Amplify Education
22 October 2025
In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Doug Lemov, former teacher and school principal, to discuss how teachers can identify when disfluency is actually the root cause for students’ struggles with comprehension—and what they can do about it. Using his new book, The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading, to guide the discussion, Susan and Doug address building attention stamina, the argument for reading whole books, and the value of expressive read-alouds. Finally, Doug ends the episode asserting that humans are meant to live in community, and that a deeper level of comprehension is unlocked through deep empathic connection to text and the experience of reading with others. Show notes: Listen to Season 2 of the Beyond My Years podcast for solutions to common teaching challenges directly from seasoned educators.Connect with Doug Lemov:X: @Doug_Lemov Resources:Read: The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of ReadingWatch: Gabby Woolf’s Dr. Jekyll Lesson and the Power of Reading FluencyListen: ”Phonology as a settled science”Listen: ”The plea to preserve deep reading, with Maryanne Wolf, Ed.D.”Listen: ”Writing the way to better reading, with Judith Hochman, Ed.D.”Listen: ”The joy of reading aloud, with Molly Ness”Download: cComprehension 101 BundleSubmit your questions on comprehension! Join our community Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreadingConnect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/Quotes: “If you're not a fluent reader, you can't be a deep reader.”—Doug Lemov “The research is clear that when you start to read expressively externally, then your internal reading voice while reading silently is much more expressive and therefore infused with more meaning.”—Doug Lemov Episode Timestamps 03:00 Introduction: Doug Lemov 05:00 The importance of the middle grades 07:00 Book: The Teach like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading 13:00 How to build attention stamina 16:00 Background knowledge and vocabulary 19:00 Writing’s impact on memory and reading 22:00 The value in reading whole books 25:00 Embracing smaller writing assignments 27:00 Fluency deep dive 30:00 Working memory 35:00 Troubleshooting fluency 39:00 Expressive reading 41:00 Read-alouds 44:00 Reading as a social act 52:00 The argument for books *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute
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