Rachel Manandhar, a high school literacy interventionist/education specialist and co-founder of the Project for Adolescent Literacy (PAL), joins Rose Else-Mitchell to talk about her realization that 20 years in special education had not given her the knowledge she needed to identify and support the reading skill development her struggling students were missing. After years of working with students across grade levels and being trained in a range of intervention programs, Rachel decided she needed to really understand where reading was breaking down.

Rose and Rachel explore the pain of older readers who don't outgrow their need for reading instruction just because they are in middle or high school. Rachel shares how learning about foundational reading skills changed what she could do to help, and how she built a literacy center in her school for high school students. They discuss how routines for word recognition, morphology, vocabulary, and comprehension can support students across content areas—and why listening to students read and hearing their voices matters so much in reaching adolescents who struggle to read.

References and Resources:

• Project for Adolescent Literacy (PAL)
• EdWeek: What Teachers Say They Need Most to Help Struggling Teen Readers
• The 74: Many Older Students Struggle to Push Beyond the Reading Threshold
• EdWeek: 4 Ways Teachers Identify and Support Struggling Older Readers
• Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Sarah Ortega, Kierstan Barbee, and Aida Allen-Rotell
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
• Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz

Credits:

• Guest: Rachel Manandhar, High School Literacy Interventionist/Education Specialist and Co-Founder of the Project for Adolescent Literacy, based in Northern CA
• 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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Are you seeking high-quality professional learning that’s affordable and actually fits your schedule? Enroll in the SUNY Science of Reading Center’s Science of Reading Fundamentals microcredential and join a community of educators strengthening their literacy instruction.

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On Wednesday, October 14, join educators from across New York and beyond for the 2026 Leading Literacy Summit, hosted by the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz.

Save the date and stay tuned for more details.

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