The Learning Spark

**Update: I'm excited to share that I've started a new podcast, called Literacy Talks, with a couple colleagues of mine. Check it out here: https://www.readinghorizons.com/literacytalks The more I learn about literacy, the more important it is to me to listen to high quality podcasts that encourage and understand effective, evidence-based reading practices. Here is a list of my favorite podcasts. 1. Amplify The Science of Reading This is one of my go-to sources for information on the science of reading. The host is extremely knowledgeable, asks pertinent questions, and has a constant stream of expert guests. Not to miss episode: Nurturing Automatic Readers Check out this interview with Margaret Goldberg and Alanna Mednick from The Right to Read Project. They address the science of reading in an easy to understand manner. This podcast also has a recent series where they deconstruct Scarborough’s Reading Rope, with a podcast dedicated to each strand of the rope. It’s a must list

The term “science of reading” has become a buzzword recently and there is often confusion over what the term means. Sometimes teachers think this refers to a specific curriculum, program, or method, but the term actually refers to a large body of research on reading. It encompasses thousands of studies on reading. Perhaps my favorite explanation of the science of reading comes from Louisa Moats who explains,  “First, the body of work referred to as “the science of reading” is not an ideology, a philosophy, a political agenda, a one-size-fits-all approach, a program of instruction, or a specific component of instruction. It is the emerging consensus from many related disciplines, based on literally thousands of studies, supported by hundreds of millions of research dollars, conducted across the world in many languages. These studies have revealed a great deal about how we learn to read, what goes wrong when students don’t learn, and what kind of instruction is most likely to work the be

I am excited to share with you a professional development series based on the science of reading that I created for my master’s program. Since I strongly believe that every student deserves a teacher who understands the science behind reading, I am sharing these for free. 😊  Please know that this is only meant to be the very beginning of your science of reading journey. There is so much more to learn! You can access the information here:  https://sites.google.com/view/scienceofreadingpd/home If you are interested in the study I did for my capstone project, you are welcome to watch the presentation I created here: https://youtu.be/C0b8HF_L8V8