Today’s guests are Drs. Laura Steacy and Don Compton, researchers who explore and write about the skill Set for Variability. You’ll hear them talk about this new area of research which offers an explanation for how students self-correct pronunciations of words when reading, and may have interesting implications for how we learn to remember spellings of irregular words. After my interview, I’m joined by my colleagues Macie Kerbs and Lainie Powell for a discussion about takeaways for the classroom.

My guest today is Dr. Peng Peng, co-author of a recently-published meta-analysis that examined the role of strategy instruction with struggling readers in grades 3-12. The analysis sought to understand which strategies, and which strategy combinations, are most important to prioritize in a time-crunched intervention setting. Later, I’m joined by my colleague Elisha Li for a conversation about practical takeaways for the classroom.

I’ve been obsessed with the US Open this year. I’m not a big sports watcher usually, but this time I was absolutely captivated. The athleticism, the sportsmanship, the players’ stories, the tension and drama. I watched so many hours of tennis.

Watching, I appreciated how it’s a mental game as much as a physical one.

I noticed players talking to themselves after an error—you could tell some were focused and undeterred, telling themselves “You’ve got this. Stay with it.” Others were visibly frustrated and angry at themselves, and I couldn’t hear, but I imagined they were saying, “C’mon. I can’t believe you missed that shot. You have to do better.” I’m inferring, of course, but I sensed it from their body language and facial expressions.

And I also watched the coaches.

My guests today are three authors of a recent article in The Reading Teacher about Maximizing Small Group Instruction: Dr. Kristin Conradi-Smith, Dr. Steve Amendum, and Tammy Williams. They’ll share essential recommendations for forming and conducting effective group lessons for readers. After our conversation, I’m joined by my colleagues Emily Strang-Campbell, Clarisa Leal, and Cristy Rauseo for a conversation about practical takeaways.

Today my guest is Dr. Margaret McKeown. We’ll start our conversation discussing vocabulary development and explicit vocabulary instruction, including how to choose words for instruction, how to teach words so students understand them deeply, and how to help students build connections between words. Our conversation then shifts to the Questioning the Author instructional intervention, which focuses on developing comprehension through conversation and can be used to foster independence and discussion amongst students. Later, I’m joined by my colleagues Gina Dignon and Rosie Maurantonio for a conversation about how we’ll bring what we learned to the classroom.

Many of the comprehension strategies in The Reading Strategies Book 2.0 aid interpretations and analysis of The Barbie Movie. Here is a small selection from just one of the chapters—Plot and Setting—and some of my thoughts about the movie, deepened by the use of these strategies.

Is the Reading Strategies Book 2.0 (Serravallo, 2023) aligned to the science of reading? Yes it is. Let’s unpack.

Learn more about Jennifer Serravallo’s Summer Camp 2023: A free online professional learning opportunity from July 10-25 2023 in her Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Group.

A short glossary of terms related to reading instruction offered as a way to clear up misconceptions and misunderstandings. Author Jennifer Serravallo defines terms such as Balanced Literacy, Structured Literacy, Whole Language, and more.

Jennifer Serravallo interviews guest Dr. Gholdy Muhammad about the importance of including qualitative research, her studies of the Black Literary Societies of the 1800s, and how that research has inspired her instructional framework which includes identity, skills, knowledge, criticality and joy. In the second half of the episode Jen is joined by colleagues Angie, Emily, Lea, and Jerry for a conversation about practical strategies and takeaways for the classroom.

Jennifer Serravallo interviews Dr. Edmund Adjapong, a scholar whose work focuses on engaging youth through culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies centered around embracing Hip Hop culture in the classroom. In the second half of the episode, Jen is joined her my colleague Elisha Li, and Eric Royo, elementary educator and founder and director of Hip Hop Building Blocks, for a discussion of ways to bring what we learned from Dr. Adjapong to the elementary and middle school ELA classroom.

Guest blogger Angie Forero responds to the To the Classroom podcast with guest scholars, Drs. Carla España and Luz Yadira Herrera, to continue the important conversation about ways to center and celebrate students’ linguistic practices. She includes a few frequently asked questions and helpful tips for practical classroom application based on her own experiences and curiosity about this topic.

Jennifer Serravallo interviews Dr. Carla España and Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera for a conversation about supporting bilingual and multilingual students in monolingual or dual language classrooms. They discuss culturally and linguistically-affirming and sustaining practices, their advice for choosing texts to use for literacy lessons, and they share examples of some lessons we can use in classrooms right away. In the second half, Jen is joined by her colleagues, bilingual educators and consultants, Cristy Rauseo, Clarisa Leal, and Angie Forero to discuss what we can bring to the classroom right away.

Jennifer Serravallo interviews Debbie Reese to talk about her scholarship focused on Native representation in children’s literature, her AICL resource, and advice for teachers about selecting texts to use in the classroom. In the second half, Jen is joined by colleagues Lainie Powell, Angie Forero, and Molly Wood to discuss practical takeaways.

Jennifer Serravallo interviews Dr. HyeJin Hwang about some of her recent studies focusing on knowledge building. They explore different models for understanding comprehension (Kinch’s Construction Integration Model and Connor’s Lattice Model), discuss implications for text selection and strategy instruction alongside knowledge-building. Jen is joined by colleague Gina Dignon for an extended conversation about practical takeaways.

Jennifer Serravallo, host of To the Classroom, interviews Dr. Tanya Wright, about her research focused on knowledge building and vocabulary, and comprehension. After the discussion about research, Jen is joined by college Macie Kerbs for a conversation about practical takeaways.

Podcast transcript for To the Classroom with Jennifer Serravallo and Rachael Gabriel.

A full transcript of To the Classroom Episode 8 with Gabriel DellaVecchia, Jennifer Serravallo, Lea Leibowitz, and Darren Victory. We discuss third grade retention laws.

Jennifer Serravallo interviews Dr. Henry May, a researcher who has looked into the popular first grade intervention Reading Recovery. They discuss results of two robust studies he was involved in—one showing strong positive effects in first grade, and another showing students who received the intervention underperformed years later on their third and fourth grade tests. We discuss why that might be, and what lessons we can learn about short term and ongoing interventions, as well as the ways that reading needs change and develop across grades K-4.