Science of Reading: The Podcast

Season 10 trailer: The comprehension season

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Podcast host Susan Lambert gives you a first look at Season 10 of Science of Reading: The Podcast. This season will focus on reading comprehension, taking a deep dive into what is ultimately the goal of every classroom: breaking down why comprehension matters and how to achieve it. Get a glimpse into the season’s different angles on comprehension, as well as the expert guests you can look forward to hearing from.

Show notes:

[00:00:00] Susan Lambert: This is Susan Lambert, host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. If you haven't noticed, there's a particular topic that's been on my mind a lot lately. Comprehension is complicated. There are lots of factors that contribute to reading comprehension. Can we talk comprehension though?

[00:00:19] Susan Lambert: We're actually going to be talking about comprehension today, which was super exciting.

[00:00:22] Susan Lambert: Maybe it has become a bit of an obsession. But in my defense, it's because our expert guests keep telling us how important, but often misunderstood comprehension is. 

[00:00:33] Guest: It's not a single thing. I mean, that's the problem.

[00:00:35] Guest: The more I really started to look into it, the more I saw there's actually a lot more going on while students are reading that's important to their comprehension.

[00:00:43] Guest: I started off with some hypothesis and it took a week and a half to have some of those hypotheses shattered. 

[00:00:50] Susan Lambert: That's why we're devoting our upcoming 10th season to fully unpacking comprehension. We'll explore the various factors involved in the comprehension process, we'll dive into the newest thinking on comprehension assessment, we'll share evidence-based tips for boosting student comprehension, and we've got a brand new lineup of expert guests ready to talk about the latest research. 

[00:01:12] Guest: We took a look at one of these studies together and he was like, my best guess is that 40 to 50% of students in middle school and high school grades are probably disfluent, Because fluency is a prerequisite to comprehension and in communities of the highest need, it may be as high as 80%. That is an epidemic.

[00:01:28] Guest: I always say that. If you're a teacher thinking about language comprehension, whatever time you devote to helping people understand language, if you can be effective in doing that, you'll never waste a kid's time.

[00:01:42] Susan Lambert: Join me for our deep dive into comprehension on Season 10 of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast.