Episode 261  

In this episode, Caitlin Lucas shares innovative routines for kindergarten literacy instruction, emphasizing consistency and active participation to build foundational skills. Caitlin also uses sign language as part of her routines and shares easy ways teachers can use it too. 

Resources 

• Maximizing Instructional Time Through Routines and Rehearsal  

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

In this episode, we talk with Julia Lindsey about her book, Reading Above the Fray: Reliable, Research-Based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills. Julia shares why decoding is one of the most important skills we can help students develop and how research-based instructional routines can make that learning more efficient, effective, and joyful.

Together, we explore the foundational skills that support decoding, the role of purposeful practice, and how consistent routines help students know what to expect as they build confidence with sounds, words, and increasingly complex texts.

Decoding isn't the end goal of reading! It's the gateway. When students develop strong decoding skills, they gain the independence needed to tackle new words, access meaning, and fully engage with reading.

Whether you're a classroom teacher, literacy coach, interventionist, or school leader, this conversation is packed with practical, research-based ideas you can put into practice right away.

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

Episode 260

In this episode, Wiley Blevins shares practical strategies for differentiating phonics instruction in both whole group and small group settings. We explore high impact routines, effective use of decodable texts, and how to meet diverse student needs efficiently.

Wiley walks us through how to design routines that are expansive enough to serve everyone in whole group, while using small group for the high-intensity, targeted practice that takes kids further faster. Differentiation does not have to happen only in small group. It can live right inside the phonics routines you are already using every day. 

Resources

• Differentiating Phonics Instruction for Maximum Impact by Wiley Blevins 

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

Episode 259

In this episode, we’re joined once again by literacy researcher and educator Brennan Chandler for a practical, teacher-friendly conversation all about spelling routines that support students as spellers and writers. Brennan walks us through a sequence of short, research-based routines including 

• Sound Check
• Pattern Power Up,
• Word Workout
• Heart Word Heroes
• Sentence Sprint
• Spell Streak

Free scripts and printables for all six routines are here: Spell Squad

We talk about how these routines build from sounds to patterns to words to sentences, helping students move toward applying spelling knowledge in authentic writing. 

Throughout the episode, Brennan shares clear examples teachers can try right away, along with ideas for scaffolding instruction, providing immediate feedback, and making spelling practice more engaging and meaningful for students. We also discuss the importance of cumulative review, sentence-level practice, and transfer into real writing, especially for students who continue to need spelling support in upper elementary and beyond.

Resources

• Free scripts and printables for all six routines are here: Spell Squad
• Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) Brennan references Fuchs’ peer-assisted learning work. 
• Anita Archer’s instructional routines
• How to Teach Students to Read Irregular Words with Danielle Colenbrander & Katie Pace Miles Podcast episode featuring Danielle Colenbrander discussion heart words.
• Follow Brennan Chandler

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

Episode 96 from 3/4/2022

We’re bringing back one of our most requested conversations about spelling and the important role it plays in reading development. In this episode, we revisit our conversation with literacy expert J. Richard Gentry, author of Brain Words , to explore how spelling supports automatic word recognition and stronger reading and writing overall.

Throughout the conversation, Richard explains how spelling connects directly to students’ speech and language systems. He also shares practical, science of reading-aligned strategies teachers can use to make spelling instruction more intentional.

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

Episode 258

In this episode, we sit down with literacy researcher Brennan Chandler to talk about the science of spelling instruction and why spelling deserves a much bigger role in science of reading conversations. Brennan explains how spelling supports stronger writing, more precise word knowledge, and better reading outcomes.

We discuss why spelling should be taught explicitly rather than left to chance, why patterns matter more than memorized rules, and how phonology, orthography, and morphology all work together when students learn to spell. Brennan also shares why morphology belongs in the early grades, how retrieval practice strengthens spelling knowledge, and why traditional Friday spelling tests often fail to lead to lasting learning.

This conversation is full of practical insights for teachers who want to move beyond isolated spelling activities and toward instruction that truly supports literacy development.

And this is just part one. Brennan will be back in our next episode focused entirely on practical spelling routines teachers can use right away in the classroom.

Brennan mentioned his TAP model of spelling instruction (Teach, Practice, Apply) in this episode. He's built six routines that put it into practice, called Spell Squad. Each one comes with scripting and a timer so you can teach it straight from the screen. Free teaching scripts and printables are on his site: Spell Squad

Resources

• Free teaching scripts and printables are on Brennan's site: Spell Squad
• "Spelling Is an Integral Part of Learning the Language, Not a Matter of Memorization."
• "How Spelling Supports Reading" by Louisa Moats
• This resource from Logic of English shares several high-utility spelling patterns and generalizations that may feel more useful and transferable than the long lists of spelling “rules” many of us learned in school.
• Follow Brennan Chandler

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

In this bonus episode, we're bringing you research right from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR) conference, one of the biggest gatherings of reading researchers in the world. We break down the key takeaways, emerging trends, and standout research that caught our attention, and talk about what it all means for your classroom. If you want to know where the science of reading is headed next, this one's for you.

Resources Mentioned

• Words as Tools (coming soon)
• Reading Ready + Reading Go 
• How To Plan for Differentiated Instruction (ACCESS Reading) 
• Anderson & Strong (2026)
• Jake Downs is the host of the Teaching Literacy Podcast (it's a M&L favorite!)
• Clarence Greene's British and American Word Families (BAWF) Database: https://cgg-projects.github.io/BAWF_V2/

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

Episode 257

Why do so many students appear to thrive in early literacy, only to stall by middle school?

In this episode, we talk with Rebecca Kockler to unpack what literacy data from Louisiana revealed about a common but often misunderstood pattern: strong early reading results followed by flat or declining comprehension growth in later grades.

At the center of the conversation is the concept of the Decoding Threshold: the point at which students can read words accurately and automatically enough to access grade-level text and grow in comprehension.

Rebecca explains:

• What happens when students never fully cross that threshold
• Why decoding instruction must continue through middle school
• How multisyllabic decoding becomes a critical turning point around fourth grade
• The powerful connection between morphology, vocabulary, and spelling
• Why fluency is the first true step of application
• How reader identity influences students’ willingness to grapple with challenging text
• What effective assessment actually looks like for older readers

You’ll walk away with practical strategies to support multisyllabic decoding, vocabulary and spelling development, integrated fluency practice, & tier 1 instruction that adapts to increasing language complexity.

If you’ve ever wondered why students who “learned to read” struggle later — this conversation will reshape how you think about literacy instruction in elementary and middle school.

Resources

• Resources for Educators 
• Why "Learn to Read, Read to Learn" Fails Older Readers - And How To Fix It
• Action Guide for Educators 
• ROAR
• Standards & Instructional Practices 
• We Never Stop Learning to Read by Chase Young (blog) 

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

Episode 256 

Faith Howard shares practical strategies for improving literacy skills in middle and high school students, focusing on decoding multisyllabic words, spelling routines, and fluency practices. This episode offers actionable insights for educators aiming to enhance reading comprehension and word attack skills.

Resources 

• Encoding & Decoding with Word Pyramids Blog
• I Was Doing Fluency Wrong - Until I Made It About Knowledge Blog
• Teachers Teach Teachers | Science of Reading YouTube Channel Video
• Read Like Us Podcast Episode with Jake Downs & Chase Young 
• Tight Ten Article
• Literacy Lab with Faith Facebook Page 

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].

If you’ve ever wondered how to help your students decode longer words, this episode is for you! We’re joined by literacy researcher and professor Devin Kearns to talk all about teaching multisyllabic words.

Many phonics programs focus on single-syllable words, but what happens when students hit big words and get stuck? Devin unpacks the research behind why that happens and what we can do instead. We talk about:

• flexible decoding strategies,
• when and how to teach syllables and morphemes,
• and what “set for variability” really looks like in the classroom (spoiler: it’s not guessing!).

You’ll walk away with practical, research-backed ideas to help your students read longer words with confidence.

Devin M. Kearns, Ph.D., is the Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Early Literacy at NC State, where he studies early reading and collaborates with experts in psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience to explore the brain basis of reading.

RESOURCES

• Helping Students With Dyslexia Read Long Words: Using Syllables and Morphemes by Devin M. Kearns and Victoria M. Whaley
• Following the Rules in an Unruly WritingSystem: The Cognitive Science ofLearning to Read Englishby Devin M. Kearns and Matthew J. Cooper Borkenhagen
• Syllable Division: New Data that Can Inform Intervention by Joanne Marttila Pierson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
• On Eating Elephants and Teaching Syllabication by Tim Shanahan

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Connect with us! Email us at [email protected].

Looking for more literacy support and resources? Explore all of our podcast episodes, free listening guides, and classroom tools at literacypodcast.com.

Interested in bringing Melissa & Lori Love Literacy to your school or event? Email us at [email protected].