In this special episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Claude Goldenberg, Ph.D., professor of education at Stanford University, to answer questions from our listener mailbag. Together they address a wide range of topics facing today’s educators, such as what to do when your school implements conflicting materials, how to support students that are two or three grade levels behind, best practices for teaching multilingual learners, and more!

Show notes: 

• Connect with Claude Goldenberg:
  • Substack: https://claudegoldenberg.substack.com/ 
• Resources
  • Literacy Foundations for English Learners, A Comprehensive Guide to Evidence-Based Instruction by Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Ed.D.
• Join our community Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreading
• Connect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/
• Have a burning question? Submit at amplify.com/sormailbag

Quotes:

“Incrementalism is just not going to serve our purpose unless you want to keep things as they are. And I hate to say this, Susan…some people wouldn't mind leaving things as they are. And we can't do that, and we can't do it incrementally. We've got to really move, like last year.” —Claude Goldenberg

“You’ve got to understand how [two programs] fit together and what the purpose is. Giving teachers materials that are literally incoherent and don't fit with each other is not the answer.” —Claude Goldenberg

“We need to have a system ... using the best knowledge that we have systematically throughout the state, throughout the country, with systems that pick up kids who are at risk and don't let them fail.” —Claude Goldenberg

Episode timestamps*
02:00 The latest from Claude Goldenberg
04:00 Literacy and the urgency of now
7:00 Question 1: What about the pendulum swing?
15:00 Question 2: What to do when your school implements conflicting materials?
21:00 Question 3: Why are running records and leveled texts discouraged?
22:00 Decoding v.s. Word recognition
29:00 Question 4: How do we support kids that are two or three grade levels behind?
30:00 Dyslexia and the importance of universal screening
35:00 Question 5: How would you increase reading proficiency in a school in which nearly every student is a multilingual learner?
45:00 Question 6: How do you apply the science of reading to an ELL student in middle school that doesn’t yet know the language?
48:00 Question 7: Is it best practice for bilingual students who are being taught to decode and encode in English and Spanish to be screened in English and Spanish?
*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute