Teaching, Reading, and Learning: The Reading League Podcast

Rupen Fofaria is a storyteller at EDNC.org, where he examines how education policy shows up in classrooms and impacts teachers, students, and families. Rupen has invested much of his time since 2019 reporting stories about literacy instruction in North Carolina.  His stories about the body of research on how kids learn to read take readers inside classrooms, advance student and family narratives, explore challenges for early reading teachers, and study best practices in colleges of education. Prior to joining EdNC, Rupen was an attorney in Raleigh and Chicago, practicing start-up and intellectual property law.  In his (much) younger days, he was a sports writer for ESPN.com, the Raleigh News and Observer, and the Orlando Sentinel. Rupen’s passion is shining light on untold and underreported issues.

Further Resources and Rupen’s Picks:

• Rupen Fofaria and his reporting
• Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert by Anne Castles, Kathleen Rastle, and Kate Nation
• Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It by Mark Seidenberg
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Tristan Strong Series by Kwame Mbalia
• Theories of Adolescent Development by Barbara M. Newman and Philip R. Newman
• Y Guides
• “Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation, comes action.“  Tupac Shakur

Deborah is an education attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area currently representing families and students against school districts throughout Northern California. She is extremely passionate about her work and the rights of children with disabilities and children who are disproportionally affected by the failures of public schools. Deborah is an active member of the educational community and works with parents, teachers, administrators, service providers and local organizations to support the needs of vulnerable youth.

Deborah has spent her entire legal career working on behalf of children. As a law student she worked as a legal intern and special education advocate for Disability Rights California and Bay Area Legal Aide, then quickly became the managing associate at a special education law firm in the District of Columbia where she represented low-income families in court appointed special education cases. Prior to relocating back to the Bay Area, Deborah co-founded The School Justice Project (“SJP”), a legal services and advocacy organization serving older students with special education needs who are involved in Washington DC’s justice system. In 2013 Deborah started her own practice in Berkeley, California, Jacobson Education Law (“JEL”). In addition to her private practice, Deborah has worked as both co-counsel and of counsel for Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (“DREDF”), and she currently serves as Of Counsel for The East Bay Community Law Center in their Education Justice Clinic. 

Deborah has effectively and compassionately represented hundreds of clients in special education matters. She is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and provides trainings to local advocacy and parent groups.

Further Resources and Deborah’s Picks:

• More on the class action lawsuit against Berkeley Unified School District
• Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• The School Justice Project
• East Bay Community Law Center
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Rising Strong by Brene Brown

Audie Alumbaugh received her master’s degree in special education but has been an unpaid advocate for Arkansas children for over 10 years. Her passion began when teaching mathematics and recognizing that middle school and high school students were unable to perform at the potential when “word problems” were presented to them. it did not take long after that for her to realize the reading crisis in Arkansas. When her faculty position at the University of Central Arkansas and her advocacy for children resulted in what public school superintendents referred to as a “conflict of interest,” Audie left her faculty position knowing children’s education is more important and much more urgently needed. Audie has advocated for thousands of children and attended thousands of 504 and IEP meetings around the state as well as several outside of her home state. In 2015 Audie founded the Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group and funded its activities herself. Audie works tirelessly with the Arkansas legislature. Through her work several laws have been enacted strengthening public schools’ responsibility in identifying children with dyslexia and providing proper science-based intervention. Audie has assisted advocates in other states and worked to strengthen their laws as well. 

This is a labor of love for Audie. 

Further Resources and Audie’s Picks:

• More on Audie’s Work 
• Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group (75 Taylor Circle, Conway, AR 72032)
• Arkansas Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (R.I.S.E.) resources
• PBS NewsHour segment highlighting Arkansas and Audie’s work
• Blueprint for a Literate Nation; How You Can Help by Cinthia Coletti 
• An Uphill Climb by Dave Sargent
• "To whom much is given, much will be required" (Luke 12:48)

Kelly Butler is the Chief Executive Officer of The Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI). The Institute’s literacy work encompasses early childhood, parenting, professional development for teachers, teacher preparation, and developing literacy leaders.

Ms. Butler is the author of two statewide studies and developed a subsequent statewide initiative to improve teacher preparation programs focused on early literacy instruction in Mississippi’s 15 public and private universities. 

A former high school teacher in the Greenwich, Connecticut Public Schools, Ms. Butler holds a bachelor’s degree in Special Education and a master’s degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. She served by appointment to the Governor’s Task Force on Teacher Preparation for Early Literacy Instruction and the State Reading Panel and, most recently, the Governor’s Task Force on Educator Workforce Development. 

Kelly has leveraged the Institute’s successful track record to initiate several multi-organization and multi-state initiatives, including The Big Dippers Short Course in the Science of Reading for Teach For America’s National Summer Institute, The Path Forward: Bringing the Science of Reading to Teacher Preparation Programs and Licensure, and a twenty-member national team of reading experts to review the teacher preparation programs in a neighboring state. 

Kelly is frequently called upon to tell the story of Mississippi’s literacy challenges and successes, and as more states are responding to the literacy instruction crisis, BRI has provided consultation to a number of legislative and philanthropic groups from various states.

Kelly is the recipient of The Reading League’s 2021 Benita Blachman award, for advancing evidence to practice.

Ms. Butler lives in Jackson, Mississippi with her husband, Thorne. They have five daughters.

Further Resources and Kelly’s Picks:

• Barksdale Reading Institute
• Reading Universe
• Parents for Public Schools
• Emily Hanford’s APM Reports
• The Hunt Institute
• Reach Out and Read
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• Travels with Charley; In Search of America by John Steinbeck
• Books by Wallace Stegner
• The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
• Middlemarch by George Eliot

Shawn Anthony Robinson Ph.D.is co-founder of Doctor Dyslexia Dude and serves on the inaugural advisory council of Benetech. Robinson has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and received several distinguished honors throughout his career, including the 2017 Alumni Achievement Award/New Trier High School Alumni Hall of Honor; the 2016 Outstanding Young Alumni Award from University of Wisconsin; and “Educator of the Year” from All-State Insurance (Chicago) 2005. Robinson is a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Further Resources:

• Dr. Robinson’s website
• Word Analysis Course developed by Shawn Robinson for the Learning Differences Innovation Center @ Madison College
• Blog about the pilot course at Madison College
• Dr. Dyslexia Dude website

Dr. Robinson’s Scholarly Work:

• Robinson, S. A. (2018). A study designed to increase the literacy skills of incarcerated adults. The Journal of Correctional Education, 69(1), 60–72.
• Robinson, S. A. (Ed.) (2018). Untold narratives: African Americans who received special education services and succeeded beyond expectations. Information Age Publishing.
• Robinson, S. A. (2020). Culturally responsive representation in graphic novels matter for African American boys with reading disability. Journal of African American Males in Education, 11(1), 23–36.
• Robinson, S. A., & Thompson, C. L. (2019). Promoting academic readiness for African American males with dyslexia: Implications for preschool to elementary school teaching. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 35(1),1–64. [Invited to reprint in an edited book with Routledge].
• Robinson, S. A. (2019). Critical literacy impacts African American boys’ reading identity. Gifted Child Today, 42(3), 150–156.

Jeannine Herron, Ph.D. is a research neuropsychologist. After ten years of dyslexia research at University of California at San Francisco, she became founder/CEO of Talking Fingers. She was the Principal Investigator on five Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institute of Child Health (NICHD) to develop and do research with early literacy software, in collaboration with Joe Torgesen, Carol Connor, Linnea Ehri, Patricia Mathes, Margie Gillis, and others whose mentorship enriched her research and her life. She is the author of several books, including  Making Speech Visible: How Constructing Words Can Help Children Organize their Brains for Skillful Reading.

Additional Resources:

• Talking Fingers (Includes more about Jeannine Herron as well as information about Talking Shapes;  Read, Write and Type;  and Wordy Qwerty).

Books by Jeannine Herron:

• Neuropsychology of Left-Handedness 
• Voyage of the Aquarius
• Our Big Blue Schoolhouse
• Making Speech Visible: How Constructing Words Can Help Children Organize Their Brains for Skillful Reading

Jeannine’s Picks:

• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Steven Greenblatt  
• The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, and Civilization by Martin Puchner  
• Norman Geschwind
• Marianne Diamond
• Writing Road to Reading by Ramalda Spalding 

Select Publications by Jeannine Herron:

• Torgesen, J.K., Wagner, R.K., Rashotte, C.A., Herron, J. and Lindamood, P; Computer-assisted instruction to prevent early reading difficulties in students at-risk for dyslexia: Outcomes from two instructional approaches.  Annals of Dyslexia, vol 60, p 40-46, 2009.
• Galin, D., Raz, J., Fein, G., Johnstone, J., Herron, J., and Yingling C.D., EEG spectra in dyslexic and normal readers during oral and silent reading. Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol. 82:87-101, 1992.
• Galin, D., Herron, J., Fein, G., Johnstone, J., and Yingling C.D., EEG measures of hem. spec. in dyslexic and normal reading children. Brain and Language 35:241-253, 1988.
• Fein, G., Galin, D., Yingling C.D., Johnstone, J., Davenport, L., & Herron, J., EEG spectra in dyslexic and control boys during resting conditions. EEG Clin. Neuro. 63:87-97, 1986.
• Brown, B., Haegerstrom-Portnoy, G., Herron, J., Galin, D., Yingling, C.D., and Marcus, M., Static postural stability is normal in dyslexic children. J. Learning Dis. 18:31-34, 1985.
• Johnstone, J., Galin, D., Fein, G., Yingling C.D., Herron, J., and Marcus, M., Regional brain activity in dyslexic and control children during reading tasks: Visual probe event-related potentials. Brain and Language 21:233-254, 1984.
• Fein, G., Galin, D., Yingling C.D., Johnstone, J., and Herron, J., EEG in dyslexia. In C. Susskind (Ed.) Interdisciplinary Studies, Report 83-1, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, pp. 86-92, 1983.
• Brown, B., Haegerstrom-Portnoy, G., Adams, A.J., Yingling, C.D., Galin, D., Herron, J., and Marcus, M., Predictive eye movements do not discriminate between dyslexic and control children. Neuropsychologia, 21: 121-128, 1983.
• Brown, B., Haegerstrom-Portnoy, G., Yingling, C.D., Herron, J., Galin, D., and Marcus, M., Dyslexic children have normal vestibular responses to rotation. Arch. Neurology, 40: 370-373, 1983.
• Galin, D., Ornstein, R., Herron, J., and Johnstone, J. Sex and handedness differences in EEG measures of hemispheric specialization. Brain and Language 16, 19-55, 1982.
• Herron, J. Integrating Electrophysiology into Research in Learning Disabilities. International Neuropsychological Society, Atlanta, February, 1981.
• Ornstein, R., Johnstone, J., Herron, J., and Swencionis, C. Differential right hemisphere engagement in visuospatial tasks. Neuropsychologia, Vol. 18 pp. 49 to 64. 1980.
• Herron, J. Two Hands, Two Brains, Two Sexes. Chapter in Neuropsychology of Left-Handedness, Academic Press, 180.

Angie Hanlin is a dedicated and passionate leader for change in schools and classrooms.  She currently serves as the superintendent at the School District of Thorp in Thorp, Wisconsin where she works tirelessly to positively transform teacher practice and student achievement. She bases her career on the belief that ALL students can learn and perform at high levels of achievement when they are given highly engaging, research-based instructional practices and targeted specific interventions.  She creates a growth mindset among her students, staff, and community and uses character education to shape and sustain a positive culture of collaboration and growth that is focused on learning.

Angie has over 20 years of experience in education where she has served in the roles of classroom teacher, curriculum coordinator, instructional coach, professional development coordinator where she worked to train and coach teachers on effective instructional practices and strategies, and as a building principal at Matthews Elementary in the New Madrid County R-1 School District. She has received numerous awards for her performance in the classroom and has found a new passion for working with building leaders to promote systems to improve literacy for all students.

Angie received the 2019-2020 Outstanding Rural Administrator Award from MARE (Missouri Association of Rural Educators).  She is now on a journey of literacy improvement, systems & structure work, and school district transformation with the amazing staff, students, and community members at the School District of Thorp.

Dr. Sam Duncan is the Superintendent of Schools for the New Madrid County R-1 School District (NMCR-1) where he began his career as a high school English/foreign language teacher in 1988. After serving as a junior high principal at NMCR-1, he moved to another district as a middle school principal, and then to central office administrator. He returned to NMCR-1 in 2016 to take his current position.

Dr. Duncan has led NMCR-1 through a season of heralded improvements. This upper-Mississippi-Delta school system covers 470 square miles with 7 city councils. Since 2016, the district has experienced significant improvements in literacy, school security, financial stability, co-curricular offerings, and technical skills expansion, while also cutting the percent of students with IEPs in half.

Duncan is most proud of the continued support of the R-1 Board of Education in the promotion of student literacy. He touts the ever-pressing commitment of his leadership team, as well as the tenacious efforts of faculty and staff to grow assessment-capable learners and students who “don’t just read, but read well!” NMCR-1 continues to drive toward being a well-ordered, highly collaborative, data-driven, impressively impactful, and “globally consistent yet individually responsive” Pk-12 educational community.

Additional Resources:

• Visible Learning by John Hattie  
• Explicit Instruction by Anita Archer
• Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties by David Kilpatrick  
• Schools Cubed
• Growth Mindset

Angie’s Picks:

• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
• Collective Efficacy: How Educators’ Beliefs Impact Student Learning by Jenni Anne Marie Donohoo 
• Angie’s Advice for Principals:
  • Start the work
  • Accept Where You Are and Own It
  • Give Yourself Permission to Lead
  • Never Give Up. Our Students Need Us
  • Reach Out and Ask for Help

Sam’s Picks:

• Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean  
• Annual Growth for All Students, Catch-Up Growth for Those Who Are Behind by Lynn Fielding, Nancy Kerr, and Paul Rosier  
• Sam’s Advice for Superintendents:
  • Protect the Process
  • Replicate Wins
  • Relentlessly Engage at the Ground Level
  • Focus on Knowledge-Creation Across the District
  • Ensure Board Engagement
  • Build Capacity to Continue the Work

Dr. Tracy Weeden is a seasoned and passionate leader dedicated to advancing literacy and academic excellence for children and adults. With an Ed.D in Educational Leadership, Tracy has spent her career creating and building innovative programs, systems, and teams focused on providing enhanced learning opportunities and exceptional outcomes for students.

Tracy is a true visionary when it comes to improving the world through education. Her innovative style of leadership, combined with her compassionate and engaging nature, enables her to successfully manage change and growth across a diverse constituent base including Boards of Trustees, donors, staff, parents, teachers, educational partners, and students.

In her current role as President and CEO of Neuhaus, she provides leadership and support in the areas of financial management, recruitment and development of staff, fundraising initiatives, initiating and furthering relationships with NEC partners, and guidance of professional and public relations.

Prior to joining Neuhaus, Tracy was the Executive Director of Academic Planning with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Intervention Services Group (a division recently acquired from Scholastic Achievement Partners). In this capacity, Dr. Weeden provided executive consulting nationally on the development of systems that helped school districts improve student achievement and address barriers to rigorous, relevant learning. Prior to Scholastic Achievement Partners, she spent more than five years as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment for the Houston Independent School District.

Additional Resources:

• Neuhaus Education Center 
• The Science of Reading: A Defining Movement 

Tracy’s Picks:

• Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
• When to Walk Away: Finding Freedom from Toxic People by Gary Thomas
• Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division by Anthony Muhammad
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Making Obama (interview) by Jenn White 
• Making Obama: Bonus (interview) by Jenn White 
• Making Oprah (interview) by Jenn White

Dr. Jan Hasbrouck is a researcher, educational consultant, and author. She served as Executive Consultant to the Washington State Reading Initiative and as an advisor to the Texas Reading Initiative. Dr. Hasbrouck was a reading specialist and literacy coach for 15 years before teaching at the University of Oregon and later becoming a professor at Texas A&M University. Dr. Hasbrouck has provided educational consulting to individual schools across the United States as well as in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and Germany, helping teachers, specialists, and administrators design and implement effective assessment and instructional programs targeted to help low-performing readers.

Dr. Hasbrouck earned her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oregon, and completed her Ph.D. at Texas A&M. Her research in areas of reading fluency, reading assessment, instructional coaching, and English Learners has been published in numerous professional books and journals. She is the author and coauthor of several books including “Conquering Dyslexia”, “Reading Fluency”, “Student-Focused Coaching” and “Educators as Physicians”, along with several assessment tools. In 2019 she helped found Read Washington, a 501(c3) nonprofit organization with the mission to “provide professional development opportunities, based on the science of reading, so every student becomes a skilled and confident reader.” She also enjoys volunteering at her grandson’s K-8 school in Seattle.

Further Resources by Jan Hasbrouck

• Conquering Dyslexia:  A Guide to  Early Detection and Intervention for Teachers and Families
• Reading Fluency: Understand, Assess, Teach  
• Student-Focused Coaching; The Instructional Coach's Guide to Supporting Student Success through Teacher Collaboration
• Hasbrouck-Tindal 2017 ORF Norms 

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Explicit Instruction by Anita Archer
• “Ladder of Reading” by Nancy Young 
• Siegfried “Zig” Engleman   
• The ABCs of CBM by Hosp, Hosp, and Howell 
• The Right to Read Project  
• The Reading League’s Defining Movement  
• Read WA

Jan’s Picks

• Quote: “If the student hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.”  Zig Engleman
• Little House on the Prairie Book Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson

In this episode, we’ll talk with Dusty, Dott, and Alphabott, learn how they became friends and discover how they are sharing Dusty’s journey in learning to read. You’ll find out all about their television show and how Dusty and Dott have worked with The Reading League to ensure that the science of reading is the foundation for the show.  

After hearing from our friends, we hope you'll become a Reading Buddy, too!

The Reading League’s Reading Buddies launches in September 2021 and can be viewed on YouTube and WCNY-PBS. Like the show on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to stay informed and subscribe to the show’s YouTube channel to be notified of new episodes and videos when they are released.  

Learn more about The Reading League’s Reading Buddies at www.thereadingleague.org/Reading-Buddies.

Join The Reading League’s Reading Buddies on Social Media:

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• https://twitter.com/ReadingBuddies_
• https://www.instagram.com/readingbuddiestrl/
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7JPyTm7Af_1Y-wl9YT9HQ
• https://www.thereadingleague.org/reading-buddies/