# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

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Primary Teacher Perspective on Small Groups & Science of Reading

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Primary Teacher Perspective on Small Groups & Science of Reading

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

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Reading Comprehension Blueprint *great listen*

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Reading Comprehension Blueprint *great listen*

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

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Cognitive Load Theory: Four Items at a Time

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Cognitive Load Theory: Four Items at a Time

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S8 E11: Cognitive load theory: Four items at a time, with Greg Ashman

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Listen to this episode from Science of Reading: The Podcast on Spotify. Greg Ashman-author of multiple books including A Little Guide for Teachers: Cognitive Load Theory, deputy principal, and professor-sits down with Susan Lambert on this episode to discuss cognitive load theory and how it applies to how students learn and how to best teach them.

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How to Keep Students Engaged & Listening

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How to Keep Students Engaged & Listening

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All Literacy Related Topics Resource-search for what you need

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All Literacy Related Topics Resource-search for what you need

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Reading Rockets offers a rich library of classroom strategies, articles, parent tip sheets, FAQs, videos, research briefs and more - providing research-based and best-practice information for educators, parents, and others who work with young readers. Browse by the topics listed below!

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Looking at Reading Intervention Video Series

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Looking at Reading Intervention Video Series

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In this special Reading Rockets video series, reading expert Linda Farrell works one-on-one with students in grades K-3 to help ensure that they master the skills they need to become proficient readers.

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Move #7: Improve Comprehension by Developing Vocabulary & Background Knowledge

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Move #7: Improve Comprehension by Developing Vocabulary & Background Knowledge

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hard copy of book

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Move #6: Focus on Meaningful Fluency Practice

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Move #6: Focus on Meaningful Fluency Practice

# data[].attributes.body
hard copy of book

# data[].attributes.headline
Improving Student Reading Growth in Months with Fluency (with author of 7 Mighty Moves)

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Improving Student Reading Growth in Months with Fluency (with author of 7 Mighty Moves)

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How can I build my own knowledge of writing practices & strategies to strengthen writing instruction & composition in my classroom?

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How can I build my own knowledge of writing practices & strategies to strengthen writing instruction & composition in my classroom?

# data[].attributes.headline
Effective Fluency Instruction with Tim Raskinski

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Effective Fluency Instruction with Tim Raskinski

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How can I raise my awareness of strong instructional practices and the importance of teacher talk?

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How can I raise my awareness of strong instructional practices and the importance of teacher talk?

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How can I increase student fluency to maximize decoding & comprehension?

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How can I increase student fluency to maximize decoding & comprehension?

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How can I maximize my small group instruction, time, and resources?

# data[].attributes.subject
How can I maximize my small group instruction, time, and resources?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

# data[].attributes.headline
Full Teacher Guide: Teaching Effective Writers

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Full Teacher Guide: Teaching Effective Writers

# data[].attributes.headline
How do I strengthen student comprehension through building knowledge and maximizing vocabulary understanding?

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How do I strengthen student comprehension through building knowledge and maximizing vocabulary understanding?

# data[].attributes.headline
What Should Small Group Instruction Look Like?

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What Should Small Group Instruction Look Like?

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What should small group instruction look like? with Deedee Wills

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Listen to this episode from Triple R Teaching on Spotify. 161: Deedee Wills was once a kindergarten teacher who trained other teachers to implement guided reading.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

# data[].attributes.headline
When to NOT Differentiate: A Guide to Small Group Instruction

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When to NOT Differentiate: A Guide to Small Group Instruction

# data[].attributes.headline
Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: Effective Differentiation Techniques (Upper Elementary)

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Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: Effective Differentiation Techniques (Upper Elementary)

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128. Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: Effective Differentiation Techniques with Stephanie Higgs

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Listen to this episode from The Literacy Dive Podcast: Reading and Writing Strategies for Upper Elementary Teachers and Parents on Spotify. Today's topic of conversation involves a group of students who need our support, but in a different way than the majority of our students. I'm talking about our gifted learners.

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The Power of Reading for Gifted Children (Advanced Readers And Social Emotional Learning)

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The Power of Reading for Gifted Children (Advanced Readers And Social Emotional Learning)

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RLL #154: The Power Of Reading For Gifted Children (Advanced Readers And Social Emotional Learning)

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How to Plan & Teach Small Group Phonics Lessons

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How to Plan & Teach Small Group Phonics Lessons

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The "paragraph hamburger" is a writing organizer that visually outlines the key components of a paragraph - topic sentence, detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

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Ch 1:  Knowledge Impacts Comprehension   Ch 2: Strategy Instruction in Learning to Comprehension                                                    Ch 3:  Vocabulary Instruction                          Ch 4:  Word-Reading Strategies in the Intermediate Grades                                            Ch 5:  Fluency Instruction                               Ch 6:  Independent Practice in the Literacy Classroom     

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Ch 1:  Knowledge Impacts Comprehension   Ch 2: Strategy Instruction in Learning to Comprehension                                                    Ch 3:  Vocabulary Instruction                          Ch 4:  Word-Reading Strategies in the Intermediate Grades                                            Ch 5:  Fluency Instruction                               Ch 6:  Independent Practice in the Literacy Classroom     

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Elizabeth has the hard copy of this text

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Link to Shifting the Balance Podcast from the above text (K-5 Resources)

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Link to Shifting the Balance Podcast from the above text (K-5 Resources)

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The Six Shifts Podcast: Insights and Innovations for Educators

Education Podcasts for Teachers

Welcome to The Six Shifts Podcasts, a collection of recordings for exploring the shifts we describe in both "Six Shifts" books-that's 12 shifts altogether!-These podcasts offer a high-level overview of some of the science and the classroom strategies shift-by-shift.

With the support of our publisher, we've made these short recordings and sent them out into the world. While we were busy doing other things, they found an audience. A really wide audience.

We never imagined that the podcasts we made during the pandemic, with Jan recording from a closet and Kari recording from the corner of a cluttered bedroom office, would speak to so many educators as they grappled with the same changes we'd grappled with ourselves. Over and over, we've been humbled to hear-both in person and via email-how helpful these recordings have been for getting started on a journey toward making learning to read easier for kids.

In fact, teachers like you seem to find these short conversations compelling enough to listen to them more than 60,000 times, which means they are among the top 5% of all podcasts. Crazy, right?! We had no idea until our publisher told us.

So, thank you for listening and letting us know (by voting with your ears) that these short and sweet overviews about how to make learning to read easier for your students are among the best education podcasts for making reading science simpler and the subsequent changes to instructional practice more doable.

Are you unfamiliar with the podcast?

Beginning Readers

Podcast Series
Part 1 - How to Get Readers Off to a Strong Start

Our K-2 Podcast Series is an invitation to anyone interested in teacher podcasts focusing on how to support beginning readers in getting up and running. This series describes all six shifts in the "K-2" book (really for teachers of any student, any age who has had difficulty with beginning to read). One by one, we address the misunderstandings, how they happened, and insights for shifting. We also preview the high-leverage routines that can make the science of the shift come to life in your classroom.

Beginning Readers - Episode 1: Intro

In this insightful episode of "The Six Shifts," join Jan Burkins and Kari Yates as they delve into the heart of modern literacy education. They explore the integration of scientific reading methods into balanced literacy classrooms, based on their book Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom . This conversation, filled with personal anecdotes and professional insights, is a must-listen for educators seeking to bridge traditional and contemporary teaching approaches. A journey through rethinking literacy practices awaits in this engaging and thought-provoking episode.

Beginning Readers - Episode 2: Shift 1

In Episode 2 of "The Six Shifts," authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, alongside Dan Tobin, focus on the first shift in literacy instruction: rethinking reading comprehension's beginnings. They challenge traditional views, emphasizing the role of language comprehension from birth in reading development. The episode unpacks common misconceptions, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of oral language's impact on reading. It's a must-listen for educators looking to align their teaching methods with scientific insights into how reading comprehension evolves.

Beginning Readers - Episode 3: Shift 2

Episode 3 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, hosted by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, focuses on the second shift, recommitting to phonemic awareness in literacy instruction. The authors discuss common misconceptions about phonemic awareness, emphasizing its critical role in reading development and the need for intentional instruction in this area. The episode provides insights into effective phonemic awareness practices and offers practical applications for educators. This session is part of their ongoing discussion on integrating scientific reading methods into balanced literacy approaches.

Beginning Readers - Episode 4: Shift 3

Episode 4 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, featuring authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, focuses on the third shift: reimagining phonics teaching. They discuss the importance of intentional and systematic phonics instruction in early reading development, dispelling misconceptions like the unpredictability of English spellings and the notion that phonics must be boring. The episode highlights the need for educators to understand how the brain learns complex tasks and offers practical guidance for making phonics instruction both effective and enjoyable for young learners.

Beginning Readers - Episode 5: Shift 4

Episode 5 of "The Six Shifts" podcast features Jan Burkins and Kari Yates discussing the fourth shift in literacy education: revising high-frequency word instruction. They explore the misconceptions surrounding the memorization of sight words, emphasizing the importance of understanding the phonemic and orthographic aspects of these words. This episode challenges the traditional approach to teaching high-frequency words, offering insights into more effective strategies that align with how the brain learns and stores words.

Beginning Readers - Episode 6: Shift 5

In Episode 6 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates discuss the fifth shift, reinventing MSV (Meaning, Syntax, Visual) use in literacy instruction. They address the challenges educators face in adapting their teaching practices to align with scientific research. The episode explores common misunderstandings around MSV, emphasizing the importance of phonology and orthographic learning in reading development. This episode provides valuable insights for educators looking to update their teaching methods based on recent scientific findings.

Beginning Readers - Episode 7: Shift 6

Episode 7 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, featuring Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, discusses the final shift: reconsidering texts for beginning readers. This episode addresses the significance of selecting appropriate texts for early literacy and examines common misconceptions about text choice. The conversation underscores the importance of aligning text selection with scientific insights into how the reading brain works and how orthographic knowledge accumulates. This shift is crucial for effective early literacy instruction, focusing on the impact of text types on young readers' development.

Developing Readers

Podcast Series
Part 2 - How to Keep Success Going for All Readers

The 3-5 Podcast Series, tailored for educators teaching grades three to five (or children of any age who are ready to move into more complex text), is a follow-up collection of teaching podcasts based on the second "Six Shifts" book, co-authored with Katie Egan Cunningham. This series delves into the complexities and nuances of supporting developing readers. Once again, we move through six shifts (really shifts 7-12), addressing misunderstandings and how these misconceptions developed. Finally, we preview the teaching moves that you can try out tomorrow as you begin to build momentum toward more brain-friendly reading instruction.

Developing Readers - Episode 1: Intro

In this podcast, Katie Egan Cunningham, Jan Burkins, and Kari Yates discuss the background and origin of their new book, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This much-awaited sequel to the K-2 book introduces six more shifts for elementary teachers. In this conversation, Katie, Jan, and Kari talk about the vulnerability and riskiness involved with writing the book and the six commitments they made to the work and to each other. They also explore how the K-2 and the 3-5 books connect and how the shifts can help educators navigate the competing tensions of literacy instruction.

Developing Readers - Episode 2: Shift 1

In this podcast, Katie Egan Cunningham, Jan Burkins, and Kari Yates, the authors of Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom . This much-awaited sequel to the first Shifting the Balance book introduces six more shifts for elementary teachers. In this episode, the authors discuss the first new shift: building knowledge. They explore the role that knowledge plays in reading comprehension and why content area instruction is so important. They challenge educators to give knowledge building the instructional time it deserves as an essential component of reading comprehension.

Developing Readers - Episode 6: Shift 5

In this podcast episode, Katie Egan Cunningham, Jan Burkins, and Kari Yates, the authors of Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This much-awaited sequel to the first Shifting the Balance book introduces six more shifts for elementary teachers. In this episode, the authors discuss the fifth new shift, which invites teachers to revisit their fluency instruction. They talk about decoding skills, the relationship between silent reading and oral reading, and the important role of fluency in reading comprehension. They suggest that teaching fluency should involve carefully selected text and powerful instructional practice.

Stay Informed and Inspired: Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Join the open-minded and open-hearted community of The Six Shifts by subscribing to our newsletter. We'll send messages inviting you to feed your curiosity without getting overwhelmed. And we'll share easy-to-implement options for taking your next steps toward more brain-friendly practices. You'll also be the first to know about our upcoming events, newly developed resources, free-access tools, and anything else that seems helpful (a la inspiration, pretty pictures, humor . . . ).

And did we mention that we create special, exclusive resources that don't live on our website but are a "Thank you" to those of you who subscribe to our list? We want to let you know (and keep letting you know) just how much we appreciate you letting us take up a little space in your inbox each week. That's how much we love and appreciate you. And we know that YOU are the ones who pair these routines and tools with YOUR instructional gifts to make reading easier for students-a little life-changing magic for student after student.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to The Six Shifts Podcasts, a collection of recordings for exploring the shifts we describe in both "Six Shifts" books-that's 12 shifts altogether!-These podcasts offer a high-level overview of some of the science and the classroom strategies shift-by-shift. With the support of our publisher, we've made these short recordings and sent them out into the world.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ch 2: Recommitting to Phonemic Awareness Instruction                                          Ch 3: Reimagining the Way We Teach Phonics                                                                Ch 4: Revisiting High Frequency Word Instruction                                                          Ch 5: Reinventing the Ways We Use MSV (3 Cueing Systems) 

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Ch 2: Recommitting to Phonemic Awareness Instruction                                          Ch 3: Reimagining the Way We Teach Phonics                                                                Ch 4: Revisiting High Frequency Word Instruction                                                          Ch 5: Reinventing the Ways We Use MSV (3 Cueing Systems) 

# data[].attributes.body
hard copy of book

# data[].attributes.headline
Link to Shifting the Balance Podcast from the above text (K-5 Resources)

# data[].attributes.subject
Link to Shifting the Balance Podcast from the above text (K-5 Resources)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Six Shifts Podcast: Insights and Innovations for Educators

Education Podcasts for Teachers

Welcome to The Six Shifts Podcasts, a collection of recordings for exploring the shifts we describe in both "Six Shifts" books-that's 12 shifts altogether!-These podcasts offer a high-level overview of some of the science and the classroom strategies shift-by-shift.

With the support of our publisher, we've made these short recordings and sent them out into the world. While we were busy doing other things, they found an audience. A really wide audience.

We never imagined that the podcasts we made during the pandemic, with Jan recording from a closet and Kari recording from the corner of a cluttered bedroom office, would speak to so many educators as they grappled with the same changes we'd grappled with ourselves. Over and over, we've been humbled to hear-both in person and via email-how helpful these recordings have been for getting started on a journey toward making learning to read easier for kids.

In fact, teachers like you seem to find these short conversations compelling enough to listen to them more than 60,000 times, which means they are among the top 5% of all podcasts. Crazy, right?! We had no idea until our publisher told us.

So, thank you for listening and letting us know (by voting with your ears) that these short and sweet overviews about how to make learning to read easier for your students are among the best education podcasts for making reading science simpler and the subsequent changes to instructional practice more doable.

Are you unfamiliar with the podcast?

Beginning Readers

Podcast Series
Part 1 - How to Get Readers Off to a Strong Start

Our K-2 Podcast Series is an invitation to anyone interested in teacher podcasts focusing on how to support beginning readers in getting up and running. This series describes all six shifts in the "K-2" book (really for teachers of any student, any age who has had difficulty with beginning to read). One by one, we address the misunderstandings, how they happened, and insights for shifting. We also preview the high-leverage routines that can make the science of the shift come to life in your classroom.

Beginning Readers - Episode 1: Intro

In this insightful episode of "The Six Shifts," join Jan Burkins and Kari Yates as they delve into the heart of modern literacy education. They explore the integration of scientific reading methods into balanced literacy classrooms, based on their book Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom . This conversation, filled with personal anecdotes and professional insights, is a must-listen for educators seeking to bridge traditional and contemporary teaching approaches. A journey through rethinking literacy practices awaits in this engaging and thought-provoking episode.

Beginning Readers - Episode 2: Shift 1

In Episode 2 of "The Six Shifts," authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, alongside Dan Tobin, focus on the first shift in literacy instruction: rethinking reading comprehension's beginnings. They challenge traditional views, emphasizing the role of language comprehension from birth in reading development. The episode unpacks common misconceptions, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of oral language's impact on reading. It's a must-listen for educators looking to align their teaching methods with scientific insights into how reading comprehension evolves.

Beginning Readers - Episode 3: Shift 2

Episode 3 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, hosted by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, focuses on the second shift, recommitting to phonemic awareness in literacy instruction. The authors discuss common misconceptions about phonemic awareness, emphasizing its critical role in reading development and the need for intentional instruction in this area. The episode provides insights into effective phonemic awareness practices and offers practical applications for educators. This session is part of their ongoing discussion on integrating scientific reading methods into balanced literacy approaches.

Beginning Readers - Episode 4: Shift 3

Episode 4 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, featuring authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, focuses on the third shift: reimagining phonics teaching. They discuss the importance of intentional and systematic phonics instruction in early reading development, dispelling misconceptions like the unpredictability of English spellings and the notion that phonics must be boring. The episode highlights the need for educators to understand how the brain learns complex tasks and offers practical guidance for making phonics instruction both effective and enjoyable for young learners.

Beginning Readers - Episode 5: Shift 4

Episode 5 of "The Six Shifts" podcast features Jan Burkins and Kari Yates discussing the fourth shift in literacy education: revising high-frequency word instruction. They explore the misconceptions surrounding the memorization of sight words, emphasizing the importance of understanding the phonemic and orthographic aspects of these words. This episode challenges the traditional approach to teaching high-frequency words, offering insights into more effective strategies that align with how the brain learns and stores words.

Beginning Readers - Episode 6: Shift 5

In Episode 6 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, authors Jan Burkins and Kari Yates discuss the fifth shift, reinventing MSV (Meaning, Syntax, Visual) use in literacy instruction. They address the challenges educators face in adapting their teaching practices to align with scientific research. The episode explores common misunderstandings around MSV, emphasizing the importance of phonology and orthographic learning in reading development. This episode provides valuable insights for educators looking to update their teaching methods based on recent scientific findings.

Beginning Readers - Episode 7: Shift 6

Episode 7 of "The Six Shifts" podcast, featuring Jan Burkins and Kari Yates, discusses the final shift: reconsidering texts for beginning readers. This episode addresses the significance of selecting appropriate texts for early literacy and examines common misconceptions about text choice. The conversation underscores the importance of aligning text selection with scientific insights into how the reading brain works and how orthographic knowledge accumulates. This shift is crucial for effective early literacy instruction, focusing on the impact of text types on young readers' development.

Developing Readers

Podcast Series
Part 2 - How to Keep Success Going for All Readers

The 3-5 Podcast Series, tailored for educators teaching grades three to five (or children of any age who are ready to move into more complex text), is a follow-up collection of teaching podcasts based on the second "Six Shifts" book, co-authored with Katie Egan Cunningham. This series delves into the complexities and nuances of supporting developing readers. Once again, we move through six shifts (really shifts 7-12), addressing misunderstandings and how these misconceptions developed. Finally, we preview the teaching moves that you can try out tomorrow as you begin to build momentum toward more brain-friendly reading instruction.

Developing Readers - Episode 1: Intro

In this podcast, Katie Egan Cunningham, Jan Burkins, and Kari Yates discuss the background and origin of their new book, Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This much-awaited sequel to the K-2 book introduces six more shifts for elementary teachers. In this conversation, Katie, Jan, and Kari talk about the vulnerability and riskiness involved with writing the book and the six commitments they made to the work and to each other. They also explore how the K-2 and the 3-5 books connect and how the shifts can help educators navigate the competing tensions of literacy instruction.

Developing Readers - Episode 2: Shift 1

In this podcast, Katie Egan Cunningham, Jan Burkins, and Kari Yates, the authors of Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom . This much-awaited sequel to the first Shifting the Balance book introduces six more shifts for elementary teachers. In this episode, the authors discuss the first new shift: building knowledge. They explore the role that knowledge plays in reading comprehension and why content area instruction is so important. They challenge educators to give knowledge building the instructional time it deserves as an essential component of reading comprehension.

Developing Readers - Episode 6: Shift 5

In this podcast episode, Katie Egan Cunningham, Jan Burkins, and Kari Yates, the authors of Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Upper Elementary Classroom. This much-awaited sequel to the first Shifting the Balance book introduces six more shifts for elementary teachers. In this episode, the authors discuss the fifth new shift, which invites teachers to revisit their fluency instruction. They talk about decoding skills, the relationship between silent reading and oral reading, and the important role of fluency in reading comprehension. They suggest that teaching fluency should involve carefully selected text and powerful instructional practice.

Stay Informed and Inspired: Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Join the open-minded and open-hearted community of The Six Shifts by subscribing to our newsletter. We'll send messages inviting you to feed your curiosity without getting overwhelmed. And we'll share easy-to-implement options for taking your next steps toward more brain-friendly practices. You'll also be the first to know about our upcoming events, newly developed resources, free-access tools, and anything else that seems helpful (a la inspiration, pretty pictures, humor . . . ).

And did we mention that we create special, exclusive resources that don't live on our website but are a "Thank you" to those of you who subscribe to our list? We want to let you know (and keep letting you know) just how much we appreciate you letting us take up a little space in your inbox each week. That's how much we love and appreciate you. And we know that YOU are the ones who pair these routines and tools with YOUR instructional gifts to make reading easier for students-a little life-changing magic for student after student.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to The Six Shifts Podcasts, a collection of recordings for exploring the shifts we describe in both "Six Shifts" books-that's 12 shifts altogether!-These podcasts offer a high-level overview of some of the science and the classroom strategies shift-by-shift. With the support of our publisher, we've made these short recordings and sent them out into the world.

# data[].attributes.headline
Dig into the 7 Mighty Moves book **Hard Copy** Moves 1-5 focus on Word Work Instruction with QR codes to resources & videos

# data[].attributes.subject
Dig into the 7 Mighty Moves book **Hard Copy** Moves 1-5 focus on Word Work Instruction with QR codes to resources & videos

# data[].attributes.body
hard copy of book

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

# data[].attributes.headline
4th Grade Wonders Teacher Builds Knowledge

# data[].attributes.subject
4th Grade Wonders Teacher Builds Knowledge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

# data[].attributes.headline
Tim Shanahan: Strategies & Knowledge Building

# data[].attributes.subject
Tim Shanahan: Strategies & Knowledge Building

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can find every episode of Melissa & Lori Love Literacy right here on this page starting with the most recent episodes. You can even search below for any guests or topics you are interested in to find all the episodes you want to listen to!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Reading teachers chat about best activities to build students' vocabularies. They share how their vocabulary instruction has evolved over the years to help students the most. In the chat, they reference ideas form Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
S5 E12 Building Vocabulary - Reading Teachers Lounge

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Reading teachers chat about best activities to build students' vocabularies. They share how their vocabulary instruction has evolved over the years to help students the most. In the chat, they reference ideas form Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck.

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Whole Class Vocabulary Activities to Make Those Words Stick

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Whole Class Vocabulary Activities to Make Those Words Stick

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Writing Strategies by Jennifer Serravallo  (*Elizabeth has the hard copy of the book)

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Writing Strategies by Jennifer Serravallo  (*Elizabeth has the hard copy of the book)

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Classroom Strategy Library (*choose your own topic and settings to meet your needs)

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Classroom Strategy Library (*choose your own topic and settings to meet your needs)

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Our library provides effective, research-based classroom strategies to help strengthen your students' skills in phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.

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Writing About Reading & the Role of Knowledge Building

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Writing About Reading & the Role of Knowledge Building

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high-quality curriculum! Join Melissa and Lori as they tackle new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Guests include literacy researchers and experts, teachers and leaders, parents and advocates.

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Making  Room for Writing (*an entire page of resources & videos)

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Making  Room for Writing (*an entire page of resources & videos)

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Build writing into your daily instruction

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Teacher question: What can you tell me about writing fluency in grades K-5? Our district is making a major effort to improve writing which is great, but our kids don't' write much. I don't mean that the teachers don't give writing assignments (they do), but the writing that the kids produce is very limited and it takes them a long time. I can't see how we can improve their writing if they can't write more.
Shanahan response:

Writing fluency is a slippery fish. Definitions of the term vary greatly within the profession (Latif, 2013). Not surprisingly, those differences in definition result in a wide variety of advice for teachers on how to facilitate fluent writing. Accordingly, researchers interested in the matter have spent most of their efforts towards figuring out what fluency is or its relation to writing quality.

Personally, I'm happy that anyone is paying attention to this at all. For a long time, the literature on children's writing seemed to emphasize quality over fluency. This was done by promoting revision heavily, even in the primary grades. Revision is important, of course, but it only helps if you have gotten your ideas onto paper in the first place. Revising a blank page is an empty exercise.

National and state assessments don't consider fluency issues directly either. They might get at it incidentally by marking a paper down if its ideas aren't sufficiently developed. However, lack of development can be as evident in papers with lots of words/sentences as those with few.

I've long believed that writing fluency - as much as writing quality - should be a major goal in the early grades (my first publication in the field was about how I had successfully facilitated writing fluency in my classrooms). Over the past couple of decades there has been a growing body of research revealing the pivotal role that handwriting and spelling can play in writing fluency. Experience tells me that instruction in those can facilitate automaticity, but so can emphasis on invented or developmental spelling - reducing student anxiety about potential errors, while providing valuable practice with phonemic awareness and phonics at the same time.

Researchers these days often divide writing into its components. For example, one popular model separates transcription (getting ideas onto paper) from the ability to generate or compose ideas in the first place (Berninger & Winn, 2006).

Sadly, studies that have tried to disassemble writing fluency have left us with a bit of a muddle. I think their expectation has been that fluent transcription includes "lower" skills like spelling and handwriting, while idea generation depends not on these mundane skills but on world knowledge and language proficiency. Things don't divide up that neatly, however.

In that regard, writing fluency is a lot like reading fluency. For the youngest students and the poorest readers, reading fluency is largely the result of automatic decoding ability - but with development, some aspects of reading comprehension are implicated too (through prosody). Writing has a similar pattern of progression apparently, with printing and spelling sucking up much of the variance early on, but with executive function and oral language increasingly insinuating themselves into the equation as writers progress.

That shouldn't be too surprising. There are many reasons people have trouble getting ideas on paper.

Kids often tell me that they don't have any ideas, they don't know what to write about. That may be an accurate appraisal of their situation, or a convenient excuse for avoiding what for them is an unpleasant and potentially embarrassing task (yes, there are both cognitive and affective reasons for balking at a white page). When students at any level voice this problem, I talk with them. Their ideas flow easily in our conversations but vanish in the monologic situation required of writing (Scardamalia, Bereiter, & Steinbach, 1984).

Another enemy of writing fluency is perfectionism. "If I can't produce something perfect - that won't embarrass me - I can't possibly write." Concerns about handwriting and spelling may limit fluency. Many kids hesitate when they come to a word that they think they can't spell, or they engage in wasteful mental gymnastics trying to avoid expressing ideas that would require those words. That's why taking the pressure off handwriting and spelling quality during drafting can support fluency.

Perfectionism raises its ugly head another way, as well. Writers often are impeded by premature and seemingly infinite revision and editing. They write a sentence, and then rewrite it. Young kids may manage to get a word on paper and then try to erase and improve it before they even get to a second word. This composing, decomposing, and recomposing prevents writing fluency and undermines writer confidence. Few things are more painful than watching a child tearfully laboring over his wordless paper, blotched and torn from such revision. Jacques Derrida referred to this as "interminable revision" and there are scads of electronic writing tools aimed at preventing the problem for adult writers (e.g., Write or Die, iA Writer, OmmWriter, Freewrite Smart Typewriter).

Handwriting issues are a big part of writing fluency early on, but its importance diminishes quickly (Juel, 1988). This may partly be due to the small or fine muscle demands of handwriting - though studies that replace handwriting with keyboarding have reported mixed results (Goldberg, Russell, & Cook, 2003; Spilling, et al, 2021). Sometimes keyboarding results in more fluent production of text and sometimes it doesn't.

Given all that, what can you do to improve writing fluency?

1. Teach handwriting and spelling explicitly. Such instruction has been found to improve both fluency and quality of writing (Graham, McKeown, Kiuhara, & Harris, 2012). In the early grades at least, I'm a big fan of combining phonics and spelling instruction. The idea is to teach these skills to the point of automaticity. The youngster agonizing over how to form the letter G is not thinking about the ideas that he/she wants to communicate to a reader.

2. Lower the emphasis on spelling and handwriting during drafting. This may sound like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth - teach spelling but don't require it - but that isn't really the case. Handwriting and spelling facilitate communication. The more legible your handwriting and the more accurate your spelling, the more likely it is that readers will focus on your ideas.

However, when drafting, these skills don't matter very much. Encourage (beseech, implore, beg) students not to worry about their spelling or handwriting while drafting. And don't undermine this encouragement by spelling words for them or marking up their errors on an early draft.

Young kids benefit from trying to spell words because it requires them to analyze phonemic structure. Spelling instruction increases the body of knowledge that students use when they are trying to spell unknown words.

3. Discussion and planning can play an important role in writing fluency. Research has long found that getting kids talking about what they want to write about improves and makes more efficient the flow of ideas. For the youngest children, drawing about their topic can have the same kind of payoff. As children move up the grades, getting them to list or chart their ideas can help.

4. Require a lot of writing. Students should be reading and writing throughout the day. They should be writing as part of reading, science, social studies, and math. As with any skilled activity, practice plays an important role - and given the learning benefits that writing about a topic can provide (Graham & Hebert, 2010) - writing should be a go-to-activity throughout the curriculum.

5. Engage students in non-stop writing (Datchuck, 2017). The linguist S.I Hayakawa required his college freshman comp students to write - without stopping, rereading, revising -- for an entire class period. John Holt had his fifth graders doing the same for 15 minutes. As a primary grade teacher, my students wrote non-stop in multiple 1-2-minute intervals (Shanahan, 1977).

I'd provide a prompt and then have the students writing non-stop for 1 minute. Then I'd give their hands a rest and change the prompt and have them write for 90 seconds more. Finally, another break was followed by 2 more minutes of non-stop writing. Students who don't know what to say next are to rewrite their last sentence until they have an idea (promoting the idea of thinking while writing as opposed to being a prelude to writing).

With the beginnings of three compositions in hand, students can begin to shape and improve their ideas. Sometimes I would have them pick the one they liked best for polishing. Or perhaps I would ask them to combine all three into a single paper. Over time, the students gained facility: they could generate a lot of sentences about an idea quickly, they could write and think simultaneously, and because of the limitations of such writing, they came to see the value of revision and editing.

References

Berninger, V. W., & Winn, W. D. (2006). Implications of Advancements in Brain Research and Technology for Writing Development, Writing Instruction, and Educational Evolution. In C. A. MacArthur, S. Graham, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (pp. 96-114). The Guilford Press.

Datchuk, S.M. (2017). A direct instruction and precision teaching intervention to improve sentence construction of middle school students with writing difficulties. Journal of Special Education, 51, 62-71. doi:10.1177/0022466916665588

Feng, L., Lindner, A., Ji, X.R., & Joshi, R.M. (2019). The roles of handwriting and keyboarding in writing: A meta-analytic review. Reading & Writing, 32, 33-63.

Goldberg, A., Russell, M., & Cook, A. (2003). The effect of computers on student writing: A meta-analysis of studies from 1992 to 2002. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 2(1), 3-50.

Graham, S. (2009-2010). Want to improve children's writing? Don't neglect their handwriting. American Educator, 20-27,40

Graham, S., McKeown D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K.R. (2012). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 879-896.

Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437-447.

Kent, S., Wanzek, J., Petscher, Y., Al Otaiba, S., & Kim, Y. (2014). Writing fluency and quality in kindergarten and first grade: The role of attention, reading transcription, and oral language. Reading & Writing, 27(7), 1163-1188.

Kim, Y.G., Gatlin, B., Al Otaiba, S., & Wanzek, J. (2018). Theorization and an empirical investigation of the component-based and developmental text writing fluency construct. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51( 4), 320-335.

Latif, M. (2013). What do we mean by writing fluency and how can it be validly measured? Applied Linguistics, 34(1), 99-105. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams073

Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2017). Invented spelling in kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known? Developmental Psychology, 53(1), 77-88. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000179

Scardamalia, M., Bereiter, C. and Steinbach, R. (1984), Teachability of Reflective Processes in Written Composition. Cognitive Science, 8, 173-190. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0802_4

Shanahan, T. (1977). Writing marathons and concept development. Language Arts,

Spilling, E.F., Rønneberg, V., Rogne, W.M. et al. (2021). Handwriting versus keyboarding: Does writing modality affect quality of narratives written by beginning writers? Reading & Writing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10169-y

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Teacher question: What can you tell me about writing fluency in grades K-5? Our district is making a major effort to improve writing which is great, but our kids don't' write much. I don't mean that the teachers don't give writing assignments (they do), but the writing that the kids produce is very limited and it takes them a long time.

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Looking at Writing (*this link will lead you to K-3 Writing Strategies, Videos, & Resources)

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Looking at Writing (*this link will lead you to K-3 Writing Strategies, Videos, & Resources)

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Explore annotated writing samples from kids in pre-K through grade 3, and see next-step suggestions for instruction. You'll also learn about writing milestones and different purposes of writing - along with ideas for how to make room for writing during the day.

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Types & Purposes of Writing (*be sure to check out the playlist of featured videos)

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Types & Purposes of Writing (*be sure to check out the playlist of featured videos)

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Some of the research done that involves sentence combining comes from a whole language perspective. We"ve listed some of that research here. Our instructions for using sentence combining encourage a more explicit approach to using the strategy than what is included in some of the research listed below.

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools - A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC Alliance for Excellent Education.

Robinson, L. K., & Howell, K. W. (2008). Best practices in curriculum-based evaluation & written expression. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best Practices in School Psychology V (pp. 439-452). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Saddler, B. (2005). Sentence combining: A sentence-level writing intervention. Reading Teacher, 58, 468-471.

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Combining sentences encourages students to take two or more short, choppy sentences and combine them into one effective sentence - to make their writing more readable and engaging. Sentence combining is a skill that develops over several short practice sessions.

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What Order Should We Teach the Letters of the Alphabet?

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What Order Should We Teach the Letters of the Alphabet?

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How to Fit Phonemic Awareness in Phonics Instruction

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How to Fit Phonemic Awareness in Phonics Instruction

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What we know about phoneme awareness - with Dr. Susan Brady

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The Science of Reading | Shanahan on Literacy

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This blog explains that the science of reading necessarily includes more than phonics instruction. The body of research on what it takes to learn to read is what the term science of reading should refer to.

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Should You Teach Phonemic Awareness in the Dark?

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Should You Teach Phonemic Awareness in the Dark?

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Ep. 148: Hot Topic Series: Should You Teach Phonemic Awareness 'In the Dark' or with Print?

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Listen to this episode from Melissa & Lori Love Literacy ™ on Spotify. What is Phonemic Awareness? It's one component of your literacy instruction. Phonemic awareness means understanding that spoken words are made of individual sounds called phonemes. We want students to be able to isolate, blend, segment, and more.

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Podcast: The Science of Reading- Natalie Wexler

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Podcast: The Science of Reading- Natalie Wexler

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A conversation with Natalie Wexler: Susan and Natalie dive into her latest book, The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It, and discuss the lack of equity in reading education among students, the benefits of knowledge-rich curriculum inside and beyond the classroom, why it’s important to build background knowledge while teaching foundational skills, and why professional development doesn’t seem to be making a difference and how it can be improved.

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S1-01. The Knowledge Gap: Natalie Wexler - Science of Reading: The Podcast

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What's broken in our education system? Natalie joins Susan for a provocative talk about her latest book, The Knowledge Gap, and how a knowledge-based curriculum can bring equity into the classroom, and students' futures.Quotes"Kids actually love to learn stuff. They love to feel like they're expe...

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Podcast: The Science of Reading- Dr Bruce McCandliss

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Podcast: The Science of Reading- Dr Bruce McCandliss

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A conversation with Dr. Bruce McCandliss:
Susan and Dr. Bruce McCandliss, professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, chat about combining neuroscience with education. How does neuroscience help us understand the changes going on in the brain of a child learning to read? Why do some children struggle so profoundly? He shares his research into focusing students’ attention on letters and sounds versus on whole words

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S1-12. Neuroscience and early literacy: Dr. Bruce McCandliss - Science of Reading: The Podcast

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Susan and Dr. Bruce McCandliss, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, chat about combining neuroscience with education. How does neuroscience help us understand the changes going on in the brain of a child learning to read? Why do some children struggle so profou...

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Being an English Language Arts teacher is about sharing your love for reading with students, bringing characters to life, modeling how to evaluate and think critically, and artfully choosing texts that help students build knowledge about themselves and the world around them. It is also about storytelling through written and verbal expression and giving students the learning opportunities to practice these skills and find their voice.

As teachers, what we choose to teach and talk about matters, and it is our job to choose topics and texts that reflect our students because they matter. For far too long, our Black, Indigenous, and students of color have either seen themselves tokenized, misrepresented, or not represented at all. It is time to reconsider what texts we view as canon, what voices we regard as worthy, and what themes, storylines, and storytelling mediums are considered academic or rigorous. It is time to select the stories that really matter: ones that center and empower our BIPOC students.

Those whose classes are predominantly white, these stories still matter and are critical to your work as an antiracist educator. I challenge you to assess your existing curriculum, make shifts in your instruction, and commit to bringing diverse voices into your learning spaces (and not just during heritage months or on multicultural diversity day).
Stories as Windows
A window is something you can see the world through, and the texts we put in front of our students should share this quality. When it comes to reading, we have all heard the narrative that books transport readers to different realms and allow us to escape. Or, books give us a way to experience another culture or live the life of a person who may be different from us or may have come long before us. While this all may seem harmless, one can argue that these thoughts are insensitive and lack critical awareness. When we teach students this, we give students the impression that cultures and places in the world require escape, that they are different in a bad way, and this can perpetuate ideas of xenophobia and assimilation.

Instead, what if we were to use windows to learn history, authentic perspectives, and perhaps, shared experiences? What if these windows could help us be better global citizens and teach us ways to navigate, honor culture, and make prosocial choices?

When thinking of windows, consider:

Who are my students?

What are their interests?

What do my students find curious?

What world knowledge can we build together?

What connections to prior knowledge can we make?

Through what ways can I learn different things about my students?

Stories as Mirrors
Mirrors allow us to see ourselves. They show us what we look like, they let us examine ourselves, and they can give us a glimpse of our ancestry and heritage. Sometimes a mirror will show you a part of you that you did not notice before, and there is beauty in that. When choosing stories, they should reflect images of our students' multiple identities and the world we truly live in.

Seeing ourselves in literature is a gift. It is an empowering experience as a reader to see a protagonist who has a similar name to us and shares a similar background. It is uplifting to meet a character who is like you in some way and relate to them, watch them develop and grow over time in a way that is not cliche. It is inspiring to read an author's work whose voice feels like that of a family member. It is special to be able to connect with a person you will never get to meet. These mirrors help us see ourselves in relation to the world and help us build connection and a sense of belonging. They also show readers what is possible.

When thinking of mirrors, consider:

What more do I need to know about my students?

What are their funds of knowledge?

How does intersectionality live in our learning spaces?

How do my students see themselves?

What activities can I design to help students explore their identity/identities?

How can I prepare myself so I can best support students in this process?

Thinking Critically About The Texts
We love to tout "rich texts" and "complex texts" but what does that really mean when white authors are massively overrepresented and authors of color are virtually absent in our public school curricula?

When selecting texts, some teachers use the Text Complexity Model, which takes into account:

Qualitative measures: the makeup of a text including its knowledge demands and levels of meaning

Quantitative measures: things like Lexile level, text difficulty, and readability.

The reader and task: the reader's background, their reading skills and metacognitive reading strategies, prior experiences and funds of knowledge, developmental levels of appropriateness, and the task itself.

I would argue that teachers should also use a critical race lens when selecting texts. To have a critical race lens means to understand oneself deeply in relation to dominant culture and its racist and oppressive systems and policies. It also involves seeing how our experiences may differ from others based on these systems and policies. Teachers who have this awareness can call out racism in various settings. In terms of text selection, they can choose texts that counter the single story and false narratives as well as challenge token inclusion and interrupt dominant ideologies around assimilation and meritocracy in the existing curriculum.

Here are some questions to help facilitate your text selection process:

Author and Identity-- Who wrote this? Can you use poets, artists, and other creatives as storytellers? What values do these authors stand for? Do they have the right to carry BIPOC voices?

Characters and Character Development-- Who is the protagonist and how are they developed? What characters are represented and are they misrepresented? Does the character development perpetuate stereotypes or false and harmful narratives? What role does intersectionality play in the story? Do characters look like the different yet full selves of your students?

Themes and Ideas-- Do themes mirror assimilationist ideology and make students feel like they need to conform to dominant culture? Do themes teach students that working hard is all you need to do to succeed? Do the hardships and resolutions of stories encourage students to follow the status quo? Are you willing to get rid of texts that do this? Are you prepared to provide students with counter narratives? Do the ideas of the texts uphold white supremacist culture or capitalist culture? For example, ideas of false urgency, perfectionism, and individualism?

Joy and Resilience-- Do your texts highlight and showcase the joy of Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color? Do your texts (stories, songs, poems, narratives, articles, art expressions) tell and showcase counter narratives? Do you celebrate joy and tell stories of joy beyond heritage months? If you recognize and applause students for resilience, how do you demonstrate to them why they're resilient and have had to be resilient? How often are the stories you tell ones of destruction and death? Do your texts explain why students have "grit" and resilience?

Language-- Does the language in a text cause harm, marginalize, exclude, etc.? How is language or differences in language portrayed in the text? Is it negative? How can we honor students' home language and language variants in the texts we put in front of students?

A Quick Note About Nonfiction Texts

There is an abundance of nonfiction texts to choose from in the age of information and ever flowing news cycles. You may choose to analyze articles, news stories, opinion pieces, Tweets, headlines, graphs and charts, and other informational texts. Either way, it is equally important that we choose texts that help teach students about themselves and social issues that arise and those that are all around us. Consider the role you might play in gatekeeping or withholding important information our students deserve to know.

I know that we are all doing and holding a lot as teachers. Whether you are teaching in a classroom, from a distance, or in a hybrid or blended learning environment, know that you are not alone. May you continue to show up and bring life to the stories that matter.

Thank you for the support around this post. The purpose of this edit is to amplify and give credit to Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. I would be remiss to not name Dr. Bishop and her influence on my understanding of this analogy. Whether it was through a video I watched, a professional development session, or an article I read, her work made a lasting impact on my instructional practice.

In our collective mission of becoming actively antiracist and pushing our practice when it comes to elements like critical literacy, diversifying and decolonizing our libraries, and cultural responsivity, we encounter the work of tremendous and revolutionary thinkers, many of whom are Black women. As we continue to study, learn, and spread knowledge, I encourage you to do some intellectual digging! Who influenced this? Where did this idea come from? Who led this work? And then share and credit that knowledge.

Learn more about Dr. Bishop:

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the importance of windows and mirrors in stories

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The Importance of Windows and Mirrors in Stories | PBS Education

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Your source for teaching inspiration, blogs, and online professional events.

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18 Activities to Engage Students in Non-Fiction Texts

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18 Activities to Engage Students in Non-Fiction Texts

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Great ideas under each individual activity!

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18 Warm-Up Activities to Engage Students Before They Read Nonfiction Texts (Published 2021)

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Here is a collection of our favorite “bell ringers,” “do nows” and “hooks” to grab students’ attention, along with examples from dozens of our daily lessons.

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Blast from the Past: First published on January 4, 2020. Usually my Blasts from the Past are older than this one. However, it seems worthwhile to reissue this now for two reasons. First, Schutz & Rainey, 2020 published a wonderful analysis of modeling (Reading Teacher) about the same time this blog first appeared. They emphasized showing, situating, and abstracting -- with a strong focus on the "invisible parts" of reading (what we do inside our heads). Nice piece of work. Second, and, perhaps, more urgent is the fact that with so much distance teaching going on modeling appears to be more in fashion than ever before. In a classroom the teacher might just tell kids to do something without a demonstration -- figuring that they'll be able to fix any problems with careful observation of the students' attempts. That is a less plausible approach at a distance. That makes modeling more important today than it was last January. To model well, we need to show students how (including the invisible parts), situate these demonstrations in familiar contexts (so kids know when to use the model), and abstract the models (pulling the processes apart into steps with clear labels). Whether your focus at the moment is on decoding or comprehension, modeling is a valuable aspect of quality teaching. Good luck. Teacher question: What do you think about "modeling" in literacy instruction?
Shanahan's reply:

Tyler's mom sent me the video. It was riveting.

Like many 21 st century parents she had a camera going in the nursery at naptime. And, the camera revealed something pretty cool during an afternoon nap.

Tyler was a toddler. He had started day care recently, the youngest kid there.

Now he was in his crib and supposed to be sleeping. But Tyler had his book and was jabbering away.

He wasn't pretending to read so much as he was pretending to read to a group of kids. He'd hold up the book with the pictures facing out and, unmistakably, with the rhythm and cadences of an adult reading a picture book to children, he'd babble for each page.

Back in the 1960s, social psychologist, Albert Bandura, pioneered the study of observational learning. He figured out that a great deal of human behavior was learned from... well, from watching what other humans did.

That might seem obvious, but it appears to be anything but when one views classroom literacy teaching. One study (Ros, 2009) conducted 170 hours of observation of 20 teachers and found only one example of a teacher modeling her thinking during reading.

Of course, when children observe adults, they do what Tyler did, they imitate or re-create the visible physical behaviors. That's why it's so easy for my grand-daughter, Olivia, to brandish her light sword like Princess Leia or move like a ballerina after the Nutcracker. Golfing, batting, vacuuming, fighting and so on all entail lots of imitable physical behaviors.

Reading and writing do, too, but external behaviors aren't the important part of what we teach about literacy. That's where mental modeling or metacognitive modeling comes in. Research (e.g., Palincsar, 1986) has supported the idea of using think alouds to reveal to learners what is going on cognitively during reading and writing - an idea long incorporated in direct or explicit instruction (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983; Reutzel, et al., 2013; Rupley & Blair, 2009).

Such cognitive modeling has a place to play in developing print awareness and book reading behaviors (the things Tyler focused on), but it can help with decoding, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension strategies, and writing processes, too. Which is why it's troubling that modeling is used so rarely and so poorly in literacy teaching.

One ubiquitous example of teachers thinking they are providing a powerful model for student imitation is what is often referred to in lesson plans as "model reading." You know, a teacher read aloud. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't oppose teachers reading to kids, but if the idea is to improve kids' reading fluency - as many teachers claim - then it's poor modeling.

Let's first quibble over the terms, "models" or "modeling." Personally, for teaching, I prefer to talk about "demonstrations," not models. "Model" seems less intentional or insistent than demonstration. Models seem passive to me - you may or may not imitate them. But demos are more about trying to put an idea across to someone - like teaching.

When I was learning ballroom dancing, my inability to observe and interpret sequential movement was an embarrassment. My teacher would show me what to do, and I'd respond with bizarre moves. She'd then stand next to me, facing the same direction so I'd not need to reverse her movements in my head, and we'd try again, often as clumsily as before. Sometimes it was so bad that she literally got down on hands and knees and moved my feet herself. She wasn't passively hoping I'd see her movements as a model and try to ape them. No, she was trying to teach me to dance, and demonstration was an important tool in her toolbelt.

Researchers have found that students with dyslexia often have trouble learning sequential actions because of their own difficulties with observation (Menghini, et al., 2011). That suggests the possibility that some kids might struggle to follow your literacy demonstrations as much as I did with the foxtrot.

How can we use demonstrations most effectively to teach reading?

One valuable insight is to tip kids off as to what they are to notice prior to a demonstration (Andrieux & Proteau, 2016). Whether I'm to learn how the letters get connected in handwriting, or how to choose which of my brainstormed topics is the best one to use for my composition, or what happens to the reader's voice when the sentence ends with a question mark, the demo is likely to be most effective when the observers know what to watch or listen for. (And, general attention matters, too. Don't get so involved in your demonstration that you don't notice that the kids are looking out the window. Make sure eyes and ears are focused on the demonstration... it's called observational learning for a reason).

Another thing that can help is to segment the demonstration into smaller steps. Observational learning can be blocked by cognitive overload. If there is too much information coming in, then there will be too little learning. That's why so-called "model reading" doesn't improve student fluency, there is simply too much information for students to be able to remember and transferring such a demonstration to different text will be a bridge too far for many kids.

When I'm showing kids how to read fluently, I limit my demonstrations to a single sentence, and then have the students try to read that same sentence. More than that overburdens their memories. Perhaps you may want to provide an overall model, "Boys and girls, I'm going to read this page or this chapter to you, and I want you to notice how I read it. What do I sound like?" and so on. But, if you want kids to actually try to read like that, now you need to work with smaller segments that the students are going to try themselves, and memory plays a big part in that kind of performance.

The teaching sequence is demonstration, prompt, practice. You demonstrate the process or action that you want students to duplicate, then you put them in a situation in which they can try to do that, and then you provide guidance and support as they practice the behavior. Thus, when a youngster is trying to read the text fluently, and he or she goes chopping through a sentence disfluently, I'll stop them, demonstrate what that sentence should sound like, and then have them try it themselves.

Many teachers have gotten the idea demonstrations aren't that important, that it is better for kids to learn by doing. Even when teachers do model for their students, it is often a one-time affair. When teaching comprehension strategies, the teacher may show students how to predict or self-question on day one, but that will be the last demo of that information those kids are going to see. However, a study with ninth graders found that when it came to writing, observation was more effective than learning-by-doing (Couzijn, 1999). Deliberate practice matters, but students often don't know what to practice and that's where demonstrations come in.

In my fluency example, it sounded so simple. The student reads a sentence badly, I show him how it should be done, and then he can do it himself. That happens sometimes, but other times, the youngster's second reading is more like my dancing. I may have to show him again, perhaps telling him what to pay attention to this time or reading only the first clause instead of the whole sentence. Demonstrations and re-demonstrations should be a usual part of your teaching.

Some teachers and parents fear that if kids see or hear something that isn't correct that the errant info will be permanently imprinted in their brains. That, for instance, puts some off the idea of "invented spelling," in which kids try to write as well as they can without looking up words in the dictionary or asking others how they are spelled.

However, when it comes to observational learning, research has shown repeatedly that expert models aren't as powerful as the opportunity to contrast expert and flawed models (Rohbanfard & Proeau, 2011). Thus, having kids comparing their spelling attempts with the correct spellings can help, as can having them compare audiotapes of their oral reading with an expert model. When I demonstrate oral reading fluency, I sometimes give flawed examples myself, reading too fast or too slow, skipping words, mispronouncing, droning on in a monotone and the like. The kids will tell me what's wrong with my demonstration... "It's too bumpy," they point out when I pause too long between words.

Research is clear that observational learning is valuable and that there are ways teachers can use demonstration more effectively than others. Coaching can improve modeling (Davis, et al., 2018), unfortunately, not all teachers have expert coaches available to help them improve their teaching quality.

If you want to get good at demonstrations, rehearse! I know demonstrating can appear easy, but practicing can really help. Rehearsal will help you to reduce unnecessary information, prevent confusion, and divide the task up sensibly. It can help identify what students should be told to watch for.

Demonstration fits into reading instruction in lots of places. I've already given several oral reading fluency examples. But demonstrations are appropriate for other aspects of literacy instruction, too. For example,

1. Print awareness and concepts of print

When teachers read aloud big books, they can demonstrate directionality, return sweeps at the ends of lines, or what happens at the end of a page. Pointing to the words may give kids a clue as to what is being read and can helps kids develop concept of word.

Often, we teach phonemes and spelling patterns, but without sufficient guided application in sounding out words. Studies have shown that teaching kids to "blend" improves the effectiveness of phonics teaching (Pflaum, 1980), and I suspect at least part of this benefit is from the decoding demo it provides. Demonstrations can show children what good readers do when stuck on an unknown word (and, no, it isn't look at the picture and guess).

3. Comprehension strategies

Research shows that teaching students to summarize, self-question, bring prior knowledge to bear, visualize, and so on are beneficial. Studies also show that "gradual release of responsibility" is a particularly effective way to teach (Shanahan, et al., 2010). In this approach, a teacher demonstrates the mental moves she is going to make during reading, then gradually has the students imitate these moves; the "I do it, we do it, you do it" approach.

4. Writing processes

Teacher demonstrations can play a big role in teaching kids how to plan their writing, how to draft, revise, and edit.

Demonstrations should be a regular occurrence in your teaching. Try to make those demonstrations as powerful and effective as you can.

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What do you think about "modeling" in literacy instruction? | Shanahan on Literacy

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Blast from the Past: First published on January 4, 2020. Usually my Blasts from the Past are older than this one. However, it seems worthwhile to reissue this now for two reasons. First, Schutz & Rainey, 2020 published a wonderful analysis of modeling (Reading Teacher) about the same time this blog first appeared.

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*Be sure to create a Council Bluffs account for this resource in order to obtain the information for free.

This course is designed to introduce educators to fundamentals of systematic and explicit literacy instruction, including strategies for setting objectives, sequencing skills, and providing practice and review.

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Language Arts

This example of a framed paragraph centers on Holidays and provides additional space for students to re-write the completed paragraph. See example ›

Math

This site includes an example of using a framed paragraph for writing a description about decimals. See example ›

Social Studies

This example shows how teachers can use a writing frame to develop a "compare" and "contrast" essay. See example ›

English Language Learners

Support academic language conversation with sentence frames. Watch classroom video and get supporting materials › (Teaching Channel)

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Framed paragraphs are pre-writing tools that help students write well-developed paragraphs. They are skeleton formats containing information about the main ideas and transition words that guide the organization and the development of supportive details. Framed paragraphs offer a structure for students to use as they begin to write paragraphs and essays.

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Oh goodness, everybody's least favorite topic (except maybe Tim Rasinski). What I'm talking about is fluency instruction/practice for older students... grades 4 and up, let's say.

No one gets too bent out of shape if I talk about little kids working on their oral reading, but when those young'uns reach 9- or 10-years-old that presumably is baby stuff.

I get why that is.

First, the research on fluency instruction has focused heavily on two groups: kids in grades 1-4 and remedial readers in grades 1-12 (NICHD, 2001). I can't tell a 6 th grade teacher that there is research showing that if she devotes sufficient time to fluency her students will do better with reading comprehension. My own professional practice suggests that it can be powerful but that's a different level of support.

Second, round robin reading has given oral reading a bad name. Most teachers have memories of hating round robin when they were kids, so being enlightened they avoid oral reading at much cost. Kids should be able to develop fluency from silent reading practice. Unfortunately, you can't tell if kids are making progress unless you listen to them read and it is hard to intervene and help without that kind of monitoring. Practice can "make perfect" as the old saying claims but it often doesn't. (Given this, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that research has found the amount of oral reading practice in high school is correlated with reading achievement gains more closely than the amount of in class silent reading practice (Stallings, 1980).

Third, older kids will often resist. One of my least favorite instructional activities (Popcorn) sometimes results in kids balking: "You can call on me, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to read aloud to the class!"

Recently, I've astonished some teachers and district administrators by encouraging fluency teaching with older kids. They are getting a lot of pressure these days to emphasize phonics - yeah, phonics in regular high school English classes (which I think is lunatic) and they have no idea that oral reading fluency instruction has been found to improve kids' word reading and decoding. Many of these kids have had a ton of phonics instruction and don't know how to apply it. Fluency instruction began with the notion that such practice would enable the application of what the kids had already learned about letters, sounds, spelling patterns.

Don't get me wrong. There definitely are a relatively small number of high school kids who would likely get some benefit from explicit phonics. That instruction, however, should be relegated to remedial reading or special education, not the English class. Likewise, the idea of English classes devoting some of their valuable minutes to morphological study - which can impact decoding - makes great sense, too. That should be a regular part of the vocabulary teaching that should be going on.

Nevertheless, fluency training can have a remarkable impact on kids' reading comprehension in the upper grades - most likely by consolidating what those kids have already learned about decoding along the way.

Let me define and explain a few basic ideas about fluency and then the rest of this blog is aimed at providing instructional advice on fluency teaching with older students.

Fluency refers to the ability to read text accurately, with automaticity, and with proper expression (NICHD, 2001).

Accuracy is about reading an author's words. If you don't do that, then miscomprehension may occur. Students must get into the habit of respecting authors. That means reading the words that the author put on the page, rather than replacing them with context-based guesses as to what may have been meant. Words matter and becoming an effective reader requires reading the author's words; not substituting them with our own.

This word reading must be accomplished with automaticity. That means reading the words accurately without conscious attention. Automaticity is usually estimated by tracking reading speed. If a student reads text too slowly, comprehension deteriorates. Adult proficient readers read text aloud at about 166-178 words correct per minute (Baer, et al., 2009). Fourth graders who read at fewer than 100 words correct per minute tend to be "below basic" in reading comprehension. Reading so slowly makes it difficult to integrate information. By the time you get to the end of the sentence, you've likely lost the thread of the first part.

Proper expression is important because there are many aspects to translating text that are not on the page. Except for punctuation, authors do little to help readers to group words together, pause appropriately, or raise or lower pitch. If you don't get those things right it can be difficult to understand.

Here are some activities that have been used successfully in upper elementary, middle, and high school.
Instructional Activities Aimed at Building Fluency
Paired reading: Pair students up. Have them take turns reading the text to each other. One student read a page or paragraph and the other gives feedback. Then the students switch roles. During this activity, the teacher circulates throughout the room, giving feedback as needed. Link some comprehension work to this. At the end of each section of reading, have the students determine the main point(s) of that section or compose a good test question about that part of the material.

Repeated Reading: Students read aloud a portion of text (perhaps a 100-word chunk, or the first couple of paragraphs). The teacher or another student gives feedback, and the student tries it again. This repetition continues three times or until the student can read it with 99% accuracy, at more than 100 words per minute, and with expression that suggests successful comprehension (White, et al., 2021). This can be combined with paired reading. Repeated reading is especially valuable with content materials. Understanding such texts often requires this kind of intensive rereading anyway, so the rereading is appropriate.

Pause, Prompt, Praise: Not all students are great fluency partners. PPP provides some support in this area. Partners and teachers are encouraged to give students some slack if a mistake is made. Let the student read to the end of the clause or sentence and see what they do. Better readers try to fix the mistake. That's the pause. But if a student can't remedy the error (or doesn't notice it), then provide a Prompt. If the mistake doesn't make sense, then give some feedback about meaning. If the word read doesn't look or sound like the word in the book, then direct the student to look more closely. If the student can't fix the error after one prompt, tell them what the word is. Finally, for anything done well, provide praise.

Recorded Readings: Students can make progress without much individual feedback. Consider having students record oral reading for homework. Have them read an assigned portion of text (no more than 5-10 minutes worth). To complete the assignment successfully, the students will likely need to practice prior to recording. Teacher can spot check these to check on performance. Again, it is a good idea to link to some comprehension tasks.

Chunking: Studies suggest that chunking can be helpful with older students. In this, the teacher initially provides text with phrasal boundaries marked. Students of all ability levels tend to get a boost from this material. After they have had some practice reading materials so marked, then give them unmarked texts and have them working in teams or individually to identify phrasal boundaries.
Here are some FAQs about Fluency Instruction
No, not all older students need fluency work. Some students are particularly good at fluency. If students can read grade level text with a high degree of accuracy, speeds of about 150 wcpm, and with proper expression, then fluency instruction/practice is a time waster. As kids progress through the grades, the proportion who are sufficiently fluent increases. Fewer students should require fluency work as time goes on.

Our students are getting low test scores in reading comprehension. Why no focusing on rather than fluency?

Low comprehension scores can result from many things. One of those things is fluency. For those kids, improving fluency has a direct positive impact on their reading comprehension.
How much fluency teaching should we provide?
I recommend up to 30 minutes a day of fluency instruction. But remember, this is across all classes. If every middle school or high school class provided 10 minutes of fluency work once or twice a week, that should do the trick.
Isn't oral reading embarrassing for struggling readers?
Fluency work is a kind of practice activity, not much different from Lebron James shooting free throws to get ready for a big game. Practice isn't embarrassing, as long as everyone recognizes it as practice. Most students enjoy the fluency work as it is involving, and they can see their own improvement. Avoid situations like round robin, in which a student is supposed to perform before the group or the whole class. But having everyone or half the class reading aloud at the same time does not get the same push back that more performance-oriented tasks do.
How do I pair the kids?
Don't make a big deal out of pairing up, as that can be a real time waster. One rule is to make sure that the students who are working together on a given day are using the same book. That's easy to do in most classrooms. A second rule is don't pair up the same kids all the time; kids differ in their ability to give feedback, so share the wealth.
Does fluency work make sense in a content classes like science or math?
Yes. It is important that students learn how to read those books well. If students are to become independent learners in algebra or chemistry, they must read those texts fluently. Technical subjects require that students read texts intensively, rereading some parts again and again. Unfortunately, many high school students read this material once for gist only. Fluency work can become a powerful way for teaching students how to understand these materials.
Paired reading, repeated reading, and the other recommended activities don't look difficult, but how do I know that they'll work?
Research on these techniques has found them to improve word reading, fluency, and reading comprehension. Whatever it is that students learn from fluency training with particular texts has been found to transfer to their performance with other texts.
References
Baer, J., Kutner, M., & Sabatini, J. (2009). Basic reading skills and the literacy of America's least literate adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

Stallings, J. A. (1980). Allocated academic learning time revisited, or beyond time on task." Educational Researcher 9 (11):11-16.

White, S., Sabatini, J., Park, B. J., Chen, J., Bernstein, J., and Li, M. (2021). The 2018 NAEP oral reading fluency study. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics.

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how to teach oral reading fluency to older students

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best practices to teach oral reading fluency to older students

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Teaching Oral Reading Fluency to Older Students

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Oh goodness, everybody's least favorite topic (except maybe Tim Rasinski). What I'm talking about is fluency instruction/practice for older students... grades 4 and up, let's say. No one gets too bent out of shape if I talk about little kids working on their oral reading, but when those young'uns reach 9- or 10-years-old that presumably is baby stuff.

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Print to Speech vs. Speech to Print: What's the Difference?

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Print to Speech vs. Speech to Print: What's the Difference?

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Reading Comprehension & Extensions *start at time stamp 1:28*

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Reading Comprehension & Extensions *start at time stamp 1:28*

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Listen to this episode from For the Love of Literacy podcast on Spotify. It is time to discuss how to make reading meaningful, especially for younger people. In this episode I share 10 tips for comprehension skill refinement & discuss extensions & other activities that can make reading more fun & engaging for everyone!

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Sold a Story with Education Reporter Emily Handford

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Sold a Story with Education Reporter Emily Handford

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Listen to Sold a Story on Spotify. Millions of kids can't read well. Scientists have known for decades how children learn to read but many schools are ignoring the research. They buy teacher training and books that are rooted in a disproven idea.

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Wiley Blevins: Choosing & Using Decodable Text

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Wiley Blevins: Choosing & Using Decodable Text

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Wiley Blevins - Choosing and Using Decodable Text

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5 Tips for Teaching Vocabulary | Shanahan on Literacy

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5 Tips for Teaching Vocabulary, This blog entry explores five principles of teaching vocabulary effectively so that students will better understand what they read.

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How can I solidify my own understanding of a strong foundation of reading & writing through word work?

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How can I solidify my own understanding of a strong foundation of reading & writing through word work?