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ICYMI: My Conversation With Grammar Girl

Writer: Kate CristKate Crist

Graphic for an 'Exclusive Interview' featuring Kate V. Crist. On the right side, a smiling woman with long, wavy brown hair wears an orange sweater and a gold necklace. The background consists of blurred trees with golden sunlight filtering through the leaves.
On the left side, an orange panel contains large white text reading 'Exclusive Interview.' Below, black text states: 'Listen to a new conversation with Kate V. Crist, founder & director of Education 4500, an organization which supports equitable literacy instruction.'
At the bottom left, there is a cartoon illustration of a woman with red hair, glasses, and a pencil behind her ear, wearing a green shirt and smiling. The 'QDT' logo is in the bottom right corner.

A Fangirl Moment

When I was a classroom teacher, I consistently used Grammar Girl’s “Quick and Dirty Tips” to help students improve their writing. To say I was a fan of Mignon Fogarty is to put it mildly. Her work on grammar supported my students work with language for years. Students would read a short article like “How to Use Commas” and apply it to an essay they were drafting on the causes of the French Revolution. I would turn an article on “affect vs. effect” into a short lesson on language that students would apply to their summaries on the impacts of famine in post-colonial West Africa.


Fast forward a decade: I’m living in Reno and a good friend actually knows Mignon. As in, has lunch with THE Grammar Girl. Still a fan-girl, I was always envious. And then I had to do a double take when said friend introduced me to THE Grammar Girl over email with the subject line of “questions about literacy”. Mignon and I connected and had a long conversation about the literacy landscape in the US. This led to a podcast on the same subject. If anyone had told me when I was teaching “affect vs. effect” that I would later be a guest on Grammar Girl’s podcast I would have laughed at the idea. And now I find myself delighted to have had the opportunity. 


Our Conversation

Mignon and I talked about national literacy rates, why literacy rates are so low for Americans of all ages, and what you can do for readers in your life (both young and old!). In this excerpt, we are chatting about some of my favorite moments teaching high school students who could not yet read at grade level.




You can get the full conversation at the links below:

Subscribers will get bonus content - Mignon and chat about what really is the science of reading? 


Literacy Resources

In the Grammar Girl podcast I name a number of resources. You can get a full list here. I thought it was worth re-listing some of those resources here. They are a bit of departure from this blog’s usual focus on secondary literacy, but they are worth exploring if you want to better understand the national literacy challenge and/or help readers in your life. 


Curious about national literacy rates?

Curious about why literacy rates are so low in this country?

Curious about how to help the readers in your life? 


Do you have resources you use to support the readers in your life? Have you listened, read, and still have questions? Comment below! 👇🏼

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