Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ™

Donna Hejtmanek, teacher and lifelong literacy advocate, joins Melissa and Lori on the podcast. What does Science of Reading really mean? There’s some misinformation and misunderstandings happening recently around the term - some are equating it to phonics. But, Donna asserts, it’s so much more than that! It’s Science of Literacy. Three years ago, Donna began a Facebook Group titled Science of Reading: What I Should Have Learned in College. It exploded in popularity with almost 160K members (as of this publication). As moderator of the world’s largest literacy professional learning community, Donna’s advocacy work stretches beyond her home state borders to national and international reach. Sign Up for our FREE WEEKLY Newsletter for Resources and Related EpisodesConnect with us on  Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Why is teaching reading so important? Melissa and Lori have a conversation with Louisa Moats grounded in this article: Teaching Reading is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able to Do. Moats asserts that 95% of students can learn to read when taught to do so using evidence-based practices. In this episode, listen as we discuss and define the term science of reading, while connecting decades of research and theory to classroom practice.  Connect with usFacebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website to stay connected with Melissa and Lori! Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

In this episode, Melissa and Lori have a candid discussion about change with Kareem Weaver, co-founder of FULCRUM Oakland: Full and Complete Reading is a Universal Mandate. FULCRUM’s goal is to ensure that every Oakland child is an 'on-time' reader provided with full LITERACY: a fundamental civil right, a powerful protection from the school to prison pipeline, and the cornerstone for a life of choice and fulfillment. In this episode, Kareem discusses the change he is fighting for and the elements he believes are necessary to make it happen. Related EpisodesEp. 19: Getting at the Root of the School to Prison Pipeline with NCTQ President, Kate Walsh Ep. 82: [CLEAN] Minneapolis Public School Parents: Accepting Nothing Less Than Evidence-Based Reading in Schools Ep. 100: Trauma and Reading with Dr. Steven Dykstra ResourcesFULCRUM Oakland: Full and Complete Reading is a Universal MandateConnect with usFacebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website to stay connected with Melissa and Lori! Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

From Lori:The Vermont Writing Collaborative authors and educators remind us that kids need to have  deep knowledge of the subject matter that they’re writing about… Science of Writing. This episode also gets me really excited for an episode coming out this summer focused on writing, where we talk about how to extract that knowledge and explicitly teach writing!Listen again or for the first time!Joey Hawkins & Diana Leddy of The Vermont Writing Collaborative share how educators can support students in creating and communicating their understanding through writing. The three pillars for writing for understanding are: Backward design (envision the final goal!)Build understanding (talking about text, writing about text, acting it out, and more!)Direct instruction (writing models, structures, organizers)Writing is a powerful way of working with knowledge - a coherent chunk of knowledge. How do HQIM support and execute this approach to writing for understanding? Listen in to find out, and grab a copy of their book, Writing for Understanding!Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/ We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

From Melissa: I love this episode because Nell Duke shares two messages about the Science of Reading that are crucial! 1) That the science is always evolving and will continue to evolve and 2) that the Science of Reading includes comprehension and making meaning of texts!  Listen again or for the first time! Did you know that Scarborough's Rope is 20 years old?! That's why Nell K. Duke unpacks how the science of reading has progressed over the last 20 years, moving beyond the simple view of reading in this piece: The Science of Reading Progresses (co-authored by Kelly B. Cartwright). Check out page 9 for a graphic we discuss throughout the podcast in order to re-think the reading rope.To connect with a practitioner lens, Duke (alongside Ward & Pearson) also penned The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction. They ask the question: What have decades of research told us about the nature of comprehension and how to develop students’ comprehension in schools? Listen to find out!Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/ We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Melissa and Lori share more about themselves...  how their undergrad and graduate coursework didn’t prepare them to teach students to read, a bit about their teaching and leadership experiences, and of course, why they started the podcast! Bonus content: They ask and answer Five Things You Love and play Two Truths and a Lie. To read more about Melissa and Lori, check out this article by Voyage Baltimore Magazine. Connect with us!Facebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Today middle school educators from Baltimore City Public Schools join us to discuss their focus on fluency through Continuous Improvement work with fluency using HQC. What is Continuous Improvement? Why is this a useful framework? “Possibly wrong, definitely incomplete”  is a mantra that resonates. The educators share their approach, impact, and outcomes for students. Secondary teachers… this one’s for you. Related EpisodesEp. 98: Improving Student Reading Growth in Months with Fluency Instruction and Practice Ep. 62: Effective Fluency Instruction with Tim Rasinski ResourcesCarnegie Foundation Continuous Improvement in Education Resources such as videos, tools, and publicationsConnect with us!Facebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Kim Lockhart, Canadian French immersion teacher and special educator in Kingston, Ontario, shares how she meets the needs of students in her classroom. As stated in a recent report, Right to Read inquiry report from Ontario Human Rights Commission, Ontario is removing the three cueing system completely from all materials and turning to reading science instead. In this episode, Kim models what an evidence-based phonics lesson might entail. In second language programs, it’s necessary for students to build language comprehension by attaching meaning to decoding. Related EpisodesEp. 63: Kindergarten Teacher Reaches 100% Success Using Evidence-Based Practices Ep. 59: HQIM for ALL with Educator Sarah WebbHQIM as EQUITY for English Language Learners with  ELSF Executive Director Crystal GonzalesResourcesThe Right to Read Inquiry Report from Ontario Human Rights CommissionThe Simple View of Reading (SVR)Connect with us!Facebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.  We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Angie Hanlin, current Superintendent in Wisconsin, led her former school from 13% to 100% reading proficiency. How? Angie shifted the focus from TEACHING to LEARNING.  She worked alongside her school teams with a relentless, laser-like focus on data, asking questions such as: Who is making progress? Who’s not? What are we going to do about it? Radical acceptance of the data helped educators move forward and put aside blame and shame. Key takeaway: All means ALL! Related EpisodesEp. 98: Improving Student Reading Growth in Months with Fluency Instruction and Practice Ep. 62: Effective Fluency Instruction with Tim Rasinski Ep. 63: Kindergarten Teacher Reaches 100% Success Using Evidence-Based Practices Ep. 103: From Workshop Model to Reading Science in Pentucket Resources Instructional strategies for 7 early literacy pillars by Patti Montgomery, Schools CubedDeveloping Assessment-Capable Visible Learners Grades K-12: Maximizing Skill, Will, and Thrill How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research by The Wallace Foundation The Reading Brain by the Center for Reading and Language Research, including Maryanne Wolf Connect with Melissa & LoriTwitterInstagram We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

The authors of Thinking Reading: What Every Secondary Teacher Needs to Know About Reading, James and Dianne Murphy, join Melissa and Lori to discuss secondary struggling readers. Where do secondary educators start with struggling students? Put simply, there are two parts to intervention: learning and practice (for automaticity). Keeping those in mind, target what students need to know, explicitly teach and practice, and keep it manageable and motivating. Related Episodes: Ep. 90: Improving Reading for Older Students with David Liben Part 1Ep. 91: Improving Reading for Older Students with David Liben Part 2 Resources Thinking Reading: What Every Secondary Teacher Needs to Know About Reading by James and Dianne MurphyConnect with us!Facebook and join our Facebook Group Twitter Instagram Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter. Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.