Podcasts
Melissa & Lori Love Literacy: “Routines for Reading & Spelling Big Words” with Faith Howard
Faith Howard shares practical strategies for improving literacy skills in middle and high school students, focusing on decoding multisyllabic words, spelling routines, and fluency practices. This episode offers actionable insights for educators aiming to enhance reading comprehension and word attack skills.
Reading Realities: “I Can’t Differentiate My Way Out of This” Featuring Faith Howard
Faith Howard, a grades 6–12 literacy specialist and former secondary English teacher based in Pinedale, Wyoming, joins host Rose Else-Mitchell to discuss her journey from teaching Shakespeare to teaching older students how to read.
Faith shares the moment she realized that creating multiple versions of texts and heavily differentiated materials was not helping her students in the long run. While teaching Othello, she found herself spending hours differentiating for students who still lacked the foundational skills or fluency needed to access complex texts independently.
Rose and Faith discuss the unique challenges facing older students who have spent years hiding their reading difficulties and how Faith's Literacy Lab intervention model evolved and grew over time. They explore the importance of trust, family partnerships, student ownership, and helping adolescents see themselves not only as readers, but as leaders.
The Teaching Show: “Brain Dump + Turn & Talk + Gist Statements for Reading Comprehension” with Faith Howard
In this episode of The Teaching Show, high school reading teacher and Goyen Fellow Faith Howard, NBCT shares how she uses FASE reading with whole novels in her reading lab class for high schoolers who need extra reading support.
To maintain comprehension, she uses a three-part strategy:
Brain dump—everything you remember from the past few pages
Turn & talk—share with a partner
Gist statement—10 words summarizing the section
Better Teaching: Only Stuff That Works: “Literacy Labs and Other Practical Strategies” with Faith Howard
Faith Howard knew something had to change. As a Literacy Specialist, in her school district she wasn’t making the impact she knew was possible. With the support of her administration, Faith reimagined her role and launched a “Literacy Lab” — a space designed to emphasize the SOR principles in targeted literacy intervention and instruction. In this episode, Faith shares how the Literacy Lab came to life and offers practical strategies teachers can use to strengthen Tier 1 instruction in their own classrooms.