In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Adrea Truckenmiller, Ph.D., associate professor of special education and school psychology at Michigan State University. Their conversation starts with defining academic language and breaking it down on the level of the word, the sentence, and full text. Adrea then touches on topics such as informational vs. narrative text structure, morphological complexity, and effective writing assessment. She also gives advice on how to implement explicit instruction on informational text and academic language, and details a few examples of what it can look like in the classroom. Adrea ends by discussing her passion for special education and encouraging educators to get involved.

Show notes:

• Resources
  • Read: “Academic language use in middle school informational writing”
  • Read: “Academic language and the challenge of reading for learning about science”
  • Read: “Writing to read: Parallel and independent contributions of writing research to the Science of Reading”
  • Read: “What is important to measure in sentence-level language comprehension?
  • Read: Making the Writing Process Work: Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation
• Join our Facebook community group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreading.
• Connect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/.

Quotes:

“ Academic language is really a new language for everyone to learn.” —Adrea Truckenmiller, Ph.D.

"When we're thinking about teaching academic vocabulary, it's not just one time around. Sometimes we have to layer that instruction for deeper and deeper and deeper meaning.” —Susan Lambert

Episode timestamps*
02:00 Introduction: Who is Adrea Truckenmiller?
07:00 Defining academic language
11:00 Differences in academic language at different levels: word, sentence, text.
12:00 Word level: morphological complexity
17:00 Sentence level
18:00 Connectives
21:00 Text level: Informational text structure vs narrative text structure
24:00 Reading research for middle schoolers
26:00 Writing assessment structure for middle school
32:00 What does this type of instruction look like in the classroom?
34:00 Importance of grades 4 & 5 to the development of informational reading and writing skills
35:00 Advice for teachers on teaching information reading and writing
39:00 Get involved in special education
*Timestamps are approximate

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Judith Hochman, Ed.D., co-author of “The Writing Revolution.” Their conversation begins as Dr. Hochman recalls the early days of writing instruction and research, then delves into the connection between better writing and better reading. Dr. Hochman touches upon topics such as writing comprehension, her experience implementing writing instruction as a classroom teacher and as an administrator, and how the writing revolution came to be. She also answers a question from our listener mailbag, providing a detailed overview of the scope and sequence for transitioning student writing from sentence composition to paragraphs to whole texts.

Show notes:

• Resources
  • Read: The Writing Revolution 2.0: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades
  • Website: The Writing Revolution
  • Read: “The Writing Revolution” in The Atlantic
• Join our community Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreading
• Connect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/

Quotes:

“I had an epiphany that our students really had to learn writing as a second language.” —Judith Hochman

“Having students write a lot is not teaching writing. It's just like if you put a lot of books in a classroom, students don't magically begin to read.” —Judith Hochman

“This is not learned by osmosis, and it's not learned by vague feedback like, ‘Make it better,’ or, ‘Add more details.’ You've got to be very granular. This is not a naturally occurring skill in human development for any of us.” —Judith Hochman

Episode timestamps*
03:00 Introduction: Who is Judith Hochman?
06:00 Time as an administrator
09:00 Judith’s early days of teaching writing
11:00 Classroom activities for teaching students to write
12:00 Atlantic article and NYC high school case
15:00 The writing revolution
16:00 How kids learn to write based on the research
20:00 Listener mailbag question
21:00 Writing and comprehension
27:00 Transitioning from writing sentences to writing paragraphs
34:00 Final thoughts
*Timestamps are approximate

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Jane Ashby, professor in the Reading Science doctoral program at Mount St. Joseph University. They define the concept of “settled science” as a jumping-off point before digging into phonology and the argument for not always basing your teaching practice on the newest research. Dr. Ashby touches on the impact of phonology on comprehension, the Matthew Effect, and why the term “instant words” is more accurate than “sight words.” You’ll walk away from this episode with two practical exercises Dr. Ashby recommends for teaching students to transfer oral segmenting and blending to reading and writing tasks.

Show notes

• Connect with Jane Ashby:
  • Mt. St. Joseph University
• Resources
  • Teaching Phonemic Awareness in 2024: A Guide for Educators
  • Read: Phonological recoding and self-teaching: sine qua non of reading acquisition
  • More: The Four-Part Processing Model for Word Recognition
  • Read: Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy.
• Join our community Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreading
• Connect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/
• Want to hear more of Dr. Ashby? Listen to the bonus episode!

Quotes

“To store a vocabulary word, it's not enough to have the meaning. You have to have the entry for it, and the entry for it is the sound form of the word.” —Jane Ashby

“The greatest gift you can give a kid is letting them know that you see that they're special and that they have something unique that they bring to the world. But the second piece is really, can you help them become a confident, independent reader?” —Jane Ashby

Episode timestamps*

2:00 Introduction: Who is Jane Ashby?
6:00 Defining and contextualizing “settled science”
13:00 Phonology as settled science
17:00 Instant words vs sight words
20:00 How phonology impacts comprehension
26:00 Connection to the Matthew Effect
31:00 Listener mailbag question: How do you suggest teachers teach students to transfer oral segmenting and blending to reading and writing tasks?
37:00 Teaching phonemic awareness guide
39:00 Research that should influence teacher practice
41:00 The greatest gift you can give a child

*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute