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When students at North Shore Country Day dive into a book, tackle a math problem or ask a big question about the world, they’re not alone. Behind each moment of discovery stands a team of dedicated specialists — educators who focus on building foundational skills and nurturing curiosity from the earliest years of school.

Together, Reading and Learning Specialist Sharon Lieberman, Math Specialist Amy Shuldiner, and Guided Inquiry Specialist David Green work alongside teachers and students to strengthen academic understanding, deepen engagement and help every child find their own voice as a thinker and problem solver.

Laying the Foundation: Reading and Learning
Reading is more than decoding words — it’s the foundation for all learning, says Sharon Lieberman, who serves as both the lower school reading and learning specialist and head of North Shore’s Learning Resources Department.

“I work with teachers and students to help every child grow as a reader,” she explains. “Reading is my passion, and I’m excited to partner with families each year.”

Sharon co-teaches with classes from junior kindergarten through fifth grade, focusing on the five areas of literacy instruction — reading, writing, speaking, listening and word study. She spends time daily in JK through second grade classrooms and meets frequently with third grade students, providing small-group and one-on-one support.

Collaboration, she emphasizes, is at the heart of her work. “I’m a resource for everyone — students, teachers and parents. It’s true when they say it takes a village to raise a child, and we couldn’t do what we do without partnership.”

As part of that collaboration, Sharon helps select and implement North Shore’s reading curriculum, which includes Heggerty for foundational skills, Structured Word Inquiry for etymology and morphology, and Fishtank, recently rolled out in third through fifth grade. She also organizes grade-specific initiatives like reading nights and schoolwide programs like One Author, One School.

Her support extends beyond students to include faculty professional development and parent education. “Reading support is about giving students the tools they need to feel confident and successful,” she says. “Every child develops at their own pace, and it’s my pleasure to be their guide on that journey.”

Sharon also reminds parents of the power of simple daily routines. “Even 10 to 15 minutes of reading together makes a huge difference,” she says. “Chat about what you’ve read. Celebrate effort, not just accuracy — and most importantly, have fun reading together.”

Making Meaning Through Math
For Amy Shuldiner, the lower school math specialist, math learning starts with play and conversation.

“Games and play are to math what spelling and phonics are to a good book,” she explains. “They let students practice skills and deepen understanding in an engaging way.”

Amy’s work spans every grade from junior kindergarten through fifth. Her role varies from day to day: sometimes co-teaching a class, other times leading enrichment groups or meeting with teachers to plan instruction. “Being prepared for this kind of teaching,” she says, “is done through frequent communication and intentional planning with the math teachers.”

In junior kindergarten and senior kindergarten, students use the Bridges in Mathematics curriculum. Amy often joins lessons like “Estimation Station,” where children solve clues and make predictions before counting collections to see how close they came. “Using familiar objects — like shoes — to explore attributes helps them transfer what they learn to shapes and patterns later on,” she says.

For older students, Amy introduces challenges “just a bit beyond their current understanding,” using the Building Thinking Classrooms approach. “They work together through productive struggle to come to an understanding,” she explains. She joins small groups during these sessions and meets with teachers to discuss student progress.

Outside class periods, Amy connects with students during “Morning Math Moments,” a time when second and third graders play math games before school, and through fifth-grade office hours where students seek help or enrichment. “I get to watch their math skills grow and share this with their teachers as they move through North Shore,” she says.

She also takes time to talk math with NSCD’s youngest learners to better understand their thinking. “Interviewing our youngest learners is an important step to understanding their current mathematics knowledge,” she says. “I communicate my findings to the JK and SK teams so we can build from what students already know.”

Cultivating Curiosity: Guided Inquiry
After more than 30 years as a third-grade teacher at NSCD, David Green has stepped into a new role as the lower school guided inquiry specialist. His mission: to channel the natural curiosity of lower school students into deep, meaningful exploration.

“Guided inquiry is examining what you’re curious about — what you wonder about,” David explains. “If you weave together the curriculum content teachers design with students’ natural curiosity, you create a ‘third space,’ and that’s where guided inquiry lives.”

David leads students through the Guided Inquiry Design process, beginning with an “opening” or hook — something that sparks questions and engagement. “It might be an antique bottle we found on campus or a question like, ‘How can you make the world a more beautiful place?’” he says.

From there, students conduct broad research before narrowing their focus to a specific question, gathering and analyzing information, and finally sharing what they’ve learned through a project, presentation or creative medium.

Already, each grade is exploring inquiry in age-appropriate ways: JK students asked questions about a giant pencil in the library. (“What is it made of? Can it really write?”) First graders are tracing the journey of food from farm to lunchbox — asking, “How did that get in my lunchbox?” — as part of their community unit, which includes a visit to The Talking Farm in Skokie to learn about sustainability. 

Second graders investigated the origins of North Shore’s Morning Ex, while fourth graders are exploring Native American history and land use through the question, “About 200 years ago, thousands of Potawatomi lived in the Chicago region, including the North Shore. They don’t live here anymore. Why not? What happened?”

Third through fifth graders will build on these foundations throughout the year, culminating in more complex projects. Fifth graders, for example, are centering their work around the question: “How do you make the world a better place?” Inspired by the school motto, “Live and Serve,” students are identifying real-world problems, conducting research and designing projects to address them.

Whether in the classroom or on a slide, students are often joined by Frank the Lower School Inquiry Dog, the program’s unofficial mascot, who has quickly become a familiar symbol of curiosity across the lower school.

David, who first integrated guided inquiry into his third-grade curriculum more than a decade ago, says the approach continues to surprise and inspire him. “I have a pretty good imagination,” he says, “but I’m always amazed by what lower school students come up with.”

He credits curiosity itself as the driving force behind meaningful learning. “Follow their curiosity,” he advises parents. “Help facilitate where they want to go with their wonderings. They’ll take you to some wonderful and interesting places.”

Collaboration and Connection
While each specialist’s focus differs, all three share a common thread: a belief in partnership and in seeing every child as a capable, evolving learner.

Sharon, Amy and David collaborate closely with classroom teachers, aligning literacy, numeracy and inquiry so that students can transfer skills across subjects. They also serve as a bridge for families — sharing insights, strategies and encouragement that help extend learning beyond the classroom.

Their combined work reflects North Shore’s whole-child approach, emphasizing both academic growth and a lifelong love of learning. “Our goal,” as Sharon puts it, “is to help every child feel confident, curious and ready to take the next step.”