Teaching, Reading, and Learning: The Reading League Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Rupen Fofaria is a storyteller at EDNC.org, where he examines how education policy shows up in classrooms and impacts teachers, students, and families. Rupen has invested much of his time since 2019 reporting stories about literacy instruction in North Carolina.  His stories about the body of research on how kids learn to read take readers inside classrooms, advance student and family narratives, explore challenges for early reading teachers, and study best practices in colleges of education. Prior to joining EdNC, Rupen was an attorney in Raleigh and Chicago, practicing start-up and intellectual property law.  In his (much) younger days, he was a sports writer for ESPN.com, the Raleigh News and Observer, and the Orlando Sentinel. Rupen’s passion is shining light on untold and underreported issues.

Further Resources and Rupen’s Picks:

• Rupen Fofaria and his reporting
• Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert by Anne Castles, Kathleen Rastle, and Kate Nation
• Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It by Mark Seidenberg
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Tristan Strong Series by Kwame Mbalia
• Theories of Adolescent Development by Barbara M. Newman and Philip R. Newman
• Y Guides
• “Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation, comes action.“  Tupac Shakur

Deborah is an education attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area currently representing families and students against school districts throughout Northern California. She is extremely passionate about her work and the rights of children with disabilities and children who are disproportionally affected by the failures of public schools. Deborah is an active member of the educational community and works with parents, teachers, administrators, service providers and local organizations to support the needs of vulnerable youth.

Deborah has spent her entire legal career working on behalf of children. As a law student she worked as a legal intern and special education advocate for Disability Rights California and Bay Area Legal Aide, then quickly became the managing associate at a special education law firm in the District of Columbia where she represented low-income families in court appointed special education cases. Prior to relocating back to the Bay Area, Deborah co-founded The School Justice Project (“SJP”), a legal services and advocacy organization serving older students with special education needs who are involved in Washington DC’s justice system. In 2013 Deborah started her own practice in Berkeley, California, Jacobson Education Law (“JEL”). In addition to her private practice, Deborah has worked as both co-counsel and of counsel for Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (“DREDF”), and she currently serves as Of Counsel for The East Bay Community Law Center in their Education Justice Clinic. 

Deborah has effectively and compassionately represented hundreds of clients in special education matters. She is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and provides trainings to local advocacy and parent groups.

Further Resources and Deborah’s Picks:

• More on the class action lawsuit against Berkeley Unified School District
• Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• The School Justice Project
• East Bay Community Law Center
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Rising Strong by Brene Brown

Pam Kastner, Ed.D., is an educational consultant at the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) in Harrisburg, where she serves as the State Lead Consultant for Literacy. Pam currently co-leads Pennsylvania’s Dyslexia Screening and Early Literacy Intervention Pilot Program extension and expansion for PaTTAN. In addition, she is part of a research team investigating the impact of explicit instruction in advanced phonemic awareness on student literacy outcomes. She serves on the statewide Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) team working extensively in the area of literacy, effective instruction, formative assessment, and professional learning communities. She has served in a number of leadership capacities at the district level and served as a Pennsylvania Distinguished Educator for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Pam is a certified Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) trainer and a certified reading specialist. Pam also has the honor of serving as the President of The Reading League Pennsylvania.

Today’s sponsor is Reading Horizons. Reading Horizons programs deliver proven supplemental core literacy instruction, based on the science of reading. The Reading Horizons podcast, named Podclassed, takes a deep dive into learning-focused topics such as structured literacy, social-emotional learning, dyslexia, and ed-tech with host, Laura Axtell—an educator and trainer with over 26 years of experience in instructional and administrative settings.  Visit readinghorizons.com/podcast to learn more.

Further Learning/Resources from Dr. Kastner

• Pam Kastner’s Comprehensive Literacy Collection 
• Emily Hanford’s APM Reports
• The Reading League Pennsylvania

 Pam’s Picks

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
• Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann

Linnea C. Ehri  Ph.D. is an American psychologist, currently Distinguished Professor Emerita of Educational Psychology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr. Ehri received her B.S. in Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle and her M.A. in Psychology at San Francisco University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.  Prior to joining the faculty of The Graduate Center CUNY as a Distinguished Professor in 1991, Linnea was a professor at the University of California, Davis.    

Linnea has served on editorial boards of nine scientific journals. She has published over 100 research papers and edited two books. Her studies have contributed to our understanding of psychological processes and sources of difficulty in learning to read and spell.

She has received awards for distinguished research from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR), American Educational Research Association, International Reading Association, and National Reading Conference. She is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, and past president of SSSR. She was a member of the National Reading Panel that was established by the U.S. Congress to evaluate evidence indicating effective methods of teaching reading. On this panel she chaired the committee that reviewed research on phonemic awareness instruction and systematic phonics instruction. 

Although Dr. Ehri has recently received Faculty Emeritus status, she continues to advise students and offer her expertise on literacy development and reading instruction.   Recent publications have examined the ways in which children and young adults learning orthographic mapping and spelling.

This podcast is sponsored by Heggerty. The Heggerty curricula has 35 weeks of phonological and phonemic awareness lesson plans aligned to the science of reading. Systematic daily lessons require minimal teacher prep time and take just 10-12 minutes to complete. The Heggerty curricula is available in both English and Spanish, and it's being used by thousands of school districts across the US, Canada, and Australia. Learn more about the curricula, our intervention book, and decodable readers at heggerty.org

Further Learning and Resources from Dr. Ehri

• Ehri, L.C. (2020). The science of learning to read words: A case for systematic phonics instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(1), S45-S60. Special Issue: The Science of Reading: Supports, Critiques, and Questions. 
• Ehri, L. (1998). Research on learning to read and spell:  A personal-historical perspective.  Scientific Studies of Reading, 2, 97-114.
• Ehri, L. (2005). Development of sight word reading: Phases and findings. In M. Snowling & C. Hulme,(Eds.), The science of reading, a handbook (pp. 135-154). UK: Blackwell.
• Ehri, L.C. (2014). Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5–21. 

Further Reading and Exploration

• Bhattacharya, A. & Ehri, L. (2004). Graphosyllabic analysis helps adolescent struggling readers read and spell words. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37, 331-348.
• Boyer, N., & Ehri, L.C. (2011). Contribution of phonemic segmentation instruction with letters and articulation pictures to word reading and spelling in beginners. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(5), 440–470.
• Chambré, S.J., Ehri, L.C., & Ness, M. (2020). Phonological decoding enhances orthographic facilitation of vocabulary learning in first graders. Reading and Writing, 33(5), 1133–1162. 
• Gaskins, I., Ehri, L., Cress, C., O'Hara, C., & Donnelly, K.  (1996). Procedures for word learning:  Making discoveries about words.  The Reading Teacher, 50, 312-327.
• Gonzalez-Frey, S.M., & Ehri, L.C. (2021). Connected phonation is more effective than segmented phonation for teaching beginning readers to decode unfamiliar words. Scientific Studies of Reading, 25(3), 272-285.
• Rosenthal, J. & Ehri, L. (2008). The mnemonic value of orthography for vocabulary learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 175-191.
• Sargiani, R., Ehri, L., & Maluf, M.R. (in press). Teaching beginners to decode consonant-vowel syllables using grapheme-phoneme subunits facilitates reading and spelling compared to teaching whole syllable decoding. Reading Research Quarterly.
• Shmidman, A. & Ehri, L. (2010). Embedded picture mnemonics to learn letters. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14, 159-182.

Other works mentioned by Dr. Ehri

• Noam Chomsky
• Jeanne Chall
• Phonology and the Problems of Learning to Read and Write by Liberman and Shankweiler  

Linnea’s Picks

• The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton
• A Promised Land by Barak Obama

Dr. Maryanne Wolf is a scholar, a teacher, and an advocate for children and literacy around the world. She is the Director of the newly created Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Previously she was the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service and Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. She is the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (2007), Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain (2001), Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century (2016), and Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018). 

Dr. Wolf’s many awards include the highest honors from International Dyslexia Association and The Dyslexia Foundation; Distinguished Researcher of the Year for Learning Disabilities in Australia;   Distinguished Teacher of the Year from the American Psychological Association; and the Christopher Columbus Award for Intellectual Innovation for co-founding  Curious Learning: A Global Literacy Initiative, with deployments in Africa, India, Australia, and rural United States.  She is also the recipient of The Reading League’s Benita Blachman award in honor of her extraordinary contributions to literacy. Finally, Maryanne has been elected to the Vatican Academy of Science. 

Today’s sponsor is Reading Horizons. Reading Horizons programs deliver proven supplemental core literacy instruction, based on the science of reading. The Reading Horizons podcast, named Podclassed, takes a deep dive into learning-focused topics such as structured literacy, social-emotional learning, dyslexia, and ed-tech with host, Laura Axtell—an educator and trainer with over 26 years of experience in instructional and administrative settings.  Visit readinghorizons.com/podcast to learn more.

Further Reading and Exploration

• Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf 
• Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain by Maryanne Wolf 
• Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century by Maryanne Wolf 
• Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in the Digital World by Maryanne Wolf
• The Coming Literacy Crisis: There’s No Going Back to School as We Know It by Comer Yates, Renee Boynton-Jarrett, and Maryanne Wolf 

Maryanne’s Picks

• Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life By James Martin 
• The writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The writings of Father John S. Dunne
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Noam Chomsky and Carol Chomsky 
• Jeanne Chall  
• How We Read Now by Naomi S. Baron 
• Crash Landing on You (Television series; Netflix)
• Find Yourself (Television series; Netflix)

Parker J. Palmer is a writer, speaker, activist, and founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal. His wisdom has reached millions worldwide through his ten books, including the best-selling Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, and A Hidden Wholeness. His latest bestseller is On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old (2018). Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, and 13 honorary doctorates. The Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 educators, named him one of the 30 “most influential senior leaders” in higher education and one of the 10 key “agenda-setters” of the past decade. In 2010, Palmer was given the William Rainey Harper Award whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, and Paolo Freire.  For twenty years, the Accrediting Commission for Graduate Medical Education has given annual Parker J. Palmer “Courage to Teach” and “Courage to Lead” Awards to directors of exemplary medical residency programs. Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer, was published in 2005. A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), Dr. Palmer and his wife, Sharon L. Palmer, live in Madison, Wisconsin.

This episode is brought to you by The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE). The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education has been helping teachers make that happen for 25 years by offering extensive training and virtual teaching resources. Learn how to apply IMSE’s IDA-Accredited Orton-Gillingham approach based on the science of reading by signing up for their virtual trainings this spring and summer.  Visit IMSE.com to learn more and register for their courses.

Further Reading and Exploration

• Books by Parker J. Palmer 
• To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey by Parker Palmer
• Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer
• The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring by Parker Palmer
• A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life by Parker Palmer
• The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life by Parker Palmer
• The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life by Parker Palmer 
• The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal by Parker Palmer
• Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker Palmer
• The Courage to Teach Guide to Reflection and Renewal by Parker Palmer
• On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old by Parker Palmer
• Parker’s Facebook Page 
• The Growing Edge Podcast with Parker Palmer and Carrie Newcomer
• Howard Thurman 
• Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet by Gregory C. Ellison II 
• Breathe for Change 
• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

Parker J. Palmer is a writer, speaker, activist, and founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal. His wisdom has reached millions worldwide through his ten books, including the best-selling Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, and A Hidden Wholeness. His latest bestseller is On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old (2018). Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, and 13 honorary doctorates. The Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 educators, named him one of the 30 “most influential senior leaders” in higher education and one of the 10 key “agenda-setters” of the past decade. In 2010, Palmer was given the William Rainey Harper Award whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, and Paolo Freire.  For twenty years, the Accrediting Commission for Graduate Medical Education has given annual Parker J. Palmer “Courage to Teach” and “Courage to Lead” Awards to directors of exemplary medical residency programs. Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer, was published in 2005. A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), Dr. Palmer and his wife, Sharon L. Palmer, live in Madison, Wisconsin.

This episode is brought to you by The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE). The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education has been helping teachers make that happen for 25 years by offering extensive training and virtual teaching resources. Learn how to apply IMSE’s IDA-Accredited Orton-Gillingham approach based on the science of reading by signing up for their virtual trainings this spring and summer.  Visit IMSE.com to learn more and register for their courses.

Further Reading and Exploration

• Books by Parker J. Palmer 
• To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey by Parker Palmer
• Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer
• The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring by Parker Palmer
• A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life by Parker Palmer
• The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life by Parker Palmer
• The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life by Parker Palmer 
• The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal by Parker Palmer
• Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker Palmer
• The Courage to Teach Guide to Reflection and Renewal by Parker Palmer
• On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old by Parker Palmer
• Parker’s Facebook Page 
• The Growing Edge Podcast with Parker Palmer and Carrie Newcomer
• Howard Thurman 
• Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet by Gregory C. Ellison II 
• Breathe for Change 
• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

Anita L. Archer, PhD, is an educational consultant to school districts on explicit instruction, the design and delivery of instruction, behavior management, and literacy instruction. She has taught elementary and middle school students and is the recipient of 10 awards honoring her excellence in teaching and contributions to the field of education. Dr. Archer has served on the faculties of San Diego State University, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Oregon in Eugene. She is nationally known for her professional development activities, having presented in every state over the course of her 50-year career. Dr. Archer is coauthor, with Dr. Mary Gleason, of numerous curriculum materials addressing reading, writing, and study skills.  Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Anita’s primary home is in Portland, Oregon where she enjoys entertaining friends, attending symphony and opera performances, and practicing her cello.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by Mount St. Joseph University. Mount St. Joseph University offers a number of programs for educators interested in graduate or doctoral work focused on the Science of Reading. To learn more visit msj.edu/reading-science.

Further Reading and Exploration

• Anita Archer’s Website (including amazing videos)
• Utilizing Explicit Instruction (video)
• Explicit Instruction; Effective and Efficient Teaching by Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes
• John Hattie
• Siegfried “Zig” Engelman
• The Writing Revolution by Natalie Wexler and Judith Hochman  
• Powerful Teaching; Unleash the Science of Learning by Pooja K. Agarwal and Patrice M. Bain
• The Reading Comprehension Blueprint; Helping Students Make Meaning from Text by Nancy Hennessy  
• Reading Development and Difficulties by David A. Kilpatrick (Ed.), R. Malatesha Joshi (Ed.), and Richard K. Wagner (Ed.)  

Anita’s Picks

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 
• How Love Wins by Doug Carnine  

Jessica Pasik is a licensed New York state reading specialist in the Fulton City School District. She received her Masters of Science in Literacy Education from SUNY Oswego and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Literacy there. She previously received her Bachelor of Science degree in Childhood Education from the SUNY Geneseo and is certified in elementary and special education grades K-6. She formerly taught special education at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES and the Fulton City School District. She is also a private tutor and is a passionate advocate for evidence-based practices in reading instruction. Jessica is currently a TRL Board Member at Large.

This podcast is brought to you by Mount St. Joseph University. Mount St. Joseph University offers a number of programs for educators interested in graduate or doctoral work focused on the Science of Reading. To learn more visit msj.edu/reading-science

Further Reading and Exploration

• The Reading League
• The Reading League YouTube Channel

Jessica’s Picks

• Harry Potter series
• Love, Teach by Kelly Treleaven
• Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf

Prior to founding The Reading League, Dr. Maria Murray was an associate professor at the State University of New York at Oswego, where she taught courses related to literacy assessment and intervention.  She received her Ph.D. in Reading Education from Syracuse University, where she served as project coordinator for Dr. Benita Blachman’s numerous federally-funded early reading intervention grants. Maria is passionate regarding the prevention and remediation of reading difficulty, and consistently strives to increase educator knowledge and the connections between research and practice. On a personal note, Maria is happily married to Danny and has  two children, Katie and Mark, and is also mom to her dogs Lady and Tikani. 

Dr. Jorene Cook is an Early Literacy Coach in the Syracuse City School District and part-time Instructor at Utica College. She has worked in the public school system for 23 years, her earlier years working as an elementary school teacher.  She is also a national LETRS trainer. Her doctoral research investigated how schools and school systems in Central New York support students with dyslexia and their families. Her interest in advocacy, systems thinking, and policy work led her to become a Partner in Policymaking in 2015. Jorene is the president of the Board of The Reading League. On a personal note, Dr. Cook is happily married to her best friend. They have two teens-Evan (16) and Brody (14). 

This podcast is brought to you by Great Minds. We encourage you to take a moment and view their website at https://gm.greatminds.org/trl2021podcast  

Further Reading and Exploration

• The Reading League
• The Reading League YouTube Channel
• Jorene Cook’s YouTube Channel, “In the Loop”

Maria’s and Jorene’s Picks

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
• Letter to My Son by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Make it Stick; The Science of Successful Learning by Henry Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel, and Peter C. Brown
• The Plant Paradox by Steven R. Gundry
• Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta L. Hammond