Science of Reading: The Podcast

Amplify Education
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Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

  1. 1D AGO

    Spring Special '26: Systematizing literacy, with Reid Lyon, Ph.D.

    On this week’s episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert, Ed.D., is joined by one of the most influential people in American education, Reid Lyon, Ph.D., to explore what it takes to make systemic change in literacy instruction. Together, Reid and Susan also discuss how literacy education could benefit from a shared vocabulary, how systems must work together from teacher preparation to classroom implementation, and what we can do to close the implementation gap. Show notes: Our Summer Learning Academy is back! Reserve your spot now to join Susan Lambert for a pair of sessions that will help you dive deeper into the latest reading comprehension research.Learn more about Reid Lyon’s 10 Maxims of Reading Instruction.Learn more about Drexel University's ALLIED Hub for literacy education.Download our free Science of Reading Change Management Playbook.Listen to our previous episodes with Reid Lyon (Sept. 2023, Part 1 & Part 2).Get ready for Season 3 of the Amplify podcast Beyond My Years.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes: "I know we've let children down, but boy have we let teachers down." —Reid Lyon "The hallmark of a profession is a common language displaying a common knowledge." —Reid Lyon "How is it that we know so much yet we are still far behind the curve in helping the majority of struggling readers learn to read?" —Reid Lyon "Science is neutral. The Science of Reading is not a belief system. It's a container with facts that constantly evolves." —Reid Lyon "Much of our difficulties moving the science [of literacy] into classrooms is a function of not having established ourselves as a profession." —Reid Lyon "We have a responsibility to use the best information possible that has taught us how we can improve the person's life." —Reid Lyon "Assessment is a great friend." —Reid Lyon "What we know is only as good as what we do." —Reid Lyon Timestamps*: 00:00: Introduction: Systematizing literacy with Reid Lyon, Ph.D. 07:00: We are still far behind the curve in helping the majority of struggling readers learn to read. 11:00: The hallmark of a profession is a common language displaying a common knowledge. 18:00: Listening and speaking occur with exposure and being showered with language around us. 23:00: The science of reading is not a belief system. It's a container with facts that constantly evolves. 29:00: Can the field of literacy have a common language and common knowledge? 35:00: The systemic challenge is understanding the whole picture. 41:00: Assessment is a great friend. 48:00: Explanation of the evolving 10 Maxim Framework 52:00: What is the work ha

    1 hr

  2. APR 22

    Spring Special '26: Assessment as your best friend, with Kate Winn and Stephanie Stollar, Ph.D.

    In this episode of Science of reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert, Ed.D., is joined by Kate Winn and Stephanie Stollar, Ph.D, coauthors of Reading Assessment Done Right, who explain how to use assessment to actually accelerate student progress and drive instructional decisions. Stephanie, Kate, and Susan also discuss how to cut through assessment overload and focus on what truly drives instruction, the four essential purposes of assessment, and how they work together within Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework, and the common misconceptions that lead to ineffective practices.  Show notes: Check out Reading Assessment Done Right.Learn more about Stephanie Stollar.Connect with Stephanie Stollar LinkedIn.Connect with Stephanie Stollar on Facebook.Connect with Kate Winn on LinkedIn.Connect with Kate Winn on Facebook.Listen to the podcast Reading Road Trip.Listen to Season 2 of the Amplify podcast Beyond My Years.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert. Quotes: "Assessment is a tool for conversation. It's an investigation. It's uncovering what is known, and there are multiple purposes. All assessments are constructed to answer questions." —Stephanie Stollar "If you don't have a question about your students, you don't need to do more assessment. This should not be a compliance activity." —Stephanie Stollar "Progress monitoring is like the GPS for educators." —Stephanie Stollar "We can actually do something with the information when you're using good assessments." —Kate Winn "Believe it or not, reading assessment can be so exciting. It can also be empowering." —Kate Winn "Having lots and lots of assessment data is not helpful. It can actually be counterproductive." —Stephanie Stollar "When I use my universal screener, it tells me which students are meeting benchmark, which ones aren't, and then I know exactly what to work on with those students." —Kate Winn Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction: Assessment as your best friend 05:00 The need for practical assessment guidance 09:00 What is assessment and what is its purpose in education? 15:00 Understanding the differences between universal screening vs. diagnostic assessment 21:00 Progress monitoring: The GPS for educators 25:00 Building supportive systems and communities for teachers 28:00 The continuous improvement cycle of reading instruction 30:00 Addressing the "too many assessments" problem with an assessment audit 34:00 Misconceptions about assessment 40:00 The power of Tier 1 instruction 43:00 Why we need to screen all students multiple times per year 48:00 Final thoughts: Assessment as a tool for conversation and empowerment *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    51 min

  3. APR 8

    Spring Special '26: Fighting for people with dyslexia, with Teresa May, Ph.D.

    In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan is joined by executive director of the Margaret Byrd Rawson Institute, Teresa May, Ph.D. Teresa shares her powerful story, from being a student with dyslexia to fighting systemic barriers in education. Teresa and Susan also discuss Teresa's legal advocacy for her sons' right to appropriate dyslexia education; the legacy of Margaret Byrd Rawson, a groundbreaking activist who dedicated her life to helping students with dyslexia success; and the importance of early intervention and understanding each child's unique learning needs. Show notes: Download the Dyslexia Support Power Pack.Listen to Science of Reading Essentials: Dyslexia.Learn more about the Margaret Byrd Rawson Institute.Follow the Rawson Institute on Instagram.Like the Rawson Institute on Facebook.Connect with the Rawson Institute on LinkedIn.Listen to Season 2 of Amplify's Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes: "There's no time to waste. A child only gets one childhood." —Teresa May "You teach this complex language as it is to the child, as he or she is. If you do that, you don't leave anyone behind." —Teresa May "There is a science and an approach that we can take to help kids learn how to read." —Teresa May "[People] remember the kindness of a teacher or the meanness, but they don't remember the explicit way they learned [to read]." —Teresa May Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction: Fighting for learners with dyslexia, with Teresa May 04:00 Teresa's childhood struggles with dyslexia 07:00 The moment of discovery: Finding Margaret Byrd Rawson 09:00 Meeting Margaret: "There is a key, but not many people hold that key" 14:00 The legal battle begins—fighting for her sons' education 19:00 Taking the case through courts and starting parent advocacy 22:00 Margaret Byrd Rawson as an educational pioneer 27:00 Margaret's biological background and the start of her longitudinal research in the 1930s 30:00 The 55-year study following 56 boys: groundbreaking research without technology 33:00 The human impact of good teaching 39:00 The Margaret Byrd Rawson Institute's mission and current projects 44:00 The complexity of dyslexia remediation 45:00 Final thoughts on advocating for children with dyslexia *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    49 min

  4. MAR 25

    S10 E14: Your comprehension questions answered, with Nathaniel Swain, Ph.D.

    In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, returning guest, Nathaniel Swain, Ph.D., joins Susan Lambert to close out the season by answering thoughtful and thought-provoking comprehension questions submitted by listeners. Nathaniel and Susan answer questions about comprehension strategies, the relationship between comprehension and memorization, and how to shift the mindset amongst your teaching colleagues to help them understand comprehension. Show notes: Submit your literacy questions!Bonus: Watch Dr. Hoover's complete responses to a listener guest.Learn more about Nathaniel Swain on his websiteConnect with Nathaniel Swain on LinkedIn.Access free, high-quality resources—including our recent Essentials episode on Science of Reading: The Podcast—at our companion professional learning pageDownload our free Comprension 101 bundle for comprehension resources, including ebooks, and on-demand professional learningListen to Season 2 of Amplify's Beyond My Years podcastJoin our community Facebook groupConnect with Susan LambertQuotes: "What we're trying to do is create meaningful text experiences. ... The strategies are background, the powerhouse behind the work we're doing, but the star of the show is the language and the text." —Nathaniel Swain, Ph.D. "If you ever feel like your comprehension work only allows students to produce or perform something on a particular day in which you've just read that text, then you may be missing the opportunity to weave meaningful text together." —Nathaniel Swain, Ph.D. "When we're teaching reading comprehension, really let the text be the center of what we're doing." —Susan Lambert Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction: Answering listeners' questions on comprehension 03:00 The difference between oral and written language as it relates to comprehension 06:00 Supporting students who read fluently but struggle with comprehension 16:00 The role of comprehension strategies 21:00 Oral language development and comprehension 28:00 The connection between memory and comprehension 36:00 How to help colleagues adjust their mindset on comprehension 42:00 Overall takeaways from this batch of mailbag questions *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    46 min

  5. MAR 11

    S10 E13: Building blocks for deep comprehension, with Susan Lambert

    Host Susan Lambert hits the home stretch of her comprehension-focused season of Science of Reading: The Podcast with a reflective episode based on her presentation at this year's Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning conference. Instead of being joined by a guest, Susan breaks down some of her biggest takeaways from this season—explaining how reading comprehension is far more intricate than the ability to decode words on a page, and detailing how the expert guests this season helped illustrate all of comprehension's amazing complexities. Whether you hear her Plain Talk conversation live or not, this episode captures those same insights in a format you can revisit anytime. Show notes: Submit your literacy questions!Access free, high-quality resources—including our recent Science of Reading: The Podcast Essentials: “Comprehension” episode—at our companion professional learning page.Download our Comprehension 101 bundle: Access free comprehension resources, including ebooks and on-demand professional learning.Listen to Season 2 of Amplify’s Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes: "Comprehension is an active process. It usually requires active engagement and effect from the reader." —Susan Lambert "Comprehension is an integration of knowledge and experience that requires the reader to connect new information from the text with their own knowledge and experiences." —Susan Lambert "Comprehension is dynamic and ongoing. It requires the reader to update and revise their understanding as new information is encountered." —Susan Lambert "What constitutes good comprehension is relative, and it depends on who is reading the text and why they're reading it." —Susan Lambert "The components of comprehension don't develop in isolation. They bootstrap and support each other throughout a reader's development." —Susan Lambert Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction: Building blocks for deep comprehension 04:00 Common themes from guests' definitions of comprehension 07:00 The simple view of reading 10:00 Oral language, syntax and fluency 13:00 Syntax is the critical missing piece needed to improve reading comprehension outcomes 16:00 Fluency is a critical but often overlooked prerequisite to reading comprehension 21:00 The components of comprehension don't develop in isolation 22:00 Closing thoughts o our comprehension focused season *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    24 min

  6. FEB 25

    S10 E12: Filling the gaps with inferences, with Kristen McMaster, Ph.D.

    In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Kristen McMaster, Ph.D., Guy Bond Chair in Reading and professor of special education in the Department of Educational Psychology at University of Minnesota. Together, they explore how reading comprehension isn't just about what's on the page—it's also about what's not there—and share practical insights on how to support students in developing inference skills. Susan and Kristen also discuss the dual processes of activation and integration when making inferences; the distinction between teaching students to process text actively versus teaching students to apply comprehension strategies; and different types of inferences, including causal, bridging, and elaborative. Show notes: Submit your questions to our listener mailbagAccess free, high-quality resources—including our recent Science of Reading: The Podcast Essentials "Comprehension" episode—at our companion professional learning page Download our Comprehension 101 bundle: Access free comprehension resources, including e-books, and on-demand professional learningConnect with Kristen McMasterLearn more about Kristen McMasterListen to Season 2 of Amplify's Beyond My Years podcastJoin our community Facebook groupConnect with Susan LambertQuotes: "Inferencing is really central to comprehension. We wouldn't comprehend if we didn't make inferences." —Kristen McMaster "I would encourage teachers not to underestimate the importance of supporting even the inferences that might seem obvious to us." —Kristen McMaster "Good comprehenders are often making very automatic inferences that they don't even realize." —Kristen McMaster "It helps to explicitly teach what an inference is in language that students will understand." —Kristen McMaster Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction: Filling in the gaps with inferences, with Kristen McMaster, Ph.D. 05:00 Comprehension is how we make sense of the world around us 09:00 The types of inferences: Causal, bridging, elaborative, and theory of mind 17:00 How teachers can help students develop inference skills 22:00 Creating an effective questioning strategy 27:00 How teachers can preview a text and think about the inferences that might need to be made 31:00 Supporting students who process texts in different ways 37:00 The timing of comprehension questions 40:00 The connection between oral language comprehension and text comprehension 45:00 Final thought: Teacher's shouldn't underestimate the importance of inferences that might seem obvious. *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    48 min

  7. FEB 11

    S10 E11: Learning to read vs. reading to learn, with Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D.

    In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D., distinguished professor emeritus from the University of Illinois at Chicago, joins Susan Lambert to distinguish between reading comprehension, learning from a text, and the process of learning to read. He compares learning to read with athletic training, explaining that just as athletes need to vary their workout intensities to maximize their strength, students need to vary their text difficulty to maximize their comprehension, reading skills, and overall learning. Together, Timothy and Susan also discuss why reading comprehension is an ethical act and the power of simply rereading to increase comprehension. Show notes: Submit your questions on comprehension! Access free, high-quality resources at our brand-new companion professional learning page  Connect with Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D.Learn more about Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D.Read the blog post "Don't Confuse Reading Comprehension and Learning to Read (and to Reread)"Listen to Leveled reading, leveled lives, with Tim Shanahan, Ph.D.Listen to Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D. on Beyond My Years Listen to Season 2 of Amplify’s Beyond My Years podcastJoin our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan LambertQuotes: "We're trying to teach kids to read, and a text that is immediately comprehensible leaves you very little to learn." —Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D. "Reading comprehension is not just a psychological or cognitive action—it's an ethical action." —Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D. "Comprehension is not automatic. It isn't just, 'Oh, if you decode, you're going to comprehend.'" —Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D. "A good reader has to start out with a determination. 'My job here is to understand it, not just to read it.'" —Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D. Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction: Learning to read vs. reading to learn with Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D. 06:00 Reading comprehension is not just a psychological or cognitive action, it's an ethical action. 09:00 Authors know their readers and so they put in affordances aimed at the reader. 15:00 Timothy's motivation for writing his blog post, "Don't Confuse Reading Comprehension and Learning to Read." 17:00 A text that is immediately comprehensible, leaves you very little to learn. 19:00 You can increase the learning for most people if you increase the difficulty. 24:00 An argument for students to read more rigorous texts. 28:00 A good reader has to start out with determination. 35:00 The different between learning and understanding is an issue of remembering. 39:00 Teachers need to teach kids to be strategic. 42:00 Timothy Shanahan's new wrinkle in thinking about comprehension, understanding, and learning. 44:00 In conclusion: Kids should be reading texts with varying levels of difficulty. *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    51 min

  8. FEB 4

    Special episode: Cultivating critical thinkers in your classroom, starring Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D.

    We're excited to share a special episode from our friends at our sister podcast, Beyond My Years. Host Ana Torres is joined by nationally recognized educational consultant and thought leader, Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D., to discuss what critical thinking is and how to help students develop it. He also explains why critical thinking is crucial for long-term academic success. Mitchell also gives gives educators four clear steps that they can implement to effectively nurture critical thinking skills in their classrooms. Ana is then joined by Beyond My Years Classroom Insider extraordinaire Eric Cross, who discusses how he encourages his students to hone their critical thinking skills in class. Show notes: Binge all of Beyond My Years podcast Season 2 now: https://amplify.com/bmySubmit your questions on comprehension Access free, high-quality resources at our brand-new companion professional learning page  Visit Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D,’s websiteConnect with Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D., on LinkedInConnect with Ana TorresConnect with Eric CrossJoin our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan LambertQuotes: "When you are a school administrator, you can't be confused as to what your identity is. People expect you to step in with voice, with passion, with vision, and direct the path." —Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D. "That's how you know you're in a classroom with critical thinking: We're not rushing the conversation. We're enjoying it." —Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D.  "There's an art and science to teaching, and I think that they're two different things." —Eric Cross "The importance of modeling can’t be overstated." — Ana Torres Timestamps*: 00:00 Introduction 02:00 Ana Torres & Eric Cross preview Ana's conversation about critical thinking 04:00 Introducing Mitchell Brookins, Ph.D. 10:00 Why should critical thinking be top of mind for educators? 15:00 Where should teachers begin when trying to help students develop critical thinking skills? 20:00 Questioning that reveals classrooms in which teachers honor students' thinking 24:00 You can't get to a higher level if you don't have the knowledge. 28:00 For a lot of us, this work is more than just a profession it's a calling 30:00 Classroom Insider conversation with Eric Cross 37:00 Recap of Classroom Insider takeaways 39:00 Closing thoughts from Susan Lambert *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

    42 min
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About

Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

Information

  • Creator
    Amplify Education
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    186
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Science of Reading: The Podcast
  • Show Website
    Science of Reading: The Podcast

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