The Literacy Teacher's Life

What other ways can you read with students other than through interactive read-alouds? This week's episode is all about shared reading and how to include this into your teaching to support students' reading fluency and comprehension. Elizabeth begins by explaining shared reading and what it looks like in practice. She talks about the types of texts that are commonly used in shared reading and how...

What is a literacy coach? How does a literacy coach support teachers, students, and schools? In today's episode, Elizabeth is speaking with Melissa Morrison, the founder of Teaching to Transform. Melissa is a coach, specifically a writing coach. She works with teachers to support their writing instruction. In this episode, Elizabeth and Melissa discuss the role of a coach and how coaching can bene...

It's October! Today's episode is not directly related to literacy. Elizabeth sits down to speak with Dara Kurtz, an author, speaker, and breast cancer survivor. Dara has experienced setbacks in her life, but has come out stronger and is living a more intentional life. She teaches a class that focuses on helping individuals thrive after and/or during a challenging time in life. We talk about strate...

Literacy education has many terms that sound similar and have similar meanings. Phonological and phonemic awareness are two of those terms! This week, Elizabeth explains these two terms and shares examples of how they can be taught. Foundational skills are a hot topic at the moment and curriculum is being implemented to address phonological and phonemic awareness - so having an understanding of wh...

Welcome to the new school year! This episode starts with an update. Then, Elizabeth shares what she is focusing on for this back to school time. This fall, Elizabeth is teaching three reading classes - so she discusses how teachers can think through their reading instruction and emphasizes interactive read-alouds and what to pay attention to when planning and implementing read-alouds at the beginn...

Jennifer Serravallo is back on today's episode! Elizabeth speaks with Jennifer about her latest book, Teaching Reading Across the Day: Methods and Structures for Engaging, Explicit Instruction. They begin by discussing the structure of the book and all of the wonderful resources that are included with the book - this includes many videos of the different types of instruction. They chat about expli...

This is a fun episode! Emily Drabinski, the current president of the American Library Association (ALA) is back on the podcast! The ALA Annual Conference will be held in San Diego from June 27-July 2, 2004 and Emily is here to share what is in store for attendees. She starts by giving us an update on her recent library visits and discusses the amazing work that libraries are doing to support their...

The end of the school year is quickly approaching! In today's episode, Elizabeth discusses some tips for teachers and parents to gear up for the end of the school year. There are many events at this time of the year, so this episode will help you think through what you want to teach and review before the summer comes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Independent reading is a common practice in elementary classrooms. It's important for kids to have time to read because research has found that children who read more are often likely to become better readers. However, it is not as straightforward as time reading equals becoming a better reader. In order to make independent reading time more effective, Elizabeth shares three tips from research stu...

How do we support kids with writing while not jumping to use the Chromebooks or iPads? Elizabeth shares some ideas to support elementary kids with their writing that do not require devices. In order to set kids up for success with their writing, she shares some ideas that have helped her students when teaching writing. They include: introducing mentor texts, modeling your own writing and thinking...

In this episode, Elizabeth is joined by Andrea Haas, a literacy consultant who supports teachers with reading and writing instruction. They discuss writing and Andrea shares ideas for how to plan globally so reading, writing, and the content areas are aligned. They also discuss teaching the writing process and when prompts are appropriate. Finally, Andrea shares teaching moves to make small group...

It's the time of year when job postings are popping up! This month's episodes focus on preparing for the job market - and this episode is focused on writing resumes and cover letters. Elizabeth discusses what should be included in a resume and cover letter and what should absolutely not be included (hint: make sure everything you include is true!). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

After speaking with Lorraine Radice, who shared her idea of Falling in Love with Reading for the month of February, Elizabeth shares ideas about ways to help elementary students love reading. She shares four ideas that you can include in your teaching or even at home to help kids enjoy reading. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we get kids to read? Dr. Lorraine Radice is a literacy leader at a school district on Long Island. She has been working to build a culture of reading at all levels in the school district. Her recent book, Leading a Culture of Reading: How to Ignite and Sustain a Love of Literacy in Your School Community, addresses specific ways that school districts and teachers can work to get kids reading...

Welcome to Episode 34! Today I am speaking with Dr. Karen Gazith who is a professor at McGill University. She recently published the book, The Power of Effective Reading Instruction: How Neuroscience Informs Instruction Across All Grades and Disciplines, which addresses so many of the questions and issues in literacy education today. Dr. Gazith explains neuroscience and what it says about reading...

The American Library Association is hosting an event this month! It's the LibLearnX Conference and joining me to discuss the conference is the current ALA President, Emily Drabinski. Emily talks about the conference and what to expect. There are both in-person and digital options to attend, so if you are not able to travel to Baltimore, you can still attend the different sessions. There are many r...

It's the end of the year, which is a great time to think about and reflect on our literacy instruction. Elizabeth identifies five areas of literacy instruction: Reading, Books, Writing, Speaking, and Listening, and goes through a guided reflection of each of these areas. The goal is to think about what aspects of your literacy instruction are going well, then identify a few areas that could use so...

Get ready for a fun episode! If you have students or children who enjoy reading graphic novels - then this is an episode that you must listen to! In this week's episode, Stephen Shaskan joins Elizabeth to discuss graphic novels. Stephen is the author of the fun and motivating series, Pizza and Taco. He has also written and illustrated a number of other books, including the series Q & Ray, which hi...

In this week's episode, Elizabeth talks with Jennifer McCarty Plucker about her new book Inspiring Lifelong Readers. Jennifer talks about the inquiry work that she did with students in middle and high school to support them as readers. She provides very helpful strategies from her book that can be implemented at all grade levels. Jennifer stresses the importance of helping all students find books...

After receiving some questions about independent reading, Elizabeth decided to share a structured approach to this time of the day. How can we make the most of independent reading time for kids and ensure that they are using this time to strengthen their reading skills? Elizabeth discusses the purpose of independent reading, some of the ways that independent reading falls short, and tips for how t...

Today's episode is focused on reading skills and strategies. Elizabeth begins by discussing the definitions of reading skills and reading strategies and gives examples of both. She gives an example of how strategies can be taught when reading to kids and offers ideas for teaching practices that can help when modeling strategies to students. The episode ends on a positive note with a story of how E...

The conversation about reading at the moment is mainly focused on decoding - or sounding out the words - to do the actual reading of a text. Decoding is essential and important. But, comprehension or understanding what you are reading is also important. In this episode, Elizabeth discusses the importance of teaching kids to understand or make meaning of the texts that they are reading. She models...

Read-Alouds are an essential component of reading instruction - at all grade levels. In today's episode, Elizabeth sits down with Dr. Molly Ness, a former classroom teacher, reading researcher, and teacher educator, who has a new book out, Read Alouds for All Learners. Molly begins by discussing what a read-aloud is and gives some helpful strategies for different grade levels. She also discusses h...

It's the beginning of the school year, and popcorn reading has come up quite a bit in the last week. Elizabeth begins by explaining what this teaching practice is and why it is still present in classrooms. She offers five other options for whole class reading instruction rather than popcorn reading. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the beginning of the school year and the start of September! This week is a mixed bag episode - where Elizabeth covers a few different topics. Elizabeth begins by following-up on the "I Statement" activity that she mentioned in Episode 23. She tried it with her graduate students - and it was a success! Some of her students are planning on trying it out with their own elementary students durin...