Dr. Joe Stouffer is a literacy researcher, consultant, and assistant professor at Brandon University’s Faculty of Education, and he has a thing or two to say about teaching children to read. In this jam-packed episode, Dr. Stouffer discusses balanced literacy programs, the Science of Reading movement, and assessment. He shares the most important thing that teachers can do to be effective teachers of literacy, and it’s surprisingly simple. Questions about sight/high-frequency words? He talks about that too. Tune in, listen a couple of times, and share it with your teacher friends, because this is an episode that you don’t want to miss.
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Guest: Dr. Joe Stouffer
Dr. Joe Stouffer brings over 25 years experience as a classroom teacher and literacy specialist to empower and engage classroom literacy teachers. Joe is currently a tenured Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Brandon University and the recipient of the 2022 Brandon University Senate Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Connect with Dr. Stouffer at http://www.joestoufferliteracy.com/
Key Components of a Quality Literacy Program in K-12
Dr. Stouffer shared 4 pillars for a quality literacy program:
Organization
How has the teacher organized their instructional day? How are you making time for whole group, small group and 1 on 1 coaching?
Instruction
What is the teacher saying and doing? What activities are students engaging in to build strong reading, writing and oral language skills?
Assessment
What formal and informal assessment steers your instruction?
Materials
What kinds of books do we have? Do our books meet students’ interests? Are we being inclusive? Can students see themselves in books and also have a window to learn about others who may be different from them?
“Literacy teaching and learning is always a work in progress.”
-Dr. Joe Stouffer, Episode 19, Cultivating Connection podcast
Science of Reading
Dr. Stouffer suggests we need to take a middle ground stance as the pendulum swings between “phonics first” approaches and “whole language” approaches. Research does support the need for essential skills such as phonological awareness, letter-sound association, alphabetic knowledge, word recognition and word-solving skills. However, we also have a lot of research that says that successful readers have to be able to much more than just decoding. Students also need to comprehend and think about their reading, so we can’t teach ONLY decoding skills. Scarborough’s rope shows how skills are intertwined.
Listen to this episode for more on Dr. Stouffer’s perspective on Science of Reading and other programs.
“Programs don’t teach kids, teachers teach kids.”
-Dr. Joe Stouffer, Episode 19, Cultivating Connection podcast
Recommended Resources
Dr. Stouffer recommends Reading above the Fray by Julia B. Lindsay
We also recommend reading this blog post from Timothy Shanahan.
Dr. Stouffer also encourages educators to work with colleagues and visit each other’s classrooms.
“The best resources we have are our colleagues.”
-Dr. Joe Stouffer, Episode 19, Cultivating Connection podcast
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