Shannon and Mary chat about the recent debate in the science of reading community about whether phonemic awareness drills without letters are a worthwhile exercise for readers.  They describe activities they've done with struggling readers to build phonemic awareness, and they talk about the use of those activities as a part of Tier 1 reading instruction.Episode Resources:Research article Response from David Kilpatrick and othersTimothy Shanahan: RIP to Advanced Phonemic AwarenessI ...

Phonemic Awareness:  In the Dark or With Letters?

This is the Reading Teachers Lounge where listeners can eavesdrop on professional conversations between elementary reading teachers. We are passionate about literacy and strive to find strategies to reach all learners. Shannon and Mary are neighbors who realized that they were “literacy soul sisters” at a dinner in their Atlanta neighborhood. Once they started chatting about reading they haven’t really stopped. Come join the conversation.

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Language Learning

Shannon and Mary chat with Nancy Young and Jan Hasbrouck about differentiation and the latest updates to the Ladder of Reading and Writing.   Listeners will get a better understanding of WHY it's so important to make adjustments to curriculum, instruction, activities, and/or assessments in order to meet the various needs of their students.RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODEour season 4 episode with Nancy Youngour 2021 episode about the updates to the Ladder of Rea...

Meeting Students Needs

Shannon and Mary chat with critically acclaimed author and experienced actress &amp; advocate Colette Hiller about ways to make word learning innovative and fun.    Colette is releasing a new book titled Colossal Words for Kids, which combines educational poetry with vibrant illustrations to teach new words and related content knowledge.    The book is delightful and so is Colette.    Listen to this episode to gain creative ideas about how to help get students ex...

Delightful Word Learning with Colette Hiller

Shannon and Mary chat about how to best support learners with working memory challenges.  This is a companion episode to a deep dive learning topic we went through with our Patreon community about Working Memory.    Listeners to this episode will walk away with increased awareness about which students may have working memory challenges AND strategies to help those students during reading instruction.RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODEWorking Memory and L...

Supportive Strategies for Working Memory

Shannon and Mary talk with Kelly Butler and Carla Stanford about professional learning that is meaningful.   Kelly Butler worked with the Barksdale Reading Institute to bring about systems change in reading instruction in the state of Mississippi over the last twenty years.   Kelly and Carla share about a free resource they're working on now called Reading Universe, which is a one-stop shop for teachers and interested stakeholders to learn about best practices in teaching reading.RE...

Meaningful Professional Learning

Shannon and Mary chat with speech therapist Dr. Karen Dudek Brannan about the overlaps between speech, reading, and language.   Dr. Karen helps us understand the challenges facing students with language impairments.    From this episode, teachers can understand the perspective of a speech therapist to better understand speech and language challenges.    After listening, you should walk away with ideas about conversations to have with the speech therapist in your build...

Phonemic Awareness: In the Dark or With Letters?

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