Podcast Seasons
Season 8 Episodes
Click here to find our latest Season 8 episodes from school year 2025-2026.
Reading teachers and college educators chat about how a college designs and implements comprehensive teacher preparation programs focused on literacy instruction, the science of reading, and practical teaching methods. Explore the importance of evidence-based practices, explicit instruction, and bridging gaps in teacher knowledge to foster student success. This episode will inspire you and renew your hope for the future of the teaching profession.
In this episode of The Reading Teacher’s Lounge, hosts Mary and Shannon sit down with literacy expert Sara Lee to explore effective grammar and syntax instruction that supports both reading comprehension and student writing. The conversation focuses on how sentence structure, grammatical functions, and modifiers shape meaning, and why grammar should be taught as an integral part of literacy rather than in isolation.
Sara shares practical, classroom-ready strategies for embedding grammar instruction into reading and writing routines, with an emphasis on sentence-level work, sentence nuclei, and the intentional use of descriptive modifiers. The discussion also highlights the importance of responsive grammar instruction that honors students’ language acquisition backgrounds and provides meaningful, authentic practice opportunities.
This episode offers research-aligned insights and actionable strategies for educators seeking to strengthen students’ language comprehension, writing development, and overall understanding of how English works.
In this episode of the Reading Teachers Lounge, we share key strategies for parents and teachers to support homework. Learn about the role of executive functioning, emotional well-being, and effective communication practices to enhance student engagement in a post-COVID landscape.
In this episode, Deliberate Orthography, Shannon and Mary revisit Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) with guests Jennifer Petrich and Bradley Johnson to explore the intentional structure behind English spelling. Together, they discuss how SWI helps students understand word meaning, morphology, and etymology — moving beyond a phonics-only approach to a deeper, inquiry-based study of words.
Through real classroom experiences and collaborative learning, the conversation highlights how SWI empowers educators to teach spelling as a meaningful, logical system. Listeners will hear strategies for guiding students to analyze word structure, build scientific inquiry skills, and appreciate the rich history of the English language.
Join the discussion and discover how viewing spelling through the lens of deliberate orthography supports stronger literacy instruction and more confident readers, writers, and spellers.
In this episode, Mary and Shannon welcome back first-grade teacher and literacy expert Lindsay Kemeny to discuss her new book, Rock Your Literacy Block. Lindsay shares practical, data-driven strategies for structuring an effective literacy block, emphasizing clear routines, smooth transitions, and frequent student responses. She also reflects on how her son’s dyslexia reshaped her approach to teaching. Listeners will hear actionable tips for phonics, spelling, high-frequency words, and ways to integrate science and social studies into daily literacy instruction.
Reading teachers discuss the importance of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in students. Podcast guest Erin Waters shares her teaching experiences, emphasizing the integral role SEL plays in shaping students as whole individuals beyond just academic achievements. The conversation covers the definition of SEL, its impacts on literacy development, and practical strategies for incorporating SEL into classroom routines. Erin also highlights coping mechanisms for anxiety and the importance of recognizing students' emotional states. They discuss the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' social-emotional development and the growing prevalence of anxiety among young learners. The episode concludes with practical advice and resources for teachers to support SEL in their classrooms, including the use of relevant books and building emotional resilience.
In this engaging episode of the Reading Teachers Lounge, the hosts welcome Dr. Jasmine Rogers, a dual-role educator who supports teachers with best practices in structured literacy and teaches at American University. Dr. Rogers delves into her research on black language and structured literacy instruction, focusing on how language within the black community often differs from standard school language. She shares her journey, sparked by encounters with students who interpreted reading materials through the lens of black English, leading her to explore how teachers respond to different dialects and languages. Dr. Rogers emphasizes the importance of affirming students' home languages and experiences in the classroom, detailing her research and personal experiences to highlight effective strategies. The conversation covers translanguaging, the impact of proper pronunciation, and the role of authentic teacher-student connections. Dr. Rogers also discusses the importance of teacher reflection, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and culturally equitable practices in literacy instruction.
Check out more great podcasts from our past seasons!
Reading teachers talk with Jennifer Serravallo about teaching reading across the day using different structured models for responsive teaching. Many ideas are shared about how teachers can apply the art of teaching to set up their literacy blocks to best meet their students' needs.
Reading teachers chat with Anna Geiger, the Measured Mom, about the best evidence-based practices that teachers can use to reach all readers. Anna's new book provides teachers and parents with a consolidated understanding of the Science of Reading findings.
Reading teachers chat together to review the school year. They give updates on their personal and teaching lives and share their summer plans. Then they talk with Kelsey from wifeteachermommy about Educate and Rejuvenate 2024.
Reading teachers chat about differentiation and the latest updates to the Ladder of Reading and Writing. Listeners will get a better understanding of WHY it's so important to make adjustments to curriculum, instruction, activities, and/or assessments in order to meet the various needs of their students.
Reading teachers chat with actress Colette Hiller about ways to make word learning innovative and fun. Colette is releasing a new book which combines educational poetry with illustrations to teach new words & related knowledge. Listen to this episode to gain creative ideas about how to help get students excited about word learning.
Reading teachers chat about how to best support learners with working memory challenges. Listeners to this episode will walk away with increased awareness about which students may have working memory challenges AND strategies to help those students in reading instruction.
Reading teachers talk about meaningful professional learning. Kelly Butler worked with the Barksdale Reading Institute to bring about systems change in reading instruction in the state of Mississippi over the last twenty years. Kelly and Carla share about a free resource they're working on now called Reading Universe, a site to learn about best practices in teaching reading.
Reading teachers chat with a speech therapist about the overlaps between speech, reading, and language. From this episode, teachers can understand the perspective of a speech therapist to better understand speech and language challenges. After listening, you should walk away with ideas about conversations to have with the speech therapist in your building and an awareness of language challenges your students may face within your curriculum.
Reading teachers discuss the importance of prioritizing handwriting instruction simultaneously with reading and writing instruction in the early grades.
Learn why handwriting is essential for overall literacy development and how to include it in your daily instruction.
Reading teachers describe a data analysis process called Date Your Data where teachers need to review their students' results multiple times to truly understand the meaningful learning information the data provides. Listen to find out how to analyze and understand student RIT scores on the NWEA MAP test, Write Score results, and other testing reports.
Reading teachers discuss the book, The Knowledge Gap, by Natalie Wexler. This episode is full of information and strategies to increase your student's knowledge helping dive deep into comprehension and knowledge building.
Wiley Blevins talks about the decisions and methods that go into differentiation. Also, Wiley shares insights from his coming book about adjustments that teachers can make before or during their lessons to better suit the learning levels of their students. Listen to this entire episode to get inspired about ways you can best meet your students' needs.
Reading teachers chat about the power of effective reading instruction. They discuss the gifts we give our readers when we teach with intention. Listen to this episode to gain fresh ideas for enhancing your own reading instruction.
Reading teachers chat with Dr. Molly Ness about her new book Read Alouds for All Learners. Molly shares how teachers should intentionally plan their read alouds, with thought put into the vocabulary instruction, the purpose for reading, the think aloud process, and engagement and extension activities for students after reading. Listen to this episode for TONS of ideas from our guest about how to get the most learning out of your read aloud experiences.
Reading teachers wrestle with understanding the nature of the comprehension process. They discuss ideas from the Blueprint for Reading Comprehension and Executive Skills and Comprehension to understand the different cognitive processes and executive functioning required for students to extract and construct meaning from texts.
Experienced elementary reading teachers chat about the best instructional strategies and techniques teachers should use to help their students become fluent readers. They share details and stories about using decodable texts, getting students to use decoding strategies, focusing on phonics and phonemic awareness instruction, and fostering better student fluency and comprehension. Listen for tips and tricks to help your early elementary students find reading success.
Reading teachers talk about why they love student mistakes. They share how to make mistakes meaningful. They chat about establishing a trusting relationship with students so they're comfortable showing us mistakes. Lastly, they discuss ways to provide student feedback without inducing shame. Learning happens between the lessons, and in this episode, you'll find concrete ideas for what to do and say each day with your students to promote a growth mindset and engagement in learning.
Reading teachers chat about the challenges facing older struggling readers. During the discussion, they explain how meeting students where they are IS rigorous and the right thing to do for our readers. They also share ideas for boosting student engagement and their favorite activities for upper grade reading intervention.
Reading teachers talk about English word histories and how etymology may inform how a word is spelled. Check out this discussion to get ideas for how to share the Scribal O, Latin Connective I, and other word origin stories with your reading students and help students see how important morphology is in addition to sound symbol connections.
Reading teachers meet in a virtual reading teachers lounge to chat about the start of the school year. They recap their summer activities in both professional and personal lives, update the audience on the plans they're making for their reading students this school year, and preview what's coming next in Season 6 of the podcast.
We reflect on what truly matters in reading instruction. Listen to key takeaways from our Season 7 discussions with literacy experts, impactful literacy practices, and the professional changes we've made to better support reading students. Gain a summary of our real reading instruction insights and practical literacy strategies discovered this Season.
We talk with Dr. Katie Pace-Miles about how schools in the U.S. support struggling readers through Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework and Response to Intervention (RTI). Listen and learn how to implement effective interventions, identify high-quality instructional resources, and run efficient team meetings. This episode is a valuable resource for educators looking to improve reading outcomes and streamline intervention practices.
We talk with Dr. Douglas Fisher and Dr. Matt Strader about executive functioning in the classroom. They explore what executive functioning skills are, how daily school demands can overwhelm some learners, and why it’s essential for teachers and parents to understand these challenges. This episode offers practical wisdom for supporting executive function development. Listen now to transform your understanding and response to students who struggle with organization, attention, and task completion.
We speak with Dr. Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez about how to support Multi-language Learners (MLLs) in the classroom. This episode defines MLLs, outlines key stages of language development, explores the daily language demands these students face, and shares evidence-based strategies and best practices for educators.
A reading teacher chats with Laura Stewart from (95 Percent Group) about bold moves that literacy leaders can take to transform the literacy practices in their learning communities. They share stories, strategies, and examples relating to successfully implementing best practices informed by the Science of Reading into schools and classrooms and what to do and not to do as a literacy leader. Listen and also download the recommended resources from the show notes to be empowered in your transformation efforts.
Reading teachers chat with Dr. Timothy Shanahan about how to quiet the noise within the literacy community and realize the MOST important things we should be doing for our learners according to the reading research. Listeners will find out what practices and activities they should prioritize to improve their students' reading achievement.
Reading teachers chat with Brandi Dugal from The Fidget Game, featured on Shark Tank, about unique ways to engage and motivate students to learn. They share methods for gamification, brain breaks, and other strategies teachers can use to increase student engagement. Listen for ideas to make reading more fun and how to help motivate even the most reluctant readers to get excited about their learning.
Dr. Pete Bowers shares an overview of Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) with reading teachers. They discuss how SWI transforms spelling and vocabulary into tools for deep thinking and understanding of the structure of the English language.
Reading teachers chat with Nancy Young to explore practical, evidence-based strategies for meeting the needs of gifted and high-achieving readers in the classroom. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, reading specialist, or literacy coach, this episode offers valuable tools and inspiration to elevate your elementary reading instruction and ensure all students—especially your strongest readers—are challenged and supported.
Reading teachers chat with Brandon Cardet-Hernadez from Mrs. Wordsmith about smart technology resources. They talk about intentional uses of technology resources for instructional purposes and what skills will be required as our students advance in the next part of the 21st century. Listeners will gain ideas for ways to incorporate technology to elevate students' learning.
Reading teachers talk with Melissa Taylor from ImaginationSoup.net about the importance of nonfiction texts in a student's reading diet. They chat about the flexible comprehension strategies students need to organize the info gathered from nonfiction and text features and structures that are specific to nonfiction texts. Listeners can find out how to help their students read NF texts.
Reading teachers talk with LaMonica Williams from Teaching Matters about professional development experiences and the most effective ways to bring about positive change in school systems. They discuss the differences between management and leadership and how to foster student-centered school improvement.
Reading teachers chat about maximizing the learning impact of co-teaching. The conversation is centered around an article from Choice Literacy written by Franki Sibberson titled Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind. The article proposes that co-teachers must reflect and determine how their various teaching activities and strategies align into a cohesive instructional plan for the students, so that the readers can build transferable skills they can apply across the school-day.
Reading teachers talk with @MindfulTeacherRachel to discuss strategies for helping their students strengthen spelling skills. They talk about the stability of English spelling and the meaning-based reasons for a word's spelling, beyond sound-symbol connections. Listeners will know what to look for in students' spelling errors and accuracies and walk away with fresh ideas for spelling instruction.
Reading Teachers talk with Droppin' Knowledge with Heidi about all the aspects that go into the topic of Word Knowledge. What are all the things students should know and understand about a word to demonstrate complete knowledge of that term? Listeners will gain more complete understanding of all the layers of skills within Word knowledge that we need to help our readers build.
Reading teachers welcome Marty Martinez from Reach Out and Read and Judy Newman from Scholastic to the podcast to talk about Book Equity. They share ideas for getting quality books in students' hands and nurturing students' reading diversity. Listen how parents and teachers can share a love for books with children and help readers find texts with diverse representation.
Reading teachers have an informative and inspiring chat about how the Covid-19 pandemic affected teachers and students. Karen Gross shares why the role of teachers is more difficult today, and she provides tons of specific ways teachers can fill their cups and take care of themselves and their class. If you've experienced stress or trauma, you'll discover ideas from this discussion with Karen about healing.
Reading Teachers catch up with each other after the summer & podcast break. They chat about their personal lives and their plans for this upcoming school year. They discuss the implementation of Georgia's dyslexia bill this year. They share about their professional reading and learning. And they fill listeners in on their summer activities. This new year is full of changes and possibilities!
Shannon and Mary catch up after their Season 2 hiatus to discuss Quarantine Life, Home Learning, and what's next.
Are you familiar with the FCRR? They have done incredible work making free effective research-based literacy activities. The centers include directions for teachers and all the necessary materials. They are mostly print-and-go activities requiring minimal teacher prep!
Shannon and Mary speak with consultant and literacy specialist Alison from Learning at the Primary Pond all about spelling tests and best practices in phonics instruction.
Shannon and Mary discuss another pillar in the Balanced Literacy Series: Shared Reading. Shared reading is interactive reading with teacher-guided support. This is essential for helping struggling readers build their fluency and expression as well as explicitly modeling how proficient readers approach the text. It can be done in whole groups, small groups, or with individualized instruction. Sometimes you will see shared reading experiences modeled with big books or books that are projected for the whole class to share.
Shannon and Mary discuss the recent discussions in the news and educational circles related to the reading wars. Additionally, based on listener questions we recommend some resources for teachers who want to implement more structured literacy into their classroom practices.
Mary describes the differences between Balanced Literacy vs. Structured Literacy. There have been a lot of comments and editorials in the last few weeks about the “phonics folks” from some prominent figures in the literacy world. Let’s break it down without any name-calling over here. We recommend structured, explicit, strong phonics-based approach to reading - just don’t throw the baby out with the bath water?!
Shannon and Mary continue the conversation about balanced literacy elements by discussing supporting students' independent reading in the classroom and at home. They share ideas about goal setting, making time for reading, reading conferences, and helping students develop literacy preferences.
Shannon and Mary share their tips and tricks for one of the most enjoyable experiences of reading with young readers: Read Aloud! We share professional resources, essential tips for working with struggling readers, and how parents can make reading aloud at a home a treasured time for any type of reader.
Shannon shares how guided reading groups are the non-negotiable element in her daily classroom. In this episode Mary and Shannon weigh in on the importance and power of small group teaching of guided reading.
Mary discusses the concept of the alphabetic principles and strategies for teaching blending.
Great news! Shannon is here to help address more listener questions about Lucy Calkins, comprehension strategies, and professional development for reading specialists.
Mary shares about a student she is working with who flies under the radar in his general education classroom. In this discussion, she poses the question "Who are kids who fly under the radar? How can we better address their needs?" This episode will engage listeners to consider their own students and reflect on who and why kids "fly under the radar."
Mary responds to listener questions about time management and the components of a tutoring session.
Mary discusses a brief that has been put out by the International Literacy Association that shares information about how phonics instruction must be systematic and explicit as part of an overall efficient, effective, and timely reading curriculum.
This is the beginning of season 2! Shannon and Mary catch up about what they have been up to during the summer and how they're getting ready for the new school year.
Reading teachers chat with Dr. Amanda Alexander from Scholastic about statistics about summer reading. In the episode, they all share tips about how to make the most of the summer reading experience.
Reading teachers chat about their podcast discussions and how the school year has gone. They also chat about the school year as it winds down, their upcoming summer plans, and what is in store for the podcast in Season 6. At the end of the episode, they're joined by Kelsey Sorenson from Wife Teacher Mommy to talk about the Educate and Rejuvenate Conference.
Reading teachers chat about how to put the Science of Reading into Action. They summarize the big ideas within the Science of Reading for listeners and share practical actions teachers and parents can take to ensure they're doing best practices for students that are backed by literacy research. After listening, you'll understand more about WHAT the SoR is, WHY it is important, and HOW to put it in action, no matter your literacy role.
Reading specialists chat with a third-grade teacher about how she balances the wide variety of reading abilities in her classroom. The teacher shares about her trauma-informed teaching practices and how she uses visual literacy to provide learning scaffolds for her students.
Reading teachers chat with Jamie Sears from Not So Wimpy Teacher about how to get more done as a reading teacher in less time. Jamie shares practical tips for teachers from her newly published book titled How to Love Teaching Again. Listeners will walk away with ideas on how to save time in preparing lesson plans, routines for lesson structure, easy grading techniques, and ways to simplify reading groups. Check out this episode to find out how to make your jobs as reading teachers easier and more enjoyable!
Literacy teachers read over and discuss the Speaking and Listening standards in Reading to develop a deeper understanding of how and why these standards exist and help the students grow in literacy. They show how the standards develop in the depth of knowledge across the grade levels from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade. They also share ideas of ways to embed Speaking and Listening standards practice in classroom routines and project-based learning.
Reading teachers about the topic of helping students build their reading fluency. They talk about what skills go into a student's reading fluency. They share ways to work on fluency with readers. In their chat, they reference ideas from The Megabook of Fluency by Timothy Rasinski.
Reading teachers chat about best activities to build students' vocabularies. They share how their vocabulary instruction has evolved over the years to help students the most. In the chat, they reference ideas form Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck.
Reading teachers talk about different types of student assessments and how to use data analysis to make the assessment data meaningful. This analysis will help teachers make data-driven adjustments and decisions in reading instruction.
Reading teachers chat with Emily Gibbons from the Literacy Nest about decodable texts. This discussion provides information about how decodables are similar and different to trade books and leveled texts. In this episode, teachers will find out how and when to use decodable texts in reading instruction. Listeners will also learn the best sources for high quality decodable books and short texts.
Reading teachers chat about the Simple View of Reading and how that affected reading instruction in the 1980s and 1990s. Then they discuss how the research following the Simple View of Reading has shifted and become more defined. This conversation provides context to reading research over the last few decades and helps reading teachers understand how Science of Reading discoveries impact classroom instruction.
Reading teachers chat with Ann Geiger from The Measured Mom about how readers orthographically stores words in their reading brains. This episode follows our overview of the reading brain, where we talked about the reader's journey to whole word recognition and how reading teachers can help their readers bolt on the orthography to what students already know in spoken language and language comprehension. In this episode, teachers will learn about best practices to do in the classrooms to help their students gain this meaningful letter sequence storage.
Shannon and Mary chat with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg from Reading Simplified about what happens in the brain during reading. We talk about the reader's journey to whole word recognition and how reading teachers can help their readers bolt on the orthography to what students already know in spoken language and language comprehension. Listeners will learn how to build a strong foundation for reading and how to help their students build flexible decoding strategies. Teachers will also hear examples of feedback to provide to readers in order to promote orthographic mapping. Check out this episode to learn all about how the brain learns to read.
Shannon and Mary ask Linda Rhyne to join them for a live Reading Teachers discussion about how to find balance in our reading instruction. Teachers are asked to follow various curriculum programs, teach the grade level standards, differentiate for their students' needs, and utilize their own expertise & experience. How can teachers blend all this together into cohesive literacy instruction that makes sense to students and themselves and balance what they're asked to do with what they know their students need to be successful in reading? All these points are brought up in the chat, and Linda shares some tips for how teachers can be critical consumers and advocates for their students in their individual school buildings. We hope this chat inspires you to think critically about your own teaching practice and instructional decisions.
Shannon and Mary chat with Donalyn Miller & Colby Sharp about their recently published Common Sense Guide to Your Classroom Library. The reading teachers discuss how to set up and use the library to maximize its impact with kids. This conversation provides the WHY behind decision making and instructional use of the classroom library.
Shannon and Mary chat with Mindful Teacher Rachel about the Schwa vowel sound and how to teach it to students. She shares great stories from her classroom about teaching reading and all about her newly published book that can be used to introduce the Schwa to readers. You'll want to listen in on this chat between reading teachers to get strategies and resources for working on the Schwa with your own reading students.
Shannon and Mary chat about their favorite free and low cost literacy resources to use in reading lessons and tutoring sessions. They share links to: complete phonics curriculum resources that include scope and sequences, decodable texts, vocabulary lists and activities, phonics and phonemic awareness activities, and strategies for teaching comprehension. Check out the links in the show notes to find resources to use with your own reading students.
Mary and Shannon chat with Stephaney Jones-Vo about how to best support the reading needs of English Language Learners. Stephaney describes the differences in needs of ESOL students at various levels and provides easy ideas for differentiation and scaffolding for students at different levels. Stephaney shares how to understand the language load of class assignments and assessments, and this lens will help teachers view their own learning assignments in a fresh and supportive way.
Shannon and Mary meet up after the summer hiatus to chat about going back to school. They catch up on their personal activities from the summer and then share their instructional plans for the new school year in 2022-2023.
Are you ready for summer? We can't wait to play with our kids! Mary and Shannon have compiled some resources for hands-on summer play to practice important reading skills outside of the classroom.
We share some of the unexpected phonics lessons that students need that aren't always obvious in the curriculum guides. These important and necessary phonics lessons are essential in phonics instruction.
Two reading teachers share how to facilitate digital assignments in the reading classroom. We go into detail about using Moby Max, Imagine Learning, and Boom Learning with students.
Two reading teachers review the terms phoneme and grapheme. They're important terms for understanding the connections between letters and sounds.
Shannon and Mary discuss a professional article, "Why Phonics Teaching Must Change" published in Educational Leadership, September 2008 by Jeannine Herron. They talk about a different approach to teaching students to read. What if we focus more on encoding activities rather than starting with decoding activities?
Two reading teachers talk about pre-reading skills and other school readiness skills students need before going to Kindergarten. They also discuss preschool literacy and give resources for preschool literacy activities and curriculum.
What are executive functioning skills? In this episode, we will tell you what executive functioning is and what executive functioning activities are best for your students!
Today we are talking about authentic writing strategies. We discuss writing instructions for kids and reading instructions for kids as they go hand and hand. We hope you tune in!
In this episode, two reading teachers discuss mindfulness activities for kids in the classroom. Teaching metacognition activities and metacognition strategies in the classroom is so important and that is why we are talking about it in this episode.
In today's episode, two reading teachers discuss consonants! We discuss all things consonants including consonant blends, fun consonant activities, and more! Tune in to listen to the reading teachers lounge podcast!
Two reading teachers discuss phonemic awareness strategies with one another. Mary and Shannon give you great phonics-based activity ideas, phonemic awareness lessons, and more! Join the conversation!
We believe that learning to read is rigorous and teachers must continue to teach students where they are while developing the lofty learning goals.
Two reading teachers have a conversation about reversals of letters and numbers. B D reversals are very common. We talk about helpful b d reversal activities and give examples of how to teach this common mistake.
Two reading teachers talk about struggling readers in kindergarten, first, second, and third grade and the best coping mechanisms for struggling elementary readers.
Today in the reading teachers' lounge, we discuss dyslexic tendencies, dyslexia-friendly classroom activities, and more concerning the ins and outs of dyslexia. Join us on our journey to deepen your understanding of dyslexia.
Shannon and Mary share a multitude of ways to increase practice for your students as they learn sight words.
Join two reading teachers as they discuss the many moving parts of teaching syllables. In this episode, they discuss teaching syllables for kindergarten, first, second and third grade. They also discuss resources and fun syllable activities.
Two reading teachers will walk you through all things vowel teams in this episode. In this episode, we discuss different vowel team activities and show you some examples of vowel team anchor charts.
Ok, we have the basics of long and short vowels and consonants, but now, let's throw in the 'bossy r' and teach you to teach them to crack the code!
Two reading teachers chat about ideas for teaching long vowels. They discuss activities for long and short vowel sounds for kindergarten, first, second and third grade. After listening, teachers will understand the difference between long and short vowel sounds.
Two reading teachers chat about the best methods for teaching short vowel sounds and teaching short vowel spelling patterns. They share their favorite free resources of short vowel activities. Each teacher explains why short vowel sounds are tricky for struggling readers and how to best provide instruction and intervention.
In this episode of the reading teachers lounge two reading teachers discuss different types of learning disabilities and activities to accommodate such learning struggles.
Let's talk about decoding MAP results. Two reading teachers are here to talk about what do MAP scores even mean, the algorithm for decoding MAP, and the resources you need to understand.
Two experienced reading specialists share practical assessment tools they use to measure their students' decoding skills
Two reading teachers discuss when they felt the magic of unlocking literacy with their students.
Two reading teachers discuss the how and most importantly the why behind becoming teachers. As the season progresses you will learn more about teaching phonics, sight words, vowels, and more!
Shannon and Mary catch up on their teaching activities and personal lives during the past school year. They share highlights from the past season and what is coming next in Season 5 and the 2022-2023 school year.
Shannon and Mary share some new understandings they've discovered about the differences between long and short vowels. They chat about how they'll modify some phonics activities for students after discovering these new understandings.
Shannon and Mary chat with Nancy Young, the create of the Ladder of Reading and Writing, about differentiated instruction for readers at different levels. [Note: Our podcast has explicit permission from Nancy Young to use her Ladder infographic image and information with our audience.] In this episode we discuss the equitable need for differentiation, in order to "offer children what they need based on where they are." Strategies, examples, and activities are shared for teachers to modify their literacy instruction based on the unique needs of their readers.
Shannon chats with Sarah Rich, CEO of Just Right Reader, about her company that provides decodable readers to students, families, teachers, and schools. Sarah and Shannon talk about how decodable texts are important for the right reading practice for students. Sarah provides details about their mission to make reading fun and for students to learn to read with engaging decodables that are representative of students in America's schools.
Shannon and Mary chat with Christina Edmondson (@literacywithmrs.e) about implementing Sound Walls into your literacy classrooms. Christina shares how Sound Walls compare to traditional word walls and provides ideas for using them with students in reading and writing. She describes exactly how to set up your own Sound Wall and start using with your readers.
Shannon and Mary chat about the recent debate in the science of reading community about whether phonemic awareness drills without letters are a worthwhile exercise for readers. They describe activities they've done with struggling readers to build phonemic awareness, and they talk about the use of those activities as a part of Tier 1 reading instruction.
Shannon and Mary chat with Emily Conlan from @wordmorphed_ on Instagram about Morphology. Emily shows how and where Morphology fits into structured literacy instruction and the science of reading. Their discussion provides easy ways to strengthen students' word meaning knowledge at different grade and age levels of readers.
Shannon describes some new ways she's helping her older elementary students learn how to encode and spell. Mary shares the SOS strategy for Spelling and explains the research about encoding and the brain processing that happens as students make spelling choices.
Shannon and Mary discuss the revised Ladder of Reading and Writing that was recently updated by Nancy Young. [Note: Our podcast has explicit permission from Nancy Young to use her Ladder infographic image and information with our audience.] In this episode we compare the updates to the Ladder to its original form and discuss the changes and how they may impact literacy instruction.
Shannon and Mary chat with Anna Boldog from Bookr Class about the Importance of Storytelling. They share their own memories and experiences with stories as readers and teachers. And they talk about what research shares about how storytelling impacts language and literacy development. This discussion should prompt your own memories of stories and how they've impacted your life, your instruction, and your readers.
Shannon and Mary chat with LaMonica Williams, Director of Programs for Teaching Matters, about how to support reading teachers and their students through intensive coaching and literacy training.
Shannon chats about the different strands of Scarborough's Reading Rope with Tess Kraft. They talk about all the many different skills that weave together into skilled reading and share ideas about transferring the science of reading into effective literacy instruction.
Shannon and Mary chat with Heidi Martin about her journey into learning about the Science of Reading. In our Reading Teachers Lounge chat, Heidi shares how she discovered the Science of Reading and the ways she's changed her instruction since learning about structured literacy techniques and practices.
Shannon and Mary chat with literacy expert Wiley Blevins about the scope and sequence of phonics instruction. He describes his experience and the research behind the ordering of certain skills and shares practice tips & knowledge about teaching phonics in the classroom. He also details conceptual leaps that occur in readers as they advance their literacy development.
In their Season 4 opener, Shannon & Mary update listeners on their summer activities and their plans for the upcoming school year and podcast season. They share what they've been reading and learning about lately, which leads to a discussion about differentiating for students at various points on the Reading Ladder.
In this episode, Shannon closes out the third podcast season. She describes the struggles from the 2020-2021 school year and shares what's coming next for the podcast in Season 4.
This title continues our multi-sensory series. In this episode, Shannon shares the characteristics of auditory learners. She gives some strategies and resources for incorporating more auditory techniques in your literacy instruction.
Shannon and Mary chat with Maria Halkias about her online reading instruction. They talk about parent engagement with virtual instruction, teaching challenges during these unprecedented times, and what resources have been most helpful when teaching virtually. Maria shares about the community of inquiry and how she's using that framework to provide structure to her reflective teaching practice during this unusual teaching year. This episode provides ideas and inspiration for increasing student presence, teacher presence, and cognitive presence in your online reading instruction.
Shannon and Mary continue the discussion about multisensory reading instruction. This episode focuses on strategies for visual learners.
Multisensory learning is something we have been preaching for a long time. It's time it deserved its own episode. Shannon and Mary discuss the importance of when and how to implement multi-sensory learning strategies.
Shannon and Mary explore how to start conversations about sensitive topics surrounding race, inequality, apathetic attitudes, and apologism related to books. They discuss the controversy surrounding Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss is a prolific children’s book author and global icon. And Dr. Seuss has a history of racial baggage that educators should understand when introducing his writing to their students.
Shannon and Mary open the season with a discussion about the importance of books to represent the diversity of our students giving them an opportunity to see themselves in books and opportunities to view other cultures, family structures, and values.
In this Season 8 finale, Shannon and Mary reflect on the school year and share updates from their work as reading tutors, literacy advocates, and parents. As many of their students move beyond foundational decoding skills, both educators discuss how they've incorporated sentence-composing into their structured literacy instruction after being inspired by Season 8 guest Sara Lee.
They explain how literature-based model sentences, scaffolded sentence imitation, and explicit language instruction help students strengthen syntax, comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. Shannon also shares how she uses English Linking Blocks and targeted word lists to provide multisensory language support during sentence work.
The conversation explores the growing role of morphology instruction in literacy intervention, including excitement about UFLI's upcoming structured morphology curriculum, Word Origins. Shannon and Mary also discuss Georgia's dyslexia screeners, Mary's recent professional learning in Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) through Word Torque, and the importance of supporting math development through number sense, fact fluency, subitizing, and conceptual understanding.
Join these reading teachers for a wide-ranging discussion on how their Science of Reading aligned practices continue to evolve to meet the needs of students.