or will I be interrupted every three minutes to explain a game or worksheet?

Strong early literacy instruction is about building a solid foundation. If a center doesn’t serve that goal, it’s okay to let it go.

The Literacy Clubs include ready-to-use, skill-aligned centers that support early literacy development in Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. You can print, prep, and label now so that when school begins, your centers are purposeful from day one.

Instead of feeling reactive or scrambling to find centers each week, you start the year organized.

Set Up Your Beginning-of-Year Systems

Assessment and organization matter more than we like to admit.

Clear systems for tracking student progress allow you to provide explicit instruction and adjust based on what students actually need. Without that clarity, it’s easy to default to habits instead of evidence-based practices.

Emily Hanford (2019) explains, 

“We have known for decades how children learn to read. The problem is not a lack of research. It’s a lack of applying it.”

Building organized assessment systems is exactly how we bridge that gap between the research we know and the instruction students receive. The science of reading is clear about foundational skills and early literacy. But those principles only matter if we build systems that help support them.

Use the summer to:

• Review your beginning-of-year assessments
• Set up simple tracking tools
• Plan how you will group students for targeted literacy instruction

The Literacy Clubs include beginning-of-year organizational resources that help literacy teachers prepare binders, group plans, and materials before the first day of school. Having those systems in place frees you to focus on building relationships and routines instead of scrambling to create trackers.

Use Summer PD to Strengthen Your Instruction

Summer professional development does not need to feel overwhelming.

But it is a powerful time to strengthen your understanding of foundational skills, the components of reading, and research-based strategies that improve literacy outcomes for your students.

Whether you are a classroom teacher, reading specialist, interventionist, or literacy coach, ongoing support matters. Literacy education continues to evolve as new research clarifies best practices in early reading. Use this time to make sure you go into the new school year feeling informed and confident.

The Literacy Clubs include monthly professional development webinars that are directly tied to the materials you use. You are not just learning theory. You are learning how to apply it immediately in your literacy instruction.

That connection between learning and practice makes a difference.

Picture Your First Week

Imagine walking into your classroom with:

• Small-group plans already outlined
• Centers prepped 
• Assessment binders ready
• A clear plan for literacy instruction

You feel prepared and steady. No second-guessing, no ‘winging it’, just a clear path forward for you and your students.

That kind of start does not happen by accident. It happens with a little intentional prep and the right resources.

If you would like summer PD, ready-to-use activities for centers and small groups, and beginning-of-year organization tools designed specifically for K–2 teachers, the clubs open every July and January. If enrollment isn’t open right now, you can join the waitlist here.

References

Hanford, E. (2019). At a loss for words: How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers. American Public Media.

Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers (3rd ed.). Brookes Publishing.