Making Words Stick in the Brain and Leveraging Read Alouds with Dr. Molly Ness

🎙 Episode: Making Words Stick and Read-Alouds for All Learners (with Dr. Molly Ness)

In this episode of The Reading Symphony Podcast, Katie Megrian sits down with Dr. Molly Ness, former classroom teacher, reading researcher, teacher educator, and author of six books (with a seventh on the way). Molly is known for translating research into practical, usable moves for teachers and families, and this conversation is packed with exactly that.

Together, Katie and Molly dig into two big questions families ask all the time:

1. How do we help words actually “stick” so kids become fluent readers?
2. What can we do at home to build language and comprehension in ways that feel doable?

You’ll learn why memorizing word lists often fails, what “orthographic mapping” really means in plain language, and how read-alouds can be one of the highest-leverage tools for building vocabulary, knowledge, and comprehension at any age.

In this episode, we cover:

• Molly’s path from Teach For America to reading research and why she’s passionate about closing the research-to-classroom gap
• The concept of orthographic mapping and why it matters for fluency and comprehension
• Why flashcards and rote memorization often don’t lead to lasting word learning
• The difference between sight words, high-frequency words, and heart words, and how to think about them at home
• Why spelling is one of the best windows into a child’s literacy development
• A parent-friendly way to support tricky patterns, including r-controlled vowels
• How to talk to teachers with curiosity, not conflict, when homework or instruction doesn’t feel aligned
• Molly’s best read-aloud advice for families, including:
  • The “decline at nine” and why you should keep reading aloud well past third grade
  • Why reading informational text matters more than most people realize
  • How to use think-alouds (instead of constant questions) to model comprehension
• Why kids benefit when we expand beyond the books we loved growing up and how to find high-quality diverse book recommendations
• Molly’s simple framework for getting kids to read more: ARC (Access, Relevance, Choice)

Book and author shout-outs from the conversation:

• Making Words Stick (Molly Ness & Katie Pace Miles)
• Read Alouds for All Learners (Molly Ness)
• Authors mentioned: Matt de la Peña, Chris Van Dusen, Jarrett Lerner

Connect with Dr. Molly Ness:

Molly’s website: mollyness.com (resources, videos, and contact info)

Want more support from Katie?

📩 Subscribe to Katie’s free weekly Substack: katiemegrian.substack.com 📱 Follow on Instagram: @thereadingsymphony

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