Jocelyn Seamer EducationPodcast and Blog
Evidence based teaching practice
S5 E2 - My Most and Least Favourite F-Words
Hello, hello, welcome to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast recorded right here in Tasmania, the lands of the Palawa people. Today's episode is a little bit of fun with a serious message, and I'm going to tell you about my most and least favourite F-words. But don't worry, there won't be any swearing. This is not that kind of podcast.
Let's begin with a story.
Imagine you're teaching a class of students. You have a program manual in your hand that…
S5 E1 - 5 Ways To Get The Best Out Of The New School Year
Welcome, welcome, welcome to our very first episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast for 2025. I'm Jocelyn and I'm so pleased that you've joined me. As we head into a new school year here in Australia and New Zealand, the Structured Literacy Podcast is heading into its third year of being. If you've been with me since the start, well, thank you. So many people have contacted me to say that this podcast has been useful in decision-making, supporting teams and stu…
S4 Ep20 - Summer Series - Why It's So Scary To Let Go Of Guided Reading
Hello everyone. It's Jocelyn here for this week's episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast. Here in Australia and New Zealand we have just begun our new school year. By the time you're listening to this podcast, everybody should be back at school with all of the trials and tribulations that come with a new school year.
Some of us are coming back in, picking up where we left off on our structured literacy journey. Other people are beginning to embrace a structu…
S4 Ep19 - Summer Series - High Engagement in Low Variance Instruction
Hi there, welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast coming to you from Pataway, Burnie here in gorgeous Tasmania. I'm Jocelyn Seamer and I'm so pleased that you've decided to join me for today's episode.
Before we begin, I'd like to ask a favour of you. If you find value in the Structured Literacy Podcast, can you please do the usual rating and subscribing, and then can you hop on your socials and share your favourite episode. Our purpose in producing this podc…
S4 Ep18 - Summer Series - Research to the Classroom: Dyad Reading Part 3 (Teacher Talk)
Hi there, it's Jocelyn here. This episode of the podcast is a really special one, it is the very first of the Teacher Talk episodes in our new kind of podcast series called Research to the Classroom. In this series, we've heard about fluency practices, including dyad reading or assisted reading. If you haven't listened to the first two episodes of this series, I suggest that you do so. It will give you great context for listening to what our guest has to say.
Kirby M…
S4 Ep16 - Summer Series - Research to the Classroom: Dyad Reading Part 1 (The Research)
Hi there, welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast. It's Jocelyn here, and I am so pleased to welcome you this week.
One of the things I remember so vividly is being in school as a teacher and then leader, really wanting to keep up with readings and research and just not having the bandwidth to be able to do it. So we've started a brand new series for you, called Research to the Classroom. It's a series of three episodes on a topic, the first episode being dis…
S4 Ep15 - Summer Series - Five Ways to Get Ready for the Coming Change
Getting your team on the bus of consistent, explicit teaching in the early years is no easy task. A few years ago, I developed a course called Reading Success in the Early Primary Years and a little while later, published a book with the same name through Routledge, a well-known academic publisher. I am so pleased to announce that I'm running this highly practical online course again in 2025, to help your team build a more robust understanding of what structured l…
S4 Ep13 - Let's Talk Year 3-6 Reading Assessment and Grading
Hi there. Welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast recoded here in Tasmania, the lands of the Palawa people. I’m Jocelyn and I want to say a huge hello to all teachers and leaders grappling with assessment and reporting. Last episode of the podcast, I shared a perspective on reporting and grading early years reading without a benchmark assessment. In the old days, we assessed students, looked at the level and then used that to determine what A-E grade students r…
Tuesday Tip - How to Answer Tough Questions in the Classroom
In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss how to capture kids' tricky questions about words while giving you time to find answers without interrupting the lesson flow.
Video Transcript
It's wonderful to engage children in talking about how words are constructed and what their histories are. But the scary thing as a teacher is when kids ask you questions you're not quite sure how to answer.
My suggestion for you is to have an iWonder board. This is a place in your classroo…
S4 Ep12 - The Secret to Grading Early Years Reading
Hi there, I'm Jocelyn and I'd like to welcome you to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, recorded here on the lands of the Palawa people of Tasmania.
Here in Australia, it is Term 4 and the end of the school year is just a few weeks away. That means that teachers and leaders will be turning their attention to assessment and grading in preparation for report writing. So in this episode, I’d like to share some thoughts and suggestions on grading early …