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The Story Behind 'Sold a Story' With Emily Hanford
Episode 1 • February 14, 2023 • 53 min
Lexia® Chief Learning Officer Dr. Liz Brooke interviews Emily Hanford, education journalist and host of “Sold A Story,” and Dr. Tiffany Hogan, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, about Hanford’s 2022 groundbreaking podcast series exposing decades’ worth of failed strategies to teach children to read. They discuss the intense national reaction to “Sold A Story,” continued media and community reaction, and a candid view into how to make the science of reading “stick” after decades of research and data.
Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative journalism group at American Public Media. She has covered education for more than a decade. Her work has appeared on National Public Radio and in The New York Times, Washington Monthly, Los Angeles Times, PBS NewsHour, and other publications. Her audio documentary and article, Hard Words: Why Aren’t Kids Being Taught to Read?, won a public service award from the Education Writers Association. In 2017, Hanford won the Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award from the American Educational Research Association. She is based in the Washington DC area. You can find her audio documentaries at apmreports.org and on the podcast, Educate.
Dr. Tiffany Hogan, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, director of the Speech and Language (SAiL) Literacy Lab, and research associate at Harvard University. She studies the genetic, neurologic, and behavioral links between oral and written language development, with a focus on improving assessment and intervention for children with developmental language disorders, dyslexia, and/or speech sound disorders. Her advocacy for children with reading difficulties has led to co-founding a DLD informational website, hosting the podcast, “SeeHearSpeak Podcast,” and contributing information for articles in numerous news outlets including The New York Times and The Boston Globe, along with several television and radio appearances.
There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago.
Emily Hanford, Senior Correspondent, American Public Media
All For Literacy, Episode 1:
A Candid Conversation with Emily Hanford
We sat down with Emily Hanford and Dr. Tiffany Hogan for the premiere episode of Lexia’s new podcast, “All For Literacy,” where we explore the national literacy conversation with key industry voices. You’ll walk away from this episode with a better understanding of the underlying issues behind student literacy struggles and what the science and research is really telling us about the solution.
We discuss the why behind the podcast “Sold a Story,” how schools are teaching children the habits of struggling readers, and how teacher-preparation programs contribute to literacy issues. We also break down the real components of language comprehension, how to resolve the disconnect between data and research and the classroom, and the next steps to making the science of reading “stick.”
Episode Breakdown
(0:44) — The why behind the Emily Hanford podcast “Sold a Story”
(8:19) — The national educator response to “Sold a Story”
(12:38) — How kids are held back when schools teach habits of struggling readers
(16:15) — Teacher preparation program shortcomings and what needs to change
(20:37) — The real components of language comprehension
(32:21) — Grade 4-12 teachers response to the literacy conversation
(36:52) — The breakdown between data and research and the classroom
(44:37) — The next steps to making the science of reading “stick”
About Emily Hanford
Journalist Emily Hanford brought the literacy conversations into American homes with the serial podcasts, “Hard Words: Why Aren’t Our Kids Being Taught to Read?” and “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong.”
Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative journalism group at American Public Media, and her work on education has appeared on National Public Radio and in The New York Times, Washington Monthly, Los Angeles Times, PBS NewsHour, and other publications.
Episode Resources
The Hechinger Report: “OPINION: A call for rejecting the newest reading wars”
Reading Rockets: “Teachers Won’t Embrace Research Until It Embraces Them” by Margaret Goldberg
APM Reports: “Hard Words: Why Aren’t Our Kids Being Taught to Read”
APM Reports: “Sold A Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong”
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