Stellar Teacher Podcast with Sara Marye

Personal narratives have long been a staple in elementary writing instruction—but what if this traditional approach is actually holding our students back? In this episode, we’re rethinking the role of personal narrative writing and exploring why it can be such a challenging task for students. From memory recall struggles to a lack of structured storytelling practice, we’re unpacking the reasons personal narratives often fall flat in the classroom, and what to do instead.

Standardized testing season is just around the corner, and if the thought of long testing days, endless review packets, and restless students already has you stressed, you’re not alone. In this episode of our Dear Stellar Teacher series, Sara and Emily are sharing realistic and encouraging strategies to help you navigate test prep season with more joy, confidence, and intention—without overwhelming your students (or yourself!).

Managing student behavior can be one of the most challenging parts of teaching, and it’s easy to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or even like you’re doing something wrong. But what if there was a way to navigate classroom behavior with more confidence and compassion—without shame for teachers or students? That’s exactly what today’s guest, Allie Szczecinski, is here to talk about. Allie is the creator behind Miss Behavior and the author of the upcoming book Their Best Behavior, and she’s sharing practical, teacher-friendly strategies to support students while creating a positive and structured learning environment. In this conversation, Allie and I discuss the intersection of social-emotional learning (SEL) and literacy instruction, simple ways to integrate SEL into your daily lessons, and how a proactive approach to behavior management can transform the classroom experience.

I’m sharing two simple but powerful shifts that can make a big impact on your students’ reading comprehension. First, we’ll explore the 3-2-1 framework—an easy way to build background knowledge, introduce key vocabulary, analyze sentence structure, and engage students in meaningful discussions about texts. Then, we’ll dive into how to be more intentional with text selection so that students engage with content-rich, purposeful texts that expand their knowledge and strengthen their comprehension. Comprehension instruction (part 2) is about more than just teaching individual strategies—it’s about creating the right conditions for students to deeply understand what they read.