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. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE ReadingUniverse.org Reading Universe Taxon ..read more

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 building and an awareness of language challenges your students may face within your curriculum. RECOMMENDED ..read more

Shannon shares with Mary the steps she follows for analyzing student data.    This Date Your Data process requires multiple steps of looking at test scores, improvement goals, student strengths and weaknesses, and then connecting the data to standards to facilitate data-driven instruction.  This method of data review makes the test score information meaningful to teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders.   Listen to find out how to Date Your Data to get to know your students and their learning better. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE ..read more

Shannon and Mary are joined in by Linda Rhyne in the Reading Teachers Lounge. They share a deep dive of information from the book, The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler. This episode is full of information and strategies to increase your student's knowledge helping them dive deep into comprehension and knowledge building.  Linda Rhyne is a returning guest to the show and shares her expertise in guiding professional discussions to help educators meet their student's literacy goals. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler *Amazon affi ..read more

Shannon and Mary chat with Dr. Karen Gazith about her new book The Power of Effective Reading Instruction.   The conversation flowed through many topics but ultimately what you can gain from our discussion is the gifts we give our readers when we teach with intention.  Listen to this episode to gain fresh ideas for enhancing your own reading instruction. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE Ask the Right Questions about RTI Wait to Fail Model  The Power of Effective Reading Instruction:  How Neuroscience Informs Instruction Across All Grades and Dis ..read more

Mary and Shannon chat with Dr. Molly Ness about her new book Read Alouds for All Learners.   Molly shares how teachers should intentionally plan their read alouds, with thought put into the vocabulary instruction, the purpose for reading, the think aloud process, and engagement and extension activities for students after reading. Listen to this episode for TONS of ideas from our guest about how to get the most learning out of your read aloud experiences. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE Reading Rockets:  Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension Reading Rocket ..read more

Shannon and Mary wrestle with understanding the nature of the comprehension process.  They discuss ideas from the Blueprint for Reading Comprehension and Executive Skills and Comprehension to understand the different cognitive processes and executive functioning required for students to extract and construct meaning from texts. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE the Reading Comprehension Blueprint by Nancy Hennessy *Amazon affiliate link Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension: A Guide for Educators by Kelly B. Cartwright *Amazon affiliate link A Blueprint for Reading Comprehensi ..read more

Shannon chats with Lindsay Kemeny about her new book titled 7 Mighty Moves: Research-Backed, Classroom-Tested Strategies to Ensure K-3 Reading Success.     Both Shannon and Lindsay have classroom experience teaching Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students, so their discussion was filled with details and stories about the best instructional strategies and techniques teachers should use to help their students become fluent readers. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE 7 Mighty Moves: Research-Backed, Classroom-Tested Strategies to Ensure K-to-3 Reading Success by ..read more

Shannon and Mary talk about why they love student mistakes.   They share how to make mistakes meaningful in the ways they show insight into students' learning.     They chat about establishing a trusting relationship with students so they feel comfortable showing us mistakes.  Lastly, they discuss ways to provide student feedback without inducing shame.   Learning happens between the lessons, and in this episode, you'll find concrete ideas for what to do and say each day with your students to promote a growth mindset and engagement in learning. RESOURCES MENTIONE ..read more

Shannon and Mary meet with Kionna Squires (@DaLiteracyLady) to talk about the challenges facing older struggling readers.    During the discussion, they explain how meeting students where they are IS rigorous and the right thing to do for our readers.  They also share ideas for boosting student engagement and their favorite activities for upper grade reading intervention. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE Texas Center for Learning Disabilities: Effective Reading Interventions for Upper Elementary Students Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9 (What Wo ..read more