It is that easy—when you’re a member of Leaders of Literacy.
Get instant access to everything you need to teach small groups effectively… in way less time.
And so much more!
It is that easy—when you’re a member of Leaders of Literacy.
Get instant access to everything you need to teach small groups effectively… in way less time.
And so much more!
Three contestants are brought into the middle of an empty field,
The judges point to a picture of a cake,
And they say: “We want you to do this.”
The contestants look at each other, the judges, and the empty field, and ask:
“Where are the ingredients? Where’s the recipe? Where’s the equipment?”
The judges smile and bring in an expert, who starts telling them how lipids coat the gluten to inhibit extensive protein networking….
And then the judges shout, “On your marks, get set, now do it!”
This is what’s happening to K-2 teachers all over the country.
Maybe it’s happened to you too—
You’ve been given the impossible task of teaching reading in a completely different way… and to do so without a curriculum or materials. 💥
The training that’s sometimes provided is more about the theory and science of how children learn to read.
Very little of it is immediately usable in your classroom.
Structured literacy—as backed by the Science of Reading—is a radical change from the whole language and balanced literacy approaches that have dominated elementary schools for decades.
And 👏 thank 👏 goodness 👏 for 👏 that
because that system did NOT work for every child.
Personally, I welcome this change and if you’re here, I know you do too. The research proves that children can only learn to read through explicit, systematic instruction.
Your district may have told you to teach structured literacy… but they haven’t adopted a curriculum yet that supports you.
So it’s up to you to translate the training, research, and scientific jargon into lessons, activities, and materials.
And you’re determined to do what’s best for your students.
…because you have to figure it all out yourself. You have to navigate through:
Piecing the research together….
Carefully grouping your students so you can differentiate based on their needs…
Exhaustively searching the internet for activities and decodable texts that are actually aligned to the Science of Reading…
Prepping all of your materials…
Putting them all together into one cohesive plan…
And figuring out how the heck you’re going to fit it all into 15-18 minutes!
Nothing about this is a piece of cake!
How many small groups do you have? If you’re like most K-2 teachers, you have 4-6.
So you have to do all that ☝️ 4-6 different times…
And this is just for your targeted small groups! You still have to plan other core ELA lessons, writing, math, interventions, SEL, social studies, and science 😵
It’s no secret that you already have a lot on your teaching plate. No surprise there…
You simply don’t have time to figure out how to translate all the research and theory to make structured literacy work in your own classroom with your actual students.
All the heavy lifting of small group instruction has been done for you!
Instead of spending your Sundays hunched over your laptop…hunting for differentiated phonemic awareness, phonics, and decodable texts to target the needs for each of your small groups…and hoping it will all come together somehow…
…you can simply log in to Leaders of Literacy.
Pick that week’s focus skill, and print off the step-by-step structured literacy lesson plans and activities.
And just like that—your small group planning is DONE.
(Yes, REALLY.)
You can trust that my Leaders get lessons and materials that are evidence-based, research-backed, and truly aligned with the Science of Reading…
Because it was created by a former teacher + structured literacy expert who’s passionate about helping teachers be the best reading teachers they can be.
Hi there! I’m Christina Winter, a former 1st grade teacher, a curriculum writer, and the founder of Leaders of Literacy, the #1 program for kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers who want to help their students become confident, skilled readers.
I have the biggest heart for teachers like you 💕 And that’s why, since 2013, I’ve poured my passion into Lead in Literacy (formerly Mrs. Winter’s Bliss), where I share time-saving resources that help children achieve a high level of mastery. In 2021, I created the online professional development course, Success With Centers, which has taught 2000+ teachers how to implement centers successfully in their classrooms.
I’ve since completed LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) and The Reading Teacher’s Top 10 Tools training. I’m also a co-founder of and a featured presenter at the Unlocking the Science of Reading virtual conference, and a featured guest on the Melissa & Lori Love Literacy, Triple R Teaching, and The Stellar Teacher podcasts.
“Christina—I wish you knew how much your resources have changed the trajectories of the students in my class. You have supported my students and I have appreciated and relied on your resources! They work, point blank. It shows in my students’ attitudes towards reading, the way they talk about segmenting, blending, phonemes and syllable types. If I could afford every resource in your store, I would buy them all! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for changing the way I help children read. ❤️❤️❤️” – Kate
“I’m a 2nd grade teacher, and I’m blown away at your generosity in sharing and am so hungry to learn more! I seriously can’t thank you enough. I have a handful of students that have such significant needs in this area. I haven’t had the confidence to address it head on until now. Beginning next week I will meet with this group daily first thing and boost their confidence with these tools that they have never had the opportunity of learning with before. What you do makes such a difference! I am so thankful to be able to learn from you.” —Megan H.
You’ve been there: forced to sit through snooze-worthy PD training from someone who’s never taught a day in their lives. You almost want to shout, “None of this would work in a real classroom—I double-dog-dare you to try that with my kids 😆”
As a teacher, you know how important a good teacher is. You see the difference it makes in your classroom every day. So I take the responsibility of being a teacher-mentor very seriously!
And that’s why everything you’ll find inside Leaders of Literacy isn’t just based on the trainings I’ve taken and my extensive research into the Science of Reading…although those are quite rigorous…
It’s also been run through the filter of my 21 years of 1st grade classroom experience. From tying wet shoelaces to figuring out how to take the three-ring circus out of center time, I’ve handled everything 1st grade could throw at me—and used that plus my literacy research to build a program that actually works in real classrooms.
No more spending your nights, weekends, and breaks trying to cobble together your small group literacy instruction.
“Can’t wait to share/promote how awesome this is with all my teachers who are drowning right now trying to juggle it all. This is heaven sent! Most thorough thing I have seen to teach phonics and reading in 32 years!!!” –Denise
“I am most excited about having amazing lesson plans and guidance to use with my small groups. Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed with switching from DRA to Decodables, what to do how to do it etc. I also can’t wait to dig into the literacy centers!!” –Mary G.
These activities go with the Leaders of Literacy lesson plans. Just print them off and start teaching. All you need to do is add you (the teacher) and a whiteboard!
Best of all, the activities are short yet high-yield…which means you’ll be able to fit a lot of learning into your 15-minute small groups.
This is the PD you wish your school gave you: bite-sized + practical!
I’ve distilled 500 hours of self-study into the Science of Reading + LETRS® training into a total of 2 hours of the most essential training for small group literacy instruction.
As our recognized authority on the Science of Reading Dr. Louisa Moats says, “Informed teachers are our best insurance against reading failure. While programs are very helpful tools, programs don’t teach; teachers do.”
I’ll also walk you through the most important parts of the Science of Reading, the Big Five, and Models of Reading.
For each strategy, I’ve also included a student demo video so you can see what it looks like to teach the strategy.
These videos are bite-sized and on-demand, which means you can watch them if and when you want. Binge them all at once….or only watch the videos where you need to brush up on a skill.
“You have THE BEST site. Hands down. THE BEST SITE for what I need. I FINALLY—AND I DO MEAN FINALLLLYYYYYY understand what “orthographic mapping” means, and that is not for lack of trying, reading, watching, researching…. just could NOT lock it in (kind of like kids when they’re trying to map! hahaha).” –Jennifer H.
Who else wants a safe space to ask for help, encouragement, and support?
✋✋✋
You’ll love the private, exclusive Facebook community that’s only for Leaders of Literacy. You’ll have your fellow Leaders to learn with and cheer you on—as well as expert guidance and support from me and my team! I’ll be there often, almost every weekday. If I’m not, an experienced member of my team will be there in my place.
Need some help troubleshooting your small groups? Or maybe you have a struggling student and you’re not sure how to help?
Schedule a 15-minute Zoom meeting with Christina or a member of the Lead in Literacy team! We are your virtual teammates with a combined 75 years of teaching experience.
You’ll be able to book a meeting with us right from the Leaders of Literacy portal. We’re offering appointment times that should match up with most teachers’ planning times or right after school.
Bottom line, we’re here to support you in delivering effective literacy instruction.
“New members, you won’t be disappointed in joining. Even if you are a veteran teacher, there is always more to learn. I have learned so much to help me organize and teach more effectively in my classroom.” –Sondra M.
IMPORTANT: The Leaders of Literacy membership absolutely has everything you need for your small group instruction.
But maybe you need resources that fall outside of small group instruction.
That’s where the $10 monthly credit comes in!
“Just wanted to say thank you! I’m a k-5 principal. It’s my first year and we changed and grown so much already! Scores are going up and students are reading like never before. Can’t wait to see what’s next. You are a great resource.” –Tommy S.
Fact: it takes more than just lesson plans + activities to teach kids how to read.
“⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Extremely satisfied. Great, quick screeners that are easy to use! Love the analysis feature that helps to know which sounds to target and begin with.”
– Tiffany
“How do I keep my other students—the ones not sitting at my teacher table—from interrupting me 189,747,341 times during small group time?”
The answer is: literacy centers! They provide rich opportunities for the skill review and practice your students need.
When you enroll in Leaders of Literacy today, you get my library of center activities! This includes:
“These resources are novel, fantastically fun, and you are supplied with everything you’ll need to ensure student success. The range of activities is perfect… listening centers to word study centers, to writing centers!”
Get instant access to everything you need to teach structured literacy in small groups effectively, in way less time.
Are you a school looking to purchase multiple licenses? Click here for a quote.
Click here to enroll, complete the checkout, and a few minutes later you’ll receive an email from me (look for the subject line: 💕 OMGosh! Welcome to Leaders of Literacy!) Open up that email, because it will have all of your membership login information.
Once you login to the membership website, you’ll see that you have access to the entire K-2 library of lesson plans, activities, PD videos, and more.
The membership was intentionally organized to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.
We suggest watching the “Start Here” video to show you how to use your membership.
We also recommend watching the bite-sized PD videos before using the lesson plans + activities.
But, I’m not the boss of you! You can use the membership in the way that works best for you.
You’ll have everything you need to teach your targeted small groups. You’ll also have 24/7 access to your fellow Leaders of Literacy as well as me and the Leaders of Literacy team inside the Facebook community.
The Leaders of Literacy membership is designed for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade teachers, and teachers who support K-2 students. I don’t recommend it for other grade levels.
Leaders of Literacy is not program-specific. Everything you’ll find inside of Leaders of Literacy is aligned with the Science of Reading and a structured literacy approach. The lessons include high-impact routines based on what the research shows children need to learn to read.
The Leaders of Literacy membership does not teach literacy with the balanced literacy approach. The research overwhelmingly supports a structured, explicit, and systematic approach to teaching literacy skills to children. So if your school expects you to teach balanced literacy, this membership is most likely not right for you.
Download a copy of the K-2 scope and sequences here. While there is not one agreed upon scope and sequence in the SoR community, most research based scope and sequences are very similar building from simple to complex skills.
The Leaders of Literacy is a subscription membership that you can enroll in monthly or annually.
When you join, you get instant access to everything in the membership—the lesson plans, activities, bite-sized PD training, the Facebook community, video conferencing with the Lead in Literacy team, and a $10 monthly credit to use in my shop.
We strongly recommend watching the “Start Here” video first to orient yourself to the membership portal. We also recommend watching the PD training next, because it will teach you how to use the lesson plans, activities, and diagnostic screeners you’ll find inside the membership portal.
Whether you choose the monthly or annual membership, you’ll get everything you need—in one place—to successfully implement small groups and literacy centers in your classroom. There’s no need to buy anything else… for small group instruction, that is. If you’re interested in any of my materials NOT pertaining to small groups, you’ll receive a $10 credit voucher every month you can use in my store to purchase those items.
Yes, you can earn PD certificates for every training session you participate in.
Yes, we have a money-back guarantee. Keep scrolling for details.
The membership is for one teacher only. If you’d like to purchase a group license, please fill out this school partnership order form!
We would love to help assist you with a purchase order! Simply fill out this form and we can get the process started quickly to provide you access to Leaders of Literacy!
The Leaders of Literacy is a monthly subscription membership for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers. As a Leader of Literacy, you’ll have everything you need to confidently teach your small groups. Your students’ literacy skills will grow exponentially when you put all of this into practice!
When you join us, you get instant access to everything inside the membership—the library of step by step structured literacy lesson plans, printable activities, bite-sized PD videos, access to the membership community, access to me and my team over Zoom, diagnostic assessments and other teacher tools, and a $10 monthly credit in my shop.
With everything at your fingertips, teaching your small groups will be as easy as click, print, and teach! There’s so much value packed inside—and it will only go up over time as we add more activities and training videos.
But, we only want people to stay in our membership if they feel great about being in it. So here’s our promise to you.
If you’re a monthly member, you can cancel at any time.
If you join as an annual member, you have 48 hours to watch as many videos as you want, check out the small group lesson plans and activities, and visit our Facebook group.
Please understand that your cancellation will be processed immediately and you’ll lose access to the library, the training videos, the community, and everything else.
We’ll refund your money within 48 hours, no questions asked.
Do you want to keep spending hours and hours of your free time guessing your way through planning + teaching your small groups?
Or do you want to reclaim your free time, teach with confidence, and help your students blossom into skilled readers who love reading?
“I started a gratitude journal about a month ago. Each week I pick one person or thing I’m grateful for and I write a daily message about why and then I share (if it’s a person) with them all my “why’s”.
Today I’m sharing with LEADERS OF LITERACY and everyone on this feed. I am beyond grateful for Christina and all who started this program, made this program AMAZING and are dedicated to helping teachers with these amazing SOR centers and activities to further the education of every scholar around the world.
Our school right now is focusing on small group instruction, particularly in K1. I have struggled with this for years and years. Then last summer I found the Leaders of Literacy.
I have spent many hours creating these centers (and luckily, I only have to do it once) lol but it has helped my students beyond my expectations.
They stay engaged, they push through and work on sounding out words instead of just giving up. The results have been AMAZING!!
I was observed by my principal yesterday. I haven’t been in a classroom in over 26 years and went back. This will be my second year back. I have struggled with all the new changes from 26 years ago and how to get my first graders to be productive in centers and small group time. I DREADED doing centers and now I LOVE IT!!
My principal came in and every student was engaged the whole time. At the end of the observation before she left, she told me that she has never seen such amazing centers ever and with 100% student engagement. My instructional coach was called to the office right after my observation, and was a little nervous, and the principal told her that she was absolutely blown out of the water, and that she was trying to figure out some feedback to give me because she said she couldn’t find one thing wrong with those 45 minutes that she was in my classroom.
I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU and say how GRATEFUL I am for this program, this group and ALL who support and encourage every one of us teachers to succeed!!!
Last evening, my instructional coach emailed me and asked if I would be willing to have teachers come in and observe my small groups.
I went from being the one having to do the observing to the one being observed.
I am excited to help other teachers overcome the struggles of managing center times as I did for so many years.
Thank you again to Leaders of Literacy!!”
–Beth D.
Get instant access to everything you need to teach structured literacy in small groups effectively, in way less time.
Are you a school looking to purchase multiple licenses? Click here for a quote.