.png)
The Science of Reading Formula
Welcome to The Science of Reading Formula, the podcast that helps you simplify reading instruction, save time, and support every student’s success—without feeling like you’re running on empty.
I’m Malia Hollowell—a National Board Certified Teacher, author, and founder of Playdough to Plato. Over the past 20 years, I’ve honed my craft, combining science-backed practices with practical solutions to meet the real challenges educators face every day.
Each episode dives into essential pillars of teaching success:
- Smart strategies to meet the needs of every student without adding extra stress to your plate.
- Honest conversations and tips to tackle teacher burnout and find a balance between school and home life.
- Science-backed practices that actually work—saving you time and boosting student results.
- Practical tips to streamline your planning and free up time for what matters most.
This is your space to find encouragement, expert insights, and actionable ideas to create a classroom (and life) that works for you. Let’s get started!
The Science of Reading Formula
You Can't Teach Every Vocabulary Word, So Teach This Instead with Dr. Trina Spencer
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Teaching kids to decode words is essential, but what happens when they can read the words and still don’t understand what they’re reading? In this episode, we dive deep into the often overlooked role of academic language in reading comprehension. Language expert Trina Spencer joins us to explain why strong language skills are the true foundation of literacy and what teachers can start doing right away to help students build them. If you’ve ever had students who read fluently but struggle to make meaning from text, this conversation will shift the way you think about comprehension instruction.
In this episode, we'll talk about:
- Why spoken language, not phonics, is the true foundation of reading comprehension.
- What academic language really is and why it is much more than just vocabulary.
- The different types of academic vocabulary, including general academic words, domain-specific words, polysemous words, and morphologically complex words.
- A powerful 30-second strategy that helps students learn new words independently using inferential thinking.
- Why read-alouds alone are not enough for building strong language comprehension and what teachers can do instead.
- Simple shifts teachers can make to help students develop the language skills needed for reading success.
Show Links
Dr. Trina Spencer's website // on LinkedIn // free resources
Join Malia on Instagram.
Become a Science of Reading Formula member!
Rate, Review, and Follow
If you loved this episode, please take a minute to rate and review my show! That helps the podcast world know that this show is worth sharing with other educators just like you.
Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a Review". Then let me know what you loved most about the episode!
While you're there, be sure to follow the podcast. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed and I don't want you to miss out!