To the Classroom: Conversations with Researchers & Educators

My guest today is Dr. Leigh Patel who is a transdisciplinary scholar whose research focuses on both the ways schooling delivers inequities and how education can be a tool for liberation. She is the author of Decolonizing Educational Research . We’ll be discussing an essay she published last fall on decolonizing.net. In the second part of the episode I’m joined by my colleague Shawna Coppola, autho...

Today’s guest is the brilliant Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. We’ll talk about the science behind her recommended “six core design principles” that she calls “culturally responsive brain rules”. Later, I’m joined by my colleague Jerry Maraia for a continued conversation about practical takeaways.  *** To learn more about Jennifer Serravallo: www.jenniferse...

My guest today is Dr. Leala Holcomb, a researcher of deaf education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who accepted my invitation to teach us all about what true equity and inclusion looks like when supporting deaf children’s language and literacy development. At Dr. Holcomb’s request, I interviewed them in writing via a collaborative online document, and I have hired a voice actor, Ginna...

My guest today is Chris Wenz, researcher and teacher, whose dissertation focused on profiles of adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We begin our conversation with an understanding of the diverse profiles of autistic individuals, and move into a conversation about considerations for literacy assessment and teaching. In the second part of the episode I’m joined by my colleague Elisha Li, a f...

Karen Harris My guest today is Dr. Karen Harris who joins us to talk about the role of strategy instruction for qualities of good writing such as focus, organization, and detail, as well as strategies for self-regulation. We’ll also discuss a recently-published meta-analysis she coauthored focused on effective professional development for teachers. I’m joined by my colleagues Lea Leibowitz and Lai...

My guest today is Dr. Steve Graham, who has, for over 40 years, studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively, and how writing can be used to support reading and learning. We'll discuss some of his research around reading and writing reciprocity, and we'll learn about writing instructional practices that have the strongest evidence, as published in his lES practice guides, av...

Today's guest is none other than THE Dr. P David Pearson. Usually I approach guests with a topic in mind, but because Dr. Pearson had just written on just about every topic there is to write about in the field of literacy education, I asked him what he wanted to discuss. He said: "how to design an ideal literacy block aligned to research." I love the topic and I hope you will too. A...

My guest today is Dr. H. Richard Milner, author of the recent Reading Research Quarterly article titled “Disrupting Racism and Whiteness in Researching a Science of Reading” and the new book The Race Card . We talk about the importance of drawing from a wide range of types of research in designing our literacy classrooms, the multiple literacies we should be developing in young people, and what ef...

My guest today is Dr. Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, a NYC-based scholar who studies bi and multi-lingual education. She has several papers about reading assessment practices and considerations for students who speak multiple languages. We also discuss reader models such as the Simple View and Active View, and which are more aligned with biliteracy research, and considerations for phonemic awareness, phoni...

My guests today, Dr. Caitlin Ryan and Dr. Jill Hermann Wilmarth, are co-authors of the professional book Reading the Rainbow as well as many scholarly articles. They will help us think about the whys and hows of LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum and texts in K-8 settings. Later, I am joined by my colleague Gina Dignon to discuss practical takeaways for both teachers and school leaders.  Read a full trans...

My guest today is Dr. Elizabeth Sulzby whose research focus is on early language and literacy development in Pre-Kindergarten. She talks about research studies she did with preschoolers in NYC years ago where teachers do repeated readings of storybooks—even those with complex language and story structure—and study children’s rereadings and retellings. These studies formed the basis for her emergen...

My guests today are Dr. Haeny Yoon and Dr. Lalitha Vasudevan, researchers who study play in early childhood and adolescence. We talk about the many benefits of play, the role of adults in setting up and facilitating play, and ways that play supports conceptual knowledge development as well as reading and writing skills. Later, I’m joined by colleagues Emily Strang-Campbell and Gina Dignon, as well...

John Walker and Jan Wasowicz Today’s episode is a double – I have two guests to teach us about a speech to print approach to spelling and phonics instruction. John Walker is the UK-based creator of Sounds-Write. Jan Wasowicz is the US-based creator of Spell Links. We’ll talk about the differences–and benefits–of using a speech to print approach. Later, I’m joined by colleagues Macie Kerbs and Rosi...

Today’s guest is Dr. Tim Rasinski. We’ll talk about his newest book, Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading, along with several of his recently published studies that offer ways to support students’ fluency development through the use of poems and Reader’s Theater. This conversation is packed with ideas you’ll be able to use right away. After my converstion with Dr. Rasinski, I’m joined by four...

Today’s guests are Drs. Laura Steacy and Don Compton, researchers who explore and write about the skill Set for Variability. You’ll hear them talk about this new area of research which offers an explanation for how students self-correct pronunciations of words when reading, and may have interesting implications for how we learn to remember spellings of irregular words. After my interview, I’m join...

My guest today is Dr. Peng Peng, co-author of a recently-published meta-analysis that examined the role of strategy instruction with struggling readers in grades 3-12. The analysis sought to understand which strategies, and which strategy combinations, are most important to prioritize in a time-crunched intervention setting. Later, I’m joined by my colleague Elisha Li for a conversation about prac...

My guests today are three authors of a recent article in The Reading Teacher about Maximizing Small Group Instruction: Dr. Kristin Conradi-Smith, Dr. Steve Amendum, and Tammy Williams. They’ll share essential recommendations for forming and conducting effective group lessons for readers. After our conversation, I’m joined by my colleagues Emily Strang-Campbell, Clarisa Leal, and Cristy Rauseo for...

Today my guest is Dr. Margaret McKeown. We’ll start our conversation discussing vocabulary development and explicit vocabulary instruction, including how to choose words for instruction, how to teach words so students understand them deeply, and how to help students build connections between words. Our conversation then shifts to the Questioning the Author instructional intervention, which focuses...

Season 2 of To the Classroom begins on September 4, with new episodes every Monday. Check out this season's guests: www.jenniferserravallo.com/podcast Together, we’ll explore a wide range of topics that honors the complexities of what it means to teach literacy to a diverse population of students. We’ll stay rooted in science, but explore practical and artful applications to real classrooms....

Today I welcome Dr. Gholdy Muhammad. She’ll teach us about the importance of including qualitative research, her studies of the Black Literary Societies of the 1800s, and how that research has inspired her instructional framework which includes identity, skills, knowledge, criticality and joy. In the second half of the episode I’ll be joined by my colleagues Angie, Emily, Lea, and Jerry for a conv...

Today’s guest is Dr. Edmund Adjapong, a scholar whose work focuses on engaging youth through culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies centered around embracing Hip Hop culture in the classroom. In the second half of the episode, I’m joined by my colleague Elisha Li, and Eric Royo, elementary educator and founder and director of Hip Hop Building Blocks, for a discussion of ways to bring what...

Today I welcome Dr Carla España and Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera for a conversation about supporting bilingual and multilingual students in monolingual or dual language classrooms. We discuss culturally and linguistically-affirming and sustaining practices, their advice for choosing texts to use for literacy lessons, and they share examples of some lessons we can use in classrooms right away. In the sec...

Today I welcome Debbie Reese to talk about her scholarship focused on Native representation in children’s literature, her AICL resource, and advice for teachers about selecting texts to use in the classroom. Later, I’m joined by my colleagues Lainie Powell, Angie Forero, and Molly Wood to discuss practical takeaways.  ** To learn more about this podcast, see the first season's guests, read fu...

Today I welcome Dr. HyeJin Hwang to talk about her recently published study on the bidirectional relationship of knowledge and comprehension in monolingual and multilingual readers. In this conversation we talk about different types of knowledge, ways to support knowledge building, the use of informational and narrative texts in the classroom, and frameworks that can help us think about comprehens...

Today’s guest is Dr. Tanya Wright whose research and writing focus on vocabulary and knowledge-building, and comprehension. She’ll help us think about how to infuse vocabulary instruction into before, during, and after reading activities to move from passive word learning such as just parroting back a dictionary definition, to active processing where readers really engage with words to understand...