“Due to the fact that there are many ways a child can fall through the cracks,this makes the first 3 years of school the most important in the child’s life. It also means the K, 1st& 2nd grade teachers are the most important teachers in the entire system.”Mc Guinness,1997, p.211.

In this incredible, Meet the Expert, Reading Rockets video Dr. Louisa Cook Moats shares that, "Spelling is a visible record of language processing. It is language written down. If we know how to look at a child’s spelling, we can tell what a child understands about speech sounds, about how we use letters to represent those and, as it turns out, anything that is going to cause trouble with a child’s reading will show up even more dramatically in the child’s spelling and writing." (You can watch the video here: piped.video/watch?v=SoX21V8-… Language written down! I love that statement! Spelling, whether a correct, or incorrect spelling, is a linguistic window offering us the opportunity to engage in effective, efficient, informed instruction and intervention. Which is why I am so honored to spend an entire year with Michigan educators focused on spelling! Today we finished our third session, and I could not be more grateful for the commitment, dedication, and enthusiasm the Michigan educators joining me for this year-long series have embraced this series!! A big thank you to Dr. Kim St. Martin and the MiMTSS team for this honor! @MiMTSSTACenter

Thank you @SamanthaBrauns2 ! It was an honor to learn with @@margaretmckeow2 and @smorrisey !

Pam, Stephanie, Sean and I had great fun, yakking about all things vocabulary! I hope listeners will enjoy it.

The first lesson I ever taught was based on the structures in Bringing Words to Life and the work of Margaret McKeown. Twenty years later I get to talk about vocabulary with her. The indirect effects she has had on the hundreds of students I've taught is immeasurable.

Launching today: the inaugural podcast/webcast of Research Meets Reality! In every episode of Research Meets Reality, Dr. Stephanie Stollar and Dr. Pam Kastner bring a leading researcher or national literacy expert directly into conversation with a classroom teacher or other educator who has done the hard, real work of applying that research with actual students and gotten results. Not theory. Not a pilot program. Real kids. Real classrooms. Real Monday mornings. You’re going to hear both the science and the story, both the “why” and the “how.” And you’re going to leave every episode knowing exactly what to try next! We are starting with a question that is fundamental to literacy. How do students develop rich knowledge of words? Joining us for this robust conversation is Dr. Moddy McKeown, vocabulary researcher and co-author of Bringing Words to Life, and Sean Morrissey, Former School Psychologist, Fifth Grade Teacher and Creator of the Word Mapping Project! Watch here: piped.video/watch?v=zyesP8Fh… be sure to download the listening guide and additional resources, here: stephaniestollarconsulting.c… When research and practice align, readers rise! @sstollar6 @margaretmckeow2 @smorrisey

Teaching isn't What You See Is What You Get! So how do we know when we're looking at expert teaching? @New_Old_Paul and I explore, link below: paulkirschner173727.substack…

Do you have a data team and want to be more effective? Here is an incredible opportunity - mtssassociation.org/ima-team… @mtssassociation @MTSScenter @ASCD @NAESP @CECMembership @casecec @RTINetwork @NM_Education @NM_FAFSA #data #MTSS

A Must Read from Dr. Linda Diamond: In Defense of the Script: Why Siegfried Engelmann’s Direct Instruction mirrors the safety protocols of aviation, medicine, and maritime navigation There are many powerful statements in this excellent substack from Dr. Linda Diamond but here are a few that resonate with me. Do-not-miss this one! Read it and then post what resonates with you. “A DI script is not written to control the teacher; it is engineered to protect the learner.” “The outrage over scripted instruction is aimed at the wrong target. We shouldn’t be angry that Engelmann gave us pre-tested, field-proven scripts to guarantee that children learn to read, write, and compute. We should be mad as hell that for decades, educators were told that structured, reliable tools were an insult to their intelligence—while millions of children fell through the cracks of improvisational instruction.” “A script is not a replacement for teacher judgment; it is the delivery vehicle for flawless instructional design.” Read the entire substack here: substack.com/home/post/p-222… @lindajdiamond

Does direct instruction work? Some claimed Stockard et al. (2018) meta-analysis didn't compare DI to inquiry-based teaching for math. We reanalyzed the data. DI was significantly MORE effective than inquiry-based (d = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.70). @CECMembership @NCTM @ehanford

Did you know....Mount St. Joseph University-Reading Science Program is developing a FREE, OPEN-SOURCE comprehensive curriculum, Reading Opens Worlds (ROW)! I am SO honored to be on the Advisory Panel for ROW! Want a sneak peek of ROW? Read on and then do-not-miss watching an incredible vocabulary lesson from ROW expertly taught by Dr. Tambra Isenberg! In this video, on Reading Universe, watch Mount St. Joseph University-Reading Science Program's own Dr. Tambra Isenberg expertly model one of the vocabulary lessons from ROW! How to Introduce a New Vocabulary Word: Collaborate Introducing a new vocabulary word works best when the routine is predictable. When students know what to expect, they can focus on the new word rather than guessing what's coming next. In this lesson, watch as Dr. Tambra Isenberg teaches a brand-new word — collaborate — to kindergartners at Holy Family School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Curious where this lesson plan came from? It's part of Reading Opens Worlds (ROW), a free, open-source curriculum being developed by Mount Saint Joseph University . Learn more about ROW here: readingscience.org/row Watch the lesson here: readinguniverse.org/resource… @MountStJosephU @RUTeaching

What an honor to join Sue Hegland to co-present an advanced certificate session at the 2026 International Dyslexia Association National Conference! Counting the days, 24 from today to be exact! @DyslexiaIDA

Friends have you purchased the book, Routines for Reading Results, yet? If not, what are you waiting for? :) Get yours and join the authors, Dr. Stephanie Stollar, Dr, Sarah Brown, Dr. Kelly Powell-Smith, and Beth Madden for this upcoming, not-to-be-missed book study! Learn more here: stephaniestollarconsulting.c… @sstollar6

It was an honor to join you for this conversation at NIFDI, @MrZachG !

What an incredible day of litearcy advocacy at the Capital in Harrisburg yesterday! The PA Literacy Coalition members, state legislators, parents, school leaders and educators, advocates all joined to advocate for literacy for ALL Pennsylvania children at our state capital today! When Kids Reads PA Succeeds is our rallying call as we join together to collectively ask the legislators of our state and Governor Shapiro to meaningfully fund Act 47. The day began with a Breakfast Meeting and briefing of the PA Literacy Coalition, state representatives from the House, and Senate legislators, and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Dr. Stacey Heilman Cherny. Speakers at briefing included: Senator Joe Picozzi, and PA State Rep. Jason Ortitay and State Representatives Justin Fleming, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Dr. Stacey Cherny, and from Teach Plus PA: Rachael Garnick, Director of the PA Literacy Coalition Director and Laura BoyceL, Executive Director of Teach Plus PA. A press conference of inspiring speakers followed and included Jessica Wentz, a reading specialist extraordinaire from Ephreta School District and Teach Plus Fellow, Kevin a student speaker, Majorie Young (Parent), Meghann Bierly (Parent), Jenna McElwain (Mifflin County High School), Dr. Lindsay Stock (Curriculum Director Reading School District), Rebecca Shandera (Parent), Dr. Mike Vukovich (Superintendent Windber School District & PA Superintendent of the Year, and Jeff Adams (President of The PA Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. Along with Reading League PA Board Members, Amy Sprout Sell and Jodi Jackson, we were honored to represent The Reading League PA at this important advocacy event! Catching up with fellow literacy leaders Jackie Priest Behney and Rosette Schleifer Roth h from Decoding Dyslexia PA, Candace Leigh Boarder Hall and Christine Seppi from the PA Branch of the Dyslexia Association, Mandy Klunk Ubele from Collaborative Classroom, good friend and brilliant tutor Melissa Reber, and former TRL PA board member, Megan Gierka made the day all the more special! We are all fully committed and will never give up our advocacy until every teacher has the knowledge and skills to teach every child in PA how to read and read well! I am truly grateful to have been a small part of this BIG day!

The study provided some answers. But didn’t change education. “It’s just astonishing to me that we’re still fighting the same battles." Read about the history of Project Follow Through. apmreports.org/story/2026/10…

So, Siegfried “Zig” Engelmann gets the notion that all children are capable of learning if they’re taught correctly. He then goes on to prove his theory with children whom others had lowered their expectations for because of the children’s background and socioeconomic status. Engelmann demonstrated that clear, consistent teaching was the key to student learning, regardless of students’ background, race, or gender. That didn’t sit well with the progressive education community. It shatters their argument that, in order to teach “disadvantaged students”, schools must first meet all of their basic physical and emotional needs. For decades, schools have lowered academic expectations and invested billions of dollars in everything from universal free breakfast and lunch to social emotional learning (SEL) to in-school laundry service. All of these programs were created to help students learn better. They didn’t. I’m not saying Direct Instruction is perfect, but I’m willing to bet that if districts like mine with almost 100,000 students and a budget of nearly $2 billion had invested in DI instead of SEL, 62% of the students wouldn’t be scoring below proficient in reading right now. Maybe season 2 of Sold A Story will convince district leaders to reconsider their priorities and how they spend their money.

Only one chapter into, Becoming an Expert Teacher: Deliberate Practice for Effective Teaching,by Nidhi Sachdeva and Paul Kirschner, and its dog eared and annotated all over!

Episode 1 of Sold a Story, Season 2: apmreports.org/episode/2026/… It's Not Just Reading

It's LIVE! Sold a Story Season 2 is now LIVE! Season 2, Episode 1: It’s Not Just Reading apmreports.org/episode/2026/…