8.9 Teacher Preparation

8.9 Teacher Preparation

Author: Shannon Betts and Mary Saghafi March 8, 2026 Duration: 1:12:01

Shannon and Mary welcome Dr. Ellen Ballock and Julia D'Onofrio from Gordon College to talk about teacher preparation programs. Discover how they design and implement teacher prep programs focused on literacy instruction, the science of reading, and practical teaching methods. Our guests shed light on the importance of comprehensive training, common misconceptions in literacy education, and the roles of explicit instruction and evidence-based practices. They also delve into how their curriculum bridges gaps in teacher knowledge, ensuring future educators are well-equipped to foster student success.   This episode will likely remind you of your own teacher training and inspire you, making you feel hopeful about the future of our field and for new teacher candidates.

01:16 Meet Today’s Guests
05:10 Teacher Prep Shifts Nationwide
10:54 Data Language and Decision Making
14:36 Unlearning Balanced Literacy
18:06 Teaching Phonemic Awareness to Adults
22:06 Modeling Explicit Instruction
25:39 Morphology and Word Study
29:49 Curriculum Partnerships and Fidelity
32:01 Adapting Curriculum with Scaffolds
35:50 Redesigning for Comprehension
38:13 Gateway Checks for Think Alouds
40:39 Coaching Struggling Candidates
43:53 Writing Methods and Sentence Work
48:22 Sentence Composing Mentor Models
52:11 Practicum Pathway and Feedback
01:03:04 Doctoral Program for Change Agents
01:07:19 Closing Thanks and Takeaways

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES RELEVANT TO THE EPISODE:

  1. Gordon College
  2. Sentence Composing (Don Killgallon)
  3. Grammar for Middle School: A Sentence Composing Approach by Don and Jenny Killgallon *Amazon affiliate link
  4. NCTQ
  5. Early literacy observation tool (Massachusetts)
  6. Moat's Survey of Teacher Knowledge
  7. How Spelling Supports Reading  article by Louisa Moats
  8. Gordon College's Science of Learning Doctoral Program

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In the Reading Teachers Lounge, hosts Shannon Betts and Mary Saghafi pull up a chair for a conversation that feels both deeply professional and warmly familiar. These two elementary reading teachers and Atlanta neighbors discovered a shared, fervent passion for literacy over a local dinner, realizing they were kindred spirits in their mission. That initial chat never really ended, and now it forms the heart of this podcast. Each episode invites you into their ongoing dialogue, where practical classroom strategies, reflections on what works, and thoughtful discussions about reaching every single learner are all on the table. It’s a space designed for fellow educators, dedicated parents, and anyone invested in how children learn to read, offering tangible ideas rather than abstract theory. The tone is collaborative and grounded in real classroom experiences, reflecting a joint belief that literacy is foundational. By tuning in, you gain access to their collective experience and earnest curiosity, all focused on the complex, rewarding world of teaching reading. This isn't about performance; it's about sharing a genuine professional conversation from their lounge to yours, making the Reading Teachers Lounge a unique podcast for those who live and breathe language education.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 129

Reading Teachers Lounge
Podcast Episodes
Speaking and Listening Standards [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:12
Shannon and Mary read over and discuss the Speaking and Listening standards in Reading to develop a deeper understanding of how and why these standards exist and help the students grow in literacy. They show how the stan…
Building Reading Fluency [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:36
Shannon chats with Stephanie Summers from Pride Reading Program about the topic of helping students build their reading fluency. They talk about what skills go into a student's reading fluency. They share ways to work on…
Building Vocabulary [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:45
Shannon and Mary focus their conversation on how to build students' vocabularies. They share less effective methods used in the past and how they've evolved their vocabulary instruction to help students the most. In the…
Meaningful Learning Assessments [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:36
Often Shannon and Mary discuss different types of student assessments. Today we are going to dive a little deeper and discuss how we use data analysis to make meaningful adjustments and decisions to our teaching practice…
Decodable Texts with Emily Gibbons, the Literacy Nest [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:06
Shannon and Mary chat with Emily Gibbons from the Literacy Nest about decodable texts. This discussion provides information about how decodables are similar and different to trade books and leveled texts. In this episode…
Simple View of Reading and Beyond with Dr. Janet Mort [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:20
Shannon and Mary chat with Dr. Janet Mort, who has fifty years of experience in the field of education and reading. We discuss the Simple View of Reading and how that affected reading instruction in the 1980s and 1990s.…
Orthographic Mapping with Anna Geiger (The Measured Mom) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:12
Shannon and Mary chat with Ann Geiger from The Measured Mom about how readers orthographically stores words in their reading brains. This episode follows our overview of the reading brain, where we talked about the reade…
the Reading Brain with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:40
Shannon and Mary chat with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg from Reading Simplified about what happens in the brain during reading. We talk about the reader's journey to whole word recognition and how reading teachers can help their…
Balancing It All as a Reading Teacher (with Guest Linda Rhyne) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:56
Shannon and Mary ask Linda Rhyne to join them for a live Reading Teachers discussion about how to find balance in our reading instruction. Teachers are asked to follow various curriculum programs, teach the grade level s…