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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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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

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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)

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How can teachers effectively support advanced readers in elementary school? In this insightful episode, we’re joined by literacy expert Nancy Young to explore practical, evidence-based strategies for meeting the needs of gifted and high-achieving readers in the classroom.

Nancy shares her expertise on differentiation strategies, including offering choice in reading materials, using tiered assignments, and implementing project-based learning to keep advanced readers engaged. We also discuss how to encourage critical thinking, promote independent reading, and create meaningful peer discussion and mentorship opportunities.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, reading specialist, or literacy coach, this episode offers valuable tools and inspiration to elevate your elementary reading instruction and ensure all students—especially your strongest readers—are challenged and supported.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Updated Ladder of Reading & Writing with permissions for usage
2. Chapter 2 of her book-free download
3. Guided Inquiry Design
4. SEM-R. School-wide enrichment model for reading
5. William and Mary Center for Gifted Ed Resources
6. Climbing the Ladder of Reading & Writing by Nancy Young and Jan Hasbrouck *Amazon affiliate link
7. contact Nancy via her website
8. Acceleration Institute
9. Subject-specific acceleration across grade grouping *Google drive file download

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Shannon and Mary welcome Brandon Cardet-Hernadez from Mrs. Wordsmith to the RTL to chat about smart technology resources. They talk about intentional uses of technology resources for instructional purposes and what skills will be required as our students advance in the next part of the 21st century. Listeners will gain ideas for ways to incorporate technology to elevate students' learning.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Mrs. Wordsmith website
2. Edutopia article: SAMR model
3. How to use SAMR in Designing Instruction
4. Instagram for Mrs. Wordsmith
5. Facebook for Mrs. Wordsmith
6. Youtube for Mrs. Wordsmith
7. TikTok for Mrs. Wordsmith
8. Word Tag Vocabulary Learning app from Mrs. Wordsmith
9. Science of Reading white paper from Mrs. Wordsmith
10. Free Literacy resources from Mrs Wordsmith

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Shannon and Mary talk with Melissa Taylor from ImaginationSoup.net about the importance of nonfiction texts in a student's reading diet. They chat about the flexible comprehension strategies students need to organize the information gathered from nonfiction and text features and structures that are specific to nonfiction texts. Listeners should walk away inspired to put more NF texts in their readers hands.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Imagination Soup
2. Melissa's Article: Reading Nonfiction Prepares Kids for Success
3. Comprehension Strategies
4. types of NF texts
5. CBS Sunday Morning-Finland schools Media Literacy story
6. Refutational Texts
7. Melissa on IG
8. Melissa on FB

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Shannon and Mary welcome LaMonica Williams from Teaching Matters back to the Reading Teachers Lounge. This time they chat about professional development experiences and the most effective ways to bring about positive change in school systems. They discuss the differences between management and leadership and how to foster student-centered school improvement.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Changes that Stick (Kappan)
2. Teaching Matters website
3. NYC Reads
4. Student Focused Coaching by Jan Hasbrouck and Daryl Michel *Amazon affiliate link*
5. our previous episode with LaMonica Williams
6. The Good Struggle of Flexible Specificity
7. Reading Universe
8. LaMonica's Bio & Contact Information

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Shannon and Mary chat with Katherine Hamilton about maximizing the learning impact of co-teaching. The conversation is centered around an article from Choice Literacy written by Franki Sibberson titled Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind. The article proposes that co-teachers need to reflect and determine how their various teaching activities and strategies align into a cohesive instructional plan for the students, so that the readers can build transferable skills they can apply across the school-day.

RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:

1. Choice Literacy article by Franki Sibberson
2. Ensemble Learning
3. Thinking Maps
4. Six Approaches to CoTeaching
5. 6 Models of CoTeaching
6. Collaborative Team Teaching: Challenges and Rewards

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