S9 E12: Explicit instruction of academic language, with Adrea Truckenmiller, Ph.D.

Amplify Education

12 March 2025

In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Adrea Truckenmiller, Ph.D., associate professor of special education and school psychology at Michigan State University. Their conversation starts with defining academic language and breaking it down on the level of the word, the sentence, and full text. Adrea then touches on topics such as informational vs. narrative text structure, morphological complexity, and effective writing assessment. She also gives advice on how to implement explicit instruction on informational text and academic language, and details a few examples of what it can look like in the classroom. Adrea ends by discussing her passion for special education and encouraging educators to get involved. Show notes: ResourcesRead: “Academic language use in middle school informational writing”Read: “Academic language and the challenge of reading for learning about science”Read: “Writing to read: Parallel and independent contributions of writing research to the Science of Reading”Read: “What is important to measure in sentence-level language comprehension?Read: Making the Writing Process Work: Strategies for Composition and Self-RegulationJoin our Facebook community group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreading.Connect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/.Quotes: “ Academic language is really a new language for everyone to learn.” —Adrea Truckenmiller, Ph.D. "When we're thinking about teaching academic vocabulary, it's not just one time around. Sometimes we have to layer that instruction for deeper and deeper and deeper meaning.” —Susan Lambert Episode timestamps* 02:00 Introduction: Who is Adrea Truckenmiller? 07:00 Defining academic language 11:00 Differences in academic language at different levels: word, sentence, text. 12:00 Word level: morphological complexity 17:00 Sentence level 18:00 Connectives 21:00 Text level: Informational text structure vs narrative text structure 24:00 Reading research for middle schoolers 26:00 Writing assessment structure for middle school 32:00 What does this type of instruction look like in the classroom? 34:00 Importance of grades 4 & 5 to the development of informational reading and writing skills 35:00 Advice for teachers on teaching information reading and writing 39:00 Get involved in special education *Timestamps are approximate