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

What if we told you that the science of reading is just as applicable to multilingual learners as it is to monolingual English speakers? Today, we had the pleasure of discussing this topic with Claude Goldenberg, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. Claude shared his insights on the importance of understanding the nuanced language surrounding multilingual learners. In our conver...

In today’s episode, Julie Washington discusses how literacy learning can be supported by language variations. Reading and language are intertwined. Reading influences language and language influences reading. It’s a reciprocal process! How can we, as educators and practitioners, leverage students’ strengths in language variations to learn to read?  What if we told you that understanding language v...

Secondary educators have students in their classrooms who weren’t taught to read. Because of these reading deficits, students  likely have a difficult time accessing secondary texts and tasks. Our guests today, Supt. Sherry Sousa and Educator Julie Brown, discuss a secondary intervention they developed that WORKS and is totally doable. The best part? Students partake in the intervention in additio...

We talked with the fabulously candid Tim Shanahan about his recent blog post Prior Knowledge, or He Isn't Going to Pick on the Baseball Study that garnered much attention. Should we teach reading strategies? How important is building knowledge? What are reading skills vs. strategies? How frequent should strategy instruction occur in concert with knowledge building? He also weighs in on the cu...

Our conversation today illuminates a hot topic in reading - skills and strategies. What’s the difference? Peter Afflerbach, researcher and professor, shares in the podcast that he and his colleagues surveyed educators and  “ten people would give us ten different answers. They were all kind of related, but all different.”  Peter explains that with practice, strategies require less deliberate attent...

We had the opportunity to talk (again!) with Natalie Wexler about tips for effective remote learning (read her full article located here ), the current intersection of students' virtual learning and strategy-focused instruction (due to lack of knowledge-based, high quality curricula) and how parents are noticing! How can we teach strategies in context while building knowledge? Listen to find...

What is Phonemic Awareness? It’s one component of your literacy instruction. Phonemic awareness means understanding that spoken words are made of individual sounds called phonemes. We want students to be able to isolate, blend, segment, and more. Can it be ‘done in the dark’? Or should we teach phonemic awareness with print? Listen and learn as we explore this important question (and more) in toda...

Why is teaching reading so important? Melissa and Lori have a conversation with Louisa Moats grounded in this article: Teaching Reading is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able to Do. Moats asserts that 95% of students can learn to read when taught to do so using evidence-based practices. In this episode, listen as we discuss and define the term science of reading...

In this episode, we’ll discuss an approach to teaching foundational skills known as speech to print. The speech to print approach consists of 4 concepts with consistent logic:  Letters spell sounds (alphabetic principle)  Sounds can be represented by one or more letters  Sounds can be spelled different ways Spellings can be pronounced in different ways  What is the difference between speech to pri...

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!  Looking for more...

Robert Pondiscio, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), asserts that reading comprehension is NOT a skill. Yes, good readers use reading skills and strategies to make meaning. But good readers also have a robust knowledge base.  There is strong evidence to support knowledge building ELA curriculum, but we continue to wonder about what knowledge, whose knowledge, and how much? ...

In this episode, researcher Hugh Catts discusses his pivotal piece titled Rethinking How to Promote Reading Comprehension | American Federation of Teachers . He asserts, “Reading comprehension is thinking with a book in your hand.” There are three factors that impact reading comprehension: the reader, the text, and the activity (task or purpose). He talks with Melissa and Lori about the role knowl...

Pamela Snow, professor at Latrobe University in Australia, discusses the arguments that keep surfacing when educators are resistant to move away from balanced literacy. You might have heard a few:  Systematic phonics teaching is just for Tier 2. The goal of balanced literacy is for children to love reading.  Explicit teaching kills the love of reading.  Give them time, they’ll catch on or catch up...

In this episode, Melissa and Lori have a candid discussion about change with Kareem Weaver, co-founder of FULCRUM Oakland : Full and Complete Reading is a Universal Mandate. FULCRUM’s goal is to ensure that every Oakland child is an 'on-time' reader provided with full LITERACY: a fundamental civil right, a powerful protection from the school to prison pipeline, and the cornerstone for a...

We want the shift to reading science to be permanent, not perceived as another ‘educational pendulum swing.’ To do this, it’s necessary to recognize what worked and  didn’t work within balanced literacy. Today’s guests, UnboundEd’s Lacey Robinson and The Right to Read Project’ s Margaret Goldberg, both shifted from teaching using balanced literacy (specifically Lucy Calkins’ Workshop Model, also k...

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...

Today we’ll be talking to a team of authors about a recent article they published on small group instruction, titled Maximizing Small-Group Reading Instruction. We ask and answer important questions about small group instructional time: What is the appeal of small group reading instruction? Why has it been popular? What does the research say? What do we need to know about effective small-group rea...

In this episode, Lindsay Kemeny, 2nd grade teacher , gives a deep dive into her evidence-based, small group instruction time. Her journey to the science of reading was necessary and life altering. It led her to clarity on structured, systematic approaches to teaching reading. She discusses informal and formal assessments, how she uses data to determine small groups, and center options for practici...

In today’s episode, we discuss the structure and content of the literacy block. How can we teach using structured literacy in small groups? Kinder teacher Casey Jergens and author Natalie Wexler join us to connect theory and practice. Casey previously taught using a guided (leveled) reading approach with lots of small group time. In recent years, he’s switched to focus on Tier 1 instruction aligne...

Ep. 22: Dr. Sonja Santelises joined us to discuss why she saw the urgent need for change in Baltimore City Public Schools, how she set and supported a clear literacy focus through the Blueprint for Success and high-quality curricula, and the ongoing next steps that prevail. She is witty and sharp, but most of all, we appreciate her vision and boundless energy in this admittedly difficult work. Vis...

What does it take to disrupt the "way it has always been done"? Dr. Ernie Ortiz, Senior Literacy Engagement Specialist with AIM Institute for Learning and Research, joins us to discuss this important question. As a former teacher, school leader, and current national leader, he realizes that leaders play a critical role in student achievement. The approach leaders take often make or break...

We’re joined by two dedicated early grade teachers from Vista Peak Exploratory in Aurora, CO—April Evans (Grade 1) and Danielle Hunter (Grade 3). They share their journey toward more effective literacy instruction and discuss how intentional teaching practices build student engagement, knowledge, and community. Hear what literacy looks like in grades 1 and 3 and how educators align learning across...

In today’s episode, we talk with a teacher and interventionist from Blount County, TN, Erin Metz. She provides an in depth walkthrough of her district’s K-2 instructional block time. She’ll share her strategic approach to working with students and teachers during small group instructional time - modeling how to use this time to reinforce accuracy, automaticity, build vocabulary and knowledge in or...

LISTEN AGAIN | FROM JULY 31, 2019 Today we are live with Natalie Wexler, the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–And How to Fix It (LISTENERS - IT’S AVAILABLE TODAY!). The book focuses on the lack of content in the elementary curriculum and its connection to what is commonly known as the achievement gap. Natalie provides a snapshot of research on buil...

In today’s episode, we discuss knowledge and vocabulary as critical components of reading comprehension. We hear from author and professor Daniel Willingham, who shares research on the important role knowledge plays in comprehension. We also talk with Executive Director of Knowledge Matters Campaign, Barbara Davidson, who highlights strong curricula and resources related to knowledge-building ELA....