Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ® | Science of Reading for Teachers

From Aug 4, 2023 What if the key to unlocking your students' reading comprehension could be found through a deeper understanding of the intricate processes at work in their minds? Prepare to have your teaching world transformed as we journey with reading comprehension expert and acclaimed author, Nancy Hennessy. Together, we’ll map out the cognitive and linguistic processes that underpin comp...

Lindsay Kemeny discusses her book 7 Mighty Moves and the importance of teaching literacy effectively. The conversation covers the development of the 7 moves, which focus on phonemic awareness, word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Lindsay emphasizes the need for explicit and systematic instruction, the use of decodable texts, and the importance of teaching sight words with phon...

From Mar 18, 2022 How can regular fluency practice lead to fluent readers? In today’s episode, educators Lorraine Griffith and Lindsay Kemeny discuss the impact of fluency in their classrooms. Fluency is a bridge: It connects word recognition with comprehension. We dive into whole and small group fluency instruction with simple strategies and more.  Looking for more literacy support and resources?...

Our guests today, authors Tricia Zucker and Sonia Cabell, discuss the concept of Strive-For-Five Conversations, which emphasizes the importance of multi-turn conversations between teachers and students. They explain that the goal is to stretch conversations beyond the typical question-response format and aim for at least five turns.  The conversation explores the importance of building relationshi...

From Jul 15, 2022 Dr. Sonia Cabell, Associate Professor at Florida State University , shares the importance of both oral language and content knowledge instruction. Why? Oral language skills underlie our ability to comprehend text. At the same time, the knowledge we bring to a text is THE key determinant on how much we understand that text. This episode speaks to the entirety of the reading rope! ...

Heidi Anne Mesmer discusses her book Big Words for Young Readers. She emphasizes the importance of teaching young readers to decode and understand words with multiple syllables and morphemes. Heidi Anne highlights the need to teach morphemic concepts early on and provides recommendations for teaching different types of morphemes at each grade level. She explains that morphology, the study of word...

From Nov 4, 2022 Researcher Heidi Anne Mesmer joins the podcast to discuss the research on decodable text and dos and don'ts for classroom practice. Thinking about decodability as a meter from most to least decodable to the reader is important. A child who reads a text by sounding out and decoding words will experience a milestone of childhood: the feeling of reading. This also supports ortho...

Anna Geiger, author of "Reach All Readers," joins us on the pod today. Anna takes us on a historical reading journey, from the early reading wars of the 1800s to debates between whole language and balanced literacy, up to the present Science of Reading movement. She shares her personal transition from balanced literacy to embracing the science of reading, providing critical insights into...

Episode 37  The article Placing Text at the Center of the Standards-Aligned ELA Classroom is a must-read — before or after you listen to this episode! Meredith Liben and Sue Pimentel join us to unpack the true intentions behind the Common Core State Standards and how they’ve sometimes been misinterpreted in practice. They share what they’ve observed in classrooms and schools — both when high-quali...

In this episode, Meredith and David Liben discuss the importance of comprehension instruction, the power of questions, and the practice of close reading. They emphasize the value of curiosity, vocabulary depth, and the features of complex text. The conversation also delves into the debate around teaching comprehension strategies, the overemphasis on reading strategies, the impact of high-pressure...

Unlock the potential of your ELA instruction by shifting to a knowledge-rich curriculum! Join us as we sit down with David Liben, co-author of Know Better, Do Better , to hear stories about knowledge-building goodness. David highlights how incorporating vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and comprehension can bring joy and engagement to your classroom. Discover how diverse topics like polar bears and...

Kim Lockhart, Canadian educator, shares her top three book recommendations. The first recommendation is 'Next Steps in Literacy Instruction' by Susan Smart and Deb Glaser, which focuses on the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) model and effective interventions. The second recommendation is 'Why Don't Students Like School?' by Daniel Willingham, which explores the scie...

Read Not Guess is a FREE program designed for parents to help their children improve their early reading skills. The lessons are short and simple, taking only 5 to 10 minutes per day. The program is email-based, with parents receiving a daily email with the lesson of the day. There are two levels available, with level one for true beginners and level two for more advanced learners. Additionally, t...

Melissa & Lori discuss questions about reading comprehension from our new book, The Literacy 50: A Q&A Handbook for Teachers , and provide research-based answers and practical suggestions. We talk about the place of sustained silent reading in the school day and the best ways to assess a student's comprehension. We also discuss the concept of reading volume and how to support students...

Melissa & Lori discuss questions about phonemic awareness from our new book, T he Literacy 50: A Q&A Handbook for Teachers . We talk about best practices for teaching phonemic awareness and whether to teach it with or without naming and showing letters. Additionally, we address the misconception that introducing letters in phonemic awareness instruction means transitioning to phonics, and...

The tables are turned on us in today's episode! Anna Geiger interviews us about our new book, The Literacy 50. You might know Anna as The Measured Mom and host of the Triple R Teaching podcast. We loved divulging why we wrote the book, how educators can use it in classrooms and schools, and we even answer some hot topic questions!  Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all...

Today's sneak peek episode gives you a behind the scenes look at why we wrote this book, the questions we answer, and resources we crafted just for you!  Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com . Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email...

Unlock the potential in every multilingual learner as Claude Goldenberg, renowned professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, joins us to dispel myths and share crucial strategies in literacy education. Delve into the complexities of teaching reading to students mastering English, where educational rights meet the science of literacy. We promise a journey through the nuances of vocabul...

We discuss various models for teaching English learners to read  with Magdalena Zavalia, CEO of the PAF Reading Program. We explore different types of models, including monolingual programs, transitional bilingual education, and dual language immersion. Magdalena emphasizes the importance of understanding students' needs and goals when implementing a dual language program. She also discusses...

From August 5, 2022 Dr. Elsa Cardenas-Hagan joins the podcast to share that reading science works for English Learners. What does it mean to use evidence-based instruction to teach English Learners? Dr. Cardenas-Hagan asserts that every language has its own history, its own culture, its own use. Language supports literacy, and literacy support language. With this cyclical understanding, she explai...

In this conversation, Stephanie Stollar discusses the implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).  MTSS is a framework for school improvement that helps to provide support for students with various needs. The MTSS framework focuses on using data to identify barriers to student performance and making plans to eliminate those barriers. Stollar explains that word recognition skills are...

In this episode, Savannah Campbell, a K-5 reading specialist, shares practical spelling tips for teachers. She emphasizes the importance of having students say the sounds or syllables as they spell, as it helps develop sound-symbol correspondence. Savannah also recommends interleaving, which involves practicing both new and old spelling skills to ensure mastery. Savannah also discusses the use of...

 Pam Kastner discusses the connection between spelling and reading. She emphasizes that teaching spelling is teaching reading, as spelling is a higher linguistic skill that requires complete and accurate recall and memory for words. Spelling helps students understand the internal structure of words and improves their reading abilities. She suggests using instructional routines that integrate phono...

From 3/4/2022 We’ve been asked about spelling and the connection to reading science more times than we can count. Today, we talk with expert J. Richard Gentry ,  author of Brain Words and blog contributor to Psychology Today: Raising Readers, Writers, and Spellers (An Expert Guide for Parents). He tells us all about spelling and how it connects to our speech and language system. Moreover, he suppl...

In this episode, Jessica Farmer shares tips for teaching heart words. She explains the importance of blending and introduces the concept of continuous blending. Jessica defines heart words as high-frequency words with irregular or temporarily irregular spellings. She emphasizes the need to follow a scope and sequence and provides a routine for introducing new heart words. Jessica also discusses th...