Rock & Rocket Growth Guide - Text Features

Andrew Bordt ("Mr. B") has spent more than 20 years inspiring, challenging, and celebrating students as they develop into confident readers, writers, and critical thinkers. Throughout his career, he has served as a classroom teacher, teacher trainer, curriculum designer, campus director, and educational leader in both the United States and internationally.

Mr. B holds a Master of Education and has completed advanced training through CELTA (Cambridge University), TEFL-C (Teachers College, Columbia University), and EC-STEM through Shanghai Normal University in partnership with The Children's Center at Caltech. He is a certified English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) teacher with additional certifications in the Science of Teaching Reading (STR), English as a Second Language (ESL), and Gifted and Talented (GT) education.

A struggling reader himself as a boy, Mr. B never forgot how that felt - or what finally turned it around. He believes that when students are genuinely interested in what they read, they willingly tackle more challenging texts and achieve remarkable growth. That conviction forms the foundation of the Rock & Rocket curriculum.

This volume intentionally contains a balanced mix of exciting, high-interest poems and more traditional, demanding texts like those found on standardized assessments - helping students develop both the motivation to read and the perseverance needed to tackle challenging texts with confidence.

In the 2025-2026 school year, his students earned the highest reading growth in the district during the winter assessment and the highest reading achievement in the district during the spring assessment, based on NWEA MAP Reading results.

This is the curriculum he used to achieve those results.