The Literacy Teacher's Life

Today's episode is such a treat! Elizabeth is joined by poet Darren Sardelli. He writes poetry and shows kids how much fun words and language can be - and how poetry is fun! His goal is to make his ideas fun and relatable for kids. And, his work is a lot of fun! Darren shares some poetry with us - and you will be very entertained! He gives great ideas in this episode - such as start an Idea Notebo...

In this episode, Elizabeth shares eight common beliefs about reading and how they can discourage kids from reading. There have been many alarming articles about kids not reading much - so it's important to try and support our young readers as best we can. The 8 beliefs are:- Phonics Instructions Ends After Second Grade- Picture Books are Easy Books- Reading With Kids Ends Once They Learn to Read-I...

This is a treat! Today, I am joined by my former colleague, Terri Lilga. Terri is a retired teacher, who is now writing books for children. We worked together in Buffalo, NY for a few years. In this episode, Terri shares her books with us. She explains how she came up with the ideas for her books - and how she gets ideas in general. She has really great stories about how she thinks up ideas! They...

Lorraine Radice is back on the podcast! Lorraine has a new book that recently came out, Revolving Literacy: How to Connect Relevance and Future-Ready Skills to Secondary English Instruction. In our conversation, Lorraine talks about: - what the term literacy includes- her revolving literacy framework and how it benefits teachers and supports students- books for kids in middle and high school- idea...

I'm back this week with Trevor Bryan, an educator and writer. Trevor's latest book is out and available to be purchased. It's called Narrative Know-How: A Fresh Approach to Support Comprehension and Craft in the K-6 Classroom. In the last episode, Trevor explained the framework to this book. And, today he is back to share ideas about how this work can be implemented into the classroom to support o...

We want our students to be confident readers and writers. One way to support their confidence is to teach them about structure. Today, I am joined by Trevor Bryan, who is an educator and writer! Trevor is the author of The Art of Comprehension and has written a new book that just came out this week, called Narrative Know-How: A Fresh Approach to Support Comprehension and Craft in the K-6 Classroom...

Recently, there have been studies out that discuss how reading, particularly reading for pleasure is at an all-time low. This is for kids and adults, but the findings have been seen as concerning. The UK is calling on 2026 to be the year of reading - so that kids are reading for pleasure. In this episode, Elizabeth shares ways that teachers can make this school year a year of reading as well - and...

It's August, and that means that the new school year is just around the corner! My semester begins in just two weeks. This episode is aimed at teachers, but can be helpful for parents, too. As I am planning for the upcoming academic year, I have six tips that I am focusing on to have a calm start to the school year. I also have a planning tip from a planning expert! Learn more about your ad choice...

It's the end of July and the new school year is approaching (faster than I would like!). Today's episode is for parents. I often hear comments from parents that their kids are not interested in reading. After taking my daughters and a friend to a bookstore, I have a story and some suggestions about what you can do to help get your child interested in reading a book before the end of the summer. It...

It's mid-July already! This week's episode features a quick check-in with three tips to get your kids back into a reading habit this summer. Daily routines and habits shift during the summer months which can mean that reading may not be happening as regularly as it does during the school year. So, Elizabeth shares tips that you can put into practice pretty quickly to get back into reading. Learn m...

Lea Anne Borders is the founder of Bookelicious, a digital tool that connects kids’ interests to books that they may enjoy reading. She joins me on today's episode to talk about the features of Bookelicous and we discuss how it can be used by teachers and parents to help children find books that they are interested in reading. This is a great tool to explore - especially at the start of the summer...

In today's episode, New York Times Bestselling Author, Jen Calonita comes on to discuss her books as well as why she loves writing for the middle grade and young adult kids. She shares why it is so important to meet kids where they are and why connecting to kids' interests - at any age - is so important to get and keep kids reading. Jen is the author of many books, including The Lost Legend series...

We are back with the second half of my conversation with Susan! Susan is the author of The Swirl Method: Supporting Multilingual Learners as They Speak, Write, Interact, Read, and Listen. This week, Susan is taking us through her strategies to support multilingual learners with interacting, reading, and listening. She offers excellent resources in each area - so please check them out! This is the...

The Swirl Method: Supporting Multilingual Learners as They Speak, Write, Interact, Read, and Listen, written by Susan Katz addresses how we can support children who are multilingual learners. In this amazing resource, Susan identifies specific strategies in each area: speaking, writing, interacting, reading, and listening - that can be used in the literacy classroom to help learners thrive. This i...

Brian Jordan is a former professional football and baseball player. He played football for the Atlanta Falcons and he played baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Texas Rangers. Brian believes that all kids need to learn to read. He has written a number of children's books, such as I Told You I Can Play!, Overcoming the Fear of Baseball, and Time-Out for Bu...

It's National Library Week! It's a great week to get involved and support your local library. Libraries are a reflection of the community they serve. You can check out new books and see what other events are happening at your library this week. On today's episode, American Library Association's President-Elect Sam Helmick joins me. We discuss what is happening with libraries at the moment. We also...

How can movement be included in learning to read? In today's episode, Elizabeth speaks with Stefanie Hohl, the creator of ABC See, Hear, Do, which is a multi-sensory approach to learning to read. Stefanie believes in getting kids moving when reading and she shares many ideas about how this can be done. In this episode, we discuss: - What a multi-sensory approach to literacy is? - How active kids c...

Is handwriting important now that kids have access to technology and devices in school? Many parents are concerned about their children's penmanship. Should handwriting be taught in schools? The answer to these questions is yes. Handwriting should be taught in school (and so should cursive writing). Dr. Cheryl Lundy Swift is the Professional Learning Director at Learning Without Tears - the progra...

What behaviors signal that kids are frustrated when they are reading? This week's episode focuses on three behaviors that can signal that kids may be frustrated when reading. The behaviors include: - Hanging onto one detail from the book - Looking for a distraction - Not having books that kids want to read Elizabeth explains these behaviors and offers some suggestions about how we as teachers (and...

The start of the new year brought a lot of questions about reading responses. It seems like teachers started assigning reading responses at the start of 2025. A question I kept getting is, "Do reading responses really help?" The short answer is yes, reading responses can help kids better understand what they read. Today's episode starts with the point of reading responses and what the research say...

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2025! In this first episode of 2025, Elizabeth is speaking with Kourtney Hake and Paige Timmerman about their recent book, Their Stories, Their Voices, which focuses on narrative writing and how to easily implement narrative writing units into your instruction. Paige and Kourtney discuss how they define narrative writing and talk about how they structured this book. They...

Happy Holidays! It's the holiday edition of The Literacy Teacher's Podcast. In the spirit of the season of reflection, this week's episode is dedicated to taking the time to think about your teaching in 2024 - what went well and also what changes you want to make in 2025. Elizabeth focused on the following areas of her teaching this year: - Planning - Students - Instruction/Teaching - Materials fo...

Should kids have independent reading time in school? In order for kids to become stronger and more engaged readers, they need time to read. But, that time needs to be intentional. We don't want kids spending independent reading time staring out the windows or re-reading the same page over and over to pass the time and check the work off the list. In this episode, I share five tips to make independ...

How can we effectively teach literacy to students? In this episode, Norene Bunt speaks about her recent book, Solving the Literacy Puzzle, and how effective literacy instruction can be implemented. Some of the topics discussed include: - Effective literacy instruction - Components of literacy instruction at the elementary level - Comprehension and how to ensure that it is a focus of reading instru...

This week's episode focuses on reading comprehension and how to include it into reading instruction. The following is addressed: - Why we read - How to assess reading comprehension - How to include a structured approach to comprehension into reading instruction The episode ends with ideas for how parents can address comprehension when reading with kids at home. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...