Fulfilling Literacy Lessons & Clarifying Conversations
Fulfilling Literacy Lessons & Clarifying Conversations
Podcast Description
Welcome Educators to Fulfilling Literacy Lessons and Clarifying Conversations.We want to introduce you to the many wonderful and creative people who are turning innovative research into practical lessons. We’ll try to clarify many of today’s confusing topics that break down time-consuming silos and demystify critical components of language, including morphology, vocabulary, sentence construction and language comprehension. Our goal is to show how to teach reading, spelling and writing as one integrated ability, making literacy easier to learn and saving hours a week for more enriching activities. Our focus won’t just be on students that receive help from Special education and reading teachers but also disengaged students reading at grade level.You will hear from noted researchers including Linnea Ehri, Marcia Henry and Peter Bowers as well as teachers who have developed lessons that engage students and enrich language abilities. Check back weekly to discover more Fulfilling Literacy Lessons and Clarifying conversations. Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on key topics related to literacy instruction, including morphology, vocabulary development, and sentence construction. For example, episodes feature discussions on Linnea Ehri's theories regarding orthographic mapping, as well as practical lessons derived from the Structured Word Inquiry approach. The content is geared toward clarifying language acquisition challenges faced by both educators and students, particularly disengaged learners and those receiving specialized support.

For the Love of Literacy provides podcasts about the exciting advances in literacy instruction, from morphology and orthography (the spelling system), to meaningful sight word memorization, and sentence construction and comprehension. We focus on the often overlooked aspects of literacy and their links to language development.
We tie learning to read, spell and writing to their roots in spoken language. This makes teaching and learning these abilities much easier because literacy learning is driven by language learning. The major components of spoken language plus vocabulary knowledge strongly predicting and largely determining growth in reading, spelling and writing.
Our guests are not just knowledgeable the links between language and language but know how to implement this learning in the classroom.
You will hear from noted researchers including Linnea Ehri, Marcia Henry and Peter Bowers as well as teachers who have developed lessons that engage students and enrich language abilities. Check back weekly to discover more Fulfilling Literacy Lessons and Clarifying conversations. Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].
Three experienced teachers show how to get even your most resistant students to become fascinated by words and sentences. They explain how to turn memory-draining spelling homework into an activity that enriches vocabulary, sight word mapping and provides a deep understanding of how words are constructed. If morphology and the English spelling system doesn't make sense to you and your students, they will by the end of the podcast.
Mary Beth, Lisa and Skot explain how structured word inquiry, a method developed by Peter Bowers, gets students deeply involved in investigations of a word's spelling, meaning and history. They describe how students with reading and behavior problems become fascinated by word investigations that significantly boosts their reading, spelling and comprehension abilities.
Too many reading methods don't emphasize the importance of sentence writing and comprehension, which limits their students literacy abilities. Mary Beth, Lisa and Skot explain how sentence investigations excite students as much as word inquiry. Understanding how sentences are composed of phrases reveals its meaning. Drawing students' attention to the relationships between words and phrases significantly boost comprehension–and interest, too.
Skot Caldwell worked for more than 25 years in “high needs” public schools in Kingston, Ontario. After annually reinventing his “spelling” program and having found nothing really effective, he met Pete Bowers and joined him on a learning journey through Real Spelling and the development of Structured Word Inquiry. His students became “Word Scientists” happily investigating language.
https://smallhumansthinkbig.wordpress.com/category/word-inquiry/ [email protected]
Lisa Barnett is a literacy-focused educator with over 30 years of experience in general and special education. She is the founder and director of Empower Learning Center where she tutors privately, consults, and trains educators worldwide in English orthography. She is the author of Vocabulary & Morphology using Structured Word Inquiry. There is a wonderful For the love of Literacy Podcast about this very practical book.
Links to Lisa & Katie’s book, SWI resources, dyslexia resources, blog about SWI & more. Lisa offers a few workshops, too.
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/empowerlc
Website: https://www.seethebeautyindyslexia.com/elc.html
Blog: https://barnettsbuzzingblog.edublogs.org/
Email: [email protected]
Mary Beth Steven is a retired teacher whose teaching took a dramatic turn once she discovered Structured Word Inquiry. Mary Beth offers two online classes, Bringing Structured Word Inquiry into the Classroom and Getting a Grip on Grammar. Information can be found in the tabs at her blog, Mrs. Steven’s Classroom Blog (https://mbsteven.edublogs.org/ ). She sells interactive books for teaching grammar, SWI and a book of dramatic scripts to enhance teaching grammar and morphology in the classroom!
Mary Beth YouTube Channel with over 200 videos demonstrating what SWI and grammar teaching . (https://www.youtube.com/@MaryBethSteven)

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