Jake is Accepting Two Doc Students – Come Work With Me to Support Upper Elementary Reading Comprehension!
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSCome join Project CLIMB (Comprehension through Layers of Integrated Meaning Building) and earn your PhD at Utah State! Applications due December 1st! Jake has funding for two Graduate Research Assistants. How to Apply:1. Complete the Five Step Application Process: https://cehhs.usu.edu/teal/doctoral/phd-admissions2....
E79|Do Early Readers Naturally Catch Up? Unpacking Literacy Trajectories from Kindergarten to First Grade with Dr. Ye Shen and Dr. Elizabeth Hadley
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIn this episode, host Jake Downs sits down with literacy researchers Dr. Ye Shen (Johns Hopkins University) and Dr. Elizabeth Hadley (University of South Florida) to unpack a massive longitudinal study tracking over 6,000 students from kindergarten entry through the...
E78|Doing RTI vs. Knowing RTI: What Actually Builds Teacher Confidence with Dr. Willa Van Dijk
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E77|Long Words, Hard Texts; Scaffolding Upper Elementary Reading with Dr. Jake Downs
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIn Episode 77 of the Teaching Literacy Podcast, guest host Dr. Laura Tortorelli sits down with Dr. Jake Downs to unpack a recent grade 3 intervention study published in Reading Research Quarterly with co-authors Freddy Hiebert, Kristin Conradi Smith, and...
Recap from the Society from the Scientific Study of Reading Conference 2026 with Lori Sappington and Dr. Blythe Anderson
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIt’s a special roundtable on the Teaching Literacy Podcast! Host Dr. Jake Downs, Lori Southington, and Blythe Anderson record live from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR) conference in Rotterdam to bridge the gap between emerging research...
E76| How Vocabulary Supports Multisyllabic Word Reading in Upper Elementary with Dr. Laura Tortorelli and Dr. John Strong
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIn this episode of the Teaching Literacy Podcast, host Jake Downs sits down with Dr. Laura Tortorelli and Dr. John Strong to unpack how vocabulary and advanced decoding interact to help upper elementary students navigate complex academic texts. Discussing their...
E75|Quality of Preschool Read Alouds on YouTube with Dr. Amanda Shimizu
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIn this episode, Jake sits down with Dr. Amanda Shimizu to discuss her research paper, A Multimodal Content Analysis of Popular Early Childhood Stories and Read-Alouds on YouTube, co-authored with Dr. Margaret Quinn. Together they analyzed the 50 most popular...
E74 | Robust Comprehension Using HQIM Featuring Dr. Dan Reynolds, Dr. Anna Jennerjohn, & Dr. Sara Rutherford-Quach
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIn this episode I sit down with the SRI Education research team—Dr. Dan Reynolds, Dr. Anna Jennerjohn, and Dr. Sara Rutherford-Quach—to unpack their learning brief, Beyond the Surface. This episode explores the gap between using high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and...
E73| Complex Text & Fluency with Dr. Jake Downs and Dr. Chase Young
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSThis is a rebroadcast of Episode 245 from the Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast – you can check out that episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/read-like-us-building-fluency-through-repeated-reading/id1463219123?i=1000748503901 Make sure to check out the Literacy.io training on the Kat Framework for Comprehension this June!-June...
E72|Pragmatic Differentiation for Reading Acceleration with Dr. Sharon Walpole
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | RSSIn this episode we welcome Dr. Sharon Walpole, a professor at the University of Delaware. We explore the challenges teachers face in addressing varying student needs, Dr. Walpole’s pragmatic approach to differentiation, and the developmental roadmap for reading proficiency. Dr....