Stellar Teacher Podcast: A Podcast for Upper Elementary Teachers

Explore strategies to enhance vocabulary instruction for upper elementary students, including morphological awareness, context clues, shades of meaning, and multiple meaning words. Discover how focusing on a variety of vocabulary concepts can improve student comprehension and reading skills.

One major goal in upper elementary education is to help students become fluent readers. But what does that really mean? Fluency goes beyond speed; it encompasses the ability to read words, phrases, and entire sections of text quickly, accurately, and with understanding.Reading fluency serves as the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Strong fluency skills improve both decoding and comprehension because they introduce a level of automaticity. Fluent readers don't need to think about how to read or sound out individual words; they read smoothly and quickly, allowing them to focus more mental energy on comprehension, meaning, purpose, and building knowledge.So, how can we incorporate this knowledge into our classrooms? In this episode, I will share five strategies to build reading fluency with your students. These strategies are practical, fun, and easy to implement. I hope you'll choose one or two of them to implement in your classroom next year.Join us in the Stellar Literacy Collective Membership: stellarteacher.com/join!Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Sign up for my FREE Revision Made Easy email series here!Follow me on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany. To check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode203

When tackling a new approach to your instruction, it takes a lot of research, dedication, and implementation to find success with your students. After hearing about the science of reading, my guest, Meghan Hein, dove head first into learning all she could about it and has since made small changes to her literacy block to align with its practices just this past school year. So, in this episode, Meghan’s here to talk about her work with the science of reading practices, how she worked to align them with her curriculum, and the impacts they’ve had. Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Get on the waitlist to join The Stellar Literacy Collective here!Check out my Free Literacy Workshop, The Time Crunch Cure: Create a Literacy Block That Fits it All In and Achieves MoreTo check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode202

Scarborough's Reading Rope highlights the necessity of both word recognition and language comprehension for developing skilled readers. In this episode, I focus on effective vocabulary instruction, a crucial component of language comprehension. I will discuss both implicit and explicit vocabulary instruction methods and their role in enhancing students' vocabulary and reading comprehension.Explicit vocabulary instruction involves directly teaching new words to students, allowing teachers to be intentional about the vocabulary they introduce. In contrast, implicit vocabulary instruction occurs spontaneously during teachable moments and is less structured but natural. However, teaching vocabulary effectively goes beyond knowing word definitions; it requires a deep understanding of instructional strategies. Listen to this episode for ways to effectively teach both implicit and explicit vocabulary in your classroom.The importance of vocabulary instruction is underscored by the Matthew Effect, which suggests that students with a strong vocabulary foundation can accelerate their learning more quickly than their peers with limited vocabulary. A rich vocabulary makes it easier for students to comprehend complex texts, leading to further vocabulary acquisition and improved reading skills. Conversely, students with poor vocabulary face challenges in progressing and understanding new words from complex texts. Therefore, intentional teaching of both explicit and implicit vocabulary is essential to boost students' reading comprehension and overall literacy skills.Join us in the Stellar Literacy Collective Membership: stellarteacher.com/join!Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Sign up for my FREE Revision Made Easy email series here!Follow me on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany. To check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode201

Happy 200th episode, my friends! While I love reminiscing on milestone episodes, which I do at the beginning of this episode, I thought the best way to celebrate was to do what I started this podcast for. And that is to continue to support teachers in areas of struggle. After recently sending out a survey to my Stellar Teacher community, I once again saw the need for more support in the area of teaching writing. Struggling with this when I was a classroom teacher, I knew I needed to provide more support. So, in today’s episode, I’m sharing how to make teaching writing easier and less stressful for you this next school year. Grab a copy of our free sentence writing routine: stellarteacher.com/sentences.Grab a copy of our free paragraph writing routine: stellarteacher.com/paragraph.Join us for our free summer book study here!Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Get on the waitlist to join The Stellar Literacy Collective here!Check out my Free Literacy Workshop, The Time Crunch Cure: Create a Literacy Block That Fits it All In and Achieves MoreTo check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode200

I often describe text structure as a roadmap for reading. Understanding how texts are organized is crucial for enhancing language comprehension, which plays a significant role in reading. Deciphering text structure aids in identifying key concepts and understanding the relationships among ideas, people, and events in a text. It also prepares students for what to expect and how information will unfold as they read.Grab a copy of our free sentence writing routine: stellarteacher.com/sentences.Join us in the Stellar Literacy Collective Membership: stellarteacher.com/join!Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Sign up for my FREE Revision Made Easy email series here!Follow me on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany. To check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode199

I’ve talked on this podcast before about the science of reading, the major components of it, and why it’s such a major topic in the field of education right now. And while I’ve researched and surrounded myself with all the information I can on it, there’s still so much to unpack and learn. Thankfully, my guest on today’s episode, Katie Egan Cunningham, is an expert on the topic. So, in this episode, Katie is sharing insights into the science of reading, the importance of evidence-based instruction, the idea of the science of happiness, and her new book, Shifting the Balance. Buy Katie's book, Shifting the Balance, Grades 3-5: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom, here!Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Get on the waitlist to join The Stellar Literacy Collective here!Check out my Free Literacy Workshop, The Time Crunch Cure: Create a Literacy Block That Fits it All In and Achieves MoreTo check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode198

The podcast discusses how activating prior knowledge and building background knowledge can enhance reading comprehension. It emphasizes empowering students to deeply understand the topic of texts they are reading, using practical strategies like developing 'mental Velcro' and fostering critical thinking through thematic planning and knowledge-building in various genres.

I’ve always been fascinated with how students learn to read, so when I first heard about the science of reading, I couldn’t get enough. I read all the books and did countless hours of research, all to learn this knowledge and share it with my listeners. Starting this Thursday, we’re kicking off our Stellar Teacher Science of Reading Summer Series, where I address one aspect of the science of reading with practical tips and strategies. So, in order to prepare for this upcoming series, in this episode, I’m sharing a brief overview and explaining what the science of reading is and insight into the science of reading in upper elementary.Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Get on the waitlist to join The Stellar Literacy Collective here!Check out my Free Literacy Workshop, The Time Crunch Cure: Create a Literacy Block That Fits it All In and Achieves MoreTo check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode196

I’ll be honest: when I was teaching in the classroom, I knew very little about the work Speech Language Pathologists, or SLPs, did in schools. I knew they pulled students to work on speech services, but not much beyond that. After my conversation with today’s guest, Hallie Sherman, I gained a deeper understanding of the role of an SLP and how they help students with their language, which affects their reading comprehension. In today’s episode with Hallie, you’ll learn how to effectively collaborate with SLPS, ways they support students, and practical strategies you can use in your own classroom.Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!Get on the waitlist to join The Stellar Literacy Collective here!Check out my Free Literacy Workshop, The Time Crunch Cure: Create a Literacy Block That Fits it All In and Achieves MoreTo check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode195