Shanahan on Literacy
Timothy Shanahan, a leading expert in literacy education, hosts this podcast focused on practical strategies for teaching reading. Each episode addresses real-world challenges educators face when helping students learn to read and improve their comprehension. Drawing on research and classroom experience, Shanahan offers clear, actionable advice for teachers and parents. The podcast aims to bridge the gap between literacy research and everyday instructional practice.
Episodes
What Should Morphology Instruction Look Like?
This podcast explores the role that morphology instruction should play in the teaching of reading -- both in terms of decoding and comprehension -- and provides practical, research-based recommendations for how that teaching should proceed.
Towards Better Decodables and Better Use of Decodables
These days any reading program that doesn't include decodables will have a lot of trouble doing business. Research isn't particularly supportive of the use of these simplified beginning reading text, but it seems reasonable to provide kids with practice of what we teach and we should be teaching decoding. Unfortunately, most decodables provide a weak kind of practice. This essay demonstrates how t
Should We Still Teach Close Reading?
The Common Core emphasized the teaching of close reading. Many states have revised those standards. Should close reading still have a place in your classroom in reading comprehension instruction? This podcast explores what close reading is and why it still should matter as part of comprehension instruction.
What We Talk About When We Talk About the Love of Reading (Part II)
In the previous episode, the research on how much we are reading these days was reviewed. This episode explores the reasons for the decline in reading and what can be done to change its direction. The solution will surprise you.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love of Reading, Part 1
Recently, a number of reports have revealed that Americans (and Brits and Australians) aren't reading for pleasure as much as they used to. This has led some to conclude that we are in big trouble. Is that the case? What does the decline in reading mean? This is the first of a two parter -- the follow up podcast will explore possible solutions.
What's the Role of Amount of Reading Instruction?
We talk a lot about what to teach in reading, but not so much about how much reading we should teach. This episode aims at making sense of the amounts of time needed to teach reading as effectively as our society requires.
How Do We Deal with Fluency Instruction in the Middle and High School? Part 2
This podcast explores how reading fluency is best improved in the upper grades -- explaining when instruction should shift to Tier 2 settings and the methods and texts best used for teaching.
Why Deal with Fluency Instruction in the Middle and High School (Or Ever)?
Should we teach reading fluency in middle school and high school? This podcast explores the differences in fluency development in the primary grades and middle school grades and explains why fluency instruction matters in the upper grades. It provides a realistic explanation of what fluency development looks like over these years.
Do You Have Any Pet Peeves About Reading? Here Are My Top Ten
A pet peeve is an irritating annoyance. We can have pet peeves about anything, including reading education and the arguments that rage around it. Here are some of the things that I find annoying about those practices and debates.
AI and Reading Comprehension
What role should AI play in reading comprehension instruction? This first-of-two-parts podcast explores ways in which AI may undermine reading comprehension learning rather than promoting it.
How Would You Schedule Reading Instruction?
Teachers often wonder how to schedule reading instruction. Often they are advised to make sure they include certain activities every day. My advice is to focus on the what needs to be accomplished rather than on the activities that might be used to reach those goals.
How Important is Reading Rate?
How important is the speed of reading? This far reaching examination of rate considers how fast language must be for comprehension to result, the silent reading speeds of students in the various grade levels, speed reading, and what role instruction should play in improving reading rate.
Essential Fundamentals of Spelling Instruction with a Little Help from My Friends
Do you want to know how to teach spelling? This engaging episode brings together the views of several spelling experts (Don Bear, Peter Bowers, Richard Gentry, Steve Graham, Louisa Moats). Lots of practical insights about how spelling should be handled in the classroom.
How Can Effective Teaching Do Harm?
Research suggests that Reading Recovery instruction somehow penalizes students. Those who get the help do less well in ensuing years than similar kids who don't. This podcast explores possible explanations for this -- explanations that point up important lessons to be drawn from remedial interventions.
How Can We Take Advantage of Reading-Writing Relationships?
Reading and writing are closely related. Teaching them together can have a powerful impact on both. This podcast explores three major ways that reading and writing can be combined in the classroom to increase students' literacy proficiency.
The Why and How of Research and the Science of Reading
Despite all the interest in the "science of reading" (SOR) there are still some serious misunderstandings when it comes to recognizing and using research evidence. Even many proponents of SOR, in their zeal to get their way, misuse research as more of a rhetorical device than as a method for determining what would be best for children.
How Should We Plan Reading Comprehension Lessons?
A teacher asks how to plan a reading comprehension lesson. Tim Shanahan talks about the research and then suggests a series of steps that should be taken to plan a reading comprehension or to revise the lesson provided by your district.
Are We Teaching Too Much Phonics?
Over the past decade there has been a public outcry for more phonics instruction in our schools. This has resulted in legislation across the country. Now, the discussion seems to be shifting -- reading authorities who played a significant role in this movement are complaining that we are overdoing the phonics thing. This podcast explores how much phonics there should be.
What Are the Best Fluency Learning Targets? I Think My School is Overdoing It.
Many schools have adopted fluency learning targets based upon fluency norms. Recent research shows that students are able to comprehend text reasonably well even with lower fluency levels. Does that mean that we are overdoing it with fluency instruction? The answer may surprise you.
When Should Reading Instruction Begin?
If you would like to get into a good argument, tell someone when reading instruction should begin. I'm always surprised at how many people have an opinion on that topic, and how vociferously they sometimes share it. This podcast will reveal what we know about the best time to start teaching reading -- maybe it will help you the next time you're in that argument -- but it will likely be of more val
What We Talk About When We Talk About Curriculum
This podcast explores the unfortunate implications of confusing curriculum and instruction. Teachers would do better to distinguish those concepts and to coordinate the one with the other.
Should We Be Using "Words Correct Per Minute"?
Reading ability is often measured through oral reading fluency. These days that means having students read passages aloud and counting the numbers of words per minute read accurately. While this has value, it can lead teachers to encourage reading speed over the other elements of fluency (accuracy and prosody). It is important to remember that speed and automaticity are not the same thing, though
What Teachers Need to Know about Sentence Comprehension
For years, teachers were told that teaching English grammar had no impact on reading comprehension or quality of writing. A more recent substantial body of evidence reveals the importance of sentence comprehension in comprehension. This podcast examines that evidence and makes instructional suggestions that can help increase reading achievement.
Literacy Charities for 2026
Each year, Shanahan on Literacy identifies the highest rated national, regional, and international Literacy Charities. Find out which ones you want to help -- and which might be a source of support for your students and school.
Won’t Challenging Texts Discourage Young Readers?
Research indicates that teaching reading at students' "reading levels" provides no advantages and may do harm when it comes to learning. However, many teachers are less worried about learning, and more concerned about the impact teaching with complex text may have on students' classroom behavior and motivation for reading. This podcast explores those concerns.
Whole Books or Excerpts? Which Do the Most to Promote Reading Ability
Recently, there have been claims that reading achievement is being suppressed because schools are teaching reading with excerpts and other short pieces rather than with complete books. These critics say that they want to go back to a time when reading was taught with complete books. This podcast explores those claims and reveals what research has to say on the matter.
Don’t Confuse Reading Comprehension and Learning to Read (and to Reread)
Are we making our instructional decisions based upon comprehension data or learning data? Is our purpose to make sure that students gain immediate comprehension of the instructional text or is it to improve kids' reading ability so they will be more successful with future texts? The answer might surprise you.
Considering Running Records, and No, I Don’t Beat My Wife Anymore
I've argued against teaching reading at students' instructional levels. Does that mean that I'm against running records and informal reading inventories? What could such tests possibly provide if you aren't teaching with leveled books? This podcast will answer those questions and many more.
What Role Should Pictures Play in Teaching Reading?
This podcast explores the role that pictures play in teaching decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
Disciplinary Literacy Goes to Elementary School
This podcast explains the nature of disciplinary literacy and lays out a description of what role it should play in the elementary school reading curriculum.
Our Middle School Reading Scores are Dropping – Help!
Middle school reading scores are stagnant or dropping all over the country. What can we do about that? This podcast explores what a science of reading based response should look like. If you want to help upper elementary, middle school, and high school readers, please tune in!
Rejecting Instructional Level Theory
This episode explores the idea of teaching students with leveled books at their so-called instructional reading levels. For 70+ years, educators have been told that this was the key to optimum amounts of learning. This podcast challenges that idea.
Modeling in Fluency Instruction
"Experts" make lots of recommendations about how to teach oral reading or text reading fluency. One of those recommendations is that it is important to "model" oral reading for the students. The research is nearly silent on this issue, so what makes sense?
What is the Science of Reading?
This episode explores what it meant by the term "science of reading" and it distinguishes that idea from a "science of reading instruction." The issue here has to do with what kind of evidence should be used to determine how best to teach reading.
Print-to-Speech or Speech-to-Print? That is the Question
This episode explores the effectiveness of Orton-Gillingham approaches to the teaching of phonics as well as which method is best for facilitating growth in decoding -- teaching students connect letters to sounds or sounds to letters.
How to do the Best Benchmark Testing?
This podcast explores the pluses and minuses of benchmark reading testing, including considerations of test frequency, time of day the tests are administered and who proctors the tests.
My Child Will Only Read Graphic Novels. Help!
Many kids only want to read graphic novels. Is that a problem? This podcast explores the pluses and minuses of graphic novels when it comes to learning to read. It includes practical suggestions for parents and teachers.
Should Reading Be Taught Whole Class or Small Group?
There is a long history in reading education of promoting small group instruction. This podcast explores what the research has to say about the benefits -- or lack thereof -- of small group teaching and whether it is such a good idea afterall.
Encouraging Summer Reading
This podcast explains why summer reading practice is so important and provides 13 recommendations for ways to encourage children to read when the schools are closed.
Autism and Reading Part 2: Lessons to be Learned from Special Kids
Children on the autism spectrum (ASD) present some interesting challenges when it comes to reading instruction. Part 1 of this series considered the difficulties that these children may have with decoding -- despite the fact that there are a surprising number who have hyperlexia, especially good decoding ability. However, most of these students struggle more with comprehension than decoding and th
Autism and Reading Part 1: Lessons to be Learned from Special Kids
More and more kids are diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum and this challenge has important consequences for learning to read. This podcast explores the implications this has for teaching reading -- both to kids on the spectrum and to everyone else.
How to Teach Writing Fluency
These days there is much interest in reading fluency as educators have become aware of the important contribution it makes to reading proficiency. However, writing fluency is not accorded the same attention -- undermining writing development and what it can contribute to learning to read. This podcast explores writing fluency -- what it is, why it matters, and most importantly how to teach it succ
The Whats, Hows, and Whys of Teaching Sight Vocabulary
This podcast explores a series of question about sight vocabulary, its role in reading development, and how it is best dealt with in the classroom.
Is Morphology Training Better Than Phonics Instruction?
This podcast explores the relationship between phonics teaching and morphology instruction. Some authorities suggest that morphology should replace phonics, while others see it as a supplement to phonics that should be delayed until decoding is well in hand.
Are We Teaching Reading Comprehension Part 2
In the last episode, we examined the research on comprehension instruction and how it has changed. In this episode we are exploring the kinds of instruction that should count when it comes to teaching students to comprehend what they read. It gets into issues of knowledge, strategies, questioning routines, and language.
Are We Teaching Comprehension? Part 1
There is new research into how much reading comprehension student are receiving. To carry out such studies requires the researchers to define what they mean by comprehension instruction... and that's where it gets interesting. This first of a two-part podcast explores what it means to teach reading comprehension in the Science of Reading era.
Accommodating Reading Comprehension with Listening: Good Idea?
Many children suffer from difficulties learning to read and sometimes these challenges take the form of disabilities. The question is should accommodations be provided to these students by replacing listening comprehension with reading comprehension, if we know they will have trouble decoding. This podcast considers the value of such accommodations when it comes to reading.
On Eating Elephants and Teaching Syllabication
Should we be teaching syllabication? Some schemes for this are pretty time consuming. Is that kind of investment worthwhile? And, if we do teach students to break words into syllables what is the best way to do that and what should we teach them? This podcast will explore these issues.
Is Print Awareness Part of the Science of Reading?
This podcast explores the role that print awareness plays in learning to read. It sorts out the skills that matter from those that do not and explains how the essential ones can be best taught.
My Problem with Teaching Text Organization
There is strong research that supports the idea of teaching students to recognize and use text structure to understand and remember the information from text. Accordingly, reading comprehension lessons often focus on teaching story structure and multiple expository text structures, too. But are those really always the best organizational plans to focus on. This podcast argues for some more content
8 Ways to Help Kids Read Complex Text
For years, teachers were told to teach reading at children's "instructional levels." However, research has not been especially kind to this idea, showing either that this adjustment provides no benefit or that it actually is harmful. So teachers are increasingly trying to teach students to read with grade level text. This podcast provides some useful advice on how to do that successfully.
Are We Getting the Right Information When It Comes to the Science of Reading?
Recently, the press has exercised great influence over reading education reform. Radio documentaries have revealed the neglect of key aspects of reading instruction. Although journalists have often been criticized by educators for not knowing enough to determine how reading should be taught, this is not a reasonable demand -- journalists are responsible for identifying problems, not for solving th
'Tis the Season of Test Prep: Bah Humbug!
School districts want higher test scores. Each year they promote programs of test preparation. Teachers are required to reduce the amount of reading instruction that they provide in the hopes that these efforts will make everybody look good whether the kids can read well or not. This podcast explores what it would take to end up with higher scores which reflect improved reading ability.
Literacy Charities for 2025
Each year, I identify regional, national, and international charities that support children's literacy. Only the highest rated charities are noted. This podcast identifies those charities, explains their good work, and points out how these organizations might help your schools and your children.
Three-Cueing and the Law
This podcast explains the three-cueing approach and why it is not a good idea for instruction. But several states have passed laws or formulated regulations prohibiting the practice. Is that a good idea? Tune in to find out the answer to that question.
Is Comprehension Better with Digital Text?
Research continues to accumulate indicating that digital text is not comprehended as well as paper text, and some studies suggest that the use of digital texts with kids may stunt their comprehension ability. This podcast explores those studies and draws a surprising conclusion.
Do Middle and High School Students Need Fluency Instruction and What Counts as Instruction?
This podcast responds to a teacher's question concerning the need to teach older students to read fluently. It explains why fluency matters at those levels and why fewer and fewer students require fluency instruction each year.
How Can I Teach with Books that are Two Years Above Student Reading Levels?
These days teachers are being encouraged to teach with complex or challenging text. This often means teaching students to read (or to learn science or social studies) from grade level texts far above students' reading levels. In the past teachers were taught to change books so students could work at their reading level. This podcast explains how that can be made to work.
The Role of Letter Names in Learning to Read is Still Curious
The ability to identify the letters is one of the best predictors of later reading ability. That makes it a valuable tool for helping to identify which children are likely to struggle with reading. But why is that? This podcast explores what is known about the role of letter names in the learning to read. (This podcast includes a misinterpretation of a study by Byrne and Fielding-Barnsley. I assum
Isn’t Independent Reading a Research-Based Practice?
It makes sense that giving students lots of time at school to read independently, right? This podcast explores that idea and reveals why it isn't the way to go.
When Sisyphus was in First Grade or One Minute Reading Homework
This podcast explores a parent's homework complaint. Her first grader is to do a 1-minute read each evening, and parents are to time it and calculate words correct per minute. Is this a good idea or something more nefarious? Tune in and find out.
Seatwork that Makes Sense for Reading
Usually reading seatwork is work aimed at keeping kids busy rather than teaching them. This podcast suggests some ways to make seatwork a plus rather than a minus when it comes to reading achievement.
The Science of Reading Versus the Art of Teaching Reading
With all of the emphasis these days on a "science of reading," is there any place for the idea of an "art of teaching?" This presentation explains the role that these two sources of success play and how they may work together.
Print-to-Speech or Speech-to-Print? That Is the Question.
There are arguments in reading circles about the best way to teach phonics -- should the focus be on decoding from print to speech (like someone sounding out a word) or from speech to print (like someone trying to spell). This podcast will explore the evidence on both sides.
Should We Teach Graphicacy?
This podcast explores the value of teaching students to read the graphics in content area texts. Although pictures can distract from the word reading of young children, as they confront more complex texts they will need to learn how to interpret the graphics and this podcast suggests how that might be accomplished.
FAQs on Fluency
This podcast provides answers to frequently asked questions about fluency instruction. It considers why we teach fluency, how we can teach it effectively, the kinds of books to use, how to match kids for paired reading, how fluent kids need to be, how much fluency instruction to provide. If you want some quick advice on how to teach fluency this is the podcast for you.
What Do We Do with Above Grade Level Readers?
Research shows that students are best taught with challenging texts -- texts that in the past would have been deemed "frustration level" and eschewed for instruction. Teaching with grade level texts ensures that students will reach the levels of literacy needed for full participation in society. Teaching with grade levels texts makes sense, but what do we do with students who already can read grad
Does a Four-day Week Mean Lower Reading Scores?
Many school districts are considering going to a 4-day school week. This would help solve their problem in getting substitutes, reduce lunch program costs, and make many of their employees happy. But what will it do to reading achievement? This podcast explores the research on instructional time and 4-day school weeks.
What about Tracing and Other Multi-Sensory Teaching Approaches?
Many phonics proponents claim that the best way to teach phonics is multi-sensorilly with tracing and similar activities. This podcast reveals what research studies have to say about those claims.
Choral Reading: Good Idea or Not?
This episode considers the value -- and limitations of using choral reading in the teaching of oral reading fluency.
Should We Teach with Decodable text?
This "blast from the past" revisits -- revises -- a blog posting from 2018. This podcast explains what the research has to say about teaching with decodable text. The idea of teaching students with decodables is a hot topic in reading education these days. Find out what research has to say about these materials and what they contribute to learning to read -- if anything. You might be surprised at
What About Those Reading Textbook Reviews and Ratings?
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.
Ensuring Success: Pre-Remediation as a Valuable Alternative
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.
What Does It Mean to Follow a Program? Issues in Fidelity
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.
What is the Best Way to Organize a Classroom for Reading Instruction?
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.
Does Research Support "guided reading"? Practical Advice on Directing Reading
This podcast explores the role that guided reading should play in reading instruction and how best to support students during such reading experiences.
The Instructional Level Concept Revisited: Teaching With Complex Text
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.
Does Literature Count as Knowledge?
These days there is a big push to emphasize knowledge in reading programs. This has led to welcome increases in emphasis on social studies and science texts in reading. But what about literature? Is there anything to be learned from stories and poems that would count as knowledge in this new regime? This podcast will explore that issue and provide some guidance to teachers on the matter.
Can a Program of Professional Development Raise Reading Achievement?
This episode explores the value of professional development for improving reading achievement. Some school districts are investing heavily in very expensive professional development programs in the hopes these will raise reading achievement.
Small Group Phonics in the Classroom -- Good Idea or Not?
Teachers are often told that differentiation in instruction is important and in reading that tends to mean multiple groups of kids being taught different things. Is that a good idea for phonics? Why or Why not? This episode will answer those questions.
