What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with author and educational consultant, Dr. Nancy Hennessey about her new book, The Reading Comprehension Blueprint (Brookes 2021). Dr. Hennessey authored this book to raise teacher awareness of the complexities of teaching comprehension as a skill. Her book, The Comprehension Blueprint, is aligned to the Science of Reading (SOR) and IDA standards and provides teachers tangible resources and strategies as well as a clear plan for comprehension instruction.
Nancy Hennessy, literacy consultant, is an experienced teacher and administrator who has worked across the grade levels in both regular and special education. While in public schools, she provided leadership in the development of professional learning systems for all educators, innovative programming for special needs students and a statewide revision of special education code. She is a former National Trainer for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) and Wilson Language Lead trainer. Nancy has and continues to design and deliver keynotes, as well as virtual and live workshops and training courses, for educators nationally and internationally. Most recently, she has focused on virtual, and in-person professional learning opportunities focused on reading comprehension.
Nancy co-authored Module 6 of LETRS, Digging for Meaning: Teaching Text Comprehension (2nd edition) with Louisa Moats. Her chapter, Working with Word Meaning: Vocabulary Instruction, is in the fourth edition of Multisensory Teaching of Basic Skills. Most recently, Nancy authored the book, A Blueprint for Reading Comprehension Instruction: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text (2020).
She has held positions on varied boards including serving as president of the International Dyslexia Association and as a member of the National Joint Committee for Learning Disabilities. Nancy is currently the vice-president of the North Carolina Branch of IDA. An honorary member of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, she is also the 2011 recipient of IDA’s Margaret Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award.
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This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.