Shanahan on Literacy Timothy Shanahan

Recently, several organizations have started evaluating reading programs. These ratings are getting a lot of attention from school districts around the nation, but how good are they and how should they be used? This podcast will explore those issues and provide some recommendations.

Most reading interventions for older students fail. One reason for this is that they tend to focus on raising general reading achievement, instead of putting the major emphasis on helping those students to develop the reading abilities that would allow them to succeed. Think pre-remediation rather than remediation.

These days there is a great deal of interest in controlling classroom reading instruction. One approach to this is to require "fidelity" of program use. What does fidelity mean and will it improve reading achievement? This podcast explores those issues and suggests ways that programs can be used and adjusted for maximum success.

This podcast explores how classroom reading instruction is best organized -- whole class or small group? The tendency has been to promote small group instruction over all other considerations -- an approach that is not often very successful. Find out why.

This podcast explores the role that guided reading should play in reading instruction and how best to support students during such reading experiences.

This podcast explores the idea of teaching students to read at their instructional level. It explains why this is not such a good idea beyond beginning readers.