Suellen Piercey, a K–6 literacy coach who serves schools across St. Lawrence and Lewis counties in upstate New York, joins Rose Else-Mitchell to talk about how the reading experiences with her daughter changed the way she understood reading instruction. After more than 35 years working with students with reading challenges across a range of educational settings, Suellen had long considered herself a reading specialist. But when her daughter struggled to learn to read, she began looking for answers that challenged her day to day work and her career.

In an effort to get to the bottom of her daughter’s challenge, she was fortunate to meet Dr. Sally Shaywitz—renowned dyslexia researcher, author and expert at Yale University—who helped her understand the role of phonemic awareness and explicit reading instruction. Suellen talks candidly about the practices she once used and advocated, including memorizing sight words and looking for visual cues, and why being willing to examine what we once believed has to be part of our learning.

Suellen and Rose explore the challenges of changing reading instruction within schools and what can make that change "stick." Suellen talks about working alongside teachers, listening to what they know about their students, and creating a culture where they feel safe enough to learn and try something new. For Suellen, the goal is to build a system that can withstand changes in leadership, staffing, fads, and circumstances—to keep supporting students long after the coach has left the building.

References and Resources:

• Overcoming Dyslexia by Dr. Sally Shaywitz
• Yale School of Medicine Child Study Center
• Haskins Laboratories: The Science of the Spoken and Written Word
• Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz

Credits:

• Guest: Suellen Piercey, K–6 Literacy Coach, St. Lawrence & Lewis County BOCES, NY
• Host: Rose Else-Mitchell, Executive Director of the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz
• Produced by the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz, Rose Else-Mitchell, and Onalee Smith
• Original music and audio editing by Ross Gentry

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