The Literacy Teacher's Life

The Literacy Teacher's Life

This podcast is for teachers and parents who are dedicated to helping young readers and writers thrive. Children are naturally curious and it’s our role as parents and teachers to provide them with support so they learn to love reading and writing. Between national standards and outside influences, there is a significant amount of pressure on teachers and parents around teaching young children to be successful readers and writers. My goal with this podcast is to support and provide guidance for new and continuing teachers so that they can design and implement literacy instruction that will inspire enthusiasm in young readers and writers. For parents of elementary-aged readers and writers, I hope that this podcast will demystify the process of teaching reading and writing. I will introduce the terms and practices that teachers use so that you will be in a better position to support your children’s love of literacy. With this podcast, I aim to provide guidance, reassurance, and confidence so that children - both at school and at home - are building the literacy foundation that they need to empower them throughout the rest of their lives. This is the podcast that will benefit teachers and parents so they can confidently take control of their role in nurturing tomorrow’s readers and writers.

Episodes

June 5, 2025 29 mins
In today's episode, New York Times Bestselling Author, Jen Calonita comes on to discuss her books as well as why she loves writing for the middle grade and young adult kids. She shares why it is so important to meet kids where they are and why connecting to kids' interests - at any age - is so important to get and keep kids reading. Jen is the author of many books, including The Lost Legend series, 12 to 22, The VIP series, and Is...
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We are back with the second half of my conversation with Susan! Susan is the author of The Swirl Method: Supporting Multilingual Learners as They Speak, Write, Interact, Read, and Listen. This week, Susan is taking us through her strategies to support multilingual learners with interacting, reading, and listening. She offers excellent resources in each area - so please check them out! This is the second part of a two-part episode....
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The Swirl Method: Supporting Multilingual Learners as They Speak, Write, Interact, Read, and Listen, written by Susan Katz addresses how we can support children who are multilingual learners. In this amazing resource, Susan identifies specific strategies in each area: speaking, writing, interacting, reading, and listening - that can be used in the literacy classroom to help learners thrive. This is a two-part episode. Today's epis...
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Brian Jordan is a former professional football and baseball player. He played football for the Atlanta Falcons and he played baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Texas Rangers. Brian believes that all kids need to learn to read. He has written a number of children's books, such as I Told You I Can Play!, Overcoming the Fear of Baseball, and Time-Out for Bullies. Brian is passionate about ...
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It's National Library Week! It's a great week to get involved and support your local library. Libraries are a reflection of the community they serve. You can check out new books and see what other events are happening at your library this week. On today's episode, American Library Association's President-Elect Sam Helmick joins me. We discuss what is happening with libraries at the moment. We also discuss National Library Week an...
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How can movement be included in learning to read? In today's episode, Elizabeth speaks with Stefanie Hohl, the creator of ABC See, Hear, Do, which is a multi-sensory approach to learning to read. Stefanie believes in getting kids moving when reading and she shares many ideas about how this can be done. In this episode, we discuss: - What a multi-sensory approach to literacy is? - How active kids can be supported when they are lea...
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Is handwriting important now that kids have access to technology and devices in school? Many parents are concerned about their children's penmanship. Should handwriting be taught in schools? The answer to these questions is yes. Handwriting should be taught in school (and so should cursive writing). Dr. Cheryl Lundy Swift is the Professional Learning Director at Learning Without Tears - the program that includes Handwriting Withou...
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What behaviors signal that kids are frustrated when they are reading? This week's episode focuses on three behaviors that can signal that kids may be frustrated when reading. The behaviors include: - Hanging onto one detail from the book - Looking for a distraction - Not having books that kids want to read Elizabeth explains these behaviors and offers some suggestions about how we as teachers (and parents) can support our elementar...
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The start of the new year brought a lot of questions about reading responses. It seems like teachers started assigning reading responses at the start of 2025. A question I kept getting is, "Do reading responses really help?" The short answer is yes, reading responses can help kids better understand what they read. Today's episode starts with the point of reading responses and what the research says about reading responses. I give t...
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Happy New Year! Welcome to 2025! In this first episode of 2025, Elizabeth is speaking with Kourtney Hake and Paige Timmerman about their recent book, Their Stories, Their Voices, which focuses on narrative writing and how to easily implement narrative writing units into your instruction. Paige and Kourtney discuss how they define narrative writing and talk about how they structured this book. They really worked to make it possible ...
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December 26, 2024 14 mins
Happy Holidays! It's the holiday edition of The Literacy Teacher's Podcast. In the spirit of the season of reflection, this week's episode is dedicated to taking the time to think about your teaching in 2024 - what went well and also what changes you want to make in 2025. Elizabeth focused on the following areas of her teaching this year: - Planning - Students - Instruction/Teaching - Materials for Students - Tools When Planning Ta...
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Should kids have independent reading time in school? In order for kids to become stronger and more engaged readers, they need time to read. But, that time needs to be intentional. We don't want kids spending independent reading time staring out the windows or re-reading the same page over and over to pass the time and check the work off the list. In this episode, I share five tips to make independent reading time more intentional a...
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How can we effectively teach literacy to students? In this episode, Norene Bunt speaks about her recent book, Solving the Literacy Puzzle, and how effective literacy instruction can be implemented. Some of the topics discussed include: - Effective literacy instruction - Components of literacy instruction at the elementary level - Comprehension and how to ensure that it is a focus of reading instruction You can check out Norene's b...
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This week's episode focuses on reading comprehension and how to include it into reading instruction. The following is addressed: - Why we read - How to assess reading comprehension - How to include a structured approach to comprehension into reading instruction The episode ends with ideas for how parents can address comprehension when reading with kids at home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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What other ways can you read with students other than through interactive read-alouds? This week's episode is all about shared reading and how to include this into your teaching to support students' reading fluency and comprehension. Elizabeth begins by explaining shared reading and what it looks like in practice. She talks about the types of texts that are commonly used in shared reading and how they are different from the texts...
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What is a literacy coach? How does a literacy coach support teachers, students, and schools? In today's episode, Elizabeth is speaking with Melissa Morrison, the founder of Teaching to Transform. Melissa is a coach, specifically a writing coach. She works with teachers to support their writing instruction. In this episode, Elizabeth and Melissa discuss the role of a coach and how coaching can benefit teachers and students. They al...
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It's October! Today's episode is not directly related to literacy. Elizabeth sits down to speak with Dara Kurtz, an author, speaker, and breast cancer survivor. Dara has experienced setbacks in her life, but has come out stronger and is living a more intentional life. She teaches a class that focuses on helping individuals thrive after and/or during a challenging time in life. We talk about strategies to help if you are feeling ove...
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Literacy education has many terms that sound similar and have similar meanings. Phonological and phonemic awareness are two of those terms! This week, Elizabeth explains these two terms and shares examples of how they can be taught. Foundational skills are a hot topic at the moment and curriculum is being implemented to address phonological and phonemic awareness - so having an understanding of what they mean and what instruction ...
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Welcome to the new school year! This episode starts with an update. Then, Elizabeth shares what she is focusing on for this back to school time. This fall, Elizabeth is teaching three reading classes - so she discusses how teachers can think through their reading instruction and emphasizes interactive read-alouds and what to pay attention to when planning and implementing read-alouds at the beginning of the year. The episode ends w...
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Jennifer Serravallo is back on today's episode! Elizabeth speaks with Jennifer about her latest book, Teaching Reading Across the Day: Methods and Structures for Engaging, Explicit Instruction. They begin by discussing the structure of the book and all of the wonderful resources that are included with the book - this includes many videos of the different types of instruction. They chat about explicit instruction, why it's necessary...
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