[Listen Again] How the Brain Learns Words (and Why It Matters for Reading Success) with Dr. Molly Ness
Understanding how the brain learns words can transform the way we teach reading. In this episode of The Stellar Teacher Podcast, Sara sits down with literacy researcher, educator, and co-author of Making Words Stick, Dr. Molly Ness, to explore the science behind orthographic mapping and its role in helping students become fluent readers.
The 5-Minute Word Study Routine That Builds Reading Confidence
Look no further, we're going to help you with an effective word study routine! If you teach upper elementary students, you’ve probably watched a reader completely shut down after reaching a long, unfamiliar word in a text.
Students often skip the word, guess, or lose comprehension altogether.
But here’s the good news: big words don’t have to feel intimidating.
In this episode of The Stellar Teacher Podcast, we’re talking about how morphology instruction helps students decode and understand multisyllabic words with confidence. By explicitly teaching prefixes, suffixes, roots, and base words, students gain a repeatable strategy they can use whenever they encounter unfamiliar vocabulary.
[Listen Again] Why Every Literacy Block Needs Read Alouds with Molly Ness
Have you ever wondered if read alouds still belong in a Science of Reading-aligned classroom? As we dive deeper into research-based literacy practices, it’s easy to question whether cherished routines like reading aloud still have a place.
The good news? They absolutely do!
In this episode, we explore how read alouds can be a powerful tool to build language comprehension, foster engagement, and enrich your students’ reading experiences. Joining me today is Dr. Molly Ness, a researcher, author, and expert on read alouds.
Comprehension: A Simple Research-Backed Framework That Actually Works
This episode is going to help you build a research-backed framework to support comprehension! If you teach upper elementary reading, you’ve probably wondered:
How do I actually improve my students’ reading comprehension?
For years, comprehension instruction often looked like teaching one strategy at a time—visualizing, predicting, finding the main idea, and so on. While strong readers do use these skills, reading comprehension itself is not just one strategy. Teacher need a research-backed framework.
