I am so thrilled to announce that Reading Assessment Done Right: Tools and Techniques for Data-Driven Instruction, which I wrote with Dr. Stephanie Stollar for the Scholastic Science of Reading in Practice series, is now available for pre-order (shipping the first week of January)! The target audience is K-6 educators (though I’ve used the content […] Read more…
(This Mom Loves email subscribers – be sure to read to the end!) When I launched this site in 2010, blogging was all the rage. Over time, it has lost some steam (and/or I have lol) and I find myself “microblogging” on my social media accounts much more often instead. For example, if you’ve been […] Read more…
New podcast alert! I am admittedly a reading science nerd, and I also love podcast hosting…so I’ve brought those two things together for the new Reading Road Trip podcast from IDA Ontario! Every episode of this show (which is for educators, but may also be of interest to parents and those working in related fields) […] Read more…
My latest favourite books! Suspense/Thriller The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf Never Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor The It Girl by Ruth Ware Rapid Falls by Amber Cowie Cover Art by Vanessa Westermann (lighter mystery) General Fiction Smells Like Tween […] Read more…
This summer I took on the task of preparing and presenting a webinar through IDA Ontario on structured literacy in the kindergarten classroom, and I shared 5 key changes that I made to my program that resulted in all kids leaving kindergarten as readers. The webinar video is available here. The slideshow, full of […] Read more…
Summer is here and today I was back on Global’s The Morning Show with hosts Carolyn MacKenzie and Jeff McArthur outlining easy ways to keep learning going over the holidays. Read more…
Who’s looking forward to some reading in the sunshine this summer? Whether it’s your back deck, a local park, the cottage, the pool or an international destination (hey, even just those few minutes when the kids are in bed and you can squeeze it in before your eyes close), I’ve got you covered for reading […] Read more…
Updated August 2025 Over the last few years as I’ve learned about evidence-based reading instruction, something I’ve seen over and over is the importance of vocabulary and content knowledge. With kindergarten kids, this isn’t something they can independently get from their reading material yet (while “The cat sits” is fantastic for decoding practice it’s a […] Read more…
I was thrilled to be invited to chat with Kathryn Garforth from Right To Read Initiative not once, but twice this past week. In the first video, A Journey to the Science of Reading, I talk about my teaching background, the ineffective practices I was using before, my deep dive into the science of reading, […] Read more…
In my latest segment on Global’s The Morning Show (video below), I debunked six common reading myths and misconceptions with hosts Jeff McArthur and Carolyn MacKenzie: Reading is natural All kids learn to read differently Reading to your kids teaches them to read If your child doesn’t know a word they should guess Your child’s […] Read more…