The Adolescent Literacy Podcast

The Adolescent Literacy Podcast brings together educators, researchers, and literacy leaders to explore what it really takes to transform reading outcomes for older students — diving into the evidence, the practice, and the people driving change.Want to connect? Reach out to melanie@storyshares.org

The Adolescent Literacy Podcast is a education podcast hosted by Storyshares, with 15 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Storyshares hosts The Adolescent Literacy Podcast, a education show with 15 episodes published.

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  The Adolescent Literacy Podcast

  Episode 15: The Adolescent Literacy Research We've Been Waiting For (with Julia Yi)

  Aug 19, 202645 min

  This week, we sit down with Dr. Julia Yi, adolescent literacy researcher and assistant professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions , whose team has been doing groundbreaking research on the language and literacy gap for adolescent learners. We dig into: What the research actually tells us about what older striving readers need — and what the language and literacy gap looks like for secondary students The dosage question — how many sessions, how long, how intensive — and why it matters more than most educators realize System-wide recommendations for school leaders and concrete strategies educators can use tomorrow How to fit any of this into an already packed secondary school schedule

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  The Adolescent Literacy Podcast

  Episode 14: The Future of Adolescent Literacy is Teen-Centered (Stories of Transformation from Former Students)

  Aug 12, 202629 min

  This week, we sit down with three former students of Storyshares CEO Louise Baigelman and Chief Academic Officer Shira Engel — young people who came to them as older students with gaps in their literacy skills and who, with the right support and the right books, transformed into readers. Three moments from this episode you won't forget: Ruth arrived in fifth grade from Haiti reading at a second grade level. Today she's a mom who reads to her sixteen-month-old every single night. Zaire spent years joking his way out of being called on to read. The first book he ever finished on his own — The Crossover by Kwame Alexander — made him cry. He's now pursuing social work because he wants to make the impact on others that his teacher made on him. Lin Darla went from fifth grade reading intervention to AP Literature to registered nurse — and uses the comprehension skills she learned in fifth grade to advocate for her patients every single day. Three students. Two teachers. One through-line: it is never too late.

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  The Adolescent Literacy Podcast

  Episode 13: The Truth Nobody Told Me (Malcolm Mitchell, Super Bowl and Literacy Champion)

  Aug 5, 202655 min

  Malcolm Mitchell won a Super Bowl. But he'll tell you that learning to read was the harder — and more important — victory. This week, Malcolm joins us to talk about growing up running away from books, feeling bamboozled by a system that never told him the whole truth about what literacy makes possible, and the moment in a college English class that changed everything. Three things you won't forget: He was more nervous reading aloud in class than playing in the Super Bowl He credits reading — not athletics — with getting drafted by the Patriots "I wish someone would've told me the truth. Not the 'pass your class, get an A' motivation — just the hardcore facts." Share the Magic Foundation: sharethemagicfoundation.org

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  The Adolescent Literacy Podcast

  Episode 12: Seen, Safe, and Ready to Read (Lynni Nordheim, Director of Adolescent Literacy)

  Jul 29, 202652 min

  This week, Lynni Nordheim, District Dyslexia Specialist and Director of Adolescent Literacy for The Reading League Colorado , joins us to talk about the social emotional experience of adolescent readers — how shame and avoidance show up in intervention work, what schools unintentionally communicate about who is and isn't a reader, and what it actually takes to build the safety and trust that makes learning possible. *Plus* practical strategies you can bring back to your classroom literally tomorrow. Because these students deserve educators who believe it's not too late — it isn't.

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  The Adolescent Literacy Podcast

  Episode 11: I Used to Think, Now I Think

  Jul 22, 202633 min

  No guest this week, just Louise and Melanie! After 10 episodes of eye-opening conversations with literacy experts, we're taking a moment to reflect on all that we've learned — both on this journey of building Storyshares, but also, just for fun, some things we have discovered along the way in our personal lives as well. We talk about: -how much we value sleep -what we wished we had done differently in college -the ways our thinking has shifted re: best practices to support adolescent readers -how not knowing it all can actually be a superpower -and more!! To learn more about Storyshares and our adolescent literacy solutions, visit storyshares.org

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