I'm glad you're here. The only way to grow a revolution is by expanding our reach. And we cannot leave the reading revolution to chance. Our children need us.
Maximizing Instructional Time (Part 1) / Leadership in a Reading Revolution Newsletter | August 2025
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A note: Writing this newsletter inspired me to write more on this topic, so it will be a 3 part series. More to come! "You can do two things at once, but you can't focus effectively on two things at once." - Gary Keller Your Work MattersIn my experience, schools typically have multiple improvement goals focused on multiple content areas and or aspects of the work of school (i.e. behaviors). And as a former member of my child’s School Improvement Team, it was the same - multiple goals focused on tested content areas for improvement and decreasing absences and suspensions. Here are the recent goals for our local school:
There are 9 goals, each with related action items and systems to create. While all of these are important, let’s consider, what is the impact of focusing on everything each year? How does this impact instructional time? Let’s look at the research on multitasking, known as trying to perform two or more tasks concurrently. What actually happens when we are “multitasking” is that we repeatedly switch between tasks or leave one task unfinished to begin the other. (Madore & Wagner, 2019) “multitasking is almost always a misnomer, as the human mind and brain lack the architecture to perform two or more tasks simultaneously. By architecture, we mean the cognitive and neural building blocks and systems that give rise to mental functioning. We have a hard time multitasking because of the ways that our building blocks of attention and executive control inherently work. To this end, when we attempt to multitask, we are usually switching between one task and another. The human brain has evolved to single task.” (Madore & Wagner, 2019) “the behavioral costs of task switching are typically unavoidable: individuals almost always take longer to complete a task and do so with more errors when switching between tasks than when they stay with one task. (Madore & Wagner, 2019) “converging evidence suggests that the human "executive control" processes have two distinct, complementary stages. They call one stage "goal shifting" ("I want to do this now instead of that") and the other stage "rule activation" ("I'm turning off the rules for that and turning on the rules for this").” (American Psychological Association, n.d.) When we take the evidence on multitasking into consideration, we cannot ignore the impact on our productivity. There is also some research that points to increased stress levels and diminished working memory. (Davis, 2023 & Cherry, 2025) Pair this with cognitive load theory and the evidence of impact is pretty astounding. (More on CLT next month) If you’ve spent any time in a classroom, you know that teaching is inherently multitasking - we are sharing information with students while simultaneously scanning the room for behaviors and checking for understanding among other tasks. One day of teaching is hours of multitasking (no wonder we come home exhausted and distracted!). Teachers are also dealing with a barrage of initiatives, often all at the same time (as evidenced in the goals I listed in the beginning); they might be learning a new literacy curriculum, data system, student information system, attendance system, new leadership, and navigating changing parent interactions. It’s no wonder that teachers are overwhelmed because of the enormous pressure to switch between tasks for hours each day. In fact, researchers have named the issue with this as “switch costs” pointing to all the issues we’ve previously named. What can we do? While there is much we cannot change about what teaching asks of our teachers when they are conveying a lesson, we can keep the implications of multitasking in mind when leading our work. How might we put these implications into practice and decrease the requests we place on teachers shoulders, thereby increasing their effectiveness? As literacy leaders, our work is urgent. We want every child to become a reader tomorrow. And yet, this work takes time, even more so when our attention is divided. If literacy is your north star, chunk down your goals and get clear on the task (not plural) at hand. Leadership Moves:
What does this mean for me?Keller’s quote about focusing on two things at once (it's not possible friends) strikes a chord with what we’ve learned from the research. How many of our schools are working on BOTH math and literacy goals with turnaround increases needed? These are critical content areas that deserve prioritization but I worry that we are trying to focus on two things at once when we prioritize them at the same time. And while I advocate for literacy being the priority, I acknowledge that many of our students are in desperate need of improved math instruction. If you have the ability to influence the decisions about priorities, I implore you to consider whether you are asking for a dual focus and what the impact of that might be. How might you adjust your long-term plan to maintain a singular focus? Recommended Resources Related Newsletters:
New Announcement!Where have we been?This month was focused on client kick offs, some training, and launching my e-book. It's been a busy season both professionally and personally. The kids went back to school! I'm new to travel soccer and we've already had our first tournament. Lesson learned - early games bring dew covered grass, or soaking wet socks. Wishing you a happy back to school season! Let's Work Together!At Linda Rhyne Consulting, we help schools and districts strengthen their instructional coaching and literacy systems so every educator thrives so they can impact student outcomes. From assessing your current approach, to designing strategic plans, to partnering with leaders for long-term implementation, we make sure your systems align with research, state standards, and your unique context. If you’re ready for cohesive, sustainable systems that work for your people, let’s talk. I'd love the chance to work with you/your team. Book a call today and let’s start designing the support your team deserves. Are you an individual or small team in need of on-demand support? Now, you can schedule a 90-minute session with me based on your needs at exactly the time you need it. The types of sessions are listed below.
For 90 minutes, we will meet and discuss your specific needs based on the information you provide when booking the appointment. The price is $250, paid upon booking the session (special pricing and booking link provided for current/former clients - check your email). Feel free to bring your team! Let's get your needs met at a time that serves you. Click here to bookmark the link or schedule a session.
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Hi! I'm Linda
I'm glad you're here. The only way to grow a revolution is by expanding our reach. And we cannot leave the reading revolution to chance. Our children need us.
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