When a STen Score Isn’t the Whole Story
What a reassuring STen score didn't tell me about my daughter
Jen’s Substack
Where evidence-based meets chalk-dusted reality in literacy education.
Live Last read · last published · next check
Latest posts
Literacy Stations: What Are We Actually Talking About?
Why the most important question isn't whether we use stations, but what happens within them.
What Ireland Gets Right About Reading
Lessons from a small country with strong reading outcomes
The most powerful vocabulary teaching tool in your classroom is probably already on your shelf
I was recently talking to a teacher about vocabulary instruction when she asked me: ‘How do I actually know which words are worth teaching explicitly?’
When ‘Evidence-Based’ Starts Meaning Everything… and Nothing
Spend enough time in literacy education and you begin to notice that almost everybody claims research is on their side.
A Response, A Rebuttal, and an Ongoing Conversation About Reading Recovery
For the past number of years, I have been writing and speaking about early reading intervention in Ireland, often returning to the same underlying question: are we providing the right kind of support for the children who struggle most to learn to read?
The Friday Fiasco: Why the Weekly Spelling Test is a Pedagogical Dead End
Every Thursday evening, in homes up and down the country, a familiar routine plays out.
When Talking About Literacy Feels “Brave”
I’m writing this the day after the Right to Read Ireland conference, and my mind is still buzzing.
When Teacher Expertise Becomes Classroom Content for Children
Not everything teachers need to know about reading needs to be explicitly taught to children.
When Equal Time for Literacy Becomes an Inequity
In the global effort to close the literacy gap, we have examined almost every aspect of reading instruction.