Episode 246

Fluency looks different across grade levels, but it always matters.

In this special mashup episode, Melissa and Lori bring together voices from seven classroom teachers, spanning first grade through eighth grade, to show how fluency comes to life in real classrooms. Each teacher shares a best practice they use to support accuracy, automaticity, and expression, always grounded in meaningful reading.

You’ll hear about a range of approaches, including:

• Songs, shared reading, and read-alouds in early grades
• Partner reading routines that build accountability and support
• Performance-based practices like Readers’ Theater
• Using oral reading as assessment and feedback
• Structuring small groups to support different fluency needs

This episode is full of practical ideas, classroom insight, and teacher wisdom, whether you’re teaching in the primary grades or supporting older readers.

Resources:

• Check out our Fluency Listening Guide for links to all of the episodes!
• Featured Episodes:
  • First Steps to Fluency: How Young Learners Become Independent Readers with Virginia Quinn-Mooney
  • Improving Student Reading Growth in Months with Fluency Instruction and Practice with Lorraine Griffith and Lindsay Kemeny
  • A Classroom Fluency Protocol That Works with Aaron Grossman
  • Baltimore Secondary Literacy Teachers Talk Fluency with Tanisha Dasmunshi, Emily Jaskowski, and Emery Uwimana
• Watch Virginia Teach Fluency in this video
• Let’s bring back the magic of song by Tim Rasinski
• Lindsay Kemeny YouTube
• Partner Reading with Paragraph Shrinking
• 3 Phases for Fluency by Aaron Grossman
• Tim Rasinski's Multidimensional Fluency Rubric
• Aaron's website: Just Two

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Episode 245

In this episode, Melissa and Lori are joined by researchers Jake Downs and Chase Young to discuss Read Like Us, a research-backed fluency routine designed to help students reread challenging texts with purpose. Jake and Chase share the findings from their recent study, explain how the routine works in real classrooms, and explore why fluency grows when students have multiple supported opportunities to read connected text.

The conversation unpacks:

• what makes Read Like Us different from traditional repeated reading approaches,
• how wide reading fits alongside repeated reading,
• and why text choice plays such a critical role in fluency development.

You’ll also hear why the study showed especially strong results for fourth-grade readers and how teachers can think about applying this work across grade levels.

This episode offers both a clear explanation of the research and practical insights teachers can use as they plan fluency instruction that supports real reading where skills come together in text.

Resources:

• Research Article: "Promoting Fluency Through Challenge: Repeated ReadingWith Texts of Varying Complexity"
• Fluency Listening Guide

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Episode 244

Lindsay Kemeny shares her insights on effectively managing a literacy block in a primary classroom. She discusses her daily schedule, emphasizing the importance of routines in phonics instruction, close reading strategies, and writing lessons. Lindsay also highlights the importance of small group instruction for differentiation and explains how to manage center work for students! She encourages teachers to focus on progress rather than perfection, sharing practical tips and strategies for enhancing literacy instruction.

Lindsay's Book, Rock Your Literacy Block, is available now!

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.