What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Dr. Katie Wolfe, Ph.D., an associate professor of Early Childhood Special Education in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her research article, Training Preservice Practitioners to make Data-based Instructional Decisions, published in April 2021, is a necessary step toward improving upon preservice teacher training.

Dr. Wolfe is also a Behavior Analyst who teaches courses in early childhood special education, autism and applied behavior analysis. She is committed to the development of interventions and strategies to address language skills in children with autism, as well as providing training and support to parents and teachers.

Resources & Links:

• Katie Wolfe, Phd

• Training Preservice Practitioners to Make Data-Based Instructional Decisions

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Dr. Carol Moxam at Newcastle University in England about her recent research article entitled, “The Link between Language and Spelling: What SLPs and Teachers Need to Know”. In the study, Dr. Moxam discusses the key aspects related to delivering explicit spelling instruction and provides teachers with clear guidance about what they need to know to deliver effective spelling instruction.

Dr. Carol Moxam, Speech and Language Therapist and Director of the Children's Speech and Language Therapy Clinic at Newcastle University. Dr. Moxam works with school-aged children who present with a combination of language, speech, and literacy difficulties and disorders and teaches on both academic and clinical aspects of under- and post-graduate degree programs in Speech and Language Therapy & Speech and Language Sciences. 

Resources & Links:

• Carol Moxam, Ph.D.

• The THRASS Institute

• The Link Between Language and Spelling: What Speech-Language Pathologists and Teachers Need to Know Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with author and educational consultant, Dr. Nancy Hennessey about her new book, The Reading Comprehension Blueprint (Brookes 2021). Dr. Hennessey authored this book to raise teacher awareness of the complexities of teaching comprehension as a skill. Her book, The Comprehension Blueprint, is aligned to the Science of Reading (SOR) and IDA standards and provides teachers tangible resources and strategies as well as a clear plan for comprehension instruction.

Nancy Hennessy, literacy consultant, is an experienced teacher and administrator who has worked across the grade levels in both regular and special education.  While in public schools, she provided leadership in the development of professional learning systems for all educators, innovative programming for special needs students and a statewide revision of special education code. She is a former National Trainer for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) and Wilson Language Lead trainer. Nancy has and continues to design and deliver keynotes, as well as virtual and live workshops and training courses, for educators nationally and internationally. Most recently, she has focused on virtual, and in-person professional learning opportunities focused on reading comprehension. 

Nancy co-authored Module 6 of LETRS, Digging for Meaning: Teaching Text Comprehension (2nd edition) with Louisa Moats. Her chapter, Working with Word Meaning: Vocabulary Instruction, is in the fourth edition of Multisensory Teaching of Basic Skills. Most recently, Nancy authored the book, A Blueprint for Reading Comprehension Instruction: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text (2020).

She has held positions on varied boards including serving as president of the International Dyslexia Association and as a member of the National Joint Committee for Learning Disabilities. Nancy is currently the vice-president of the North Carolina Branch of IDA.  An honorary member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, she is also the 2011 recipient of IDA’s Margaret Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award.

Resources & Links:

• The Reading Comprehension Blueprint (Brookes 2021)

• Scarborough Reading Rope

• Maryanne Wolf

• Danielle McNamara

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Dr. Jennifer May White about her experiences in the literacy field as a teacher, researcher, and coaching facilitator. She discusses things to keep in mind when working with literacy coaches and teachers to support their skill-building in literacy instruction, data-driven instruction, and student-focused improvement.

Dr. White is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Mild to Moderate Teacher Prep Program in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies at the University of Arizona. She is also a Learning Innovation Consultant with the Stern Center’s Lead to Read Initiative. Lead to Read is a “large-scale, systems change project bringing the science of reading into classrooms to improve literacy outcomes.” Dr. White has worked extensively to improve the practice of coaching as it relates to the classroom and recently developed an online coaching resource to further develop classroom teachers. She published A Comparison of Schools: teacher knowledge of code-based reading instruction actively contributes to in-person and virtual professional development and is deeply invested in building teachers’ capacity in the science of reading.

Resources & Links:

• Jim Knight: The Impact Cycle

• The Stern Center

• Article: Preservice educators’ and noneducators’ knowledge and perceptions of responsibility about dyslexia

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s Inside: In this podcast, we chat with Dr. Jade Wexler, Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Maryland, College Park about her research on improving co-teaching outcomes through professional development in comprehension instruction strategies delivered during content-area instruction. We delve specifically into her article, Improving Instruction in Co-Taught Classrooms to Support Reading Comprehension.

Dr. Wexler has published more than 45 peer-reviewed articles, is the co-author of three books focused on adolescent literacy, and serves on several editorial boards such as Reading Research Quarterly, Learning Disability Quarterly, and Teaching Exceptional Children. 

She is also the co-director of the Language and Literacy Research Center at the University of  Maryland which aims to promote collaborative research in literacy and language among students and researchers. She currently serves as Principal Investigator (PI) of two federally-funded grants supporting work on AIM Coaching, an adaptive intervention literacy coaching model for middle school instructional leaders (e.g., coaches).

Dr. Wexler is committed to supporting classroom instruction by providing accessible frameworks that Teachers can implement effectively.

Resources & Links:

• GIST: Collaborative Reading Strategies

• Institute of Education Sciences

• Project CALI

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Dr. Adrea Truckenmiller, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, about her research on screening middle school students in written expression. Dr. Truckenmiller explores how practice and feedback are critical factors in building student’s writing skills and how writing assessment in writing should be added as part of a universal screening protocol to prevent writing difficulties before they arise.

Dr. Truckenmiller teaches masters and doctoral courses in Special Education, and mentors doctoral student research in the Special Education program and the School Psychology program at Michigan State University. She was also a researcher at the Florida Center for Reading Research where she directed the development of reading and writing screening and diagnostic assessments as well as state-wide professional development to use those assessments to inform differentiated instruction. Prior to that, she was a coach for district-wide positive behavior support and multi-tiered systems of support at the Devereaux Center for Effective Schools Devereux Center for Effective Schools. She is dedicated to exploring the link between assessments and classroom instruction. 

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

Listen in as we talk to Dr. Young-Suk Grace Kim, Ed.D., professor and senior associate dean of the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine about the importance of listening comprehension in developing skilled readers.

In this podcast, we talk about her recent journal article, The Relations of Online Reading Processes (Eye Movements) with Working Memory, Emergent Literacy Skills, and Reading Proficiency.

Dr. Kim received her doctorate in education from Harvard University. Dr. Kim received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Barack Obama in 2012; and the Developing Scholar Award and University Teaching Award at the Florida State University. She currently serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Educational Psychology, and will be the incoming Editor-in-Chief for the Scientific Studies of Reading. 

Her career has included classroom teaching in San Francisco, California, and pre-service teacher training. Professor Kim’s primary research areas include language, cognition, and literacy acquisition and instruction across languages and writing systems. Her research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the U. S. Department of Education, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s inside: In this episode, we chat with Donna Hejtmanek, the founder of the Science of Reading Facebook Group, and one of the group's moderators, Pam Kastner, about how the group formed and how it supports its members. The Facebook group not only offers a community for teachers interested in learning more about the Science of Reading, but also offers training, resources, and mentorship.

Learn more about our guests and other items mentioned in the podcast: 

• Science of Reading: What I Should Have Learned in College FB Group

• Science of Reading for Administrators: What Teachers Want You To Know FB Group

• Decoding Dyslexia

• PaTTAN: Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s inside: In this episode, we chat with Dr. Tim Odegard about his research on universal screening data from three states with dyslexia screening laws. Dr. Odegard is a professor of psychology and holds the Katherine Davis Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at Middle Tennessee State University, leading the efforts of the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Before joining the faculty at MTSU, he was the director of research for Wilson Language Training and has been faculty at the University of Texas Arlington and UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

Learn more about our guests and other items mentioned in the podcast: 

• Characteristics of Students Identified With Dyslexia Within the Context of State Legislation

• Wilson Reading System

• What Works Clearing House on Wilson Reading System: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Intervention/738

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s inside: In this episode, Katharine Pace Miles, Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.  Her research focuses on many different areas of literacy instruction including orthographic facilitation, sight word learning, assessment, and developmentally appropriate, highly engaging, explicit literacy instruction for emerging readers.

Dr. Miles also works closely with New York City’s Department of Education and Literacy Trust, an organization that supports literacy initiatives and research on factors that impact the city’s most vulnerable students. In this podcast, she talks to us about some really interesting implications of her research on sight word instruction, the intervention Reading Rescue, and the science of reading informed intervention software, Amira Learning. 

Here are some key takeaways:

• Teach Sight Words in Context and Review Lists with a Critical Eye:  In Dr. Miles’ paper on Learning to Read on Flashcards published with her colleague, Dr. Linnea Ehri, she uncovered the trouble that students have mastering commonly used classroom sight word lists (like Dolsch and Fry) that feature helping verbs like was, were, has, have, been. These words are harder for students to learn not just because they are phonetically irregular, but because they are non-lexical - meaning they don’t have independent meaning from the verb they are supporting. Dr. Miles found that trying to teach these words out of context of the sentence — in a sight word list, for example — is difficult and students did not perform well, especially second language learners. On the contrary, teachers can find greater success by teaching these words (both reading and spelling) within the context of the sentence that ties these words to the verbs they are supporting.

• Ensure Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension is Present in all Literacy Instruction and Intervention: In Dr. Miles’ paper on the effectiveness of the reading intervention program Reading Rescue, she found that that the program was not only effective in bringing students to benchmark, but other students also benefited by having teachers in their school who were trained in the eight PD sessions offered to teachers who use the program. In addition, it’s important to use programs that are not only research-based but evidence-based. That means that the programs commit to research demonstrate evidence that the program is effective.

• Use Evidence-Based Intervention Software that Embeds the Science of Reading into the Curriculum: Dr. Miles chats about an assessment, screening, and intervention software called Amira that supports students with reading and writing instruction aligned with the science of reading.

Learn more about our guests and other items mentioned in the podcast: 

• Reading Rescue is a reading intervention for struggling first graders.

• Amira Learning is a reading app that supports students through assessment, screening, and intervention.