Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ™

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)The authors of No More “Strategy of the Week”: Considerations for Connecting Comprehension Instruction Back to the Book discuss the importance of teaching comprehension strategies in a text-centered approach. They emphasize the need to move away from isolated strategy instruction and instead focus on using texts as the center of instruction. They highlight the importance of bac...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Imagine transforming the way you teach reading. Picture your students not just passively consuming the written word, but actively producing meaning and taking purposeful actions inspired by what they've read. This is the promise of our conversation with Doug Fisher, professor at San Diego State University and renowned author, as he takes us on a journey into the depths of readi...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Imagine facing not only the struggles of growing up in a challenging environment, but also battling a learning difference that went undiagnosed for years. Hear the inspiring story of Ameer Baraka as he discusses his book: Undiagnosed: The Ugly Side of Dyslexia.Ameer will discuss: How he grew up in New Orleans, facing unimaginable obstacles His experiences with b...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)From October 7, 2022In this episode, we talk with former balanced literacy teacher and parent, Missy Purcell. She authored a blog post titled Dear Balanced Literacy Teacher.Missy writes, “According to Nancy Young’s ladder of reading, roughly 10-15% of kids can figure out reading out with this type of instruction, but my child, who would later be diagnosed with dyslexia, would n...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)In this conversation we explore Nancy Young's infographic, "The Ladder of Reading and Writing," unpacking the complexity of learning to read and write in English. This framework helps educators grasp the diverse factors influencing how students learn. Nancy Young and Jan Hasbrouck, editors of the new book Climbing the Ladder of Reading & Writing: Meeting the Needs of All Le...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Jul 7, 2023Today we talk about fluency and assessment with Jan Hasbrouck. She shares tips and tricks for how to to best assess and teach fluency. She also debunks frequent fluency misunderstandings and explains the scientific evidence that underlies the Hasbrouck-Tindal Oral Reading Fluency Chart. Note: During the podcast, we mentioned we would link Jan’s previous studies...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Nancy Hennessy and Julia Salamone discuss the importance of vocabulary and syntax in reading comprehension. They explain how vocabulary connects to reading comprehension and the different levels of word knowledge. They also emphasize the need for explicit instruction in vocabulary and the role of context in understanding word meaning. They also discuss the connection between se...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)From Aug 4, 2023What if the key to unlocking your students' reading comprehension could be found through a deeper understanding of the intricate processes at work in their minds? Prepare to have your teaching world transformed as we journey with reading comprehension expert and acclaimed author, Nancy Hennessy. Together, we’ll map out the cognitive and linguistic processes that...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Lindsay Kemeny discusses her book 7 Mighty Moves and the importance of teaching literacy effectively. The conversation covers the development of the 7 moves, which focus on phonemic awareness, word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Lindsay emphasizes the need for explicit and systematic instruction, the use of decodable texts, and the importance of teaching s...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)From Mar 18, 2022How can regular fluency practice lead to fluent readers? In today’s episode, educators Lorraine Griffith and Lindsay Kemeny discuss the impact of fluency in their classrooms. Fluency is a bridge: It connects word recognition with comprehension. We dive into whole and small group fluency instruction with simple strategies and more. We wrote a book! The Lite...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Our guests today, authors Tricia Zucker and Sonia Cabell, discuss the concept of Strive-For-Five Conversations, which emphasizes the importance of multi-turn conversations between teachers and students. They explain that the goal is to stretch conversations beyond the typical question-response format and aim for at least five turns. The conversation explores the importanc...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)From Jul 15, 2022Dr. Sonia Cabell, Associate Professor at Florida State University, shares the importance of both oral language and content knowledge instruction. Why? Oral language skills underlie our ability to comprehend text. At the same time, the knowledge we bring to a text is THE key determinant on how much we understand that text. This episode speaks to the entirety of ...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Heidi Anne Mesmer discusses her book Big Words for Young Readers. She emphasizes the importance of teaching young readers to decode and understand words with multiple syllables and morphemes. Heidi Anne highlights the need to teach morphemic concepts early on and provides recommendations for teaching different types of morphemes at each grade level. She explains that morphology...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)From Nov 4, 2022Researcher Heidi Anne Mesmer joins the podcast to discuss the research on decodable text and dos and don'ts for classroom practice. Thinking about decodability as a meter from most to least decodable to the reader is important. A child who reads a text by sounding out and decoding words will experience a milestone of childhood: the feeling of reading. This also ...

We would love to hear from you! Send us a message (if you'd like a reply, email us at literacypodcast@greatminds.org)Anna Geiger, author of "Reach All Readers," joins us on the pod today. Anna takes us on a historical reading journey, from the early reading wars of the 1800s to debates between whole language and balanced literacy, up to the present Science of Reading movement. She shares her personal transition from balanced literacy to embracing the science of reading, providing critical ins...