To the Classroom: Conversations with Researchers & Educators

Today’s guest is Dr. Rachael Gabriel. We’ll talk about the newly published book, How Education Policy Shapes Literacy Instruction, which includes chapters she authored and co-authored and which she edited. Specifically, we’ll explore the history of studies relating to teacher quality and instructional materials, and what research shows makes the biggest difference in supporting early literacy grow...

Today I welcome Dr. Gabriel DellaVecchia, who has reviewed decades of research about retention to answer the question: on the whole, do third grade retention laws—which are on the books in some form in 27 states in the US – help or harm literacy outcomes? Later, I’m joined by my colleagues Darren Victory and Lea Mercantini Liebowitz to discuss practical takeaways. *** For full transcripts, blog re...

Today my guest is Dr. Henry May  who has studied the popular first grade intervention Reading Recovery. We discuss results of two robust studies he was involved in—one showing strong positive effects in first grade, and another showing students who received the intervention underperformed years later on their third and fourth grade tests. We discuss why that might be, and what lessons we can learn...

Today’s guest is Dr. Melanie Kuhn, who you may know from her research and teacher professional writing around reading fluency. We’ll talk about what fluency is, how to best assess and teach it, and ways to differentiate instruction in K-5 classrooms. Later, I’m joined by my colleagues Gina Dignon, Macie Kerbs, Lainie Powell, and Lea Mercantini-Leibowitz for a conversation about what we are most ex...

Today’s guest is Dr. Freddy Hiebert. We’ll talk about her newly published book about vocabulary instruction, her work around text complexity and her site textproject.org, how to ensure self-selected reading time is worth the time, and more.  Later, I’m joined by my colleagues Macie Kerbs, Rosie Maurantonio, and Lea Leibowitz for a conversation about practical takeaways. **** Read a full transcript...

Today my guest is Dr. Peter Afflerbach who researches individual differences in reading development, reading assessment, and comprehension. We’ll talk about the differences between skills and strategies – and why that matters for the classroom, as well as his new book Teaching Readers Not Reading in which he argues that factors such as efficacy, motivation, engagement, epistemic beliefs, attributi...

Today’s guest is Daniel Willingham, author of the new book Outsmart Your Brain. I’m so excited for you to hear us talk about how we as teachers can help students to become successful, independent learners through supporting their focus, planning and goal setting; purposefully take notes from listening or reading; and how to help them best tackle and comprehend complex texts. Later, I’m joined by m...

Today I welcome Dr. Maryanne Wolf for a conversation about the incredible reading brain: what happens in neural circuitry when we are reading words accurately, the many different ways to read, and her important thoughts on how to cultivate true reading engagement in children—and in ourselves. Later, I’m joined by my colleagues Gina Dignon, Molly Wood, and Lea Mercantini-Leibowitz, to talk about im...

Today’s guest is Dr. Kelly Cartwright. We’ll talk about her invaluable work around executive skills, and the ways that these important skills undergird reading engagement and comprehension. We’ll also discuss her 2021 paper with Dr. Nell Duke titled “The Science of Reading Progresses” about The Active View of Reading framework, which incorporates current research on executive skills and explains c...

An introduction to the new podcast for literacy teachers and leaders by Jennifer Serravallo. Listen in as she interviews today’s leading researchers and has post-interview conversations with colleagues about practical takeaways. Support the show