WARNING
Some Roadmap trainings are not true to the book.
Are you using the REAL Roadmap program?
I am glad that schools want to use my book, The Roadmap to Literacy.
I wrote Roadmap to get up to 95% of Waldorf students reading and spelling at grade level by the end of third grade.
The Roadmap to Literacy aligns with Rudolf Steiner's indications better than anything on the market; however, some Roadmap trainings do not align with the book. I include this page on my website to help teachers and schools adopt the real Roadmap program.
Can you separate Roadmap from Roadcrap?
Watch this video and see if you can identify practices that are Roadmap and practices that are Roadcrap.
Note: The term roadcrap refers to practices that undermine the efficacy of The Roadmap to Literacy.
Click here to see the slides as a flip deck.
The Seven Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy
Picture for the article "The Seven Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy"
I have compiled the seven core tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy. They are seven principles that should be respected if a school or teacher claims to be using The Roadmap to Literacy.
Click here to read "The Seven Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy."
Where does Roadcrap come from?
Practices that undermine The Roadmap to Literacy come from Waldorf Inspirations. They are the creation of my co-author Janet Langley and my former colleague Patti Connolly.
Janet Langley and I are the co-authors of The Roadmap to Literacy. Patti Connolly participated in a study group but decided not to write a book with Langley and me. Langley asked to put Connolly's name on the front cover (see left).
After the book was published, Langley pulled a bait and switch regarding content and author. Langley and Connolly created workshops that were allegedly for/based on The Roadmap to Literacy, and they presented Connolly as a representative of the book. In these workshops, Langley and Connolly changed the core tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy: they included practices that undermine the book and omitted practices that are necessary to get up to 95% of students reading and spelling at grade level.
Click here to learn the truth about Patti Connolly and The Roadmap to Literacy, as on file with Federal Copyright.
Resources for the real Roadmap program
I have done several things to help teachers, homeschool parents, and schools adopt the real Roadmap program.
I have written a new edition of The Roadmap to Literacy. It is called The Roadmap to Literacy: Renewal of Literacy® Edition. It addresses the #1 thing teachers are doing wrong when they use The Roadmap to Literacy so we can get up to 95% of Waldorf students reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
Click here to read the preface.
The first chapter is included later in this website.
I have created an online school called Renewal of Literacy®. It features on-demand courses to support The Roadmap to Literacy Books, including "Unlocking The Roadmap to Literacy." This course helps teachers get up and running when they use The Roadmap to Literacy (either edition).
Click here to learn more about "Unlocking The Roadmap to Literacy." Click here to see full course offerings.
I have created a bundle of three courses for the literacy capacities (sensory-cognitive functions). These are the capacities that Rudolf Steiner said Waldorf teachers should train. Providing direct instruction in these three capacities is key to getting up to 95% of students reading and spelling at grade level.
Click here to learn more about "The Keys to Literacy Capacities." Click here to see full course offerings.
Are your students behind?
I created a free online, on-demand course for teachers who need to get their students caught up post-pandemic. The course works equally well for teachers whose students are behind because they received faulty and/or inadequate information on how to use The Roadmap to Literacy.
Click here for more information about "Renewal of Literacy: Ways to Get Students Caught up in Reading and Spelling."
Polemic against Waldorf Inspirations
Thumbnail for Article "Academic Rickets: Why Education Should be Balanced, Not Enlivened"
Langley and Connolly advertise their workshops for/based on my book by claiming that they enliven literacy instruction. I hope they are wrong: Enlivening literacy instruction is a big reason why Waldorf reading instruction failed a high percentage of students in the first place. Rudolf Steiner, creator of Waldorf education, specifically warned Waldorf teachers about this error.
The Roadmap to Literacy was written not to enliven Waldorf education, but to bring balance to it by including the opposite pole. The balance that Langley and Connolly disturbed is what enables teachers who use Roadmap to get up to 95% of students reading and spelling by the end of third grade. Past a certain point, enlivening education is unhealthy--and counterproductive.
Click here to read the article "Academic Rickets: Why Education Should be Balanced, Not Enlivened."
Please join me in renewing literacy
This is Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl, author of The Roadmap to Literacy Books and creator of Renewal of Literacy®.
I have assessed and taught literacy and language arts to hundreds of Steiner-Waldorf students since 2005, and I have seen first-hand the results of academic rickets and the harm it causes students, families, and schools.
Back in the aughties, I promised the parents of some of my students that I would do something to make sure that no other Waldorf students would have to suffer as their children had suffered. Keeping my word to these families has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It has also been the most rewarding, emotionally and spiritually (if not yet lucratively). I loved writing The Roadmap to Literacy Books. I love sharing them with teachers who share my passion for the work.
The tools are now available for the Steiner-Waldorf world to renew literacy for the 21st century--and beyond. Please join me.
And if you choose to adopt Roadcrap, please do not claim that you are using Roadmap. Please respect "The Seven Core Tenets of The Roadmap to Literacy."
Thank you!
