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

James Murphy, editor,  tells us about the intention behind The ResearchED Guide to Literacy: An Evidence-Informed Guide for Teachers. He talks about why it's important for teachers to engage with research because "we don't know what we don't know" ... and how it's important to be able to determine what is truth vs. truth-y. James also mentions this article by Keith Stanovich titled Using Science and Reason in Education. 

If you'd like to hear more from James, watch this video: The Bridge Over the Reading Gap.

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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 37 

The article Placing Text at the Center of the Standards-Aligned ELA Classroom is a must-read — before or after you listen to this episode!

Meredith Liben and Sue Pimentel join us to unpack the true intentions behind the Common Core State Standards and how they’ve sometimes been misinterpreted in practice. They share what they’ve observed in classrooms and schools — both when high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) are in place and when they’re not.

We also ask them some tough (and important!) questions:

• What does this mean for assessment, especially “data-driven” instruction?
• What are better ways to assess and track student progress?

Meredith and Sue are smart, funny, and incredibly relatable — you’ll love this conversation. It’s truly a must-listen episode!

📖 Read the article that inspired this episode:
 Placing Text at the Center of the Standards-Aligned ELA Classroom

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].

Kristin Poppens teaches kindergarten in Iowa and is just learning about the science of reading! In fact, she's applied evidence-based, self-taught practices for less than six months, and her students reached end of year benchmarks with 100% success rate. Kristin's district uses Lucy Calkins Units of Study Phonics, Reading, & Writing as a core curricula ... but now that Kristin knows better, she's doing better for her students.

Listen in as she shares the shifts she makes to take a science of reading, evidence-based approach to literacy!

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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, reading and fluency expert Tim Rasinski tells us all about effective fluency instruction! How does repeated reading build fluency instruction? Why does text difficulty level impact fluency practice? What do effective accuracy, automaticity, and expression sound like?

Check out research, articles, and helpful materials located on Tim's website and follow Tim on Twitter @TimRasinski1. We also discuss this piece by Nell Duke.

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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, Alex Spurrier, a senior analyst with Bellwether Education Partners in the policy and evaluation practice area, discusses his recent contribution to The 74:  Curriculum Isn't Infrastructure - But States Should Treat It as Such and Build a Strong Foundation for Student Learning. How can HQIM be part of the recovery from the pandemic? How can states, districts, and schools work together to create better alignment?

In our conversation, Alex mentions an earlier piece he contributed that may be of interest, titled From Pandemic to Progress, which considers eight education pathways as education systems recover and rebuild post-pandemic.

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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].

Crystal Gonzales is the  Executive Director at English Learners Success Forum and believes that HQIM are the first step to provide equity for all learners, especially English Learners! Why? Because HQIM are developed with the idea that what's good for English Learners is good for all kids (but, the reverse is not always true!). 

We talk with Crystal about the impact of leveled reading on English Learners, and share excerpts from this resource: Do Leveled Readers Hurt or Help My ELs?  Crystal shares the impact of HQIM on English Learners through annotated lessons, such as these lessons from Wit & Wisdom ELA.

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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].

Sarah Webb talks candidly about how high quality instructional materials (HQIM) supported her as a teacher in helping all students reach greatness. Specifically, high quality materials were most helpful for English Learners... who often don't receive access to such materials. Sarah zooms in on how HQIM are supportive of students' vocabulary acquisition through repetition, writing with opportunities for oral rehearsal to process content, and consistency over time builds stamina and knowledge.  During our conversation, we refer to this resource - Do Leveled Readers Help or Hurt my ELs? - from English Learners Success Forum. 

Read Sarah's blog posts here: 

• Inside Implementation of Wit & Wisdom 
• Using Curriculum to Send Essential Messages to Students: How Wit & Wisdom Supports English Language Learners

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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].

Tiffany Rehbein, K-12 English Language Arts Coordinator from Laramie County School District in Cheyenne, Wyoming shares why and how the district shifted to HQIM. After seven years of stagnant ELA scores and a focus on balanced literacy, she and her colleagues knew it was time for a big change! They did their homework and investigated HQIM, choosing Wit & Wisdom ELA. Listen in to hear more about Laramie's implementation story and strategy! 

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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].

As a new teacher in Sumner County, TN, Natalie Baggett saw the desperate need for high quality instructional materials. In her first semester teaching, she scrambled to create instructional materials - searching Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, even Google! Then, she piloted and implemented Wit & Wisdom ELA and saw a dramatic shift in her students' ability to write and think about complex texts and topics. We asked Natalie to reflect on her experience this past year with questions from the Wit & Wisdom Aha! Blog titled Reflecting on Wit & Wisdom Implementation. Listen in as Natalie shares how HQIM impacted her teaching and her students' learning during her first few years of teaching! 

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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].

What are The Elements needed to transform teaching and professional learning? What will accelerate success towards equity and excellence? What are considerations for professional learning across the school year (and beyond)? 

These questions are answered by our expert guests, Jim Short and Stephanie Hirsh, authors of The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning (a challenge paper).  Listen and learn as they share how the essential elements undergird the framework of core, functional, and structural design features needed to transform curriculum-based professional learning. 

Visit OUR WEBSITE to subscribe to our newsletter and podcast! https://www.literacypodcast.com/

Connect with Melissa & Lori:

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Today is a great day to start your own podcast... If you’re thinking about it, we say GO FOR IT! We love Buzzsprout for so many reasons, but especially because it’s easy to use and their customer service rocks! Use our Buzzsprout affiliate link to sign up for their podcast media hosting and get a $20 Amazon gift card. 

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].