Science of Reading
On November 4, Margaret Goldberg and Alanna Mednick shared their exploration of the art and science of reading on Amplify’s podcast titled Science of Reading. The host, Susan Lambert, Vice President of Elementary Literacy Instruction at Amplify Education, invites guests to join her in discussing the multi-faceted world of early reading. Last week, in the Science of Reading episode titled “The Right to Read Project on nurturing automatic readers,” SEEDS certified educators Goldberg and Mednick mentioned the role SEEDS of Learning played in discovering reading intervention best practices.
When discussing their journeys, both educators shared that something was missing from their work. Neither of them felt that they had the opportunity for professional development – until SEEDS. For Mednick, SEEDS was the springboard that led her to start a deeper dive into the research of reading “In my last year of teaching I was in SEEDS which is a program that supports the transitional kindergarten students and teachers in our area and I for the first time had a coach that was dialed into the reading research and dialed into the instruction that they need. So I started being more targeted in the skills that I was teaching, and that same year I was also doing some reading intervention and exploring concepts for older students that I was learning through the SEEDS program. I was inspired by my coach, who let me know, hey, you should be a coach and join the same cohort that Margaret is speaking about. Together once I met Margaret, I learned more about this systematic instruction and structure of literacy and definitely had many aha moments.” The SEEDS program was just the beginning of their reading research discoveries.
The last remarks the educators provided in the podcast are worth reflecting on. When asked to give a final takeaway for the listeners, Mednick offered this nugget of wisdom “I would suggest diving in and applying what you’re learning as soon as you can so you can watch and admire and celebrate the growth of your students.”
Goldberg’s advice was just as insightful “something that I would suggest to people is to feel brave in being able to unpack the things you think you believe or things that you think you know and to find out why – whether the evidence supports it or not and feel brave in doing that journey transparently with people around you.”
Check out the whole podcast to hear what Goldberg and Mednick have to say about early intervention best practices for new readers. Both educators are dedicated to the pursuit of equity through literacy with the Right to Read project.