Language and literacy, with Catherine Snow
Harvard School of Education professor of cognition and education Catherine E. Snow, Ph.D., joins Susan Lambert on this episode to reflect on the state of language and literacy instruction in the U.S. They begin their conversation discussing early literacy and linguistics, then dive into Snow’s work on the National Research Council report “Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children.” Lambert and Snow talk about building vocabulary, growing student curiosity in reading, and exposing students to academic language. Snow talks about the specific tools educators need for meaningful help in the classroom, shares her hopes (and fears) for the future of reading instruction in the U.S., and explains why she encourages teachers to let their classrooms be noisier.
Meet our guest(s):
Catherine E. Snow, Ph.D.
Catherine E. Snow received her doctorate in developmental psychology from McGill University, where she wrote her thesis on how adult speech supports early language development. She subsequently worked for several years in the linguistics department of the University of Amsterdam before moving to Harvard, where her interests expanded to include language and literacy development. She chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee that produced the report “Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children” (1998) and the RAND Reading Study Group that produced Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program for Reading Comprehension (2000), a volume that influenced the federal education funding agenda for the next 20 years. Her work has been characterized by a willingness to defend unpopular positions about language learning and teaching, early childhood education, and literacy instruction. Much of her recent work has been carried out in collaboration with educational practitioners and other researchers focused on understanding the most urgent problems of practice in literacy education, under the auspices of the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) Institute and Boston Public Schools.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been 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. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is 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.
