Hi Teacher Friends!
Melissa & Lori Love Literacy™ is a podcast for teachers. Melissa & Lori are your classroom-next-door teacher friends turned podcasters learning with you. Episodes feature top literacy experts and teachers who are putting the science of reading into practice. Melissa & Lori bridge the gap between the latest research and your day-to-day teaching.
We can't wait to keep learning with you!
Meet the Hosts Our Story
Monthly Roadmap & Listening Guide
Each month, we'll focus on a specific literacy topic, such as writing, academic conversations, or vocabulary. On the podcast, you’ll hear experts discuss research related to that topic, and teachers share how they’re bringing that research into practice in their classrooms!
The monthly roadmap and listening guide will help you deepen your learning—perfect for a quick chat with a teacher friend or guiding planning as a coach!🎙️
January's topic is writing instruction. The focus article is “A Path to Better Writing” by Steve Graham & Karen Harris.
January Roadmap & Listening Guide
Latest Episodes
A Book to Answer Your Most Pressing Literacy Questions!
The Literacy 50—A Q&A Handbook for Teachers by Melissa & Lori has research-backed answers to your top literacy questions, classroom tips, and resources to support you! The book is available for order today.
“Every Friday has been like a mini-PD with @literacypodcast.”
-Gina Sandrzyk @get_literacy
Podcast Playlists
We’ve grouped your favorite episodes by topic to make listening and learning easier. Whether you're a primary teacher wanting to learn more about early literacy or an upper elementary teacher focusing on fluency and reading comprehension, there's a playlist just for you!
Listen to a playlist and head to the classroom next door to chat with your best teacher friend, or take this to a PLC to complement a book study.
Melissa Loftus
Melissa is a National Board-Certified teacher who taught middle and high school ELA for nearly 15 years in New Orleans and Baltimore. She holds a BA in Education and English from Bucknell University and an MEd with Reading Specialist certification from Johns Hopkins University. She is currently a curriculum developer with Great Minds and lives with her son in Pennsylvania, where they spend their free time in their beautiful garden.
Lori Sappington
Lori is an energetic former elementary and high school teacher who taught for more than a decade in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a BA in Elementary Education and English, an MEd with Reading Specialist certification, and an Advanced Leadership Certificate from Towson University. She currently executes the vision and alignment of multimedia content with Great Minds and lives in Maryland with her daughter and husband. They spend their free time playing sports of all kinds.
In 2018, we were both working in Baltimore when the district adopted a new knowledge-building curriculum, Wit & Wisdom. We worked closely to learn about the curriculum and in the process also learned research-aligned ways to teach reading and writing. We had so many ''aha" moments together!
On a whim in 2019, Lori came to Melissa with an idea for a podcast that would give us a place to keep learning and share that learning with others who may have been going through similar mindset shifts. We wanted teachers to know that they weren’t alone.
In April of 2019, we recorded our first episode of the Melissa & Lori Love Literacy podcast in Melissa’s basement. Since then, we have interviewed nearly 200 literacy experts, teachers, and leaders. The experts we have interviewed translate research in an accessible way, while the teachers and leaders share practical application for the classroom.
Stay connected with Melissa and Lori!
