Shannon and Mary chat with Dr. Katie Pace-Miles about MTSS and RTI, sharing practical tips for delivering effective reading interventions, choosing quality resources, and running efficient team meetings to support struggling readers. Whether you're a classroom teacher trying to support struggling readers, a specialist designing intervention programs, or a parent advocating for your child, this conversation provides clear, actionable guidance for making literacy interventions both manageable and ...
Jul 05, 2025•56 min•Season 7Ep. 17
What's really happening when students struggle to stay on task, complete assignments, or transition between activities? In this illuminating conversation with literacy experts Dr. Matt Strader and Dr. Douglas Fisher, Shannon and Mary delve into the complex world of executive functioning and its impact on classroom performance. Executive functioning isn't just about behavior—it's about cognitive processes happening in the brain's prefrontal cortex. Both guests help us understand the crucial disti...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 7Ep. 16
Shannon and Mary talk with Dr. Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez about supporting Multi-Language Learners, exploring language development, daily classroom language demands, and practical strategies to help MLLs thrive. The information presented is relevant for teachers, administrators, and support staff seeking practical tools to enhance instruction for multilingual learners. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Our Season 5 Episode 2: Supporting English Language Learners McGraw-Hill Science of Lit...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 7Ep. 15
Shannon chats with Laura Stewart (from 95 Percent Group) about bold moves that literacy leaders can take to transform the literacy practices in their learning communities. Laura provides stories and strategies relating to successfully implementing best practices informed by the Science of Reading into schools and classrooms, and Shannon shares some real-life examples of what she's learned to do and not to do as a literacy leader. Listen and also download the recommended resources from the show n...
Jun 13, 2025•55 min•Season 7Ep. 14
Shannon and Mary welcome Dr. Timothy Shanahan to the Reading Teachers Lounge to quiet the noise within the literacy community and help us all realize the MOST important things we should be doing for our learners according to the reading research. Listeners will find out what practices and activities they should prioritize to improve their students' reading achievement. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives: How Students' Reading Achievement Has Been Held Back and...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 7Ep. 13
Shannon and Mary chat with Brandi Dugal from The Fidget Game, featured on Shark Tank, about unique ways to engage and motivate students to learn. They share methods for gamification, brain breaks, and other strategies teachers can use to increase student engagement. Listen for ideas to make reading more fun and how to help motivate even the most reluctant readers to get excited about their learning. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: The Fidget Game website Fidget Game TikTok account Shanno...
May 30, 2025•50 min•Season 7Ep. 12
Dr. Pete Bowers shared how Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) transforms spelling and vocabulary into tools for deep thinking - perfect for engaging advanced and struggling readers in the elementary reading classroom. We encourage the listeners to also check out this episode on YouTube to learn from the visuals Dr. Bowers shared during the discussion (link is at the top of the show notes). RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Our Youtube link to the episode Pete Bower's Word Works Kingston website...
May 23, 2025•1 hr 54 min•Season 7Ep. 11
How can teachers effectively support advanced readers in elementary school? In this insightful episode, we’re joined by literacy expert Nancy Young to explore practical, evidence-based strategies for meeting the needs of gifted and high-achieving readers in the classroom. Nancy shares her expertise on differentiation strategies, including offering choice in reading materials, using tiered assignments, and implementing project-based learning to keep advanced readers engaged. We also discuss how t...
May 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 10
Shannon and Mary welcome Brandon Cardet-Hernadez from Mrs. Wordsmith to the RTL to chat about smart technology resources. They talk about intentional uses of technology resources for instructional purposes and what skills will be required as our students advance in the next part of the 21st century. Listeners will gain ideas for ways to incorporate technology to elevate students' learning. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Mrs. Wordsmith website Edutopia article: SAMR model How to use SAMR...
Apr 18, 2025•50 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Shannon and Mary talk with Melissa Taylor from ImaginationSoup.net about the importance of nonfiction texts in a student's reading diet. They chat about the flexible comprehension strategies students need to organize the information gathered from nonfiction and text features and structures that are specific to nonfiction texts. Listeners should walk away inspired to put more NF texts in their readers hands. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Imagination Soup Melissa's Article: Reading Nonfi...
Jan 24, 2025•40 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Shannon and Mary welcome LaMonica Williams from Teaching Matters back to the Reading Teachers Lounge. This time they chat about professional development experiences and the most effective ways to bring about positive change in school systems. They discuss the differences between management and leadership and how to foster student-centered school improvement. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Changes that Stick (Kappan) Teaching Matters website NYC Reads Student Focused Coaching by Jan Hasb...
Jan 10, 2025•43 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Shannon and Mary chat with Katherine Hamilton about maximizing the learning impact of co-teaching. The conversation is centered around an article from Choice Literacy written by Franki Sibberson titled Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind. The article proposes that co-teachers need to reflect and determine how their various teaching activities and strategies align into a cohesive instructional plan for the students, so that the readers can build transferable skills they can apply ...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Shannon and Mary welcome @MindfulTeacherRachel back to the podcast to discuss strategies for helping their students strengthen spelling skills. They talk about the stability of English spelling and the meaning-based reasons for a word's spelling, beyond sound-symbol connections. Listeners will know what to look for in students' spelling errors and accuracies and walk away with fresh ideas for spelling instruction. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Our Etymology episode with Rachel our Schw...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Shannon and Mary welcome Heidi Martin (@Droppin' Knowledge with Heidi) back to the podcast, and Heidi's husband, Adam, a LETRS trainer, also joins the conversation. They talk about all the aspects that go into the topic of Word Knowledge. What are all the things students should know and understand about a word to demonstrate complete knowledge of that term? You'll walk away from listening to this episode with a more complete understanding of all the layers of skills within Word knowledge that we...
Oct 17, 2024•58 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Shannon and Mary welcome Marty Martinez from Reach Out and Read and Judy Newman from Scholastic to the podcast to talk about Book Equity. They share ideas for getting quality books in students' hands and nurturing students' reading diversity. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Reach Out and Read website Evidence Based Research initiatives for Reach Out and Read Their list of 35 books Their impact statistics Modeling of Shared Reading our Molly Ness (Read Aloud) episode our Books as Mirrors,...
Oct 03, 2024•54 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Shannon and Mary have an informative and inspiring chat with Karen Gross. They learn details about how the Covid-19 pandemic affected teachers and students. Karen shares why the role of teachers is more difficult today, and she provides tons of specific ways teachers can fill their cups and take care of themselves and their class. If you've experienced stress or trauma, you'll discover ideas from this discussion with Karen about healing. RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE: Mending Education:...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Mary and Shannon catch up with each other after the summer & podcast break. They chat about their own children, their personal lives, and their plans for this upcoming school year. They discuss the implementation of Georgia's dyslexia bill this year. They share about their professional reading and learning. And they fill listeners in on the activities they've done through their Patreon community and about some free reading guides they've created over the summer. This new year is full of chan...
Sep 05, 2024•40 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Shannon and Mary chat with Jennifer Serravallo, whose literacy work they have long admired. Jennifer shares how her view about reading instruction have evolved over time. Jennifer's written a new book showing teachers different structured models for responsive teaching called Teaching Reading Across the Day, and she gives us many ideas from us the book about how teachers can apply the art of teaching to set up their literacy blocks to best meet their students' needs. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ON...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 20
We have a summer bonus episode for you! Shannon and Mary have Anna Geiger, the Measured Mom, join them in the lounge again to discuss the best evidence based practices that teachers can use to reach all readers. Anna's new book provides teachers and parents with a consolidated understanding of the Science of Reading findings. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE our Season 5 episode with Anna Geiger, about Orthographic Mapping Reach All Readers: Using the Science of Readin...
Jun 13, 2024•55 min•Season 6Ep. 19
Shannon and Mary gather together to review the school year and close out the podcast season. They give updates on their personal and teaching lives and share their summer plans. Later they're joined by Kelsey (wifeteachermommy) to talk about Educate and Rejuvenate 2024. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE Cox Campus K-3rd Structured Literacy Training program CERI certification Join us at Educate and Rejuvenate July 2024 Kelsey's podcast episode with Kristina Kuzmic Kelsey...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 18
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 EPISODE our season 4 episode with Nancy Young our 2021 episode about the updates to the Ladder of Reading an...
May 17, 2024•56 min•Season 6Ep. 17
Shannon and Mary chat with critically acclaimed author and experienced actress & 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 excited about word learning and how to help ...
May 04, 2024•54 min•Season 6Ep. 16
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 EPISODE Working Memory and Learning: A Practical...
Apr 19, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 6Ep. 15
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 RESOUR...
Apr 06, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 14
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 cha...
Mar 22, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Shannon and Mary discuss the importance of prioritizing handwriting instruction simultaneously with reading and writing instruction in the early grades. Learn why handwriting is essential for overall literacy development and how to include it in your daily instruction. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE The Importance of Teaching Handwriting by Louise Spear Swerling Writing by hand may increase brain connectivity more than typing, readings of student brains suggest by Ar...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 6Ep. 12
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 learn...
Feb 23, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 6Ep. 11
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 RESOU...
Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Shannon chats with her favorite literacy guru, Wiley Blevins, about the decisions and methods that go into differentiation. Shannon picks his brain about some of her reading students. Also, Wiley shares insights from his coming book about adjustments that teachers can make before or during their lessons to better suit the learning levels of their students. We always get some much wisdom from Wiley, whether it be from a direct chat, a webinar he hosts, or from a book he's authored. Listen to this...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 9
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 In...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 8
