April 8, 2026
What If Student Choice Is The Missing Link In Literacy Growth
Reading growth doesn’t always come from a brand-new curriculum. Sometimes it comes from one small shift: letting students have real choice in what they read. From the floor of the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with Emmie and Shantale, ECU ambassadors and graduate students focused on reading and literacy instruction, to talk about what’s working right now with real learners.
Website: spotlight4success.com
00:06 - Welcome From The NCRA Conference
00:29 - Why They Came To NCRA
00:45 - What Sparked Their Teaching Path
01:27 - Classroom Strategy: Choice And Voice
02:16 - What ECU’s Online Program Is Like
03:28 - Advice For Future Graduate Students
05:03 - Fee Waiver Deadline And Closing
WEBVTT
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Welcome to American Book Company Spotlight for Success.
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I'm your host, Danielle Pintozi, and today we are at the NCRA conference in North Carolina.
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Beside me are our special guests.
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We have Emmy and Chantel, and they are ambassadors for ECU.
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We are so glad to have y'all on today.
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So, what brings you guys to NCRA?
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So we came with our ambassador program at ECU.
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Currently, we're seniors in the program and we're focusing on reading and literacy instruction.
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So it's been nice to get to learn more about strategies for reading and literacy instruction here and all the different perspectives.
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What got you started in education?
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Um, I feel like for me, just ever since I was little, I just knew that I really wanted to be a teacher when I grew up.
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Um, and then all through college, just all the different programs I went through, just I just love working with children.
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I would say the same for me.
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I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher.
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And it seemed like I always preferred to teach reading instruction, so I focused on that with my master's program.
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Was there a specific strategy you used in the classroom to help?
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Sorry.
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Let me cut that part out.
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I was gonna say that weird.
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Um was there a specific strategy you used in the classroom to drive student growth?
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One strategy that I've learned a lot about in this program and that I've used in my classroom is student motivation and allowing them to have choice and voice in the room.
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Um, especially with literacy, I try to let them, if I'm working with intervention students, select the passage that we're gonna be focused on.
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And you can do that just by providing, you know, two or three choices for them based on their interest and letting them feel like they have that little bit of choice in the assignment, and that helps with motivation.
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Yes, I definitely agree with Emmy.
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I feel like we've learned a lot about that in our graduate courses, just making sure instruction is relevant to students, giving them choice, you know, when it comes to engagement, and then also motivation as well.
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So now being at ECU for the graduate program four years since y'all are seniors?
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It's two, so our program is two years.
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Two years?
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How has that experience been so far?
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My experience has been amazing.
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I've enjoyed it so much, and the nice thing about ECU is with our program specifically, the reading and literacy, it is fully online, so I've been able to work full-time and work keep up with my workload with classes.
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My instructions, my instruction, can we cut that part?
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Yeah.
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My instructors have been very supportive.
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If I have a question, it seems like they respond within really 24 hours, and I've even had some that are willing to meet on WebEx just to answer a question on a Saturday.
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So my advisor's been very supportive and helping me stay on track with what my goal was.
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So I've really enjoyed my time at ECE.
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Yes, I agree.
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Same for me.
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I feel like our professors are just amazing, um, just always willing to help us, and I feel like they really want us to succeed, and I feel like we can always reach out to them and they give us feedback very quickly as well.
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What advice would you give to other educators wanting to join a graduate program at ECU?
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My advice would be to definitely take the leap and do it because I haven't regretted my decision.
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I've learned so much and I feel like it's helped me grow professionally.
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I also would I would definitely recommend going with our reading and literacy program if you're interested in reading instruction.
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It's awesome.
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Yes, it is.
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I agree with Emmy.
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I would say just do it.
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You will not regret it.
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Um I think it's also helpful that you know, as being teachers, we're able to apply a lot of what we're already doing in the in our classroom into the program and then using what we're learning in the program and applying it to the classroom.
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So it's been a great experience.
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It's benefited the students as well.
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Yes.
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Has there been um a specific strategy you've used from your from learning at graduate school that you've used in the classroom?
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Um I feel like I would say um just you know, like we kind of spoke before about just making sure we're using in strategies that are engaging to students, making sure that we're um motivating them, um, and then also making sure that um all of our content is relevant to what they need.
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So just making sure we're putting students first, I would say.
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Yeah, and placing that value in the instruction because if students have value or see that what they're learning is actually attains to their real life or their interests, then it seems like they're more motivated.
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Is there anything else you want to share with the NCRA community and just other educators before we close out?
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I would like to share that.
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Of course, I would definitely recommend our program with Reading and Literacy.
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And right now, if you're interested in getting your Masters of Arts in Reading and Literacy Education, ECU is offering a fee waiver.
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Normally the fee would be$75.
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So if you apply before March 31st, you get a fee waiver.
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So you would they're pretty much giving you$75.
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Awesome.
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Thank you so much for joining us on our podcast today.
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We really enjoyed talking to you guys, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your conference.
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Thank you.
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