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Shannon and Mary welcome Dr. Timothy Shanahan to the Reading Teachers Lounge to quiet the noise within the literacy community and help us all realize the MOST important things we should be doing for our learners according to the reading research. Listeners will find out what practices and activities they should prioritize to improve their students' reading achievement.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives: How Students' Reading Achievement Has Been Held Back and What We Can Do About It by Timothy Shanahan (available for PreOrder) *Amazon affililate link
2. Dr. Shanahan's website (Shananan on Literacy)
3. Dr. Shananan's blog
4. Connect with Dr. Shananan via Facebook
5. Dr. Shananan's blog post about Comprehension (mentions text cohesion)
6. Are We Teaching Reading Comprehension Part II: 6 Things Every Teacher Should Know (blog post by Dr. Shananan)
7. 30 Second Mysteries *Amazon affiliate link
8. McGraw-Hill Science of Literacy Library:
   A free resource hub containing blogs, videos, research reports, and more— designed to connect teachers with practical classroom resources and Professional Learning tips.

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• Bonus episodes access through Patreon
• Free Rubrics Guide created by us
• Finding Good Books Guide created by us
• Information about our Patreon membership

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Shannon and Mary chat with Brandi Dugal from The Fidget Game, featured on Shark Tank, about unique ways to engage and motivate students to learn. They share methods for gamification, brain breaks, and other strategies teachers can use to increase student engagement. Listen for ideas to make reading more fun and how to help motivate even the most reluctant readers to get excited about their learning.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. The Fidget Game website
2. Fidget Game TikTok account
3. Shannon's favorite (FREE) growth mindset activities via TpT-lower grades
4. Shannon's favorite (FREE) growth mindset activities via TpT-upper grades
5. The Fidget Game for purchase *Amazon affiliate link
6. King Komodo game for purchase *Amazon affiliate link
7. SquishyLand game for purchase *Amazon affiliate link
8. The Vocabulary game for purchase *Amazon affiliate link
9. ASCD: New Thinking about Student Engagement

• Bonus Episodes access through your podcast app
• Bonus episodes access through Patreon
• Free Rubrics Guide created by us
• Finding Good Books Guide created by us
• Information about our Patreon membership

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Dr. Pete Bowers shared how Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) transforms spelling and vocabulary into tools for deep thinking - perfect for engaging advanced and struggling readers in the elementary reading classroom.
We encourage the listeners to also check out this episode on YouTube to learn from the visuals Dr. Bowers shared during the discussion (link is at the top of the show notes).

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Our Youtube link to the episode
2. Pete Bower's Word Works Kingston website: See MANY helpful links at the bottom of the page. We use this homepage as a hub for SWI information.
3. Dr. Bowers' Monday 5 pm EST office hours link
4. Real Spelling Toolbox
5. Active View of Reading Duke, Cartwright, 2021
6. Homophone Principle - described in this lesson
7. David Share: Self teaching
8. "Ultra-detailed brain map shows neurons that encode words’ meaning" Nature 631, 264 (2024)
9. Spelling Out Orthography demonstration video from Dr. Bowers
10. Document describing a SWI hunt for all the jobs of the final, non-syllabic
11. Video from Dr. Bowers with Marie Foley about The Nested Combinatorial Nature of English Spelling
12. 2025 Reading League presentation from Dr. Bowers about Morphological Instruction and Language Comprehension
13. Upcoming SWI Training in June 2025 with Pete Bowers and Rebecca Loveless
14. Upcoming 4 day in-person training with Dr. Bowers in July 2025 on Wolfe Island
15. Structured Word Inquiry: An Implementation Guide for Teachers by Jennifer A Constantine and Kara B Lee *Amazon affiliate link
16. Teaching How the Written Word Works by Peter Bowers (via www.wvced.com Store)

• Bonus Episodes access through your podcast app
• Bonus episodes access through Patreon
• Free Rubrics Guide created by us
• Finding Good Books Guide created by us
• Information about our Patreon membership

Support the show

• Get Literacy Support through our Patreon