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Season 9, Special Episode

Everything is literacy, with Susan Lambert, Ed.D.

In this crossover episode Susan Lambert joins Ana Torres from sister podcast, Beyond My Years. Together they dive into the idea that all educators contribute to—and thus must invest in—student literacy development, regardless of the content they teach. Throughout the conversation, they discuss how all teachers are literacy teachers, and they offer four simple tips for developing academic language in any classroom. Then, Classroom Insider Eric Cross shares his top three takeaways from Susan.

Meet our guest(s):

Ana Torres

Ana Torres is the Senior Biliteracy and Multilingual Product Specialist at СӰand host of Beyond My Years. Over her 30 years in education, Ana has developed a passion for biliteracy and supporting students from all walks of life. And on Beyond My Years, she’s excited to connect with legendary educators from all subject areas about their lives in education—and what they wish they’d known as younger teachers.

Eric Cross

Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher and Classroom Insider on Beyond My Years. In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss the insights her guests have gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Eric also explores ways to bring guests’ wisdom into classrooms and busy teaching life.

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Meet our host: Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is Chief Academic Officer of Literacy at СӰand host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, she’s dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

Quotes

“I got into education because one of my children had a hard time learning how to read. It's an experience that leads you to protect your child, find answers for your child, and then make sure that other kids and parents don't have to go through the same kind of trauma that you went through.” —Susan Lambert, Ed.D.
“Any teacher in a classroom, no matter what content area they teach, is teaching something about language.” —Susan Lambert, Ed.D.
“Reading and writing and understanding language is not just an English language arts teacher's responsibility. It's the responsibility of every educator to communicate their discipline and the words and the concepts from their discipline to their students.” —Susan Lambert, Ed.D.
“[The Science of Reading movement] is not being led by one person or another person. … I'm part of a greater community, and to know that I play a certain role or part in that community actually gives me a lot of inspiration on days when it's really, really hard.” —Susan Lambert, Ed.D.
“Background knowledge—we either mine it or we make it. We either mine it by tapping into what students already know, or we make it by building the experiences they need.” —Eric Cross
“The more that we can sharpen our tools and our skillset to be those teachers of literacy, the faster we're going to see improvements in learning in our classrooms. They're not two separate things.” —Eric Cross