Shannon and Mary chat about the recent debate in the science of reading community about whether phonemic awareness drills without letters are a worthwhile exercise for readers. They describe activities they've done with struggling readers to build phonemic awareness, and they talk about the use of those activities as a part of Tier 1 reading instruction.

Shannon and Mary chat with Emily Conlan from @wordmorphed_ on Instagram about Morphology. Emily shows how and where Morphology fits into structured literacy instruction and the science of reading. Their discussion provides easy ways to strengthen students' word meaning knowledge at different grade and age levels of readers.

Shannon describes some new ways she's helping her older elementary students learn how to encode and spell. Mary shares the SOS strategy for Spelling and explains the research about encoding and the brain processing that happens as students make spelling choices.

Shannon and Mary discuss the revised Ladder of Reading and Writing that was recently updated by Nancy Young. [Note: Our podcast has explicit permission from Nancy Young to use her Ladder infographic image and information with our audience.] In this episode we compare the updates to the Ladder to its original form and discuss the changes and how they may impact literacy instruction.

Shannon and Mary chat with Anna Boldog from Bookr Class about the Importance of Storytelling. They share their own memories and experiences with stories as readers and teachers. And they talk about what research shares about how storytelling impacts language and literacy development. This discussion should prompt your own memories of stories and how they've impacted your life, your instruction, and your readers.

Shannon and Mary chat with LaMonica Williams, Director of Programs for Teaching Matters, about how to support reading teachers and their students through intensive coaching and literacy training.

Shannon and Mary chat with literacy expert Wiley Blevins about the scope and sequence of phonics instruction. He describes his experience and the research behind the ordering of certain skills and shares practice tips & knowledge about teaching phonics in the classroom. He also details conceptual leaps that occur in readers as they advance their literacy development.