Inspiring Lifelong Readers with Jennifer McCarty Plucker

Welcome to our National Literacy Month series of podcasts, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental.

In this episode, you’ll hear my conversation with Jennifer McCarty Plucker, who has spent more than 20 years in public education as an English teacher, reading specialist, speech coach, teaching and learning specialist, and district administrator. Her doctoral research focused on student engagement and motivation in literacy.

Jennifer’s book, Inspiring Lifelong Readers: Using Inquiry to Engage Learners in Grades 6–12, was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award winner.

We discuss:

• Setting the goal to create competent, confident, engaged readers
• The factors for engagement
• How the inquiry approach works
• How building a community of readers, writers, thinkers, and collaborators benefits student learning and achievement
• Arguing for the inclusion of rich, diverse texts and challenging the idea of assigned reading
• Physical and social-emotional environments that create ideal conditions for literacy engagement
• One technique schools should try more

Find Inspiring Lifelong Readers from Solution Tree or wherever you get your books. Learn more at www.jenniferplucker.com.

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn about all our shows.

Learn more about Reading Is Fundamental at www.rif.org

About today’s guest

Jennifer McCarty Plucker, EdD, is the director of learning and development and a literacy consultant at Mackin Educational Resources in Burnsville, Minnesota. She has spent more than twenty years in public education as an English teacher, reading specialist, speech coach, teaching and learning specialist, and district administrator. Her doctoral research focused on student engagement and motivation in literacy.

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn