Reading researcher and author Dr. Mark Seidenberg talks with people working to improve literacy outcomes in the US and other countries. Teachers, school system administrators, activists, parents—and readers!—confront the hard questions about how to address low literacy outcomes, especially among children with other risk factors, such as poverty and development conditions such as dyslexia. Dr. Molly Farry-Thorn joins Mark in these conversations. Molly got her PhD at Washington University in St. Louis and now works with Mark as a postdoctoral researcher. She brings her perspective as a former preschool teacher and researcher of children’s pre-literacy skills. Together with our invited guests, we will focus on a specific topic and discuss how to bridge the gaps between researchers and educators. We want these meetings to be responsive to the needs and wants of our audience and an opportunity for a deeper dive into topics that are complicated and require nuance.
Part 1: Phonemes, Speech, and Reading
In this Reading Meeting Dr. Mark Seidenberg discusses what phonemes are, how children begin to learn about them, and the role print plays in discovering them.
Presentation Slides
Links and summaries for the research referenced
Part 2: Becoming Phonemic
In this Reading Meeting Dr. Mark Seidenberg continues the conversation about how phoneme awareness develops and the importance of experience with print to fully develop the awareness.
Presentation Slides
Links and summaries for the research referenced
Part 3: Reading, Learning, and Instruction
In this Reading Meeting Dr. Mark Seidenberg discusses what the research has to say about how learning happens and what that means for reading instruction.
Past Reading Meetings
Dr. Julie Washington
Professor in the School of Education at the University of California – Irvine (UCI)
Impact of dialect use on a basic component of learning to read
Teaching Reading to African American Children (Washington & Seidenberg, 2021)
Julie Washington’s Quest to Get Schools to Respect African-American English
Data on socioeconomic status referenced in the conversation
Mark’s illustration from the meeting of the different definitions for vowels in pronunciation and in spelling:
Watch RecordingPodcast Version
Dr. Devin Kearns
Associate Professor of Special Education in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut (UConn)
Lost in Translation? (Seidenberg, Cooper Borkenhagen, & Kearns, 2020)
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
Literacy How and Teacher Coaching
Margie Gillis, Ed.D
President of Literacy How, a research affiliate at Haskins Laboratories, and a Certified Academic Language Therapist
The Literacy How Reading Wheel – this webpage includes so much helpful information about the components of literacy instruction—including frequently asked questions and tips for teachers and principals
Literacy How Professional Learning Series books
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
Early Literacy Screening
Dr. Nadine Gaab
Associate Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
List of Early Literacy Screening Tools
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
Mark took wrote responses to some of the questions and comments in the chat from this meeting:
What Does Research Tell Us About Spelling Development?
Dr. Rebecca Treiman
Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
How words cast their spell. American Educator
Read this piece for a great overview of the research on spelling development
Learning to label letters by sounds or names: A comparison of England and the United States
List of publications (with PDFs)
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
Reading Simplified and Issues of Instructional Efficiency
Dr. Marnie Ginsberg
Founder of Reading Simplified
Blog posts on six Reading Simplified activities
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
April 25th Q & A with Mark & Molly
We really enjoyed taking questions from the live audience – we will definitely do a Q&A meeting again.
The video is timestamped with the topics we talked about so feel free to skip around!
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
How to Become a Critical User of Your Curriculum
Margaret Goldberg
Teacher, coach, and co-founder of The Right to Read Project
Margaret has kindly shared some of her go-to resources and an example of the kind of analysis of curriculum she does with coaches: Lesson Analysis
General resources:
University of Oregon: DIBELS 8
Resources for Progress-monitoring
School/District-wide Data-driven Decision Making
Example tools to determine instructional next-steps based on concrete data points:
(SIPPS-specific) Placement Test for Grouping Students According to Instructional Need
Guide to Decision Making: Oral Reading Fluency
Guide to Decision Making SIPPS Mastery Tests
A few other recommendations:
From Reach Every Reader, NCIL, FCRR, and CTL for parents to use: CBM at Home
From Nell Duke and colleagues: Free or Very Low Cost Early Literacy Assessments
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
What Is the Reading Teacher’s Top Ten Tools?
Dr. Deb Glaser
Teacher, consultant, professional development provider, and creator of The Reading Teacher’s Top Ten Tools
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
How to Build a Daily Schedule Based on the Science
Dr. Nell Duke
Professor in literacy, language, and culture at the University of Michigan
Nell’s website is full of resources so definitely check it out. Below are links to many of the specific resources she mentioned in our conversation:
10 Things Every Literacy Educator Should Know About Research
Literacy Research Methodologies
The piece where Nell compares teachers to ER doctors: Reading by Third Grade: How Policymakers Can Foster Early Literacy
Center for Black Educator Development
The study that looked at teacher specialization in elementary school: The “Pupil” Factory: Specialization and the Production of Human Capital in Schools
Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading
Nell’s video making the case for science and social studies instruction
The Listening to Reading—Watching While Writing Protocol
Meta-analysis on writing instruction: Effectiveness of Literacy Programs Balancing Reading and Writing Instruction
Nell’s video on online interactive writing instruction
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
Misunderstandings About Phonological Awareness
Dr. Susan Brady
Emerita Professor of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island
Susan’s article: A 2020 Perspective on Research Findings on Alphabetics (Phoneme Awareness and Phonics): Implications for Instruction (Expanded Version)
Watch Follow-Up
Podcast Version
What Is the Science of Reading and What’s in It for Me?
Donna Hejtmanek
IDA-WI Legislative Chair and creator of the Facebook group Science of Reading-What I Should Have Learned in College
The article Mark references in our conversation: Reading Science and Educational Practice: Some Tenets for Teachers
Watch Recording
Podcast Version
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