Apr 02 2025 46 mins
Word-Level Reading Skills for Adolescent Learners with Dr. Brennan Chandler
Welcome to the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Podcast! I’m your host, Matt Sroka, and today’s episode as promised continues a series of episodes on the foundational literacy skills for adolescents. These discussions will be taken from a recent special issue of The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, which explores supporting adolescent readers' foundational literacy skills. Last episode I talked with the editors of this special issue. Today, I welcome my first author from this special issue Dr. Brennan Chandler.
As students progress into middle and high school, the expectation is that they can independently engage with complex texts. However, for students with or at risk for learning disabilities (LD), decoding multisyllabic words remains a significant challenge, often hindering their ability to access content knowledge and read for understanding.
In this episode of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy podcast, host Matt Sroka welcomes Dr. Brennan Chandler to discuss the importance of word reading efficiency, the unique challenges faced by secondary students with LD, and the instructional strategies that can help bridge this gap.
This conversation is based on the article written for JAAL titled: Instruction to Support Word-Level Reading Skills for Adolescent Learners with Learning Disabilities written by Brennan W. Chandler, Jessica R. Toste, Elizabeth J. Hart, and Devin M. Kearns.
Brennan Chandler is an assistant professor of dyslexia and special education in the Department of Learning Sciences at Georgia State University. He received his Ph.D. in Special Education from The University of Texas at Austin with a focus on learning disabilities. His research focuses on improving outcomes for students with dyslexia and other significant reading and writing disabilities through developing, testing, and implementing intensive interventions.
Resources:
Special Issue: Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy
Instruction to Support Word-Level Reading Skills for Adolescent Learners with Learning Disabilities