Season 3, Episode 1: Nathaniel Swain and Rebecca Birch

Season 3 of On the Road to Literacy Success is HERE—and we are kicking it off with an international K–12 conversation about teaching, learning, literacy, and leadership.

Host Dr. Staci Bain is joined by returning guest Dr. Nathaniel Swain and secondary education leader and PhD candidate Rebecca Birch from Australia for a practical conversation that moves from the early grades all the way through secondary school.

Dr. Swain has officially become part of our season-opening tradition. He joined us for Episode 1 of Season 1, returned to open Season 2, and is back again for Season 3—this time bringing Rebecca Birch into the conversation. Together, Nathaniel and Rebecca also host Chalk Dust, where they examine real classroom instruction, celebrate great teaching, and translate research into concrete instructional moves educators can use.

In this episode, we get into some BIG topics:

💎 Strong whole-group instruction and why teacher-led learning does not mean passive learning

💎 Why interactive, explicit, well-structured instruction can allow teachers to respond to many learners at the same time

💎 The role of small-group instruction—and why it does not need to dominate the instructional block

💎 How classroom structure, explicit teaching, engagement, and behavior may be more connected than we sometimes recognize

💎 Teacher cognitive load and what happens when educators are expected to implement too many new practices at once

💎 Why early-career teachers may benefit from clear instructional structures before being expected to make expert-level decisions in the moment

💎 What strong Tier 1 literacy instruction can look like in middle and secondary schools

💎 The importance of giving older students access to complex text, academic vocabulary, reading, writing, syntax, and disciplinary literacy