We were lucky to catch up with Mohini Pollock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mohini, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I taught 3rd grade at a charter school during the 2020-2021 academic year. That academic year was HARD. The doors of our school were closed during the first half of the year, so I taught remotely. This meant trying to engage 30 students at a time via zoom which was developmentally inappropriate…children in elementary school need to move and learn through relationships!

More than a third of the students in my class weren’t reading at grade level at the start of the year. Resources were tight at my school and needs were high in my classroom. I didn’t have enough time, support and resources to respond to the needs of the children in my class who were struggling with the fundamentals of reading and writing!

That’s when I started Reading Is Elementary LLC. I was inspired to create simple and repeatable literacy activities that help transform struggling readers into motivated ones, and reluctant writers into skilled ones. Knowing how overwhelmed teachers are, I decided to work directly with parents and caregivers. I started teaching parents literacy activities to do with their kids.

My first two clients were teachers at the charter school I taught at. I helped them take the reins in their children’s literacy education by doing simple reading and writing activities with their kids. I was pregnant at the time! During my pregnancy and my baby’s first year I facilitated the “Reading and Writing Partners” 1:1 remotely. I worked with a handful of families. During this time I tweaked my course and improved it to make it as impactful as possible.

Now, my baby is 15 months old and I’ve just launched the Reading and Writing Partners Course. Parents and caregivers listen to audio lessons, print activities to do with their kids and submit weekly plans to me. I provide feedback and support.

There are often systematic inequities that lead to kids not being able to read and write skillfully. It’s my mission to provide evidence-based literacy instruction as accessibly as possible.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been teaching for about eight years now! My first teaching experience was in Taipei, Taiwan. I taught four year olds at a Reggio inspired school. This was my first exposure to structured literacy and Reggio principles. I fell in love with teaching and decided to pursue my Masters in Elementary Education.

I’m passionate about creating evidence-based literacy curriculum for struggling readers and writers in elementary school. I value teaching and learning through relationships. That’s why I encourage parents to do activities with their kids! It’s also important to me to make my curriculum accessible to children with diverse learning styles including kids who are neurodivergent.

While I do 1:1 literacy intervention in person and online, I’m currently focused on growing my course!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first created the Reading and Writing Partners course I was focused on helping kids achieve academic progress. I interviewed the first couple of families who did the four week program after they completed it. To my surprise what they liked MOST about the course was that it helped them bond with their kids. Now, I create activities that not only help parents teach their kids to read and write well, but also help them bond with their kids!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I created content for my course I had to simplify. While I wanted to create extravagant literacy activities, I knew scrappy activities would be the easiest to implement.

Contact Info:

• Website: readingiselementary.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mohinipollock/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohini-srivastav-pollock-083ab75