Science of Reading: The Podcast

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by educational consultant Nancy Chapel Eberhardt, who explains why focusing on syntax at the sentence level is just as important for comprehension as word-level decoding. Together, Nancy and Susan also discuss how syntax helps students process meaning while reading, why we should start early and teach syntax to students from the beginning, and a more functional approach to syntax.Show notes:Register to join our Science of Comprehension Symposium.Submit your questions on comprehension!Connect with Nancy on LinkedIn. Read Nancy’s article “Syntax: Somewhere Between the Words and Text.”Learn more about Nancy’s book Syntax: Knowledge to Practice.Learn more about the Syntax online course. Listen to last week’s syntax-focused episode, with Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D.Listen to the podcast the episode with Nancy Hennessy, M.Ed.Read Maryellen MacDonald’s article “Book Language: What It Is, How Children Can ‘Get It’.”Listen to Season 2 of Amplify’s Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes:"Syntax is somewhere between the individual words and the meaning of the text. It's the processing piece that's going on there." —Nancy Chapel Eberhardt"Syntax isn't just for older kids anymore. Syntax is really something that we can start promoting, developing, encouraging, embracing from the beginning." —Nancy Chapel Eberhardt"I actually think that as teachers embrace this idea of syntax, they're going to have a lot of fun with it. It's way more fun to talk about the meanings of words than to just decode them." —Nancy Chapel EberhardtTimestamps:00:00 Introduction: Diving deeper into syntax, with Nancy Chapel Eberhardt08:00 Comprehension is lifting the meaning out of text11:00 Sentence-level abilities make as large a contribution as word reading for comprehension14:00 The difference between syntax and grammar20:00 Why syntactical knowledge is so helpful in the  comprehension process24:00 Prosody helps us with our fluency with reading30:00 Syntax is somewhere between the individual words and the meaning of the text33:00 We've gone through several generations of students who aren't being taught syntax37:00 It's  more fun to talk about the meanings of words39:00 Start teaching syntax by thinking about the most essential build block45:00 Connecting words are meaningless in the absence of other words53:00 By spending more time instructing on syntax, we will reach more of our students.56:00 Closing: Syntax is something we can start promoting, developing, encouraging, and embracing from the beginning.*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by research scientist and professor Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D., who explains why syntax instruction may be the missing piece in our mission to improve comprehension outcomes for all students. Together, Julie and Susan discuss why syntax is the part of the language system that matters for comprehension, how the same systematicity and rule governance that you find in teaching phonics also exists in syntax, and how explicit syntax instruction could be the next breakthrough in evidence-based literacy education.Show notes:Register to join our Science of Comprehension Symposium: amplify.com/comprehensionsymposiumSubmit your questions on comprehension!Connect with Julie Van Dyke on LinkedIn.Learn more about Julie Van Dyke's research on her website.Watch an interview about Syntax Comes First: Understanding How Syntax Is the Backbone of ComprehensionWatch Dr. Van Dyke's webinar: Finding the Missing Link in Reading Comprehension. Access recent Perspectives issues via the IDA. Listen to Season 2 of Amplify's Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes:"In English, syntax is word order. Syntax is the relationship between the entities in a sentence." —Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D."If you want to increase comprehension, you need to be explicit in syntax because that's the part of the language system that matters for comprehension." —Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D."Comprehension is the glue between the words. It's the process of gluing the words together, each word as you go." —Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D.Episode Timestamps:00:00 Introduction: Syntax and comprehension with Julie Van Dyke, Ph.D.06:00 Nervousness around syntax instruction11:00 Comprehension is the glue between words15:00 The difference between grammar and syntax19:00 How the brain learns language and how syntax is related to that learning24:00 Oral language is much less complicated than written language30:00 Explaining regressions33:00 The need to be explicit in syntax instruction36:00 How we develop fluency as syntax44:00 Closing thoughts: Syntax can move the needle on the nation's report card*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Affiliated Scholar at the Stern Center for Language and Learning, Melissa Farrall, Ph.D., to discuss understanding assessment. Melissa explains why it's beneficial for every educator to understand the fundamentals of assessment, especially comprehension assessment. Together, Melissa and Susan discuss the relationship between reading comprehension and language comprehension, why reading comprehension can be challenging to assess, and how, in a perfect world, educators would be trained both in the Science of Reading and assessment.Show notes:Submit your questions on comprehension!Access free, high-quality resources at our brand new, companion professional learning page.Connect with Melissa Farrall on LinkedIn.Learn more about Chall's Stages of Reading Development.Read Reading Assessment: Linking Language, Literacy, and CognitionRead The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the ClassroomListen to Season 2 of Amplify's Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert. Quotes:"My view of reading comprehension is that it is thinking guided by print." —Melissa Farrall, Ph.D."If we supplement our evaluation with measures of listening comprehension, we can then get a sense of an individual's ability to make meaning." —Melissa Farrall, Ph.D."In a perfect world, we would have not just evaluators, but educators who are trained both in the Science of Reading and in assessment so that we can all sit at the same table and participate." —Melissa Farrall, Ph.D.Episode Timestamps:00:00 Introduction: Exploring comprehension assessment, with Melissa Farrall07:00 The legacy of Jean Chall's research on the developmental stages of reading10:00 "Reading Assessment: Linking Language, Literacy, and Cognition"17:00 Comprehension is thinking guided by print21:00 Different ways of assessing reading comprehension27:00 Kintsch's construction-integration model30:00 Word recognition33:00 Reading comprehension is not easily quantified38:00 How background knowledge affect the meaning-making process41:00 The two modalities of language comprehension45:00 How today's educators might think differently about comprehension instruction48:00 Closing thoughts*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by University of Oregon College of Education Professor and Ann Swindells Chair in Education Gina Biancarosa, Ed.D., to explore how best to assess for comprehension. Gina elaborates on her extensive work developing more precise and informative measurements of reading comprehension and discusses think-aloud research, demonstrating how to infer for coherence, and examining how students who are struggling with comprehension tend to rely too heavily on making inferences or paraphrasing.Show notes:Submit your questions on comprehension!Access free, high-quality resources at our brand new, companion professional learning page.  Connect with Gina on LinkedIn.Read “Diagnostic and Instructionally Relevant Measurement of Reading Comprehension”Watch Dr. Biancarosa's recent Amplify webinar appearance: Where and How to Measure Comprehension to Drive ImprovementListen to Season 2 of Amplify’s Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes:"A lot of what we know about reading comprehension comes from think-alouds where you ask someone to tell you what they're thinking as they read." —Gina Biancarosa, Ed.D"To model reading comprehension, [try] thinking aloud in front of a classroom of students in a way that is instructive for them, and also authentic to the reading process." —Gina Biancarosa, Ed.D."Students are making causal inferences in their daily lives, when they watch movies, and when they're hearing stories. And so what we're really trying to do is get them to generalize these behaviors that they engage in outside of the task of reading, during reading." —Gina Biancarosa, Ed.D.Episode Timestamps:02:00 Introduction: Gina Biancarosa, Ed.D. and comprehension assessment08:00 How do we assess comprehension?14:00 Think-aloud research21:00 MOCCA (Multiple-Choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment)24:00 Causal coherence30:00 Paraphrasers and elaborators33:00 Comprehension assessment research39:00 Professional development and comprehension assessment42:00 Closing thoughts*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Northwestern University Professor of Education, Social Policy, and Psychology David Rapp. David’s research focuses on language and memory, and his conversation with Susan gives insight into how memory is connected to comprehension. The first half of the episode is spent defining comprehension as a process, a product, and a higher-order cognitive process. David then digs into how that definition informs the ways in which educators assess comprehension and where they can look for potential failure points. One of these failure points includes misinformation. David addresses what happens when misinformation is stored in long-term memory. He details the issues this can cause for student comprehension, and he gives guidance on how to prevent and correct them.Show notes:Submit your questions on comprehension! Access free, high-quality resources at our brand new, companion professional learning page.  Check out David Rapp's lab.Resources:Listen to Season 2 of Amplify’s Beyond My Years podcast.Join our community Facebook group.Connect with Susan Lambert.Quotes: “Once the information is in memory, you can't really get rid of it. What you can try to do is make other memories more powerful, more likely to resonate to things.” —David Rapp, Ph.D.“Sometimes our most effective processes actually lead us to misunderstand. For example, you're really good at encoding information to memory, that's great, except if you're exposed to inaccurate ideas, that's a problem.” —David Rapp, Ph.D.“It feels easy for us to comprehend texts if we're well practiced at it, it feels easy, but it's actually a lot of cognitive operations going on behind the scenes and a lot of years of practice.” —David Rapp, Ph.D.“In terms of being exposed to misinformation, we see even if people have been exposed to inaccurate ideas, even once, it's encoded into memory, it's potentially gonna be there to influence you.” —David Rapp, Ph.D.Episode Timestamps02:00 Introduction: Who is David Rapp?04:00 Defining reading comprehension05:00 Comprehension as a process vs a product08:00 Comprehension as a higher order cognitive process12:00 Coherence18:00 Memory activation and misinformation21:00 Consequences of misinformation25:00 Correcting misinformation28:00 Preventing misinformation36:00 The evolution of thinking on comprehension40:00 Current research45:00 Closing thoughts and encouragement to dig into research*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute