Science of Reading: The Podcast

Summer '24 Interlude E2: One-pagers make literacy research more accessible, with Jamie Clark

• Amplify Education

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In this episode, Jamie Clark and Susan Lambert delve into Jamie's new educational resource called: one-pagers, designed to distill complex educational literacy research into accessible, practical one-page summaries for teachers. Jamie, originally from the United Kingdom and now based in Australia, also shares his one-pager journey from ideation, to creating these resources, to witnessing their impact in the classroom. Aside from discussing his methodology, Jamie also highlights the iterative process of refining his work and collaborating with key figures in the educational field, and the importance of contextual application of these strategies in different educational settings. Jamie also gives an in-depth explanation of his Think-Pair-Share one-pager, highlights how important it is for teachers to continue learning, and ends with advice for anyone looking to make research more accessible.

Show Notes

Quotes
“In order to help our students learn effectively, teachers need to know how they learn and sometimes why they do not learn.” —Jamie Clark

“Think-pair-share is important because it makes students feel safe before they share with the class.” —Jamie Clark

“The main thing as a teacher for me is that you always need to learn and that you never stop learning.” —Jamie Clark

“The best research is the stuff that you can glean information from and then do something with that's actionable and practical.” —Jamie Clark

Episode Timestamps*
02:00 Introduction: Who is Jamie Clark?
05:00 The Birth of One Pagers: Inspiration and Early Days
08:00 Going Viral: The Impact of One Pagers
10:00 Feedback and Collaboration on One Pagers
11:00 Designing for Educators: The Journey to a Book
19:00 Designing Effective One Pagers
21:00 Exploring the Think-Pair-Share Strategy
24:00 Implementing Think-Pair-Share in the Classroom
26:00 Application Across Subjects and Levels
29:00 Challenges and Insights in Creating One-Pagers
35:00 Advice for Teachers and Educators
39:00 Final Thoughts and Future Directions
*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute


Jamie Clark:

It's helped me as a leader and as an educator to really think about the kind of nuances of teaching and learning and how we can best support our students through evidence-informed practices.

Susan Lambert:

This is Susan Lambert, and welcome to Science of Reading: The Podcast from Amplify, where the Science of Reading lives. What makes think-pair-share a successful strategy, and how can it be done most effectively? That's just one example of a technique unpacked in Jamie Clark's wonderful new book, "Teaching One-Pagers: Evidence-Informed Summaries for Busy Educational Professionals." Jamie is the team leader of learning and innovation at a K–12 school in Perth, Western Australia, and his new book does a fantastic job of breaking down complex concepts. That's why I am so excited to feature Jamie in the second episode of our summer series. Jamie's going to tell us more about this project and share what he's learned from years of distilling education research down to a single page of information. And I think you'll come away from this conversation with some practical advice for implementing specific strategies like think-pair-share, as well as some fresh insights into effectively communicating research. Also, stay tuned until the very end of this episode for some exciting updates about what's coming up in this feed. But first, here's my conversation with Jamie Clark. Well, I'm so excited about today's episode, and so happy to have you on, Jamie Clark, thank you for joining us.

Jamie Clark:

Thanks for having me, Susan. It's great to be here.

Susan Lambert:

I'm really excited to bring your story and your new resource, called one-pagers, which we'll get into in a minute, to our listeners. But I think the way that I was introduced to you and your work was through LinkedIn, actually, social media, right? All of a sudden, I'm seeing these great infographics come out that are packed full of really great research to practice information, and I'm guessing some of our listeners have seen those as well. So before we sort of dive into, you know, what inspired you to start this work, I'd like to know a little bit more about who Jamie Clark is, what your background is, and what do you do besides create these amazing one-pagers?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so I'm pretty much just a standard teacher , an English teacher , originally from the United Kingdom, from England, but I moved to Australia when I was about 30, about nine years ago. My wife, we decided to have a change of scene and a new life, and yeah, I carried on teaching. I'm still teaching now as an English teacher , but I'm also a school leader as well, so I get to work with staff and do professional development with staff. I'm quite a big advocate of instructional coaching at my school as well. I know it's quite big in the U.S. So yeah, it's just kind of like, in its infancy, like in Australia, and it's very much driving teaching and learning. So I love having conversations with teachers about teaching and inspiring good practice, but I guess the main thing is that laser focus on evidence and research-based practices, which I love, too.

Susan Lambert:

When did that interest start for you in really understanding evidence-based practices in the research piece?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't actually straight away in my practice because when I was training as a teacher, it wasn't really talked about as much and it wasn't as prevalent as it is nowadays. And I think that's probably come in the last few years for me, through the wave of cognitive science and sharing learnings from, you know, like the learning and memory ideas and things from Professor Daniel Willingham , for example, is a big inspiration for my work. So I only really kind of started reading about that material in the last three or four years, which has inspired, you know, to break that down and make it more accessible for teachers. And that's pretty much the initiative with teaching one-pagers as well, is how can we make it in a format that's accessible but also easy to share with others?

Susan Lambert:

That's super important because, like you said, two things, teachers don't always have access to the research, and when they do, they don't always have time to break it down in a way that makes sense, that they can make it applicable in their classroom, which is why these one-pagers are brilliant. What was the inspiration for the production of the very first one-pager, and do you remember what that very first one was?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, I've always been a massive fan of design. So I, when I was in the U.K., I used to spend hours just designing resources for the class, you know, for students , to the point where it was a bit obsessive, you know, used Microsoft Word, I used to use Word to do it and PowerPoint and whatnot and try to kind of hone my design skills, even though the kids weren't too bothered about that, I mean, they appreciated it, but I dunno how well it contributed to their learning. But, you know, since then I was kind of quite passionate about implementing good design and summarizing the things we've been talking about with colleagues, you know, some evidence-informed practices. The first one I actually did was on feedback because we , my school had a professional development session in the morning and we called it a 15-minute forum. And 15-minute forums were just sharing sessions of good practice where you share a resource or an idea. And the topic came up around feedback and we were talking about good strategies to use in the classroom, and a teacher just said to me, "Look, can you just summarize what you said?" And I thought, "Hmm." A lightbulb went off in my head, you know, I'd just been designing all these beautiful resources, and how can I put that into one page, you know, for that teacher ? And that's what I did. You know, I kind of, it wasn't probably as polished as it is now, but it was definitely a summary of some key strategies and key information around formative assessment and actionable feedback, which was the first one I did.

Susan Lambert:

Hmm . And how did you find that was accepted by your peers? Did they, did they use it? Did you talk about it? Did you find that they made some kind of change based on that infographic that you created?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah, they did. The teacher I was talking about was very kind of interested in the idea of providing actionable feedback. So it was a matter of, you know, giving that to him, he shared it with his department, and then they ended up blowing it up onto an A3 poster and putting it in the office.

Susan Lambert:

Oh, nice!

Jamie Clark:

As like a reference point. The whole intention around one-pagers is to spark those conversations, you know, with educators and to get 'em to think, you know, about the research, to help 'em build knowledge or perhaps even just refresh knowledge if they already have that insight into delivering, you know, feedback, for example. So yeah, it was quite successful, it was shared around and yeah, I saw it on a pinboard in the office, which is perfect 'cause it kinda inspired me to think about, "Well, if they like that on feedback, then how else could I inspire them in another context?"

Susan Lambert:

And what was context number two? I promise I'm not gonna ask you the order of all you did!

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, no , so, well , the first three that I shared on social media were the feedback one, and I did one on thinking aloud and modeling, was another one.

Susan Lambert:

Okay.

Jamie Clark:

And that one actually included some elements of technology in there as well. So how can we use technology to, you know, screen-record answers or screen-record our thought processes when modeling, so we can capture that in video format for students, because part of my role, and it still is, is to , is a digital integrator. So I actually work with teachers with technology, too, and how it can be used meaningfully in the classroom. So the early one-pagers actually had some information about how tech can be integrated to support teaching and learning. But yeah, the second one was modeling and thinking aloud , which got a lot of attention on social media and that had over a thousand retweets.

Susan Lambert:

Wow!

Jamie Clark:

So I knew that, yeah, I knew then that I'm doing something right, 'cause it was resonating with educators somewhere and maybe everywhere across the globe. And then the final one that I shared of the old style one-pagers was the questioning one, so one on questioning techniques, which included, like, cold calling and, you know, probing questions. I think we actually included some strategies from Doug Lemov as well.

Susan Lambert:

Mm - hmm, mm-hmm.

Jamie Clark:

I think you might have had Doug on the show, I'm not sure.

Susan Lambert:

Yep.

Jamie Clark:

But he talks about no opt-out as well, that strategy where, you know, you don't allow students to opt out of answering questions in the class, but you, you know, ask another student and then return back to the original student to rephrase or repeat the answer. So it's little strategies like that, which I included in there, about powerful questioning strategies. And those three, you know , set me off on this journey. And I designed all those in Keynote.

Susan Lambert:

Wow. I know, though, that the new ones you've designed outside of Keynote, but we can talk about that later. So you found these things really went viral and you must have gotten some really great feedback then on what you were doing.

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah. I got some really good feedback on it. And then people start to request one-pagers to be made as well.

Susan Lambert:

Ohhh, okay.

Jamie Clark:

Which was interesting because, I mean, I'd love to do that, and sometimes I do, and sometimes have collaborated with other educators, but I'm kind of standing by my own premise here that educators are super busy and time poor, and that that's same for myself as well. You know, I've got a lot of things to take care of at school, so sometimes I don't always have the time to collaborate with people, even though it's amazing to do so. So in the end, yeah, I pretty much got some feedback from people and start to refine my work. There is an educator on X called Oliver Caviglioli, and he wrote the WalkThru series, the "Teaching WalkThrus" series, with Tom Sherrington. And that's a massive, massive book in the U.K., it's a set of three, there are three of them, and they are five-step guides to teaching, teaching and learning strategies. So their work actually inspired mine because of the simplicity of it and how accessible it is. It's very much in a similar design style as well, because I took inspiration from Oliver Caviglioli through the design work. But I think one message that he gave to me after a conversation with him was that I needed to develop my own style as well. And I think I've achieved that quite successfully in this book.

Susan Lambert:

Yeah, it's, it's amazing. I know, for our listeners, we were having a conversation before the recording started, I have a preview copy, it's not even available in the United States yet, it will be by the time this podcast launches. But I came home from vacation, opened up the package, and I sat down and paged through it. And it's, it's not only full of amazing information, it's beautifully designed. It's the kind of book that you are going to have on your, not on your shelf, away from view, but very much accessible. And I like how you said before that it reminds educators of things maybe they knew before that, you know, you have to dust these ideas off and refresh them in your mind and reinvigorate your practice. And so it is just beautifully designed and a lovely book.

Jamie Clark:

Yeah. I mean, one thing that people often get wrong about one-pagers is that it has all the answers. It has all the strategies. But, you know, I always say that it's a reminder, it's a conversation starter. You know, it's not supposed to house everything. It's supposed to just gonna inspire conversation and develop good practices , you know, which is different to other books on the market because often they tell you the ins and outs of a strategy and how to implement it, and then what to do afterwards and whatnot . But this is very much bite-size, you know, it's supposed to be read and leafed through like you did, where you pick it up, can dip in and out of it. And the bonus thing about it, I've got it here, is it smells really good.

Susan Lambert:

It does!

Jamie Clark:

Smells like a magazine.

Susan Lambert:

To engage all of our senses in this beautiful book. That's, that's great. So you went from doing a few one-pagers, getting some good feedback, finding your own sort of design style. How did you get to, "I'm going from that to, I think I'm gonna put this into a book and do more of these"?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, well, it's been a long journey actually. Like, I mean, this book took me about three months or four months to do , by myself. And that was pretty much after two years of learning how to use the software and also practicing how to draw as well, 'cause I'm not the best drawer . But in this book, I've actually used my , I've actually designed my own artwork and used little illustrations to signify concepts and stuff. So the whole process for that really took a long time. The initial idea for this book came about two years ago, and I did approach the guy I talked about before, Oliver Caviglioli, and we had an idea to do a similar book, but about design for educators , because he's obviously an, he's an instructional designer, and he could see obviously potential in the ideas that I brought to him. So we were gonna collaborate on a book called "One-Pagers," but it was about instructional design , and that subsequently fell through, Oliver was too busy, but I still had this in my head that I wanted to produce this book. And it just kind of emerged from there that I thought, well, I'll give it a break, six months, I'll do a bit of practice, I'll make some posters, which are free on my website, that people use quite frequently. And I've seen them across the world in different classrooms, which is fantastic. So I took a break, I did some practice. I honed my skills in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign, and then I decided, right, well, I've got the skills, I've got, I've had some practice and I'm ready now to put this into a formal publication. So yeah, I worked on it solidly for four months, probably at the end of last year, and decided to split it into the sections you see today. And it's worked really, really well.

Susan Lambert:

Yeah. I'd love to talk a little bit about how the book is organized, and I don't know when the right point is to talk about how you decided, first of all, how did you decide what research is in and what research is out? Like what are you gonna include and what are you not going to include in this book?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, I, that's a good question. I just included the research, which has had an impact on my career. And that's pretty much about, like I mentioned before, the elements from cognitive science about thinking and about learning and memory, because I feel quite strongly that teachers need to know this because in order to help our students learn effectively, they need to know how they learn, and sometimes why they do not learn. So the first collection in the book is all about that. It's about, you know, the cognitive architecture of the human mind and how we can best present information to students, how it can best support them to generate knowledge and whatnot . So that's broken down into five main pieces, is that particular collection.

Susan Lambert:

Okay. So you said there's three collections. I just opened the table of contents now so I can make sure I get those right. The book is organized in three collections, collection one is Learning and Memory.

Jamie Clark:

Yeah.

Susan Lambert:

Collection two, Expert Teaching Principles, and collection three, Classroom Cultures. So talk a little bit about what's inside those collections.

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, so the first collection, as I said, is Learning and Memory. And the reason I called it that is because it kind of relates to Daniel Willingham's model in his book, which is "Why Don't Students Like School," his famous book that is very influential for educators across the world. And he talks about on page 12 of that book, the simple memory model, simple model of the mind. So what I did was, I used that as a framework for the one-pagers in collection one. So the five key elements of that diagram are, you know, securing attention, the idea of working memory, building knowledge and schemas, cognitive engagement to help students think hard, and then generative processes. So all those kind of five elements are kind of born out of Daniel Willinghan's diagram. And I've used Oliver Caviglioli's interpretation in the book of that diagram with the head and the arrows and the the dots, which you see quite a lot. So that's what collection one is. And all the one-pagers kind of hinge upon that diagram. Collection two is Expert Teaching Principles. So there are six key principles that all instructional practices kind of are underpinned by, which is, you know, modeling, challenge, powerful questioning, feedback, and explanation as well. So there are summaries of generally how we can best deliver those strategies to students. And then finally, I got that far in planning and I thought, well, what could top , what could kind of finish it off and round it off? Because I've done quite a lot on memory, I've done a lot on some expert teaching principles for teachers. And it just made sense that the last collection would be about the culture of the classroom. So how can we manage behavior effectively? How can we build motivation in students, you know, how can we give effective praise, for example? How can we set and establish great homework that's meaningful? So lots of those elements come out in Classroom Culture, in collection three.

Susan Lambert:

Hmm . That's great. And again, just this idea of being able to dip in and out of these ideas. It's just a brilliant way to organize these. Now I realize we are on a podcast, and this is all audio, but I'd really love if we could sort of paint the picture for our listeners about what these one-pagers actually look like. So challenge to you, design challenge in words, can we take one of these one-pagers, like maybe the, I know you have one on think-pair-share.

Jamie Clark:

Yeah.

Susan Lambert:

Can you just describe how it's laid out, the kind of information it includes, and maybe why you think that one is particularly important to talk about?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, sure. I just wanna , you know, before I go into the actual one-pager, is just explain a little bit about, you know, what's on each one, because I think it's important that they all have consistency in terms of their layout and their structure.

Susan Lambert:

Great.

Jamie Clark:

So at the beginning of the book, what I've done is I've written a reader's guide, and the reader's guide outlines how best to use the book. So I actually say, you know, just read through it in chronological order. But each one-pager has a certain structure, which is the what, the why and the how. And basically that obviously explains what the strategy is or what the concept is, why it's important, and that's where the research element comes in, you know, so I often reference a key voice from education in there as well. So for example, in, you know, in the formative assessment one, Dylan William is the key voice, the illustration on the page, and the why just addresses, you know, why would we want to introduce that into our practice? What is the purpose of it? And then from there, you've got your how, which are the practical, actionable strategies that teachers can use and look further into if they wish. So that's how it's set out. And I found that really simple for teachers to engage with because it's not too much, it's not too heavy. And when, you've probably seen yourself, you know, when you , when you're looking through the book, it's very simple to read, you know, each, from page to page, there's not too much text. And the text there is, is broken up into different sections very neatly and clearly. So the one-pager, which you mentioned, the think-pair-share, is actually part of collection one, which is broken up into five main pieces. And this piece is the cognitive engagement piece.

Susan Lambert:

Mm - hmm.

Jamie Clark:

And that means how can we best engage students cognitively to drive their thinking? Because, as Daniel Willingham says, you know, without thinking, learning doesn't happen. You know, memory is the residue of thought, which is the famous quote from Daniel Willingham . So basically, you know, think-pair-share is a strategy to help cognitively engage students. And this one-pager explains, as I said, the what. So what is it? Well, think-pair-share is a way to, you know, foster communication. It's a great tool for deep thinking. It's an excellent routine that can be used for students to collaborate, a great strategy for collaboration, building confidence, but also accountability as well. So the one-pager basically has on it those three areas, but it also has a nice diagram because I've tried to include visuals in this book as well that are not just illustrations—

Susan Lambert:

Mm-hmm.

Jamie Clark:

—but they're also practical diagrams as well, that chunk information and sequence information as well. So this particular diagram on the think-pair-share one-pager is clever in the respect that it actually scaffolds the process for students. So it's broken up into three areas. And Susan, you can probably see this if it's in front of you, that it has, you know, the think, the pair, and the share, and it guides students through the process. So this is actually intended for teachers to be able to teach this to their class, to give students ideas and prompts of how to conduct think-pair-share effectively. So for example, you know, it prompts them to, in the think stage, to consider, you know, what ideas do I need to think about now, what approach would work in this context? And then it kind of prompts 'em to think about things they can remember from what they've learned before. Like you might wanna refer to a diagram or something the teacher modeled last lesson, or perhaps important topics or concepts we've been taught recently. So these are all prompts on this diagram that really help the students to do a really good think-pair-share that's structured, and likewise for the other two phases as well, the Pair phase, the diagram also helps with that as well, because it prompts them, the students, to ask themselves, you know, "What ideas will I put forward to my partner?" You know, "How do my partner's ideas improve my own?" And , " How will I actively listen?"

Susan Lambert:

Hmm.

Jamie Clark:

So all these prompts on this diagram really kind of helped to structure each stage of the process and promote active listening. And finally, the last strand of that diagram obviously prompts students to give a rehearsed answer. I think think-pair-share is important because it makes students feel safe before they share with the class. And it also encourages all students to think and contribute as well, which is that definitely the point of this, of this particular one-pager, is how can we drive thinking from both students in the pair? And how can we feel confident and prepared to share with everyone else?

Susan Lambert:

I am looking at that diagram night right now and the think-pair-share. And I wonder, did you have it in your mind that not only is this going to help teachers to sort of unpack processes like these, but did you have it in your mind that students would benefit from this visual as well?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah, definitely for this one, probably not all of them, but for this one. I've included this diagram on purpose because, as I said to you, when I use this diagram with my class, I show them it. And I use it as a step-by-step process. So I'll model how to do a good think-pair-share by getting two students at the front go through the diagram and say, in this phase, in the Think phase, we need to really consider the topics you've learned before. You might wanna write down your answer. You might wanna kind of think about my explanation from last lesson and brainstorm some ideas. And not rushing that phase as well is important, the Think stage. So yeah, I very much use this diagram to teach the students how to do a good think-pair-share. But the one-pagers don't all do that. That's just this specific example.

Susan Lambert:

I like this one because I think think-pair-share is a pretty ubiquitous strategy that teachers employ in the classroom, but I don't know that they always understand the depth and the purpose of the strategy. Would you agree with that?

Jamie Clark:

Absolutely. I think that's actually well put. And I think that's probably what I was getting at. You know, with my experience with think-pair-share in the past before, like really structuring it like this and teaching it like this , was a little bit hit-and-miss. You know, sometimes I'd ask the kids to do the Think phase and maybe rush it and not give 'em enough time. Nowadays I actually give them some , a piece of paper or a mini whiteboard to write down their ideas as well, because I think it helps them . And then in the Pair stage, you know, I wouldn't circulate the room, for example. And I think that's important as well as a teacher, you know, to make sure you're listening for any misconceptions or you are, you know, listening in for any good answers and preloading students and asking them, "Would you two mind sharing in the Share phase?" You know? So I guess, yeah, it's definitely something I've improved on myself.

Susan Lambert:

And I mean, I have a , obviously this is Science of Reading: The Podcast, and we talk a lot about English language arts. You're an English teacher, but this strategy, this spans all content areas. So we're talking about just really good instructional practices.

Jamie Clark:

Yes. Yeah. And every single one-pager is context free . So in other words, it's not tied to a specific subject area. So any teacher in any subject can flick through and think, "Well, how does that apply to my learning area?" And likewise for primary teachers as well, or elementary school as I think you guys call it, because I work in a K–12 school as well, which is elementary right through to high school in your case, I think. And you know, I've talked about it with the primary school teachers at my school and also the secondary school teachers at my school. And they both are very excited by it and they can see the benefit and how it can be applied to their own classroom practice.

Susan Lambert:

And I wonder, too, now you got me thinking, I wonder, too , about higher ed using these same sort of principles and strategies from these one-pagers and professional development opportunities. It seems to me that it's really context free , any grade level, any age, any content.

Jamie Clark:

It's very broad. And since it's been released in the U.K. I've had lots of teacher training colleges reach out to me as well and say, "Look, this'd be great for newly qualified teachers or teachers training in their first year or whatever, and can we get some copies?" It's only just, you know, begun as this journey. I think it's got a lot of potential. I've also released an implementation pack on my website as well to help teachers implement it into their professional learning structures. As you mentioned, it does link quite nicely to school initiatives and professional development. So it can easily fit in with instructional coaching or it can fit into professional development workshops as like a reference point.

Susan Lambert:

The other thing this has me thinking is that if a teacher or a group of teachers or a school is super interested in doing an even deeper dive into the particular one-pager concept, you provide opportunity to point them in places where they can do that deeper dive then, right?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah. The one-pagers are specifically designed with, you know, the research at the forefront. So initially I actually had the Read More elements, there's a Read More tag at the bottom of each page and it says like, "Suggested research to look further into," to guide, to teach in the right direction. But I actually had a bigger section on each page initially, you know, like a column of extra papers to read. But I just thought that was a bit too overwhelming. And what I did was just cut it back to one suggested paper or a book to read for each summary so it's not too overwhelming. But at the back of the book, you can find a Read More section and it's a reference list of all the top, you know , research which has inspired each summary. So I guess one of the main rules that I went by in my own head was to make sure it's not too overwhelming on any page, or any bit of information is too complicated.

Susan Lambert:

A little retrospect questions. One is, what was the hardest concept for you to actually distill into a one-pager?

Jamie Clark:

There's a couple of answers probably to that actually, 'cause, that's a good question. I'd probably say like, it's a bit of a get-out clause, but I'd say the whole thing is actually quite hard to design in itself, 'cause you've got so much information and you've got so little space. A lot of the space is taken up through design, you know, because you don't want everything crammed on the page, either. It's like when you go to a, you know, a professional development session and you see it , the presenter presenting a slide full of writing and text. And it's just way too overwhelming.

Susan Lambert:

Right.

Jamie Clark:

So the design for me was important to help readers easily digest it and access it, 'cause the clarity for me is, is what hooks them in. So, yeah, I think the hardest bit to design was actually the layout and getting all the information onto a page. If you wanted me to pick out an actual kind of concept, though, in terms of summarizing and distilling a concept, I'd probably choose the cognitive load theory. It's in the working memory part of section one. And the reason that I'm choosing that one is because it's such a complex theory to understand first and foremost, and I'm talking about John Sweller's cognitive load theory here.

Susan Lambert:

Yeah.

Jamie Clark:

You know, there's a lot of information in there. It is complicated. And to simplify those complex ideas in simple language, but also on one page, is incredibly difficult. So I actually just ended up using a diagram for half of the one-pager to try and distill that information into a visual and then add some extra strategies underneath of how we can consciously think about reducing cognitive load. So I'd probably say that one. I mean, all of them I'm happy with. If I had to add any more information, I'll make the one-pager bigger. I'd probably say that one needs more space.

Susan Lambert:

How were the folks that you're representing their work, how were they involved in this work at all? Did you get feedback from any of these researchers on what they thought about what you were working on?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah, I did. I just wanted to contact them anyway to let them know that I've illustrated them, because like , my drawings I wasn't very confident about. So I'm like, are you happy with this drawing? It does look like you, right? So that was the starting point. And then I'd say, "Look, if you've got any feedback, I'd really appreciate it." So for example, I reached out to John Sweller , who is a professor in Australia and he's the cognitive load theory guru. I also reached out to Dylan William, as well, who's a formative assessment guru. And Dylan William actually wrote one of the testimonials on the back of the book, and same for Professor John Hattie as well, who's an Australian researcher who wrote a testimonial for the back of the book. He really liked the concept as well. So I did reach out to these people, you know, to clarify that my ideas or their ideas were being represented effectively. And on the most part, they agreed. I didn't really get responses from one or two of them. So I just kind of took it on that, yeah, it's good enough. And yeah, I'm pleased with the feedback they did give, and I'm very pleased they were happy with their drawings as well.

Susan Lambert:

I think this is the first time I realized that not only are you responsible for the design and the content, but you also responsible for the drawings. And I think the way that you approach these drawings are brilliant. So congratulations for learning a new skill, to represent what you were—

Jamie Clark:

That's what happened with those two years. I was kind of lost, not knowing what to do or just practicing with the drawing. And , but again, that's inspired by "Teaching WalkThrus," which are similar illustrations , they are black and white like mine, but there's a very much, Oliver's is very much more sketchy, mine's a little bit more detailed, but it does stick to a very similar approach with the black and white illustrations.

Susan Lambert:

It's very, very modern and very engaging. What about, you know, stepping back to think about key takeaways you've had, new learnings that you've had. You know, you can't tell me you don't come to the end of a project like this that has a lot of opportunity, you know, you must be super proud of what you've done. How are you thinking about this in retrospect?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, it's kind of just sinking in now that it's out there, 'cause I've been waiting for so long for it to be out there. The new learnings for me are just, well , I suppose it's helped me to reflect on my own practice as well, because I've had to do a lot of research and to double-check the research and to make sure it's written in a concise way. And then to find some strategies that supplement the research as well that are , you know, practical for teachers to use in their classroom immediately. So for me, the main takeaway personally on a selfish level has been to upskill myself and help build my own practice and be very conscious about what I use in the classroom and what I do in the classroom. And is it research-based? And what does cognitive science say about it? And how can I, you know, refine things and maybe help others as well? And you know, I've taken that forward into some professional learning initiatives that I'm running at school as well, where I'm helping the early careers teachers help develop their practice and support them. So it's helped me as a leader and as an educator to really think about the kind of nuances of teaching and learning and how we can best support our students through evidence-informed practices. But, you know, on top of that, it's been a learning curve on the design front, too. The takeaways from that are that I'm probably gonna do another book at some point , which is a supplementary book to this. So yeah, it's definitely got bonuses and I'm , I guess the main thing as a teacher for me is that you always need to learn and that you never stop learning. And, you know, this is an example of that.

Susan Lambert:

One of the really big goals of this, though, was to find a way to bring research to others. And I think a lot of us in this work, I'm trying to do the same thing, too , through the use of a podcast, other folks are trying to do it in other ways to really help teachers understand the research, understand evidence-based practices, make it digestible and interesting. For those that are also trying to communicate this, whether it's using a podcast or whether it's using a one-pager for your book, what kind of general advice would you give folks when you are trying to help communicate a research-to-practice thought?

Jamie Clark:

Whenever I talk to teachers, I wanna make it relatable to them . And if I had to give advice on how people can, you know, impart research to others or inspire others, I would probably make it relatable, how does it apply to your practice, and what are the key things that you can get out of it that you can do the next day? I think sometimes, like, when you say research, people will just kinda switch off and think, "Oh, it means like a heavy book," or "It means a research paper that we have to, you know, read through, and it'll take me hours to get through it." It's not necessarily the case. Like I think, you know, the best research is the stuff that you can glean information from and then do something with that's actionable and practical. So if I had to give that advice to anyone, I'd say if you're trying to inspire a teaching and learning program, or you're trying to help others get better, you know, what are the key elements? What are the five dot points you can get from a research paper? What are the three takeaways? How might you visualize that into a simple diagram? Or, you know, how could you put that on one slide of a PowerPoint or a keynote? So it's, for me, you know, I think I'm quite good at this, I'm just kind of realizing that I think I'm pretty good at it and taking out the key concepts and, you know, just kind of making it clear what the backbone of something is and how you can then improve from it.

Susan Lambert:

I think, at least for us here in the United States, with the Science of Reading movement and the reemphasis on evidence, research-based practices, some people sometimes get lost in the weeds of, "Who do I listen to, or "Who do I not listen to?" And if you were gonna speak to at least the listeners here in the United States, and I know the podcast goes across the world, but what would you say to them in terms of how they can look at your one-pagers and instill some confidence that you just didn't make this up, that this is really based in evidence and there's a place they can go to to actually confirm that?

Jamie Clark:

That's a good question. I mean, I always recommend, you know, to read the literature yourself and find out yourselves . So that's why I included the Read More sections, you know, on each page. I also would probably say check out some other books that are part of the same kind of canon, if you like, as mine, which are from John Catt Educational, the publisher, because all their books are very practical and they're research-based, and you can see where they're from as well. They're all from the same vein in terms of cognitive science, and similar voices too , which are , you know, Daniel Willingham, Dylan William , Robert Bjork, for example, on the idea of learning and memory, too. So I think that the body of research is big enough now, that you don't have to convince people anymore about retrieval practice and the science of learning. I think that's definitely an accepted field of psychology and education, but it's just giving context to that. So who are the people who have presented these theories and what have they said? And getting nuggets of information and quotes from them, which kind of backs up the information too .

Susan Lambert:

It's hard work to become an expert in your own craft, including becoming an expert in the craft of teaching and learning. So just a shout out to all the teachers there, especially the ones that are diving in and digging in to learn more , and those that support them in terms of coaching. So, I know the book, as we're talking right now, the book is in the U.K., it's scheduled to release in the United States, and I think this episode will probably drop about the time that it's scheduled to release . And I know you would love to get—well, first of all, we'll link our listeners in the show notes to your website. I know that you would love to get feedback on what people are thinking about this, how this book is being used all over the world. Any final thoughts to leave with our listeners about using this resource, or the power it might have?

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, as you said, I love the feedback on it because it will shape the next steps, you know, for my next project. And just a bit of insight, you know, I'm planning on developing a book which is gonna supplement this, which will be , I don't wanna give too much away actually, but it's gonna be a collection of professional development materials that support the first book. But any feedback from, you know, people who have used it and how they've used it for whatever initiatives they've done will definitely help shape the next project.

Susan Lambert:

That's great. And as I shared with you before, and this is maybe just one other plug for all of the listeners out there to get on Amazon and get this thing ordered, is if I was still overseeing a school or, you know, had a bunch of people that were reporting to me and I was trying to lead them through teaching and learning, this would almost be or could almost be a year-long or multiple-year-long professional development opportunity, just to understand one of the one-pager s , see what it looks like when you actually implement it and really, really study that particular piece.

Jamie Clark:

Yeah, yeah. One part of the implementation process, which I suggest for the one-pagers, is that schools who use it actually first start by defining and identifying a learning problem in their context. So we'd , in other words, we don't just wanna pick out random one-pagers to work on, but you wanna tailor that to a specific area or issue or problem that students are facing in your school. So whether that is, you know, the , I dunno , behavior might be a problem or cognitive engagement where students aren't listening, or perhaps not—or students aren't thinking enough, then you might tailor a set of one-pagers that center around addressing the issue and then maybe use them to support professional development, like coaching or run some workshops or sessions in departments based on that particular collection. So I think it all starts with, you know, what is the purpose of using them and what issue can we address in order to solve that particular learning problem?

Susan Lambert:

Great advice. Well, Jamie Clark, thank you so much for joining us. Your book is a gift to the field of teaching, so thank you so much, and we'll be anxious to talk with you again to find out what kind of impact it's having. So thank you again for joining us.

Jamie Clark:

Thank you so much. It's been great.

Susan Lambert:

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Jamie Clark, team leader of learning and innovation at a K–12 school in Perth, Western Australia, and author of the new book, "Teaching One-Pagers: Evidence-Informed Summaries for Busy Educational Professionals." Check out the show notes for a link to that book, as well as links to follow Jamie and his work. Join the conversation about this episode in our Facebook discussion group, Science of Reading: The Community. Now, before we go, a couple of exciting updates. First, check back here in just one week for a special look at the brand new podcast series Beyond My Years. Beyond My Years will feature stories and insights from some legendary, longtime educators like Joyce Abbott, a real-life inspiration for the Emmy-Award-winning series, Abbott Elementary.

Joyce Abbott:

I'm humbly honored. I've always been humbly honored. It's really kind of, you know, it's shocking. It's still actually really sinking in, and then the success of the show is like, wow.

Susan Lambert:

Then in September, we're launching the ninth season of Science of Reading: The Podcast. I'll tell you more about our Season Nine theme very soon. First, we have one more episode in our summer series, a fascinating conversation about higher education with a closer look at one university that's becoming a leader in training future educators in structured literacy.

Lisa Lenhart:

If you're in higher ed, you have to really sit down and have some hard conversations with each other. It has not been easy.

Susan Lambert:

Stay tuned for all of that. Science of Reading: The Podcast is brought to you by Amplify. For more information on how Amplify leverages the Science of Reading, go to amplify.com/ckla. Thank you so much for listening.