In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Professor Pamela Snow. She has been at the coalface fighting for evidence-based reading instruction to be common practice for a number of years and throughout this conversation, she provides nuggets of gold in describing how when we talk about phonics we need to be using it as an adjective with a noun following it. Pamela unpacks why this debate about reading has been going on for so long and why changing teacher practice can be so challenging. She also delves into what parents need to know and what questions they could be asking.
Resources mentioned:
- Grattan Institute – The Reading Guarantee
- Nancy Young’s Reading and Writing Ladder
- Science of Reading Podcast S2-05: The Right to Read Project on nurturing automatic readers: Margaret Goldberg and Alanna Mednick
- Troy Verey
- Dr Danielle Colenbrander
- Dr. Pam Kastner
- Emily Hanford – Sold a Story
- Professor Lorraine Hammond
You can connect with Pamela:
Twitter: @PamelaSnow2
Website: https://pamelasnow.blogspot.com/
You can connect with Brendan:
Twitter: @learnwithmrlee
Facebook: @learningwithmrlee
Website: learnwithlee.net
Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast
About Professor Pamela Snow
Professor Pamela Snow is a registered psychologist, having originally qualified in speech-language pathology. Her research has been funded by nationally competitive schemes such as the ARC Discovery Program, ARC Linkage Program, and the Criminology Research Council, and spans various developmental processes and risks in childhood and adolescence. This includes applying evidence in the language-to-literacy transition in the early years of school, examining the oral language skills of high-risk young people (youth offenders and those in the state care system), exploring the role of oral language competence as an academic and mental health protective factor in childhood and adolescence, and investigating linguistic aspects of investigative interviewing with children and adolescents as witnesses, suspects, and victims in criminal investigations.
Professor Snow has taught a wide range of undergraduate health professionals and has experience in undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education. She has established research and professional development links with the education, welfare, and justice sectors, and her research has been published in a wide range of international journals. Professor Snow is frequently called upon to address education, health, welfare, and forensic audiences. She has authored or co-authored over 200 publications, including refereed papers, book chapters, monographs, and research reports.
In 2017, Professor Snow was a member of the National Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Panel, convened by the then Federal Minister for Education, the Hon. Simon Birmingham. In 2020, Snow established, with her colleague Professor Tanya Serry, the Science of Language and Reading (SOLAR) Lab in the School of Education at La Trobe University. The SOLAR Lab serves as a platform for research, teaching, advocacy, and postgraduate supervision on a wide range of topics related to developmental language and the transition to reading, writing, and spelling in the school years. Through the SOLAR Lab, Snow and her colleagues are conducting several externally funded projects, including a partnership with the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). In 2020, Professor Snow received the award of Life Membership of Speech Pathology Australia.