Shows
It's Time for ScienceIt’s Time for Science Podcast Episode 16: The Science of Reading This month on It's Time for Science, it's time to talk about the science of reading! Host Tom Racine talks with Leslie Lausten, M. Ed and Dr. Jennifer Slavick, Ed. D., authors of the whitepaper FOSS Enhances the Science of Reading Through Knowledge Building. Get the paper here: FOSS Enhances the Science of Reading Through Knowledge Building Leslie Lausten, M.Ed has a rich background in elementary science instruction. She has taught multiple grades, was a literacy coach and science lead teacher for over 30 years. She has an MEd in Science Education (K-8) and a Reading Specialist endorsement. Currently, she is th...2024-09-2429 min
The Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 22: Finding the power of FrustrationOnce again, I felt called to share with you some tips for handling frustration and drowning out the noise of negativity. We are surrounded by it and it can help us or hurt us in our work environment. Many of the tips that I have compiled came from this article - how to handle frustration at work.
So the next time you are frustrated, determine what is in our control and what is out of our control.
Analyze the situation:
Am I hungry, tired, being selfish
Is this s...2023-08-0605 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 21 - Connecting the Bear to Starting a new School Year - and how to drown out the noise!Do you watch the TV show called the Bear? I have loved watching the show this year. For those of you who don't know about this show, it is about a dysfunctional family who decide to shut down the current restaraunt they run in order to build something better. Think swiching from a greasy spoon to a 5 Star Restaraunt! Wow! Those are some big goals.
But in many ways this is what we are doing in education today. We are trying to take a failing business and turn things around.
I spend...2023-07-3027 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 20: The Science of Writing and making it fit into your curriculum!I have already created a few podcasts on this topic, but this short and succinct version tells how to determine what best practices to follow and what resources I recommend. I am also exploring the idea of an inexpensive short course, that would allow you the tools to create your own pathway using your curriculum and content. If this is something that you are interested in, click the poll below!
Recommended resources include:
- the Writing Revolution
- Syntax: Knowledge to Practice
See you soon! 2023-07-1614 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 19 - Unboxing a new curriculum - What now????Every few summers, we get a new curriculum. Sometimes its for math, or science or social studies. Sometimes it's for literacy. And when it comes, we have a ton of boxes to go through. It can be overwhelming! How do you know what to use and what to wait on?
Today I share what I did the last time I got a new curriculum - in the middle of the pandemic - in order to make it work for me and my students. First, I follow what I know about the science of reading - comprehension side...2023-07-1223 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 18: How does Social Understanding impact comprehension?The last component in our executive functioning series. This one is on social understanding which affects lots of indivudiuals with autism, social anxiety and our COVID kids. What can we do to support our students in class?
- create a story map from different character's perspectives
- teaching students emotional vocabulary - Manyuk progression
- Role on the Wall drama strategy for internal/external traits
I want to reiterate that I am taking a bit of a break but will jump back to it in a few weeks! 2023-05-2215 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 17: How Inhibition and Working Memory affects comprehensionGuys...working memory and impulse control affect reading comprehension.
We know this; it's not news.
But what should we look for? How does it affect understanding? And what can I, a classroom teacher or parent, do to help?
In this episode, we will discuss the following:
Behaviors you may observe
Games to play for practice
Ways to support students during literacy lessons
Click here for a printable resource to refer back to later.
Click here to purchase Dr. Cartwright's book on Amazon.
Follow me on I...2023-05-0725 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 16: How do we teach our kids to think flexibly?Thinking flexibly is crucial because it allows our students to hold on to multiple things at once - and in the case of our students, they are holding onto decoding and meaning. But how do we teach this to our kids?
First, play games with your children!
Uno
Set
Scattegories
Hink Pink Think! from Florida Center for Reading Research
Draw literal examples of compound words (butterfly as a stick of butter with wings)
Next, read books with them
Amelia Bedelia - new updated versions
Dear, Deer
“Word Play” by I...2023-04-3016 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 15: Helping students with organizational issues comprehend textHi ya'll!
Today we explore the concept of organization and how it affects comprehension. I'll start by saying we can help our students with this through some planning and preparation. We want to make sure that we recognize when our students are confused. They may get events out of order in sequencing, words out of order when reading, or not be able to connect all the parts and pieces of a story or unit. How can we help?
Practice unscrambling sentences:
Find the action word
Figure out next who or what...2023-04-2321 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 14: How to help your students with comprehension issues plan out the process of readingWell, that title is a mouthful, but I wasn't sure how else to describe what this podcast is about.
Diving deeper into executive functioning skills and their effect on comprehension, we will share with you two main concepts.
How can we build planning skills using board games? Why? And which ones?
How can we work with students in small groups to learn the process of planning while reading?
I have linked a document with the book that is recommended, the author's website, and the steps for small group planning. I hope you...2023-04-1619 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 13 - How does executive functioning affect reading comprehension?This is the beginning of a new series that I think all of us are dealing with. Why do some children struggle to read STILL, even with good instruction? As someone who works at a school that has embraced the science of reading, I was confused as to why so many kids were still struggling with comprehension. And then...I found some research which backs some of my personal opinions. Trigger warning - I may discuss my personal opinions on overuse of technology by children. It's a personal soapbox!
Have you heard of the...2023-04-1226 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 12: How do routine help our students with working memory issues?This episode is near and dear to my heart as I share with you the latest research on WHY routines are important in your personal life, your classroom management and your instructional routines. In it, I share the experiences from the viewpoint of a mom of a son with sensory processing/adhd issues, as well as from the view of a classroom teacher.
I will share the words of Dr. Anita Archer and several of her routines for turn and talk, discussions and vocabulary.
Please follow on Instagram to see daily quotes and reminders about...2023-03-2721 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 11: Inquiry vs. Explicit InstructionThis has been bothering me...can we have explicit instruction and inquiry within the same learning cycle? Can we have them working together? The answer is yes....and no. It depends on the content, the knowledge of your students, and the place in the learning cycle. Once again, I go to the expert, Anita Archer, to learn more about these two approaches to learning.
This is the chart from UTAH that I reference. It spells out the why, the how, and the what for explicit and inquiry-based learning.
For more visuals, check out this week's blog...2023-03-1919 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 10: Engagement Strategies for Whole GroupI am a huge fan of Anita Archer! She is the author of Explicit Instruction, and she is a wealth of good ideas! In today's podcast, we will explore the four ways we can add engagement to our whole group lessons.
It isn't rocket science. Just follow these four things:
Read
Talk
Write
Do
Within this podcast, I will give examples of how my teachers, 2-5th grade, use these four premises to deliver instruction in meaningful ways! As always, follow me on Instagram or Facebook for snippets of wisdom from Dr. Archer in the fo...2023-03-1225 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode #9 Syntax in ActionEverything that I have been discussing the past three podcasts comes from the research at Literacy How and the remarkable Dr. Margie Gillis. And I would be remiss if I didn't recommend her book, Syntax - Knowledge to Practice, for you to purchase so that you can have more information at your fingertips. It is an easy read with practical suggestions to put in place in your K-3 classroom tomorrow. Another resource that I highly recommend is the Literacy How You Tube channel. Visit it to see teachers implementing these strategies in real classrooms.
A...2023-02-2622 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 8 - Understanding Complex SentencesThis episode builds on the work of Dr. Margie Gillis from Literacy How. In it, I will dive into how we can help our students understand the parts that make complex sentences.
Adverbs: We will begin to understand what makes a word an adverb, what types or categories adverbs fall into, and how understanding these help you to understand the actions of the story.
Prepositions: We discuss how these link and describe the relationship between two words.
Conjunctions: These are discussed briefly in how they are a part of creating complex and compound sentences as well as dependent clau...2023-02-1923 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode #7 - Comprehension of basic sentencesIn the last two podcasts, we talked about writing sentences. We are all very aware that are sentences are choppy and lack details. We recognize that this is a building block for efficient writing. However, did you know that sentence understanding similarly affects comprehension?
We will explore the research of Gillis & Eberhardt 2016 which can be found on their website: https://literacyhow.org/ .
This podcast will explore:
subject
predicate
object
To see some visuals and examples, check out my blog!
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leslie-lausten/support2023-02-1222 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode #6 Sentence Writing - Part 2Looking for a place to start with the Science of Writing? This podcast is a follow-up to the first sentence writing podcast. It will focus on some strategies for generating sentences as well as creating more complex sentence structures using conjunctions with routines and strategies from the Writing Revolution.
generating questions
teaching the four types of sentences (questions, statements, commands, exclamations)
Adding conjunctions to sentences to create more complex sentence variety in your paragraphs
To get a free resource for winter sentence activities, sign up here!
To read more and see some examples, visit my b...2023-02-0522 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode #5 Science of Writing - Sentence FormationLooking for a place to start with the Science of Writing? This podcast will focus on some strategies for building basic sentence structure with routines and strategies from the Writing Revolution.
Subject and Predicate
Fragments and Sentences
Scrambled Sentences
Sentence Expansion
To get a free resource for winter sentence activities, sign up here!
To read more and see some examples, visit my blog!
To get a copy of the Fry Words I refer to, visit this link.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leslie-lausten/support2023-01-3025 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode #4: The Simple View of WritingAs you know, I speak about the Reading Rope quite a bit. But did you know there is also a Writing Rope or a Simple View of Writing? As part of my research, I have read the Writing Revolution by Natalie Wexler, LETRS Volume 2, and the Writing Rope by Joan Sedita, I have deepened my understanding of this topic and hope that I can give you a quick overview on this podcast.
On this podcast, I will walk you through:
- Foundational Skills or Transcription
- Composition - including sentence formation and composition of...2023-01-2522 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 2: How should language comprehension lessons be structured vs. regular comprehension lessons?Okay, that's a mouthy title. One of the main questions I had, when I began taking the LETRS course, was how is this any different from what I'm doing. And of course, once I dug into it, I realized a lot was missing from my instruction.
In this episode, I share how language comprehension lessons are uniquely different from other comprehension lessons. But I also talk about what is the same and what is still good instruction. We will dive into the five components a little more, and talk about whole group instruction as well as how i...2023-01-1816 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpsiode 1: Lesson Plans that make senseHi ya'll...
For our very first episode, I'm going to share with you some tips about lesson planning. What? You may think I've been doing that for years, or I just wing it, or I don't have time for that...honestly, I've had all three of those thoughts. But, in this climate of post-pandemic teaching, we truly do need to know what and how to teach our content. However, it has to be manageable.
I am including a FREE resource for you after listening to this podcast for you to download and use as your o...2023-01-1814 minThe Other End of the Reading RopeEpisode 3: Whole Group vs. Small GroupIn the last episode, I talked about how language comprehension differs from just "comprehension". Today, we will chat about teaching in a whole group vs. small group instruction and the benefits of both. In this podcast I will share:
- Benefits of Whole Group and Small Group
- % of the time that should be whole group and small group
- Breakdown of time in the whole group and small group
- Explicit Instruction - Talk, Write, Do
- Inquiry-Based Instruction - You, Y'all, We
- Engagement - Ta...2023-01-1818 min
The Other End of the Reading RopeWhy listen to this podcast? (the trailer)Are you looking for information about best practices for language comprehension? We know that the simple view of reading states that word recognition X language comprehension = reading comprehension. But what does that mean, exactly?
My vision for this podcast is to share with you quick 15-20 minute strategies, knowledge, and tips that you can put in place tomorrow. We will focus on best practices in:
background knowledge
vocabulary
comprehension
verbal reasoning
sentence structure
and the science of writing
While we are focusing on these areas, I will also share how we can keep our kids en...2023-01-0302 min