We know from decades of rigorous research how students learn to read and how they should be taught. Nevertheless, many elements of evidence-based reading instruction are missing from K–2 classrooms. Join this fascinating and applicable discussion with one of education’s most respected researchers, Dr. Barbara Foorman, as she shares the research-based facts about what is often missing and how to rectify that in the school or classroom.

Dr. Foorman will share a range of helpful curriculum specifics, word-identification strategies, differentiation, and more.

Listeners will leave this discussion with new understanding of:

• What's missing in K–2 reading instruction?
• How to fill the gaps in K–2 reading instruction with evidence-based practices
• Ways to differentiate instruction so all students learn to read
• The importance of (a) privileging word-identification strategies over picture and syntactic cues to ensure accurate word identification, and (b) handwriting fluency
• Strategies to apply in the classroom by using assessment data to form flexible reading groups and to encourage writing in support of reading

In this conversation, Dr. Pamela Snow will discuss oral language in early childhood and across the school years, with a focus on its importance and role in developing, and being developed by, reading skills. She will also discuss the importance of applying public health principles to early reading instruction, to maximize success for all through evidence-based reading instruction and support.

Language and literacy are a two-way street that is not always well understood. Oral language abilities promote reading abilities and vice versa, and as research has shown, early reading success loops back to oral language skills. How can educators use this knowledge to help ALL students learn to read?

Join this fascinating conversation with Dr. Snow, a respected researcher, author, and professor of cognitive psychology in the School of Education at La Trobe University in Australia. She will share her experience and insight into research findings about why early oral language skills are the essential engine children need to bring to school (and indeed, have strengthened through their school experiences). Dr. Snow will discuss why children need to be exposed to more complex vocabulary and syntactic structures than typical conversation affords, and how teachers of these early learners can help their students master the skills they need to become lifelong readers and communicators.

In this podcast, you’ll learn:

• How decoding and language comprehension need to work together in reading acquisition and ongoing development
• Ways to incorporate explicit teaching of morphology and etymology in early stages of systematic phonics instruction
• Why children who do master reading early have a lasting edge on those who do not
• What teachers of early learners can do every day to help students build both oral and reading skills
• Importance of the scientific method in informing policy and practice in schools and the importance of avoiding pseudoscientific approaches, no matter how appealing they may seem

Join us for this interesting conversation with our guest Literacy Expert Susan Ebbers who will share the research and strategies surrounding learning to read.

Ebbers will illustrate how research supports the entwining of phonology, orthography, morphology, and vocabulary when teaching children to read, and to read more capably and with greater comprehension; and how this type of multidimensional approach is even more effective when integrated within the context of phrases, sentences, passages, and stories. Ebbers will also discuss the role self-efficacy plays in nurturing a motivation to read despite difficulties.

She will share ways to help students build skills systematically while also building confidence as well as strategies to:

• Reinforce basic decoding and “sight word” recognition
• Reinforce phonics, including polysyllabic decoding, in context
• Develop vocabulary and basic morphological awareness
• Engage interest and boost self-efficacy within the context of reading

We hope you will join us for this important conversation.

Featured Download

• Integrating Language Components: Examples from Power Readers®