Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ® | Science of Reading for Teachers

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 Episodes

• Ep. 63: Kindergarten Teacher Reaches 100% Success Using Evidence-Based Practices 
• Ep. 59: HQIM for ALL with Educator Sarah Webb
• HQIM as EQUITY for English Language Learners with  ELSF Executive Director Crystal Gonzales

Resources

• The Right to Read Inquiry Report from Ontario Human Rights Commission
• The Simple View of Reading (SVR)

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Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

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].

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 Episodes

• Ep. 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 Cubed
• Developing 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 

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Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

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].

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 1
• Ep. 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 Murphy

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Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.

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].

Join Melissa and Lori for their first Book Club episode! In this episode, they discuss the book Thinking Reading: What Every Secondary Teacher Needs to Know About Reading. They focus their discussion on Chapter 4: Helping struggling readers in the secondary classroom, and Chapter 6: What does it take for effective reading intervention at secondary school?  

Related Episodes: 

• Ep. 90: Improving Reading for Older Students with David Liben Part 1
• Ep. 91: Improving Reading for Older Students with David Liben Part 2 

Resources: 

• The Opportunity Myth by TNTP

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Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

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].

This episode is the first in a series on a really important topic: Assessment. How can we debunk the idea of ‘standards-aligned assessments’? What about ‘standards-aligned report cards’? 

Today’s guest teaches us that when we overfocus on the format of an assessment (i.e. the standards), we miss out on what matters most and lose track of the goal (i.e. comprehension). Comprehension is not a single construct. 

When we think about assessment data, there are two important questions to ask: 

1. Are the data useful? 
2. How are we preparing students for assessments? Are we confusing format with goals? 

The assessment data is a pathway back to the content. In case you’re wondering, here’s where the science of reading comes into play… knowledge building is a necessary and (very) important part of assessment! 

Related Episodes

• Ep. 35: Reading Assessments NEED an Upgrade! 
• Ep. 37: Meredith Liben and Sue Pimentel on the Standards, Assessment, and Data 

Resources (bulleted list of resources mentioned in the podcast) 

• Garbage In Garbage Out 
• Beyond Multiple Choice conference agenda Jay McTighe 
• Why the Pandemic Experts Failed (The Atlantic) 
• What is the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Pyramid?  
• Researchers blast data analysis for teachers to help students (Hechinger Report) 
• Why State Reading Tests Are Poor Benchmarks of Student Success by Hugh Catts
• Educational Redlining (Reading Groups) with Sonja Santelises 
• Like most superintendents I cared a lot about test scores. Too much, it turns out. (Chalkbeat) 

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Helping educators learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

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 today’s episode we’re joined by two teachers from Skaneateles, NY - Seth and Kelly. Seth is a sixth grade ELA teacher and Kelly is a middle school librarian. They work together to ensure that all students have access to complex texts. With the right support, they believe that all students can engage in grade level tasks. Seth and Kelly share how their collaboration around the knowledge and tasks in Wit & Wisdom ELA enriches students' learning and teachers’ teaching. Together, they make an incredible, knowledge-rich team!

Resources (bulleted list of resources mentioned in the podcast) 

• VOR with David Liben Part 1 (Volume of Reading)
• VOR with David Liben Part 2 (Volume of Reading)
• WeVideo.com 

Related Episodes

• Ep. 76: Knowledge Building for Reading Success in Skaneateles School District 
• Ep. 79: What Does Equitable ELA Instruction Require? 
• Ep. 69: Wondering about Wit & Wisdom ELA? 

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Helping educators learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

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 Description
Pentucket Regional School District  transitioned from balanced  literacy programs to teaching and learning with structured literacy and reading science. Coaches and leaders used data to support educators in understanding the purpose of the transition. They unpacked why the materials were different from what they previously used. Key takeaway: You can’t take your old practices with you and use them with the new materials. Pentucket currently utilizes Wit & Wisdom ELA, Geodes, Fundations, and Heggerty. 

Related Episodes

• Ep. 94: “If only I would have known…” Book Talk with Author Faith Borkowsky  
• Ep. 10: Noticing the #KnowledgeGap with Natalie Wexler 
• Ep. 16: Scaling Literacy Success with Brian Kingsley
• Ep. 69: Wondering about Wit & Wisdom ELA? 

Resources 

• Grassroots Enthusiasm Powers Adoption of Evidence-Based ELA and Math Curricula
• Data Discussions Drive Progress: Pentucket's Curriculum Journey 
• The Shift from Fountas & Pinnell to Research-Aligned Reading Instruction
• Text at the Center (MEredith and Sue) 
• Understanding Wit & Wisdom Great Minds Blog, including Preparation Protocol link 
• Teaching with Complex Text: It’s a Complex Thing To Do Pentucket Teaching and Learning Blog 

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For more resources, visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter. 

Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

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 today’s episode, we drop some knowledge with one of our favorite teachers, Heidi Jane. You might recognize her as Droppin Knowledge With Heidi on Instagram or LearningWithHeidi on TikTok! What’s the difference between sight words and heart words? How does knowing letter sounds help students when they begin decoding? Why did Heidi choose the trademark Literacy and Justice for All? Heidi shares her journey from balanced literacy to science of reading with the goal of reaching the everyday classroom teacher. Digressions include This Is Us, Mandy Moore, and TikTok. 

Related Episodes

• Ep. 63: Kinder Teacher Reaches 100% Success Using Evidence-Based Practices
• Ep. 70: Science of Reading Part 1: Decodable Texts, Sound Walls, and the Aim of Early Literacy 
• Ep. 71: Science of Reading Part 2: Decodable Texts, Sound Walls, and the Aim of Early Literacy 
• Ep. 66: Re-Thinking the Reading Rope with Nell Duke 

Resources 

• Where to Begin - Check out Heidi’s recommendations for where to begin on your science of reading journey. 
• Follow Heidi on TikTok and Instagram, and be sure to check out her website, LiteracyandJusticeforAll.
• Want Science of Reading merch? Heidi has it! Click here for tee shirts, sweatshirts, and more ways to flaunt reading science around your town! 

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Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter. 

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].

This is the time when many districts are engaged in the curriculum adoption process, so we wanted to put this extremely information episode out for listeners who may have missed it. Cory Epler, CAO at Nebraska DOE, speaks about how they encourage the use of EdReports in episode 101. Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter that follows up with more information about choosing curricula!

What goes on behind the scenes at EdReports.org? Tricia Parker and Jess Box share the gateways that EdReports uses to reviews curricula: standards alignment, quality, and usability. We ask the questions we all really want to know: 

• Who are the curriculum reviewers? 
• How do reviewers ensure standards alignment? 
• What does it really mean for curricula to meet grade level standards? 
• What does 'all green' really mean? 
• How do complex texts, tasks, TDQs build over time to shape knowledge and coherence?

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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].

Nebraska Dept of Education CAO, Cory Epler, joins us today to share why and how Nebraska transitioned to reading science with HQM. In the course of eight years, the state formed a partnership with EdReports and The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), built transparency of HQM in Local Education Agencies (LEAs), and provided guidance around high quality materials. These key actions created coherence and agency across the state. This mantra resonates: Make the best choice the easiest choice. 

Related Episodes

• Ep.38: Success Amidst a Pandemic in Sioux City, NE
• Ep 77: Setting the Standard for Success with Author Morgan Polikoff 
• Ep. 97: Going GLEAM with Lacey Robinson and Andrea Hancock 

Resources 

• How the Nebraska Department of Education supports LEAs in choosing high quality materials (our favorite resource is the Professional Materials Map for Nebraska) 
• Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
• Beyond Standards book by Morgan Polikoff 
• EdReports.org 

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Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter. 

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].